Friends, hi!
Last Saturday morning, I opened the back gate for the first Bakehouse Texas pop-up after maternity leave and thought (very calmly but out loud to Will): I sure hope people come.
Spoiler: you came!!
You lined the driveway before we even opened, sweated it out in the Texas heat (and I mean… truly!), chatted with my family, held my baby, bought cookies and biscuits and scones until I had to put up the SOLD OUT sign less than an hour later. Even a week after the popup, I’m somewhere between insanely grateful and mildly panicked that I did not bake more.
I promise to bake even more for October 3rd’s sale. The menu is coming together. In a neck-and-neck poll on Instagram, you chose Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls over Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls so at least we have that sorted.
Also this week, Texas Monthly published a story about The Bakehouse Texas, my move to Bellville, and the public family feud that made me put my phone in a drawer and bake a pie have a baby. You can read it here: This OG Food Blogger Wants You To Come Eat Cookies At Her House. Really. It feels good to invite you in. Literally, come sit at the table!
In sad news, since my last transmission, I’ve had to say a final goodbye to the cat of a lifetime, Tron. He was a the best menace of an orange floof who spent 16 (!!) pretty epic years living life, stealing muffins, and getting pets from every guest who entered our various homes. He left me with so many hilarious memories, I’ll be forever grateful. Thank you thank you for all your kind words of condolence. Long live Tron.
Shall we bake some bread? PITA! It’s magic trick meets baking project meets meal prep!
What To Make This Weekend: Yogurt Pita Bread
Makes 12 fluffy puffy pita babies
Ingredients
3/4 cup warm water, 105°F to 110°F
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, divided
3 3/4 cups (465 grams) bread flour, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for the bowl
3/4 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
Instructions
In a medium bowl, stir together the warm water, yeast, and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Let the mixture sit until foamy on top, about 5 minutes.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the bread flour, salt, and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Add the yeast mixture, olive oil, and Greek yogurt. Stir with a spatula just to bring the dough together, then knead with the dough hook on medium speed until the dough forms a soft, slightly sticky ball. If the dough feels wildly sticky, add a little more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Remove the dough from the bowl. Add a splash of olive oil to the bowl, return the dough, and turn it to coat. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let rest in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 500°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Or grab a pizza stone and place it on the middle rack of the oven as it preheats (no parchment paper needed).
Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, then roll each ball into a circle about 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch thick. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 15 minutes.
Place the pitas on the prepared baking sheets or hot pizza stone, spacing them about an inch apart. Bake until puffed and lightly golden, checking after 5 minutes. They move quickly — somewhere between 5 and 7 minutes should do the trick.
Remove from the oven and cover the warm pitas with a clean kitchen towel as they cool. To serve, use a knife to split each pita at the seam, creating a pocket for so many delicious things.
Here’s a printable recipe:
Serving Suggestions
Serve warm with Buttermilk Marinated Chicken Thighs , seasoned cucumbers and tomatoes, fresh parsley, lemon wedges, za’atar, sea salt, cracked black pepper, and a generous dollop of whole-milk Greek yogurt mixed with chopped cucumber, parsley, salt, and pepper.
Other Bits on my Bake List This September
• I made Dorie Greenspan’s (I love her Substack) recipe for EVO and Yogurt Loaf Cake for the bakery pop-up last weekend. I baked the batter in buttered popover molds and they baked up like tall muffin/cakes. It’s a gorgeous cake batter. I could see it topped with stewy plums or even toasted with salted butter and Karlee’s Late Summer Peach Butter.
• Speaking of plums, this Plum and Lemon Curd Cake is right on time! Halved ripe plums paired with gobs and swirls of lemon curd in a simple buttermilk cake batter. It’s a cake you make on a Saturday morning (hint!) and it’s somehow disappeared by Sunday night.
• We unlocked a new family tradition in which my dad comes to celebrate his birthday in Texas every September. That week (and that birthday celebration) are fast approaching and I’m making Dad a Hummingbird Cake (yes, with mayo!) baked in a 9x13-inch pan, sliced in half lengthwise, stacked and filled with cream cheese frosting and salted caramel. I’ll let you know if it passes muster next week!
An Interview with Timothy Pakron of Mississippi Vegan on his stunning new book Garden Variety
I’m so happy to welcome my dear friend Timothy Pakron back to Baked In this week.
You may know Timmy as the generous spirit behind Mississippi Vegan - a photographer, food stylist, recipe developer, gardener, and Mississippi-born vegan now living in New Orleans. I know him as one of my greatest friends from my New Orleans years, the person whose backyard garden I have spent many nights sitting in, laughing until my face hurt, before eventually ending up on his couch watching Sex and the City (for medicinal purposes, of course).
Timmy’s new cookbook, Garden Variety, is out now, and it is an absolute stunner. It’s vibrant, personal, and full of plant-focused recipes that make vegetables feel abundant and very much worth lingering over. It’s a book grown from his New Orleans backyard - what could be better than that?
I’ll be in conversation with Timmy at Blue Willow Books in Houston on Wednesday, September 23 at 7 p.m., and I would love love love to see you there. It’s free to attend, and truly, what a treat to get to talk gardens, cookbooks, and New Orleans.
Timmy joined us for a lovely cookbook chat below, and we’re giving away a copy of Garden Variety at the end of the interview!
What was the “aha moment” recipe while writing this book?
It was actually the first recipe that I photographed for the book (even though I didn’t know it at the time!). This was in 2019, when I had the concept for Garden Variety in my mind but before the proposal existed. It was my Butterbean Harvest Bowl, a dish that consists of creamy, smoky butter beans with a gravy-like texture that’s topped with perfectly roasted beets, carrots, brussels sprouts, and delicata squash rings. For added texture and flavor, garlic-infused sourdough croutons are showered over top with some fresh parsley to finish. Each bite was so glorious, as I scooped the vegetables and croutons into the saucy butter beans, and it was at that moment I knew instantly it was for Garden Variety. I set it aside for the proposal and the image from that day is what you see in the book. What excites me greatly is when a recipe combines whole ingredients and celebrates the seasons while also being incredibly comforting. This recipe does that famously and it sets the tone for the rest of the book!
If your cookbook had a playlist, what three songs would be on it?
Oh hunny, I can do better than that. How about 30+? I actually have a dedicated playlist for Garden Variety, one that I worked on and listened to during the creation of the book! To me, the vibe of this book is dreamy, breezy, and whimsical. These songs match that energy perfectly while also offering rich textures with a cinematic feel. Artists like jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby, Brazilian bossa nova artist Gilberto Gil, and Italian composer Piero Umiliani all really capture the energy of what it feels like to be surrounded by a lush garden, full of color. Here is the playlist for you to follow and enjoy. I hope that you love it as much as I do! I listen to it all the time.
What’s one ingredient you’re evangelical about?
Probably nutritional yeast. I find it to be a secret weapon. Think of it as a very flavorful vegetable broth that’s been dehydrated into a thin sheet and then flaked into a seasoning powder. I talk about this in the beginning of the book, but I treat it like a plus one to salt and pepper — the savory cousin. Keep in mind, you do not need a lot! Just a sprinkling here and there can add that perfect bump of umami. And it really enhances the flavor of roasted vegetables and works beautifully in dressings. I like to use just enough to elevate a dish but where you wouldn’t be able to point it out. As an alt, you can use a tiny splash of tamari, which packs a huge umami punch, but nutritional yeast is incredibly well-rounded with a nutty and slightly cheesy flavor. It’s almost like how non-vegan folk like to add butter and parmesan to most things. (I get it, those things are delicious!) That’s what nooch is to me. Let me live.
If someone cooks just one recipe from your book to understand you as a person, which should it be?
I think I’d have to say the Garden Gumbo. Gumbo is one of the first recipes I ever learned to make (thanks Mom!) and I have a whole gumbo section in my first cookbook. For those variations, I really wanted to recreate the depth of flavor that traditional gumbo has but completely veganized. But for Garden Variety, I wanted to update the dish by using more thoughtful ingredients. For example, instead of white flour and vegetable oil to make the roux, I opted for whole grain rye flour and avocado oil, which creates a rich flavor with a deep color. In addition to fresh okra pods, I also love adding in young, tender okra leaves, which are totally edible and delicious, but you could also use any young, tender greens which offer a nice vibrancy to the dish. And lastly, the recipe calls for roasted mushrooms. This helps to add a fantastic meaty texture that makes the gumbo delightfully satisfying.
What’s a mistake you hope readers make at least once?
I would say accidentally cooking something too long or at the wrong temperature, as it can introduce new flavor and texture ideas. Even though it could potentially ruin the recipe, you might learn something new from it! For example, I was working on the Sips section for the new book and I was making a form of lemongrass tea. I thinly sliced the lemongrass and was dehydrating it in the oven but the temperature was accidentally too high. After some cooking time, I noticed a toasty smell in the air and thought, ‘Oh no! I burned the lemongrass!’ But it actually toasted the lemongrass slices beautifully and when I made a cup of tea, there was a lovely nutty flavor. This combined with the citrusy notes made for a fantastic cup of toasted lemongrass tea. And this mistake ended up being a recipe in the book!
What kitchen tool deserves more respect, and which one do you think is wildly overrated?
Large cast-iron skillets deserve way more respect. They are the OG non-stick skillet and the fact that they can quite literally outlive us all is reason enough to love them! As for overrated: stand mixer (I know…GASP!) Honestly? I don’t even have one. I never have and I don’t think I ever will. (And I consider myself a passionate baker!) Totally support you if you do have one — I know they are very popular and I’m not here to fight. But I do think they are big, clunky, and I don’t have the patience for pulling one out when I need to bake something. And I certainly won’t offer up my counter space for one! That’s precious real estate, friends.
Fill in the blank: People think I’m ___ in the kitchen, but actually I’m ___.
People may think I am busy cooking all of the time but I actually eat very simply in the morning and throughout the day. I start my day with ginger coffee (yes, this recipe is in the book and I am hooked). Then I follow that with sliced cucumber or celery. Then I switch over to fresh fruit and make that a mono-meal. As the day moves on, I start to crave more hearty foods like roasted root vegetables, nuts and seeds, big salads, sandwiches, and bowls. By the end of the day, that’s when I really like to cook the most and it’s all about comfort. Cozy meals like red beans and rice with garlic bread, mashed potatoes with a saucy protein, and crispy roasted vegetables followed by a sweet treat because the world can be a scary place and we need all the help we can get.
If you could hand-deliver this cookbook to one person (living or not), who would it be and what would you want them to cook first?
Tori Amos. She’s my fairy-goddess-queen-mom 2.0. Her album Boys for Pele taught me how to express myself and, to this day, continues to provide me with a tremendous amount of strength. I would tell her to make the Zucchini and Cherry Tomato Pasta Salad. I don’t know why but I think she would love it. (Fun fact: I actually DID get to deliver the book to her while she was on tour this summer in New Orleans. Dreams do come true, people!)
What’s your most controversial food opinion?
I am an okra lover. Like, I’m obsessed. Not only with eating it but also growing it and collecting different heirloom seeds to try. But what makes okra a hot topic is that people love to say it’s slimy. SO WHAT!? It is a little slimy. But if you roast it with a good amount of oil and seasonings until it is deeply golden brown and crispy, it’s the most divine thing you will ever taste. It has a fantastic savoriness and I think everyone needs to get a jump on it!
When you’re not eating your own recipes, what are you absolutely guilty-pleasure ordering for takeout?
Oh, no question here: Pizza D (the Vegan Supreme). It is my favorite pizza spot in New Orleans and my goodness this order has a choke-hold on me. After a long, busy day of working in the kitchen, sometimes the last thing I want to do is worry about dinner. Pressing a button on my phone to have a hot pizza dropped off at my doorstep? You better believe it is a weekly practice and I am not ashamed to admit it. I mean, we have to support local businesses, right? It’s hard work but someone has to do it. <3
What do you hope someone feels (like, truly feels) when they cook from your book for the first time?
My hope is that they feel joy. When I first started my food career, I was beyond thrilled that I found a medium to showcase my love of plants, passion for produce, and the changing seasons. I hope that you feel (and share!) that same enthusiasm when you cook with Garden Variety. Outside of cooking from it, I hope that it brings you happiness visually, too! When I walk into the room and see my book sitting on the counter, it feels like spotting a hot pink zinnia in the garden with a butterfly dancing above it. Truly! It demands your attention and I designed it that way. My hope is that you can sit down in a comfy chair with a cup of tea and get lost in the pages of Garden Variety. I want it to feel like a warm invitation to try something new in the kitchen and for it to become a beautiful part of your life.
Garden Variety Giveaway!
I’m so happy to be giving away a copy of Timothy’s beautiful new cookbook to one lucky Baked In reader!
In the comments, tell us:
What vegetable are you willing to defend with your whole chest?
I’m going with broccoli. It’s literally edible flowers and we really forget that.
The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only and will remain open until Friday September 18th. One winner will be selected and notified via Substack message mmkay, friends?
Have such a great weekend. More from me soon!
xo Joy
Carrots all the way
Kale is so much better than people believe. Salads, on pizza, as chips. Love it.