Bon Appétit

For the past six years, senior Test Kitchen editor Jesse Szewyczk has been trying to get a karpatka recipe published. Even though he’d never made one in its entirety before. But he knew BA’s Bake Club was the perfect place to showcase what he calls the drag queen of Polish desserts. “I've made every component before,” Jesse tells his co-host Shilpa Uskokovic. “I just haven't arranged the puzzle pieces in this fashion.” “We hope that that's what people in Bake Club take away,” adds Shilpa. “That by having these building blocks, you can make all these things, even if they're the first time you're making them.” Jesse’s version has an American twist (a no-bake cheesecake filling) and a nod to his Polish roots (the plum compote). Listeners also weighed in with questions about and photos of their sky-high desserts and we awarded our Baker of the Month. We also had a visit from a beloved star baker in The Great British Baking Show (a.k.a. Bake-Off for those in the UK). Season nine finalist Ruby Bhogal stopped by the podcast to talk about her new book Around The World in 80 Cakes. And yes, there is a karpatka in it! Find Ruby Bhogal @rubybhogal and on Substack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There were anxious whispers behind the scenes ahead of the Bake Club July recipe reveal. Concerns floated around that it might have been a bit too esoteric. Sweet corn in a cake? And not just any cake but a delightfully bouncy butter mochi made with sweet rice flour. Senior Test Kitchen editors Shilpa Uskokovic and Jesse Szweczyk were bracing for the reactions in the comments section when Shilpa’s Sweet Corn Butter Mochi With Coconut Crunch recipe finally dropped. “We were not slightly worried. I was like, "This is gonna flop." This is it for us,” recalls Jesse on the BA Bake Club Podcast. But, the Bake Club community once again proved themselves to be the confident, curious bakers we know and love. The cake is a hit! “I hope you guys know how much it means to us,” says Shilpa. “I'm very touched every month when you guys bake our recipes, and we see you in the Substack chat and you post these pictures. So, this is very heartwarming for me.” The love fest continues as we award Baker of the Month to one bake clubber who dared to pair his Sweet Corn Butter Mochi with dinner, not dessert.  Plus, we (virtually) jetted off to Hawaii to catch up with Katherine Yang, who ran the incredibly successful by-order cake bakery, Gigi Blue, and is currently executive pastry chef at Mille Fête in Honolulu’s Chinatown. To learn about the dessert scene in Hawaii and pick up a few tips for the perfect butter mochi cake, give the episode a listen.  You can find Katherine Yang on social media at GigiBlueNYC and millefete. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This month, the Bake Club welcomes its first ever guest recipe developer, Test Kitchen Editor Rebecca Firkser, to discuss her recipe for the oh-so-cute Tiny Tomato Galettes. (For the uninitiated, explains Rebecca, a galette is just “a freeform open-faced pie” filled with… well, whatever you want.) On the latest episode of BA Bake Club, Jesse, Shilpa, and Rebecca take your questions, walking through the difference between a pie and a galette, how to avoid a soggy bottom, and why mayonnaise is that girl – at least when it comes to this recipe. Plus, they bestow the honor of Baker of the Month on one talented Bake Clubber – and try to stump each other with ingredients. How will soy milk and spam galette? You’ll have to listen to find out. We’d love to hear from you! Send your questions to BA Bake Club! Find us on Substack or send us a voice memo to bakeclub@bonappetit.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This month Bake Club is embracing every part of the lemon as co-host Jesse Szewczyk brings us his recipe for Whole Lemon Bars. “These lemon bars did not start as lemon bars,” confesses Jesse to co-host Shilpa Uskokovic. “They went through a journey. First, they were marshmallows… and then they were marshmallow cookies, and then, something happened, they turned into lemon bars.” On the latest episode of BA Bake Club, Jesse and Shilpa take your questions and bestow the honor of Baker of the Month on one talented Bake Clubber. Make sure you join our BA Bake Club Substack for access to a bonus recipe for the Marshmallow That Became a Lemon Bar. Later in the episode, Bake Clubs unite as visionary pastry chef and founder of Milk Bar (as well as her own bake club) Christina Tosi joins Jesse and Shilpa to talk about her love of baking and where she finds inspiration. “We need more forces of good and positivity and innovation and creativity. That's why I started Bake Club, and I love that you all have BA Bake Club in the same way.” says Tosi. You can find Christina Tosi online at milkbarstore.com, @christinatosi on socials or on her website bakeclub.com. We’d love to hear from you! Send your questions to BA Bake Club! Find us on Substack or send us a voice memo to bakeclub@bonappetit.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The unofficial birthday cake of the Test Kitchen comes to Bake Club this month as Shilpa Uskokovic shares her recipe for Strawberry Roll Cake. “I just love this cake,” explains Shilpa to co-host Jesse Szewczyk. “It has everything you could want! Tender cake, really nice cream…lots of fresh fruits. It's perfect.” Shilpa and Jesse answer your questions and also award the inaugural Baker of the Month to one lucky listener whose Strawberry Roll Cake stood out on BA Bake Club Substack page. And in our segment Baker You Should Know, celebrated author and food stylist Donna Hay stops by to talk about her latest book Sunshine Lemons and Seasalt. Donna introduces us to her favourite cooking utensil, the spoonula. You can find Donna Hay’s work on her website and you can watch her series Coastal Celebrations on Disney+. We’d love to hear from you - send your questions to BA Bake Club! Find us on Substack or send us a voice memo to bakeclub@bonappetit.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This month, Bon Appétit’s Bake Club is putting a spin on a classic. Listen in as Jesse Szewczyk breaks down his popular recipe for Chocolate Guinness Cake. “The cake came to me rather easily. I had a vision. I got lucky,” Jesse explains to co-host Shilpa Uskokovic. But the challenge came when it was time to develop the frosting. “I feel like everyone in the Test Kitchen had an opinion on what it should be…I definitely tried at least 10 different frostings.” Ultimately, Jesse landed on a brown butter frosting as the perfect topper, not just for taste but also because it matched the visual of an expertly poured Guinness, with its creamy head. “It’s reinforced with just a tad of Guinness, two tablespoons,” says Jesse. “I found it important to have Guinness in both places.” Jesse and Shilpa also dive deep into the mailbag and answer questions about the cake and troubleshoot issues listeners encountered. Plus, baker and psychologist Helen Goh stops by in our “Baker You Should Know” segment. Helen confesses that she has been living a double life for years and explains how she juggled working with the acclaimed Yotam Ottolenghi on developing sweet treats while seeing patients in her psychology practice. Her latest book, Baking & the Meaning of Life, bridges the gap between the two worlds. As always, we’d love to hear from you! To send your questions to Bon Appétit Bake Club, subscribe to us on Substack, or send us a voice memo to bakeclub@bonappetit.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This month, Bake Club takes inspiration from a popular chain restaurant for our own take on a beautiful, fluffy and cheesy biscuit that is transformed with the help of Old Bay seasoning. Hosts Shilpa Uskokovic and Jesse Szewczyk make the case for why biscuits are a must for any occasion. “Anything bread can do…a biscuit can do better,” says Shilpa. Jesse and Shilpa tackle listener questions and baker and writer Cheryl Day, a biscuit guru who made them everyday for 22 years in her bakery, stops by the clubhouse. Cheryl’s advice for the best biscuit is simple. “I would say: practice, practice, practice … then, take notes.” We’d love to hear from you! Send your questions to BA Bake Club! Find us on Substack or send us a voice memo to bakeclub@bonappetit.com. Links: Garlic Bread Biscuits RecipeAn Ode to Old Bay, the Great American Condiment from The New YorkerOld Bay Breakfast PotatoesPeel ’n’ Eat Old Bay and Garlic ShrimpOld Bay Chips With Lemon MayoGlazed Fried Chicken with Old Bay and CayenneBaltimore-Style Crab Cakes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

January is bleak, but this month’s Bake Club recipe is bound to put a smile on your face! Hosts Jesse Szewczyk and Shilpa Uskokovic dive into the world of bagels. Jesse talks us through the tips and tricks of how to make the perfect bagel from the comfort of your own kitchen. “Bagels are like this blank canvas,” says Jesse, “Where the yeast and the wheat are the flavor…and the toppings, obviously.” Plus, Melissa Weller from Bub’s Bakery in New York City drops by the clubhouse. Melissa is a James Beard nominee and author of two beautiful books, A Good Bake and Very Good Bread. She discusses her love of bagels and how her past life as a chemical engineer helped her hone her craft as a recipe developer. Melissa also tackles a tricky listener question on how to make gluten-free bagels. We’d love to hear from you! Send your questions to BA Bake Club! Find us on Substack or send us a voice memo to bakeclub@bonappetit.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A special bonus episode this week from our friends at The Chef’s Cut podcast. Every Tuesday Top Chef alums Adrienne Cheatham and Joe Flamm share behind-the-scenes chef insights and candid conversations with people in the food industry. Recently, they caught up with Editor-in-chief of Bon Appétit and Epicurious, Jamila Robinson. They discuss what it takes for a chef to get noticed by Bon Appétit, how much testing goes into each recipe on our site and the countless hours that go into working on helping to pick the 50 Best Restaurants for North America. BA Bake Club will be back on February 3 as we tackle this month’s recipe for bagels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This month on BA Bake Club, hosts Jesse Szewczyk and Shilpa Uskokovic break out their whisks and create a picture perfect pavlova. It has all the top textures of a showstopping bake: It’s crunchy, it’s chewy, it’s decadent and it’s boozy. Inspired by Shilpa’s childhood favorite, Black Forest gâteau, we dive into the inbox and dig into listener questions. And Shilpa preaches about the virtue of a cracked meringue. “My point is if it cracks, it's okay,” says Shilpa. “That's really what the whipped cream and the toppings are for sure. Just patch it back together.” Watch Shilpa make her fool-proof pavlova on Instagram. 2025 James Beard award-winning cookbook author Nicola Lamb also stops by to help weigh in on what you can do with leftover egg yolks and comes up with some creative suggestions! You can find Nicola on Instagram and her Substack called Kitchen Projects. Send your questions to BA Bake Club! Find us on Substack or send us a voice memo to bakeclub@bonappetit.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We like big cinnamon buns and we cannot lie. December’s Bake Club is dedicated to the tireless efforts of Shilpa Uskokovic and her creation of a giant, gooey cinnamon roll. Not only is this recipe perfect for any festive gathering, but it also has all the nostalgia of a mall food court in the 90s. Shilpa tells Jesse about her decision to include two specialty ingredients and the importance that they had in shaping the structure of the recipe. And we meet another baker we think you should know: Patrick Shaw-Kitch of Brooklyn Granary & Mill. Patrick not only bakes, but mills his own flour for his creations and tells us why we should think more about where our flour comes from and how to harness it in our bakes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meet Wally Amos. He founded the ubiquitous Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies in 1975, turning the brand into an overnight sensation and himself into a pop-culture fixture in the 1970s and 1980s. But there’s a darker side to Wally’s seemingly sweet story. One filled with five marriages to six women and a string of bad business decisions that led him to lose the empire he had created. When he passed away in 2024, host Sarah Amos set out to untangle her father’s complicated past and finally face the life and legacy she had been avoiding. New episodes every Wednesday: swap.fm/l/vf-toughcookie-feed Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Finally, Jesse, BA's resident cookie expert, treats the Bake Club to his latest creation: Chocolate Chip Cookies With Olive Oil and Sea Salt. In this episode, Jesse and Shilpa discuss how this accidentally vegan chocolate chip cookie came together. They explore the best methods to ensure the perfect chocolate distribution in the cookie and what Jesse meant by cooking flour to the color of ‘desert sand’. Plus, listeners share how they managed with the October Bake Club treat and cookie enthusiast Dorie Greenspan (of xoxoDorie) tells us when to tap and not to tap our cookie sheets on the counter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is from our friends at Milk Street Radio. Bon Appétit columnist Maggie Hennessy helps us navigate the new rules of dining out. Is it ever OK to take out your phone? What’s the best way to grab your server’s attention? And how fussy is too fussy? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hold onto your piping bags, Bake Club! In September, Jesse set bakers a showstopper-worthy challenge in his Banana Pudding Paris-Brest. In this episode, he and Shilpa break down the many worthwhile steps for making this "drag queen of French desserts." They're also joined by superstar baker Zoë François (of the ZoëBakes newsletter) to answer a listener question about conventional vs convection ovens. Recipes & Links: Pictures: Jeannine's choux tire, Elyse's choux ring, Katy's bananas Zoe's Raspberry Paris-Brest Join us on Substack! You can find all the BA Bake Club recipes, including this one, here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We'll say it: late summer is peak pie season. And August's Bake Club recipe - for Shilpa's cardamom-laced Peach-Blueberry Crumb Pie - provides an excellent reason to turn your oven on and crank up the AC. In this episode, Shilpa and Jesse commiserate about how frustrating pie crust seemed (at least until Shilpa developed her Actually Perfect Pie Crust), and why pre-cooking your fruit is the secret to tender, crispy crust and perfectly-set filling. They'll also answer listener questions and introduce Bake Clubbers to pie expert Erin Jeanne McDowell, author of The Book on Pie. Join us on Substack! You can find all the BA Bake Club recipes, including this one, here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this bonus episode of BA Bake Club, Jesse and Shilpa take the stage live at the Bell House in Brooklyn, NY to introduce a new audience to the club. They cover the rules of Bake Club and give a sample of the kinds of questions they answer on the podcast - plus share some baking horror stories of their own! Join us on Substack! Listen to the other interviews from the show on the This is TASTE podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For July's bake, you all brought out your dutch ovens to make Jesse's crusty-yet-tender Cheddar Jalepeño loaf. On this episode, Shilpa and Jesse break down the process of making this same-day, no-knead bread and answer listener questions about overnight proofing, filling options, and more! Join our new Substack chat! Watch Jesse demonstrate the stretch-and-fold process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

June's bake, the delightfully tropical Hummingbird Cake, was the first Bake Club layer cake, and our listeners had questions! Jesse and Shilpa dig in to this iconic Southern cake and explain the differences between our recipe and the classic. Plus, they're joined by Great British Bake Off S1 winner Edd Kimber to answer a listener question and talk all things small batch baking. Buy tickets to STAY COOL: A Summer Food Podcast Evening here: https://www.thebellhouseny.com/staycool And, send us your baking questions and stories of your worst baking disasters at bakeclub@bonappetit.com or at this form to be featured on the live show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, Chris and Amiel Stanek answer a mix of questions from our inbox, about cooking in an AirBnb, Castelvetrano olives, what to do with a surplus of nuts, and more. Recipes & Links:Chris Morocco's Extremely Extra Travel Coffee KitSizzling Turmeric-Dill Fish TacosDate-Almond Party SnackKale Salad with Pecan VinaigretteAromatic Rice PilafChicken Tinga TostadasDinner by Meera Sodha Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices