In the home kitchen, there are two kinds of people: cooks and bakers. For cooks, recipes are mere suggestions, flexible in their ingredients and proportions. For bakers, on the other hand, recipes are gospel truth, precise in their measurements and techniques.

Me, I'm definitely a cook. I enjoy the spontaneity of tweaking a recipe or making one up based on what's in the fridge. But the downside to being a cook is that, no matter how often I've prepared a particular bread or pastry recipe, I can't guarantee the same results every time. I envy my grandmother, who can whip together dough for dozens of dinner rolls without even measuring the flour. She just knows when the dough looks and feels right.

After a recent cheese-puff disaster my typically lofty gougeres came out of the oven as flat as cookies I decided to become less of a cook and more of a baker. So I quizzed six baking experts about ingredients and techniques.

Essential ingredients for baking, clockwise from top left: eggs, butter, milk, vegetable oil, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, yeast, and flour.

The secret to successful baking? It's all in the chemistry. And here's the scientific lowdown on how each basic baking ingredient functions in the kitchen.

by Diane Kochilas  

This article was first published in Saveur in Issue #24

The first time I saw a home cook ''open'' phyllo the papery pastry dough essential to such classic Greek dishes as baklava and spanakópitta (spinach pie), I was visiting a monastery in Metsovo, a scenic mountain village in the Ípiros region of northwestern Greece. Ípiros is pítta country?not pita, the ubiquitous Middle Eastern flat bread, but pítta, which is the word Greeks use to refer to a whole inventory of savory pies, whose ingredients are tucked between buttered or oiled layers of crisp phyllo. There are literally hundreds of variations, with fillings of greens, cheeses, eggs, grains, sometimes meat, and just about anything else the area's bounty can provide.

The monastery caretaker's wife was in her kitchen preparing cassiata, a local version of cheese pie made with about twenty layers of phyllo, and invited me to watch. 

by Beth Kracklauer
This article was first published in Saveur in Issue #115

The annual return of mincemeat desserts is an occasion worth celebratingThanksgiving is a pie lover's holiday. At my house, all the usual suspects are in attendance: pecan, pumpkin, and apple à la mode.

But it's mincemeat pie that always intrigues me the most. My family's version of the dessert tastes like a sophisticated fruitcake: potent with brandy, warmed by spices, dense with dried currants, candied citrus, and raisins, and possessed of a deep, satisfying richness thanks to the inclusion of beef suet (which usually constitutes the only "meat" in modern-day variants of the dish). It's an extravagant pie. A princely pie. A pie that seems transported from another time and place.

Found on "The Kitchn" site - a very basic introduction to the anatomy of a pie crust.

At its most basic, pie crust is nothing more than flour, fat, and liquid. But if that's all it is, why is pie crust so notoriously difficult to make by hand? Let's take a look:

Create delicious crumbles
by Terry Farris

Spice up your crumbles with nuts, crushed biscuits and rich brown sugars!

If you were asked to make a list of your favourite autumn and winter puddings, crumble would surely come near the top. Maybe it?s the contrast between the crunchy top and the tart fruit underneath; perhaps it?s because it?s so luscious served piping hot with cold cream poured over, or maybe it?s the anticipation of those midnight raids for spoonfuls of chilled leftovers straight from the fridge.

Pastie or Pasty

These are basically individual pies filled with meats and vegetables that are cooked together. The identifying feature of the Cornish pasty is really the pastry and it’s crimping.

Analysis of accidents in the bakery and flour confectionery industry has highlighted the following main types of risk and the preventative measures that may be taken to reduce them. They are by no means exhaustive and will vary depending on your own particular business. This is really just a starting point or guide.

Recipes, tips, and the science behind baking great pies, cakes, and cookies above sea level by Susan G. Purdy

Are you struggling to make the perfect pastry? Or do your cookies crumble and your cakes collapse?  It may not be your fault. If you live and bake 2,500 feet (762 meters) or more above sea level, you get to blame everything on the altitude! Often more frustration than fun, baking at high altitude can be a challenge or a total disaster, but at least you are not alone. Professional and home bakers struggle with this in as many as 34 of the 50 United States, parts of Canada, Mexico, South America, and Europe, plus other mountainous regions around the globe. If you have never heard of these problems, you probably live at or near sea level, though you might have wondered why mountain dwellers around the world make flatbreads (Mexican tortillas, for example). But ask anyone who has moved from Boston to Boulder how their cakes turn out and, if they are honest, they'll tell you the name of the best bakery in town.

Read further for the science behind this as well as for a variety of tips and ideas to assist you.

With the "Festive Season" nearly upon us, this recipe on how to use your "left-over" mince pies in an interesting and novel way caught my eye.

Enjoy!