Professional DC-area bakers share their holiday baking tips — and some of their most iconic recipes - WTOP

Baking apple pie with Blue Duck Tavern

By now, lots of people have their holiday baking done — and if you’re lucky, you’ve even received a few of their cookies and other treats.

For others, the last thing they want to do is go into the kitchen and pick up a cookie sheet.

But there’s really nothing to be afraid of. Even some of the top bakers in the D.C. area say they have made mistakes before. And sometimes the fix isn’t even that hard — just don’t stress yourself out over it.

“Just do it! Like, seriously, just get in the kitchen and do it,” said Paola Velez, an award-winning baker at restaurants like Kith/Kin and Maydan in D.C., who has since moved into the digital world. “At the end of the day, even if you make something that can’t go on one of those weird food TV shows, it’s still sugary, and it’s cake or it’s cookies. So it’s like a happy mistake. Either way, people are going to eat them, people are going to enjoy them.”

Colleen Murphy, a pastry chef at Blue Duck Tavern on D.C.’s West End, expressed a similar sentiment.

“It’s supposed to be Christmas — be merry,” she said. “Just take your time and have fun.”

Chances are, professional bakers have already made any mistakes that you’ve made.

“I think a lot of it comes down to mis-scaling,” said Murphy, who makes the famous apple pies at Blue Duck Tavern, which have been ranked among the best desserts in the country. “So if you’re going to scale a recipe or you’re measuring, sometimes there’s too much butter, sometimes there’s extra egg or extra flour and that can really mess up Christmas cookies.”

Precise ingredient measurements are important, according to Murphy — but they might not be as important if you’re just baking at home.

“It has to be very specific, because even if it’s a tablespoon more, you go to bake this batch of cookies and they just end up spreading really far,” she said. “And then you can’t use them. You can still eat them. They’re going to be delicious, but maybe they won’t look as good as you would like for them to be.”

Velez said she has made just about every mistake you can think of: from burned caramel to running out of ingredients, it’s happened to her.

“Once you know ratios in the kitchen, you can really get close to what you want to make or what you want to bake without having everything on hand,” Velez said. “Or if something gets wonky and it’s past its cook time, or if something’s a little bit under, nobody’s ever scoffed at an undercooked cookie. It’s gooey and melty and amazing.”

Don’t start over if you make a baking mistake, Velez said. A mess-up in the kitchen is just “a happy mistake” most of the time.

“Because at the end of the day it’s probably still edible, and it’s probably still sweet and delicious,” she said.

Velez also offered up a secret hack for those times you might run out of milk in the middle of baking: Use melted ice cream mixed with powdered sugar instead, it’s the only two ingredients you need.

“I just let that ice cream melt and all those beautiful rich flavors get folded into icings, they get incorporated into the cookie dough,” said Velez, who also has a sponsorship deal with Häagen-Dazs. “Think about it this way: You have all the fun parts of dairy in the ice cream. Then you have richness from any type of crème anglaise that they do in the factory to make this base and then all of a sudden you have any type of flavoring.”

Both bakers also made clear you shouldn’t go around trying to hold yourself up to the standards of the professional bakers you see on TV.

“Everything is practice, especially with professionals,” said Murphy. “Again, you learn what works and what doesn’t. Some ovens are different than others, and you learn from those mistakes, but then you become better. So you practice and you become better from learning from your mistakes.”

Comparing yourself to professional bakers is “not fair to you, it’s not fair to the people around you,” said Velez.

“When I first started, my cakes looked like those things that you see on TV — like the wonky side of TV … ‘I ran out of my 30 minutes and here’s my cake, everybody,'” she joked.

Velez’s advice: “I think folks need to kind of not be so hard on themselves and keep trying.”

She added, “Every year, you keep trying the same recipe, right? Are you going to be known for your chocolate chip cookies, your shortbread? Whatever it is, I think you keep trying and don’t play the comparison game.”

If you are feeling inspired, try these recipes the bakers have shared.

Apple Pie from Blue Duck Tavern

APPLE FILLING

• 2 pounds, 8 ounces chopped apples
• 12 ounces sugar
• 2 ounces cornstarch
• 1 dried vanilla bean
• 24 ounces apple cider

1. Mix sugar and cornstarch together and toss with fruit in a bowl. Make sure fruit does not come up over three inches high in the pan.
2. Pour in cider, add vanilla bean and toss together with gloved hands.
3. Roast at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring every 10 minutes until thick and bubbly and the fruit is cooked but not mushy.
4. Store in the refrigerator and scoop as needed. The fruit will continue to give off moisture so the filling may get softer the longer you hold it.

BLUE DUCK TAVERN PIE DOUGH

• 8 ounces butter
• 8 ounces all-purpose flour
• 10 ounces cake flour
• 2 ½ ounces sugar
• ½ ounce salt
• 10 egg yolks
• 2 cups cream

1. Paddle cold butter and dry ingredients until coarse and add liquids all at once; paddle just until it comes together.
2. Once mixed, flatten dough down into a disk and wrap with plastic wrap — let chill overnight.
3. Roll out chilled dough on floured surface with rolling pin to an 1/8″ thick and cut desired size circle for pie shell (leaving about 1/2″ extra for edge of the shell)
4. Gently roll up dough onto rolling pin, then unroll onto pie plate. Gently press dough into the lightly oiled pie plate, getting into the corners to set the shape of the pie.
5. Fill pie shell all the way to the top with apple filling and place another rolled-out shell over the top to seal it. Cut any excess pie dough hanging over pie plate. Cut a small circle out of the top crust for ventilation and brush with egg wash.
6. Bake at 320 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes, rotate and bake another 25 minutes.

Paola Velez’s Häagen-Dazs two-ingredient icing

During the holiday season, I find myself forgetting and running around like a mad woman — often forgetting or running out of some of the more basic ingredients in my pantry, like milk. So, to alleviate some of the holiday pressures, I use Häagen-Dazs ice cream to make the easiest two-ingredient icing for my cakes, cookies and other bakes. This icing is my favorite evergreen recipe that is a gift that keeps on giving. I recommend starting off with the classic Häagen-Dazs vanilla flavor to learn this technique. Then, when you’re feeling comfortable, get funky with it, choosing any and all flavors you can find in your local market. Happy holidays!

• 2 cups (250 grams) unsifted powdered sugar
• 2-4 tablespoons melted Häagen-Dazs ice cream

To make your Häagen-Dazs icing: In a small bowl, place a scoop of your favorite ice cream flavor and set it aside as you gather your tools and ingredients. Once melted, in a medium bowl, pour your powdered sugar and make a little well in the center. Add the melted ice cream starting with two tablespoons, then whisk to incorporate. Add more ice cream if needed to achieve a smooth, pourable consistency.

Now, it’s time to pipe the decorative icing on top of your pastry of choice. Place your icing in a piping bag, cutting a small hole at the tip (or, if you do not have a piping bag, using a fork). Hold your icing on top of your pastries and, in nice little loopity-loop formations, create your squiggles. Let sit for two to five minutes before serving, so your icing can set.

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Professional DC-area bakers share their holiday baking tips — and some of their most iconic recipes - WTOP
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