Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Introducing the official new podcast from King Arthur Baking Company, dropping April 28th! Join King Arthur’s Jessica Battilana and David Tamarkin as they explore every corner of the baking world. Each episode dives deep into a different baked good — its history and lore, tips and tricks, trends and takes — and they'll always leave time to answer baking questions from listeners. Along the way they chat with the best bakers in America to get their expert advice.

Today is all about one of our favorite foods: pizza!  

Best-selling cookbook author and one of America’s foremost pizza experts Dan Richer stops by the show to share his tips on baking your best pizza at home. Learn about his ideal home oven set up and his tips for nailing your bake. Then listen to David and Jessica answer your biggest pizza questions, from the best way to get a crispy crust to Jessica’s preferred method for reheating pizza. (Spoiler alert: It leaves David shocked.) Finally, they finish up with dueling Jess-opinions about pizza sauces and the recipes they’re baking this week.  

Recipes and other links from this episode:  

Find Dan’s book here: The Joy of Pizza
Follow Dan on Instagram and visit his James Beard-nominated restaurant Razza in New Jersey
Visit our Pizza Perfection shop page for our favorite tools and ingredients
Our favorite baking steel: Brod & Taylor Bread Steel
King Arthur’s 2020 Recipe of the Year: Crispy Cheesy Pan Pizza
What David’s baking this week: Giant Hostess Cupcake Cake recipe
What Jessica’s baking this week: Peanut Butter Brownies recipe 
Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! 

We’re kicking off our first season by talking about one of the most quintessential American bakes: chocolate chip cookies! 
 
Hosts Jessica and David are joined by best-selling cookbook author Zoë François, who talks about the extensive chocolate chip cookie testing she did for her latest book, Zoë Bakes Cookies, as well as the surprising role cookies played in her family history. Then, Jessica and David answer your burning cookie questions in Ask the Bakers, including tips on the best chocolate to use and the necessary tool you need for consistent cookie baking. They close out the episode with a detour into space, Jessica’s soapbox on why warm chocolate chip cookies are actually bad (!), and the recipes they’re baking this week. 

Recipes and other links from this episode: 

Find Zoë’s book here: Zoë Bakes Cookies
Follow Zoë on Instagram and Substack 
Zoë’s Smash Cookies recipe (the cover star of her book!) 
Oatmeal-Date Smash Cookies recipe
King Arthur’s 2024 Recipe of the Year: Supersized, Super-Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
What David’s baking this week: Sesame Wheat recipe
What Jessica’s baking this week: Roti Canai recipe
Our favorite baking scale: Essential Digital Scale
Shop all our chocolate, from chunks to chips 
Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! 

Today it’s everybody’s birthday, because we’re talking about birthday cakes with two Southern baking superstars.  

We’re thrilled to have both Cheryl Day, award-winning cookbook author and former owner of Savannah’s famed Back in the Day Bakery, and Bronwen Wyatt, of Bayou Saint Cakes in New Orleans, join to share their top cake secrets and best tips for beginner birthday cake bakers. In Ask the Bakers, Jessica and David dig into your urgent cake questions, from demystifying the reverse-creaming method to what to do if your cakes keep sinking in the oven. And as always, they close out the episode with a big birthday cake hot take (featuring Jessica’s opiniated protege, our producer Rossi) and the best recipes they’re baking this week.   

Find Cheryl’s most recent book here: Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking   
Follow Cheryl on Instagram 
Follow Bronwen on Instagram and Substack
Visit our Cake Made Easy shop page for our favorite tools and ingredients 
King Arthur’s 2019 Recipe of the Year: Classic Birthday Cake
Try the reverse-creaming method with Vanilla Birthday Cake and Tender White Cake
Bake Cheryl Day’s Southern Caramel Cake and Old-Fashioned Coconut Cake
Find Rossi’s pie book, Sweet Land of Liberty: A History of America in 11 Pies  
What David’s baking this week: Big and Bubbly Cinnamon Roll Focaccia recipe
What Jessica’s baking this week: Mini Pizzas (aka Snacking Pizzas) recipe 
Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! 

It’s finally time. Today, we’re discussing a topic that produces a lot of confusion, passion, and toast: sourdough. 

King Arthur’s very own Director of Baking Education Amber Eisler is here to share her considerable expertise. Amber baked in our bakery for five years and has taught at the Baking School for over 15 years, so needless to say, she knows her stuff. First, she and David chat about some of the biggest unexpected pain points bakers run into while making sourdough and how to solve them. Then, Amber sticks around to join Jessica and David for Ask the Bakers, answering your burning sourdough questions. We also have a special treat, a dispatch from our audience sharing the names of their sourdough starters. And, as always, Jessica and David finish up with a spicy (or in this case, sour) Jess-opinion and the recipes they’re baking this week.  

More on Amber’s Sourdough for Beginners On-Demand Class and the Baking School
Visit our Sourdough Savvy shop page for our favorite tools and ingredients 
Learn more about the Big Book of Bread  
Amber’s Sourdough Sandwich Bread recipe 
Super Fudgy Sourdough Brownies recipe
What David’s baking this week: English Digestive Biscuits recipe 
Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! 

We’re closing out our first season with a complex, fascinating, and all-around delicious baked good: biscuits!  

Historian and food anthropologist Deb Freeman is here to teach us about biscuits’ riveting history, discussing their early role in American baking and the way Black bakers’ skill and knowledge have contributed to where biscuits are today. Then, Jessica and David answer your biscuit baking questions in Ask the Bakers, covering everything from the best flour to use for biscuits (with a cameo from our Reasearch & Development kitchen!) and how to pick the right butter. Our producer Rossi Anastopoulo joins the show to share the surprising link between biscuits and basketball in North Carolina, and David and Jessica close out the episode with a Jess-opinion all about biscuits at breakfast and the best recipes they’re baking this week.  

Follow Deb on Instagram and watch her PBS series, Finding Edna Lewis
Read Deb’s piece The rise: a history of American biscuits
Read Vonnie Williams’ piece Erika Council’s tips for better biscuits 
Find our new Buttermilk Biscuit Flour Blend 
Buttermilk Biscuits recipe
What David’s baking this week: Braided Challah recipe
What Jessica’s baking the week: Old-Fashioned Cake Doughnuts recipe
Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! 

Things Bakers Know, the official podcast from King Arthur Baking Company, is back with a ten episode second season — starting September 29th! Join King Arthur’s Jessica Battilana and David Tamarkin as they explore every corner of the baking world. Each episode dives deep into a different baked good — its history and lore, tips and tricks, trends and takes — and they'll always leave time to answer baking questions from listeners. Along the way they chat with the best bakers in America to get their expert advice. Things Bakers Know is available wherever you get your podcasts, and now on Youtube, or by going to KingArthurBaking.com/podcast!

We’re back, and we’re talking all about butter!  

Legendary baker Dorie Greenspan joins the show to share her thoughts on all things butter, plus some stories that will make you want to move to France immediately. David and Jessica dive deep into baker Nicole Rucker’s Cold Butter Method (CBM) and their tips for baking better with butter, before answering your questions, including their thoughts on softening butter quickly and making the most flavorful brown butter using a tip from our Test Kitchen. They then take a detour to the Minnesota State Fair, where butter carving takes centerstage, and close out the episode with the recipes they’re baking this week.  

Recipes and other links from this episode: 

Jessica and David’s summer bakes: Swirled Rhubarb Bars (double the recipe to make in a 9” x 13” pan!) and Toasted Marshmallow Whipped Cream  

Find Nicole Rucker’s book here: Fat + Flour: The Art of a Simple Bake 

Jesse Szewczyk’s blog: The secret to fudgier cookies? It's all about the butter. 

Dorie’s newest cookbook is almost out!: Dorie’s Anytime Cakes   

Lydia’s Ultimate Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats  

Blog: Creaming butter and sugar: How to get it right 

Blog: How to soften butter quickly  

Blog: The baking trials: butter vs. vegan butter 

Learn more about Gerry here, and find videos of him sculpting here.  

What David’s baking this week: The Most Pumpkin Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread 

What Jessica’s baking this week: Apple Pie Bars  

Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! 

This episode is sponsored by Plugra. Learn more about their premium European-style butter at plugra.com. 

We’re talking about one of our favorite genres of baking today: the bakes of Chinatown.  

From bolo bao to dan tat, we can’t get enough of the gorgeous goods lining the bakery cases of Chinatowns across the US. So of course, we had to have cookbook author Kristina Cho on the show to share more about the history of these bakeries, their place in Chinese American communities, and her tips for making the best versions of these iconic bakes at home. Along the way, David and Jessica share their experiences eating in two of the best Chinatowns in the country, plus their answers to your biggest baking questions (with some crucial help from Kristina!). Jessica has a shockingly positive Jess-opinion for once, and she and David close out the show by sharing the recipes they’re baking this week.  

Recipes and other links from this episode: 

Find our recipes for Pineapple Buns (Bolo Bao), Hong Kong Egg Tarts, and Red Bean Mooncakes 

Learn more about Kristina’s two cookbooks, Mooncakes & Milk Bread and Chinese Enough 

For more on steamed buns, check out our blog: Everything you need to know to make steamed buns 

Find our Golden Milk Bread recipe in the Big Book of Bread  

And for more on tangzhong and milk bread, see our blog: What is milk bread? 

What David’s baking this week: Bagels (with help from our On-Demand Bagel Class) 

What Jessica’s baking this week: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! 

This episode is sponsored by Plugra. Learn more about their premium European-style butter at plugra.com. 

It’s the best baking season of the year! So we’re celebrating all things fall baking on today’s episode.  

First up, producer Rossi Anastopoulo and King Arthur editor Tatiana Bautista join David and Jessica to discuss our new list of the 49 Best Fall Recipes, Ranked. To no one’s surprise, there are a lot of opinions all around! Then cookbook author Rick Martínez stops by to dive deep into Pan de Muerto, the fragrant, buttery bread made to celebrate the fall holiday of Día de los Muertos. During our Ask the Bakers segment, Jessica and David discuss the big fall baking questions: Is it ever worth it to make your own pumpkin purée? What’s the difference between all the cinnamons out there? And is it pronounced PEA-can or puh-CON?! To close the show, we have a story about the oldest apple tree in America and the apple detective who found it (!), a freshly fried Jess-opinion, and the bakes David and Jessica are making this week.  

Recipes and other links from this episode: 

Get baking with our 49 Best Fall Recipes, Ranked 

Our favorite fall recipes: Chili Crisp Cottage Cheese Flatbreads (Tatiana), Sweet Potato Sheet Cake with Marshmallow Frosting (Rossi), Honey Beer Miche (David), and Oatmeal-Date Smash Cookies (Jessica) 

Check out our Pan de Muerto recipe  

Find Rick’s cookbooks and learn more about his work here 

Visit our shop for Vietnamese cinnamon and Indonesian cinnamon 

Read more about John Bunker’s apple discovery: On a Maine island, historians discover one of the oldest living apple trees in North America and find his book here 

Find our recipe for Fried Apple Pies  

What David’s baking this week: Cinnamon-Crisp Coffee Cake  

What Jessica’s baking this week: recipes from Sweet & Salty, our new kids’ cookbook!  

Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! 

This episode is sponsored by Plugra. Learn more about their premium European-style butter at plugra.com.