"secret recipes" news and stories

Even more impressive and far healthier than the recreations of Girl Scout cookies are Gluten Free Girl's nostalgic attempt at making the Fig Newtons she loved so much as a little girl. While she admits that Fig Newtons weren't really that good, she still misses them in her new gluten-free lifestyle. She couldn't find a recipe, so she made one up. Her fig spread, which includes port, pomegranate juice, and Meyer lemon juice, couldn't be lusher. Her dough is a butter cookie base with white rice flour, millet flour, cornstarch and teff flour. And lots and lots of nutmeg. It sounds wonderful! And hypo-allergenic. Who'da thunk it.

[thanks for the tip Larissa!]

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It's been a lot of fun following along as Kelli from Lovescool starts her own bakery. In a particularly detailed look into the mechanics of creating hundreds of champagne brownies for her first shipment, she reports that selecting brownies as her first product was a challenge; mostly because it's hard to tell from the surface if your pan is done. "I would advise people to start with a nice and simple product like cookies where you can immediately tell if they are done or not," she says.

It made me think about the dream both I and practically everyone I know shares somewhere deep inside: that I should open a bakery/restaurant/cafe someday. "This is so wonderful, you should sell it!" exclaim your friends. "Why don't you open a ___ shop?" everyone at work asks you.

But what is it? What recipe have you perfected so assiduously that it would be the obvious choice if you were to open a bakery? For me, it changes from season to season, but my friend Larissa and I have lately been dreaming about opening a cupcake bakery and selling our products at our favorite local farmer's market. What about you?

[photo Sarah Gilbert]