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In this Episode
Highlights & “Must-Listen” Moments
* 0:00 — Another chaotic tech day: An hour of audio problems before the show even begins. The invitation went out to 250,000 people; by the time they got the show running, 16 lovely souls had joined. David was cursing like a sailor off-camera. Business as usual.
* 1:56 — Amy’s food week: Passover, Easter, cardamom buns, and scrambled eggs: Amy hosted both Passover and Easter in the same week — a double-whammy that was exhausting and wonderful. She made the cardamom buns from Juno Bakery in Copenhagen again (they came out beautifully), and then had a quiet week after that, during which she rediscovered the joy of perfect scrambled eggs: generous olive oil, high heat to start, back of a fork, constant small wrist movements to create tiny curds, then immediately turn the heat down. Creamy, silky, and completely underrated.
* 4:30 — Amy’s Weekends with Yankee shout-out: Episode two of the new season is out now on public television. Featured recipe: a tomato tartine from Groundswell Café in Tiverton, Rhode Island, right on the Farm Coast where Rhode Island and Massachusetts meet. Available on newengland.com.
* 5:31 — David’s food week: Homemade Spaghetti Amatriciana and Prime Heritage Pork Chops: David made homemade spaghetti amatriciana from scratch — the first time he’s ever run spaghetti through the roller — and the results were restaurant-quality. His version includes guanciale or pancetta, DOP San Marzano tomatoes, a touch of balsamic vinegar (not traditional, but it lifts the whole dish), red pepper flakes, and Pecorino. Then, the main event: prime heritage pork chops from Boardman Bridge Butchers, two inches thick, served simply with salt, pepper, roasted sweet potato, and a salad. What pork tasted like before factory farming. David nearly wept.
* 8:42 — ADHD update: David finally has a coach and a PsyD on his team. Progress is being made. The meds remain elusive, but we’re getting there.
* 9:01 — Introducing Jessica Battilana: Amy introduces their guest — Jessica Battilana, staff editor at King Arthur Baking Company, award-winning writer and recipe developer, co-host of the King Arthur podcast Things Bakers Know, co-author of the #1 New York Times bestselling The King Arthur Big Book of Bread, and author of her own book Repertoire: All the Recipes You Need. She also co-authored Vietnamese Home Cooking with Charles Phan, Tartine Book No. 3 with Chad Robertson, and Baking at 20th Century Cafe with Michelle Polzine — among 16 books total. Amy and Jessica have known each other for two decades, from their Sunset Magazine days in California to Boston Magazine, and ran into each other in line for Bridget Everett at a Boston theater just last week.
* 10:40 — The new King Arthur pizza book: Jessica’s 16th book, a King Arthur pizza book, just dropped. David has been raving about it on the show. Photographed by Andy Lee; the photography alone is stunning.
* 13:35 — Jessica’s broken oven (and a sneak peek at her next solo book): Jessica’s home oven has been out for six to seven weeks. Making this particularly painful: she’s working on her second solo cookbook — tentatively titled This Is What We’re Having — due out (hopefully) next spring from Norton. One of the recipes is a banana cake with whipped caramel frosting, which created a bread-bowl-shaped lava situation during testing. The oven is definitely broken.
* 16:09 — Q&A: Bread scoring tips from Peter in the audience: Jessica’s advice — chill your dough overnight in the banneton, use a fresh double-sided razor blade (not a lame), and score with speed and confidence — hesitation causes dragging. David’s tip: hold the lame at a very steep angle to create an ear, and don’t be afraid to make two or three passes. Amy’s breakthrough: line your banneton with a flour-sack towel dusted with flour before the overnight fridge proof. The cotton wicks away moisture and makes scoring dramatically easier.
* 21:00 — About King Arthur Baking Company: America’s oldest flour company, over 200 years old, based in Norwich, Vermont. Employee-owned (400 employee-owners), certified B Corp. The campus includes a café, a baking school, and a retail store. They produce roughly 500 original recipes a year, all free on their website. Jessica confirms: it really is as great as it seems.
* 23:24 — David’s King Arthur confession: The viral NYT chocolate chip cookie article — the one where you rest the dough for 36 hours — was developed using King Arthur cake flour and King Arthur bread flour. The Times doesn’t allow brand names, but the secret is out.
* 24:03 — Q&A: Best baking advice you’ve ever gotten? Jessica’s answer: practice. Not a flashy answer, but an honest one. You learn something every single time you bake — the second attempt is always better than the first. Kate McDermott bakes a pie every single day and gives it away. Jessica’s invented solution to the problem of getting enough repetitions: a silicone bread butt cheek (like the injection-training prop she used during IVF), so bakers could practice scoring without committing a whole loaf. It does not yet exist. Someone should make it. Amy’s advice: read the recipe all the way through first. She ignores this about 50% of the time and always regrets it.
* 29:18 — Baker vs. cook — is there a divide? Jessica doesn’t have a favorite. She bakes bread, makes dessert, and cooks weeknight dinners for her family every night. Her forthcoming book This Is What We’re Having is about exactly that — the family dinner, the one meal, take it or leave it.
* 31:04 — Jessica’s winding career path: La Varenne cooking school in France → Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge (starting at the register, per her own career advice: “Take the worst job at the best place”) → private chefing → Chez Panisse receptionist in San Francisco (where every shift ended with a staff meal from the previous night’s leftovers) → lunch lady at her kids’ San Francisco elementary school, cooking for 250 children until the pandemic closed schools in March 2020.
* 39:37 — Birthday cakes for every occasion: Jessica’s go-to is the chocolate layer cake from Repertoire — creamed butter and sugar, chocolate throughout, ganache mounted with butter — always requested by her older son. For her younger son, who has turned vanilla, she reaches for King Arthur’s Classic Birthday Cake: a reverse-creamed yellow cake with an almost-boxed-cake crumb that is genuinely excellent. Also discussed: Chef Zeb’s Hot Milk Cake on the KA site (thin, soupy batter that bakes up with a chiffon-like crumb), and the triumphant return of ermine frosting — the original red velvet frosting, made from a cooked flour paste, that KA now offers in both vanilla and chocolate. It’s poised for a comeback. Jessica’s test kitchen calls it “weasel frosting,” which is not helping its case.
* 42:12 — Amy and David’s birthday cake confessions: Amy has long relied on Shirley Corriher’s ultra-rich yellow cake (so much butter, so many egg yolks — in this economy?), with chocolate frosting for Scott and white frosting for herself. She also loves Rosie’s Bakery’s All Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed Baking Book — particularly the frosting made in a blender with evaporated milk. David is Team Ermine.
* 44:48 — A glimpse behind the curtain at KA’s test kitchen: Jessica is literally being waved at through her office pod window to come taste baked Alaska for the new general baking book (cakes, cookies, pies) coming out fall 2027. All in a day’s work.
* 45:27 — Goodbye, Jessica: She’s always happy to chat. Things Bakers Know is available as a podcast and a Substack. A visit to the King Arthur campus in Norwich, Vermont is highly recommended.
Recipes Mentioned
* Scrambled Eggs with Olive Oil (Amy’s back-of-the-fork method)
* Tomato Tartine (from Groundswell Café, Tiverton, RI; on newengland.com)
* Cardamom Buns
* Homemade Spaghetti Amatriciana (with guanciale, San Marzano tomatoes, balsamic vinegar)
* Prime Heritage Pork Chops (from Boardman Bridge Butchers, New Milford, CT)
* Portuguese Orange Olive Oil Cake
* Banana Cake with Whipped Caramel Frosting (from Jessica’s forthcoming book)
* Chocolate Layer Cake with Ganache Butter Frosting (from Repertoire)
* King Arthur Classic Birthday Cake (reverse-creamed yellow cake)
* Chef Zeb’s Hot Milk Cake (on kingarthurbaking.com)
* Vanilla Ermine Frosting (on kingarthurbaking.com)
* Chocolate Ermine Frosting (on kingarthurbaking.com)
* Shirley Corriher’s Ultra-Rich Yellow Cake (from BakeWise)
* Rosie’s Bakery Evaporated Milk Frosting (from The All Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed Baking Book)
* Baked Alaska (being taste-tested at KA HQ as we speak)
Books and Publications
* The King Arthur Baking Company Big Book of Bread by Jessica Battilana et al. — the #1 NYT bestseller Amy uses every week
* King Arthur Baking Company’s Book of Pizza Martin Philip and David Tamarkin with Jessica Battilana — just released
* Repertoire: All the Recipes You Need by Jessica Battilana — published 2018
* This Is What We’re Having by Jessica Battilana — forthcoming from Norton, spring 2027
* Vietnamese Home Cooking by Charles Phan (with Jessica Battilana)
* Tartine Book No. 3 by Chad Robertson (with Jessica Battilana)
* Baking at 20th Century Cafe by Michelle Polzine (with Jessica Battilana)
* BakeWise by Shirley Corriher (source of Amy’s go-to yellow cake)
* Rosie’s Bakery All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No-Holds-Barred Baking Book by Judy Rosenberg
* Rose’s Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum (mentioned by Domenica Marchetti last episode — source of the almond crescent recipe)
Where to Find Us
* Amy Traverso
* Instagram | Yankee
* David Leite
* Instagram | Pinterest | Facebook | Youtube
* Jessica Battilana
* Blog | Instagram | King Arthur
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