Read an Excerpt
Introduction
You should see my oven. You really should. It’s a tiny apartment-size oven made to complement the tiny apartment-size refrigerator, inside the tiny apartment-size kitchen, housed in the very tiny bungalow in which I live and work, located in Venice, California.
By the looks of the oven and the mini baking sheets I’ve had to buy to accommodate it, you’d probably say that I have no business at all in the baking world. Thankfully, it’s not the size of one’s oven that makes a baker; it’s the amount of butter in one’s fridge and passion in one’s heart.
My food blog, Joy the Baker, was born out of such passion (and butter, let’s be real). I started the site in early 2008, during that weird time on the Internet when AOL chat rooms were uncool and Instagram didn’t exist yet. I started it on a borrowed laptop, with a borrowed Internet connection, in a friend’s kitchen. It was all very haphazard, but it was a place for me to scream into the void by way of sharing recipes, photos, and stories. Food blogs were just starting to emerge, authored by people utterly obsessed with food, and with Joy the Baker I found myself in humble but really enthusiastic company.
The Internet can teach us some pretty invaluable lessons (beyond how to tie a tie and poach an egg). It has taught me that people love to connect around food. We love to share recipes, gawk at pictures of chocolate chip cookies, and share our kitchen successes and occasional failures. In the past few years, Joy the Baker has grown from a solitary endeavor to a community of butter-loving bakers eager to share and learn together every day.
I’m a self-taught baker. Fueled by an unreasonable love of sweets and my parents’ fondness for store-bought whole wheat fig bars, I taught myself how to bake as a survival skill. And yet I learned the heart of baking from my parents. My dad, who has a healthy appreciation for pies, taught me the art of a perfect pie crust; my mom, a cake enthusiast, imparted the importance of completely cooled cake layers in cake decorating. I may not put on a pastry chef coat every morning, but knowledge and confidence in the kitchen don’t always come from a fancy uniform. Sometimes all you need is a great recipe and a trusty spatula.
In Joy the Baker Homemade Decadence, I’m diving deep into the edible wonders I explore every day in my kitchen and on Joy the Baker. I’m reaching beyond what we might need to get down to the nitty-gritty of what we really want. My wants generally include boozy brunches, chewy chocolate cookies, three-tiered cakes, and caramel in my ice cream. No shame! There’s no such thing as out-of-bounds when it comes to dessert desires. My needs (as opposed to my wants) generally include shelter, sustenance, and a fork. Not as extravagant and severely lacking in caramel.
Let’s talk about how to get more salty pretzels into our cakes, like in the Chocolate–Peanut Butter Pretzel Layer Cake (page 190). I’ve found a way to make ice cream taste like cheesecake! I call it Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream (page 245), and it’s a revelation. We can totally have pizza for brunch, too, with Sausage and Blackberry Breakfast Pizza (page 59). And don’t even get me started with the Apple Pie with Cheddar–Bacon Crust (page 135). It’s beyond!
Decadent desserts shouldn’t be reserved for fancy date nights at expensive restaurants. The recipes in this book are designed to make you look like a hero at the brunch table or neighborhood potluck. More than that, though, I want these sweet recipes to feel special. I know the biggest indulgence these days is having the time to make a pie crust from scratch and churn your own ice cream. Time is such a luxury, and for you to spend those precious moments making something truly wonderful for yourself and those you love is a big deal. I honor that.
I want you to feel confident in the kitchen. I want you to make scones for the first time, dust off that ice cream maker you got as a wedding present, and conquer your fear of meringue. I think you’ll find that the time involved and love exuded will make a tasty, tasteful difference. I believe we can all use a little extra love and caramel in our treats these days. It can all be ours, no matter the size of our ovens.
