Until the past few years, my kitchen time was largely spent baking. Various brownies, cookies, and cakes were standard fare with the occasional unhinged treat thrown in, like chocolate chip cookies stuffed with Oreos or homemade sin. Simple but effective if the goal is to have something sweet.

Once cooking became a more serious affair, improved baking skills naturally followed. Two technical improvements have made the biggest differences - sticking to well-tested, trustworthy recipes and measuring out ingredients by weight. Good recipes naturally include measurements by weight, so this is a pretty easy change to make.

Cocoa nib sablés with flaky sea salt were probably the first baked good that rewarded this shift. These sandy shortbread cookies, balanced perfectly with salt-flaked chocolate, totally rewired my brain for what makes a good cookie.

I approached the recipe for cloverleaf rolls with significant apprehension, having been burned (figuratively) by previous roll recipes. But these turned out beautifully tender and buttery and even made a reappearance at our 2024 Christmas dinner. Thanks to those rolls, I confidently approached the pumpkin seed rolls for Thanksgiving this year.

I’ve already written about the Scandinavian treats I’ve made - kannelbullar (cinnamon knots), semlor, Danish lemon cream and curd buns, and chokladsnittar among them - none of which would have worked out were it not for carefully weighing the ingredients. Two basque cheesecake recipes, one from Milk Street and the other Khushbu Shah’s stellar masala chai basque cheesecake, similarly paid off in bittersweet creaminess.

My interest in cooking the world inherently extends to baking. Our favorite recipe from 2024 was shirmal, a Persian saffron bread topped with black and white sesame seeds. Albeit more frying than proper baking, I finally gathered enough courage to make Italian cannoli according to Alex Guarnaschelli’s standard recipe, and successfully creating them felt like a genuine superpower. An abundance of blueberries led to my first delectable experience with tres leches as masa & buttermilk tres leches topped with blueberries, and black and white sesame cookies with their deeply addicting nuttiness were on regular rotation there for a while, neither of which would have been quite as right without caring about the details.

Though cooking is amenable to innovation and experimentation, baking requires a bit more commitment. It seems like a lot of folks are nervous about baking considering the room for error, but sticking to some basic best practices can make a world of difference and diminish the risk of wasted time.

What kind of treats are you making or enjoying this holiday season? I think some Sudanese sesame cookies are next for us!