Bon Appétit

This month, Bake Club takes inspiration from a popular chain restaurant for our own take on a beautiful, fluffy and cheesy biscuit that is transformed with the help of Old Bay seasoning. Hosts Shilpa Uskokovic and Jesse Szewczyk make the case for why biscuits are a must for any occasion. “Anything bread can do…a biscuit can do better,” says Shilpa. 
Jesse and Shilpa tackle listener questions and baker and writer Cheryl Day, a biscuit guru who made them everyday for 22 years in her bakery, stops by the clubhouse. Cheryl’s advice for the best biscuit is simple. “I would say: practice, practice, practice … then, take notes.”
We’d love to hear from you! Send your questions to BA Bake Club! Find us on Substack or send us a voice memo to [email protected].
Links:
Garlic Bread Biscuits Recipe
An Ode to Old Bay, the Great American Condiment from The New Yorker
Old Bay Breakfast Potatoes
Peel ’n’ Eat Old Bay and Garlic Shrimp
Old Bay Chips With Lemon Mayo
Glazed Fried Chicken with Old Bay and Cayenne
Baltimore-Style Crab Cakes

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January is bleak, but this month’s Bake Club recipe is bound to put a smile on your face! Hosts Jesse Szewczyk and Shilpa Uskokovic dive into the world of bagels. Jesse talks us through the tips and tricks of how to make the perfect bagel from the comfort of your own kitchen. “Bagels are like this blank canvas,” says Jesse, “Where the yeast and the wheat are the flavor…and the toppings, obviously.”
Plus, Melissa Weller from Bub’s Bakery in New York City drops by the clubhouse. Melissa is a James Beard nominee and author of two beautiful books, A Good Bake and Very Good Bread. She discusses her love of bagels and how her past life as a chemical engineer helped her hone her craft as a recipe developer. Melissa also tackles a tricky listener question on how to make gluten-free bagels.
We’d love to hear from you! Send your questions to BA Bake Club! Find us on Substack or send us a voice memo to [email protected]

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A special bonus episode this week from our friends at The Chef’s Cut podcast. Every Tuesday Top Chef alums Adrienne Cheatham and Joe Flamm share behind-the-scenes chef insights and candid conversations with people in the food industry. Recently, they caught up with Editor-in-chief of Bon Appétit and Epicurious, Jamila Robinson. They discuss what it takes for a chef to get noticed by Bon Appétit, how much testing goes into each recipe on our site and the countless hours that go into working on helping to pick the 50 Best Restaurants for North America.

BA Bake Club will be back on February 3 as we tackle this month’s recipe for bagels. 

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This month on BA Bake Club, hosts Jesse Szewczyk and Shilpa Uskokovic break out their whisks and create a picture perfect pavlova. It has all the top textures of a showstopping bake: It’s crunchy, it’s chewy, it’s decadent and it’s boozy. Inspired by Shilpa’s childhood favorite, Black Forest gâteau, we dive into the inbox and dig into listener questions. And Shilpa preaches about the virtue of a cracked meringue. “My point is if it cracks, it's okay,” says Shilpa. “That's really what the whipped cream and the toppings are for sure. Just patch it back together.” Watch Shilpa make her fool-proof pavlova on Instagram. 
2025 James Beard award-winning cookbook author Nicola Lamb also stops by to help weigh in on what you can do with leftover egg yolks and comes up with some creative suggestions! You can find Nicola on Instagram and her Substack called Kitchen Projects. 
Send your questions to BA Bake Club! Find us on Substack or send us a voice memo to [email protected]. 

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We like big cinnamon buns and we cannot lie. December’s Bake Club is dedicated to the tireless efforts of Shilpa Uskokovic and her creation of a giant, gooey cinnamon roll. Not only is this recipe perfect for any festive gathering, but it also has all the nostalgia of a mall food court in the 90s. Shilpa tells Jesse about her decision to include two specialty ingredients and the importance that they had in shaping the structure of the recipe. And we meet another baker we think you should know: Patrick Shaw-Kitch of Brooklyn Granary & Mill. Patrick not only bakes, but mills his own flour for his creations and tells us why we should think more about where our flour comes from and how to harness it in our bakes.

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