Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast

With its fluffy crumb, dimply dough, and endless spins, focaccia has stolen the heart of countless bakers — including us. So we decided to dedicate a whole episode to it.  Jessica and David dissect the current focaccia moment and how this simple bread has evolved from its Italian origins to something truly showstopping. Then Samin Nosrat stops by the show to share the story behind the viral salt-brined focaccia from her TV show Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and dish on her latest focaccia recipe, found in her newest cookbook Good Things. As always, Jessica and David answer your biggest bread baking questions in Ask the Bakers, then Jessica shares a Jess-opinion about sweet focaccia before closing the show with the recipes they’re making this week.  Find our 2025 Recipe of the Year: Big and Bubbly Focaccia Pick up our Big Book of Bread for even more focaccia  Order Samin’s latest cookbook, Good Things  Find Samin’s salt-brined Ligurian Focaccia  Get some bread flour to make Samin’s latest focaccia recipe  Check out our Small-Batch Cheesy Focaccia recipe  Read more about how to make an inside-out focaccia sandwich  Make our Big and Bubbly Cinnamon Roll Focaccia recipe to hop on the sweet focaccia trend  What David’s baking this week: Strawberry Lemonade Bars  What Jessica’s baking this week: Karpatka Cake Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! 

We’re back, and we’re talking cheesecake! Jessica and David dive into a bit of the history behind this iconic dessert before Jessica sits down with TV host and cookbook author Carla Hall to chat all things cheesecake, including Carla’s best tips and tricks. Then, they answer your biggest cheesecake questions, covering everything from water baths to springform pans. Jessica delivers her Jess-opinion on the best style of cheesecake (hint: It’s not from the US!) before they close the show with the recipes they’re baking this week.   Recipes and other links from this episode: Subscribe to our new Substack: Things Bakers Know!  Find some of our favorite cheesecake recipes: NY Cheesecake, Cannoli Cheesecake, Irish Whiskey Cheesecake  Pre-order Carla Hall’s upcoming cookbook, Carla Bakes Find our Basque Cheesecake recipe and Pumpkin Basque Cheesecake recipe  Need a springform pan? Get one here!    Find our recipe for No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Bars Get our recipe for light, fluffy Japanese-Style Soufflé Cheesecake What David’s baking this week: Super Protein Pancakes  What Jessica’s baking this week: Favorite Fudge Birthday Cake  Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! 

Things Bakers Know, the official podcast from King Arthur Baking Company, is back with a ten episode second season — starting March 23rd! Join King Arthur’s Jessica Battilana and David Tamarkin as they explore every corner of the baking world. Each episode dives deep into a different baked good — its history and lore, tips and tricks, trends and takes — and they'll always leave time to answer baking questions from listeners. Along the way they chat with the best bakers in America to get their expert advice. Plus this season, we are on video! Things Bakers Know is available wherever you get your podcasts, and now on Youtube, or by going to KingArthurBaking.com/podcast!

We’ve officially unveiled our 2026 Recipe of the Year, and we couldn’t be more excited to share it with you. Announcing: Flaky Puff Crust Pizza! In this episode, David and Jessica are joined by two of our Test Kitchen stars and the creators of this exceptional recipe, Sarah Jampel and Molly Marzalek-Kelly. They discuss how and why they landed on pizza as this year’s Recipe of the Year, the biggest challenges of recipe development, and the keys to this recipe’s unique success. (Hint: It includes butter.) Jessica and David then answer questions from our listeners about how to maximize their pizza success, from saucing to topping, before closing out the show with the recipes they’re making this week.  This episode concludes our second season, and we’ll be back in March with the next batch of freshly baked episodes!  Bake our 2026 Recipe of the Year: Flaky Puff Crust Pizza  Find all of our past Recipes of the Year here Preorder King Arthur Baking Company's Book of Pizza: Recipes for Every Pizza Maker, publishing April 7, 2026  What David’s baking this week: Delicata Squash Galette with Cheese and Herbs What Jessica’s baking this week: Ultimate Flaky Biscuits  Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! This episode is sponsored by Plugra. Learn more about their premium European-style butter at plugra.com. 

Celebrating Holiday Cookies with Dan Pelosi ‘Tis the season to bake as many cookies as you can!  We kick off the show by unveiling King Arthur’s 2025 holiday cookie lineup before being joined by Dan Pelosi, a baker known for his annual holiday cookie party. He chats with Jessica about the keys to successfully throwing a cookie party, including his holiday cookie philosophy, then David and Jessica answer your burning baking questions with their advice for avoiding cakey cookies and making cutout cookies that actually keep their shape. In this week’s Jess-opinion, Jessica gives her thoughts on the controversial inclusion of chocolate chip cookies in the holiday cookie landscape, and we close the show with the best cookies she and David are baking this season. Introducing our 2025 holiday cookie platter  Find our list of all the classic holiday and Christmas cookies you should bake Level up your cookies with our scoop set  Learn more about Dan and his recent cookbook, Let’s Party, on his website  Blog: Why you should always bake a few test cookies Find our Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies recipe  We like decorating with this Simple Cookie Glaze  What David’s baking this week: Rugelach and Piped Vanilla Shortbread Cookies What Jessica’s baking this week: Whipped Lemon Shortbread Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! This episode is sponsored by Plugra. Learn more about their premium European-style butter at plugra.com. 

Molly Marzalek-Kelly, a Senior recipe developer at King Arthur, shares tips on the best cookies for shipping and how to freeze cookie dough for holiday freshness. Sarah Jampel, the test kitchen lead, dives into sufganiyot frying methods and perfecting the doughnut experience. Experienced bread baker Martin Philip discusses making light whole-grain dinner rolls by adjusting hydration and flour ratios. Together, they tackle common holiday baking challenges and offer delicious recipe ideas to sweeten the season.

It’s high time for pie, and we couldn’t be more excited!  David and Jessica kick off the show by sharing some of their best pie tips and tricks, before bringing in a real pie expert — Stacey Mei Yan Fong, author of the award-winning cookbook 50 Pies, 50 States — to offer her advice. We’ve got some great Thanksgiving pie questions to answer, from the best way to prebake your crust to advice for preventing a runny apple pie filling, before closing the show with a Jess-opinion about the other dessert you should make for Thanksgiving and the pies Jessica and David are making this year.  Read David’s article: How My Brother-in-Law Stole Thanksgiving—and How I Got it Back Find our Pies On-Demand Baking Class  Check out all our pie resources: How to Bake Pie  Learn more about Stacey and her book, and tune in to her Instagram page for her virtual pie hotline  Find everything you need for your holiday pies in our Pie shop  Mix it up this year with Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie  Read PJ’s blog about baking pie crust upside down  Find our Pie Thickener chart  What David’s baking this week: Cranberry Chiffon Pie  What Jessica’s baking this week: Classic Apple Tarte Tatin  Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! This episode is sponsored by Plugra. Learn more about their premium European-style butter at plugra.com. 

Today, we’re talking about one of the world’s perfect foods: chocolate.  And who better to join us than Amy Guittard of Guittard Chocolate? For her, chocolate literally runs in the family. She explains everything from how chocolate is made to what the percentages on the bag really mean. Then David and Jessica answer this week’s listener questions, sharing their tips for better brownies and choosing cocoas. To close out the show, Jessica is back with this week’s Jess-opinion, in which she finally addresses the elephant in the room: white chocolate. And of course, she and David share the recipes they’re baking this week!  Find our (surprisingly easy!) Rich Chocolate Mousse recipe  Learn more about Guittard chocolate  Find all of our chocolate and cocoa in our Shop (including Guittard!)  On the blog: Types of cocoa, explained Also on the blog: How to make brownies with shiny crust (or just bake our Fudge Brownies) Learn more about tempering: A basic guide to tempering chocolate  What David’s baking this week: Fugazzeta  What Jessica’s baking this week: Jalapeño-Cheddar Pull-Apart Bread Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! This episode is sponsored by Plugra. Learn more about their premium European-style butter at plugra.com. 

We’re going gluten-free this week and talking about how to make the best gluten-free bread — because we believe everyone deserves great bread.  Aran Goyoaga, author of the stunning new book The Art of Gluten-Free Bread, joins us to talk about her approach to gluten-free bread baking, including some of her favorite flours and tips and tricks. We break down the dizzying world of gluten-free flours, our tips for making gluten-free sourdough, and the differences between gluten-full and gluten-free bread doughs. And as always, we close out the show with Jessica’s Jess-opinion of the week and the (gluten-free!) recipes she and David are baking.  Recipes and other links from this episode: Find Aran’s book: The Art of Gluten-Free Bread Learn more about gluten-free flours: Which gluten-free flour should I use? Read: How to substitute Gluten-Free Bread Flour for regular flour What David’s baking this week: Gluten-Free Chocolate Mousse Cake with Raspberries What Jessica’s baking this week: Sunken Berry Almond Cake  Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! This episode is sponsored by Plugra. Learn more about their premium European-style butter at plugra.com. 

Give kids a baked good, and you’ve fed them for a day. Teach kids to bake, and well ... you know.  We’ve been thinking a lot about baking with kids, because we’ve been hard at work writing a brand-new kids baking cookbook! And despite the mess and the chaos, we think it’s all worth it. So does cookbook author Samantha Seneviratne, who joins the show to chat with Jessica about baking with her adorable son Artie and the advice she has for anyone spending time in the kitchen with a young one. Then we have a very special edition of Ask the Bakers, featuring all questions from kids. (And boy, they’re some good ones.) Jessica shares a Jess-opinion all about the state of the restaurant kid’s menu, and we close out the show with the recipes she and David are baking this week.  Recipes and other links from this episode: Find our new kids’ cookbook: Sweet & Salty!   Learn more about Sam and her cookbooks here, and bake Sam’s Maple Tahini Chocolate Skillet Cake and Sunken Berry Almond Cake Learn more about leaveners: What's the difference between baking soda and baking powder? What David’s baking this week: Easiest Sourdough Discard Crackers What Jessica’s baking this week: Crispy Cheesy Pan Pizza Record your question for our Ask the Bakers segment here! This episode is sponsored by Plugra. Learn more about their premium European-style butter at plugra.com.