As pie and cookie season nears, we thought we'd focus on sugar for the final installment of our Fair Trade pantry series. More

When making candy, we most often just follow the temperatures in the recipe and pay little attention to the actual stage. But it can be interesting to look at the stages side-by-side and realize what can be made with each one. Do you know soft ball from hard crack?! See for yourself below the jump! More

We all know that sugar will melt when heated, losing its granular form and turning into a liquid. This we can see with our own eyes. But how it goes from a simple sugar syrup to dark caramel (to burnt mess!) requires a peek under the microscope... More

As we mentioned in our post on crystallized sugar syrup, candy-making is a brand new culinary adventure for us. We're teaching ourselves the basics and look forward to sharing our triumphs and pitfalls with you. We certainly hope you'll chime in with advice and questions! First up, we have some basic tips for working with sugar... More

This weekend, we made a big batch of sugar cane syrup for some candy-making experiments. We used some of it right away without problems, but the leftovers crystallized into the cloudy, gritty mass you see in the jar above. Any hope of rescuing it? More

We picked up a bag of maple sugar on a recent trip (we should say "pilgrimage") to the King Arthur Baker's Store in Norwich, Vermont.

It was a passing whim. We'd never used maple sugar before. We didn't have any plans for it or even know exactly how to cook with it.

Our little bag of golden sugar even sat in the cupboard for several weeks before we stumbled upon it en route to something else and idly wondered if it might be good on yogurt. As you might imagine, the result was pretty darn delicious!

Since then, a scoop or two of maple sugar has found its way into many of our dishes, both sweet and savory. For some of our favorite uses and sources on buying some of your own, read on! More

We stumbled upon Didi Davis and her line of artisan sugar blends, salts, oils, and other condiments when she appeared at the Copley Square farmer's market at the tail end of the season a few years back.

To think, we almost missed discovering Didi Davis Food entirely!

We became addicted to her "Danish Viking Smoked Salt" on the spot and have been adding a pinch to our burgers and soups ever since.

Lucky for us, Didi also keeps an online store so that we can indulge in her products all year round. More

Shopping for gourmet food at Ikea sounds like a wacky idea. Once you've dragged yourself and your huge hard-to-pronounce pieces of furniture through miles of store, any remaining energy must be devoted to braving long lines and the Tetris game of fitting your purchases in your car (or, God forbid, on the bus). We usually skip right past the small Swedish food marketplace perched by the entrance, thinking, "Who needs more frozen meatballs, anyway?!"

But on a recent visit we were able to ponder the actually inspiring foodstuffs here. More

All this talk of coffee and we are thinking of cream and sugar bowls. We saw these incredibly whimsical sugar bowls and creamers at i suwanee and had to pass them on. They're by Jorine Oosterhoff and they're available at Rose & Radish. More pics and details below the jump. More

Like pans and prep tools there is a dizzying array of baking ingredients available. Even a small grocery store will offer at least five kinds of flour, four kinds of sugar and lots of other things that promise to make your baking successful.

To get started, though, you only need a handful of pantry basics. Read on for our suggestions... More