Cooking Methods

Air fryers, you gotta read this.

Here’s what actually happens if you do.

Because it's officially slow cooker soup season!

Choosing the right cut can make or break the dish.

Brown sugar is the sticky, fragrant sweetener that adds moisture and flavor to so many of our favorite baked goods, from chocolate chip cookies to banana bread. But if you find yourself staring into an empty box, don’t fret — you’ve likely got everything you need to make brown sugar from scratch. So whether you need a cup or a pound, or light or dark, you’re just two ingredients away from it. Here’s how to make brown sugar at home.

You know the joy of tearing apart a dinner roll to have tufts of steam pour out of it, because it’s still warm from the oven? You can enjoy that same feeling every day until the rolls run out with three simple methods for reheating leftover dinner rolls, whether they’re store-bought or homemade. Our favorite rule for reheating leftovers applies here (reheat the food in the way it was prepared), so into the oven your rolls should go for reheating.

How can you tell if something is done if you can’t take a peek inside while it’s actually cooking? When it comes to bread, there are actually a few ways to make sure your lovely loaf is perfectly baked, every time! To see if your bread is done, insert an instant-read thermometer into the center of the loaf. (If you go at an angle and through the side or bottom, you can minimize the visual evidence!) Most breads are finished baking at about 190°.

Adding a touch of melted chocolate to cookies, strawberries, pretzels, or marshmallows is an easy to way to elevate your favorite sweet (or salty) treat. While you can melt chocolate in a double boiler on the stovetop or over direct heat in a saucepan, the quickest and, in my opinion, easiest way is to melt chocolate in the microwave. If you need chocolate for dipping holiday cookies, coating truffles, or adorning berries, this is a foolproof method for melting chocolate in the microwave.

Everything you need to know.

Roasting and baking are both common cooking methods. Perhaps you’ve baked chicken breasts, roasted a whole chicken or a mix of root vegetables, or at the very least enjoyed a slice of baked cake. But do you know the difference between them? These terms are used interchangeably quite often. What sets them apart? Are roasting and baking actually the same thing?

Your Thanksgiving pie will thank you.

Let me tell you the secret to holiday baking success: You can fully bake pumpkin pies right now and freeze them to enjoy later. Because of their fat content, fully baked pie crusts freeze beautifully, and the rich custard fillings of pumpkin pie and sweet potato seem as if they were designed to be frozen, too. Follow these tips to learn how to freeze a pumpkin pie—and defrost it perfectly when you’re ready to serve. Cool the pie completely.