Sarah kieffer transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everybody. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe and I'm your host Kerry Diamond. For today's show, we're welcoming back Sarah Kieffer, one of our favorite cookie Queens and the author of the brand new cookbook Baking for the Holidays: 50+ Treats for a Festive Season. Speaking of Sarah's new book, check out the Cherry Bombe Instagram account today because we are giving away a copy of Sarah's new book. Some of you might know Sarah from her other bestseller, 100 Cookies, or because her pan-banging cookie technique went viral a few years ago. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just Google pan-banging cookies. It's when you literally drop your cookie sheet with the cookies on them and it creates these concentric circles on the surface of the cookie. Stay tuned for my chat with Sarah. We talked about her favorite recipes in the book. Our mutual love of cookie dough and the cream cheese shortage. If you were hoping to make a cheesecake for Christmas, you might be out of luck, but I am still not convinced the shortage is a real thing. If you have some inside details, DM me.
Fortunately, there's no butter shortage because that would really mess up the holidays. Today's show is supported by my favorite Kerrygold, the makers of beautiful butter and cheese made with milk from Irish grass-fed cows. If you're baking this week, be sure to pick up some Kerrygold and visit kerrygoldusa.com and check out their Holiday Calm program. They've got soothing videos and sounds to help you chill at out this holiday season. And I'm sure you need that as much as I do. We'll hear a word from Kerrygold in just a sec.
Some Cherry Bombe biz, our latest issue is here. It's Issue 18 and it's all about Beautiful Baked Goods. You can pick up a copy at your favorite local bookstore, magazine shop, or specialty store. Places like Fan-Fan Doughnuts here in Brooklyn, the City Reader in Portland, Oregon, Le Dix-Sept bakery in San Francisco, and we're international too. You can find us at Ferment in Vienna, Austria. Hello to the Vienna Bombesquad. And online at Bird Kitchen Clothing in Wales. We'd love for you to support your local shops this holiday season. It is always great to shop local. Let's hear a word from Kerrygold, then we'll chat with Sarah Kieffer.
Kerrygold Ad Read:
Kerrygold is delicious, all-natural butter and cheese made with milk from Irish grass-fed cows. Our farming families pass their craft and knowledge from generation to generation. I'm fifth generation. It goes back over 250 years. This traditional approach is the reason for the rich taste of Kerrygold. Enjoy delicious new sliced or shredded Kerrygold cheddar cheese, available in mild or savory flavors at a retailer near you. Find your nearest store at kerrygoldusa.com.
Kerry Diamond:
Sarah Kieffer, welcome back to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Sarah Kieffer:
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here today.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm so excited too. We spoke to each other exactly a year ago.
Sarah Kieffer:
I know.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm guessing you've been busy?
Sarah Kieffer:
Yes. I have been very busy both promoting a book and writing a book.
Kerry Diamond:
Yes, yes. So you are officially a cookbook author now. There's no way around it.
Sarah Kieffer:
There isn't, I know. It still feels like a weird title, but it is now my title.
Kerry Diamond:
It is. You came right off the big success of 100 Cookies, and now we've got Baking for the Holidays. So, it's obvious what this book is about based on the title. But from your perspective, what is Baking for the Holidays all about?
Sarah Kieffer:
It's a collection of recipes that I find that I turn to in the holidays. But also, I hope, transcends the official holidays, because a lot of the base recipes, even though in this book they have cranberries or mint, you could change things up and use them throughout the year as well.
Kerry Diamond:
That's so funny. As I was going through the cookbook flagging things I liked or might want to bake in the days and weeks ahead, there is a lot in there that's not specifically holiday. There are some great holiday recipes in there, but I do think it's something people can dip in and out of all year long.
Sarah Kieffer:
Right. I did that on purpose, because I love the holiday season and I like to celebrate it. But I also wanted recipes that it didn't feel like forest, like you have to make this in the holiday and it could go beyond that. And I do have a chapter in the back of the book called Beyond Christmas. A lot of that has to do with me living in Minnesota and it's always cold. It just feels like this endless cold season. So, I wanted recipes too that just felt cozy and warm for that time.
Kerry Diamond:
It's always the holidays in Minneapolis in some way, right? Weather wise. One of my favorite facts that we learned about you in our interview last year was that you aspired to be the next Amy Grant at one point in your life.
Sarah Kieffer:
I do. Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Amy Grant being a very famous singer. Not everyone might know her, but yes, Amy had a lot of hits back in the day. What happened to your singing career?
Sarah Kieffer:
It is non-existent. I do occasionally pull out my ukulele and play to myself. But otherwise it's just for car trips or baking, I sing a lot in the kitchen, but there's no big career in it. Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
What's your favorite Christmas carol, Sarah?
Sarah Kieffer:
That's such a hard question. I'm a nerdy Christmas music person. I make huge playlist every year. I even have one in the back of the book that you can listen to. I don't know if I could pick a favorite, but I do love Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. That's always like a nice, beautiful, nostalgic tune.
Kerry Diamond:
That's a great song. I wish you were with me last night. I went to the tree lighting on Park Avenue in Manhattan, and we sang Christmas carols for about half an hour. You could hear all the really good singers in the audience and my family mumbling our way through the Christmas carols because none of us have a great voice. Yeah. I don't know if I have a favorite Christmas carol. My favorite holiday song though is definitely Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses. I feel like that's the best. I hear that song and I feel like the holidays have begun. And you know what, I haven't heard it yet so I might need to play it when I get home. All right. Anyway, let's talk about baked goods. I want to jump right into this. I'm very curious. Now this is your third cookbook, so you've got lot of recipes out there.
Sarah Kieffer:
I do.
Kerry Diamond:
Which recipe in this book would you say is the most sentimental?
Sarah Kieffer:
The most sentimental. Okay. I'm going to go with the chocolate mint ice cream pie. And I write about this in my headnote, but I based it on these little ice cream Christmas treats that my grandma bought every Christmas Eve. And she'd have them in a freezer and the kids always got those. The adults would be eating chocolates that she would buy in the boxes, but we would want these mint ice cream treats, and they had little sprinkles. And they weren't great, but there's something about them that... They'd melt all over your fingers and we'd get yelled at for dripping ice cream all over her white carpet.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you just say they weren't great?
Sarah Kieffer:
Well, as an adult, I've tried them again. And I was like, "Oh." But as a kid they were like the best.
Kerry Diamond:
And your grandmother had a white carpet?
Sarah Kieffer:
She had white furniture and a white carpet. When my mom was growing up, there was plastic on all the furniture. There was like a plastic runner through the house that you had to walk, on and she would only take it off for guests. And then as we were growing up we had it half the time, and then she finally just gave up on it and her carpet was trashed.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us about this pie, which some folks would call a grasshopper pie?
Sarah Kieffer:
Right. They would. And I didn't put that title because not everyone knows what a grasshopper pie is, but it's mint and chocolate. And I've always loved mint and chocolate. And so, I wanted to make an adult version of these ice cream treats that are just cemented in my memory of Christmas. And so, this one has a cookie crust, mint, and then this big topping of meringue, and it's very delicious.
Kerry Diamond:
So meringue is really having a moment, and this is a torched meringue.
Sarah Kieffer:
Yes. And I feel like the torched meringue has been amplified by Zoë Francois who is the torch queen. She's always torching everything over at her house.
Kerry Diamond:
She is torching everything. And I don't know if you know this... Well, you'll know this by the time this issue comes out. But Zoë is one of our new cover girls, and we just revealed the issue this week. So, we're super excited about that and she does have a torched meringue cake on the cover.
Sarah Kieffer:
Oh my god, she did not tell me this. Zoë.
Kerry Diamond:
She kept it secret? Oh good.
Sarah Kieffer:
That's awesome. I'm so excited for her.
Kerry Diamond:
Does your recipe call for homemade ice cream?
Sarah Kieffer:
It calls for a no-churn ice cream, which is homemade but easier to make. You don't need an ice cream maker for it. You could also substitute store-bought if you wanted to, but I suggest the no-churn. It's really good.
Kerry Diamond:
Walk us through how you do no-churn ice cream.
Sarah Kieffer:
It's basically sweetened condensed milk and whipped cream. That's the base. You mix the whipped cream into the sweetened condensed milk. It lightens it. You freeze it. It's delicious. I add a little salt, some vanilla, and then whatever flavor I want to make it.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's go to the next recipe I want to talk about. Which recipe would you say is the most Sarah?
Sarah Kieffer:
I'm going to have to go with the cheater croissant dough, because I spent a lot of time trying to get this recipe just right and I love it. And I use it... There's recipes in the book that call for it, but you can also play around with it on your own. And I love of flaky pastry dough, and I really love working with this dough.
Kerry Diamond:
So what makes it cheater croissant dough? Because when I saw that recipe before I even read it my first thought was, "Oh, isn't that just puff pastry?" But no, this is not puff pastry.
Sarah Kieffer:
It is not. Puff pastry doesn't have yeast in it and this does, so that makes it a little different. Most croissant doughs, you have a butter block that you roll out in the center. And this one you are just taking the butter and layering it over the dough and then folding it so you don't have to make this butter block. You're still folding, so it's not like there's no work involved. But it comes together a little faster and the dough rolls out really easily. And so, I found that it just makes a really delicious, flaky pastry.
Kerry Diamond:
And what do you use this for? Obviously croissants. What else?
Sarah Kieffer:
Right. I use it more for not necessarily croissants, because when people are making croissants they are trying to make perfect pastries. They have this very intricate honeycomb in the middle. And this dough doesn't necessarily make it that amazing, but it will make a really great flaky pastry. So, I use it more for things that I'm adding lots of sugar or filling to. There's a morning bun recipe in here, and Danish, and I make cruffins also in the last chapter with it.
Kerry Diamond:
Right. You can do your cranberry and cream Danish. Does that have cream cheese in it?
Sarah Kieffer:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you know New York is in the middle of a cream cheese shortage?
Sarah Kieffer:
I didn't know that. That's so sad.
Kerry Diamond:
According to the New York Times. I read the article yesterday. And if any of you have not read the article, the comments are probably more interesting than the actual article, so it's certainly worth a read. Next question for you. What do you think will be the big hit from the book?
Sarah Kieffer:
That is a good question. I've had a lot of people... There's a cookbook baking club called the Rainy Day Bites cookbook club. They're on Instagram. And they've been baking through my book and it's been incredible. But they made the lemon pull-apart bread and people really loved that. But that one is a little more work, you have to make a yeast to dough and not everybody wants to do that. So for one that would be easier to make, I would say the red velvet crinkle cookies. A lot of people have been making those as well. And I know cookies are just a nice recipe to turn to, they're easy to make, and these don't require a lot of work. So I would go with that, red velvet crinkle cookies.
Kerry Diamond:
Those are so cute and holiday looking. Walk us through the recipe.
Sarah Kieffer:
And this is a nice recipe. You don't have to use a stand mixer for it which is often nice not to have to clean that after you're done. But it's basically sugar, and eggs, and your basic cookie ingredients. You're going to melt butter and chocolate together and then fold that into the dough as well. And then, of course there's red food coloring because they're red velvet crinkle cookies. And then, you chill the dough and then coat it in powdered sugar. And they bake into these like little snowflakey snow dusting cookies.
Kerry Diamond:
So cute. Have you played around with natural food coloring? I'm thinking of your Neapolitan cookies. Those had natural coloring in them.
Sarah Kieffer:
I have a little. I find sometimes they work well in things that aren't baked. I haven't tried a lot of brands. I know that a lot of people have been posting about them and having luck with that. So, I can't recommend a good brand off the top. I'm sorry because I haven't like tried a bunch out. But I have a little bit, and I found sometimes they don't bake up bright. That's been my experience. But I could totally be wrong with new products coming out.
Kerry Diamond:
Got it. Those Neapolitan cookies were such a hit. I notice people still make those.
Sarah Kieffer:
They do and people have really gotten creative with different fillings and colors, and I've loved watching all the different creations people have come up with, with just mixing cookie dough colors and flavors together. It's been really fun.
Kerry Diamond:
So you dedicated your last book to your dad, and you dedicated this one to your mom. Why did your mom get the dedication this time round?
Sarah Kieffer:
Christmas was not a pleasant experience for my mom growing up. She had a very hard childhood. But she always made sure that our Christmases were lovely. And even though she didn't like baking, she hates baking and cooking, she got in the kitchen and made cookies with us. And just made sure we had tradition in our life that was stable and fun. As an adult, I look back. I'm trying to make my own traditions and time with my kids. And so, looking back I see like what she did and even though she didn't want to do it. And I just felt so grateful for just her love and the time she put in. And so, I wanted to acknowledge her past, but also she made good choices to have a bright future. And I appreciate that because it shaped my life in a positive direction.
Kerry Diamond:
That's beautiful. Is your dad buying up all the books again? I remember when 100 Cookies came out, your dad was hoarding copies in the basement to give out to everybody.
Sarah Kieffer:
He is. And every time he comes over, he has a stack of 10 for me to sign for just people. I don't know who he's giving all these books to. It's so cute, but I'm always signing books for him. He's like, "Oh yeah, the girl at the coffee shop said she loved to bake. So, I'm just going to give her one." Just he's a sweetheart.
Kerry Diamond:
That is so sweet. And I guess that's a good way to ensure that you have a best seller. Have a dad who's ready and willing to hand out the book to everybody, right?
Sarah Kieffer:
Right. Yeah. He was talking about making t-shirts at one point. We could just wear them around the mall. Before COVID, he had thought that for 100 Cookies and I was like, "Oh boy, that might be a little over the top." But I guess-
Kerry Diamond:
Your dad's a natural-born marketer. That's funny. Sarah, you mentioned that you are already at work on your next cookbook. You have two more cookbooks that will be coming out. You have to be really organized and methodical to be a cookbook author now the way you are. A professional cookbook author who has books that come out set time period. Can you give us any tips or tricks as to how you stay organized and work through the cookbook process?
Sarah Kieffer:
Yeah. It's taken me three books now to get a process down. I'll just be honest. But I usually have two years, start to finish, for a book. And the first nine months to a year is recipe testing. And then, the second year is edits and I finish my photographs. So, the first year is just... And I was just talking about this recently to Zoë, but we both use pen and paper notebooks. I cannot, for my life, get on and put stuff into the computer until I'm done with it. And my husband's always like, "You need to get in Google Docs and have the stuff in there. It's saved." I'm like, "No, I need my notebooks."
So I have pen and paper, and I'm constantly just making notes in my notebook about recipes. And then when I feel like it's finally finished, which takes a while, I send it on to my recipe testers. They test the recipe. And then, I make any changes that I need to. I test it again. And then, that's just a slow process through this year. And then, after that I send the manuscript off. And I still test recipes and make changes if I need to while I'm working on photographs. I see that as another chance to test everything again as I shoot it. And then, book goes to press and I cross my fingers.
Kerry Diamond:
So you do everything in a note? You're doing all the recipes and making notes in a notebook first before you put it all in a doc? Wow.
Sarah Kieffer:
Yes. I think in paper. And I have to read actual books too. I can't do it on my phone. I don't know what it is, but I need to feel the paper and the pen.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, you're talking to one of the last people to do a print magazine, so we're on the same page there.
Sarah Kieffer:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
When I was leaving to get on the subway to come to the radio station, I was like, "Oh I really need a notebook for the subway." Because God forbid I whether have a thought or I need to write something down. Can't put it on my phone, I have to put it in a notebook. I wonder sometimes, are there people who are just paper and pen people that way or is it a generational thing? Do kids not care about notebooks today? You have kids. Do they write in notebooks?
Sarah Kieffer:
Maybe both. My daughter has a sketch notebook she's always sketching in, but that's a little bit different than writing. But I feel like I was trained on pen and paper. I didn't have a computer, my own computer, till I was out of college. I took all my college notes on pen and paper, so it's just intuitive. This is what I do.
Kerry Diamond:
And I don't think they teach handwriting anymore. That's a lost skill, right?
Sarah Kieffer:
I know. I still write in cursive sometimes just for fun.
Kerry Diamond:
No, I always write in cursive. Now, how about Google spreadsheets? Once you get to the stage where, okay, I know these are the X number of recipes that might make it into the book, then do you start spreadsheeting everything?
Sarah Kieffer:
I have a Microsoft Word document that my husband is like... Again, he just throws his hands up, "Are you using Microsoft Word? You have to be in Google Docs or spreadsheets?" And I'm just like, "I grew up using Microsoft Word." So, everything's in there. I divide it by chapters first, and then piece it together in the manuscript.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. And then, how about the grocery shopping? I feel like when we did the Cherry Bombe cookbook, we just had no idea what we were doing. And wound up buying way too many groceries because we didn't really organize how we were going to do the testing. Have you gotten better at that?
Sarah Kieffer:
Yes. And I just take it week by week. There's a business Costco by me that sells like flour and sugar in bulk. So, my husband been bought me these huge bins that I have in the basement that just has all of the base ingredients in it. And then as I test, if I need stuff, there's a grocery store near our house, so I'll run there if I need extra things. But yeah, it's a lot. I feel like I have it down like how much butter and eggs I'm going to go through every week depending on what I'm testing. But it is and it's so much money. The ingredients, it ends up being so much money. It's wild.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. It's not inexpensive to do a cookbook which is probably a conversation for another day. How much work goes into it? You take your own photos?
Sarah Kieffer:
I do.
Kerry Diamond:
How has your photography process evolved over the years?
Sarah Kieffer:
For me, when I'm shooting food... There's so many beautiful photographs in cookbooks. I just buy cookbooks sometimes to look at the photographs. I don't use a lot of props in my photography for me. It's about the actual food item. So, I have a three-season porch on the back of my house. It's not heated, so when I have to do photographs... All my photographs are due this winter, so it's going to be very cold out there. And so, I have a small marble coffee table and that's where I shoot almost everything, and I just take it out there and shoot. But I like the brightness of a white background and I feel like it helps the food shine, so that's what I use. And I just go out there and feel it.
Sometimes when I'm baking something, I look down on the pan I'm like, "Look at all these crumbs and this looks so beautiful. I got to take this out right now and shoot it." So I work as I go. And I also have a wall that I print all the photos off that I'm taking to look at and see how I like feel about them. I'm constantly feeling like, "Does this feel like how I want it to feel?" And mix and match that way or we take photos. So, it's like I'm doing it alongside recipe testing. The whole book, I'm just slowly taking photos and figuring out how I want the book to look.
Kerry Diamond:
Are you shooting natural light or do you have a light set up?
Sarah Kieffer:
It's all natural light.
Kerry Diamond:
Really? Wow. Okay. That's a lot. I mean, you're working against mother nature if you've got an amazing cookie with gorgeous crumbs, you can't necessarily just run out and shoot.
Sarah Kieffer:
Yeah. Especially in the wintertime because it gets dark here at 3:30 in December. So I have to know what I'm shooting that day in the morning and there's a small window. In the summer, it's great because the porch is beautifully lit all day, so I can go out and shoot. The rest of the year, it's hit or miss. So, I have to really be prepared.
Kerry Diamond:
All three of the books were all shot with natural light?
Sarah Kieffer:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Impressive. You also did some photography work on Zoë Francois baking book?
Sarah Kieffer:
Yes, I did her how to photos.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Tell us how that came to be.
Sarah Kieffer:
Well, Zoë and I have worked together for a long time. I worked with her and Jeff Hertzberg on their Bread in Five books. I came in maybe three or four books in and started helping them with website stuff, and then cookbook shoots. I did some food styling for them, and then shot most of their holiday bread book. And Zoë and I, we have so much fun together. So she had asked me if I would be willing to do the how to photos. She had everything ready to go. We shot in her little kitchen again with all natural light. She had board set up and we just shot it and laughed a lot. But again we had a window of time. I'd get there at 9:00, and then by 3:00 we'd have to be done. So, we did that for several weeks on and off. I'd just come over and shoot and it was really fun.
Kerry Diamond:
And then, if I remember correctly, you were supposed to shoot some portraits, but then the pandemic happened.
Sarah Kieffer:
Yes, COVID hit. And so, a lot of... Well, we had wanted to go back and reshoot some stuff and do portraits and we just couldn't. And that's with my holiday book too. All of my baking schedule got messed up because of COVID, because for a while we couldn't get flour anywhere or yeast. And so, I had to switch up the order I did stuff, which felt very chaotic. But it all came out okay in the end.
Kerry Diamond:
And did the kids help?
Sarah Kieffer:
The kids help. They love to eat what I make. And for a long time, I feel like when they're little, especially when I started doing this, they saw I'm home, I should be playing or helping them but I'm working. And so, they don't that as much as... Now they're older, they're 14 and 12, and so they understand this is my job and they like what I do. And I feel like they're proud of me and what I do. But they don't necessarily like jumping in the kitchen and helping. I think because it feels like my job, not just we're hanging out baking and having fun a lot of times. Even though we do do that too sometimes. But overall, I'm constantly... If I'm baking, I'm working. So I think they just associate like, "That's your job."
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. How do you switch over to baking for fun?
Sarah Kieffer:
I don't know that I do honestly. I feel like I'm always testing recipes. Even if I'm making something I already have in a cookbook, still I'm testing like, "Does this still taste good? Do I still love this? Is there something I can do different to make it better?" I'm constantly evaluating that, and it's hard to shut that off.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you get out and about much in terms of the Minneapolis food scene? Do you go to many restaurants or other bakeries? Get to try things.
Sarah Kieffer:
We used to when my husband and I were first married. And then we had kids and so everything was put on hold. And then, now there's COVID, so we're just doing a lot of takeout. And our kids are older now and they are expanding on their taste buds, so that's been really fun. They love eating out with us. But I do try to get to bakeries. There's a lot of great bakeries in Minneapolis. And my husband and I have tried to start doing every other week we go out just the two of us, because our kids are old enough now to be home by themselves, so that's been amazing. But we always end up at our old favorite standbys.
Kerry Diamond:
I used to be on the road so much and I got to go to everybody's bakeries and restaurants and try everything. I feel a little bit out of touch. Anything you want to flag that folks should check out in Minneapolis?
Sarah Kieffer:
Well, we are huge Chinese food fans. We love Chinese food. My kids too. So we eat at Tea House, which is in Minneapolis, a lot. I highly recommend going there. We love Hai Hai, which is Asian fusion Vietnamese restaurant that's delicious. We get a lot of pizza, which just okay pizza. Not even worth mentioning pizza, but we do eat a lot of pizza.
Kerry Diamond:
Any bakeries you love?
Sarah Kieffer:
Bellecour which is in... There's a food shop called Cooks of Crocus Hill, and they opened Bellecour Bakery. I think it's in two of their shops now and so good. There's also a Patisserie 46 in Minneapolis which is amazing. Rustica is really good. There's so many great places.
Kerry Diamond:
Would you ever open your own bakery one day?
Sarah Kieffer:
I could ask this a lot. I would love to open my own bakery, but I also have worked at a lot of bakeries and coffee shops and it is so much work. So it's hard to answer that with my kids being the age they're at, because I feel like I just would not be home ever. But that's where my heart is. I love baking a lot of things and then selling it. Watching people come in, eating in the restaurant, building a community. I miss that a lot about working in coffee shops and bakeries. I just loved that atmosphere.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Isn't that how you got your start? At a coffee shop in college?
Sarah Kieffer:
Yes. That's where I really learned to bake. They threw me in the kitchen when they needed help and I just fell in love with it.
Kerry Diamond:
But you started baking in high school, right?
Sarah Kieffer:
Yes, yep. I had cookie phase I went through where I just baked cookies constantly in ninth grade every day after school. But that was the extent of it. My mom didn't like to bake and we didn't have a lot of ingredients in the house. We just basically had stuff for cookies. So I did that and then just gave it up for a while later on in high school and early college. And then, when I was a barista in this coffee shop they needed someone to bake cookies and I was like, "Sure, I can do that." And I did a terrible job at first, but they stuck with me and then I just fell in love with baking everything.
Kerry Diamond:
What do you think was behind that ninth grade cookie phase?
Sarah Kieffer:
It was for sure I wanted to eat cookie dough every day after school. That was why I started hands down.
Kerry Diamond:
You and I have that in common yet only one of us went on to become a famous cookie cookbook author.
Sarah Kieffer:
I don't know. Sometimes the cookie dough is better than the cookie for me.
Kerry Diamond:
It's so funny. I was at Poppies. It's a great takeout food shop and bakery in my neighborhood. And they were really talented young baker there, and I was looking in the refrigerated section and I saw these... I don't know, they look like really beautifully wrapped sandwiches. And I was like, "What's that? I've never seen that before." And they were frozen logs of cookie dough. And I was like, "Oh my god, I need to buy one of those right away." Sometimes I'll make cookie dough and I don't even... It doesn't even make it to the cookie stage. I hate to admit that, but I'm sure I share that with a lot of people.
Sarah Kieffer:
I know. I always feel guilty and admitting like, "Are we supposed to be eating cookie dough?" But it's so good.
Kerry Diamond:
Why do we feel guilty about eating cookie dough but not about eating cookies?
Sarah Kieffer:
Well, I think there was such... I remember growing up too, there was such a push about getting Salmonella poisoning from it.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. There's that.
Sarah Kieffer:
And so I always feel like, "What if I get that?" But also there's something, it's like, "You can't even wait for the cookie." There is some shame I think involved in it.
Kerry Diamond:
You can't even wait for the cookie.
Sarah Kieffer:
No, I don't want to wait for the cookie.
Kerry Diamond:
Sarah, when I write my best-selling cookie dough cookbook, I'm going to call it, "I can't even wait for the cookie."
Sarah Kieffer:
That's perfect. It's yours. Take it.
Kerry Diamond:
Or maybe that's what I'll title my memoir. All right. Let's jump to this speed round. What was your last pantry purchase?
Sarah Kieffer:
Sprinkles.
Kerry Diamond:
Sprinkles. Okay. What kind of?
Sarah Kieffer:
I bought sprinkles for cookies. It's not very exciting.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. What is your most-used kitchen implement or kitchen tool?
Sarah Kieffer:
I use my stand mixer all the time. I could live without it, but I don't want to.
Kerry Diamond:
Is it a KitchenAid?
Sarah Kieffer:
It is.
Kerry Diamond:
What color?
Sarah Kieffer:
I have a copper one and a pink one.
Kerry Diamond:
You have a pink one.
Sarah Kieffer:
And I also just got a pink Cuisinart one. So, I have a whole gamut of mixers. I use them all.
Kerry Diamond:
I think we used to have a pink KitchenAid, and I don't even know where it is now. We shut our office when the pandemic happened and put everything in storage. But I have not seen that in the storage facility. So, I need to find out who has the pink KitchenAid. What is a treasured cookbook in your collection?
Sarah Kieffer:
That's a hard one because there's so many. I'm going to say a new treasured cookbook which I just fell in love with is Mooncakes and Milk Bread by Kristina Cho. And I have looked through it so many times. I've made stuff from it. Everything's turned out beautifully. It's just such a great book and I just highly recommend it. It's so beautiful.
Kerry Diamond:
We have an excerpt from Kristina's book in the new issue. It's a gorgeous book.
Sarah Kieffer:
I just love it. Everything about it is just amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
And what else? Any others you want to shout out?
Sarah Kieffer:
I always say it's Sarabeth Levine's From My Hands to Yours. Her baking book. And I said it last time too, but I always turn to that book when I need inspiration. The photos are just beautiful and calm, and she just has a little bit of everything in there. And it's one of my most favorite books. I pull it out a lot when I just need to center myself in the kitchen and be like, "What should I make?" So that one is a treasured book for sure.
Kerry Diamond:
And now that we know you are a singer, what is a song that makes you smile?
Sarah Kieffer:
I love listening to Ella Fitzgerald. And when her and Louis sing together, they have a duet CD, anything on that CD, my heart is light. It's so great. So anything from them.
Kerry Diamond:
What is the oldest thing in your fridge right now?
Sarah Kieffer:
My sourdough starter that I have not fed for months.
Kerry Diamond:
But it's still alive?
Sarah Kieffer:
It still is. It's magical because I do not touch that thing, and it will always come back to life. But it's shoved in the back and I'm a little scared of it.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you name it?
Sarah Kieffer:
I didn't. That's how scared I am of it that I don't even want it to have a name. It's just in there.
Kerry Diamond:
What are you streaming right now?
Sarah Kieffer:
This is so nerdy, but I'm rewatching Seinfeld on Netflix, because it just came in Netflix. And I haven't watched it for so many years and in high school it was the show. So, I was rewatching that to see if it still holds up for me. It's good. It's been fun. There's some laugh. Some of it does not hold up, but some of it does.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. That's not quite a ringing endorsement, Sarah.
Sarah Kieffer:
Sorry.
Kerry Diamond:
Are you watching it from start to finish in order?
Sarah Kieffer:
Yes. And season one was very painful. I watch it while I'm baking, so I just have it on in the background. And I've seen it rerun so many times. In college, it was on all the time. So I feel like I have it memorized, but there's stuff I forgot about. And some of it I'm like, "Oh no." And some of it I'm like, "That's so funny."
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Some of it's hilarious. Jessica Seinfeld was on the show a few weeks ago, who of course married to Jerry Seinfeld. And we found out Jerry Seinfeld does not eat potatoes.
Sarah Kieffer:
What?
Kerry Diamond:
Which I still can't wrap my head around. I know. Who doesn't eat potatoes? So, I joked with Jessica. I was like, "So you have been condemned to a life where you have to order your own French Fries?" I think one of the delights of life is being able to eat fries off other people's plates. But Jessica doesn't get to do that.
Sarah Kieffer:
That's so sad. That's a whole Seinfeld episode right there.
Kerry Diamond:
When she told me, that's what I said. I was like, "this is like a Seinfeld episode come to life." Okay. Dream travel destination.
Sarah Kieffer:
Okay. Well, it is also the same as last time because I still have not been to Paris, and that is number one on my bucket list.
Kerry Diamond:
I know. We need a baker trip to... Imagine? Oh my god, that would be much fun to have someone lead a baker's trip of Paris and we could go try all the sexy pâtisserie, et cetera, et cetera over there. Oh my gosh, I would love that. Okay. Last question. I don't remember your answer from last year. I should have looked it up. But if you had to be trapped in a desert island with any food celebrity, who would it be and why?
Sarah Kieffer:
Oh my goodness.
Kerry Diamond:
You remember who you said? I need to look it up.
Sarah Kieffer:
I don't think you asked me this last time.
Kerry Diamond:
Did I not ask you?
Sarah Kieffer:
I don't think you did.
Kerry Diamond:
You know why? We stopped doing that question during the pandemic because it just was such a weird time. I was like, "That question's too weird." But then I brought it back. Okay. So now you get to answer it for the first time.
Sarah Kieffer:
Okay. Well, I'm going to have to say Zoë.
Kerry Diamond:
I knew you were going to say that.
Sarah Kieffer:
We would have so much fun, because otherwise it would be awkward if I didn't know someone. Even though they're like your hero. It'd be like, "Hi." But we have so much fun together, so we would just laugh and be silly. That's who I would pick, Zoe.
Kerry Diamond:
I think that's a great answer. Sarah Kieffer, thank you so much. It's always so much fun to talk to you, and it makes me sad that I haven't seen you in a few years. I don't know. Maybe I'll make it to Minneapolis next year. That would be amazing.
Sarah Kieffer:
I would love to go to New York too. So, maybe our paths will cross soon.
Kerry Diamond:
Maybe, maybe. And I still think fondly of that time I came to Minneapolis and you greeted me with a dozen of your pan-banging chocolate chip cookies. And I will still say those were the best cookies I've ever had in my whole life. So thank you for doing that.
Sarah Kieffer:
That's such a huge honor. I appreciate it.
Kerry Diamond:
Aw. All right. Well, Sarah, Happy Holidays. Thanks for being part of our cookie queen panel. Thanks for coming on Radio Cherry Bombe. It's always fun talking to you.
Sarah Kieffer:
Thank you so much for having me. I had so much fun today.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Thank you so much to Sarah Kieffer for joining us. You can check out her brand new book, Baking for the Holidays, at your favorite local bookstore. And be sure to check out our Instagram giveaway. Thank you to Kerrygold for supporting our show. Radio Cherry Bombe is a production of Cherry Bombe magazine. If you enjoyed this episode, check out our other chats with bakers like Caroline Schiff, Cheryl Day, and Ellen King wherever you get your podcasts. Radio Cherry Bombe is recorded at Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Thank you to Hasan Moore and Joseph Hazan of Newsstand Studios, and to our assistant producer, Jenna Sadhu. Happy Holidays to all of you and stay healthy. Thank you for listening. You are the bombe.