What started as a way to relax and stop thinking about negativity in life has turned into a way of life for blogger Rachel Conners.
Conners started her own blog, Bakerita, to share her recipes with her family, friends, and the rest of the world. Now, even though she is still in college, Conners creates unique recipes and food combinations regularly for her blog. She hopes to sell her creations one day, but until then is content with sharing her love of food with the masses through her posts.
Find out more about Conners and Bakerita in this interview.
Bakerita is full of delicious recipes as well as your disclaimer about your love of working with ingredients. What do you enjoy most about creating new desserts?
I love being able to create desserts with flavor combinations that people have never tasted before. When I tell my friends a recipe idea I have, I almost love when they question whether it will be good or not, because most of the time those “weird” combinations are what they end up loving the most! For example, when I came up with these Blackberry Dulce De Leche Crumb Bars, we all knew they’d be either weird or awesome, and to this day these bars are my friends’ favorite thing I ever made.
Baking encompasses many different types of foods – all of which are delicious – so tell us how you decide what to make.
One of my favorite things about being a baking blogger is that it allows me to try as many different things as I want! I try to use what’s seasonal, in terms of both produce and holidays, in thinking about what I want to make and post for my readers. However, I definitely go through phases! One week I’ll be on a cookie spree and make six different kinds of cookies in a row; then I’ll get addicted to making different kinds of yeast breads. I’m constantly trying to improve, so I push myself to try new kinds of baked goods (currently working up the nerve for croissants!) and improve on some of my favorite recipes.
Decadence is something that goes hand in hand with desserts. What are some of the richest pairings you have ever created or can recommend to fellow dessert-lovers?
I live for salty-sweet desserts, and also giant cookies – I recently made a Salted Caramel Filled Dark Chocolate Chunk Skillet Cookie, and it was beyond decadent. It had that homestyle comfort of a giant chocolate chip cookie, but was bursting with caramel that was salted with Maldon sea salt, which gave me that salty flavor that I love! My friends and I devoured it in record time. Some of my other favorite flavor pairings: chocolate and peanut butter, browned butter and caramel, and pretzels with white chocolate.
Bakerita features numerous categories of recipes including vegan options. What are your thoughts on using alternative methods to cook old favorites? How do these alternative methods alter taste (for better or worse)?
A few years ago, my sister realized that her body couldn’t process gluten, and she became gluten free (as well as avoiding dairy and refined sugars). It was around then that I started experimenting a lot with cutting gluten, dairy, and sugar out of baked goods.
At first it seemed impossible to make them taste nearly as delicious while staying gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free, but I found my favorite alternative ingredients and have managed to develop some of my favorite recipes that are pretty much guilt free. I think cutting these things doesn’t make baked goods taste worse, as long as you’re using the right recipes and ingredients!
Some of my favorite substitutions are almond flour in place of wheat flour, coconut oil for butter, banana for eggs (this works amazingly in muffins and quick breads!), and maple syrup, honey, and coconut sugar in place of sugar.
I love these ingredients because they’re less processed and make delicious baked goods! This gluten-free, wheat-free, dairy-free banana bread recipe is as close as I’ve gotten to the real thing, and doesn’t even use sugar – just bananas for sweetness!
How did your love of food begin?
When I was 16, I was having a bit of a tough time with my friends at school and I started baking, almost as a way to get out of my own head and think about something else. I started to love experimenting with new flavors and trying out new desserts, and soon enough, I was baking pretty much every day.
I fell in love with the processes involved in baking, and being able to create something that made other people happy. I loved teaching myself new techniques and continuously trying new things, so my sister suggested I start a food blog to share the recipes I was creating, and thus: Bakerita was born!
If you were told you could only have three desserts for the rest of your life, what would they be and why?
First, I would definitely need an apple crisp (preferably with vanilla ice cream). It’s a long-time favorite and is the one dessert I have no self-control over. Second, chocolate peanut butter mousse pie. The combination of chocolate and peanut butter has been one of my favorites for as long as I can remember, and while I’ll take it in pretty much any form, that pie was outstanding. Last but certainly not least … I couldn’t spend the rest of my life without another chocolate chip cookie.
Speak to your fellow foodies and tell them what makes Bakerita different from similar sites.
There are tens of thousands of food blogs out there, and part of what’s hard about food blogging is trying to set yourself apart from those others. In truth, Bakerita is an extension of me; it follows how I’ve developed as a baker, photographer, writer, and blogger. Bakerita was always something I’ve done for myself, not for the money or the traffic, and in that sense, I think it allowed to me take a pulse on what it is that my readers want to see, and figure out how to align that with what I want to make.
The recipes I share are ones that I share with the people that I love, and I share them with the world in hopes that my readers will do the same. I connect with people through food, and I hope that my recipes will bring people together and allow them to share in a treat that will make them smile. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a comment from someone who has made one of my recipes and has a great memory of sharing it with their family or friends.
If you could plan an ultimate trip through your website for dessert enthusiasts, what would you encourage trip-goers to experience?
My site has quite a variety of recipes, and I think some of the best ones are far too often overlooked, so I would encourage people to check out some of Bakerita’s most underrated recipes in addition to the much-loved standouts. Here’s a fun tour of the best: the most popular recipe on my website, Paleo Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread, my go-to Coconut Macadamia Nut Granola, The Ultimate Snickers Cake, Vegan Blueberry Muffins (the best!!), Pistachio White Chocolate Chunk Cookies (way easier than it looks), Mango Tart, Blackberry Dulce de Leche Crumb Bars, and we’ll end on a recent favorite: Double Cranberry Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies!
What goals do you have as a baker? How would you like Bakerita to expand going forward?
I would love to sell my creations eventually, and I do hope to do something involving baking in the future, but I’m currently still in college and I’m not sure exactly what that will entail yet! Right now, I’ll continue to post delicious recipes twice a week and develop my skills as a baker and a blogger.
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The post Expert Interview with Rachel Conners About Decadent Desserts appeared first on FoodyDirect Blog.