Many bakers attribute their passion to childhood years spent sitting atop the kitchen counter, where they watched their mom, grandma or another family member mix ingredients while rocking a flour-stained apron. Not Jessie Sheehan.
“That was just so decidedly not my experience,” says Sheehan, a four-time cookbook author, recipe developer and podcast host of She’s My Cherry Pie. “When I finally became a baker, it was because I loved sweets. No other reason.”
After previous lives as an actress and lawyer, Sheehan walked into her local Brooklyn bakery, Baked, wanting to learn the craft. She went from testing recipes to eventually developing them and helping the bakery craft its first two cookbooks.
All the while, she was laying the groundwork to establish herself as a leading personality in the digital baking community, crafting a brand centered around unfussy, “easy-peasy sweets” as she calls them.
But in her most recent cookbook, Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes: 100 Easy-Peasy, Savory Recipes for 24/7 Deliciousness, she was inspired to give her favorite treats a salty remix.
“I realized when I go into a bakery, I’m actually not grabbing the coffee cake,” says Sheehan, who has an insatiable sweet tooth. Instead, she gravitates towards the savory treats: cheesy scones, veggie-filled quiche, bacon and egg biscuits—you name it.
Savory baking was unexplored terrain for Sheehan. Up for the challenge, she looked to every corner of the kitchen for inspiration to give her previously sugar-coated bakes a cheesy, salty or herbaceous twist.
One such
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
