Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Brownie

Sometimes when you need a bit of comfort, sharing a dessert with a good friend, while you’re both tucked away in a bakery’s corner booth surrounded by the smell of baking cookies gives you that. Sometimes when you need a bit of comfort, you don’t want to pick only one dessert from the menu. You want two or three. Why can’t you have that?

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Peanut Butter Cookie Pie

As the end of the school year approaches, kids become fidgety and excited for the freedom of summertime. Their eyes become brighter and their smiles wider. They skip up the sidewalks in Mystic Water and chatter about upcoming vacations and days spent exploring around Jordan Pond.

Anna bakes up the school children’s favorite candies in all sorts of sweets. One of the town’s favorites is her Peanut Butter Cookie Pie, rich and chocolately and decorated with favorite peanut butter candies.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": S'Mores Brownies

Fall is a beautiful season in Mystic Water. People gather around fire pits and bonfires and laugh, tell stories, and make S’mores. But what about in the spring and summer when the heat starts rolling in and you’d burst into flames if anyone so much as a lit a match around you?

That’s when Anna starts baking S’mores brownies. She knows when people are longing for the changing leaves and the crackling flames that the next best thing to a campfire S’mores is a brownie version.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Cheesecake Waffles

I love breakfast. I could eat breakfast for any meal—I’m not picky. Give me grits and eggs for lunch; pancakes for dinner; waffles for a snack. I’m also not ashamed to admit I could eat cake for breakfast.

Tessa Andrews, one of Anna’s best friends in The Baker’s Man, is with me on having cake no matter what time it is. In fact, she told Anna one day that she wished she could combine two of her favorite foods—waffles and cheesecake—into one mash up.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Dark Chocolate Oreo Tart

Oreos were first introduced in 1912. They’ve been warming hearts, creating smiles, and causing debates for more than one hundred years. There are those who will never agree whether or not to dunk a cookie into milk, twist the sandwich cookie apart first, or shove a whole cookie into the mouth without twisting or milk. But there won’t be much debate on whether or not people love Oreos.

After a late night conversation, Beatrice realized her close friend Mary Margaret suffered from the winter doldrums and a lonely heart. Beatrice, owner of Bea’s Bakery, whipped up a dark chocolate Oreo tart that she knew would not only find Mary Margaret’s smile even if the sky was gray, but also it would give her heart a jolt of happiness.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Red Velvet Cream Cheese Brownies

Valentine’s Day in Mystic Water is a red-and-pink paper hearts, cupid-shooting-arrows, and overload-on-chocolate kind of day. People leave anonymous valentines pinned beneath windshield wipers, kids shove suckers and conversation hearts into handmade Valentine’s Day shoeboxes, and townsfolk rush into the bakery for chocolates and sweets of all kinds.

Anna’s red velvet cream cheese brownies will soften the heart of anyone, even those who loathe Valentine’s Day. So spread love and a lighthearted feeling all day—buy a dozen and share them with your friends. No one will turn these down, and smiles will abound.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

When it comes to baking, there are victories and there are failures. Sometimes the cakes don’t rise, and sometimes they rise like lopsided mountains. Sometimes cakes stick so badly to the pan they have to be eaten with a fork and never make it to the cake plate. Being a baker means accepting that your recipes (and you) will never be 100% perfect every time.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Chocolate Donuts with Peppermint Bark

During the month of December, it seems as though sweets are waiting for you around every corner. Cookies spring up like daisies in the spring. Cakes lie around beneath glass domes and entice us to them. Truffles and candy canes and sufganiyot crowd inside gift bags for your enjoyment.

Bea’s Bakery in Mystic Water fills to bursting with sweets and treats of all kinds during December. Townsfolk flock to the glass cases from morning until closing time to fill their bellies with gingerbread cookies or snowflake sugar cookies.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Oreo Truffles

Poet Pablo Neruda wrote, “Laughter is the language of the soul.” When was the last time you laughed? Can you remember when you last laughed so hard that your face and your stomach ached, when tears rolled down your cheeks?

If you can’t immediately recall when laughter burst from your smile, then you need to stop by Bea’s Bakery in Mystic Water and order at least a half dozen Oreo truffles.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Peanut Butter Truffles

Ever felt like a hamster on a wheel? Or like just another rat in the rat race? Ever feel as though one day leads into another, leads into another, leads into another, and you’re tired of being tired?

Sounds like you need a vacation, a place to rest and relax, or at the very least, a visit to Bea’s Bakery in The Baker’s Man. Anna O’Brien can whip up just what you need to feel rested, rejuvenated, and like your old self again (back when you had energy and you were excited about every new adventure).

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Critters

 

If you’re passing through Mystic Water on a Tuesday, you should stop by Bea’s Bakery. On Tuesdays, Anna creates a few animal-themed treats that the after-school kids love as well as the adults.

Feeling tired? Out of sorts? Heart-weary? Anna has a cure for you on Tuesdays. She makes turtles and bears and critters, oh my! Customers in need of a boost of happiness buy dozens of turtles (chocolate-covered pecans) every Tuesday. Those who need peace in their weary hearts buy bears (chocolate-covered walnuts).

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Chocolate Hazelnut & Peanut Butter Cream Donuts

I love surprises (of the good variety), but it’s difficult to surprise me. I tend to pick up on people’s shifty behavior, and I seem to know when something amiss is afoot. I don’t like to ruin surprises, honest, but if you keep acting weird around me because you’re trying to surprise me, I’ll figure it out. Your goal: play it cool, and I won’t notice a thing!

Anna, Mystic Water’s baker extraordinaire, oversleeps one morning and wakes to the smell of donuts cooking. She runs downstairs to her bakery and finds a surprise of the most epic variety in the kitchen. And I don’t mean the chocolate-glazed donuts she sees sitting on the counter. 

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Double Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Most people have Saturday rituals, such as two cups of coffee before breakfast, reading the newspaper at the table, or sitting on the back porch watching cardinals.

I like to sleep past 6:00 a.m. (what a rebel!), think about what I’m going to eat for breakfast, and relish being a rebel who sleeps past 6:00 a.m.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": American Flag Cake

There are a couple of events to celebrate this week. First, the US Men’s National Team faces Belgium in Round of 16 at 2014 FIFA World Cup. Go USA!

The second event to celebrate is my birthday. Happy Independence Day America (and happy birthday me)! What better way to celebrate than with cake?

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Oreo Brownies

Have a case of the doldrums? Feeling blah or blech or blah-blech (not a real word, but definitely a real feeling)? Lost the pep in your step? Staring out windows? Zoning out? There is a remedy! Rejoin the living!

At Bea’s Bakery in The Baker’s Man, you will find various panaceas for what ails you. If you need to get your groove back, the best choice would be Anna’s Oreo brownies, which are guaranteed to put a smile on your face, a shake in your hips, and a twinkle in your eye.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Rainbow Truffles

Randy Pausch, writer of The Last Lecture, said, “Never lose the childlike wonder. It’s just too important. It’s what drives us.” Try and remember what it was like when you saw the world through childlike eyes full of awe, when so much of what you saw was so marvelous it stole your breath, left you speechless.

Walt Disney said, “Too many people grow up. That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don’t remember what it’s like to be twelve years old.” It’s easy to become caught up in everyday life—rush hour traffic, bills, crazy work environments, making dinner, working out, cleaning house… Becoming an adult isn’t always as awesome as it seemed like it would be when we were young. But it doesn’t have to be routine, boring, or dull.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Mexican Chocolate Truffles

 

Eating healthier foods can give us all sorts of benefits, such as stronger bones, bodies, and minds. Eating avocados gives you shinier hair and smoother skin. Eating strawberries boosts short term memory and burns fat. Eating dark chocolate lowers your blood pressure. I would like to add that eating chocolate makes me happier.

Healthy foods make us, well, healthier, but there are other benefits of food. When people visit Bea’s Bakery in The Baker’s Man, they can find just the treat that they need. Need the courage to ask your crush to go on a date with you? No problem. Need help deciding which college to attend? She has the answer for you.

Cooking Through "The Baker's Man": Forget-Me-Not Cookies

There are several legends surrounding the naming of the flower Forget-Me-Not, each one romantic and lovely in its own way. In one German legend, it is said that as God was naming all of the plants, one tiny blue flower did not want to be overlooked, so the flower called out, “Forget me not, Lord.”

Another legend says that wearers of the flower would not be forgotten by their lovers. A medieval legend tells of a knight and his lady who walked along a riverside. The knight leaned down to pick forget-me-nots and the weight of his armor caused him to fall into the river. As he was drowning, he tossed the flowers to his lady, calling, “Forget me not.”