Chef Gemma Stafford didn’t grown up obsessed with pumpkin-spice flavors, like some of us on this side of the pond. But from a young age, Stafford, who grew up in a little town in Ireland, knew she loved to bake.
That passion for pastry and sweets sparked a journey that began with culinary training at Darina Allen’s famous Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork. It eventually brought her to California, first to San Francisco, where she worked as pastry chef at Michelin-starred Spruce, and eventually to Santa Monica, where she lives now with her husband and their young son — and a dog named Waffles.
Today, she runs the Bigger Bolder Baking empire, an online baking show and baking-centric website that offers recipes, tips and in-depth cooking classes. And her newest cookbook, “Bigger Bolder Baking Every Day” (HarperCollins, $32.50), which hits bookstores on Oct. 25, is filled with autumnal treats, including a few of the pumpkin spice variety.
The book comes at a perfect time, just as we’re yearning to get cozy in our warm kitchens and bake up something sweet — a batch of Chewy Maple Pumpkin Cookies, perhaps, a Fall Apple Cinnamon Upside-Down Cake, or a Pecan Pie Cobbler that offers up all the flavors of that Thanksgiving dessert without any pastry-crust stress. While we wait for the book to land — you can pre-order it through your favorite independent bookstore or Indiebound.org — Stafford is giving us a sneak peek.
Q. What are your favorite recipes to bake in the fall?
A. Fall and the holidays are an important food time for me, and I wanted to be sure that I incorporated those warm cozy recipes, so you’ll find them speckled throughout the book. I have this lovely recipe for a Pecan Pie Cobbler, which is kind of everything I love about a cobbler. It’s warm. It’s comforting. It’s gooey. It’s kind of like a combination of a cobbler and a pecan pie. I thought that would be really great for the fall, especially around Thanksgiving.
And then I have little recipes that give a nod to fall, like a lovely apple upside-down cake with cinnamon and warm tones, from my chapter in the book called Short and Sweet Any Day. I always have that time of year in mind, because it’s like my absolute favorite.
Q. Any opinions about pumpkin-spice everything? Is that a thing in Ireland or just a U.S. phenomenon?
A. It is a very American thing, no doubt about it. Pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice — you cannot get those things on the shelf in Ireland. Nobody would know what to do with them. But saying that, I have been in the U.S. for many years. I’m married to an American, and I run a baking website that’s one of the largest out there, so it’s kind of hard not to delve into the world of pumpkin pie spice and pumpkins and pecans and maple.
I will admit that when I first moved to the United States, I could not understand why you were eating a pie with vegetables in it — it just didn’t make any sense to me — but now I am very familiar with pumpkin. I love pumpkin with white chocolate. I love pumpkin with maple. I love a pumpkin and pecan hybrid, so I’m very well versed in that world right now.
Q. How do you find inspiration for your baking projects?
A. That’s a good question. It comes from a little bit of everywhere: my experience as a professional chef, my favorite flavors when I’m out and about, and then a lot of our inspiration comes from our millions of fans out there. We have over 8 million fans across our social media platforms. So a lot of my inspiration comes from them — suggestions, recipes they would like to see.
Q. The philosophy behind Bigger Bolder Baking is all about taking risks and being confident in the kitchen. What are some of the riskiest things you’ve created?
A. I think one of my favorite recipes to date is actually in my new book, and it’s a smashed pavlova. It’s a little bit like this Californian, family-style, help-yourself, serve-yourself kind of a dessert. I show you in the book how to make the pavlova, and then you smash it onto your serving table or serving platter and deconstruct it with cream and fruit and just make a beautiful mess.
Q. Looking back at the arc of your baking career, what are some of the pivotal experiences that led you here?
A. I’ve had those moments for sure. (One) of those “aha” moments was when I was in Italy. I arrived off a plane and drove up a mountain in the middle of the night and went into a very small kitchen in a villa that didn’t have a fridge working, that had very basic equipment. Myself and another girl had to feed a family for the next month with little to nothing to work with. The question was always: How can I make good food that tastes great, but with limited equipment and ingredients? How can I still bake everyday? That’s why my recipes in “Bigger Bolder Baking Everyday” are generally no more than 10 steps. I really keep them concise and to the point, and try to make them as accessible as possible.
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