Sara Dickerman on No-Knead Bread

"The no-knead method is like an entry-level drug, and if I keep it up, I'll move on to the harder stuff—forever seeking more complex flavor and textural highs. Pretty soon, I won't leave town without finding a sitter for my sourdough, and I'll start building brick ovens in the backyard."

Pimp My Mixer

From the Department of Twitter May Be Useful for Something, we learn about the SideSwipe Spatula Mixer Blade (Cook's Illustrated's Christopher Kimball tweets it "works great"), a tricked out replacement for the standard Kitchen Aid mixing paddle.

Made of reinforced nylon with silicone "wiper fins," the attachment is designed to reduce hand scraping with a spatula. The blade is configured to mix ingredients horizontally and vertically, directing the contents downward and wiping the bowl clean as it rotates. Its creators also claim that it allows chunky ingredients to be mixed easily without being crushed or jammed against the bowl. $24.95 to $29.95, depending on the size blade that will fit your mixer model, at the SideSwipe Store.

Hamantaschen: It's All in the Stirring

I won't bore you with the story of Purim (though it is a good one). What's more relevant to this site are the holiday's traditional cookies, Hamantaschen. Sometimes they're huge and sometimes their small, but they are always shaped in triangles and typically filled with either jam or a poppy seed concoction not to my taste.

I never made them before, but decided to give them a try this year. It was also an experiment in baking with my daughter (which is all the rage these days). She seemed to have fun helping me, except her attention span only lasted for about two cooking steps (the high point being anything involving filling measuring cups and emptying them). After that, she pretty much wanted to strip off her apron and get in a Cinderella dress.

I hunted for recipes and settled on one from cookie authority Maida Heatter (see below for recipe) and made two batches: One with the filling in Heatter's recipe (a combination of apricots, prunes, walnuts, and honey) and another batch filled with Amy Scattergood's recipe for homemade Nutella.

Tools for Tarts

These beautiful hand-turned French rolling pins are made in Nashville, not Nîmes, by artist and woodworker Jackie Johnson. They are available in solid cherry or maple in 13" ($16) and 19" lengths ($24) at Johnson's WoodElements Etsy Shop.

How to Impress Your Kid With a Thomas Keller Recipe

Can you imagine the look on your child's face when she finds out that what looks like an ice cream cone is really Thomas Keller's signature cornet filled with raw salmon?

Well, you may be able to redeem yourself this Halloween with Keller's bat-shaped sandwich cookies, recently featured at Savory Tidbits. The cookies are currently available for $3 each now through October 31 at Bouchon Bakery (Time Warner Center, Ten Columbus Circle, Third Floor).

To make them yourself, just pick up some bat-shaped cookie cutters or other appropriately Halloween-themed shapes (the black cat and coffin would do nicely), and follow the recipe for Thomas Keller's "TKO" Oreo-style cookies.

Photos: Savory Tidbits, Bouchon Bakery.