Sweet and savoury

Close friends and business partners Bettina Schormann and Erin Schiestel meld their strengths to develop 100 recipes for their cookbook Earth to Table Bakes

The co-authors of the new cookbook Earth to Table Bakes: Everyday Recipes for Baking with Good Ingredients met in 2004 when Bettina Schormann was executive pastry chef at the Ancaster Mill, near Hamilton, and Erin Schiestel was a high-school co-op student working in the kitchen making salads and hors d’oeuvres. Schiestel remembers watching Schormann whip up batches of sweet and savoury pie dough, homemade butter and Chantilly cream – just some of the staples that bakers like to have at their fingertips – and thinking: that’s where I want to be.

Two years later, she joined Schormann’s small pastry team and the two women have been close friends and business partners since, bonding over their passion for baking and their love of the pure precision of it.

It was during their eight years together at the Ancaster Mill that the two women also started developing the 100 recipes included in this book, savoury treats such as a Spring Onion and Roasted Mushroom Tart, and sweet ones such as the Classic Bread Bar Cheesecake with Rhubarb Compote.

“A good baker is two things: patient and organized,” says Schormann, co-owner of three Earth to Table: Bread Bar restaurants in Hamilton and Guelph (where Schiestel is head baker/pastry chef). “We both love the rules, science and structure of the baking world. And if there is one thing we have learned, you can’t rush the process.”

Schiestel agrees. “You have to give yourself enough time to execute and prepare accordingly. Many steps [in baking recipes] take time,” she says. “My advice to new bakers? Read the recipe from start to finish before you start, have all the ingredients lined up and then let the process unfold as it should.”

The cookbook is divided into six categories: cookies, bars/squares, scones/muffins/biscuits, doughnuts/puffs and pies/tarts. There is also a section where they tailor treats to suit the seasons. In the spring, they suggest Strawberry Rhubarb Jam Croissants. In summer, Crème Brulé Pudding with Macerated Berries. In fall, Pumpkin Pudding Jars and in winter, a Beet and Feta Quiche.

“The genesis of the book was based on things we like to eat,” Schormann says. “Erin is great at anything sweet. She’s a whiz with coconut cream pie, sour cream-glazed doughnuts and layered cakes. I’m drawn to anything with a puff pastry and a salty tang. What we brought to the book, we hope, was our melded strengths: one sweet and one savoury. Which, by the way, is a good analogy for our personalities.”