10 questions with new Star Tribune baking columnist Sarah Kieffer

If you’re a follower of Sarah Kieffer’s popular and award-winning Vanilla Bean Blog, you might already feel like she’s an old friend.

A natural storyteller, slices of her personal life are woven through the posts, each punctuated with a recipe and a mouthwatering photo. Through the years, we’ve learned that she got her baking start at the Blue Heron Coffeehouse in Winona, Minn., and that she first started a blog that chronicled her life with young kids. But that blog became so food-heavy that the recipes, in her words, “needed their own space.” It also allowed her to write a food history for her family, something that was lacking in her life and recipe box.

The Vanilla Bean Blog led to her first cookbook, “The Vanilla Bean Baking Book,” which brought her a new level of fame. The following year, the New York Times published Kieffer’s “pan-banging” technique for making chocolate chip cookies. The crinkly, butter-rich cookies had gone viral on Instagram, and the Times catapulted the recipe into a baking sensation. It also inspired her next book, “100 Cookies.”

She’s published two more cookbooks since then, with another due this fall. Now, Kieffer is adding baking columnist to her résumé. Each month, she’ll talk readers through baking fundamentals, offering tips for both experienced and beginner bakers — all punctuated with a recipe and mouthwatering photo, of course.

We asked Kieffer a few questions ahead of her debut, from her baking playlist and favorite kitchen tool to why she’s on a quest to create recipes for easy dinners.

Q: Your pan-banging was the technique heard around the internet. How did it even occur to you to try that?

A: It was discovered by frustration initially. In high school I tapped the pan on the oven rack during a baking session when cookie dough wouldn’t spread, and loved the result: set edges and beautiful cracks along the top of the cookie. When I was testing recipes for my first book, I was frustrated at a cookie that was spreading too much and tapped the pan and found different results: set, wrinkly edges. The pan-banging method was developed out of the latter: letting the cookie bake for 10 minutes, and then banging the pan every 2 minutes after to create ripply, crispy edges.

Q: There are music playlists included in each of your cookbooks. Why?

A: Most of my baking education took place in coffeehouses that I worked in, and music was always an essential part of a work shift. I also spent many, many hours making mix tapes (and then playlists) for friends, parties, work, etc., and love creating an atmosphere with music I enjoy.

Q: You also style and photograph your cookbooks and those of others. Have you always had a knack for visuals?

A: I have always loved taking photographs, and freezing a specific memory in time. Food carries a lot of nostalgia, especially, for me in baked goods, and somewhere my brain made the connection. All my food photography is very subject-based, so I don’t know if I have any style, really. I just want the photo to give you reason to try the recipe.

Q: With one exception, your cookbooks have 100 recipes. What’s the significance? And is it hard to get to 100?

A: I named my cookie book proposal “100 Cookies” on a whim, thinking that the name would eventually be changed. But my publisher loved it and so a series was born. It can be challenging to get a hundred recipes tested and perfected in time for publication, and during the process I have a lot of anxiety about it. But so far so good.

Q: Favorite recipe you’ve published?

A: The answer changes frequently, and right now it is my Cheater Croissant Dough from “100 Morning Treats.”

Q: If you’re bringing dessert to a potluck, what are you making?

A: Chocolate Chip Cookies 2.0 (the recipe on my website) or Coffee Blondies (from “100 Cookies”).

Q: When you’re not baking, what else are you making?

A: I am working on easy yet delicious dinners. My goal is to have a handful of recipes that my two teenagers have under their belt by the time they leave for college (or wherever life takes them). I could not cook ANYTHING when I left home and want them to have more knowledge in the kitchen.

Q: Favorite kitchen tool or appliance?

A: I would have to say my stand mixer. It is a workhorse, and I appreciate the time and energy it saves.

Q: One ingredient you won’t settle on?

A: Flour, or chocolate.

Q: What’s the best baking tip you’ve ever received?

A: When I worked at the Blue Heron Coffeehouse in Winona during college, Larry Wolner (the owner) told me that “the kitchen gods are always watching” after I messed up a recipe I had made hundreds of times. It always reminds me to slow down and be mindful, even when I am confident I know what I am doing.

Sarah Kieffer is the author (and photographer) of four baking cookbooks; her fifth comes out this fall.

“100 Morning Treats”: From sweet and savory to coffee cakes and quiches, there are recipes that will make the start of any day feel like a special occasion, regardless of your skill level. Recipe to try: Banana Bread Scones. (Chronicle, 2023)

“Baking for the Holidays: 50+ Treats for a Festive Season”: While tailored to the festive winter holidays, there are plenty of treats suitable for year-round baking and gift giving. Homemade peanut butter cups know no season. Recipe to try: Confetti Cake. (Chronicle, 2021)

“100 Cookies: The Baking Book for Every Kitchen”: With that many recipes, there’s a surefire hit for all occasions, from lunchbox to the fanciest of dinners. Recipe to try: French Silk Bars, which is further proof that bars are, indeed, cookies. (Chronicle, 2020)

“The Vanilla Bean Baking Book”: Kieffer’s debut cookbook, named after her popular Vanilla Bean Blog, and the start of her 100-recipe cookbook journey. Find staples from quick breads to no-churn ice cream. Recipe to try: Blood Orange No-Churn Ice Cream. (Avery, 2016)