Baker Roxana Jullapat does some of her best work when the rest of the city is still fast asleep. The head baker and co-owner of Los Angeles' Friends & Family usually rises by 2 a.m. and unlocks the bakery at 3 a.m. By 6:30 a.m., the pastry case is full of whole-grain muffins, cookies, breads, danishes and croissants. Even on the busiest days, the team takes a moment to appreciate the colourful array before the first customers walk through the door.
"The fact that you're staring at the fruit of your labour, quite literally, is very powerful feedback, conscious and subconscious," says Jullapat. "The day could have all kinds of things — deliveries that didn't come in, equipment that didn't work, people that come in late — but no one can take away that case you put together."
Morning Baker: A Cookbook for Home Bakers
The routines and recipes that fill the pastry case provided the basis for Jullapat's second book, Morning Baker: Recipes and Rituals for Breakfast and Beyond. She wrote it in the same spirit as the toolkit she offers apprentices at Friends & Family, with one notable difference: the batches are in the tens rather than the hundreds.
She recalls a friend expressing shock that she opened the book with muffins. "I'm like, 'What else would you start with?' It's the simplest bake, the most executable," says Jullapat. "It's real science, and it's such a foundational technique — for baking and cooking."
Advanced bakers might go straight to the chapter on whole-grain croissants or the "mini-book" on bread — including flatbreads, yeasted and sourdough loaves. Yet, Jullapat says that many are starting at the beginning, with the muffins. "Secretly, I'm so glad, because I feel like muffins were losing ground. We were starting to not appreciate them. There are bakeries that flat-out don't make them, not a single one."
Recipes from Morning Baker
Jump to the recipes: banana-date muffins, brunch red pepper and goat cheese scones, and tortillas aliñadas.
Banana-Date Muffins
These muffins are a staple at Friends & Bakery. They are moist, flavorful, and perfect for breakfast or a snack.
Brunch Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Scones
Savory scones with roasted red peppers and creamy goat cheese, ideal for a brunch spread.
Tortillas Aliñadas
A unique take on tortillas, seasoned with herbs and spices, great for breakfast or as a side.
Nine years ago, Jullapat and her partner, chef Dan Mattern, left careers in fine dining to open Friends & Family. In nearly a decade, Jullapat says she's met many incredible bakers and noticed common characteristics.
"They find this Zen in their morning routines and their activities, and I'm constantly in awe of their ways of embracing the morning. Everybody does it a little bit differently, but a little bit similarly. And I feel like anybody who really gets into it becomes a better person in some way. Like, they become a little bit more patient or a little bit more methodical," says Jullapat. "I've seen people blossom in a very sweet way, just by becoming morning bakers."
Now 51, Jullapat sees a connection between writing cookbooks and her work as a translator in her twenties. The lingo, big batch sizes, high-calibre equipment and flour of professional kitchens all need to be translated for home bakers. After making 70 biscuits three times a week, for instance, professionals gain an understanding that home bakers may not.
"You're going to really become one with that biscuit. To have all that and be able to channel it into one experience that takes about an hour or two, that is a single recipe, that is the mission. That is the journey of writing a cookbook. It's a nice way to realize all that you know and all that you've learned."
