olivejuiced

Moving Day

2011-07-08T18:19:00.002-04:00

It's happened - olivejuiced has moved! And also changed it's name to something a bit more cookie connotative.

To Dunk & Crumble you go! (www.dunkandcrumble.com)

...What? I like cookies. See you over there.

You Say Tomato, I Say Summer

2011-06-13T19:21:00.011-04:00

It's not really summer yet, you know. I mean yes, it's hot, and yes, my hair is extra frizzy, and YES, it feels perfectly okay to replace lunch with frozen yogurt. The shorts are short and the coffee is iced and the subway smells like subway. And there are cherries at the market. Summer!

But the tomatoes are green. It's only almost summer. Almost time for barbecues and popsicles and sunsets on the beach.

It's getting close. I'm stocking up on sunscreen and skirts. And, for now, green tomatoes will do just fine.

Green Tomato & Honeydew Salad

Green tomatoes and honeydew might sound like an odd pairing, but this salad is bright and fresh and full of flavor. It's also gorgeous. An edible study in shades of green.

Ingredients:

3 green tomatoes, chopped into bite sized chunks
1/2 honeydew melon, chopped into bit sized chunks
2 limes
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 bunch scallions (about 4-5 scallions), sliced into thin rounds
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine chopped green tomatoes and honeydew melon. Squeeze the juice from the limes over the fruit, and drizzle the olive oil on top. Throw in the cilantro, scallions, salt and pepper, and toss everything to combine. Sprinkle the feta cheese on top, and serve chilled or at room temperature.

This serves 2 people as a main course for lunch, or 4 as a monochromatic side dish, maybe to grilled chicken or a smoky BLT.

Things and Happenings

2011-05-23T21:23:00.015-04:00

So. Things are happening, you guys.

First, my littlest sister graduated from college. College, people. There she is, cute little Wisconsin badger ball of sass, in her cap and gown. If you see her, shout out some congratulations and then give her a teaching job.* And maybe a light punch in the arm, from me.

Secondly, I made carrot cake. I used this recipe, and I ate two pieces. I’d highly recommend doing the same, if you’re into carrot cake and need something to help alleviate the feeling of extreme oldness in light of your little sister’s college graduation.

Thirdly, fourthly and fifthly, I took a road trip, found inspiration in the form of some new friends in Minneapolis, and, oh yeah, am planning a redesign of this here nook of the internets.

See? Things. Happening.

I'm working with my lovely and talented friend Val to give this place a bit of a face lift. And by face lift, I really mean face transplant (they can do those now, I'm told). So, faithful reader, get ready for the new and improved olivejuiced, which will not in fact be called olivejuiced, but something else - a new name, one that makes me want to eat cookies. With milk. Excited? Me too.

So cheers, then - to triumphant ends and new beginnings. And all the cake we'll eat along the way.

*Since this post, Casey has been given a job. A really good one. I can only assume by one of my readers. Nicely done, team.

Peach Bellinis with Fresh Blueberries

Yes, this is a girly drink. So what? I'm a girl. Besides, it's delicious. And it's especially fun to sip one of these when you have nothing to celebrate, because it feels like, all of sudden, you do.

Ingredients:

1 part peach juice or nectar

3 parts cold, dry prosecco or champagne

fresh blueberries

Directions:

Pour peach juice one third of the way up a wine glass or champagne flute. Then fill the rest of the glass with prosecco or champagne, and toss in a few blueberries. Sip, sigh, repeat.

Frittata For Your Mama

2011-05-07T11:36:00.003-04:00

Excuse me, hi. Yes, is this thing on? Yes. Hi.

I think we should talk about something. Caramelized onions. Can we just agree right now that they smell of heaven above and bring happiness, justice and tranquility wherever they go?

Well. I made that stuff up about justice and tranquility. But the happiness part, and also the heaven scented bit, those are true. Empirically and emphatically true. The smell of onions caramelizing in a pan, that powerfully sweet yet grounding smell, the one that fills kitchens and minds with hints of something good to come -- is there any smell much better than that?

New babies, maybe. Or unicorns. I guess.

These particular onions, those ones right up there, ended up in a frittata. A caramelized onion frittata with feta cheese and herbs.

Frittatas, for those of you who are curious (or perhaps tend to skip brunch), is sort of the Italian version of an omelet. Made with eggs and usually some kind of vegetable or meat (frittatas are prime real estate for leftover meat and veggies), frittatas are different than omelets in that they're cooked through in the oven, instead of on top of the stove, and they're often served at room temperature, sliced into wedges or squares. An easy dish to throw together and one that takes well to being prepared ahead of time, the frittata is like a pocket Ace for a thankful kid on Mother's Day. Keep this one up your sleeve.

Caramelized Onion Frittata with Feta Cheese and Herbs

Some frittatas are made in a skillet (cast-iron works beautifully), started on the stove top and finished in the oven, but I poured my eggs right into a nonstick square brownie pan and baked it entirely in the oven. It came out beautifully - slightly blistered and crispy on top, soft and smooth inside.

Ingredients:

olive oil, to coat the bottom of skillet
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
6 small yellow onions, sliced thinly
8 eggs
1/4 cup milk or cream
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or 1 good handful)
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
kosher salt and cracked black pepper
fresh parsley, finely chopped
fresh chives, finely chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Coat the bottom of a medium large skillet with olive oil over medium heat, and add the butter. Once the butter has melted, add the sliced onions, and stir to coat with fat. Once the onions are coated and beginning to look translucent, season them with a pinch of salt and pepper, and turn the heat down to low. Cook the onions slowly, over low heat, stirring occasionally, until they begin to turn brown, or caramelize, about 30 minutes. Don't rush the onions. It takes time for their natural sugars to come out and develop that deep, sweet flavor.

Once the onions have caramelized, remove them from the heat and let them cool to room temperature. Once cooled, arrange the onions in an even layer at the bottom of an 8-inch square brownie pan (if the pan is NOT non-stick, be sure to coat the bottom and sides with butter or cooking spray).

Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk them vigorously, at least 30 seconds. Season them with salt and pepper, and add the milk or cream, shredded cheddar cheese and herbs, mixing well to combine. Pour the egg mixture on top of the caramelized onions, and top with the feta cheese (and one more sprinkling of herbs, if you're so inclined).

Bake the frittata in the oven at 400ºF for 20 - 30 minutes, or until the top has browned slightly and the center is just slightly jiggly when you shake the pan.

Let the frittata cool before cutting into squares for serving.

Makes 16 small frittata squares, or 9 large ones.

Like A Big, Fat Matzoh Ball

2011-04-30T10:00:00.000-04:00

photo by my lovely cousin, Ben Fenton

I live life in rhythms. Some might say phases, but I think rhythms is nicer.

When I was little, I collected stickers. I got into a sticker rhythm. Puffy ones, fuzzy ones, scratch n' sniff. And those awesome, blueish greenish oily stickers. Remember those? Those guys were the emperors of the (very rigid and well known) hierarchy of stickers.

When I realized stickers weren't all that fun, I started a candle collection. Nearly burned down our house in seventh grade. Actually, it was my friend Jessie Olson who almost burned down our house with my candle collection in seventh grade, but I would never tell anyone that.

Recently, I've been in a cookies and soup rhythm. The rhythm goes like this: it's a steady hum of cookie dough, of little mounds rising in the oven, of crunchy, chewy oatmeal chocolate chips. A gentle swell of soup, of chopping leeks and stirring broth, and steam rising from the big silver pot. It's a nice rhythm to be in, I think. No matter the weather, or the day of the week, I want cookies and soup. Sometimes in that order. It's a rhythm, alright, and I like it. It feels soft and round and perfect, like a big, fat matzoh ball.

photo by Ben Fenton

I'm sure this rhythm will change eventually, maybe into a new found love for surfing. Or, more realistically, for berry tarts. For now, though, I'll stick with my soup, and with my cookies. You can keep your oily stickers; I'm no longer in the market.

photo by Ben Fenton

Aunt Lissie's Matzoh Ball Soup
Adapted from Ina Garten and Streit's Matzoh Meal

This soup. It makes me want to hug someone. It has a deep, chickeny flavor, which is offset by sweet carrots and mild, pillowy matzoh balls. It's just so full of love. It's warming and hearty, without being heavy or rich. Thanks to the recipe on the box of Streit's matzoh meal, Lissie's matzoh balls are lighter than air and fluffier than a blow-dried Pomeranian. They're substantial enough to fill you up but won't leave you with that heavy, hibernation-seems-like-a-nice-idea feeling.

photo by Ben Fenton

We ate this soup last Monday night, at our family's Passover seder, and I wondered why we don't eat matzoh ball soup year round. Actually, this is something I wonder every year. This year, I plan to eat more matzoh ball soup. For reals. I'm convinced this soup could spawn world peace, if people would just let it. Won't you let it?

Ingredients:

For broth:

1 whole chicken
2 medium onions, quartered
3 carrots, unpeeled and chopped
4 stalks celery, with leaves, chopped
2 parsnips, chopped
1 bunch fresh parsley
1 bunch fresh thyme
1 bunch fresh dill
4-5 cloves garlic, unpeeled & smashed
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
3 teaspoons kosher salt

For matzoh balls:

1 cup Matzo Meal (Aunt Lis uses Streit's)
4 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
pinch ground pepper

To serve soup:

1 1/2 cups carrots, chopped (you can also use whole baby carrots)
1/2 cups celery, chopped
1 tablespoons minced fresh dill
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
reserved chicken meat, shredded into bite-sized pieces
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

To make the stock, put the whole chicken, stock veggies, herbs and seasonings in a large stock pot. Add enough cold water to cover everything, and put it over high heat to bring to a boil. Once the water comes to a boil, lower the heat and simmer the stock, covered, for 40 minutes. Carefully, using kitchen tongs, remove the chicken from the pot. Let the chicken cool for about 20 minutes, until it's cool enough to handle. Remove the meat from the chicken, and place the bones and carcass back into the pot. Refrigerate the meat until ready to finish the soup.

Continue simmering the soup gently for two hours. Make sure that the soup doesn't come to a full boil, or else it will be cloudy. After two hours, remove the soup from the stock and strain it through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. Remove the solids and discard.

At this point, the broth can be put back on the stove (to finish the soup), or it can be left to cool and refrigerated, up to a week.

To make the matzoh balls, beat the eggs vigorously in a large bowl. Add water, oil, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add the matzoh meal and stir thoroughly to combine. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, and up to 1 hour.

Partially fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Moisten hands with cold water and form matzoh meal mixture into balls, about 1 inch in diameter. Drop the matzoh balls into the water, and boil for 30 minutes. Drain on a paper-towel lined cookie sheet.

Note: At this point, the matzoh balls can be flash frozen, right on the cookie sheet (just remove the paper towels first). They store well in a zip-top bag in the freezer. To reheat, just drop them, frozen, into simmering stock and cook for about 20 minutes, until warmed through.

To finish the soup, reheat the stock in a large pot, bringing it to a simmer. (If you've refrigerated the stock and it's cold, skim off the layer of fat on top before adding the stock to your pot). Add carrots, celery, matzoh balls, and salt and pepper, to taste. Simmer the soup until the matzoh balls are warmed through (about 20 minutes, if they've been frozen). Add the reserved shredded chicken and simmer a few minutes more, until chicken has warmed. Add the fresh herbs, and serve immediately.

Makes about 4 quarts of soup, and 10-12 matzoh balls.

Happy Easter, Peeps!

2011-04-24T15:18:00.007-04:00

Not Hard To Eat

2011-04-23T21:43:00.009-04:00

Cream scones.

Cream.

Scones.

Today, I made some. I then ate approximately 4 of them, in rapid succession, and then felt approximately ill. But really, what was I supposed to do? My mother and her friends were sitting around our kitchen table, planning my cousin Laura's wedding shower and gabbing away about save the dates and "party flow" and napkin schemes. I love a good party, and I love Laura, but when it comes to bridal shower crockery, apparently I'm at a loss. Party flow. napkin schemes. What else could I do but shove warm cream scones down my gullet?

They're not hard to eat, these scones. They're fragile and flaky, and studded with tiny berries, bright and beautiful, like jewels in the sand. They smell of toasted butter and, though light and crumbling, feel satisfyingly heavy in your palm. That cream. And with a smear of soft butter and jam? You can forget all about napkin schemes. Which is just fine by me.

Berried Cream Scones
Barely adapted from Gourmet, March 1990

Cream scones are traditionally made with dried currants, I believe. I found a blend of dried berries at Trader Joe's called "Golden Berry Blend" with golden raisins, cherries, cranberries and blueberries, and found the resulting berry scones to be mildly awesome.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar, plus additional for sprinkling the scones (I used turbinado sugar for sprinkling)
1/2 cup dried berries (I used a mixture of dried cherries, cranberries, blueberries and raisins)
1 rounded teaspoon lemon zest
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing the scones
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (if you don't have a stand mixer just use a medium-sized bowl), mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar.

Add the dried berries and lemon zest, and mix to thoroughly combine.

Add the cold, cubed butter, and used the paddle attachment (or a pastry cutter or just two knives) to incorporate the butter into the flour mixture, until the butter pieces look about the size of lentils (or a bit larger).

Combine the cream, egg, and vanilla in a small measuring cup or mixing bowl. Pour the liquid into the flour butter mixture, and mix gently, until just combined. The dough will be shaggy and a bit crumbly - this is good. If you over-mix the dough, your scones will come out dense and tough, instead of light and flaky.

Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured counter top, and form it into a square about 3/4-inch thick. Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into squares (I got nine), and gently place the squares onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

NOTE: At this point, the scones can be put in the freezer, uncovered and right on their baking sheet, if you don't want to bake them immediately. I froze mine overnight and baked them off the next morning, from frozen. They work beautifully and this step saves you from having to wake up early to impress brunch guests.

Before baking, brush the scones with cream and sprinkle them with sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for about 12 - 16 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve warm, with soft butter and jam.

Makes about 9 scones.

Easy to Overlook

2011-04-06T00:25:00.009-04:00

Never gave much thought to parsnips. I mean, why should I? Parsnips. Albino carrots, really. With skinny tails. Easy to overlook in the root vegetable department.

Y'know? What's a parsnip ever done for me?

Parsnips don't do my laundry, or help with good hair days, or pay my taxes, or remember to DVR American Idol. They don't take good photographs, or vacuum the rug, or sing at all prettily, and they don't help make dinn-- oh.

They do. Turns out they make an excellent dinner.

Leek and Parsnip Soup

Leeks give this soup a gentle but flavorful base, and the parsnips do the rest. Sweet and earthy, with a touch of richness from the addition of Parmesan cheese and a scant glug of cream, this soup is one of the better ways to eat albino carrots. I mean parsnips. Squeezing in a touch of lemon juice at the end of cooking gives the soup a cheery brightness that elevates its status from soup to, well soup.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter (I like to use unsalted)
2 large leeks, white and light green parts only, washed well and chopped thinly
2 lbs parsnips (about 10-12), peeled and chopped roughly into small chunks
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
big pinch kosher salt
6 -7 cups chicken stock
1 small chunk of fresh parmesan cheese (about 1 or 2 inches square)
splash of heavy cream, to finish (about 1/4 cup)
juice from half a lemon
chopped scallions or chives, to garnish

Directions:

In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil and melt the butter over medium high heat. Add the leeks and stir to coat them with oil and butter. After the leeks have been cooking for about 3 minutes, add the chopped parsnips and cook until softened ever so slightly, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes, be careful not to burn, until the garlic is soft and fragrant. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper.

Add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Gently simmer the soup for about 20 minutes, until the parsnips are soft all the way through. Add the chunk of parmesan cheese and stir it around to help it melt into the soup.

Using an immersion blender or food processor, puree the soup until smooth (but still a bit thick). Stir in the heavy cream, the squeeze of lemon juice, taste the soup and adjust the seasoning.

Serve piping hot, garnished with a sprinkle of scallions or chives, and a hefty crust of bread.

Makes about 8 cups of soup.

Lunch

2011-04-06T00:01:00.006-04:00

The lines are long and the price tags are high, but it's tough to beat a lunch like this.

soppressata, prosciutto, fresh basil, avocado, marinated artichokes, sliced tomatoes, Anjou pear, fresh burrata

also wine, some grainy bread, jam, and a bit of light reading

chomp.

Thanks for the picnic, Eataly. Nice of you to set up shop around the corner.

Just Because

2011-03-21T11:46:00.012-04:00

Because it's getting warmer out, and because I can't in good conscience give you another cookie recipe.

Because I love olives, and hope you do, too.

Because burgers made with turkey don't have to taste like cardboard.

Because the phrase tomato jam just sounds so cozy and delicious.

Because the Katies and Perri and I ate them together, with pearl barley salad and wine. And wine. And wine. And wine.

Because I care about you.

Just because. Turkey feta burgers with olives. And tomato jam.

Turkey Feta Burgers with Olives & Tomato Jam
Adapted from Bon Appetit (August 2008)

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey
1 cup red onion, chopped
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
big pinch salt
pinch black pepper

for tomato jam:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup yellow onion, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes in juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
pinch salt
pinch black pepper

Directions:

To make the tomato jam, heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan, and add the onion, cooking until soft and fragrant. Once the onions are translucent, add the garlic and cook for a minute or two, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add the tomatoes with their juice, the sugar, thyme, salt and pepper, and bring the mixture to a simmer. Simmer the mixture over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated and you're left with about 2 cups of tomato jam. Remove the jam from pot and let cool.

To make burgers, place the ground turkey in a large bowl. Throw in the onion, feta, olives, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper, and mix gently, just until everything is combined. While mixing, try not to squeeze and mash up the turkey meat too much -- overworking the meat will result in tough, dry burgers.

Gently form the turkey mixture into six medium-sized patties, pushing your thumb in the center of each patty to form a small indent (burgers puff up in the center when cooked - making indents ensures a nice, flat patty, instead of a round burger that looks like a meatball).

Heat up the grill (or, if you live in a tiny apartment like me), grill pan, to medium-high heat, and brush the grill (or grill pan) with olive oil. Grill the burgers until slightly charred and completely cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.

Serve with fluffy rolls and tomato jam. And maybe a big scoop of ricotta, because it's damn good and that's the way I roll.

Makes 6 burgers and about 2 cups of tomato jam.

A Little Smackerel

2011-03-08T20:57:00.007-05:00

"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best—" and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.

From A. A. Milne, of course. Silly old bear.

I don't have a lot to say today; I just wanted to leave you with a little smackerel of something to taste.

Chewy Brown Butter Chocolate Pecan Blondies

These are a sort of specialty of mine. I've tested and re-tested this recipe a dozen times, and I'm pretty confident saying that these are the blondiest of blondies. They're moist, toothsome, and full of deep, rich flavor. Make them when you're in a brownie state of mind, but are feeling a bit devious. Like, brown butterishly devious. Go on. It's just a little smackerel.

Ingredients:

1.5 stick unsalted butter, plus extra for pan
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup dark brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
4 ounces chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and line a 8x12x2 inch baking pan with parchment paper, letting 2 inches of paper hang over the side of the dish. Butter the lining, too.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

Brown the butter in a medium saucepan, using medium heat and stirring often. When it’s finished, it should be a rich golden-brown color.

While the butter is browning, mix the two sugars in a large bowl, and break up any big lumps in the brown sugar. After the butter has browned, let it cool a bit and then pour it into the bowl with the sugars and whisk the butter and sugar together until combined.

Crack the eggs into a small bowl and then add them to the butter/sugar mixture. Add the vanilla and whisk until the mixture is combined. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips and pecans and transfer the mixture to the prepared pan.

Bake for 27 minutes or until the top cracks slightly and is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the center comes out with moist pieces clinging to it. Remove bars from pan using the parchment paper, and, once completely cool, cut them into 2-inch squares.

Makes about 20 to 25 blondies.

Depends How Good You Live 'Em

2011-02-09T00:00:00.009-05:00

How Many, How Much

By Shel Silverstein

How many slams in an old screen door?
Depends how loud you shut it.
How many slices in a bread?
Depends how thin you cut it.
How much good inside a day?
Depends how good you live 'em.
How much love inside a friend?
Depends how much you give 'em.

You didn't think I'd leave you without chocolate on Valentine's Day, did you?

Silly.

Chocolate Heart Sandwich Cookies with Whipped Espresso Ganache

Ingredients:

For the cookies:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (I like Droste brand)

For the ganache:

2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
pinch salt

Directions:

Preheat oven at 350ºF.

To make the cookies, first whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and espresso powder in bowl and set aside. Using the paddle attachment, mix together the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Turn off the mixer and add the flour mixture, then mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least a half hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter or between sheets of parchment paper until it's about 1/4-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out large heart shapes from the dough. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes, until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffy.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

While the cookies are cooling, make the ganache by mixing the cream and espresso powder together in a saucepan until smooth. Heat the cream mixture until it just starts to bubble and simmer at the edges of the pan, then pour the hot cream over the chocolate in a medium bowl. Let the mixture sit for a minute, and then gently use a whisk to emulsify the ganache - it will look smooth and shiny. Let the ganache cool in the refrigerator for about an hour. Once cooled, but still a bit runny, transfer the ganache to the bowl of a mixer set with the whisk attachment. Whip the ganache until it has thickened and lightened in color (it will take about a minute or two) - it will look a bit like buttercream when it's finished.

Spread the ganache thickly on the flat side of half the cooled cookies, and top with the remaining cookies to form sandwiches.

Serve with tall glasses of milk, and maybe a kiss for your Valentine.

Makes approximately 25 sandwich cookies (depending on the size of your cookie cutter).

I'll Think It's Pretty Cute

2011-02-06T14:32:00.015-05:00

I can't decide how I feel about Valentine's Day.

On the one hand, it's the most annoying day on the planet. I mean, what's fun about a tidal wave of cringe-inducing jewelry commercials and a slew of fussy and overpriced prix fixe "lovers" menus at every restaurant in town?

If you're single, Valentine's Day is an exercise in eye rolling - through endless public displays of affection and a general onslaught of cheesiness, usually in the form of some sort of romantic movie marathon on TV. If you're coupled, Valentine's Day is an exercise in obligatory romantic creativity -- intense pressure to find the perfect, adorable-yet-not-at-all-cliché expression of affection for your Valentine. Flowers? Chocolates? Please.

On the other hand, I like flowers. And chocolate, and John Hughes/Rob Reiner movie marathons. And if you ask me to be your Valentine, I'll think it's pretty cute. Just make sure you're ready for this jelly.

Blood Orange Jelly Hearts

These jellies are made with agar (instead of gelatin), so, in addition to being awesome and adorable, they are both vegan and gluten-free.

Agar is a natural vegetable gelatin counterpart, made from algae or seaweed. It's sold as a powder, and you can usually find it at health-conscious or vegan food stores (I believe it's sold at Whole Foods) and most Asian markets.

Fruit purées, such as the blood orange purée called for here, are sold frozen in many specialty stores, as well as online (Amazon carries it, as well as a site called perfectpuree.com). If blood orange isn't your thing, flavors like pomegranate, strawberry or cassis are delicious and would yield nice red colors for your Valentine.

We make these little guys at Liddabit Sweets, the Brooklyn-based candy company where I work. So if you don't feel like making your own batch, by all means, let us make them for you.

Ingredients:

50 grams agar
1020 grams sugar, plus extra for rolling
820 grams water
880 grams light corn syrup
820 grams frozen blood orange purée, thawed

Directions:

Make sure you have a deep-fry or candy thermometer at the ready. (One like this works perfectly here.)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the agar and the sugar. Put the water in a saucepan with tall sides, and begin to heat it on the stove top. Once the water has warmed, whisk the sugar/agar mixture into the water, and bring the mixture to a simmer. Add the corn syrup and stir gently. Latch the thermometer to the inside of the pot and bring the mixture to a boil. Cook the jelly mixture until it reaches 106º CELSIUS. Once it reaches 106ºC, turn off the burner and let the mixture cool to 90ºC.

Remove the mixture from the stove and add the fruit purée, stirring to combine. Pour the warm jelly mixture into a greased (Pam works well) half sheet pan (half sheet pans are essentially cookie sheets with dimensions 18"x13"x1").

Let the mixture cool in the half sheet pan for at least an hour, during which time the jelly will firm up. Test the firmness by pressing the jelly gently with a finger - it should feel just firm and slightly jiggly in the center. Once set, use a cookie cutter to cut shapes from the jelly, and place them on a cooling rack. Let the jelly shapes dry out for an hour on the cooling rack before rolling them in sugar to finish.

Go Packers?

2011-02-01T21:47:00.009-05:00

My littlest sister, a Wisconsin resident and Packer fan, wanted me to name this post "GO SIX PACK GO." She then thought better of the idea, deciding that "few people will get it. But I will, and Dad will. And then Dad will explain it to Mom and she still won't get it."

All true.

So, um, Go Packers? Cheese head pride?

To be perfectly honest, I don't much care about the football being played at this year's Super Bowl (sorry, Pops). I'm mostly in it for the food. And maybe the occasional E-Trade commercial. Oh, and the prospect of a new (!) episode (!) of GLEE following the game (don't judge. You know you're a closet Gleek).

Super Bowl food is just good. It's salty and tangy and creamy and cheesy and... salty. And it doesn't apologize for being so. The Super Bowl says, give me some wings. And some blue cheese. And guacamole. And some beer and a pizza and some chips. Chips, dammit! With dip.

Well, fine.

Homemade Wheat Pita Chips with Creamy Garlic Edamame Dip

I know it's easy to find good pita chips at the grocery store, so if you go with store-bought I'll understand, but I feel obligated to tell you that making your own is just so much more fun. And your game day friends will really appreciate you going the extra yard. You know, for the first down.

Zing.

*Note: Za'atar is a Middle Eastern spice mix made up of dried herbs, sesame seeds, salt and sumac. You can find it in specialty shops or else you can mix up your own.

Ingredients:

For pita chips:

8 small whole wheat pita breads
1 cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons za'atar*
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
big pinch of sea salt
big pinch of ground black pepper

For edamame dip:

2 cups cooked edamame, removed from the pod (I like the frozen bags of shelled edamame, plus extra for garnish, if you like)
1 cup mascarpone cheese
1 Tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 cup olive oil, plus extra for finishing
big pinch of salt
big pinch of ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. In a medium bowl, combine the olive oil and spices and mix to combine. Cut the pita breads into wedges (1 small pita bread should yield 8 wedges), and dip each wedge into the oil & spice mixture until fully coated. Place pita wedges in a single layer on a baking sheet or two. Bake the pita wedges in a hot oven for about 7 minutes (or until lightly browned), and then use tongs to flip each wedge, and cook for another 7 minutes, until chips are brown and crispy. Remove the chips from the oven and let cool.

To make the edamame dip, toss the edamame beans, mascarpone, garlic, salt and pepper, and a splash or two of olive oil into a food processor or blender. Blitz on high until chunky but starting to combine. Drizzle in more olive oil, a little at a time, as you continue to blend, stopping when the mixture is smooth and creamy. Taste the dip and adjust the seasonings - feel free to add more garlic, salt or pepper as necessary. Serve with homemade pita chips.

Makes about 3 cups of edamame dip and roughly 64 pita chips.

This Little Verse

2011-01-29T21:51:00.022-05:00

I recently came across this little verse and I think it's sort of fantastic.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon.

It was written by Edward Lear in 1871 as part of a longer poem called The Owl and the Pussycat. I've only just heard of it - how is that possible? The poem is funny and charming and ridiculous, and discusses a "beautiful pea green boat," a singing owl (an "elegant fowl") and a "land where the Bong-tree grows." And, as we've learned, something called a runcible spoon.

Illustration by Edward Lear

A runcible spoon. Couldn't you just eat that up? Isn't that the most satisfying morsel of verse? Don't you want something you can call runcible?

Well, I do. I looked it up and found out that runcible isn't even a real word; Edward Lear just made it up and put it into several of his poems. Isn't that the greatest thing you've ever heard?

Here are six things I'd like to runcibly eat with a spoon:

1. Chocolate Ice Cream

2. Curried Squash Soup (here's the recipe)

3. Aunt Marie's granola with cranberries, pecans and dates (here's the recipe)

4. An entire jar of peanut butter. Or Nutella.

5. Apple Betty (recipe here)

6. Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chicken Tortilla Soup
Adapted from Rebecca Goldfarb & The Social Table

Ingredients:

8 cups chicken stock (I like low-sodium)
2 large chicken breasts, boneless & skinless
1 head garlic
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1 dried chipotle pepper
2 limes
1 large onion, finely diced
1.5 cups sweet corn kernels, fresh or frozen
2 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped
salt & pepper to taste
shredded sharp cheese, for garnish
toasted tortilla strips or crushed tortilla chips, for garnish

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Once the oven is hot, roast the garlic: leave the garlic bulb whole and slice off the very top of the bulb, exposing the individual garlic cloves. Drizzle some olive oil to cover the exposed cloves, and wrap the entire bulb in some tin foil. Place the foil-covered garlic straight on an oven rack and roast for about 45 minutes, until golden brown and fragrant. Remove from oven and set aside.

In a large pot, bring the chicken stock to a boil. Add the whole chicken breasts and lower the stock to a simmer. Poach the chicken in the broth until fully cooked, about 25 minutes. Remove the chicken from the broth and let cool on a plate. Bring the stock back up to a boil.

Once boiling, add the diced onions, tomatoes, and chipotle pepper to the stock. Squeeze the individual cloves from the head of roasted garlic into the stock. Reduce soup to a simmer and cook gently for about 30 minutes.

While the soup is simmering, shred the cooled chicken breasts.

Once the soup has been simmering for about 30 minutes and smells a bit smoky from the chipotle, remove the chipotle chili from the soup and discard. Add the corn, lime juice, cilantro and shredded chicken. Simmer for an additional 10 minutes or until the chicken is warmed through.

Serve with a handful of shredded cheese, some toasted tortilla, and a spoon, runcible or otherwise.

Serves about 8.

Happy New(ish) Year

2011-01-10T23:16:00.025-05:00

Things I crave in the blustery, shivery, bleary month of January:

1. Long, quiet mornings, and the peppermint tea and crossword puzzles that come with them.

2. Snowy beach hikes with Mom and the littlest sister.

3. Bowls filled with belly-warming heartiness.

pasta with Ben Fenton's spicy sausage tomato sauce and fresh ricotta cheese

lentil stew with kielbasa and veggies

aunt Marie's turkey chili

chicken and rice soup

January is a difficult month. Here in New York, it's cold. Like, finger-numbing, eye-tearing, sorry-I-just-bumped-into-you-but-I-have-to-nuzzle-my-head-in-my-coat-because-otherwise-my-face-will-freeze-off cold. The holidays are over, so all the pretty lights have flown north for the next eleven months (apparently to some town named "Yourattic") and the city sidewalks are covered with dirty snow and pine needles, sad remnants of the merriment of Christmas past.

Despite the searing cold, people are full of resolution, so the gym is brimming with runners and kick-boxers and yogis, and the blond woman who's always there seems to now be always always there, which is both impressive and concerning.

Cookies are frowned upon. Salad is the darling of the month.

Ugh.

January plays host to this weird back-and-forth, one side of which takes one look outside and says stay in the warm, nothing good can happen out there, the other side chirping it's a New Year! Be happy and healthy! Run faster!

Well. Fine. I consider myself an optimist (and, you know, someone who likes her pants to fit), so I'll go to the gym. I'll make a big, productive to-do list. I'll drink more water, and less booze. I'll even eat a bunch of salad. But I will finish it all off with a cookie.

Freeze and Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies
Barely adapted from The New York Times

These are decidedly not healthy, but I use a bit of whole wheat pastry flour in the batter to make myself think that they, you know, could be. I also flash freeze the dough in single cookie portions, so I can store the ready-to-bake dough in my freezer and bake myself one (or two, c'mon now) warm, fresh cookie(s) at a time. This method eliminates the threat of baking an entire batch at once and feeling the need to eat them all. I mean, we all have our ways of cutting back after the holidays.

Ingredients:

8.5 ounces all-purpose flour
8.5 ounces whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1.5 teaspoons salt
2.5 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter, at room temperature
10 ounces light brown sugar
8 ounces granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

In a small bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes with the paddle attachment of a stand mixer). Add the eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. Add vanilla. Stop the mixer and add the dry ingredients. Gently mix together until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Using an ice cream scoop, drop cookies onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and use your fingers to flatten them slightly - you're getting ready to flash freeze them, not bake them, so don't worry about overcrowding the baking sheet; drop the cookies as close together as you can get them. When you've filled up an entire baking sheet, place the sheet in the freezer, uncovered, until the cookies are frozen through, about 2 hours. Once frozen, transfer the raw dough balls into a freezer-safe plastic bag and seal tightly. Store in the freezer up to 3 months, and when you're ready for cookies, bake at 350ºF for 10-15 minutes (baking time will vary depending on how large you make your cookies - just be sure to remove them when they're lightly golden and just browning around the edges).

Cookies For The Big Guy

2010-12-19T17:52:00.019-05:00

It's coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees...

And making Grinch omelets.

But I promised you cookies and, for the sake of a jolly old guy in a red suit, cookies you shall get.

Classic Christmas cookies - cut-out sugar cookies piped with royal icing, usually - are fun to make and nice to look at (especially these. And these), but sometimes they're, um... annoying. And before you gasp and yell "blasphemy!" I should tell you that I'm Jewish, so, you know. That's already sort of a done deal.

I love a good classic Christmas cookie, but a good classic Christmas cookie takes time and patience. The mixing, the rolling, the chilling, the baking, the cooling. Then the mixing of the royal icing and the coloring and the piping and the flooding and then, quite importantly, the drying. Only then can you bite the head off an unsuspecting snowman.

This Christmas, I'm going for simplicity and warm, comforting flavor. Chocolate chip. Pumpkin whoopie pies. Chewy holiday spiced snickerdoodles!

I think, even for a Jew, Santa would approve.

Chewy Holiday Spiced Snickerdoodles
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1.5 cups sugar, plus extra (about 1/4 cup extra) for rolling
3 oz cream cheese, cut into small pieces
6 tbsp butter, melted
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp ground cinnamon,
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl.

Combine the 1.5 cups sugar and the cream cheese in a large bowl, then pour the warm butter on top and whisk to combine. The mixture will be slightly lumpy. Whisk in the oil until combined, and then add the egg, milk and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Add the flour mixture all at once, and beat gently until the dough forms.

Using a spoon or an ice cream scoop, portion out the dough by the heaping tablespoon, and roll gently into balls. Put some sugar in a shallow bowl (about 1/4 cup) and stir in the spices. Roll each dough ball in the spice/sugar mixture, and place on a baking sheet, evenly spaced. Gently press each ball of dough with your hand or the back of a drinking glass to flatten slightly. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just set and the cookies look slightly cracked. If you can't decide if they're done, take the cookies out of the oven. In the case of these chewy delights, underbaked is better than over.

Serve with a tall glass of milk for Santa, and maybe a side of carrots for Rudolph et al.

Just Take A Second

2010-12-05T21:57:00.018-05:00

I know I should be focusing on holiday cookies right now (both today's snow flurries and the calendar say we're well into December), but I want to linger over Thanksgiving for a bit. I mean, at this point, what's the harm in another piece of pie?

classic pumpkin pie

roast capon

Gramma Inez's pumpkin cheesecake with cranberry swirl

roasted root vegetables

Or some homemade brioche rolls?

sweet potato brioche rolls

sweet potatoes with pecans and parmesan. and toasted mallows.

roasted Brussels sprouts with crispy pancetta

Can I just take a second to say... yum?

I've been basking in the full-bellied warmth of Thanksgiving for the past week and a half, thinking about all the time spent in the kitchen, the scent of warm butter, fresh herbs, and toasted pecans, Emily's très adorable table decorations, and the hilarity that ensues when you combine a table full of cousins and an iPhone app called "FatBooth."

Julie, Casey & Teddy post FatBooth

new cousin Julie (yay!) and Casey

Mama and Popsicle

As far as I'm concerned, cookies can wait another week. I'd rather have another slice of pie.

I would be proud to partake of your pecan pie

With that in mind, allow me to present my official 2010 Pie Lover's Gift Guide:

a classic pie dish by Emile Henry
Terrain's ruggedly beautiful solid birch Pastry Board
I'd say a pie bird, but who needs birds when this little piglet is available?
a stainless steel pastry scraper - maybe not as exciting as a pie piglet, but a must-have for any serious baker of pies
these miniature cutters make for pie decoration perfection
there's something about a round cooling rack that just makes me happy
a set of snowy ceramic pie weights, for when dried beans just won't do
a French rolling pin, bien sûr
a pumpkin pie candy bar from the confectionists du jour, Liddabit Sweets
this apron from Anthropologie basically defines the word adorable

So, there you have it - a comprehensive guide to most things pie, just in time for the holidays. Next stop - cookieville.

We Will Eat

2010-11-12T16:48:00.011-05:00

Know what's nice about November?

Everything.

November means pumpkins.

pumpkin whoopie pies! Thanks for the recipe, Martha.

And squash!

bulgar wheat salad with roast butternut squash and goat cheese

And crackly orange leaves, and crisp, chilly days, and Thanksgiving menu planning.

After much family chatter (mostly just lots of emailing with Aunts Maggie and Lis), this year's menu is finished. Deliciously. Want to see?

Thanksgiving 2010:

Inez's Chopped Chicken Liver on Crackers
Gravlax with Mustard Sauce and Fresh Dill

Roast Capon with Lemon and Thyme
Italian Sausage, Mushroom & Sage Stuffing
Cornbread Stuffing with Chorizo & Fennel
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Roasted Root Vegetables with Crumbled Goat Cheese
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta
Sweet Potatoes with Pecans and Parmesan
Cranberry Fruit Conserve
Sweet Potato Brioche Rolls

Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
Apple Betty
Fresh Cinnamon Whipped Cream
Chocolate Whoopie Pies

What do you think? It's lots of food, but then, there are a lot of us, and we do Thanksgiving right. This year, it'll probably go something like this: we'll pour drinks. Then we'll argue about who actually won the family football game, get caught up on all of the family gossip over gravlax and chicken liver, pour (another) glass of wine, and then we will eat, in earnest. And we will eat. And then? We'll moan about being full while we watch football and eat leftovers.

Personally, I can't wait. What are you planning to have on your Thanksgiving table this year?

I Made A Video

2010-10-15T18:04:00.002-04:00

About my favorite sandwich. Because I'm very normal and definitely do not have too much time on my hands.

Presenting:

Peanut Butter & Jelly!

(Starring Peanut Butter & Jelly).

Apple Betty and Me

2010-10-11T22:07:00.023-04:00

On a beautiful Saturday in October, when sisters are readily available, it's important to go apple picking.

Not everyone can have sisters, and that's too bad, but everyone can find a few apples somewhere, and everyone should, at least once, try to make an apple betty.

If the gosh darn gee whiz wholesomeness of the name alone doesn't get you (I mean, come on - apple betty! Paging June Cleaver...), maybe the brown sugar shortbread base piled with spiced apples, gingersnap cookie crumbs and a wash of melted butter will.

If you think something like this sounds awesome, that's because it is. Awesome. The shortbread is rich and warm and, thanks to the brown sugar, tastes almost like caramel. The apples roll around in a bit of sugar, ground cinnamon, cloves and ginger, get a shot of citrus juice and vanilla, and are then buried in a mess of spicy gingersnaps and doused with smooth, liquid butter, which, of course, permeates the entire betty with a round richness that's just so good you could cry. You could cry, people.

But, instead of crying, you'll probably ask yourself what the hell apple pie is even doing here anymore, and deftly cut yourself another slice. Of the easiest and most delicious apple dessert you'll make this fall: a betty.

Apple Betty
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, September 2000

Since I came across this recipe a week ago, I've made it twice. Two times. In one week. Apple betty and I made our debut at a fun family dinner in Philadelphia, and we were applauded so thoroughly I thought I'd bring her out again to celebrate the recent engagement (!) of my dear friends Jenny and Steve. Betty didn't disappoint on her second outing, even though I used graham cracker crumbs instead of ginger snaps.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 - 2 cups homemade or store bought gingersnaps

for shortbread base:

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

for apple filling:

1 1/4 sticks (1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
2 lb tart apples (I like Granny Smith, Golden Delicious or McIntosh)
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
juice from 1 lemon
juice from 1/2 orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

To make shortbread: Pulse the flour, brown sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add the butter and pulse until small lumps form (the dough will not seem to fully come together, but will look sandy). Sprinkle the dough into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish and press evenly to form the base of the apple betty. Bake in the middle rack of the oven for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.

While the shortbread bakes, grind your gingersnaps and prepare your filling. Place gingersnaps in a food processor and pulse until they look like bread crumbs. Peel, core and slice apples into 1/4-inch slices, and place in a large bowl. Sprinkle apples with 1/3 cup of sugar, ground cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Squeeze citrus juices on top of apples and add vanilla extract. Stir apples with clean hands or a spoon to evenly coat with sugar, juice and spices. In a separate, smaller bowl, stir together flour and 2/3 cup sugar.

Melt the 1 1/4 sticks butter on the stove top or in the microwave.

When the shortbread is out of the oven and still warm, sprinkle it with half of the sugar/flour mixture. Layer the apples, then the remaining sugar/flour mixture, and top with an even sprinkling of ground gingersnaps. Drizzle the melted butter on top of it all, and

bake in upper third of oven, pressing down on filling with a metal spatula halfway through baking, until apples are very tender and gingersnap crumbs are deeply golden, 50 minutes to 1 hour total. Cool 20 minutes in pan on a rack. Serve with generous scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Serves 10-12.

Sort of a Beautiful Place

2010-10-03T21:27:00.026-04:00

As it turns out, I was in Seattle last weekend. I'd never been before, and it's sort of a beautiful place, if you're into amazing markets and fresh fish and misty ocean views.

I spent the weekend eating and boating and biking, walking through parks and markets, and surrounding myself with fleece-wearing, messenger-bag-toting computer geniuses. I even stumbled upon some sort of medieval sword fighting slash jousting convention in Gas Works Park (definitely a highlight of the trip - and definitely still kicking myself for not getting a photo).

I touched a starfish at the Seattle Aquarium,

and got completely overwhelmed at Pike Place Market.

I ate the best crumpet I've ever tasted at The Crumpet Shop, a little tea nook and bakery on 1st Avenue by Pike Street.

And y'know what? It barely rained a drop. All that talk about Seattle being all wet and brooding? Lies. They don't want you to know, but Seattle is actually gorgeous and flecked with sunshine (at least, it is in September). That said, I might have to go back and double check the whole weather situation. It'd be a sacrifice, but I think it's one I'm willing to make - for my readers, of course. The trip would totally be a weather-researching thing. I mean, it'd have nothing to do with crumpets, that's for sure.

Crumpets with Butter, Ricotta and Jam

Recipe from The Bread Book by Linda Collister & Anthony Blake

Ingredients:

2 cups (230g) bread flour
1 2/3 cups (230g) all purpose flour
¾ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 envelope active dry yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons), plus ½ teaspoon sugar
2 ¼ cups (510ml) lukewarm water
2 teaspoons (10g) salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup (140ml) lukewarm milk

unsalted butter
whole-milk ricotta cheese
your favorite jam (I like blackberry)

Directions:

Sift together the flours and cream of tartar into a large bowl. Mix the yeast and the sugar with ¾ cup lukewarm water and let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in the remaining lukewarm water.

Combine the yeast mixture with the flours in the bowl of an electric mixer set with the paddle attachment. Mix until you get a very thick, but smooth batter. (If you don't have an electric mixer, use a wooden spoon and beat vigorously for about two minutes). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm spot until the batter rises and then falls, about 1 hour.

Add the salt and beat the batter for about 1 minute. Then re-cover the bowl and let stand in a warm spot for 15 to 20 minutes to rest.

Dissolve the baking soda in the lukewarm milk. Then gently stir it into the batter. If the batter seems too stiff, add a bit of lukewarm water to loosen it up a bit. (You'll know if the batter is too stiff if, when you fry up a crumpet, no holes form - crumpets are supposed to be very light and full of holes. No holes = too stiff, add water).

Heat an oiled griddle or frying pan (cast iron works best) over moderately low heat for about 3 minutes until very hot. Put a well-greased crumpet ring (who owns crumpet rings? Feel free to use a round cookie cutter) on the griddle. Spoon or pour 1/3 cup of the batter into the ring. The amount of batter will depend on the size of your crumpet ring (or cookie cutter).

As soon as the batter is poured into the ring, it should begin to form holes. If holes do not form, add a little more lukewarm water, a tablespoon at a time, to the batter in the bowl and try again. If the batter is too thin and runs out under the ring, gently work in a little more all-purpose flour and try again. Once the batter is the proper consistency, continue cooking the crumpets in batches, three or four at a time. As soon as the top surface is set and covered with holes, 7 to 8 minutes, the crumpet is ready to flip over.

To flip the crumpet, remove the ring with a towel or tongs, then turn the crumpet carefully with a spatula. The cooked side should be chestnut brown. Cook the second, holey side of the crumpet for 2 to 3 minutes, or until pale golden. The crumpet should be about ¾ inch thick. Remove the crumpet from the griddle. Grease the crumpet rings well after each use.

While the crumpets are still warm, slather each with a pat of butter, a mound of ricotta and a spoonful of jam. Eat immediately, accompanied by a cup of tea and, if you can find one, a fleece-wearing computer genius.

Makes about 18 crumpets.

Writer Waiting

2010-10-01T15:50:00.005-04:00

Oh this shiny new computer--
There just isn't nothin' cuter.
It knows everything the world ever knew.
And with this great computer
I don't need to writin' tutor,
'Cause there ain't a single thing that it can't do.
It can sort and it can spell,
It can punctuate as well.
It can find and file and underline and type.
It can edit and select,
It can copy and correct,
So I'll have a whole book written by tonight
(Just as soon as it can think of what to write).

-Shel Silverstein

A Trooper

2010-09-20T00:12:00.024-04:00

If I ever have to spend some time at a hospital, as a patient I mean, I'd like for you to bring me a milkshake. Milkshakes are an appropriate gift any time, of course, but I think being a patient at a hospital, especially, calls for a black and white or, at least, a coffee milkshake.

Grandma seems to like them. Grandma's in the hospital, recovering from some pretty major cardiac surgery. Without going into all the aortic details, I’ll just say that it was scary stuff, and dammit all to hell if all those tubes and wires and nurses and drips and drugs wouldn't just make me lose my mind. But, not Grandma.

She has her good days and bad, but Grams is what we like to call a trooper. Like, with a capital T. She ignores all the wires, the needles, the web of plastic tubes. She got agitated in the Intensive Care Unit, not because she was, well, in the ICU, but because she found out that the Yankees had lost their two-game lead in the AL East. Hooked up to multiple beeping screens and monitors, she smiles at the nurses who come in to prick her already purple fingers (under the guise of "checking sugar levels," load of finger-bruising hogwash, if you ask me), jokes with the physical therapists who make her walk the halls until she's breathless, refuses to flinch while throwing back her daily 12-pill cocktail and, through the entire ordeal, somehow emerges with absolutely flawless hair.

As beautifully as she’s handling the whole thing, it’s not been easy. It’s hard to watch someone you love in pain, being uncomfortably poked and prodded and pushed to exhaustion, and handle the fact that you can do, oh, nothing about it.

Except, of course, bring food. Forget the fact that all of the meds leave Grandma with virtually no appetite – I don’t really care. A milkshake, some applesauce, freshly baked biscotti, home made egg salad – these are things I can control and, well, I’m bringing them. Never mind that it’s usually Gram’s many visitors, and not Gram herself, doing most of the snacking. It makes me feel better to be rolling and cutting biscotti, chopping veggies, to be armed with a milkshake as I roam the stark hospital corridors.

I’m not sure when Grandma will be out of the hospital – hopefully pretty soon – but one thing is for certain – pricked and bruised and wired and tubed she may be, but she’ll definitely never be hungry.

Grandma’s Roast Chicken with Onions and Potatoes

It’s hard having a Grandma in the hospital, but it’s equally hard having a mother whose mother is in the hospital. Mom’s been driving herself into the ground trying to stay on top of her already stressful job and keep an eagle eye on Gram’s care, so I made this chicken to have in the house, where it’d be waiting as an easy and comforting dinner after long days spent shuttling from the office to the hospital and back again.

Ingredients:

2-3 medium onions, sliced into half-rings
¾ pound baby yellow or Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced in half
olive oil
1 whole chicken (bone-in & skin-on), cut into 8 pieces
1 lemon
1 bunch fresh thyme
salt
pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Toss the onion slices and potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper, and arrange on the bottom of a large glass baking dish.

Rub the chicken pieces with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the chicken, skin-side up, on top of the onion/potato bed.

Slice the lemon in half, and squeeze the juice from ½ the lemon over the chicken, onions and potatoes. Cut a few thin slices of lemon and arrange on top of the dish. Squeeze the juice of the remaining piece of lemon onto the casserole.

Sprinkle a generous amount of thyme leaves, and a few whole thyme stems, on top of the chicken, onions and potatoes.

Bake the chicken at 400ºF for about an hour, until the skin gets dark and crispy and the meat’s juices run clear. Serve with a bit of rice and a crisp arugula salad.

Note: this dish can easily be made ahead of time – just let the chicken cool before storing it in the fridge or freezer, and, when you’re ready to eat, cover the dish with foil and reheat in a 350º oven for about ½ hour.

Serves 4-6.

Just Fine By Me

2010-09-08T11:07:00.034-04:00

So... that happened.

Summer? Over. Private chef duties? Done like dishes.

vanilla cream cheese frosting covers carrot cake with walnuts

shrimp salad in zucchini ribbons

chocolate chip meringue cookies

vanilla flower cupcakes

tomato artichoke salad cups

chocolate chip pecan blondies

A few days ago, Labor Day came and went, oblivious to its surroundings, including a fake hurricane on Long Island (Earl who?), an accepted proposal (congrats, Laura and Peter!), a subsequent celebratory family dance party (work it, Aunt Lissie) and, finally, the end of my employment in the Hamptons (yes! Not that I didn't like it. I'm just, you know, glad it's over).

To be honest, as jobs go, this one wasn't all bad; I got to cook everyday, and I got paid to do it. I learned how best to accommodate a family with different preferences and tastes, and how to cook for a crowd on short notice. I got to experiment with menu ideas and recipes, and discovered that I make damn good biscotti. And scones. And coconut cake.

Living and working in someone else's house in a town miles from anyone you know and love, though, can feel pretty isolating. And by "pretty isolating," I mean "real effing lonely." So when Labor Day finally rolled around, I left my post in Bridgehampton and scooted as quickly as possible to Gramma's house in Montauk, to soak up the last days of summer with some good food, a hammock, and, best of all, my family.

seared sea scallops & quinoa

fresh cut watermelon

I think I've made it pretty clear how much I love my family, but, if you'll indulge me, I think it bears repeating. My family is big (and getting bigger - welcome, Jeannie and Peter!), loud, and wonderful. We celebrate with gusto. We joke, we eat, we dance around a beer bottle. We watch the sun set on the beach and then sit on Gramma's deck, under the stars, our heads back, watching shooting stars paint the open sky.

Aaron, Katie, Molly, Peter

Ben & Katie

Laura & Peter. He put a ring on it.

Uncle Brad

Aunt Marie, Dana, Aunt Lissie

Matt & Patty

Ben & Aaron

I guess Peter's funny

Laura, Julie & Jeannie

rum & tonic

some cousins

So, as far as summers go? I'd say this one was just fine by me.

Laura and Peter's Engagement Fluke
(see what I did there? Eh? Ehh? Zing.)

Ingredients:

2 lbs jumbo fluke fillet (or any other white fish, such as halibut), skin removed
3 medium sweet onions
1 large bulb fennel and a handful of chopped fennel fronds
olive oil
1.5 tsp dried tarragon
1.5 tsp dried thyme
salt
fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup white wine or triple sec

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Peel the onions, and cut each one in half. Then, slice the onion halves thinly, into 1/4- or 1/8-inch slices. Set aside. Cut off the fennel fronds and chop a handful of fronds for later. Slice the bulb in half. Use a knife to cut out the tough fennel core, then slice the fennel like the onion, into thin slices. Mix the fennel slices with the onions, and then put a layer of onion/fennel slices at the bottom of a large glass, aluminum or metal baking dish. Drizzle the layer with olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Place the fluke fillet(s) on top of the fennel/onion bed, and drizzle again with olive oil. Season the fish with some salt, pepper, tarragon and thyme. Cover the fish with the remaining fennel and onion, and repeat the olive oil drizzling & salt/pepper seasoning process. Pour the wine or triple sec around the fish fillet, and sprinkle the fennel fronds on top of it all.

Place the baking dish in the preheated oven, and bake for 20-30 minutes, until the fish is just cooked through and the fennel/onions are crisp at the edges.

Serve with sautéed zucchini, grilled corn, and a diamond ring, if at all possible.

Serves 4.

A Bit Of A Fog

2010-08-23T13:07:00.021-04:00

Today, it rained in the Hamptons. Which seems appropriate, because I feel like I've been in a bit of a fog over the past week.

You know that feeling? The feeling like things are happening around you and you're trying to get a hold on them but no matter how you twist and stretch you just can't keep your grip on a thing? That foggy-ish, hazy-ish, crazy-ish feeling? No?

Oh.

Well, I do. And let me just say, thank goodness for family. Specifically, mine. Whether I'm freaking out about having to feed fourteen or making a terrified trip to the ER (don't worry, everyone's okay), I know my family is there to snap me out of the haze, to pull my feet firmly back to the ground and make everything, somehow, alright.

Aunt Lissie

Aunt Lissie's t-shirt

See what I mean?

I guess that's really what families are supposed to be all about - comfort, support, love... and large bottles of wine paired with uncannily appropriate t-shirts, when necessary.

I know that not all families work out like that. Since mine does, I guess I'd just like to say, thanks.

Thanks, family, for picking up your phones, for cooking me dinner, for coming to the rescue, for being my family. Keep it up, if you please.

And now, this week's Private Chef Chronicles: Summering in the Hamptons (Part 4: A Week in Photographs):

melons at the farmstand

grilled heirloom tomatoes

blueberry peach crumbles

crostini with white bean dip and cherry tomatoes

marriage of s'more and cupcake

a highly anticipated union

s'more please

lobster salad, for 9. (note: generally ill-advised. apparently lobster meat is not cheap)

banana cupcakes with chocolate and vanilla frosting

kitchen fruit bowl

vanilla pudding pies, Nilla wafer crust

blueberry muffins. wearing pink today.

my mid-morning snack. (it's a fig.)

sugared apricot and almond torte (I adapted the recipe from another Molly)

looks even prettier (and, presumably, tastes even better) after it's baked

So, there you have it. A confusing and crazy week, maybe, but not without some lessons learned: eat well, be grateful, and chill. Done, done, and... well, I'm working on it.

A Popsicle For Your Thoughts

2010-08-12T13:35:00.037-04:00

Private Chef Chronicles: Summering in the Hamptons (Part 3!)

Well, oy.

The thing about private cheffing is, at least in my experience, it involves food. I mean, SO. MUCH. FOOD.

See?

banana toffee cupcakes

oreo cupcakes

oven-roasted bbq babyback ribs

blueberry frangipane tart

the makings of a damn good egg salad

peanut butter and jam cookies

blueberry muffins

strawberry short cake

not so short.

salad with shaved radishes, fried shallots and carrot-ginger dressing

blueberry banana cake

red velvet cupcakes

with vanilla-mascarpone frosting

carrot mint salad with lemon vinaigrette

tomato and mozzerella salad... for 30

sliced sirloin, carrot salad, and crispy oven potatoes

various forms of chocolate-dippery. diptitude.

cobb salad

paella

apricot cherry cream scones

Yeah. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

Some days, I feel like I'm simultaneously running a bakeshop, a 24-hour diner and a full-service catering company. Last weekend I cooked for a party of 35. Luckily, my sister came to help me, (I made her slice potatoes for an hour straight - sorry, Case), because if she hadn't come I might have curled up in a ball and melted into a puddle of tears on the kitchen floor. Instead, all 35 guests were fed (well fed, I should say), and neither Casey nor I am any worse for the wear.

I am, however, feeling just a little bit burnt out, which is probably why I've started experimenting with popsicles.

On my days off and in my free time (free time?! hilarious), I've been taking some of my favorite summer fruits and converting them into the coolest, most delicious popsicles.

So far I've made strawberry basil pops (yum, see above), cherry wine pops (used too much wine, oops), honeydew lime pops (mouth-puckering and zippy) and, my favorite, whiskeyed peach pops.

To me, the peach popsicles taste the most like summer.

When I was a kid on summer vacation, my mom's dad, Grandpa Arnie (PopPop), used to make us sweet, frosty drinks with fresh peaches, crushed ice and, in true Arnie fashion, lots of alcohol. (For the adults, I mean. Mostly. ). PopPop didn't spend much time in the kitchen (the closest he really got was the porch right outside the kitchen, where he stood his post as family rib-barbecuing afficionado), so these were a real treat. PopPop was a big time golfer and liked to spend most of his time outside, usually fixing things. He once held his breath so long fixing the drain at the bottom of the pool I thought he'd drowned - as I leaned over to see if the drain had swallowed him up, he popped up from the bottom and, grinning, spit a mouthful of pool water at me.

PopPop's not around anymore, but these popsicles remind me of him. So, naturally, I think they're the best.

Whiskeyed Peach Popsicles (PopPop Pops)

Ingredients:

4-5 ripe peaches
1/2 cup greek yogurt (nonfat or regular)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
a handful of fresh ginger, cut into small pieces (it's okay to leave it unpeeled)
3 tablespoons whiskey

Directions:

First, make a ginger simple syrup: Combine the water, sugar, and ginger in a small pot over a high flame. Once the mixture boils, turn off the heat and let the ginger steep in the cooling syrup for a half hour. Strain the ginger from the syrup and place the syrup in the fridge to cool. (Note: if possible, do this step ahead of time - it really speeds up the popsicle-making process. Simple syrup will last weeks in the refrigerator).

Cut the peaches, working around the pit, into wedges (no need for nice, even pieces... if the peaches start to fall apart, that's fine). Then, peel the skin from each wedge. (If this is too difficult because the peaches are too ripe, don't worry about it. A bit of peach skin never hurt anyone. Or any popsicles, for that matter.)

Put the peach pieces into a food processor with the yogurt, lemon juice, whiskey, and about 3/4 cup of simple syrup (more if the peaches are under ripe, less if they're super sweet). Pulse until well-mixed.

Pour the mixture into small plastic cups (I used 3 ounce plastic solo cups. It's nice to know that solo cups have a place in my life, even after college.) and put the cups in the freezer to chill. After an hour of chilling time, stick one popsicle stick into each cup, and put the cups back in the freezer. Let the popsicles chill overnight to fully harden. When you want to eat one, run the plastic cup under a bit of hot water to loosen popsicle, and the pop should twist right out. Enjoy with good weather and a bunch of free time.

Makes about 15 small (3-ounce) popsicles.

All I Have To Show For It

2010-07-19T21:18:00.030-04:00

Private Chef Chronicles: Summering in the Hamptons (Part 2!)

Well, today is Monday here in the Hamptons. All day. Just wanted to keep you guys in the loop. You know, the super exclusive, utterly fabulous loop of summertime in the Hamptons. I ran into Gwyneth Paltrow the other day at yogalates, and we chatted about the benefits of getting weekly facials and the state of our hydrangeas over nonfat soy lattes.

Nope. That didn't happen.

What did happen is that I cooked things. I went ahead and cheffed. Privately. I've officially been a private chef for 4 weeks now, and this is all I have to show for it:

banana cream tart

butter & jam thumbprint cookies

goat cheese & zucchini tartlettes with green salad

almond & apricot biscotti

hors d'oeuvres - tortilla chicken cups with tomato, corn and edamame

rustic peach cake. Ingredients? Rustic and peaches.

chocolate chip cookies, naturally.

and the ever-present oatmeal raisins. I make a lot of cookies.

toasted coconut cake

strawberry shortcakes

Asian-style (ish) beef salad

chocolate-dipped strawberries

caramel macarons

carrot cupcakes

And rice krispie treats. Because, at this point, why the hell not?

The good news is that I'm still alive, am still getting paid to cook, and have decidedly mastered the art of the grilled vegetable.

Also, I get to spend my days off sleeping late, doing -- or, um, trying my really, really hardest to do -- crossword puzzles (Thursdays are hard, yo), and drinking chocolate milkshakes with my gorgeous Grandma.

All at my favorite sunny house at the end of the island. The one with the big yellow door, the closets that smell like mothballs and the old raccoon prints in the garage.

There's no yogalates or soymilk, and I don't cook anything.

But it's really pretty wonderful.

Oh, Hey Employment. We Meet Again... In The Hamptons.

2010-07-09T21:31:00.027-04:00

Private Chef Chronicles: Summering in the Hamptons (Part 1)

So, did you all have a nice, relaxing long weekend to celebrate the 4th of July? Sunbathing, barbecuing, boozing it up with your friends and family? Yeah?

Eff you.

...Just kidding. Though I got to participate in approximately none of the above because I was busy cooking myself into the ground and then not getting to eat anything because apparently that's what you sign up for when you decide to become a private chef, I don't begrudge you your fun-filled holiday weekend. Much.

No, actually, the fact of the matter is, multiple private dinner-parties during fun summer holidays aside, I'm getting paid to cook, and that's pretty damn awesome.

Want to see some of the things I've been making for my very special Bridgehampton family? (I'd tell you more about them, but for now I'd like to actually keep my job. Maybe later I'll tell you that they're a family of four - a mother, a father, and two teenage daughters - and that they like to have a plate of crudité before and a platter of oatmeal raisin cookies after every evening meal. But for now you know nothing.).

Here, the savories:

Spiced homemade pita chips with garlicky edamame dip

Grilled veggie platter

Grilled sweet corn

Endive with white bean dip and cherry tomato

Caprese salad action

Grilled vegetable salads, ready for eating

Grilled halibut with tomato, corn and black bean salsa

And here, the sweets!

Chocolate Whoopie Pies

Banana whoopie pies

Cake truffles

4th of July cupcakes

4th of July chocolate-dipped pretzel rods

Yeah, I did temper chocolate for this. ...What?

4th of July strawberry shortcake

Patriotic cookie platter

Unpatriotic berry cobbler

So um, yeah. I've been busy. Tomorrow, I'm cooking for a party of twelve. The menu is ambitious, but I'm excited about it. It has potential. If it's successful, I'll tell you about it in my next post. If it fails... I'll probably still tell you about it. For now, have some crudité. ...It's mandatory.

News and Cupcakes

2010-06-22T17:13:00.026-04:00

Ahem... is this thing on?

Just checking. It's been about two months since I last updated this little nook of the internets, and that's a long time, in blog years.

At any rate, I'm sorry - I didn't intend on leaving you all post-less for so long. Here's everything you need to know about the past few (fine, many) weeks:

1. I graduated from pastry school. I am now a pastry chef. (I'm doing my best to sound casual about this. Actually, I'm pretty damn excited about it. HOLLER.)

2. I went on a Eurotrip with my mom, dad, and sister, Casey. A week-long trip to Tuscany, with a day of Rome and a bonus day in Berlin, to boot. Oh, you want to see pictures? Well okay then.

Berlin's wurst wurst.

Beautiful Tuscany

First dinner in Radda in Chianti

Not at all life size Chianti wine cork

First breakfast in Raddi in Chianti

First cappuccino

Wild Boar - Cinghiale - regional specialty

Strega Nona?

I definitely didn't hang out here. Nope.

Not even a little bit.

getting mad air by the leaning tower of pizza. ...Pisa.

Tim Burton-ish Cathedral in Siena

Pretty window in Volterra

Just a couple of gladiators, out on the town. ...When in Rome?

3. I got a job. A real one, as the private chef to a New York City family of four. Oh, did I mention it's in the Hamptons? Yeah, I'll be "summering" in the Hamptons for the next few months, cooking my little heart out for my employers and all their well-to-do guests. I feel like I should get my own reality show.

4. Sour cherry cupcakes. Or muffins. But really, cupcakes. Cupcakes slash muffins...Cuppins?

Sour Cherry Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting

I adapted these (only slightly) from a recipe I saw on Smitten Kitchen. Deb uses fresh peaches in her cupcakes, but when my sister, Casey, and I saw some seductive looking sour cherries at the Ardmore Farmer's Market, we decided they'd be a welcome substitute. Turns out we were right.

Straight out of the oven, these guys are the fluffiest, most delicious muffins, but swirl on a bit of frosting and they turn into fluffy, delicious cupcakes with the perfect balance of sweet and tart. It's up to you - go sans frosting for muffininity, or pile it on for cupcakery. Either way, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Ingredients:

For cupcakes:

3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) sour cream
1 1/2 cups fresh sour cherries, washed, stemmed and pitted

For frosting:

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 8-ounce packages of mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup (4 ounces or 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions: For cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 28 muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. Cream the butter and sugars together, beating until fluffy. Add the vanilla and eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl between each addition. Gently mix in the sour cream. Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the cherries.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes for five minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For frosting:

In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cornstarch and powdered sugar. In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone and butter until fluffy. Add the sugar-cornstarch mixture and vanilla, and beat until frosting is smooth and light. Chill the bowl in the refrigerator until it firms up a bit, about 30 minutes, then spread on cooled cupcakes.

Casey "helps" with the frosting

Makes 24-28 cupcakes.

View From the Farmer's Market

2010-05-02T15:15:00.012-04:00

On a sunny, springy weekend in New York City.

Tulips, my favorite. Such deep color, but so friendly and familiar. Just so pretty. And here are some nice, fat French radishes.

It'd be a shame not to take some home and make them a cozy bed on a baguette with some salted butter. Just saying.

I almost bought one of these:

Just because. But then I decided that a 16-egg omelet for breakfast might be a bit much. So I bought some rhubarb instead, and made some strawberry rhubarb compote.

Which I scooped on top of a piece of warm butter cake, and promptly ate for breakfast. It may have been a bit much, but I think I might do it again tomorrow.

Nigella Lawson's Brittany Butter Cake

I like this cake. It's one of those everyday cakes - not terribly fancy... it's actually quite plain, but delicious nonetheless, and worthy of a few minutes in the kitchen - which is all you'll need, as this requires very few ingredients and comes together in a snap. It's moist and dense - it's texture is more like a blondie than like actual cake, but I don't know, I'm into it.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes
6 large egg yolks

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. Remove 1 teaspoon of egg yolk from your 6, and mix it in a small bowl with 1 tablespoon water. You'll use this as a glaze later on.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together the flour and sugar. Add the butter and egg yolks, and slowly whir them together with the paddle attachment. (If you're making this by hand, make a mound of the flour on the counter, make a well in it and add the sugar, butter and eggs, kneading to mix thoroughly).

Scoop the dough into the pan and smooth the top with a floured hand (dough will be sticky!)

Brush the cake with the yolk/water glaze, and mark a lattice design on top with the prongs of a fork.

Bake the cake for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350ºF and give it another 25 minutes or so, until it's golden on top and firm to the touch.

Let it cool in the pan, then unmold.

Serves 8-10.
This cake will keep well in an airtight container.

Sugar

2010-04-25T20:49:00.022-04:00

(doo doo dee dee dah dah) ahh honey honey.

Just wanted to post a few pictures of what my classmates and I have been doing at school these days - mostly playing with sugar. Poured sugar, blown sugar, pulled sugar, rock sugar... it's uh, pretty sweet. (heyo!)

Lollipop anyone?

Candy cane!

Ribbon candy

Poured sugar pets

My partner and I made a guitar-playing marsupial. Naturally.

Jessica's blown sugar fruit basket. She's kind of awesome.

Kristyn's blown sugar giraffe. Also awesome.

Hungry hungry caterpillar

Chipmunks in love in sugar

Sugar Scrabble board

You sunk my sugar battleship

Operation!

The most delicious board game of all

Pretty sweet, huh?

Death By...

2010-04-01T14:58:00.008-04:00

Chocolate, duh. Or, more specifically, death of mini chocolate "cupcakes" by ferocious, mean-faced chocolate cupcake monster.

Don't follow? It's okay. Look:

This is my latest FCI-assigned chocolate project. The assignment was to design a chocolate showpiece that embodies this theme: if you were a creature or monster, what would you be?

This is me.

I'm calling it (me?) a "quarter-life cupcake crisis monster." What do you think? Can you see the resemblance? Notice the swirly chocolate "frosting" - maybe brunette curls?

And these are my poor, delicious little chocolate victims:

It's too bad they're so adorable and delicious. Maybe if they weren't made out of pure chocolate, I wouldn't want to eat them.

...Yeah who am I kidding? Of course I would. I'm a pastry school student, for pete's sake. Eating cupcakes is like, homework.

Life is really hard sometimes.

Merry...

2010-03-25T20:02:00.004-04:00

No one's hangin' stockin's up,
No one's bakin' pie,
No one's lookin' up to see
A new star in the sky.
No one's talkin' brotherhood,
No one's givin' gifts,
And no one loves a Christmas tree
On March the twenty-fifth.

- Shel Silverstein

Pastillage Cake Stand by Sarah K.

He's Going To Ask For A Glass Of Milk.

2010-03-23T16:52:00.013-04:00

Just wanted to show you what I made at school this week:

It's a cake stand! Made of pastillage!

Pastillage. Pah-stee-YAHJ. It's really just a paste made from sugar, cornstarch, vinegar and gelatin - you roll it out like pie dough and cut it into shapes, and it dries hard. Then, barring any major disasters (this stuff is de-li-cate. It likes to crack and shatter), you can glue your shapes together with royal icing or isomalt, and voilà!

Cute little guy, isn't he?

You know, I'm sort of sensing a trend with these showpieces. I think someone has a Peter Pan complex.

Oh, what, you think it's me? Just because I happen to like chocolate chip cookies? And adorable mice? Tiny little sugar mice who like to wear overalls and cookie crumbs?

...Fine. But I mean come on - have you ever read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, by Laura Joffe Numeroff (great name, by the way)?

If you haven't, you should. And if you have, you sorta like my cake stand, don't you?

Admit it. You want a cookie.

I wonder what happens when you give a blog-reader a cookie. Let's find out, shall we?

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 sticks butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon sea salt, such as fleur de sel, for sprinkling

Directions:

Working in a large pan over medium-high heat, brown the butter. Just swirl the pan of butter over the heat until the milk solids start to separate and turn brown. Once the butter is browned, pour it into a metal bowl and put it in the freezer to cool.

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Once the butter has completely cooled to room temperature, whisk it vigorously with the sugar until it is light and pale yellow. Whisk in the eggs one at a time until thoroughly blended. Mix in the vanilla, then stir in the flour mixture gently, until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Using an ice-cream scoop or two spoons, drop the batter by the tablespoon onto the prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle each of the cookies with some sea salt, and then bake for about 12-15 minutes, until the edges have browned and the cookies are golden. Allow to cool, about 5 minutes, before enjoying... with a glass of milk, naturally.

Makes about 50 cookies.

Really Quite Wonderful

2010-03-21T13:37:00.012-04:00

Here in New York City, Spring is springing. Want to see?

Also, there are people outside. All kinds of people, just hanging out! Strolling, even! No one's hurrying down the street, hands clutched over the collar of a big jacket, heavy boots clunking and head bent down against the wind. Today, heads are turned up, bare arms are swinging, and faces are soaking in the sunshine. It's really quite wonderful.

True it's only March, and this gorgeous sun is bound to hide away again, giving us only peeking glances of its uplifting warmth until its usual playtime sometime around May, but for now it's putting me in a damn good mood, and I just can't be bothered to care.

Or to eat anything that's not this:

I can't decide if I should call it pasta or salad (pasta salad? Just seems too pedestrian for something so light and fresh), but it's a perfect, effortless meal for these warm, breezy days, however fleeting.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Tomatoes, Arugula, and Pine Nuts

My cousin Katie made this for me for dinner last week, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. It's healthy and fresh, and takes only minutes to prepare - the whole thing comes together effortlessly while the pasta water is boiling. We gobbled this up as-is, but it would be great mixed with some grilled chicken or shrimp for a heftier meal.

Ingredients:

1 box whole wheat spaghetti
a few large handfuls fresh arugula
one half pint cherry tomatoes, chopped in half
1/4 cup pine nuts
olive oil
chopped parsley, for sprinkling
parmesan cheese, for sprinkling

Directions:

Boil a large pot of salted water for the pasta, and cook as directed on the box. While the pasta is cooking, place the pine nuts in a single layer in a large, dry sauté pan over medium heat, and toast until fragrant and lightly browned, stirring occasionally. When the pasta has finished cooking, strain it and add some olive oil to coat the noodles. Throw in the arugula, tomatoes, and pine nuts, and sprinkle some parsley and parmesan on top, to taste. Give the pasta a toss and serve in large bowls with extra cheese, if you like.

Serves about 4.

Kiss Me, I'm...

2010-03-17T17:11:00.008-04:00

A brunette? Hmm, no. ...A person who likes cheese? Yeah you're right, that's probably not it. Oh wait, wait, I got it:

TOP OF THE MORNIN' TO YA! LUCK OF THE IRISH!! HAPPY ST. PADDY'S DAY!!! WOOOO!

woo.

Yeah... I'm not really that into this holiday. Notwithstanding my name, I'm not Irish and, if we're being totally honest here, I suppose I'll just admit that I don't really know who St. Patrick was or what he did to land himself a holiday. To me, St. Paddy's Day is less of a holiday and more of an excuse for dressing monochromatically and day-drinking. Which is fine by me. I'm just saying.

At any rate, if you're interested in paying homage to St. Patrick in a way that doesn't involve salacious t-shirts or green beer, I know of something that may help. It's called Irish Soda Bread.

I recently thought that I didn't like Irish Soda Bread, until we made it at school and I promptly scarfed down an entire loaf. You'd think there's something off-putting about the combination of caraway seeds and dried currants, but it's actually kind of inspired. And it turns out that the term Irish Soda Bread is a bit misleading, given that, in texture and crumb, this loaf is exactly like a giant scone.

Even if you're not into day-drinking, don't you think this sounds like something you can get behind? Erin Go Bragh, Lads!

Irish Soda Bread

This makes enough dough for two 6-inch round loaves. Make two, freeze one? Or eat both. I won't tell anyone.

Ingredients:

390 grams all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
50 grams granulated sugar
25 grams butter, cut into small chunks
110 grams dried currants (raisins are a fine substitute)
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
280 milliliters buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Combine the all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar in a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Cut in the butter, using two knives or a pastry cutter, or the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, until the butter is the size of peas.

Add the currants and caraway seeds. Add the buttermilk, and mix just to combine. The dough will still look a bit shaggy, but that's okay.

Shape the dough into two round loaves, and cut a deep, broad "X" in the top, approximately 1 to 1 1/2 inches deep.

Bake the loaves on a large sheet pan (or two), lined with parchment paper, for 30 to 40 minutes, until a brown crust forms and a skewer comes out clean.

Enjoy with a few pats of soft butter. And a green beer, if you're so inclined.

Oh, Bother

2010-03-10T16:14:00.006-05:00

"I like Rabbit," said Pooh.

"...Because he uses short, easy words, like 'how bout lunch?' And 'help yourself, Pooh.'"

I've always been a big fan of A. A. Milne and his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood. Eeyore, Piglet, Owl, Rabbit, Tigger, Kanga and Roo - and of course, the rumbly-tumbled Pooh Bear himself. And here he is! Isn't he cute? So cute you could just eat him, I think.

Yep, that's our friend Winnie the Pooh, in chocolate form. Entirely edible! The base is white chocolate with a flower-patterned transfer sheet print, the hunny pots are molded dark chocolate, filled with white "chocolate plastic" hunny, and Pooh Bear himself is a creamy milk chocolate cutout. His shirt and the bumblebee on top of his head are also modeled from chocolate plastic. ...Don't worry, it's not actually plastic - it's made from sugar, water, corn syrup and melted chocolate - more like a very flexible tootsie roll. At any rate, it's great for small decorations on chocolate showpieces. Like, say, for molding a silly old bear's t-shirt.

Or a bowtie and apron for the pizza man.

made by Sarah K.

Gahhh - don't you just love chocolate?

In the comments from my last post, someone asked if I have a recipe for homemade marshmallows. I like to use this one from Alton Brown. It makes a lot of marshmallows though, so you may want to cut it in half. You could flavor them simply with vanilla, as Alton suggests (listen, in my head we are on a first name basis, ok? Shut it.), or you could throw in some cinnamon or use peppermint extract to spice them up a bit. Either way, enjoy these fluffy mallows with some hotta chocolatta!

Hotta Chocolatta

2010-03-07T14:36:00.017-05:00

(Please listen to this while reading this post).

This week at school, we learned about chocolate. Cacao. Chocolat. We learned pretty much all there is to know about it - how it's made, where it's from, the difference between brands of milk, dark and white chocolate, and how to work with each. We tempered and we tasted, and I must say, it was a delicious week.

We made chocolate cake topped with chocolate leaves!

We made little chocolate squares filled with crispy hazelnut feulletine.

We made truffles,

And chocolate boxes to put them in.

But, there's always room for more chocolate. So I wrote a chocolate poem (it's not made of chocolate, though, so don't try to eat it):

Chocolate

Choco-late, choco-late,
Cho-co-late.
Choco-late, choco-late,
It is great!
Especially
When I get to eat it.

Hot Chocolate (Hotta Chocolatta):
Adapted from Ina Garten

"Hotta, hotta, chocolatta - flip a dip a whip-a-cream in the middle of a hotta, hotta, chocolatta - pick her up and drink her down!"

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups whole milk
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
4 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon instant espresso or coffee powder
cinnamon and marshmallows, for garnish

Directions:

Heat the milk in a saucepan on medium heat to just below the simmering point. Remove the pan from the heat and add both chocolates. When the chocolates are melted, add the sugar, vanilla extract, and espresso and whisk vigorously. Reheat gently and serve immediately. Serve with a splash of cinnamon and a handful of marshmallows!

Yield: 4-5 servings

Smack Dab In The Middle: The Midterm

2010-02-25T20:45:00.019-05:00

Well guys, it seems we are smack dab in the middle. In the middle of a slushy, sleety New York City snowstorm, on a day that marked the midway point in my pastry program at FCI. And you know what that means, don't you?

Midterm!

The midterm for the pastry program at FCI is much different than the midterm for the classic culinary program - mostly because instead of turning out dishes of sautéed skate and roast chicken, pastry students have to make cake. Doesn't that sound hard? Doesn't it sound like a test you would just hate to take?

I know.

Actually, to be fair, today's midterm wasn't just about cake. It was about whole egg foam cake and separated egg foam cake and chiffon cake. And buttercream and Bavarian cream and fruit mousse and chocolate glaze and fondant and even (in some soon-to-be-revealed cases) rice krispie treats.

The assignment was to create a "celebration cake" and, using the medium assigned (I pulled Genoise cake, buttercream and fondant from the exam designation hat) decorate your cake to fit your theme. My class turned out some absolute stunners - birthday cakes and Mother's Day cakes, cakes for baby showers and bridal showers and valentines:

Kelsey's 4th of July cake

Jessica's Birthday cake

Zoe's Spring Celebration

Sarah's Sweet Anniversary Cake

Chelsea's Birthday cake

Audra's Baby Girl cake

Mai's Bridal Shower Beauty

Kristyn's Mamma's Day cake

Lawpo's Sweetheart cake

And me? I chose the Olympics. Specifically, the popular ("popular?") phenomenon known as curling. You know, curling? The Olympic sport ("sport?") where the guys (or gals, or 6-month pregnant gals) wear a slippery shoe and throw a teapot down an alley of ice so that the other guys (or gals, etc.) with the Swiffers can yell and try to get the teapot to... to do something, anyway. It's fascinating. Or, at least, it's mildly entertaining.

And in some matches (curling matches? games? rounds? I don't pretend to know), I hear it can sometimes get a bit delicious:

A curling cake! A cake designed to look like a curling stone! Happy Winter Olympics!

View from the top

View from the back

Aaaand from the side.

Info: this cake is a vanilla genoise, soaked with amaretto simple syrup, filled with coffee buttercream, and covered in rolled fondant. I molded the curling stone handle out of rice krispie treats and covered it with fondant before affixing it to the cake with toothpicks.

Amaretto-soaked vanilla genoise and coffee buttercream filling

Won't You?

2010-02-14T18:20:00.004-05:00

WON'T YOU?

Barbara's eyes are blue as azure
But she's in love with Freddy,
Karen's sweet but Harry has her,
Gentle Jane is going steady.
Carol hates me, so does May,
Abigail will not be mine,
Nancy lives too far away...
Won't you be my Valentine?

-Shel Silverstein

V-Day Bites

2010-02-10T17:19:00.015-05:00

I'm a single gal... obviously. I mean, it's always been just the one of me. At any rate, I'm also a single single girl. Which some people might say is my cue to be a Valentine's Day hater, but I'm not biting. Yes, the commercialization of the holiday is rampant and gross, but I can't help but appreciate a holiday so closely involved with chocolate. And sugar. And things that are cute and pink.

Take these, for example.

White chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. So cute!

These little Valentines are moist and cakey. And they're sweet but not too sweet, as the best Valentines always are. Make them for your significant other or, if you're single, for your significant others (hi Ems, Case, Mom, Katies, Jenny, Co, Rads, Carly, Kath, Meredith, Tina and Jeannie! Love you, txt me, cutie pies.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

White Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

For cupcakes:

1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 ounces white chocolate (I used Ghiradelli white chocolate chips)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk

For frosting:

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 ounce white chocolate, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest
3 teaspoons milk or cream
2-3 cups confectioners sugar
Conversation hearts, for decorating

Directions:

For cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Line 24 cupcake molds with paper liners. Whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt. Melt the chocolate in the microwave at 30-second intervals, or over a pot of simmering water.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and beat until smooth. Add the white chocolate and vanilla extract. Next, add the dry ingredients and the milk in alternating additions, starting and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Pour the batter into the paper-lined cupcake molds, and bake for 20-30 minutes, until the cakes spring back to the touch and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes before frosting.

To make the frosting, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add the chocolate and beat until smooth. Add the vanilla, zest and milk, and then add 2 cups of confectioners sugar. Beat to combine. If you want thicker frosting, add more confectioners sugar (just be aware that this will make the frosting sweeter, obviously).

Once the cakes are thoroughly cooled, spread or pipe the frosting on top. Decorate with conversation hearts.

Makes 24 standard-sized cupcakes.

In Defense Of Eggs

2010-02-01T18:25:00.006-05:00

Lest this become a blog dedicated entirely to baking (because wouldn't that just be awful? Horrors.), I'd like to tell you about eggs. Did you know that the French only eat one egg at a time? It's true. Just ask them, and they'll tell you that one egg is un oeuf. Un Oeuf... enough...get it? Do ya get it? Y'know, because an egg, in French, is pronounced like enough... so, um, it's funny because... because...

Fine.

So, eggs. Despite being an integral part of most baked goods and breakfasts (and even some lucky lunches and dinners) worldwide, it's not easy to be an egg. Not a day goes by without an egg getting cracked, whipped, scrambled, beaten, or fried, and sometimes even (!) separated. The poor little dears - it's just not right, all that egg-related violence, and I think something should be done about it.

That's why I like to bake my eggs. Gently. I like to tuck them gingerly into little ramekins, nestled sweetly against a soft bed of Sriracha-glazed scallions, and tenderly bake them until they're pleasantly set and ready to be served with buttered toast. The whole process takes minutes, and is really a very humane way of preparing a simple and delicious brunch.

If you bake your eggs on a pile of Sriracha-glazed scallions, which I highly recommend that you do (not only to support the institution of brunch but also to spread the message of intolerance for crimes against egg-manity), you'll probably want to eat more than just one. Which I can assure you is perfectly alright. When faced with piping hot ramekins filled with sweet and spicy scallions and lovely, runny yolks, I think at least two or three eggs will be more than un oeuf.

...ZING!

Baked Eggs with Sesame and Sriracha-Glazed Scallions

Ingredients:

2 eggs
8 scallions, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 teaspoons of Sriracha, or to taste
1-2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
salt and cracked black pepper, to taste
extra chopped scallions, for garnish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Heat olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium high heat. Throw in the chopped scallions and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the scallions start to become soft. Stir in the Sriracha, and cook for about a minute. Deglaze the pan with the rice wine vinegar, stirring the scallions for a minute, until they look shiny and glazed. Turn the heat down and season the scallions with salt and pepper. Off the heat, stir in the sesame seeds.

Spoon the scallions into the bottom of two small ramekins (or one larger ramekin, big enough to hold 2 eggs) placed on a sheet pan or cookie sheet. Crack the eggs into a bowl, and gently pour one egg into each ramekin, on top of the scallions. Be careful not to break the yolks.

Lightly season the top of the eggs with salt and pepper, and place the ramekins into the oven. Bake the eggs for 10-15 minutes, or until the whites have set and the yolk is still a bit runny.

Serve immediately, with an extra sprinkling of scallions and a slice of buttered toast (or maybe even a flaky croissant).

Serves 1.

Cake Walk

2010-01-25T21:03:00.029-05:00

I'll give you cake guesses as to what I made in school this week. Umm I mean, eight guesses. Eight layer guesses.

Shoot.

Ahem. This week at school we made cake. Lots and lots of cake. And buttercreams and Bavarian creams and ganaches and fruit mousse and chocolate mousse and Marty Moose. It was delicious.

Cakes on parade:

Vanilla Genoise (Egg Foam Cake) with Vanilla Buttercream

Angel Food Cake

Chocolate Genoise Cake with Chocolate Ganache Glaze

Dacquoise Cake with Coffee Buttercream

Charlotte Russe, Pear Bavarian Cream

Marjolaine Cake

Lemon Loaf Cake

Charlotte Royale

Chocolate Cupcakes

...with chocolate fudge frosting

Fruit Miroir Cake

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Pecan Coffee Cake

Nice little lineup, huh? Maybe try this one:

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I was never big into carrot cake, but I think it's mostly because of the walnuts. Being as I'm allergic, I always shied away from walnut-clad cakes and, since most carrot cakes are choc full of that tricky nut, I never had the pleasure of enjoying this delightful treat. My version uses pecans, and is both dense and flaky, faintly sweet from the carrots and sufficiently tangy from the cream cheese frosting. I suggest you try it. Especially if you're finding yourself fading in your early January resolution to "eat healthier this year." I mean, come on - this thing is bursting with bright, health-inducing carrots. It's like eating a salad. Except it's way better. Because it's cake.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

125 grams cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
220 grams granulated sugar
170 grams vegetable oil
60 grams pecans, chopped
165 grams carrots, grated (about 1 large carrot)

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

450 grams cream cheese, room temperature
180 grams butter, room temperature
200 grams powdered sugar
zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour one 9-inch cake pan. Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Whip the eggs and the sugar in an electric mixer until foamy and doubled in size. When you lift the whisk from the bowl, the egg/sugar mixture should fall in a thick ribbon from the whisk and keep it's ribbon shape for a few seconds after it falls into the bowl.

Very slowly drizzle the oil into the egg/sugar mixture. Once the oil is fully incorporated, add the sifted dry ingredients and mix just to combine. Gently stir in the nuts and grated carrots.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake the cake at 350ºF for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Immediately (and carefully! The cake will be fragile and crumbly) unmold the cake onto a cooling rack.

To make the frosting, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar until smooth and soft.

Add the lemon zest, sour cream, and vanilla extract.

Once the cake is cool, slice it carefully into two layers. Spread a small amount of frosting onto the bottom layer and cover with the top layer. Completely cover the layered cake with the frosting. This recipe makes a lot of frosting - you may have some left over. If you wish, pipe rosettes on the top of your cake using a star tip, and garnish with extra chopped pecans or marzipan carrots.

Note: This is a very delicate cake, so, if you have time, you might want to consider freezing it overnight before cutting and icing - the frozen cake will be easier to cut and assemble. The cake is best served the day it's assembled/decorated.

Pancakes and Pretty Things

2010-01-16T14:31:00.011-05:00

Some pretty things for a Saturday afternoon during a warm spell in January:

gold flecked macaron cookies

pink gerbera daisies

brioche à tête rolls, looking like little Russian dolls. Or maybe birds on a wire.

my favorite new pie dishes, from Anthropologie

miniature brioche beehive, covered with torched french meringue and marzipan bees

And as it's Saturday, I thought you might like a nice pancake recipe. Much easier to make than pains au chocolat, and perhaps just as delicious.

Saturday Pancakes
Adapted from The Cookworks

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup melted butter
chocolate chips, fresh blueberries, sliced strawberries or sliced bananas

Directions:

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the wet team: eggs, buttermilk, and melted butter.

Add the wet team to the dry team, and stir gently with a whisk or wooden spoon, just until the batter comes together. The batter will look lumpy and under mixed - this is good. Over mixed batter makes flat, heavy pancakes.

Heat some butter in a skillet over medium heat. When the pan is hot, spoon 1/2 cup batter into the skillet, and sprinkle a few chocolate chips, blueberries, or bananas on top. Cook for about 2 or 3 minutes, until little bubbles begin to form on the surface. Flip the pancake and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes.

Serve with extra butter and maple syrup. And maybe some bacon.

Makes about 12 pancakes.

PANCAKE?
by Shel Siverstein

Who wants a pancake,
Sweet and piping hot?
Good little Grace looks up and says,
"I'll take the one on top."
Who else wants a pancake,
Fresh off the griddle?
Terrible Theresa smiles and says,
"I'll take the one in the middle."

Pains Au (Ohhhhhh) Chocolat

2010-01-12T16:09:00.024-05:00

There was a time, not too long ago, when, like many of today's youth, I was in college. That time was four years ago. ...Sigh. I'm still jealous of people who get to be college students - people who get to live in dorms and apartments surrounded by all of their friends, who get to spend gorgeous fall days reading novels (or, um, maybe just drinking grain alcohol) outside "on the quad," get to take naps at 1:00 pm on a Tuesday... people who get to spend a semester studying abroad.

When I was in college (those four, long years ago), I took the opportunity to study abroad for a semester in Paris.

View from la Tour Montparnasse

Pyramide du Louvre

Place des Vosges

View from the Seine

Notre Dame

Sacre Coeur

La Moulin Rouge

The experience was, on the whole, awesome. I lived with a french family, the Fraisses, in the 15th arrondissement - Hughes, Brigitte, and their 20-year-old daughter, Solveig. They were perfectly lovely and did their best to try to make me, an awkward, semi-french-speaking college kid, feel comfortable in their spare bedroom. I lived with them for five months and ate dinner with them nearly three days a week, but, though we tried to connect, French to American and American to French, we were never really close, the Fraisses and me. I think it's because of the food.

Three nights a week, I'd sit down to dinner with the Fraisse family and, three nights a week, it would be weird. Forget coq au vin or saumon en croute, heck, forget a simple wheel of brie - the Fraisse family liked to eat fish sticks from the freezer and sad, limp pains au chocolat that came out of a supermarket package. They once served me soup that contained spaghetti noodles, grapefruit slices, and mussels out of the shell. I'm not sure where they got the idea for that recipe, but let me tell you, it was a bad one.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful or snobby - I like fish sticks just as much as the next person and I did, afterall, very politely choke down the entire bowl of grapefruit/mussel/noodle soup, but I mean come on - I was in Paris, for goodness sake! I had an entire world of culinary mastery at my fingertips - crusty breads and smelly cheeses and meltingly braised meats - and there I was, at la dinner table des Fraisses, eating a frozen fillet of cod.

You know what? I didn't care about the cod. I could deal with those unfortunate mussels. What really got me were the pains au chocolat. Those poor, sad little pains au chocolat, dense and soggy in their packaging, looking like little chocolate-studded lumps of defeat.

In all fairness, the Fraisses made up for all of their culinary shortcomings by being an exceedingly nice family and always having a jar of Nutella in the cabinet, but to this day, the thought of those heavy, stale, storebought pains au chocolat makes me wince. So whenever I see a real, fresh, patisserie-style pain au chocolat, flaky, chewy and airy, butter-scented and filled with pockets of deep chocolate, I sigh a great, heaving breath of pains au chocolat relief.

And I gobble it right up.

Pains Au Chocolat

Chocolate-Filled Croissants

Ingredients:

500 grams bread flour
65 grams granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
40 grams butter, pounded with a rolling pin (between sheets of plastic wrap) until it is soft and has the consistency of hand cream.
25 grams fresh yeast (can substitute 13 grams active dry yeast)
125 grams water
125 grams milk
300 grams butter
1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water, for egg wash
chocolate bâtons

Directions:

Making the croissant dough:

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the 40 grams of softened butter, and mix until incorporated.

Dissolve the yeast in the water and milk, and then add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture, mixing just to combine. The dough should be very rough and shaggy. Gather it into a ball, and wrap the dough in plastic wrap, shaping it into a square as you do so. Let the dough chill and rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

When the dough is fully rested, roll it out into a rectangle approximately 3/8-inch thick.

Prepare to incorporate the 300 grams of butter - place the butter between sheets of plastic wrap and smash it with a rolling pin until it is as soft as the rest of the dough. Shape the butter into a square - this will be place on top of the rolled out rectangle of croissant dough and folded in, so you want to make sure that your square of butter is large enough to cover 2/3 of the croissant dough.

Place your large butter square over the bottom two-thirds of the rectangular croissant dough.

Now, for the folding - think of a business letter. Fold the top flap of croissant dough, which should be free of any butter, down, on top of the middle 1/3 of the buttered dough. Then, fold the bottom 1/3 of buttered dough up, so it rests on top of the other two sections of folded dough. It now looks like a business letter. Rotate the dough 90 degrees so that the fold is now on the left, and then gently press the dough together with the rolling pin, so that the package of dough compresses slightly. This is called a "letter turn," and you've just completed one.

Wrap the croissant dough and chill it for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, unwrap the dough onto a floured board, and place it so that the seam of your "letter" is on the right. Again, roll out the dough into a rectangle approximately 3/8-inch thick. Do another letter turn - fold the top third of the dough down, and fold the bottom third up, making a package of dough that looks like a business letter. Re-wrap the dough and chill it for another 30 minutes.

The same rolling/folding/turning process will be repeated 1 more time, for a total of 3 letter turns, resulting in consistent, distinct layers of butter and dough - this kind of dough is called a laminated dough.

Important: be sure to wait at least 20 - 40 minutes between each "turn" of the dough - this helps the gluten to relax and prevents the butter from melting out, and ultimately results in a flakier, more tender croissant.

At this stage, the package of croissant dough may be frozen for future use.

Assembling the pains au chocolat:

Using a sharp knife and pressing straight down, cut the package of croissant dough in half. Roll the two halves of croissant dough into two rectangles, each approximately 24 by 8 inches and approximately 1/4-inch thick. Next, cut each rectangle of dough in half the long way, so you end up with 4 long rectangles of dough, each roughly 24 wide by 4 inches high.

Place two of the rectangles on a sheet pan and chill them in the refrigerator. Working with the two remaining pieces, brush the top edge of each rectangle with egg wash. Place a row of chocolate bâtons along the bottom edge of each piece of dough, opposite the side with the egg wash.

Fold the near edge over the bâtons and place a second row of bâtons on the dough. Fold the dough again to encase the second row of chocolate bâtons, and to meet the egg-washed edge.

You should now have a long roll of dough containing two rows of chocolate bâtons. Slice the log into individual pastries, about every 4-inches. Place the raw pains au chocolat onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, making sure to spread them out evenly, leaving them plenty of room to expand. Repeat the entire process with the two remaining rectangles of dough.

Cover the raw pastries with plastic wrap sprayed with nonstick cooking spray (such as PAM), and leave the baking sheet to sit in a warm place for about 30 minutes to allow the croissants to proof. Make sure that they're not left to sit someplace too hot, or the butter in the dough will melt out. The ideal temperature for proofing pains au chocolat is about 75 degrees F.

After the croissants have proofed for about 30 minutes, or once they are nearly doubled in size, brush them with egg wash, completely covering the exposed surfaces but not allowing the egg wash to drip or pool.

Bake the pains au chocolat at 350 degrees Farenheit for 15 to 20 minutes, or until medium brown and flaky.

Once finished, remove from the oven and place the pastries on a cooling rack - this will prevent them from getting soggy.

This recipe makes about 20 pains au chocolat. You could probably halve the recipe, but as these are so labor-intensive, you may want to make a full recipe and either freeze the unshaped dough for later use, or freeze the assembled, un-proofed and un-eggwashed pastries. Then, when you want fresh pains au chocolat, you can remove a few, unbaked, from the freezer, place them on a sheet pan and bake them from frozen.

Important notes to remember about assembling pains au chocolat:

Do not roll the dough too thinly, or the layers in the dough will be destroyed.
Keep the dough chilled at all times while working with it.
Use only a little bit of flour on the bench when shaping the pastries.
When rolling the chocolate into the dough and assembling the pastry, try to make sure that the seam runs down the middle of the pastry - this will prevent the pain au chocolat from unraveling while it bakes.
Pains au chocolat do not keep well, and should be served the day they are baked.
If, however, you are wondering what to do with day-old pains au chocolat, use them to make bread pudding!

All Carb Diet

2010-01-08T15:40:00.016-05:00

Look at this. Do you see this?

Cinnamon Nut Danish

Spiked Pecan Sticky Buns

Spiked, Pecan...

Sticky, Sticky Buns

Orange Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Swirls of Orange and Cinnamon

Pear, Cherry and Apricot Fruit Cake

Fruity Cake

This is what they call a nice, big eff you! to any kind of resolutions anyone might have had for a slightly leaner 2010. It's also what I've been making at school this week. Apparently, Viennoiserie doesn't just mean "yeast leavened baked goods." It also means "chubby 2010."

Well, you know what? FINE. As long as I keep getting to learn about yeast and proofing and fermentation and crumb and crust, I'm decidedly ok with that. I mean, just look at these.

See that? I made that!

That, dear friends, is what is called a Sally Lunn Bun. Not only is it buttery and chewy and delicious, it has the best name I've ever heard for what is basically a dinner roll. Now I don't know who Sally Lunn is, but I will say this - I like her buns.

I know it doesn't look like it now, but I do have recipes for you - they're coming soon, I promise. For now, check out my brand new, interwebs-savvy twitter page. Olivejuiced tweets!

Dropping The Ball

2010-01-06T18:21:00.013-05:00

Wait What? What just happened? I think I blacked out. I remember a lot of cookies, some kind of miracle that took place on 34th Street, some Chinese takeout and something about a ball dropping... at any rate, now it's bitterly cold outside and the sidewalks are covered in pine needles and confetti.

Any ideas? Hm?

Let's see... from the look of it:

tiny lederhosen-wearing cookie

Snowmen cookies. And Brett Favre.

It was definitely not my birthday (no cupcakes is clue number one), and I'm pretty sure I'd remember Flag Day.

Anyway, I have this list of "resolutions" I found on my desk the other day, and I thought I'd share:

1. Learn to make croissants.
2. Blog more. More than twice a month. Once a week.
3. Have more fun exercising.
4. Visit Seattle. And Brasil.
5. Read more books.
6. Learn to can things. Canning.
7. Go ice skating.
8. Understand what's going on on LOST.
9. Spend more time with friends and family.

So, what about you? What are your Flag Day resolutions?

Not So Much A Cake Walk

2009-12-20T21:44:00.011-05:00

Well, I finished my second full week of pastry school. I can't truthfully say it was the best week ever - mostly because I got dreadfully sick and spent the week fighting a fever and trying to keep my lungs from being coughed out of my chest, but there were some pastry-related incidents as well.

Because of the fever, I had to miss éclair day. My pastry cream came out lumpy. I burned a pan of caramel so badly it ended up looking like a pan of dry, blackened charcoal. Oops. Also, we made croquembouche, which were supposed to look like holiday-themed, conical towers of pâte à choux (pat-ah-shoe... cream puff dough). I tried to decorate mine to look like a snowman, but instead of looking clean and elegant like these ones,

it ended up looking like someone threw up all over a perfectly good croquembouche.

Ah well. No one said this pastry thing was going to be a cake walk. I mean, we haven't even gotten to cakes yet. I'll keep you posted. For now, I'll just stick with cookies.

Bourbon-Pecan Cookies
From the French Culinary Institute Classic Pastry Arts, Level 1

Ingredients:

170 grams pecans
170 grams butter, room temperature
200 grams sugar
1 egg yolk
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
2 tablespoons bourbon
230 grams all-purpose flour
1 egg, for egg wash
extra pecan halves or pieces, for garnishing

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Toast the 170 grams of pecans in the oven or in a dry pan until lightly browned. Cool completely. Pulse the nuts in a food processor, until they're the size of coarse cornmeal.

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the ground nuts, egg yolk, salt, scrapings from the vanilla bean, and bourbon, and mix until thoroughly combined.

Add the flour, and mix gently until just incorporated.

Shape the dough into a log approximately 2.5 inches thick. Roll the log up in a sheet of parchment paper and chill in the refrigerator, about 30 minutes.

Once chilled, slice the log into 1/4-inch thick slices, and place the sliced cookies on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Lightly brush the tops of the cookies with egg wash, and place a pecan half (or some crumbled pecan pieces) on top of each cookie.

Bake the cookies for 7 to 10 minutes, or until nicely browned on the edges.

Makes 50-60 cookies.

Tally of Tarts

2009-12-09T18:20:00.022-05:00

Shall we tally up? Let's see. The past eight days of pastry school have yielded me:

4 apple custard tartlettes
8 vanilla crescent cookies
1 tarte aux noix
6 shortbread cookies with candied citrus zest
1 pear tart with almond cream
one dozen homemade fig newton cookies
1 banana cream tart
4 lemon meringue tartlettes
6 Scandanavian butter cookies
1 caramelized onion tart
1 cherry clafoutis
1 chocolate ganache tart
8 fresh fruit tartlettes
one dozen gingersnaps
1 baked apricot tart
1 chocolate Bavarian tart

Apple Custard Tartlettes

Vanilla Crescent Cookies

Lemon Meringue Tartlettes

Homemade Fig Newtons

Baked Apricot Tart

Scandanavian Butter Cookies with Raspberry Jam

Cherry Clafoutis

Um, yes. That's twenty-four tarts and forty-four cookies. In my first week and a half as a pastry babe. Do you even know how much sugar I went through this week? Do you even know? How many pounds of butter? Do you know how hard it was, how much I toiled to bake all of these delicious, delicious things? These twenty-four tarts and forty-four cookies? ...WELL? DO YOU?

Just kidding. I love my life.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "But Molly, WHAT in the name of Santa Claus do you DO with so many sweets?" Well, dear reader, I'll tell you. I eat them.

...Not really. Gotcha again.

While the thought of ingesting one billion pounds of buttered sugar does sound enticing, I thought I'd do well to keep my arteries clear(ish) for now, so I've been pawning off my sixty-eight treats to friends. And classmates. ...And school staff and homeless guys and fellow subway riders. Really anyone who looks like they could use a cookie or two. Could you use a cookie or two?

Here, try one. Or two. I don't know. Start your own tally.

Gingersnaps
From the French Culinary Institute, Classic Pastry Arts Program, Unit 1

Although I'm swimming in cookie recipes these days, this one seemed the most seasonally appropriate... they're also just really good. They're gingery and snappy and full of warm, winterish, gingery snappiness. I hear Santa likes them.

Ingredients:

150 grams butter
400 grams white sugar
2 eggs
160 mL molasses
20 mL white vinegar
525 grams white bread flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
extra sugar, for rolling

*Note: I realize this recipe gives amounts in metric units. I'm sorry about that. However, I've found it extremely useful to weigh out ingredients while baking - and it's much less of a pain than it sounds. Buy a cheap kitchen scale and give it a try. If you don't feel like scales are your thing but still really want to make these, let me know - I'll do my best to convert it to the standard American measurements for you.

Directions:

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Add the molasses and the vinegar slowly, to avoid separating the mixture.

Sift together the dry ingredients, and add them all at once to the creamed butter mixture. Mix just to combine - try not to overwork the dough.

Form the dough into a log, wrap it in parchment and chill it until firm. Once firm, divide the dough into 50 small, equal portions (about 15 grams per cookie), and roll the pieces of dough into balls. Dredge the raw cookies in sugar, and place them on a parchment-lined cookie pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 7 to 10 minutes. If you like chewier gingersnaps, take them out closer to 7 minutes, when the cookies are just browning. For snappier snaps, leave them in a bit longer. The cookies will spread in the oven, the sugar crust will crack, leaving behind a map of gorgeous cookie crevices, and your whole kitchen will smell like the holidays. Enjoy.

Makes 50 gingersnaps.

Official Chefdom, and Thanks

2009-11-16T20:13:00.022-05:00

I'm feeling overwhelmed. It's been almost a month since my last post, which is, frankly, unacceptable. I've done approximately no writing and no recipe sharing in the past 27 days, and I'm not happy about it. I mean, even if no one actually reads these little posts, it makes me happy to have them here, dotting the internets with pictures of risotto and tales of apple tart.

At any rate, I have almost a month's worth of news to share, so you may want to settle in.

Firstly - and this is kind of a big one - I, uh... I graduated from the culinary program at FCI last week.

...YAY official chefdom! You're looking at a real, live chef here, people. It's true! Okay, so you're not really looking at me, but trust me, I'm a chef. At least, I have a ridiculously tall hat and a laminated diploma that confirms it. ...Laminated, you guys.

Yep, after a month spent in the level six kitchens, churning out stuffed calamari and venison and clam consommé, and then after a day spent completely freaking out/taking the final exam (during which I had to make clam consommé and pear tartlettes, among other things), the powers that be (ahem, the folks down at the French Culinary Institute) declared me worthy of chefness. Yes!

Soooo yeah, I'm kind of excited about that. I'm also kind of sad that it's over. I mean, it's not really over - I have another six whole months in the pastry program (a regular chef I may be, but a pastry chef I am not. Yet.), but it's not the same.

Which brings me to news item number two: yesterday was my first day in the pastry program. So far things are going well - I successfully managed to make a bunch of tarts (banana cream tart, pear & almond tart, fresh fruit tart, yadda yadda yadda tart), but, as I mentioned, it's not the same. I miss my old classmates. I miss Nadine and Steve and Rodney and Tina and Big Rob and Dave and everyone. Sigh. At least I know I can find consolation in pastry cream.

Next is news item number three, which isn't really a news item so much as a major national holiday. Yeah that's right, I am talking about Thanksgiving. Thaaaanksgiviiiiiiing! Ahem, yes. It was on Thursday. I know Thursday was six days ago and you're probably tired of talking about giving thanks and family and mashed potatoes, but it's my very favorite holiday (by a landslide. A huge one.) and I'd like to discuss it further. Besides, what kind of food blogger would I be if I wrote nary a word about the most gluttonous holiday of them all?

So yes, Thanksgiving. Mine involved a raucous game of football,

numerous pies,

a video camera, a pan of stuffing that was accidentally dropped on the sidewalk, a delicious batch of macaroni and cheese (to replace said stuffing), a turkey carve-off, a rogue batch of whipped cream, and, of course, a lot of Gramma's chopped chicken liver. All in all, another wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with much to be thankful for, including:

my family
electric mixers
tall chefs hats
old classmates
new classmates
chicken liver
Grandmas

Finally, we come to item number four: this year, six days after Thanksgiving, what are you, invisible reader, thankful for? I, as a chef (!), would like to know.

Gramma Inez's Chopped Chicken Liver

Remember that time I wrote about offal, and how darn awful it is? Well, this one doesn't count. This is my Gramma Inez's Chopped Chicken Liver, a staple at every Thanksgiving since the beginning of time, and a shining beacon in the world of organ meats.

If you're feeling a little wary of a recipe that involves chicken fat, chopped livers and hard boiled eggs, it's okay. I'll admit, it's not my normal, everyday fare, but, smeared on a crispy cracker, with a glass of wine in hand and my family chattering around me, this stuff is downright delicious. Creamy and salty, with a nice crunch from the cracker... happiness in an appetizer. Still feeling skeptical? Fine, I won't make you try it. ...More for me. Thanks, Gramma!

Ingredients:

2-3 Tbsp chicken fat (schmaltz)
2 lbs chicken livers, rinsed and dried with paper towels
2 large yellow onions, chopped
1/2 small yellow onion, finely chopped
10-12 eggs, hard boiled
salt and pepper, to taste
paprika, to finish

Directions:

In a large skillet, melt the chicken fat. Add the two large onions and cook over medium low heat, until onions are soft and translucent. Add the chicken livers, and cook over medium heat until the livers are cooked through. Season with salt and pepper.

Once the liver mixture is done, transfer it from the pan to a large mixing bowl. Using two table knives, chop the chicken liver mixture into pea-sized pieces. Add the hard boiled eggs and continue chopping, until the mixture is thoroughly diced. You can use a food processor to chop and mix all of the ingredients, but you're looking for a grainy, chopped texture, so be careful not to completely purée your livers. Mix in the remaining 1/2 onion (uncooked), and more salt and pepper, to taste.

Grease a bowl or round jello mold with more chicken fat. Pack in the chopped liver, and chill in the refrigerator. Alternatively, you can just skip the molding part and pile the chopped chicken liver onto a platter. If you go with the mold method, unmold the liver by running a sharp paring knife around the edges of the mold and turning it out onto a large platter. If the mixture sticks to the mold, don't worry, it's easy to patch up. And in all honesty, it's hard to get chicken liver looking that pretty, anyway, so don't worry about any unmolding mishaps. Just dust the unmolded chicken liver with a bit of paprika, surround with table crackers, and serve to a room full of hungry Jews (...or non-Jews who are into things like chopped chicken liver. I mean, it's possible... right?)

Serves about 20, as an appetizer.