View From the Farmer's Market

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

(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...

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...

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.

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

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

About 2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, divided

10 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup vanilla sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

12 ounces bitter chocolate chips

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Chip-Cookies-with-Salt-104371#ixzz0j2Lck3Wu

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.

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

About 2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, divided

10 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup vanilla sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

12 ounces bitter chocolate chips

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Chip-Cookies-with-Salt-104371#ixzz0j2Lck3Wu

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

About 2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, divided

10 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup vanilla sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

12 ounces bitter chocolate chips

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Chip-Cookies-with-Salt-104371#ixzz0j2Lck3Wu

Really Quite Wonderful

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...

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.