I love our Valentine’s Day Gift Box for this year. We have all new cookies and a new flavor marshmallow too. Mark’s been making passionfruit marshmallows for years, even before we started the business and I think it was actually the first flavor marshmallows he’s ever made, but we’ve never sold them before.

The chocolate hearts are made with chipotle so they have a spicy kick and then it’s topped with coarse sea salt. The sandwich cookies are lemon rosemary shortbreads and filled with a Meyer Lemon icing.

Order deadlines are February 5th.

For those who don’t know, Zoë is the restaurant here in New York where I really got my start working with pastry, first as an assistant and later as the pastry chef.  Seems like a million years ago especially since it has been closed for two years, but it’s where many of my fellow cooks and chefs got their start too, and some of my friends have started their own businesses, notably Dynamo Donuts and Sotto LA out in California. 
 
The first hour or two of each work day at Zoë was spent making these breadsticks (also called grissini in Italian), which were served as bar snacks.  It was a real chore, but it was also a nice way to start a work day, getting into a rhythm and gearing up for a potentially long night.  For some reason, I felt like making these on this year’s New Years Eve, as a snack, and as an activity for the kids.  It is easiest to roll and cut the breadsticks using a pasta machine (cutting them with the fettuccine attachment), and my kids sure love using the pasta machine (a rare occurrence).  I have adapted the recipe slightly, reducing the quantity down from the 20 pounds of flour we used to make, and changing the seasoning a bit.  We used to mix in all sorts of chopped fresh herbs to the dough, so if you want to do that just add about 1/4 cup of any kind of chopped fresh herbs you have.  They are crispy, savory, cheesy, and fun, especially if you can get them really long like I can – although it does take some practice.

Breadsticks (makes about 40-50 pieces, approximately)

2/3 cup warm water

1 package active dry yeast (2-1/4 teaspoons)

A few shakes of tabasco sauce

2-1/3 cups all purpose flour

6 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon ground thyme

1/4 teaspoon ground sage

Olive oil and kosher salt for brushing and sprinkling before baking

In the bowl of an electric mixer, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let it sit for a few minutes.  Stir in the tabasco, then mix in the remaining ingredients.  Mix for several minutes on low speed using the dough hook.  The dough will be fairly stiff, but smooth.  Transfer to a bowl, cover, and let it rise for a few hours, or preferably overnight.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Set up your pasta machine with the fettuccine attachment.  Divide the dough into four pieces.  Flatten one of the pieces and lightly flour both sides.  Run through the pasta machine set to the widest setting.  Fold the rolled dough in thirds, turn 90 degrees and run through the machine again.  The goal is to have a nice rectangle shape so that the breadsticks will be fairly uniform in length.  Flour the dough lightly again, then run through the fettuccine attachment of your pasta machine, catching them as they come through the other side.  Separate them and lay onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving at least 1/2-inch between each one.  Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the remaining dough.  You will need two or three baking sheets to bake all of them.  (If you don’t have a pasta machine, the dough can be rolled and cut by hand, but that will be more difficult as the dough is fairly stiff).

When all the breadsticks have been rolled and cut, lightly brush them with olive oil, and sprinkle with a small amount of kosher salt. 
 

 
Bake in the preheated oven for about 10-15 minutes, or until just starting to darken slightly.  They are better when overcooked rather than undercooked, as undercooked breadsticks will be doughy instead of crispy.  Remove from the oven and let cool completely.  Use immediately, or they will stay fresh for several days.

Apple Almond Tart (makes one 11-inch tart)

One 11-inch tart shell, pre-baked (use the instructions and ingredients from this recipe)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 ounces finely ground almonds
1 teaspoon almond extract
3-4 apples, peeled and sliced 1/8-inch thick (any variety of apple that you would use in a pie would do just fine)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Beat the butter and sugar together in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, beat for one more minute. Finally, beat in the flour, almonds, and almond extract, stopping to scrape the sides of the mixing bowl if necessary. Spread this mixture in an even layer into the baked tart shell. Begin arranging the sliced apples around the side in overlapping concentric circles, until the entire top of the tart is covered. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the center of the tart is firm and fully cooked. Remove from the oven and cool completely before slicing.

It’s Fake! Summer! in NYC right now. It’s not just that the temps are warm, it’s also unseasonably humid which is pissing everyone off right now. But you know, it’s the end of September and no matter how warm it is, everyone’s trying to ignore it by convincing themselves that Fall is really here and consuming as many pumpkin products out there. Like these Pumpkin Ginger Sandwich Cookies, which are again making their seasonal appearance. You can buy them here or here.

Also new in our shops is the Brooklyn Market Cookie, which you guys helped name. These are smaller, more petite versions than the big ones we sell at the markets, but you can now finally get your own shipped right to you. Cookie season is back! Fall is here! (not).

ps. that brooklyn bottle btw is by Elyssa Ettinger.

I’m not even a big donut person, but these donuts from Dynamo Donuts were absolutely deeelicious. We had 8 different kinds. Yeah, that’s right, 8 donuts for the 4 of us. We also had a nice chat with Sara Spearin, the owner and chef of Dynamo who Mark worked under as Assistant Pastry Chef in New York. It was his first pastry position job when we first moved out there and I remember Sara saying at the time that she called him for an interview because he went to college in Olympia and had just moved from Portland (Sara is from Oregon). If you’re out in San Francisco, you really ought to make a trip to Dynamo but you need to come early because there’s usually a line (again with the lines in this city!).

Our last day in San Francisco ended up being super nice. It was warm for the first time so we took the girls to China Beach to run around in the Pacific Ocean. Couldn’t really see the Golden Gate Bridge because the smoke monster (I mean The Fog) was hovering around the bridge and East Bay. Can you see it off in the horizon? We drove a few miles towards Golden Gate Bridge and it was completely foggy and quite cool there. Literally a different climate and landscape. So fascinating that it can be sunny and warm in one location, but foggy and cool a few blocks away.

ok…so I’m kinda freaked out about the Hurricane happening in the East Coast and obviously New York. It’s weird to be all the way over here and not be able to do anything about it except watch it unfold live like some disaster movie. Thanks to our cat sitter Mark and our neighbors for bringing in all our plants and furniture off our balcony. Be safe East Coast! I’ll be glued online to see how it unfolds.

If you’ve been to our Etsy site in the last week, you may have noticed some of the new photos. I couldn’t bear to look at the old photos anymore and didn’t want to wait till our new site was up. Now that some of the worst offenders have been replaced (I’m looking at you, biscotti and brownies), I can rest easy on retaking some of the other products that need a refresh. Speaking of our new website, it should relaunch mid-April and I couldn’t be more excited. I don’t remember the last time I was this excited about launching a new website in like, ever, so this is a big deal.

Some other biz news (lest you forget that this blog is also about the business, and not just some random babbling from an insomniac):

We’ll be at the The Village Voice’s Choice Eats tasting event tonight in the VIP Sweets Room. The event has been sold out for awhile and no wonder, what with that lineup of restaurants on hand. Mark’s going solo, as he usually does at events, and this is bumming him out a bit because it might mean that he won’t get a chance to go and grab some food.

Some recent press: The Kitchen Conversion Poster is in this month’s issue of Bust Magazine, and Joonbug.com did a great writeup of our products which you can read here. And did anyone catch us on TV? Our cookies were on the Cooking Channel’s Food(ography) show hosted by Mo Rocca. The theme of the show was “Food and Websites” and our Etsy homepage and product shots were splashed across the screen quite a number of times. Yeah, ok, we totally giggled every time we saw our stuff.

Thanks to all of you who helped us raise money to send to Japan by buying from us in the last 2 weeks. We’ll be sending a portion from all the sales we made during that time today, along with a company match. And watch for some news on a contribution we’ve made to an exciting benefit project to Japan.

And finally….I know it took us FOREVER to decide on a cookie name (oh, what cookie? I know, you probably forgot about it, it was so long ago), but we did pick a name and despite some of the very creative and sometimes really funny names you guys came up with (“chunky mudburger”, submitted by Tin, makes me chuckle every single time and it’s what I’m secretly going to call it to myself), we decided to go simple and stay a bit more in character with our other product names. The Brooklyn Market Cookie. It fits, don’t you think? Particularly since it’s only being sold at the Brooklyn Flea for now (but maybe not for long!). So Christine, you are the winner since you coined it first (check your email!), but Miss Lauren, I know you also posted this name a few hours later, so you get some free cookies too the next time you stop by the Flea. Thanks, Ladies!

So our 3rd year of business has now officially come to a close. Did we think we were going to make it this far and for this long? I don’t know what we expected, but onto year 4…

Summer fruits are finally in full season now and that opens up so many dessert options.  But still, what to make?  I love pie, but don’t actually enjoy making it all the time.  And I also love a fruit crisp with a nice streusel topping, but I prefer that in the fall.  Shortcakes can be good, but too often the biscuit is too clunky and heavy.  What about a cobbler?  You know, that often neglected dessert that bring to mind the unrecognizable mush in one corner of a TV dinner?  I’ll be honest, I have never made one before precisely for that reason.  But when you think about what it is – a fruit mixture topped with biscuit dough – it actually combines the best elements of those previously mentioned desserts.  So for a BBQ at a friend’s house recently I used some super-fresh nectarines and blueberries and my favorite shortcake biscuit recipe to make my first cobbler.  It will not be my last.

Nectarine and Blueberry Cobbler (serves 8-10)

1-3/4 cup flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup half & half
5 nectarines, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup blueberries
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons flour

Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and butter together in an electric mixer with the paddle attachment on low speed until the butter is mostly incorporated into the flour.  Pour in the half & half and mix just until a dough forms.  Roll the dough on a well-floured surface to about 1/2-inch thickness.  Cut into 2-inch shapes (I did squares, but anything will do, or even just tear the pieces by hand into random shapes) and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl, then pour into a baking dish just big enough to comfortably hold all the fruit.  I used a 10-inch round, 1-inch deep ceramic dish, but anything else will do.  Arrange the cut biscuit dough on the top of the fruit, leaving a few small spots uncovered.  Put the dish on a baking sheet (it will most likely bubble over) and bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden and the fruit is bubbling.  Let cool a bit before serving.

Hard to believe, but I bought my first sour cherries ever from the farmer’s market last week.  There are two main reasons I haven’t bought them before.  First, their season is very short so the chances of finding them are slim.  And second, they are very fragile and do not keep for more than a few days so you need to have time to use them if you don’t want to waste your money (and they can be expensive).  I bought these cherries without any clear plan on what to make, but decided on a pie when I got home.  I soon realized I didn’t have nearly enough for a full size pie, so I made a few mini-pies in a couple of individual tart pans.  The sour cherries had a wonderful flavor (they are the traditional pie-making cherry after all, but most recipes usually use canned cherries) and I don’t think I’ll be so hesitant to buy them again.

A note on making individual pies:  Roll the pie dough as thin as you can or else the filling to crust ratio will be off and it would be too much like eating the crust by itself.  To roll the dough extra-thin, make sure it is cold and try rolling it between two sheets of parchment paper to prevent it from sticking to your rolling pin.

As for the kids, Mia found a way to eat all the cherries first so there was a hollowed out pie shell before eating most of the crust.  And maybe Claudine didn’t like the cherries as much as everyone else because everything else was gone from the plate except for the cherries, which looked like all the juice had been sucked out of them.

Fresh Sour Cherry Pie (makes 4 individual 4-inch pies)

Crust:
2-2/3 cups flour
14 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold water

Filling:
2 cups fresh sour cherries, pitted
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch

For the crust, mix the butter into the flour and salt with your fingers until mostly incorporated.  (You can use a food processor for this step if you like.)  Mix in enough cold water to make a dough.  Roll the dough as thin as you can (see note above), cut into 8 circles about 2 inches larger than your small tart pans.  If you need more dough you can just re-roll some of the scrap pieces.  Chill the dough until ready to use.

Meanwhile, make the filling.  Toss the pitted cherries with the sugar and let it sit for about 20 minutes.  Drain and reserve the juice.  Put the juice in a small saucepan along with the cornstarch and bring to a boil.  When it has thickened, remove it from the heat and stir in the reserved cherries.

To assemble the mini-pies, press one circle of dough into a 4-inch tart pan.  Fill almost to the top with some pie filling.  Place another circle of dough on the top, pinching at the edges so it is completely sealed.  Trim any excess dough and crimp decoratively as desired.  Cut a short slit in the top of the pie to allow steam to escape.  Repeat with the remaining pies, then bake on a parchment-lined cookie sheet in a  preheated 375-degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until the crust is cooked on the bottom and the filling begins to bubble out of the top.  Allow to cool slightly before eating.

Mark’s been busy the last 2 days prepping and baking and juicing for the “World’s First Food Truck Drive-In” at the NYC Food Film Festival in Dumbo. The event is sold out, but if you’re one of the thousands of ticket holders, he’ll be bringing these along with our usual treats (sadly I won’t be able to make it as the girls have back to back birthday parties in the park all day, but our friend Mike will be on hand to help out. Say hello to Mike!):

As usual, our very popular Passionfruit Mint Limeade. It sells out at every Flea so Mark will be bringing more.

We’re also bringing back our Watermelon Lime Mint Coolers just because it’s not summertime without some watermelon. *Mark just informed me it will probably be Watermelon Ginger, with maybe a splash of lime and mint if we have some to spare from the Limeade

The Butterscotch Bars will be making a rare appearance!

And I’m pretty much addicted to these new Streusel Oatmeal Bars sprinkled with chopped nuts. Flavors change from market to market and this week it will be apricot.

Oh, and these things right here? It’s our new cookie. It has everything. Cocoa nibs, macadamia nuts, dried cherries, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and oatmeal. It doesn’t have a name yet (any suggestions?) and they’re bigger and soft. If you’re not coming to the Food Festival, not to worry – we’ll be bringing them to the Flea. They are awesome.

Hungry now?

I’m very happy that we didn’t miss the pick-your-own strawberry season this year and I’m equally as happy that I actually had time to make something with them.  The kids were sold on the idea of a strawberry pie while we were still picking the berries, but I realized that I had never made one. I ended up improvising this recipe right down to the pie pan – my glass pie pan broke months ago so I was forced to use a springform pan.  The fresh, whole, uncooked strawberries are bound together inside a graham cracker crust with a mixture of sugar, gelatin and strawberry puree.  The strawberries looked a little rough after I filled the pie so I covered them with a layer of stabilized whipped cream.  If you try this recipe, only use the best berries you can find because the flavor depends entirely on that.

Strawberry and Whipped Cream Pie (makes one 10-inch pie)

Crust:

1-1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

6 Tablespoons melted butter

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Mix everything together by hand, and press firmly into a 10-inch springform pan.  The crust should also go up the sides of the pan about three inches.  Bake in the oven for about 12 minutes, until it has firmed up a bit.  Let it cool while you prepare the filling.

Filling:

5 cups strawberries, washed and stems removed.

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon gelatin powder, soaked in 1/4 cup cold water

Roughly chop one cup of the strawberries and place in a small saucepan with the sugar.  Cook until reduced to a puree.  Remove from the heat, then stir in the soaked gelatin.  Mix with the remaining strawberries, then immediately pour into the cooled crust.  Spread the out so the top is level, then prepare the whipped cream topping.

Topping:

1-1/2 cups heavy cream

1 Tablespoon powdered sugar

1 teaspoon gelatin powder

2 tablespoons milk

Whip the cream and sugar to stiff peaks.  Soak the gelatin in the milk for two minutes, then heat gently until dissolved.  Gradually fold the whipped cream into the gelatin, then spread on top of the strawberries.  Chill for several hours before removing from the pan and slicing.