March 2012
1 post
7 tags
Chocolate Chip Banana Beer Muffins
Tonight I just felt like baking and playing around with my Livestream Profile and live blogged the baking of these muffins!
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 medium bananas, mashed
1/3 cup melted butter or margarine
1/4 cup beer
3/4 semi-sweet Chocolate...
January 2012
2 posts
8 tags
Bacon & Beer Chocolate Truffles
Inspired by last weeks Oreos and wanting to play with beer and chocolate again, I decided to add one more ingredient to the party: Bacon. As a good Jewish girl, I don’t have all that much experience working with bacon, so thanks to my roommate I learned a few things, like don’t crowd the pan. Keep the heat low so it can cook evenly and have some patience. Otherwise, this recipe is...
6 tags
Homemade Oreos with Chocolate Beer Ganache
Searching for what I was going to make for a potluck I wanted to do something traditional with a twist. So, I added beer ganache to Oreos. How did I come up with that idea? Well, I have a cute neighbor and I wanted an excuse to text him and see if he had any beer. I ended up chickening out and my roommate (and food Stylist - Amy Wilkinson) grabbed some Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout from...
December 2011
1 post
2 tags
August 2011
3 posts
5 tags
Plum Frangipane Tart
A friend of mine posted the most beautiful plum tart on Facebook and I just couldn’t help myself but try one myself. I brought it into my office, paced it in the kitchen and it barely lasted an hour.
Ingredients
Crust
250 Grahams AP Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
135 grahams very cold butter, cut into small piece
1 large egg mixed with 1 teaspoon of cold water
Filling
...
5 tags
My first attempt at French Macaron!
Well, courtesy of photoshop these look okay but I made three trays of macarons and only about 10 came out. :-( These were much harder than I anticipated. The flavor was a vanilla cookie with a plum/rose butter cream. I didn’t do so good. I’ll try again next weekend and post the recipe if it comes out.
Things I learned:
1. Always put the cookie sheet in another cookie sheet. It...
4 tags
Blueberry Cinnaman Streusal Muffin
It’s been a while since I posted and that’s mainly because I moved, changed jobs and didn’t have my kitchen unpacked until last weekend. It was my first full day at the office yesterday so I decided to bring in some muffins!
Ingredients
Muffin:
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
...
July 2011
3 posts
6 tags
Lemon Madeline
I’ve been piping Madeline at Craft but I hadn’t yet made the batter and I’ve been dying to try. Over the 4th of July weekend I kept wanting to try but I didn’t have the ingredients or the tools. So Wednesday night I decided I wanted to do a google plus hang out in my kitchen and make David Lebovitz Lemon Madeline. I just made some slight changes.I also decided not to make...
6 tags
Brown Butter Raspberry Tart
I went home to my mom’s in New Canaan, CT for the long holiday weekend. Right after she picked us (me, my brother and our friend Monica) up from the train we went directly to the local market. I decided I’d bake whatever looked the freshest, and tasted the best. Raspberries were it and so I attempted this Brown Butter tart.
Brown Butter Raspberry Tart
Ingredients
Crust
250...
6 tags
White Chocolate Cherry Tart
I made this on the fly at Chez Bushwick after finding some fresh cherries and having left over white chocolate, which I had used for some ice cream. It was really yummy, though I think it needs some salt and the filling measurements I did would work for two tarts.
Ingredients
Crust
250 Grahams AP Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
135 grahams very cold butter, cut into small...
June 2011
11 posts
6 tags
Fig Tartines
A group of my friends get together every month or so for a dinner/pot luck/ cooking party we call Chez Bushwick. While we were cooking I made a quick munchie which was a great snack for the chefs.
Ingredients
4 Figs
1 Loaf of bread
1 Cup of Ricotta cheese (Here’s a great recipe for homemade ricotta)
Honey
Salt
Instructions
Cut the bread
Spread cheese on bread
Thinly slice figs...
6 tags
Gojee.com Launches !!
You must be wondering, what exactly is Gojee? Well it asks you what you’re in the mood for and recommends recipes based on your cravings from contributors, which including Food52.com, Tartlette and many others from around the web (including ME! Yay). It’s such an honor to be a contributor amongst such amazing bloggers. All of them inspire, humble and motivate me to keep baking,...
5 tags
Salt & Pepper Pie for Pie in the Park
I participated in a Kickstarter campaign for Pie in the Park which took place at Smorgusberg food festival. It was really well produced and fun to meet some other bakers. We were in the kickstarter booth at the festival and there was such a nice bunch of bakers. It was $1 to bring a pie, and we all got 3 slices of pie. It was $10 for others to eat 3 slices. They also gave us personalized...
6 tags
Cherry Blondies for a date that never was...
This guy Adam asked me on a date. I said yes. I usually say yes when that happens. He didn’t believe that I really bake as much as I said I do, so I decided to bring a treat on our date. I decided to make these in a muffin tray because I wanted to be able to throw a couple in a Tupperware in my bag. It also needed to stay in one piece through a day of consulting around NYC. I decided to...
5 tags
OliveOil Shortcake Cupcake Stuffed with Strawberry...
It was my friend Ruti’s birthday and she doesn’t like things too sweet so I came up with this strange olive oil shortcake with salted caramel… I was a bit worried but everyone seemed to love them. Some people even ate two!
Olive Oil Shortcake
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted and...
4 tags
Day Two. Craft Restaurant.
Yup that’s me. It’s my second day at Craft and Jenny McCoy (The Exec Pastry Chef) gave me my hat. The day started with going over all the protocol to ensure I don’t violate any health code regulations. That was a good education and definitely made me want to go home and scrub my personal kitchen.
Then Jenny put four recipes in front of me and talked me through them. Then she...
6 tags
White Chocolate Ginger Ice Cream, Buttermilk...
This is a long over due post. I wanted to try and create a multi-component dessert. And well I’ve not learned how to plate so well just yet so I took refuge with a mason jar. Luckily this dessert was a huge hit and all the ice cream was served out in 10 minutes. Success. Big Success.
White Chocolate Ginger Ice Cream
I worked off of David Lebowtiz’ recipe with a few changes. I...
6 tags
Buttermilk Poundcake Pie with Strawberry Rhubarb
As part of the memorial day feast I made a constructed dessert and needed a little pound cake. (That’s coming soon). I had a LOT of left over batter and Strawberry- Rhubarb compote so I baked it in a pie pan. I chose a pie pan mostly because I didn’t have a loaf pan where I was but none the less it came out really nice.
Poundcake
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon...
5 tags
Traditional Sweet Cherry Pie
For a memorial day get together I ran to whole foods to pick up some last minute ingredients and I saw bing cherries that were perfectly in season. They just looked so good I wanted to keep as much of the natural flavor as possible. I had originally prepared to do a lattice but then I was just inspired, and my friend Amy had a star cookie cutter and so it happendl
I saw this recipe on my...
3 tags
Inspiration: Alice Waters - 40 Years at Chez...
It’s been quite busy these days. Having quit my day job in March, and taking on freelance work, I’m just as, if not more busy than I was before. Though thank goodness for that, it was so scary stepping off on my own and having faith that I could make ends meet. And now I’m happier than I could imagine. I work about 60/70 hours a week spread over 7 days, spend 8 hours once a...
1 tag
Love. Love. Missed.
I always talk about food, baking, cooking, friends, inspiration but there’s love in the title of my blog. I have a ton of it all around me but, no I’m not IN love. Not at this moment and I’m certainly out there looking for it.
A few nights ago I got close. I met up with friends at a bar in Greenpoint, BK and started flirting with this VERY cute, punk rock boy named John. Some...
May 2011
11 posts
6 tags
My Professional Kitchen Debut - Craft Restaurant
Yesterday I spent about 7 hours helping out Executive Pastry Chef Jennifer McCoy and the Pastry department at Craft Restaurant. Well, I should say they were helping me out but either way, it was quite the experience.
When I walked in, I was really nervous. I saw Jenny right away and she brought me to the back, grabbed me a chef jacket, an apron, and hand towels. I had three hand towels on me...
4 tags
Baklava for a fun Greek Themed Dinner Party
photo credit: Nico
I went over to my friend Phil’s for a fun feast of Greek food. Everyone brought or made something from salad to lamb and I of course brought dessert. Such a fun night, from the cooking, and the drinking to the dancing and the chatting. It’s such a great way to build friendships and experiment with cultures.
I’m not in love yet with this Baklava recipe. I...
4 tags
Blueberry Lavender Blondies for a dinner party
I made these Blueberry Crumb Blondies for a friends welcome home dinner party. It was a really easy recipe and people really seemed to like them. It was especially good cause it wasn’t too sweet, and went nice after a rich dinner.
Ingredients
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
...
1 tag
Pate Brioche - Jumping ahead to feed a craving
I had this crazy craving for Brioche rolls and figured, why not just make them from the French Culinary book. And that’s exactly what I did. They look a little lopsided. The cups are a little too big as were the top pieces. But MAN did they taste good. I had to give them away in risk of devouring the whole batch.
Making the dough, wasn’t so hard just a lot of steps and constant...
4 tags
Learning Tarts: Pate Brisee into an Apple Tart
There was a lot of baking happening last weekend and to start I made Pate Brissee. I used the traditional recipe from The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts book and it really wasn’t too hard. Then turning it into an apple tart wasn’t too hard. I had to stew some minced apples with vanilla and then chop some apples. What I was surprised about was the apricot jam reduction...
2 tags
Knife Skills - Dicing & chopping
Reading through the FCI curriculum session one there’s a bit of a vocabulary lesson in the knife skills section. But there’s aren’t many tips or tricks on actually how to achieve each of the specific cuts. First I am trying to memorize each of these terms which is a French Vocabulary Lesson:
émince: To Thinly Slice
Ciseler: Mince / Finely diced cubes (usually an onion or a...
1 tag
Lesson one: Cleanliness is godliness
A few things have changed for me in the last four months. One of them is that I’ve decided to wait and see what I can learn on my own before I go to culinary school. I left my job and turned into a freelancer, which gives me more time but less stability with my income. That being said, I’ve been meeting a ton of chefs and a few of the culinary schools have published their curriculum....
4 tags
BonBons for Bonnie
One of my closest friends had her first child a year ago. She’s the first of our friends group to have a baby. I can’t even imagine how hard that would be. When she was about 4/5 months she told me the name she chose, Bonnie. I rubbed her belly and told BonBon how excited I am to meet her. Well now that its a year later, I decided I wanted to make the beautiful Bonnie some BonBons for...
3 tags
I fell in love.... With a croissant
I’ve never been much of a croissant fan. I felt it was an indulgence. Breakfast is the start of the day, the time to eat nutritious things like oatmeal, egg whites or yogurt. But the further I dive into pastry the more I’ve begun to understand the power of starting your day with something flaky on the outside, with a buttery dough in the inside. One is all you need, and it sets the day...
3 tags
Une Dimanche à Paris - Class - Le Fondant Tout...
My last day in Paris was very special. I took a class at Une Dimance à Paris, which is a chocolate concept shop by Pierre Cluizel, the son of famed master chocolatier Michel Cluizel. I stumbled on it my second day in Paris, and asked about the shop. When they told me they had classes I inquired further. To my luck there was a class with room available learning to make, Le Fondant Tout chocolat,...
April 2011
18 posts
2 tags
The trip to find a Macaron - Gerard Mulot
Walking through the 6th, I remembered that Gerard Mulot was not far. I quickly consulted my map for the quickest route. As I approached, the smell was more than I could have event hoped. There’s nothing like that smell.
I went straight for the counter of macarons and asked for a small box with their favorite flavors and in the middle of assembling the box, he pulled out a strawberry one...
3 tags
A small pastry: Les Kouignettes
After a long brunch at the (somewhat over rated) Cafe de Flor, I walked into what looked like a beautiful pasty shop and asked what their specialty was… They pointed me to Les Kouignettes. I’ve never had anything like that before and honestly it didn’t look like my thing. They were out on display but it was kept very cold. I thought that was very interesting how they did that....
2 tags
The Best Caramel I've Ever Tried
Yesterday I ventured across town to take a look at the covered food market Marches Des Enfant Rouges. On my way over I stumbled on to one of the places on my list, Jacque Genin. I went into what may have been the most beautifully groomed store. It felt like a top art gallery in Chelsea. The sales women were a bit intimidating but I asked to try one of each of the caramels. And David Lebovitz was...
1 tag
Gallery Gourmet
I’m spending this week in Paris and eating all the fine treats they have to offer. I have been going off the link from David Lebovitz and he gives us some pretty good options. Its a bit old so I’ve tried some new things to.
The first thing I went to is the Gallery Gourmet which is the food shop in the Gallery Lafayette department store. Literally I got off the plane, put my bag down...
6 tags
Chocolate Soufflé Cupcakes with White Chocolate...
Well, I just liked saying this one. It sounds all fancy and I was definitely nervous to make it. But I found it really simple. The mint cream was a little to minty, but otherwise I didn’t make many changes. I found the recipe on Smitten Kitchen. I started using a kitchen scale with this recipe and I have to say, I’m obsessed. It makes life so much easier. It really is an essential...
4 tags
Orange Cake w. Chocolate Orange & Honey Glaze
For a Passover cake this was incredibly fluffy but there wasn’t a wow factor. Out of all the desserts, this was my least favorite. I think it has potential and definitely want to play with the recipe.
This cake was also one of the harder ones to make and I didn’t realize the glaze took 2 hours. You can make this a day in advance but if I were to do this again, I’d make it first....
4 tags
Chocolate Macaroons (Passover)
This recipe was really easy and quite good, though I did learn it is really important to wait for the chocolate to cool to room temperature before adding it to the egg whites or the macroons will be more like macarookies. That term was coined by my brother. I did have one batch come out pretty perfect. I’m not sure what possessed me to make the second batch at 10 PM. For some reason I was...
3 tags
Divine Chocolate Walnut Drops (Passover)
This is the third year I’ve made these and every time it gets the ‘Oh my god’ response from my grandmother and aunts. I originally found it on Smitten Kitchen but have made some changes over the years.
I didn’t take a picture of them alone but I did of the entire dessert spread with my iPhone, they are on the top right.
Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups walnut halves
3...
4 tags
Strawberry Hazelnut Macaroon Tart (Passover)
Last night my mom had 20 people over her house for Passover Sedar. Family, Friends and Friends of Family all stopped in. I decided this year I was going to make a TON of dessert. 5 Different Recipes to be exact. I’m going to blog each recipe separately so its easier to find and work with them.
I’m going to start with this Strawberry tart because it was the biggest hit and definitely...
4 tags
Lemon Blueberry Bread
I feel like I’m still just in practice mode before I really get serious about being learning pastry. And as I get more serious about this blog, I’m thinking of adding in a lot more types of posts from inspirations to equipment, not to mention everything I’m learning about the world of pastry.
But some days I’ll just want to throw an extra recipe together. Especially when I...
3 tags
Tripple Layer Carrot Cake
In my opinion, this carrot cake is probably the most amazing cake for a birthday. Some find the icing a little two sweet, but it’s cream cheese frosting. So yeah, its going to be sweet. I made this as part of Phil’s Arty Bday Party. He was celebrating it with Anaelle. You’ll notice an extra ‘N’ on the cake. She was polite enough to not mention anything but I was...
6 tags
Trio of Tarts
My friend Phil had what he deemed, an ‘Arty Farty Bday Party’ full of friends, amateur painting and food. Phil sent me the link to some mini tarts and asked if I could make them. I liked the filling ideas but didn’t have little tart pans or foils so I decided to do all three as full sized tarts. Two of them were really good, one was a a little undercooked (The goat cheese just...
1 tag
“Musicians have an adage that translates well to pastry chefs: Amateurs play a...”
– Jacques Torres, Dean of Pastry Arts, The French Culinary Institute
3 tags
Top Chef Alums Cook for Japan
I’m so excited to be part of this incredible event. No, I’m definitely not a Top Chef (Yet), but I am currently a digital marketer. I’ve been helping orchestrate the twitter, facebook and press outreach for the event. I’m in awe of all of these chefs and really proud to be working with them. Please follow them on Twitter and help us spread the word about this amazing...
4 tags
Blueberry, White Chocolate Chip Cookies
My good friend Deanna moved to Los Angeles earlier this year and I miss her like mad. I really wanted to do something special for her birthday and decided to send her some cookies. This concoction seemed like a good idea but I left it too the last minute and if I had the time I would have scrapped them and tried again. I just wasn’t happy with the texture or the flavor. They didn’t...
4 tags
Bacon, Caramelized Onion, Blue Cheese & Lavender...
My friends had a birthday party/ dinner party last week. In fact, these two twin brothers throw a pretty notorious dinner party usually one a month or so. I love baking for them and one of the twins confessed to preferring savory over sweet, which forces me to flex new muscles. And this particular savory tart stuck with him after he tasted it in January. I figured I should just make it again. I...
4 tags
NSFW Boobie Birthday Cake
I made my brother a surprise birthday cake and gave it to him at one of his favorite monthly parties called Nasty Monday’s. It is this insanely fun weekly party in Barcelona and a monthly event in New York City at (le) Poisson Rouge. The point of this cake was to embarrass him and I think he loved every minute of it. But I also loved every minute of making it.
I started off with the...
3 tags
Birthday Brownie Tart
Last week was my brother’s birthday and I decided to make him a Brownie in the shape of a tart or a Brownie Tart. He loves brownies and I wanted something that was more cake like. He also didn’t want a cake at his birthday party cause it was planned to be late night at a bar, so I made this for him to enjoy on his actual day. I was pleased when he didn’t want to share it with...