Dorie Greenspan - On the Road and in the Kitchen with Dorie

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day. Cook it! Share it! Salted Butter Breakups

2013-05-17T15:14:48Z

Today is Food Revolution Day, the brainchild of Jamie Oliver and a worldwide event. The purpose is to support hands-on food education and the theme this year is one close to my heart: Cook it! Share it! It's a theme also near and dear to the cooks and bakers at French Fridays with Dorie -- especially to wonderful Mardi Michaels of Eat. Live. Travel. Write. who is part of the team of volunteers working to coordinate this event in Canada. I'm participating in this event with FFwD by sharing Salted Butter Breakups, a recipe from Around My French Table.

When I first learned about Food Revolution and knew that I'd post an entry, my friend Mary said, "You have to make the Salted Butter Breakups - they're perfect for sharing!" She was right - the cookie was made to be shared. It's a big, freeform, ragged-at-the-edges cookie that's meant to be served whole so that everyone can break off a piece. And everyone did.

The radon-inspecting workman with a piece of Salted Butter Breakups

A kindergartener up a tree with a piece of Salted Butter Breakups

After more kids broke off piece, more workmen and George, the neighbor, had a nibble, Lefty, the cat, got the last morsel. Thank you, Mary, for the inspiration and the photographs.

Here's the recipe so that you can Cook It and Share It and teach it to friends, so that they can do the same.

SALTED BUTTER BREAKUPS

Adapted from From Around My French Table, by Dorie Greenspan

Even if this weren’t wonderfully good, and it is, I’d want to make it just because it’s so much fun to serve. Essentially a large, buttery, flaky, salty, sweet rectangular cookie with a pretty little cross-hatch pattern on top, it gets put in the center of the table and, instead of cutting portions for your guests, your guests get to serve themselves by reaching over and breaking off pieces of the sweet. Yes, it’s messy – it’s impossible for this to be a crumbless endeavor – but everyone, young and old, easy-going and stuffy, likes it. Of course, for neatness’ sake, you could break the cookie up in the kitchen or you could even roll the dough out and cut it into cookie shapes, but that wouldn’t be as amusing, would it?

Called broyés in French, meaning crushed, the cookies are a tradition in the Poitou region, where butter is prized, so don’t even think about a substitute. Similarly, another of the cookies’ defining characteristics is its saltiness – it is undeniably salty and, now and again, you can even feel the salt on your tongue. In France, the cookies are made with sel gris, a moist, slightly grey (or gris) sea salt with crystals that are large enough to be picked up individually. If you can’t find sel gris, go with kosher salt.

Makes 4 servings

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

3/4 to 1 teaspoon sel gris (see above) or kosher salt

1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespooons) cold unsalted butter, cut into 18 pieces

3 to 5 tablespoons cold water

1 egg yolk, for the glaze

Put the flour, sugar and salt in the workbowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Drop in the pieces of butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal – you’ll have big, pea-size pieces and small flakes. With the machine running, start adding the cold water gradually. Add just enough water to produce a dough that almost forms a ball. When you reach into the bowl to feel the dough, it should be very malleable.

Scrape the dough onto a work surface, form it into a square and pat the square down to flatten it a bit. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill it for about 1 hour (or for as long as overnight).

When you’re ready to bake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Remove the dough from the fridge and, if it’s very hard, bash it a few times with your rolling pin to soften it. Put the dough between sheets of plastic film or wax paper and roll it – or pat it – into a rectangle that’s about 1/4-inch thick and about 5-x-11 inches; accuracy and neatness don’t count for a lot here. Transfer the dough to the lined baking sheet.

Beat the egg yolk with a few drops of cold water and, using a pastry brush, paint the top surface of the dough with the egg wash. Using the back of a table fork, decorate the cookie in a cross-hatch pattern.

Bake the cookie for 30 to 40 minutes, or until it is golden. It will be firm to the touch, but have a little spring when pressed in the center – the perfect break-up is crisp on the outside and still tender within. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and allow the cookie to cool to room temperature.

Serving: If fun is what you’re after, bring the break-up to the table whole and let everyone break off pieces big and small; if order suits you better, break the cookie in the kitchen and serve the pieces on a plate.

Storing: The baked cookie will keep in a container for about 3 days. You can make the dough up to 3 days ahead and keep it in the refrigerator, or you can wrap it airtight and freeze it for up to 2 months. Don’t brush the dough with egg wash until you’re ready to bake it.

A Cook's Tip: Sniff. Taste Too

2013-05-13T20:21:48Z

This photo is the best illustration that I’ve got of an important tip: Sniff and taste before you pour, sprinkle, chop, cook or bake. So many things can go wrong with ingredients and when any one of them does, there goes your dish.

My husband snapped this picture of me shortly after I’d found a bottle of lavender syrup hidden behind way too many things. Good thing I smelled it before making those Kirs – it was off by a mile. And I thought mold was the only bad thing that could happen to sugar syrup! Hmmm.

The usual suspects for rancidity are oil and ingredients with oil. I never pour a drop of any kind of oil without smelling it first and, if the sniff test leaves me wondering, I taste. No amount of mustard and vinegar can cover oil that’s off.

Oil should be stored in dark, cool places and nut oils should be given extra care, since they go off faster. Here’s the rule I follow: if the storage area is good enough for wine, then it’s good enough for oil.

And while nuts may look like tough guys, they’re as delicate as hothouse plants. Again, oil’s the spoiler. The same oil that makes nuts so delicious is what can cause them to turn rancid. I never use nuts in a recipe without tasting them first. It’s a good thing I don’t use many frozen products, because my freezer is full of nuts (and tart crusts, and cookie dough, and loaf, Bundt and layer cakes).

Also in the sniff and taste category, there’s chocolate. While chocolate, stored in a cool, dry place – never, never the refrigerator – will keep for at least a year, milk and white chocolate have shorter shelflives. It’s the milk solids. I’ve only had bad chocolate twice and each time it was milk chocolate and each time I was surprised.

And don’t forget spices – they need the sniff test. While spices don’t go bad, they do lose their oomph over time. If you have to strain to get a whiff of spice, you’re never going to get the flavor of the spice. Toss it!

Finally, there’s everything dairy. I never pour a drop of milk without smelling it first and, of course, I do the same with cream. But my big concern is butter. As with chocolate, it’s rare that butter will be hanging around long enough to go bad, but it doesn’t take long for butter to pick up unpleasant odors in the refrigerator. It’s a magnet for every funky smell. Make sure that your butter is well wrapped and far from the Camembert. And the onions. And the barbecued brisket.

And if any of these things go bad – I hope you’re further from the camera than I was.

Sale on Baking With Dorie iPad App: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

2013-05-10T10:18:58Z

I just got this piece of good news: Today, the upgraded version of the Baking with Dorie iPad App – with all 25 recipes – is available for 50% off ($4.99). Thank you Howzer and Apple iTunes.

A lot has happened since I last wrote about the app:

The app now has 25 recipes (the wonderful Caramel-Crunch Bars have been added) and more than 130 HD videos (that’s about 3+ hours!), so that we get to bake everything together from start to finish.

There is now a free version – it was featured by Apple iTunes and has been on their top list since it was released. It allows you to purchase recipes in-app one-by-one.

Howzer is now supporting the app.

All good. All delicious. And all in time for Mother's Day ... or a very good baking day!

NUTS: They're what to make when friends are coming

2013-04-10T08:45:57Z

Friends were stopping by for a too-fast hello and a drink last night and I was prepared: I’d put wine in the refrigerator, bought nuts and some peppery dried sausage (saucisson sec) cut nibbling thin. But an hour before they were due to arrive, I felt like making something for them. The problem: I’m in Paris for a quick work trip and there isn’t much in the way of ‘raw materials’ in the house.

Well, except for the cupboard basics, fresh milk, butter and eggs in the fridge, and those nuts …

Forty-five minutes later, I had candied nuts for my friends. Hot and spicy, sweet and salty and homemade. Serially munchable, too.

I had peanuts (I always do – my husband loves them) and some whole almonds and a bag of walnuts in the freezer, so I mixed them together. But you can make these with any assortment of nuts or just one kind. Similarly, feel free to customize the spices to your taste. You’ll want to keep the egg white – it’s the glue; the sugar – it’s what caramelizes the nuts; and the salt – what are nuts without salt? After that, it’s whatever you’d like or whatever you have on hand.

And, just in case you were wondering, we drank a Jurancon Sec.

SWEET AND SPICY COCKTAIL NUTS

Adapted from Around My French Table

Makes 6 servings

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons chile powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch cayenne

1 large egg white

2 cups nuts, whole or halves, but not small pieces, such as almonds, cashews, peanuts, pecans, or a mix

Postion a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Spray a nonstick baking sheet with cooking spray or line it with a silicone baking mat.

Mix the sugar and spices together in a small bowl. Beat the egg white lightly with a fork in a larger bowl – you’re not making a meringue, just breaking up the white so that it’s liquid. Toss in the nuts, stir to coat them with egg white, then add the sugar-and-spice mixture and continue to stir so that the nuts are evenly covered.

Using your fingers, lift the nuts from the bowl, letting the excess egg white drip back into the bowl (you can run the dipped nuts against the side of the bowl to de-excess them), and transfer them to the baking sheet, separating them as best you can. Discard whatever sugar-egg mix is left in the bowl.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the nuts are browned and the coating is dry. Cool for 5 minutes, then transfer the nuts to another baking sheet, a cutting board or a piece of parchment paper, break them apart, and let them cool completely. The nuts crisp as they cool.

Serving: These are good with everything from cider and beer to Champagne.

Storing: Kept covered in a dry place, the nuts will hold for about 5 days at room temperature.

Bonne Idée: You can swap the spices at whim. For a change, omit the chile powder and go for 5-spice powder (you can keep the cinnamon, if you’d like), curry powder (I’d use just a smidgen of cinnamon with the curry) or even cardamom (in which case, I’d cut out the cinnamon). You can also make herb-flavored nuts using finely chopped fresh herbs or dried herbs (just make sure your dried herbs are brightly colored and still fragrant). Keep the sugar and salt, drop the chile powder and cinnamon, and try mixing the nuts with fresh rosemary or thyme or dried herbes de Provence.

Recipe for the Weekend: Beef on a String (or maybe chicken)

2013-03-15T20:23:36Z

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to Lynne Rosetto Kasper on Splendid Table, and the subject was one of my favorite recipes: Beef on a String. Lynne was especially interested in it because the dish involves poaching, a technique we turn to all of the time for chicken and fish, but rarely for beef. And it's a shame. When you've got a full-flavored, aromatic and scorchingly hot bouillon, poaching a filet or rumpsteak for a crowd takes just 15 minutes and there's no fussing about who wants their meat rare, medium or well - the beef comes out of the pot very rare and you can change the degree of doneness by just pouring over some of the hot broth. It's kind of a ritzy pot-au-feu and, like pot-au-feu, you get the meat, the broth, the vegetables and the pleasure of dressing up your own plate with mustard or pickles or pepper or horseradish or anything else you like. As you'll read, this is the dish I make for New Year's Eve in Paris. Guests love it and I love that I get the broth to serve as soup the following day and plenty of leftover beef to turn into sandwiches, hachis parmentier (shepherd's pie) or my favorite beef salad, the one with capers, chopped up pickles and lots of black pepper.

The dish is basic and can be made to work very nicely with a whole chicken. Lose the beef bones and go for lots of vegetables and herbs and, if you want to be like most French cooks, a chicken bouillon cube! Tie up the chicken and poach it gently until done. If you'd like to get earthier still, stuff the chicken with bread and herbs, plenty of garlic and maybe some sausage meat.

The recipe is here. And you can hear my conversation with Lynne here.

Bon week-end!

The photo is by Alan Richardson and the recipe first appeared in Around My French Table.

Lavender-White Chocolate Pots de Creme: Musings and Recipe

2013-03-06T15:25:30Z

Never mind that the possibility of snow is still real, there’s a sense that spring is just around the proverbial corner. It’s not only that when the sun hits at just the right angle, the forsythia shows the merest hint of yellow. Or that the blue birds are back and house hunting. Or that I’m hearing chefs talk expectantly of ramps, as sure a harbinger of spring as the robin. It’s that I’ve gone nuts for lavender – romantic, tilting-toward-Provence, coming-soon-to-my-garden lavender. There’s lavender soap in the shower and on the kitchen sink. I’ve ground lavender for cookies. I’ve steeped it to make a syrup. I’ve rubbed it into sugar for pound cake. I’ve got lavender set aside to make caramels. And yesterday I infused milk and cream with lavender – that’s what you see in the picture – and baked beautiful pots de crèmes (recipe below).

Lavender, like so many herbs and spices with strong personalities, is both lovely and tricky – use too much and whatever you’ve made will taste like medicine … or soap. The first time I make a lavender sweet, I use the least amount that I think will give me flavor. If the taste is weak, I call it ‘subtle’ and make a note to up the dose the next time. For the pots-de-crème, I’m suggesting you start with 1 tablespoon, a safe start that should account for varying degrees of freshness and flavor in everyone’s lavender buds. Oh, and you should be using edible lavender buds, not ground lavender. If you want ground lavender for any recipe, grind the buds in a coffee grinder or use a mortar and pestle.

I am in love with the texture of these pots de crème. They’re a cross between custard and pudding, a minor miracle made possible by the addition of white chocolate, and their flavor borders on mysterious. Yes, the lavender is ‘subtle,’ but it’s also haunting.

Here’s the recipe … let me know what you think.

LAVENDER-WHITE CHOCOLATE POTS DE CREME

A note on serving sizes: I used 1-cup ramekins and made 6 servings. You can use smaller ramekins and make more portions, just keep in mind that the baking time might be less.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

2 cups heavy cream, divided

1 cup milk

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon edible lavender (not ground), more or less to taste

1 fat strip orange or lime zest, optional

4 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped

4 large egg yolks

1 large egg

Pinch of fine sea salt

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Put 1 1/2 cups of the heavy cream, the milk, sugar, lavender and the zest, if you’re using it, in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Stay close – you know milk’s nasty habit of boiling over. Turn off the heat, cover the pan and allow the mixture to steep for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Place 6 to 8 heatproof ramekins (see my note above) in a roasting pan and bring a kettle of water to a boil; keep aside.

Put the chopped white chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. Bring the remaining 1/2 cup heavy cream to a boil (you can do this in a microwave), pour the cream over the chocolate and let it sit for 30 seconds. Using a small spatula or whisk and starting in the center of the bowl, stir the cream and chocolate together in increasingly widening circles until you have a smooth ganache.

Bring the lavender cream back to a boil and then immediately turn off the heat.

Working in a large (I use a 2-quart) heatproof measuring cup with a spout, in a pitcher or in a bowl, whisk the yolks and egg together with the salt until smooth. Very, very slowly – as in dribble-by-dribble – strain a bit of the hot cream over the eggs and then whisk like mad. (If you don’t mind dirtying another pitcher, you can strain the cream and pour it from the pitcher over the eggs.) Add about one-quarter of the cream in this drizzle-and-whisk fashion – insurance against cooking the eggs. Whisk some of the hot cream into the white chocolate ganache and add this to the eggs. Then, in a steadier stream, gently whisk in the remaining cream. Discard the lavender and zest. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Rap the pitcher against the counter to debubble the mixture. If you’ve got lots of bubbles, you might want to skim them – they create holes in the custard; not fatal, but not uber-attractive. Pour an equal amount of the mixture into each ramekin and then pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to come about half way up the sides of the ramekins. Carefully, slide the roaster into the oven and cover the set-up with a baking sheet.

Bake the ramekins for 40 to 60 minutes (the time will depend on the size of your ramekins) or until they are set. When you tap the sides of the ramekins, the custard should be completely set with maybe just a tiny, jiggly circle in the center. Remove the baking sheet and transfer the roaster to a cooling rack. Leave the set-up intact for 10 minutes and then, carefully lift the ramekins out of the water and onto a rack to cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate the ramekins for at least 2 hours or for up to 1 day before serving.

Show Time: Beurre & Sel's 4th Annual Pop-Up Shop Opens

2013-02-11T12:53:48Z

Okay, technically it's not really Beurre & Sel's Fourth Pop-Up at Mizu (505 Park Avenue, between 59 and 60 ST; NYC): We did the first three as CookieBar, so I guess you could say that this is our Premier!

Roll out the red carpet, here we come! And to celebrate we've got a a trio of new cookies too.

Meet our new babies. From the top right:

MULLED WINE JAMMERS: From the bottom up, there's our French Vanilla Sable, a layer of dried cherries, cranberries and raisins cooked in mulled (syrah) wine and mixed with French cherry jam, then topped with a cornmeal crumble

SMOKY CHOCOLATE HEARTS: The new sweetheart in our Cocktail Cookie Collection. Valrhona Cocoa, smoked almonds and sweet smoked paprika. So good with Bin 27 Port. (Did you see them in Better Homes and Gardens?)

COFFEE-CARDAMOM BUTTONS: A cardamom brown-sugar-and-spice cookie spiked with ground espresso and finished with a light sugar glaze (my new fave)

Of course, we've got our classics - sweet and savory - and our new (gorgeous) kiosk.

Come say hello! Joshua and I will be at Mizu from today through Friday, February 15, from 10 until about 5, or until the cookies run out.

Can't wait to see you - xoDorie

Thank you Robyn Lee of Serious Eats for the beautiful cookie photo.

Sweet Valentine's Day: Beurre & Sel Cookies, here, there and chez you

2013-02-07T15:00:00Z

See that guy in the picture? The cute one? He's Joshua Greenspan, Chief Executive Cookie Monster at Beurre & Sel. In addition to overseeing our little kitchen, our littler boutiques and online ordering on our website, he's also our labeler and the man who hand-packs each of your mail orders. We'd always heard that when you start-up a business, you've got to learn to do everything and now we know how true it is.

And this week and next, we'll be doing a lot of everything in preparation for Valentine's Day.

We'll be shipping our cookies through our website. If you put your order in by Saturday night, we'll bake the cookies and have them mailed out in time for a Valentine's Day delivery. If you order a little later, we'll cover you with a sweet handwritten 'sorry I'm late' message. (While Joshua packs, I write notes - this is really a family start-up!).

Of course, you can always get cookies at our stores:

La Marqueta - walk down the right aisle and we're there on your right.

Essex Street Market -- we're in the market along the Essex Street wall closest to Rivington St.

Valentine's Day Pop-Up -- for the fourth year in a row, you can visit Joshua and me at our NYC Pop-Up Cookie Shop! Once again, we'll be at Mizu, 505 Park Avenue, between 59th and 60th Streets. We'll be there from 10am to 5pm with cookies to buy 1x1 - I'll tell you about the new flavors soon -- and a full selection of cookies stacks, sweet and savory. Wait until you see our new display!

It's the sweetest time of the year and we're just trying to make it a little sweeter.

Smoky Chocolate Crackers for Valentine's Day: The Back Story + Recipe

2013-02-05T14:57:52Z

For Valentine's Day -- which is just around the proverbial corner - I created a selection of small chocolate sweets for the February issue of Better Homes and Gardens. There are Cream Puffs with a mascarpone filling, Cherry-Port Brownies (I love the dried cherries soaked in Fonseca Bin 27), Cocoa Meringue Sandwiches, Cake Balls, Chocolate Trail Mix (a yum), teensy Chocolate-Chip Cookies, a Chocolate-Yogurt Parfait and these beautiful Smoky Chocolate Crackers, so good with wine and cheese.

You can get the back story on these cookies by clicking over to Delish Dish, BH&G's absolutely gorgeous blog. And the recipe's there too.

And, because I loved these cookies so much, we'll be making them as an exclusive at Beurre & Sel's Fourth Annual Pop-Up, from February 11 to 15, at Mizu, 505 Park Avenue, NYC. See you there - lots of sweet cookies, lots of cocktail cookies and Smoky Chocolate Hearts, too.

Paris Report: Small is beautiful, cute and delicious, too

2013-01-17T16:43:35Z

Once Mireille Guiliano added ‘French women don’t get fat’ to the American lexicon, it’s been impossible for me not to think about the line whenever I’m in Paris. The city is filled with treasures small, smaller and tiny. But, if you’ll forgive the pun (it’s so irresistible), the pastry chef Sadaharu Aoki takes the cake.

Ranged along the shelf that runs the length of his thin-as-a-reed patisserie on rue Vaugirard are a series of packed-to-go sweets; small packs perfect for gifts or for elegant snacking. The further into the shop you walk, the more petit the pastries seem to become, until you find this chocolate cake

Found in the section labeled ‘gouter’ – think after-school snack – the treat weighs one-half ounce and costs 80 cents (Euro) or $1.07. It’s two bites worth of fun and, given how tiny an espresso is here, it’s just enough to get you through a shot of Joe. Looking larger, but weighing in at only 5 grams more, is the chocolate sandwich cookie. Although they look as though they could have been made in an Easy-Bake Oven, they’re as perfect as everything else in the shop – just mini, mini, mini.

Not as small, but still not so big that you’d be willing to share, are the eclairs from the Genie of Eclairs, Christophe Adam. When Adam was the executive pastry chef at Fauchon, he made the éclair the symbol of the house and riffed on it endlessly, creating fabulous flavor combinations and even fabulouser looks. I’ll never forget the Mona Lisa éclair. (I recently read that Fauchon sold 40,000 a year at their flagship shop on the Place Madeleine.) Now Adam is on his own. He’s got an éclair shop – it’s also got truffles (some like looking cake balls) and chocolates – in the Marais and a couple ofAdam’s Tartines et Cafes in the city. I love the way the little cakes are packed at Adam’s. Wouldn’t you love to find these in your lunchbox?

And to finish, the fabulously beautiful eclairs from L’Eclair de Genie.

Epiphany: It's a New Year and it just might be a good one ...

2013-01-13T11:36:42Z

Here’s the conundrum: I haven’t been posting, so you haven’t seen me but, in fact, I’ve been out and about more than ever. Uptown and downtown. Baking cookies and selling cookies. Dashing around town for meetings. And traveling. As a writer, I always tell people that I work in a cocoon, a comfy one that includes a kitchen and a desk. But ever since the birth of Beurre & Sel, I’ve had to get out of my yoga pants and into town. And you know what? It’s been great! I’ve loved meeting so many people who love cookies the way that I do.

Thank you, thank you to all of you who came to visit us at La Marqueta and the Essex Street Market. And merci to all you visited us online and who entrusted us with sending stacks of cookies to your friends and families, clients, colleagues and holiday hosts. It’s been a really exciting fall (yeah, yeah, a little exhausting too) and we’re all geared up for winter and getting ready for Valentine’s Day. (Wait until you see what I’m baking for it!)

And now it’s a New Year and I hope it will be a wonderful one for you and for everyone you love.

I’ve got a hunch that it’s going to be a good year, in part because, for the first time ever, I was the person who got the trinket in the galette des rois (kings cake)! And so I got to wear the crown and crown my king! I know it doesn’t sound like much, but I’m taking it as a sign. And if I’m thinking I’m going to have a good year, I’d like to think that you’re going to have one too.

Wishing you everything sweet for 2013 – xoDorie

The Ritual of Galette des Rois: Epiphany is January 6 and in France, as in other places, the day is celebrated with a special pastry: Kings Cake. In Provence, the cake is made with a brioche dough, baked in a ring and decorated with candied fruit. Just about everywhere else in France the cake is not a cake at all, but two layers of puff pastry encasing, at its most classic, almond cream: a mix of butter, eggs, sugar and ground almonds. Just as modern pastry chefs have played with the flavor of the fillings, they’ve also made the Galette des Rois a celebration running from the day after Christmas through most of January, giving sweet lovers more chances to taste different kinds of galettes and, of course, more chances to be crowned the king or queen.

Here’s how it works. Baked inside every galette is a little trinket. Originally, it was a bean, or feve, nowadays it’s a small porcelain charm (some beautiful enough to wear) and at all times it’s something to aspire to and to beware of: I’m guessing that dentists are busy during the galette season. When you buy a galette, you’re given a crown and, as with the feves, crowns go from simple (think McDonald’s like) to gorgeous, like the intricate orange crown from Pierre Herme. The youngest person in the group is supposed to sit under the table – I wish you could have seen 30-year old Simon crouched under the table! – and, as each portion of the galette is sliced, ‘the child’ calls out the name of the person who should be served. Of course, there’s great excitement when the feve is discovered and the discoveree is crowned. In some homes, the crown is passed along to the winner’s choice for King or Queen. When I won the crown, Pierre had supplied a second crown and so I was able to give it to Michael and we could both look silly … but happy.

Beurre & Sel Delivers: From Our Home to Yours

2012-12-02T22:11:30Z

Well, it took us a little while, but we've done it! The BEURRE & SEL website is up and running, the postman has become our best friend, and we're finally shipping beautifully packaged cookies all over America.

The whole Beurre & Sel (the cookie biz formerly known as CookieBar) story is on our website, as are descriptions of the sweet and savory cookies we're shipping. Yes, World Peace Cookies are among the sweets, and Rosemary-Parmesan have a place in The Cocktail Collection, the small cookies that make a big splash when you serve them wtih wine, champagne or cocktails.

When you visit the site, please don't miss the Gallery -- I love the photos we've got up there. Scroll through and you'll (re)meet Joshua "The Kid" Greenspan, my son and partner; our pastry chef, Marisa Croce; and our baking teammates, Lisa Nicklin and Paul Simon. You'll also get a peek into our teensy kitchen in La Marqueta, in East Harlem, and our even teensier boutique at The Essex Market, on the Lower East Side. The fabulous pictures were taken by Claudia Ficca, who is as wonderful to work with as she is talented.

Come visit us if you're in the 'hood. If not, click and we'll ship. Juno, the Postman, is standing by.

Bin 27 Port + Cookies + Food 52: A good time was had by all and there's a video to prove it

2012-11-27T19:29:48Z

It's always a good time when I get to spend time in the kitchen with my friends Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, the Food 52 genies. And the last time we were together, it was to make Port Jammers, cookies I created for the Fonseca Bin 27 Cookie Rumble and loved so much that they're now part of the Beurre & Sel line-up.

At Beurre & Sel we bake the cookies in our signature metal rings (which I'm having custom-made and hoping to have available on the B&S website soon -- stay tuned), but at home you can get great cookies by baking them in a muffin tin. Either way, it's a terrific triple-flavor treat: the base is a brown-sugar spice cookie speckled with Port-poached cranberries; the poika dot in the center is Port-spiked jam (cherry is my preference); and the finish is a circle of cocoa streusel.

The recipe is on Food 52's site. And so is information on the Fonseca Bin 27 contest. If I weren't a judge for the contest -- along with Jacques Torres -- I'd join: the prizes are amazing. Create a cookie that goes with Port, enter your recipe, and if you win, you'll get a dual-fuel oven from KitchenAid (yes, really!) and kitchen time with Jacques and moi in our bakeries.

Jump over to Food 52 and start thinking Port + Cookies.

And, while we're on the subject of Food 52 ... have you seen their new cookbook? You must!

A Thanksgiving Newcomer: Cranberry Crackle Tart

2012-11-19T13:49:24Z

I know how iffy it is to fuss with Thanksgiving traditions – it took years (and years and years) for me to convince my husband that Thanksgiving would be fine without the stringbean-and-sour-cream casserole topped with cornflakes. My own trick for change involves a little extra work, but it’s usually worth it: I don’t cut, I add. I keep the old faves and slip my new dish into the mix, all the while crossing my fingers that it will be loved … instantly.

This Thanksgiving, in addition to Pumpkin Pie (my mother-in-law would disown me if I didn’t make one for her) and Pecan Pie (the lack of which would sadden my husband), I’m adding this Cranberry-Crackle Tart.

Except for the fact that the tart uses fresh (or frozen) cranberries, the only tie it will have to our American Thanksgiving it will get on Thursday, when I serve it. At its heart, it’s French. It’s also simple and, of course, delicious.

The base is sweet tart, galette or pie dough. Although I bake the dough in a pie pan, by the time it’s baked and unmolded, it’s half its size – and that’s just the way it should be. (No mile-highers for the French, even when they’re feasting.) I fit the dough into the pan and then cut it down so that it only comes about two-thirds of the way up the sides of the pan. After it bakes – and shrinks (inevitable) – it’s more a platter for the filling than a container and that’s perfect.

The filling is a few tablespoons of chunky jam (I use cherry) and then a fluffy layer of sweet meringue and tangy cranberries. Slowly baked in a low oven, the meringue dries and colors just slightly on top – that’s the crackle – and remains white and marshmallowy underneath.

I love it and I hope you will too.

Wishing all of you peace, love and sweetness this Thanksgiving.

CRANBERRY CRACKLE TART

Makes 6 servings

Sweet tart, galette or pie dough, ready to roll

For the filling:

2 tablespoons chunky cherry, raspberry or strawberry jam

2 large egg whites, at room temperature

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries (if they’re frozen, don’t thaw)

Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting (optional)

Butter a 9-inch pie pan (I use a Pyrex pan) and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Sandwich the galette dough between two sheets of plastic wrap, wax or parchment paper, and roll the dough until it is a scant 1/8-inch thick. Don’t worry about making a beautiful circle because you’re going to trim the dough drastically.

Fit the dough into the pie pan, allowing the excess to drape over the sides. Gently press the dough evenly along the bottom and up the sides of the pan and then, using a paring knife, a pizza wheel or a rick-rack-edged ravioli wheel, estimate about one-third down from the rim of the pan and trim the dough to that point. Prick the bottom of the dough all over with the tines of a fork and slide the pan into the freezer for at least 30 minutes. (The leftover dough makes a nice turnover.)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place a piece of parchment or a buttered piece of aluminum foil over the crust and weigh it down with rice, dried beans or pie weights. Bake the crust for 25 minutes, carefully remove the paper and weights and continue to bake for 8 to 12 minutes more, or until the crust is golden. The crust will have shrunk, but that’s fine – with this tart, it’s the base that’s most important. Set the crust aside to cool to room temperature.

When you’re ready to fill and bake the tart, preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Spoon the jam into the crust and spread it evenly across the bottom.

Working in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites with the salt at medium speed just until they turn opaque. With the mixer going, add the sugar in a very slow, steady stream. Keep beating until all the sugar is in and the whites are shiny and form peaks with pretty droopy tips – the whites will look like marshmallow. Pour the cranberries into the bowl and, using a spatula, fold the fruit into the meringue. Try to distribute the fruit evenly, but don’t try too hard – you want to keep the meringue fluffy. Turn the meringue into the crust and spread it to the edges, making it swirly if you’d like. The jam will sneak up around the edges of the meringue and that’s fine.

Bake the tart for 1 hour, at which point the top will be light beige and cracked here and there. Transfer the tart to a cooling rack and allow it rest for 15 minutes. If you’d like to unmold the tart – it’s pretty when it’s freestanding – poke a blunt knife between a small section of the crust and the pan to create a little air pocket, and then turn the tart over onto a rack. Carefully pull away the pan and, using another rack, turn the tart right-side up without pressing down on the meringue. Cool the tart to room temperature. The tart can be served now or you can chill it – I like it both ways.

Serving: Sprinkle the top of the tart with confectioner’s sugar, if you’d like, and serve. In France, I’ve seen some meringue tarts served with whipped cream and some with ice cream. Despite my thinking that the cream was too much, I polished it off and enjoyed it.

Storing: The tart is best served the day it’s made, although it’s still pretty nice one day later.

All's Fine After Sandy - Hope you can say the same

2012-11-01T17:02:48Z

This picture was taken as Super-Storm Sandy was winding down. We got surprisingly little rain and enough wind to frighten us, but not enough to do serious damage. Our electricity was, as we knew it would be, knocked out, but it's been restored. Ditto our cell service, which was intermittent at best. All in all, we were incredibly lucky and I'm grateful.

Thank you for your sweet and kind wishes. They were a comfort.

My thoughts go out to all of you who might still be trying to right the ravages of the storm.