DORIE GREENSPAN

Greyston Bakery Do Goodies: Eat a Brownie, Do Good

Here's a chance to have your cake and eat it too:   Buy a brownie made by the Greyston Bakery and 100% of the profits will go to the Greyston Foundation, a network of spiritually-rooted, entrepreneurial community development programs that provides jobs, childcare, health services and community gardens to help individuals and families become self-sufficient.

Called Do Goodies, they come in four varieties - Chocolate Fudge; Walnut Fudge; Espresso Bean; and Brown Sugar Blondie; cost $2.49/generous brownie; and carry the following endorsement from Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben&Jerry's: "The only brownies we ever eat!"

Actually, not only are Greyston Bakery's brownies personal favorites of Ben & Jerry, these are the brownies the guys fold into their ice cream: The Brownie Artisans (I love the title) at Greyston are the exclusive producers of B&J's brownie mix-ins.

The brownies have a deep, deep chocolate flavor (they're made with unsweetened Belgian chocolate) and are super-fudgy, as in creamy and dense (and not at all cakey).

For now, the brownies are buyable at: Whole Foods (NY and NJ); Balducci's; Good & Natural (Bronx); Westerly Natural Market; Fairway; Kings (NY and NJ); Food Emporium and Gristedes.

If you don't live near a Do Goodie store, you can still get a taste of Greyston Bakery by baking from the book: The Greyston Bakery Cookbook: More Than 80 Recipes to Inspire the Way you Cook and Live.  The cookbook is terrific and it's written by a friend and someone many of you may know, Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan, the founder of The Kitchn at Apartment Therapy.

It's not often you can over-do it in the brownie department and feel really good about it.  At last, a(n almost) guilt-free indulgence.

bonappetit.com: It All Starts Today

So much has been changing at Bon Appetit (where I'm a special correspondent).  There's the new logo, the magazine's new design, its new features (including a column by Molly Wizenberg, the blogger best known as Orangette) and now -- the new website!

The site launches today (probably around noon, Eastern Time) and it's got way too many features for me to outline here, so I'm just going to hit the biggest deal: The Bon Appetit Top 100 Dishes, with endless information about each dish.  There are how-to videos, slideshows, tips, tricks, links to info on and sources for ingredients, related articles from everywhere and comments and ratings from users.  There's also Bon Appetit's Flickr group, a bonappetit.com You Tube channel, a Facebook Fan page and Project Recipe, which has Chris Hall, an experienced home cook from Berkeley, and Bridget Moloney, a novice from New York City, cooking and blogging their way through all the recipes.

When I was with some of the site designers in Las Vegas last week, they were so excited they could barely sit still -- and they didn't: When they were talking about the site they just kept popping out of their chairs!  They've worked on this a long, long time and they were counting down the seconds til launch day.  Now, the day is here, and I've got to say, I'm excited, too.  Hope to bump into you there.

The Most Extraordinary Lemon Tart Re-thunk

A few weeks ago, I posted the recipe for this lemon tart, a favorite of mine from Pierre Herme, on Serious Eats and, coincidentally, it was chosen as the recipe of the week by the wonderful bakers at Tuesdays with Dorie.  I heard from some of you that you were having difficulties getting the lemon cream up to 180 degrees F -- 165 degrees F seemed to be the stopping point -- and that whether you called it quits at 165 or kept going to 180, it was taking a long time and a lot of elbow grease to thicken the cream.

Well, I made the recipe over the weekend and I've got a new thought on how to speed up the process and still get the thick, smooth, almost velvety cream that makes this tart so remarkable.

To recap, the recipe calls for the sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and eggs to be mixed together in a bowl.  The bowl is put over a saucepan with a few inches of boiling water and you whisk, whisk, whisk until the mixture thickens enough for the whisk to leave tracks, then you keep whisking until the cream measures 180 degrees F on a candy or instant-read thermometer.  To finish the cream, you pour it into a blender and cool it slightly before you whir in room-temperature butter -- but that's not the problemmatic part.

So here's what I did over the weekend -- I got bold!  To make my double boiler, I used a soup pot and I filled it about 2/3 full of water, which I brought to a boil.  I then put the bowl (a metal bowl) with all the ingredients over the steaming soup pot (making sure that the bottom of the bowl wasn't touching the boiling water) and whisked like mad.  With so much heat under the bowl, the cream came up to 180 degrees F in under 10 minutes (in fact, the first time I did it, it took 4 minutes and 39 seconds; the second time, it took almost 7 minutes -- different bowl, different pot, different stove).

Of course, if you're going to supercharge the power under the bowl, you've got to be vigilant -- you can't take your eyes off the cream; energetic -- you can't stop whisking, even for a few seconds; and  nimble -- as soon as the cream shows the slightest signs of thickening, measure the temperature and make sure to remove the bowl from the heat immediately the instant you hit 180 degrees F.

A couple of other re-thinks:  If your lemon zest was very finely grated (I use a Microplane grater/zester), then you don't need to strain the cream -- just quickly scrape the hot cream from the bowl into the blender.  And, while you shouldn't add the butter to the cream while it's still very hot (if you do, then the butter will melt, as it does in a lemon curd, and you won't get the great texture that sets this cream apart), you don't really need to measure the cream's temperature before you butterize it -- if you leave the cream in the blender for 8 to 10 minutes, it will be just the right temperature for blending in the butter.

Finally, I made this tart on Sunday as part of my workshop at Pastry Scoop's Spring Conference at The French Culinary Institute, and, because it was at hand, I used lime juice in place of the lemon juice and it worked perfectly.

I hope those of you who haven't already made the tart, will -- it's really one of my all-time favorite recipes -- and that those of you who've already made it, will find these tweaks helpful the next time you decide to whisk up this treat.

Passover Wines Not To Be Passed Over

Passover, which starts at sundown this Saturday (at least in this hemisphere), is probably the Jewish holiday with the most food traditions.  The best-known Passover custom is the ban on anything leavened -- so long no-knead bread and morning muffins -- and the most dreaded is the typical wine that's served at the Passover seder, the ritual dinner that marks the start of the holiday, which commemorates the Jews' exodus from Egypt.

While the food at a seder can be spectacular, the kosher wine served along with it -- and wine is a "mandated" part of the meal -- can be (and often was) undrinkable.  The Passover wine that I remember was as thick as motor oil and as sweet as syrup.  For sure, it did nothing to enhance the holiday brisket and worse, because even kids sometimes get a sip of wine at the seder, it probably made teetotalers out of potential mavens. 

Imagine how much more delicious seders would have been with great wines to go with the meals cooks spend days preparing.  Enter Jeff and Jodie Morgan and their wines, Covenant and Red C.

I ran into Jeff and Jodie (pictured above on their porch) when I was in Napa in January and I was so happy to meet Jodie and to catch up with Jeff after many years.  I'd known Jeff in New York in the late '80s, when he was writing about wine and working on the Dean & DeLuca Cookbook.  Shortly after we met, he and Jodie moved to San Francisco and Jeff became a member of the Wine Spectator's prestigious (and feared) tasting panel.  A few years later, Jeff went from judging wines to making them:  He and Jodie founded SoloRosa and just about single-handedly put quality rose on connoisseurs' radar.

I guess I didn't know Jeff well enough in the "old days" to know that he was such a fighter, but clearly the guy can't let a challenge go unmet, which would be the only way to explain his deciding to make kosher wine, probably the least respected type of wine in winedom.  I bet the Baron de Rothschild of legendary Chateau Lafite, who also makes kosher wine, was happy to have Jeff enter the ring.  It can be lonely at the top and now Jeff and his wines are at the top, too.

Convenant and Red C, both Napa cabernet sauvignons, have gotten consistently high rankings from the uber-guru of wines, Robert Parker.  The latest Red C vintage got an 89-90 rating, while Parker gave Covenant a whopping 90 - 92 and said, "Jeff Morgan continues to make one of the finest kosher wines on Planet Earth." 

Of course, like so many good Napa wines, Covenant and Red C are expensive ($90 and $42 respectively), but Passover comes only once a year and if, when you pour a glass of wine for the angel Elijah, as tradition demands,  this turns out to be the year he actually shows up to drink it, wouldn't you want to have a great wine waiting for him?

So Many Nominees, Such Great Work

Last week the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) sent out their list of nominees for this year's cookbook awards and this morning, at the Beard House (see photo), the nominees for James Beard Awards for journalism, books, chefs and restaurants were announced. 

Since there are way too many nominees for me to list -- and since you can go to the sites and see them for yourself -- I'm just going to say CONGRATULATIONS to all the nominees and tell you who the nominees are in the book category for baking and dessert, since my guess is that's one of the categories that you, like I,  are really interested in. 

There were two books that were nominated by both the IACP and the James Beard Foundation:

• Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor, by Peter Reinhart; and
• Pure Dessert, by Alice Medrich

In addition, the IACP nominated:

• Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers, by Daniel Leader and Lauren Chattman

And Beard nominated:

• A Baker's Odyssey by Greg Patent

Oh, I can't resist telling you just a little more.  Michael Laiskonis, pastry chef at Le Bernardin in New York, fascinating blogger and last year's James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year, was on hand to announce some of the chef nominees.  This year's nominees for Pastry Chef of the Year are:

• Gina DePalma of Babbo, NYC
• Pichet Ong of P*ONG, NYC
• Nicole Plue of Redd, Yountville, CA
• Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson of Tartine Bakery, San Francisco, CA
• Mindy Segal of HotChocolate in Chicago, IL

Well, as long as I've already done more than I said I would, I'm going to congratulate my bookwriting friends who were nominated (please, please, please, if I've forgotten any of you, I'm sorry in advance).  This is in no logical order, just the way they turn up on the sheets I've got:

• Jean Anderson for A Love Affair with Southern Cooking
• Jacques Pepin for Chez Jacques: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook
• James Peterson for Cooking
• Mark Bittman for How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Quick & Easy Recipes from The New York Times AND his television series, The Best Recipes in the World
• Anne Willan for The Country Cooking of France
• Patricia Wells for Vegetable Harvest
• Molly O'Neill for American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes
• Darra Goldstein for Baking Boot Camp: Five Days of Basic Training at the Culinary Institute of America
• Elizabeth Falkner for Demolition Desserts
• Laura Shapiro for Julia Child

Once again, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! 

Tuesdays with Dorie

Whoever wouldda thunk?  Certainly not me, but there's a new group on the web called Tuesdays with Dorie, and they're baking a recipe a week from Baking From My Home to Yours.  It's really terrific and I'm touched, flattered and frankly amazed.

The group was started a month or two ago by Laurie of Quirky Cupcake with the idea that every week avid bakers would have the chance to bake together and share their triumphs and frustrations.  Laurie began the group with three other bakers and now there are more than 80 bloggers, and several non-bloggers, too, baking every week and, as the group's name suggests, posting their results on Tuesdays.    It's so, so, so exciting.

This week's recipe was an ambitious one: Brioche Raisin Snails (page 56), chosen by Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.  Yes, the group's recipe is chosen by a different Tuesdays-with-Dorie member each week and, because they're bakers and therefore an orderly lot, there's a method by which members are tapped to be the chooser. 

I've visited a bunch of the blogs to see this week's results and they're wonderful!  I can't tell you how thrilling it is for me to see so many people making such great stuff.  And the snails recipe, with its buttery yeast dough, pastry cream, rum-flamed raisins and need for patience - there's no rushing a yeast dough - was a real challenge.  Next week's recipe is the Caramel-Topped Flan (both simple and delicious), pictured here.

If this sounds like fun to you, go to Tuesdays with Dorie and sign on.  All are welcome (bloggers and non-bloggers), no matter your baking skills - there are plenty of beginners in the group, which is another reason I think it's so good. 

Many thanks to Laurie for thinking up this great idea, developing the website and encouraging everyone to bake, bake, bake!

Bacon, More and More

Since we've been talking bacon, I want to send you over to my friend David Lebovitz's blog (you're probably there everyday anyway) to see this

It's David's Candied Bacon Ice Cream! Even his butcher liked it.

And, because so many of you mentioned Mo's Bacon Bar

Here's the link to it at Vosges Haut-Chocolate.

Now I'm off to cook some bacon for a savory cheese loaf.

Cookies in Unexpected Places

I know some of you think I travel around the world taking pictures of cute guys, but really, really, I only take their pictures if there's a reason, usually a food-related reason, and, as you can see, this guy's holding a tin of cookies.  But here's what's so terrific about him and his cookies:  he's an election monitor (today Parisians are voting for arrondissement mayors) and he gives ccookies to all the little kids who get dragged to the voting booths with their parents. 

And while the cookies weren't supplied by the French government, the ballot boxes were

Doesn't the box look like it was designed by Philippe Starck?  Actually, for all know, it might have been.  Before the ballots are dropped into the box, they're tucked into blue envelopes with "Republique de France" inscribed on the back.  Very classy.

While I was there - I was just keeping a friend company while she voted (and isn't it great that you can vote on Sunday, when you might actually have time to get to the voting place) - one of the candidates came in.  You could tell immediately that he was a candidate: he didn't kiss babies, but his scraf was wrapped around the collar of his coat in a just-so fashion and, while everyone else was dressed casually, having come from the outdoor market across the street, he was in a sport jacket and his shoes were freshly polished.  Only I, an American, was surprised to see that a candidate could campaign two centimeters from a voting booth.

What wasn't a surprise was this sign

urging the assembled voters to toss campaign bulletins and all other paper into the hard-to-miss big brown bags, so that everything could be recycled.  The bags were great - they were the super-tall paper bags normally used to transport baguettes from bakeries to cafes.

When we left, I looked back and saw the name of the room we'd been in

In fact, the Salle Racine was right next to the Salle Moliere and down the hall from the Salle Lully.

Please, let me say it again: "Ah, the French."

Red Wine and Oysters: A Re-Match

Remember when I wrote about having red wine with oysters in Paris?  Well, Eric Asimov, chief wine critic of The New York Times, did and he decided to try the combo himself.  The results of his taste tests are described today in A Rule Just Waiting to be Broken. 

Eric, who loves oysters and really knows and loves wine, tells about pairing his oysters with four red wines (one of them the Marcel Lapierre Morgon I had with the pictured oysters and rillettes at Le Comptoir).  It's a great story - Eric is an unfailingly engaging writer - and it will give you a sense of why the pairing might work ... or might not. 

Click over, it's a good read.

MeMe:Help Needed!!

Months ago, the wonderfully talented Rosa Jackson, whose blog, I adore -

 

I love when she takes us marketing with her in Nice or wandering through Paris - tagged me for a meme.  It seemed so easy - all I had to do was pose four questions to myself and then answer them.  I thought and thought and thought and just couldn't figure out what to ask myself.  I'd come up with a question and then I'd reject it, thinking "who'd care about this?"

So, I'm asking for HELP!.  I guess I should mention that I asked my husband and son for help first - I thought I'd keep it in the family - but they weren't any better at it than I was.  In other words, a few more weeks went by and I still wasn't any closer to posting what Rosa had requested.

Can you help me? Please!  I'm looking for four questions that I can ask myself and answer. 

If you've got a couple of minutes, I'd really appreciate it if you'd send me a question or two.  I'm determine to make good on my promise this week, so if you send me your questions by Wednesday or Thursday, I just might get this done.

Many, many thanks.