I think we can safely say that baking weather has begun. Maybe some of you in cooler climates or some of you with central A/C can bake year round, but this apartment dweller in hot and sweaty New York cannot. Pretty much from May until October, the warmth from making toast is the only heat I let my kitchen generate beyond that which comes from Mother Nature. But now as my pasty white legs get covered for the next six months and hibernation mode sets in, it is time to turn on the oven and add a little winter padding to my frame.

The lack of blogging has been half laziness and half lack of material. I cook and bake a lot less here for a lot of different reasons: space, culture, time, money, people. I know that I also forget to tell you about meals out. They’re happening still, and they’re enjoyable, so don’t worry about me only eating oatmeal and toast every night. This might be the first and last post for a while, but it’s a good one. Because it involves cookie butter.

Do you have a jar in your cupboard yet? I bought my first at Trader Joe’s last year and have not bought another since because I fear I might eat it all in one sitting. (The reason I never have ice cream in the freezer.) Biscoff/Speculoos cookie butter is a spread made of crushed up Biscoff/Speculoos cookies. Yes, crushed up cookies. Kind of a gingerbread, gingersnap, and oatmeal cookie mash-up. The best possible cookie mash-up. I think you’re supposed to put it on bread or use it for a fruit dip, but I can’t really see a better use than on a spoon and then in my mouth. But, as I’ve vowed not to engage in such behaviour, I went looking for recipes that employed it. I found a little doozy that is like the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookie you’ve ever had. The cookie butter enhances all of that classic’s best qualities and doesn’t take it over. This isn’t a recipe to make you bonkers for cookie butter. Like I said, that recipe only requires a spoon and open jar. This is to have everyone ask you for the recipe because they can’t quite figure out why your oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are the best.

Happy fall. Get baking.

P.s. Another way to use cookie butter? A couple of tablespoons whisked into heavy cream and then whipped. It’s Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend. I just told you how to top your pumpkin pie and have everyone fall in love with you.

Oatmeal chocolate-chip cookie butter cookies

Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup plus two tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup Biscoff/Speculoos spread (cookie butter)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup chocolate chips (I used a mix of milk and semi-sweet.)
Fleur de sel (Because I rarely top a cookie these days without it.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter, cookie butter spread, sugar, and brown sugar and beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla extra and beat until smooth, ideally around 5 minutes. (Or beat well by hand if you don’t have a stand mixer.)

Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients and chocolate chips, beating only until blended. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator – the longer the better. I usually do overnight. Let the dough warm up about 15 minutes before scooping (you need to preheat the oven anyway). You can also pre-scoop your cookies to avoid the hassles of too-cold dough the next day. All you have to do is scoop onto a parchment-lined plate (the balls can be close together) and cover with plastic wrap. I also pre-scoop and freeze dough balls. Just put the plate into the freezer until the dough balls are firm, then place in a freezer-safe bag or container.

Form the cookie dough into rounded tablespoons and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. (Or place chilled or frozen dough balls on sheet.) Bake for 7-9 minutes or until cookies are *just* golden and firm around the edges. Bake an extra minute or two if your cookies came out of the freezer. Pull out of oven and sprinkle cookies immediately with fleur de sel. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then remove with a spatula onto a cooling rack.

Fried eggplant

Eat your vegetables. How many times has that phrase been overused? Both as a voice in your head reminding you to be healthy and as the nagging refrain that so many children try to ignore. Thankfully, I think we’ve reached a point where “our vegetables” are no longer snoozers such as steamed broccoli or carrot sticks, and they can even induce excitement. Hello, Brussels sprouts trend. Vegetarians and vegans also are not limited to a solitary choice of rotini with tomato sauce (except maybe on airplanes) when out of the house. In fact, some of the most creative dishes I’ve had of late in restaurants are the veg-heavy ones. Vegetables are having their moment, especially with Mediterranean cuisines being touted for their health benefits, and deservedly so.

Having only spent about six hours in Montreal, I have no opinion of Montreal smoked meat and how great it must be for New Yorkers that it is now available care of Mile End Delicatessen in Brooklyn and Mile End Sandwich in Manhattan. With a much larger sandwich menu (and an easy pit stop on a Sunday afternoon in the city), I have frequented the newer sandwich shop more often and always find myself attracted not to the Montreal specialty but to vegetarian offerings. Fried eggplant. Fried green tomato. Hardly health food, but by battering and frying the bounty of the earth, I will surely eat my vegetables.

What could be better than a warm, thick slab of eggplant that rewards your mouth with the always adored soft-crispy texture? Certainly not piles of meat. Especially not when you get that thick slab alongside salty halloumi cheese, roasted peppers, and grilled spring onions. Maybe a hefty fried tomato that’s as juicy as any burger would tempt me away.

Now, of course, I want to make my way through the flesh offerings on the Mile End menu, but I’m not in any rush. I’ll happily enjoy the fruits of the fryer rather than the smoker for the time being. And I mean, aren’t we supposed to be moving toward a more plant-heavy diet, anyway? Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman would approve.

Fried green tomato

Mile End Sandwich
53 Bond St, New York City 

I cannot for the life of me remember the last time I ate a bowl of corn flakes. Who ever pledged their morning cereal love to boring old corn flakes? I mean, perhaps you only ate them when they were the most attractive item on a Super 8’s continental breakfast spread. Because clearly they were more exciting than the mini box of Raisin Bran. Despite trying to argue that I’ve never poured myself a bowl, I know exactly what they taste like. You never come right out and say, “corn” because it seems too obvious, but… that’s exactly what they taste like. So, when Christina Tosi of the Momofuku clan turned the world upside down with her cereal milk soft-serve ice cream, we all went weak at the knees for the nostalgia of that boring bowl of corn flakes. Every time I have it, I can’t help but smile. Again, despite not ever remembering favouring that box with the rooster, it reminds me of Saturday mornings watching the Smurfs.

Because we don’t all have easy access to a Milk Bar for the soft serve, Tosi’s corn cookies are the perfect substitute for when you want to be reminded of how good corn can taste when it’s not on the cob and liberally sweetened. And forget cornbread. Yes, it’s delicious and can burst with sunshine-y corn flavour, but these corn cookies are on a whole different level: crisp edges, chewy middles, and that crave-inducing mix of salty and sweet. Corn’s easy lean to savoury means they could be dipped in sriracha (seriously) as easily as milk. Tosi even makes grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with them!

Getting the ingredients is not easy, and they’ll be a workout to make if you don’t have a stand mixer, but believe me when I tell you that the effort will be worth it. And if it’s not, I’ll walk down the block to my local Milk Bar and pick one up for you. Just don’t let Azrael steal it away!

Corn Cookies

• You can find the recipe here.
• Living in New York, I can easily go to a Momofuku Milk Bar location and buy the required corn powder that they so nicely prepare. You might have to take the extra step of going online to order freeze-dried corn and then turning it into a powder in your food processor.
• In addition to the corn powder, you also have to use corn flour. And note that corn flour is different than cornmeal. Bob’s Red Mill makes some.
• As per the recipe, do beat the sugar, butter, and egg for 7-8 minutes as directed. Tosi states in the cookbook that this is an important step.
• Get used to refrigerating your dough for flavour and texture. You should be doing it for all your cookies. For at least 24 hours. (Although the nerds over at America’s Test Kitchen think you only need 10 minutes.) I like resting the dough because it makes the task of baking less onerous. One day, I mix and clean all the bowls. The next day, I bake.
• I’m now in the serious habit of freezing a portion of the dough from a cookie recipe to save and bake for later. So, instead of putting all my little scooped doughs in the fridge, I put many of them on a parchment paper-lined plate in the freezer. After about 30 minutes, they’re hard. Pop them in a freezer bag, and you’re good to go for small-batch baking. Friend coming over for coffee? In 10 minutes, you can serve freshly baked cookies. Living alone, I find this especially handy. Instead of always taking baking to work the next day, I can slowly make my way through a haul myself!

Does more really need to be said beyond “pretzel croissant”? I mean, really. This is ridiculous. French pastry revamped to represent new digs in New York City. Butter, flour, and salt (and some sesame seeds) deftly put together to yield one of the best things you could ever put in your mouth. Usually, I pass on croissants because I’m not a fan of the crispy-flaky outer texture. But with this beauty, I’m all about  being covered in flaky shards to get to the soft, chewy middle. I’m not quite sure why they use sesame seeds instead of rock salt, but it tastes good all the same. Oh, and don’t think because there’s no rock salt, the “pretzel” adjective is incorrect. It’s plenty salty. From the butter in the dough, maybe? Who cares, it’s not like I’m going to bother attempting this at home. Salty treats like this require moderation, as they leave you sad and slightly crazed when there’s nothing left on the plate. Water on the side is always helpful, but as a pastry, a strong coffee partner is always appropriate. Did I mention that you’ll often find them served still warm? And not “warm” like from street pretzel vendors (ahem, reheated from frozen).

This is a must-add to your list of NYC food adventures. Bringing friends would be a good idea, as I’ve heard that City Bakery’s hot chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, and baker’s muffins are also fantastic. When you go, don’t mind me in the corner with my coffee and half-eaten croissant, flakes on my face, chest, and lap—I’m in heaven.

City Bakery
3 West 18th St, New York

I’m a fan of Dorie Greenspan. I’ll never forget the first time I heard her speak on NPR. The energy and love she had for baking oozed from my speakers, and I was completely smitten. So, I was really excited to hear that her and her son were taking their pop-up cookie shop, Beurre & Sel, and translating it into not one, but two, bricks and mortar locations here in New York. Dorie Greenspan cookies available all the time? Sign me up!

But, uh, this happened last year, and I… just went. To a week-long specialty pop-up. That signing up part didn’t really happen I’m ashamed to say. The point is, I made it to the pop-up (read: It was a two-minute walk from the office), and I bought some cookies. FROM DORIE GREENSPAN HERSELF. I’ve had some awesome celebrity sightings this past year (Woody Allen, Ricky Gervais, Michael Caine), but having the chance to speak to one of my baking idols for a few minutes really made my week.

And then I went back to the office, removed my classic jammer from its plastic bag, and ate one of the best cookies of recent memory. I’m not a crispy cookie girl, and I was a little bit afraid that each bite would bring a downpour of crumbs. Not even close. The cookie yielded softly to my bite, filling my mouth with butter, sugar, and salt. It was magical.

The cherry on the top for you is that this is not solely a New Yorker treat. Dorie Greenspan goodness is within your reach through the power of mail order! I recently took some tubes of the sesame sea salt and sables to California, and based on the groans of pleasure from my Californians, they do just fine after a plane ride. The only dilemma is if you should order one of each kind, or two.

Beurre & Sel

OMG. It’s been so long since I wrote a blog post that I’ve almost forgotten how to do it. All these buttons and choices and photo sizes that need to be dealt with. No wonder it’s been so long! Well, sorry. Life gets in the way, sometimes. And even with a penchant for quiet evenings at home, life (television, sleep, eating, reading) gets in the way. With little time left before it gets much too hot in my kitchen to bake, I have resolved to gas up the oven to have some material to share. Expect lots of cookies. For now, a cake.

Can you hardly believe it? I, the cake hater, chose to bake a cake for New Year’s Eve. And, double OMG, I loved it. If you scroll to the bottom, you’ll see me making my way through my second piece. Full and tipsy after a cozy celebration at home with some good friends, I plated a large piece of this moist cake, sat myself down, and avoided doing the dishes.

Casual elegance defines this cake. The tatin top takes some time and demonstrates to your guests that you have a bit more skill than simply using a small appliance and turning on the oven. But, given that beyond making the caramel you only need to beat and bake, it’s perfect for when you want something pretty but don’t have all day(s) to make something extravagant. The magic of this cake is the grated pear and star anise in the batter. The grated fruit adds a tremendous amount of moisture, and the spice is unexpected and warming.

Unfortunately, I gave my guests the leftovers, so could not make my way through a third piece. I dream of the January 1 that wasn’t, where I was enjoying a cold piece of this cake for breakfast with a cup of strong coffee. There’s always 2014…

Pear Tatin Cake

Don’t ask me when I found the recipe, but I know that I came across it at some point reading The Globe and Mail. So, I’m a feeling a little bit patriotic that I turned to and am now sharing a recipe by a great Canadian food writer, Lucy Waverman. My cake didn’t turn out as perfect as I’d hoped; my pears browned a bit too much, my caramel bubbled over while baking, and some bits stuck to the pan, but all in all, it was totally fine. I’m eager to try this with other fruit and then varying the spice. I’m thinking apples, maybe strawberries, and even bananas.

I served my cake with a vanilla creme anglaise, but it would pair just as well with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Biggest piece of advice: put a pan under your cake while baking to catch any dribbles.

You can find the recipe here.

Sandy. What a bitch. She really did a number on my part of the world, and two weeks later, the effects are still being felt by many in and around New York City. She was my first hurricane, though, so I’ll never forget her and how my world went topsy-turvy for a week. With requests to stay indoors and away from windows, I don’t have any visual memories beyond the pictures that I saw the next day. Howling winds and swaying trees were my only drama, thankfully. Power and water never left. I became a lucky one.

But before she hit, no one really knew what to expect, and so on the fateful Monday when transit was offline and most people were home from work, you quickly learned that cooking folk were cooking (up a storm, literally) before the lights were set to go out. Instagram was full of images of low-and-slow flesh, long-simmered stews, and all sorts of baked creations. Because I knew I had the time, I gave myself the task of practicing pie/pastry dough.  Yes, I have made a pie before, but it was under the watch of a master. The only other time I made a pie crust after that was an utter failure. But considering how much I love pie, I felt I must try again.  At least try with little handpies to get a feel of good dough. And if this attempt was also an utter failure, I’m sure there would have been a way for me to blame Sandy.

Success. Success! I rolled out dough and could see the little specks of butter. I baked pies and those specks of butter created pockets that created flakes. FLAKES. There was not a bite of leaden crust to be had. All bites caused major flake trauma on my shirt, the plate, and the floor.

I’m ready for a real pie now. Take that, Sandy.

Apple Hand Pies
Adapted from The Fauxmartha

I didn’t really make any substantial changes to this great recipe from The Fauxmartha. I used all Granny Smith and added two tablespoons of brown butter to the apple mixture.  Because I don’t see anything wrong with trying to get brown butter into as much as possible. I also just substituted my handy pumpkin pie spice for all the individual ones. And no egg wash, just a water wash for the sugar; I was taught that you don’t add anything on top of the dough that didn’t go into the dough. (My crust is extra golden because I had to use a little bit of white whole wheat flour, which was out of necessity, not choice.)

Her pie crust recipe worked like a dream for me. I watched the video at least five times, however, and bought all the equipment I didn’t have. Like everyone says, KEEP EVERYTHING COLD. If the crust gets warm, put it back in the fridge. Cold cold cold.  I put the shaggy dough in the fridge and thought it would be a mess when I started to roll it. I forgot that it’s all butter. A few pushes of the rolling pin and the butter softens. Fast. Hence, cold cold cold.

If I can do it, you can do it.

From Sam Sifton’s review of Roberta’s last year, I knew that Chef Carlo Mirarchi did a tasting menu a few nights a week, and that it was supposed to be excellent. But knowing that the wait list was something like six months long, I never gave it much thought. Then came news that the tasting menu would be featured in a completely new space, Blanca, care of Sam’s profile. And then Andrew Knowlton sang its praises too. He is The Foodist for Bon Appetit  magazine, and the writer who presented BA’s top 10 new restaurants of the year. Andrew Knowlton also lives in my ‘hood. I’ll trust a guy in the same zip code, but I’ll love a guy who gives the number two spot to a Roberta’s offshoot. The itch began.

And it soon stopped. An upcoming visitor and I decided to commit to getting up early on a Saturday and sitting on the phone indefinitely to try and make a reservation. After pressing redial too many times to count (as well as 53 minutes), I got an actual person on the other line and not an answering machine. She had free spaces for our desired date. I had my choice of seating time. We secured a reservation. What happens next?

Well, no pictures. We were politely asked to refrain from taking any pictures so as not to spoil the surprise for any future guests (you can find some if you must from early day spoil sports, however). My phone remained in my purse, and I had no paper and pencil. Roughly 30 courses flowed forth over almost four hours, and they all strive to remain in my mind as extraordinary epicurean memories. New flavours, old flavours. Textures that were comforting, challenging, and unexpected. Seasoning that asserted itself. My palate has matured to a point where I can appreciate just how important a few grains of sea salt can be or how just how it is that a one-bite course can exceed a plate full of “good enough.”

It’s hard to put into words just how much I enjoyed my Blanca experience. The food, the atmosphere, the warm yet reserved service, the records playing in the background, the beverage pairing. The beverage pairing! God, each glass was amazing and unique.

Perhaps the best way for me to sum up my experience comes from a friend. He told me that maybe I moved to New York to have the best meal of my life.

This could be very true.

Blanca
261 Moore Street, Brooklyn 

It’s been months since I’ve had a slice of pie. Months. For a girl who can eat pie as easily as ice cream, I was in dire straits. My nostalgia for running along the seawall in Vancouver rivalled my nostalgia for heading to Aphrodite’s after dinner for tea and a slice of raspberry rhubarb. Cookies, cupcakes, ice cream, gelato, frozen yogurt. Everywhere. Pie? Good pie? NYC seems like a ghost town.

I knew very well about Four & Twenty Blackbirds. I knew all about the pie legend that is their salted caramel apple. And salty honey. And lemon chess. They have received glowing reviews and lots of press. But, um, how can you go for dessert when the shop closes at 6? Not very dessert friendly. I know, I know. They make limited numbers for optimal freshness, and the shop IS in the industrial-not-dessert-friendly area of Gowanus, but still. I like dessert after dinner, when the sun’s away, and the time is ripe for catching up and settling down.

Fall is my favourite time for pies (obviously), and so with a crazy craving, I decided to have pie for brunch. What’s wrong with that? Pancakes are by and large equivalent to dessert, so why not just cut the BS and outright have dessert. Being only a 15 minute walk away, I took in some warm Sunday sun and made my way past the toxic Gowanus canal. The place itself is exceedingly cute and cozy and much more apt for a lazy afternoon than a quiet evening.

What can they get me? Pear bourbon crumble. Fruit makes it much more appropriate for first thing, right? While the execution of the pie was perfect (crust, texture, composition), the overall effect was too sweet for me. I couldn’t taste any bourbon, so the pear and crumble were sweet + sweet. My coffee was the perfect foil as its bitterness cut right through that pairing. The brown butter pumpkin I took home for that night’s dessert, however, was outstanding. A double pie day equally so.

Only a 15 minute walk away, and it took me almost six months to visit. Shameful.
Americans celebrating Thanksgiving in November means an extra six weeks of pumpkin pie on the menu. Jackpot.

Four & Twenty Blackbirds
439 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn 

“I am my own worst critic” is my understatement of the century. In my opinion, I can do everything worse than you. I never have a good word to speak of myself, and when one is spoken of me, I usually have a trick up my sleeve for convincing you that you’re wrong.  Three-plus decades of attempted perfectionism has yielded a girl who doesn’t know how to relax and not needle out flaws. You name a category, I tell you how I just don’t measure up. It can be exhausting, but thankfully for you, the people most exhausted always have a PhD at the end of their names.

In the context of this blog, my urge to needle and prick means I’m an insecure, amateur cook who has found relief in New York City talking about the food that I eat rather than the food that I make. As much as I can find great satisfaction in pulling something culinary off, especially if it’s for a guest, I get anxious prior to the pots and pans coming out. Food is just food, I know, but I don’t want to be serving fucked-up food to a person that I care about or photographing ugly food for you, dear readers.

A guest in the house brought out my caretaker, and with it, my need to care through food. You’re sleeping on my couch? I’ll make you a meal even when my little devil tells me it’s going to be  a flop. (I do give myself brownie points sometimes for trying.) Given that my guest was from Edmonton, and I’d still not heard a peep from any Edmontonians about any newfound love of burrata cheese, I had ingredient number one. I was introduced to burrata a few years ago in Vancouver and fell head over heels instantly. “Mozzarella that gives birth to creamy strings of heaven” would be my second understatement of the century. Slapping it on some bread with a bit of salt and a bit of sweet was… my best idea ever. After one bite, I beamed. After two, I reminded myself that no, I hadn’t read about this somewhere. I DID IT. Of course, there are prosciutto, peach and mozzarella creations all over the internet, I told my devil. But my creation had burrata. And balsamic mayo.

For about an hour, as my guest and I enjoyed the sandwiches, joked, and caught up, my needle stayed in my pocket and my devil shut up and read “The New Yorker.”

Prosciutto, burrata, and peach sandwiches
Use amounts based on how many sandwiches you want.  One standard ball of burrata could be used for about three sandwiches.

Crusty bread, such as ciabatta
Prosciutto, shaved
Burrata cheese
Fresh peach, sliced
Fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
Balsamic mayo*
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Slather one slice of bread with balsamic mayo. Layer prosciutto, then peaches, then a few basil leaves.
Cut ball of burrata into chunks. It will be messy. Just go with it.
Layer cheese on sandwich. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place second piece of bread on top.

*Balsamic mayo: In a ratio of about 4:1, mayonnaise to balsamic vinegar, mix well and add one garlic clove sliced in half lengthwise. Let sit in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. Remove garlic before serving and mix again.