Life loves: Brown butter brown sugar shorties

This morning I went for a run in Golden Gate Park. My plan was to follow John F. Kennedy Drive all the way down to Ocean Beach, run along the sand dunes and then make my way back. Unfortunately, I only got about 15 minutes along JFK before I completely wiped out on the gravel trail. The rest of the morning was spent picking gravel out of my hands. I know you really wanted to hear that right before I tell you about everything I’ve been baking.

Fortunately, I got patched up enough in time for a family brunch by the Bay at the Epic Roasthouse. Brunch is probably my favorite meal of the day. The waiter, who was a little standoffish, brought out a selection of cheese-chive popovers, cornbread in the shape of madeleines and white crusty bread with a pad of salty butter. I ordered an asparagus omelet, while my mother ordered the crab cake benedict and my brother and father, typical picky non-brunch eaters, ordered sides of steak fries, onion rings and scalloped potatoes. Tall glasses of champagne and lavender lemonade completed my love for brunch, and my father’s disdain for brunch. Apparently, it’s strange to drink champagne at 11:30 a.m. Who knew?

Speaking of other things I really love. Shortbread cookies. Brown butter. Brown sugar. And those three things altogether? Heaven. We really didn’t need any more cookies in the house, but after reading the heated comments on this recipe, I decided I had to give it a shot for myself. I mean, who doesn’t like a challenge? Deb at Smitten Kitchen swears that every time she has made these brown butter brown sugar shorties, they have come out heavenly. About half of the commentators agree. The other half complain about sandy, crumbly cookies that don’t hold their shape or, alternatively, lacy flat cookies that are more like florentines than shortbread. There’s some debate about how long to let the butter re-harden for and how long to chill the finished dough but not many conclusive answers either way about why people seem to be having different results. Luckily for the people in my house, these cookies came out perfectly for me. Unluckily, they were so good there were only three left by the end of the day. These cookies are wonderfully sandy and simultaneously salty and sweet. Hey that’s an alliteration.

Brown Butter Brown Sugar Shorties
Adapted by Smitten Kitchen from Gourmet

Makes about 32 cookies

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar (preferably dark)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt (flaky salt would be great in these)
Demerara sugar (Sugar in the Raw) or sanding sugar for rolling (optional, I didn’t use it)

Cut butter into four or five pieces and cook butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently, until it has a nutty fragrance and flecks on bottom of pan turn a light brown, anywhere from 4 to 7 minutes. It helps to frequently scrape the solids off the bottom of the pan in the last couple minutes to ensure even browning. Transfer butter to a bowl and chill until just firm, about 1 hour.

Beat together butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in vanilla, then mix in flour and salt at low speed until just combined. Transfer dough to a sheet of wax paper or parchment and form into a 12-inch log, 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Chill, wrapped in wax paper, until firm, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Unwrap dough and roll it in coarse sugar, if using, and press the granules in with the paper you’d be using to wrap it. Slice dough into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, arranging 1 1/2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake until surface is dry and edges are slightly darker, 10 to 12 minutes. Let sit on sheet for a minute before transferring to a rack to cool. (Cookies will quite fragile at first, but will firm up as they cool.)

Dough keeps, chilled, up to 1 week, or in the freezer,

San Francisco Summer Days: Farmers’ market

This morning I sat down with this list of 250 things to do in San Francisco before you die and realized it is epically hard to not eat in this city. I mean, have pumpkin ravioli at L’Osteria, buy a heap of cheap avocados at Casa Lucas, and grab a Vietnamese sandwich from Saigon Sandwiches?

These are just three of the many, many items of the list that have to do with eating. So instead of checking out all these bakeries and restaurants and groceries that 7×7 has decided are necessities for San Franciscans, I decided to revisit some of the places that I remember from my childhood.

When I was younger, the Ferry Plaza farmers’ market didn’t exist. Rather a smaller, more intimate market existed in a parking lot in the Embarcadero. We used to go every Saturday morning fairly early. My mom would shop for produce and I’d buy a couple small items, always the same.

Honey straws, in a multitude of flavors though my favorites were watermelon and root beer, and cinnamon twists from the Noe Valley Bakery stand. Now the farmers’ market has moved to the Ferry Building and with this move, it has become a must-see for many tourists. Navigating the crowds can be annoying, but it is hard to find this much food in one spot in the city.


Even as farmers’ markets spring up in every neighborhood of San Francisco, I’m still clinging to the original. Which, I guess, isn’t really the original anymore.

Unbaked bread

I really suspect you’re tired of hearing about whole grain flours by now. Rye, corn, barley, it all starts to sound the same after awhile. Your eyes start to a glaze over and you start to think, oh no we’re descending into San Francisco hippie territory again. Next thing you know, I’ll be telling you to cook everything by sunlight on the roof. But I swear that day hasn’t some yet. And I swear this really isn’t my fault. In fact, these multigrain flatbreads were actually my brother’s idea. His 13-year-old, just barely teenage boy and still clinging to his picky-eater notions, idea.

We started making these on a weekend afternoon, right as my mother decided she was making whole wheat bread. We set up two simultaneous stations in the kitchen for the baking, the two doughs came together at the same time, and then I was given the task of kneading them. Whenever the opportunity arises, I love working dough with my hands. Like shortbread? I mix the butter in with my hands. But working with yeast gives a whole new level of fun to playing with dough. The dough almost rises in your hands, giving gentle resistance to every push into the countertop. It slowly absorbs the heavy dusting of flour you put down to prevent sticking, becoming more and more sticky until you throw down more flour. Finally, when the dough almost seems to be bursting and can take no more flour, it develops a glossy texture. A quick dusting of olive oil and you leave it to rise. It’s like abandoning a child in a playground. Except when you finally come back, it’s big and puffy without a trace of tears. And then you throw it in a pan and fry it.

Kim Boyce’s flatbread is left to rise twice. The first time for two hours, the second time covered in a towel for 1 ½ hours. Once fully risen, you divide the dough into 8 equal parts and roll them out to about a 9-10 inch diameter. Lightly paint on some olive oil and sprinkle with the spices (fresh or ground) of your choice before throwing in the pan, oil side down. Repeat this process on the other side while the dough circle bubbles.


The original recipe uses amaranth flour. But both the brother, who shies away from strange new foods, and the mother, who has bought far too many new flours for me in the past week, weighed in and we decided to go with a mixture of white, whole wheat and corn flours. We used Stonehouse California Extra Garlic Oil, one of those oils you can pick up at the wonderful bread and olive oil tasting station in the Ferry Building, some variations of chili and curry powders and paprika alongside fresh rosemary and a quick pinch of sea salt.

Eat them plain straight off the skillet or later with something like hummus. Or these would make a great accompaniment to a salad — green or quinoa, you decide how much of a hippie you are.

Up High on a Hill: White chocolate cashew cookies

Right as I only have six days left at home, I am finally getting back into embracing this city. It started standing on top of my hill this morning on the way back from Cortland Avenue. From there, you can see the entire city, the downtown skyscrapers, the Bay, the bridges and you look out across the sky and find yourself eye to eye with the Twin Peaks Towers. It was a surprisingly clear day, not foggy at all, in sharp contrast to yesterday’s downpour, and I marveled at how quickly this city turns around. Not quite like New York City with the hustle and bustle of people in a mad dash (or frantic scramble) to get their lives together, but full of floaty changes like a quick switch in direction of winds in the outer ocean. Then I started out on a run, crossing Mission Street, with its liquor stores and the Indian pizza parlor I’ve been dying to try, building up the tempo down Church through Noe Valley before hitting the hills by Dolores Park. I ran down Market towards Twin Peaks, passing a street closed down and now brimming with stands of fresh produce, the Baghdad Café where we used to eat jam filled donuts late at night, and Hot Cookie, where you can order a chocolate covered macaroon in the shape of a penis, or a vagina, whatever suits your preference.

Most of my love for this city can be summed up by my running and my eating. The paths I run by day are the paths I eat by night. Whether it’s a slice of tiramisu at the Italian place on the corner of Dolores and 30th with an old friend and a long chat with the owner, a delightful old man with a sweet Italian accent whose business has seen hard times, or a breath of fresh air by the ocean at the base of the Cliffhouse hill, I live and inhale this city every time I come back. In my break from running, I had almost forgotten that. I’m so happy it is not too late to change that. Next up, a taste of garlic ice cream and a class on mixing spices because nothing is more San Franciscan than pushing the edge of your taste buds. And then there’s a return to the old favorites, the crab cake sandwiches at the Ferry Building farmers’ market and picnics in the park with old friends.

And then there’s the combination of three deliciously sweet and rich ingredients to make these cookies that I just have to tell you about. Browned butter, buttery cashews and innocently sweet white chocolate all melted into one golden cookie. Now that tastes like home.

I found these cookies on For the Love of Cooking, who in turn got them from The Crepes of Wrath. Instead of just melting the butter, I browned it, which gives it a wonderful nutty aroma and really deepens the taste. For a full tutorial of how to brown butter, see here. I made half the batch with cashews, because they may well be my favorite kind of nut, and half with macadamia nuts, as is more standard. For probably the first time in my life, I measured out the nuts and chocolate chips as per the recipe, but I think I’m going to go back to just eyeballing it because these cookies were so packed with add-ins that it was hard to form them into balls. They were also so packed that I had to flatten the spoonfuls before putting them in the oven in order for the cookies to spread. That said, I don’t hear anyone complaining.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
For the Love of Cooking, The Crepes of Wrath

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (chopped, if needed) macadamia nuts
2 cups white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl then set aside. Beat together the melted butter, brown sugar, white sugar, egg, egg yolk and vanilla with a mixer until creamy.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture until just mixed. Stir in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips by hand. Drop by the spoonful onto a greased or lined baking sheet.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges look golden brown. Cool on the baking sheet for at least 4-5 minutes (so cookies can set) before moving to a rack.

My new favorite chocolate chip cookie

I’ve always shied away from making chocolate chip cookies. I don’t really know why as they are such a standard in America. But it could be because they are such a landmark cookie, so simply yet so difficult to get absolutely perfect. It starts with people having different ideas of what a perfect chocolate chip cookie is, some like them thick and dense, or chewy with crisp edges and a few even prefer a cakey cookie. Some like dark chocolate and some like milk chocolate. Nuts or no nuts. Chips or chunks. The variations on this standard cookie go on and on, and I’ve never found a recipe I thought was absolutely perfect.

Actually that’s not true. There is one recipe, the Stars Desserts chocolate chip cookie, that I think is absolutely perfect; it produces a light buttery cookie with a slight, soft chew in the middle and caramel note — from a full tablespoon vanilla — to accompany the chocolate chips. When my mom makes them that is. I’ve tried making them a couple times and have never achieved perfection, but my mom never failed to pull beautiful cookies out of the oven right as I was rushing out the door to high school. That is one of the many things I miss about living at home, I mean who wouldn’t kill for freshly baked cookies on your way to your 11 a.m. class?

But I’m not really here to complain about my lack of chocolate chip cookie making skills. In fact, I think I’ve finally found my match. And it comes in the form of whole wheat flour and semi sweet chocolate chunks, all courtesy of Kim of Good to the Grain. These cookies seriously look exactly like the cookies photographed in the book, with lots of melted chocolate and a crackly top. Make them big, like coffee shop sized. I swear they’re better that way.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Kim Boyce, Good to the Grain

Dry mix:
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

Wet mix:
8 ounces (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, sifting and then pouring any bits back into the bowl. Cream the butter and sugars in a bowl until just blended. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is combined. Add the vanilla. Add the flour mixture and blend until the flour is barely combined. Add the chocolate to the batter all at once. Scoop mounds of dough about 3 tablespoons onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving about 3 inches between them. Bake the cookies for 16 to 20 minutes or until the cookies are evenly dark brown (I took some out when they were golden). Transfer the cookies, still on the parchment, to the counter to cool.

And eat, because whole wheat flour is good for you right?

Queen of Tea and Grains

I just pulled a batch of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven but those are going to have to wait another day. I returned from Victoria, Canada the other day from a brief visit with my grandparents. They just bought a condo in Victoria, in addition to their house by the mountains, and the past couple days have been filled with the logistics of setting up a new home as well as a couple afternoon getaways. The trip included the obligatory trip downtown to Roger’s chocolates, where we picked up a couple boxes of dark chocolate mints and a bag of chocolate-covered English toffee for me to bring back to San Francisco. Soft maple sugar candies also found their way into my carry-on. I was that kid sitting in the coffee shop eating the sugar cubes meant to go in grown-up coffee and I still firmly believe I could go days on sugar alone. Maple sugar is even better than cane sugar, as it has a melt-in-your-mouth translucency and comes in the pretty shapes of maples leaves and acorns.

We also spent an afternoon at the James Bay Tea Room, which is a small white cottage on the outskirts of downtown. With a pot of the house tea — orange pekoe — we got scones with jam and whipped cream, mini quiches, butter-raisin and lemon tarts, and triangle egg and tuna sandwiches. The tea service was slightly spoiled by the fact that the sugar came out of a large jar and the strawberry jam out of plastic packaging.

While the tea was satisfactory, it did not live up to expectations. Last summer, we went to the Point Ellice Tea House, which is further out of downtown, which was much better. While Point Ellice didn’t have authentic Devonshire cream (Grandpa was adamant that authentic cream is thick enough to be cut with a knife), it offered a full array of sweets, including lemon loaf and trifle, and savories like tomato soup and cucumber sandwiches. A lovely afternoon.

I had another lovely experience last night at 18 Reasons, which is a small storefront run by Bi-Rite Market on Guerrero in San Francisco. The non-profit runs a series of events about food and art for the community, including presentations by local food producers. Last night, it held a potluck dinner with Kim Boyce, author of Good to the Grain. Every attendee made and brought a recipe from the book and we sat around a long wooden table enjoying the wide array of baked goods. Good to the Grain is all about baking with other grains besides white flour, including whole-wheat, barley, rye, buckwheat and spelt among others. The food table concentrated mostly on sweet rather than savory and boasted ginger-peach muffins, olive oil rosemary cake with chocolate chips, quinoa cookies, whole wheat chocolate chip cookies and my own contribution, summer peach pie.



This was my first time making a pie with a real pie crust. I’ve made my fair share of tarts, as well as a pumpkin pie, but never real pastry dough. Everyone said the pie turned out beautifully and we were instructed during introductions that we were not allowed to apologize for whatever we brought, but next time I will be careful to ensure the crust is sealed on the edges as some of the peach juices seeped out.


I won’t give you the recipe for the pie but rather instruct you to go buy Kim’s book. The photos are beautiful and I’ve already made several of the recipes which turned out wonderfully. If you’ve never cooked with other grains before, you should definitely try it out. Even the simple switch to whole wheat flour lends a new dimension to whatever you are baking. I won’t say anything more about whole wheat flour now, as it might spoil my next post!

A cookie with your coffee: Chocolate-sheathed almond biscotti

There are some things you just never really think of making yourself. For me, biscotti are one of them. I never, ever order biscotti in a café, or pick one out at a dessert table. The only time I ever really eat biscotti is when it comes as an accompaniment to the coffee I ordered after dinner. And then, I absolutely refuse to dunk the biscotti into the coffee — I mean, I can’t think of any other situation where it’s socially acceptable to eat a soggy cookie. But after reading several accounts of biscotti making that ended an ambivalence towards the cookie, I decided to give it a shot. I chose a recipe for Chocolate-sheathed almond biscotti out of my trusted Christmas cookie book, the same one that brought you those sugar cookies way back when. The chocolate coating — I left out the shortening because I just don’t like cooking with it — makes these totally more than edible without the cup of coffee. They are good just plain too, nicely spiced with cinnamon with a good crunch from the almonds. Homemade biscotti are softer than most biscotti you find in stores, which tend to be rock hard. To get the desired texture, you cook them twice (hence the name, biscotti), first as a big log and then as sliced cookies.

I’m not entirely convinced that biscotti are the best things ever but they were a good treat to bring up to my grandparents this week. We enjoyed more than a couple with our afternoon tea.

Chocolate-sheathed Almond Biscotti
The Christmas Cookie Book
Lou Seibert Pappas

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/2 cup toasted raw almonds, chopping into halves or thirds

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Grease and flour a baking sheet.
Beat together the eggs and the vanilla and almond extracts in a small bowl until blended. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix until blended. Stir in the nuts.
Divide the dough in half. One at a time, place the 2 dough portions on the prepared baking sheet and form each into a log about ½ inch high, 1 ½ inches wide and 14 inches long. Space the logs at least 2 inches apart.
Bake the logs for 25 minutes, or until set and golden brown. Transfer to a rack and let cool on the baking sheet for 6 to 8 minutes. Reduce the over temperature to 300ºF. Transfer the logs to a cutting board. Using a serrate knife, slice at a 45-degree angle about 3/8 inch thick. Lay the slices flat on the baking sheet and return to the over for 15 minutes longer, turning them once, to dry slightly. Transfer to racks to cool.

The original glaze has you combining 6 ounces of bittersweet chocolate and ½ teaspoon vegetable shortening in a double boiler. I just melted some dark Dove chocolates in the microwave and it worked great!

Bring along some trail mix: Chockablock cookies

I really like Seattle, though I have a very limited view of the city from my seat in the airport. But I know the Seattle Airport has free Wi-Fi and that’s enough to make me love a city. I mean, I’m blogging from the airport.

But I didn’t make these cookies in the airport, though they are high-flying travelers themselves. These cookies are currently on their way in a US Postal box to Princeton, more specifically to one of my best friend’s mailboxes. She is probably one of the most indecisive people I’ve ever met, so it is fitting that these are her cookies, because they are the ultimate cookies of the indecisive. The recipe gives liberty to decide what kind of nuts, dried fruit and chocolate to use and, well, my indecisiveness kind of ran away with it. I used peanuts, dried cranberries, Reese’s Pieces and both dark and milk chocolate chunks, all wrapped up in a molassesy, oaty, coconutty dough. Technically, it’s a Chockablock cookie but it sounds more like crazy intense trail mix to me.

These are different than a standard everything (or compost) cookie because of the addition of molasses. There is quite a bit in there, giving the cookie a really interesting new dimension that is, at first, quite surprising. Dorie and Dorie’s Tuesday Bakers all seem to think this is a cookie everyone will like but my brother was definitely making faces as the dough came together. I think maybe a lighter molasses might be better for this recipe although I was careful not to use blackstrap. I’m a big molasses person (my favorite cookies are gingerbread and soft, chewy molasses cookies) but it does seem a bit strong and out of place here. But my Gran does love them as is, so I guess it’s all up to you.

Chockablock Cookies
Dorie Greenspan, from Baking From My Home to Yours

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup solid vegetable shortening (I substituted butter)
½ cup sugar
½ cup molasses (not blackstrap)
2 large eggs
1 ½ cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans or peanuts are all good)
1 cup coarsely chopped dried fruit (such as apricots, prunes, or figs) or 1 cup of moist, plump raisins (dark or golden)
12 ounces of bittersweet chocolate chopped, or 2 cups store-bought chocolate chips
½ cup sweetened shredded coconut (I used unsweetened because that is what I had on hand)

Position the racks to divide the oven in thirds and preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and shortening together at medium speed until very smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and beat for another two minutes. Pour in the molasses and beat for 1 minute more. Add the eggs one at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Reduce mixer speed to low and mix in the oats, then add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the dough. Toss in the nuts, fruit, chocolate chips and coconut and, turn the mixer on and off quickly a few times to incorporate. Alternatively, you can stir them into the dough with a sturdy wooden spatula. (The dough can be wrapped well and chilled for up to two days. If you’d like, you can measure out the dough onto a baking sheet, freeze until firm, then put mounds of dough in a bag and freeze for up to two months; bake directly out of the freezer, adding a few minutes to the baking time.)
Place the 2-tablespoon mounds of dough on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between the mounds. (I think my cookies were a bit smaller which worked out just fine)
Bake for 15 – 18 minutes, rotating pans from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until the cookies are golden and just about set. Remove the baking sheets to cooling racks and let the cookies rest on the sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring them to racks to cool to room temperature.

My cookies definitely weren’t golden, which leads me to believe I was using the wrong kind of molasses.

Come home to a lemon poppyseed muffin

My neighborhood has been transformed in the past twenty years from a drug-infested slum to quite a happening little village-like neighborhood. The New York Times recently wrote an article about the Bernal Heights transformation, which you can read here. First came Liberty Bakery, where I spent a good amount of my childhood.

Starting when I was just a little girl, I would go to Liberty Bakery and take a seat at the counter to watch the bakers make bread and banana-cream pie. I grew up at that counter, double-dipping my croissant in homemade strawberry jam and eating the scraps of strawberry shortcake offered to me by Cathi, the owner who recently died of cancer. The Bakery started with a restaurant up front that serves amazing vegetable and chicken pot pies and Caesar salads. But my favorite was always the rosemary rolls that came to the table piping hot from the Bakery out back. I would spread them thickly with butter, which would melt all over my hands and the paper table-covering. The waiters would give me crayons with which to draw on the tabletop and they all knew my name. When I would come into the restaurant years later, they still cooed over how much I had grown.

But, when I walked up to the main street with my mother this morning to grab coffee, some things had changed again. For instance, a new grocery has opened, with sushi, deli, bakery and knife-sharpening stations as well as some organic produce. It’s like a one stop, small town store with several different vendors, all who keep their own stations and their own hours. I’m tempted to say it’s a very cute idea. The other change is a new bakery that has opened up called the Sandbox. My mother mentioned that she had wondered how the Sandbox was going to do with business as the neighborhood already has one bakery. But since Cathi’s death, Liberty Bakery’s new owners have fired all the old staff and, rumor has it, started baking ready-made croissants to sell instead of the rustic, if not entirely authentic, croissants that I loved as a child. So the Sandbox has really found its niche. It offers plenty of pastries — brioche, pain au chocolat —, cookies, scones and Japanese inspired buns. We ordered lattés and shared a raspberry-lemon marmalade bun. We also picked up a brioche for my brother and a maple apple-bacon scone to go.

I’m not sure I liked the large pieces of bacon in the scone but it was a new and interesting combination for a breakfast treat. Maybe the owners of Sandbox don’t know my name yet, but they will soon enough.

So while Bernal Heights is always changing, there will always be some things that remain constant. The local Bank of America manager will always say hello to my mother on the street. I will always be able to find a cute bakery within walking distance. Oh and Progressive Grounds will always sell me my falafel wraps for movies from FourStar Video (fingers crossed they don’t go out of business).

And then there’s the another thing that hasn’t changed since I was last at home. My brother still loves all things lemon and has compiled a baking to-do list for me that consists of, you guessed it, all things lemon. Here is the first batch of them:

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan

For the Muffins:
2/3 cup sugar
Grated zest 2 lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

For the Icing:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Center a rack in the oven and pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan with paper muffin cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of lemon strong.

Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter together until well blended.

Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough –a few lumps are better than over-mixing the batter. Stir in the poppy seeds.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.

Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold. Cool the muffins completely on the rack before icing them.

Directions for icing
Put the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl and add about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the lemon juice. Stir with a spoon to moisten the sugar, then add enough lemon juice, a dribble at a time, to get an icing that is thin enough to drizzle from the tip of the spoon. Then drizzle lines of icing over the tops of the muffins or coat the tops entirely.

Pop goes the Pop Tart

Last night, I came home to discover that my little 13-year-old brother now makes lasagna. He likes cooking rather than baking, and chopping rather than mixing. He will wax poetical on the wonders of soy sauce and sesame oil, but rarely likes flavors other than cinnamon sugar and chocolate chip when it comes to baked goods. But my brother poking and prodding at things with a measuring cup is one of the staples of my home kitchen.

You could say that, in terms of food, my brother had a different childhood than me. The only times I ever got to eat a donut were early in the morning before a swim meet (counter to the whole healthy breakfast before the big day reasoning, I know). Soda was reserved for airplanes and sickness, and the occasional fancy restaurant. When I wanted Oreos, I got Newman’ Os, which were really just not the same. And a special treat at the checkout counter was a big, pink frosted vegan cookie, which I actually still think is pretty good. But by the time my brother came around, the fact that I was old enough to make grocery trip runs and buy lunch at school meant that he got a greater degree of freedom in determining his diet. And now that means cupboards fully stocked with Cheetos, Frosted Flakes and Cinnamon-Brown Sugar Pop Tarts. Talk about unfair.

But, back to the kitchen. This morning, we put Norah Jones on the kitchen speakers (another staple of the home kitchen) and gave homemade Pop Tarts a shot. Cinnamon-Brown Sugar variety of course. Admittedly, these are missing the icing. But these Pop Tarts are also wonderfully flaky and perfectly shaped (miniature size!), if I do say do myself. The brother says they could use a bit more filling, promptly covering the tops with cinnamon sugar and powdered sugar) and Dad says they’re “fine,” but that is all a fairly usual reaction to anything in this house. A certain someone says the baked good in question needs more sugar and a certain someone else says they’re OK before eating half the tray of them.

The recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen. I’ve also seen a Pop Tarts recipe in Bon Appetit recently that you may want to give a shot. Bon Appetit’s Pop Tarts are of the strawberry variety. Smitten Kitchen offers many flavor suggestions, including sweet jam or Nutella fillings as well as a savory variety using pesto and olive tapenade.

Homemade Pop Tarts
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Pastry
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pats
1 large egg
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) milk

1 additional large egg (to brush on pastry)

Cinnamon Filling (enough for 9 tarts)
1/2 cup (3 3/4 ounces) brown sugar
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, to taste
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 large egg, to brush on pastry before filling

To make cinnamon filling: Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, and flour.

Make the dough: Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Work in the butter with your fingers, pastry blender or food processor until pea-sized lumps of butter are still visible, and the mixture holds together when you squeeze it. If you’ve used a food processor, transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Whisk the first egg and milk together and stir them into the dough, mixing just until everything is cohesive, kneading briefly on a well-floured counter if necessary.

Divide the dough in half (approximately 8 1/4 ounces each), shape each half into a smooth rectangle, about 3×5 inches. You can roll this out immediately (see Warm Kitchen note below) or wrap each half in plastic and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Assemble the tarts: If the dough has been chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to soften and become workable, about 15 to 30 minutes. Place one piece on a lightly floured work surface, and roll it into a rectangle about 1/8″ thick, large enough that you can trim it to an even 9″ x 12″. [You can use a 9" x 13" pan, laid on top, as guidance.] Repeat with the second piece of dough. Set trimmings aside. Cut each piece of dough into thirds – you’ll form nine 3″ x 4″ rectangles.

Beat the additional egg and brush it over the entire surface of the first dough. This will be the “inside” of the tart; the egg is to help glue the lid on. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each rectangle, keeping a bare 1/2-inch perimeter around it. Place a second rectangle of dough atop the first, using your fingertips to press firmly around the pocket of filling, sealing the dough well on all sides. Press the tines of a fork all around the edge of the rectangle. Repeat with remaining tarts.

Gently place the tarts on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Prick the top of each tart multiple times with a fork; you want to make sure steam can escape, or the tarts will become billowy pillows rather than flat toaster pastries. Refrigerate the tarts (they don’t need to be covered) for 30 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 350°F.

Bake the tarts: Remove the tarts form the fridge, and bake them for 20 to 25 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown. Cool in pan on rack.

*I made a miniature version of these. The dimensions of mine were approximately 2 inch x 3 inch.*