Last Minute Cookbook Gift Ideas
(a.k.a. our favorite new cookbooks of the year)
For the sweet tooth:
Mast Brothers Chocolate: A Family Cookbook - The Mast Brothers are pioneers of the bean-to-bar craft chocolate movement and men-about-Brooklyn. For those who covet their seemingly curated lifestyle, there is "Mast Brothers Chocolate: A Family Cookbook" where they share their unique story and recipes for classic American desserts like chocolate cookies and cakes, brownies, bars, milkshakes, and, yes, whoopie pie. Known for the quality and creativity of their generous staff lunches, it is no surprise that there are mouthwatering savory dishes as well, like Pan-seared Scallops with Cocoa Nibs and Cocoa Coq au Vin. This book is the book for the chocolate lover in your life.
Sweet - This is one of those cookbooks that is destined to become a well-worn classic, with home cooks passing down their butter-stained, dogeared copies from generation to generation. Haven’t had the pleasure? Well, Valerie Gordon, the cookbook’s author, is the Los Angeles based creator of award-winning sweets and baked goods sold at two new restaurants, a longstanding boutique, and multiple farmer’s market booths. “Sweet” is filled with a comprehensive collection of her favorite desserts like petits fours, cakes, truffles, and cookies that have been gilded with the addition of candied rose petals, atomized chocolate, fleur de sel, matcha tea, and other special ingredients. Our favorite part of the book, Valerie’s re-discovered desserts from some of Los Angeles’ most iconic and bygone restaurants like Chasen’s and the Brown Derby. Brilliant.
Winter white.
(via awelltraveledwoman)
We light candles in testament that faith makes miracles possible.
Rabbi Nachum Braverman
The folks at The Restaurant at Meadowood have released the schedule and list of guest chefs for The Twelve Days of Christmas 2013 (see after the jump).
For the uninitiated, twelve influential chefs are invited to cook in collaboration with Chef Christopher Kostow at the Michelin 3-starred Napa restaurant. Twelve great vintners are invited along to pair their favorite wines. Last year saw John and Karen Shields, formerly of Town House, Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski of State Bird Provisions, David Toutain of Agapé, and Josh Habiger and Erik Anderson of The Catbird Seat, among others.
Tickets for the series aren’t cheap, but reservations still book up fast. The dinners are $395 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Guests who prefer an expanded menu amidst the kitchen action (that photo could be the view from your table) may reserve seats at the Chef’s Counter for $750 per person, plus tax and gratuity.
For our Tennessee issue, we turned to Dale Mackey, owner of Dale’s Fried Pies in Knoxville, Tenn. for a little inspiration and for her candied sweet potato fried pies. When making a fried hand pie, Dale reminds folks that the consistency of the dough should be a little bit “wetter” than regular pie dough. With regular pie dough you are just rolling it out once and you are done manipulating it, she says, but with a fried pie you are cutting it, folding it and crimping it. If the dough is erring on the side crumbly, it is going to be too hard to work with when trying to crimp it shut.
While Dale keeps her pie dough recipe a closely guarded state secret, we did manage to get the basic ingredients out of her, which means that you can use this basic double crust pie dough recipe to great success.
Basic Pie Dough
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 ½ sticks cold unsalted butter
8 tbsp. cold water
1. Add the flour, salt, and sugar to the work bowl of a food processor. Process briefly to combine. Cut the butter into ½-inch pieces and add to the flour mixture. Using short on-off pulses, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the butter pieces are the size of small peas.
2. Add 3 tbsp. of the water to the bowl and pulse on and off again for 5 seconds. Add 3 more tbsp. water and, again, pulse on and off for another 5 seconds. Add the remaining 2 tbsp. water and pulse on and off for another few seconds. Remove the lid and pinch a piece the dough. It should hold together easily. (If it doesn’t, add another tbsp. of water and pulse to incorporate).
3. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and shape it into a solid ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour before rolling out. Roll out the dough as directed in Dale’s recipe in our fall issue. Just be careful when frying.
