Bread Baking Workshop in Paris

Way back in 2011 when I was living in Paris, my mom came to visit. We decided to cap off our Mother-Daughter week with a Croissant-making workshop at Le Cordon Bleu. It was a day-long workshop where we made croissants, pain au chocolat, and brioche. We went back home and did our best to replicate what we learned in class, and it was the beginning of our croissant-making journey. We liked the class so much, we had our eyes set on an even more encompassing class—the four day “Traditional Bread Baking” Workshop. This fall, we finally had the opportunity to spend four days baking everything from mini baguettes, country loaves, spelt breads and pain au lait (my favorite), to of course, the best venoisserie of all— croissants and pain au chocolat.

Mini baguettes and country loaves

We started the week with kneading my hand. Wow, quite the workout for this girl who is so used to the dough hook on my stand mixer! We basically went straight from the airport to our first day of class, but even though we were pretty jet-lagged, we were super energized by our instructor and just being in Paris, baking! We made little spelt breads shaped like wheat, and then we made buns, and lastly, a spinach sandwich bread. (We made about 3 different breads each day.) . Needless to say, everything came out scrumptious, but most importantly, I took away some really basic skills that could be applied to baking, universally.

Pain au lait

Le Cordon Bleu has moved locations since 2011, but it’s still in the chic 15th arrondissement—now, in a super modern building with a gorgeous view of the Seine and the gorgeous 16th arrondissement. In fact, from our class, we could view the miniature version of Lady Liberty. We were on the top floor, but I got a chance to sneak up on the rooftop where there’s a gorgeous rooftop garden growing everything from herbs to tomatoes and eggplants—all used in the classes at school. It was also fun peeking into some of the other classrooms and watching the career students hard at work or in demos. (I didn’t exactly find the wine program students—apparently they were on a field trip to the Cognac region of France, drinking Cognac..)

The rooftop garden—the perfect place for a break!

And perhaps even more important than ingredients, recipes or techniques, we learned about the actual baking process—from deck ovens that costs tens of thousands of dollars and more tips and tricks to recreate those sophisticated machines at home. It was an incredibly jam packed, at times exhausting four days, but it was an incredible learning and cultural experience!

Olive Oil Enriched Bread

I recently returned from Paris where i made bread, and bread, and more bread. Bread can be super simple: flour, yeast, water and salt. But, enriched breads also have eggs, milk, and even fat (most often, butter). This is my take on “Fougasse”— a bread that’s enriched with olive oil. I also added olives to the bread, which give an incredible burst of flavor, of course, the chunks of olives pair excellently with the olive oil.

Brush with olive oil as soon as it’s out of the oven.

Lastly, once the bread is baked, it’s brushed in even more olive oil, making this the most delectable and delicious bread. I used Filippo Berio’s Delicato olive oil which has a fresh, delicate flavor that is perfect because it doesn’t overpower the rest of the bread. These breads are shaped in the traditional “Fougasse” shape, which is done by rolling them into an oval, then making slits and slightly stretching them out.

Olive Oil Enriched Bread Recipe

Makes 6 fougasse pieces

Fermented Dough
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 and 1/4 cup water
2 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons salt

Dough
1 and 1/4 cup water
4 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
100 grams of the fermented dough (recipe above, reserve the rest for later use)
2 tablespoons Filippo Berio Delicato Olive Oil + more for brushing
3/4 cup pitted olives, roughly chopped (green, black or assortment)

The night before: Make the fermented dough. Place all ingredients for the fermented dough in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook. Mix on speed 3 for 10 minutes. Place the dough in a bowl, covered with plastic, and refrigerate overnight.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the hook attachment, add the water, flour, salt, yeast and the fermented dough. Mix on low until all of the ingredients are homogenous, about 3 minutes. With the mixer running, slowly pour in the olive oil. Continue mixing on speed 3 for an additional 7-8 minutes, until the dough is elastic. Add the olives and mix with the dough hook on low until the ingredients are incorporated. Let the dough rise in the bowl, covered with plastic, for 30 minutes.

Once rested for 30 minutes, tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 6 pieces of equal size. Using a rolling pin, roll each piece into an oval. Use a butter knife to make 3 slits on each side, and a final slit t the bottom to create the leaf shape. Carefully pick up the dough and place on a baking sheet and allow to proof for an additional 90 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Once the bread has proofed for 90 minutes, bake for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and immediately brush with additional olive oil. If you eat these straight from the oven, you won’t be able to stop. But these keep pretty well for a day or two.

This post has been generously sponsored by Filippo Berio.

One Last Summer Hurrah! (A cookbook writing kinda summer)

This summer has been an amazing and busy one. I am knee-deep in recipe testing and writing for my very first cookbook. It’s such a dream to be able to tell stories and share recipes in one cohesive place, and I seriously can’t wait to share that with all of YOU! But, let me tell ya: It’s not easy! It’s so much more than just a collection of blog posts and recipes. This is a whole different beast and isn’t like anything i’ve ever done before (In fact, I almost titled this post: “Writing a cookbook is really hard!”) But, I’ve learned that most things in life have a learning curve, so it’s really satisfying and rewarding to make it over some of these tough humps.

A weekend of cookbook recipe testing at the Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow’s Culinary Suite

The summer has been so jam-packed: from the NABJ journalism conference in Miami, to a birthday trip to Negril, Jamaica where I ate ackee and saltfish for breakfast, pepper shrimp on the side of the road, and swam in the caves and jumped off of the Negril cliffs.

But, it was awesome to end on such a high note in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. So, how was the highlight of my summer a few weeks in Eureka Springs, Arkansas?!

Well, I must admit that I had never heard of Eureka Springs until I discovered the Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow (https://www.writerscolony.org/). It just so happens that Eureka Springs is a gorgeous town with sprawling views, replete with natural springs, and is a progressive pocket and art hub in Northwest Arkansas, about an hour outside of Bentonville and American Art Museum Crystal Bridges. It’s a town that forces you to relax and chill—the perfect environment to foster creativity and writing. And the best part? They have a culinary suite that’s specifically designed for people testing recipes and writing cookbooks. I knew it would be the perfect place for me to end my summer recipe development and writing with a bang.

It was such a change of pace from NYC. I started each morning by having tea on my porch, rocking in a chair and reading poetry and the culinary historian Jessica Harris’s memoir. I then got to work in this giant, gorgeous kitchen, with double convection ovens and just about everything I needed to test many, many recipes in a single day. I ended the day with a feast prepared by the resident chef, Jana. When I needed a break, I’d take a walk through the hilly town, and would arrive back home, ready to make buttercream and butterscotch. Within a few feet, I’d probably pass a family of deer leisurely crossing the street, or the green Eureka Springs Trolley going by..

But alas, the summer is melding into autumn, and the temperatures are cooling down, and I’m back in the City. I’m so thrilled to be back in the swing of things, back to recording our Why Food? Podcast at Heritage Radio Network and being plugged into the food scene here. But, I’m already planning my next trip to Eureka. The amount of work I got done in an abbreviated time was simply unparalleled. I have to see how the next month goes—I may need another baking and writing retreat at the Writer’s Colony before this book is written!

Blood Orange Sherbet

First things first.. it’s Sherbet, like Sorbet. I’ve been pronouncing it wrong my entire life, until last week it seems. I’ve probably been spelling it wrong, too. There are some things I have my Baton Rouge upbringing to thank, and I’m sure both misprououncing and misspelling Sherbet is one of them (farewell Sherbert, like Herbet!)

I was recently sent a package of gorgeous Sanguinellos (I learned, another name for “Blood Oranges”) from Frieda’s Produce. I love the name Sanguinello— a much more polite thing to call a fruit than “blood.” I did, briefly, consider calling this post Sanguinello Sorbet because I love alliteration and it just flowed! But, then how would you guys find it when you searched for it :) So, we’ll call it Blood Orange Sherbet, which is what it is.

I juiced these beauties, and was quite tempted to make Blood Orange Mimosas, but decided on something even more refreshing to celebrate the last weekend of summer: ice cream! Well, not ice cream, but something similar: sherbet. Sherbet is made just like sorbet, except there’s cream in it. I remember Orange Sherbet always being around when I grew up, and I didn’t quite get it. But, now that I’ve been sorbet-ing fruits aplenty, adding cream felt like a fun, next step.

There’s something really satisfying about juicing citrus manually, so I spent some time and juiced and juiced and juiced. (I think there’s red-tinted juice still splattered somewhere in my house.) Then, I just added it to a blender with milk, cream, sugar and a little corn syrup to prevent crystallization. I blended until it came together, and then I poured it into my ice cream maker. And voila! That’s it. Well, almost it...

I couldn’t stop at Blood Orange Sherbet when Blood Orange Givrées would be even more enticing!

True story: I was reading Jessica Harris, culinary historian’s memoir “My Soul Looks Back,” while I have the sherbet freezing, and I’m thinking about putting it in some hollowed out oranges to be fancy, and she’s talking about how she made Orange Givrées at a dinner party back in NYC’s primetime days when she was hanging out with Maya Angelou and James Baldwin and the like. Orange Givrées are when orange sorbet is put back in the orange and re-frozen. So, that decided it. Into the oranges the sherbet went. And since Labor Day was just around the corner, I knew it would be the perfect thing to share with some of the folks at the writing retreat I’m at in Eureka Springs, Arkansas (Check out the direct sunlight in the photo below—don’t see that when I’m in NYC, that’s for sure.)

The blood orange sherbet was a hit! I know it looks a little pinker in the ice cream maker, but the color contrast from indoor lighting compared to outdoor lighting was shockingly different. I may have to start taking all of my food photos outside now!

Blood Orange Sherbet

8-10 Sanguinellos (Blood Oranges) - yields about 1 and 1/2 cups, 12 ounces juice
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1 tablespoon lemon juice (from about 1/2 lemon)

Note: If you want to make Blood Orange Givrées, halve and hollow about 4-6 oranges. Once the sherbet is frozen, you can scoop it into the halves and then re-freeze completely before serving.

1. Juice the oranges. You should have a total of 1 and 1/2 cup fresh blood orange juice.

2. Combine the juice, milk, cream, vanilla, sugar, corn syrup and lemon juice in a large bowl or blender. Whisk or blend until combined.

3. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and churn according to its directions. Once churned, freeze in an air tight container until ready to enjoy. (If making Givrées, scoop the sherbet into the hallowed out orange halves before freezing.)

Thanks to Frieda’s Produce for generously sponsoring this post.

Pesto-Tomato Rustic Tart

The end of the summer means one thing: an abundance of ripe and tasty tomatoes. I’m a girl who loves pizza, but tomato tarts might be even better than pizza. They’re kind of like pizza, but are a whole lot fancier. Plus, since you’re making it, you get to customize it as you please: you choose the sauce, the cheese, and the toppings.

I wasn’t sure what sauce I wanted to use, so I took this fun quiz about different pestos to determine my “Pesto Personality” or “Pesto-nality.” As someone with a degree in psychology who has a mild Meyer Briggs Personality Type Indicator obsession, I was all for this foodie personality quiz. This quiz just confirmed my hunches and told me I’m a classic, traditional kinda girl. Because that’s the pesto I got: Classic Pesto—the basil, parm & pine nuts variety. And lucky for me, classic pesto is a perfect match for the tomatoes in my tart.

I decided to keep this recipe weeknight dinner or casual Saturday afternoon simple: a round of pie dough, the Classic Pesto, a few squares of Asiago cheese, and some sliced tomatoes. I smeared some pesto on the pie dough round, layered the cheese on, then added the sliced tomatoes. I folded up the dough in true rustic tart form, and then brushed a little egg wash on before baking in a 350 oven for 40 minutes. The prep time was about the amount of time it took to slice the tomatoes—that’s it! So, skip pizza night to enjoy this late summer, 5-ingredient savory tart!

Pesto Tomato Rustic Tart Recipe

One Round of Pie Dough
1/4 cup Classic Pesto from Filippo Berio
4 squares of Asiago cheese
3 large tomatoes, sliced into 1/4” thick pieces
1 egg, whisked for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 350F. Roll the pie round to 13” across. Smear the 1/4 cup pesto on the round in an even layer.

Layer the 4 slices of cheese on top of the pesto. Layer the tomatoes on top of the cheese. Fold the edges of the dough over about one inch, and brush the edges with egg wash.

Bake at 350 for about 40 minute, until the crust is brown. Remove from the oven and you can enjoy warm, or at room temperature. This is best the day it’s made because the crust will be crispier.

This post has been generously sponsored by Filippo Berio.

Red Dragon Fruit Popsicles

I have long been a fan of dragon fruit — the melon-like, kiwi-like fruit with its red exterior and slightly-sweet, slightly-earthy tasting fleshy interior speckled with black seeds. This fruit is so unique that it just feels special to eat one and is truly a fest for the eyes. Classic dragon fruit with white, fleshy interiors can be found pretty much year round, but a few weeks ago, I received some “good mail”— an entire box of dragon fruit. And you can’t imagine my surprise when I sliced into one to discover that is was red inside.

To my surprise, I discovered that red dragon fruit are much tastier than their white-interior counterparts. They just have a lot more flavor and are pleasant and refreshing to eat. My favorite way to eat one is to slice it in half, and scoop out the flesh with a spoon, bite by bite.

I was always surprised to learn that the juicy red flesh dyed my fingers and fingernails much like beets. Which means they’re packed with more antioxidants than the white-flesh ones.

In an effort to preserve the fruit I didn’t eat fresh, I decided to make popsicles with a couple of them. I simply scooped the flesh out of two dragon fruit, added some fresh lime juice and a little honey, blended it, and poured it into a popsicle mold before freezing.

Red Dragon Fruit Popsicle Recipe

Prep time 10 minutes, Freeze time 5 hours
Makes 10 popsicles

2 red dragon fruit (about 20 ounces flesh total)
Juice from 2 limes
3 tablespoons honey

Use a spoon to scoop the dragon fruit flesh into a blender. Add the juice from two limes and 3 tablespoons of honey. Blend on medium until a puree forms, about one minute.

Pour into a popsicle mold. Freeze for 90 minutes, then add popsicle sticks. Freeze an additional 3 and a half hours. Remove the popsicles from molds and store in an air tight container in the freezer, using wax paper or parchment paper in between the popsicles to keep them from sticking together. Enjoy for a nutritious, refreshing summer treat.

Note: Be sure to remove the popsicles from the molds within 12 hours, otherwise, they will stick and be difficult to remove.

This post has been generously sponsored by Frieda’s, the specialty fruit company.