Let me be clear, this is not meant to be braggy, but matter-of-fact.
I make INCREDIBLE buttermilk biscuits. Tiny towers of fluffy layers, gorgeously golden. crackly crust on top, tender within. The perfect vehicle for everything from more butter to a whole breakfast sandwich, I spent a full winter perfecting them in college, and it shows.
This past year plus that we’ve spent at home, one of the things that has brought me peace is baking challah. I don’t pretend to be more observant than I am- I bake, often weekly, not always timed freshly for Shabbat, but for joy of cooking and eating, for cultural connection. And in many ways, my baking routine has become meditative for me.
I was talking with my girlfriend Cassandra last week, who is also an immigrant, about where this trend of perfectly iced sugar cookies came from. It wasn’t a thing when we were kids, but now business has boomed and there are so many talented makers crafting the most beautiful cookies! I’m no artiste, so this post isn’t about those kind- if you are looking for artwork and perfection I can recommend my friend Jen in Los Angeles or learning through the World Cookie Summit. These are easy, yummy sugar cookies, plain and simple.
I’m breaking from my typical positive attitude to start this post with a complaint: I’ve tried so many other cream cheese frosting recipes, and I’m perpetually disappointed (I’m cringing just thinking of the flour fiasco I got up to on Ashe’s birthday this year. ) As I did on his birthday, I always wind up relying on my go-to cream cheese icing, and it’s past due time I shared it on here.
I take my happy hour cocktails really seriously. I’m so spoiled- David was a bartender at a ritzy restaurant in college, so his mixology skills are on point. He whips up all sorts of delicious sippers for me!
We’re all about eating seasonally, and that applies to happy hour as well! Watermelon is a mainstay of our summertime grocery list, and thanks to a new basil pruning technique, my plants are exploding! I’m a huge basil fan, especially when the herb is paired with fruit, and a bit of ginger fizziness is the perfect exclamation point.
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loveRavayna
I’ve struggled with sleeplessness since high school, and am a total night owl. I sometimes work or read until the wee hours of the morning, but more often than not, midnight finds me in the kitchen. We do mostly homemade sweets around here, so sometimes I’m getting ahead on the next day’s to-do list- gotta keep dessert stocked! But most of the time I’m just relaxing and recipe testing, so I wanted to share a few of our recent favorites.
This s’mores pie was rich and creamy and delicious. David doesn’t love dark chocolate the way I do, so I used half dark and half milk. I thought it was perfectly sweet that way, but it’s not supersweet like actual s’mores- some more or or even all milk chocolate will get you there. And seriously, if you haven’t made homemade marshmallow yet, you need too- it’s much easier than it looks!
Deb over at smitten kitchen mentioned that Chef Suzanne Goin served this brown butter and hazelnut confection as her own wedding cake, and I totally see why now. I adore the flavor of brown butter, and it balanced perfectly with the moreish texture of the nuts and the ganache draping. The cake came together quickly and disappeared from the cake plate in the same fashion. I’ve more hazelnuts in the fridge, so I’m certain it will have a return engagement one night soon.
I’m totally on a cream puff kick. In all honestly, we’ve had them two nights in a row, and I’m not even embarrassed by that- they’re damn delicious. I’ve been using Dorie Greenspan’s pâté à choux recipe (currently reading her Baking Chez Moi), filling them with a mix of vanilla custard and freshly whipped cream, dipping or drizzling them with ganache, and devouring by the plateful.
Elaborate birthday cakes are the norm around here, as is replacing candles with fireworks. David mentioned wanting a pb&j inspired cake this year, so I ran with that one night. I stacked peanut butter cake with strained strawberry jam, then slathered it with fluffy brown sugar-peanut butter frosting, another slick of jam, and chopped salted peanuts. It was enormous (too big for the cake bell) and phenomenal.
And the better the cake, the better the cake shake! Leftover cake into shakes is one of my very favorite revamps, and I love mixing up different flavors. This version included pb&j cake, strawberries, peanut butter, vanilla ice cream, malted milk powder, and a healthy splash of amaretto. Sometimes I even get fancy… like whipped cream and a slice of cake on top.
I guess you could say night times are good times in the Coe kitchen.
loveRavayna
Avocado toast is everywhere, it seems. There’s a version on every fancy brunch menu, and at most coffee shops here in LA as well. A million recipes abound, all something to the extent of seasoned smushed avocado, on toasted bread. Let’s be real- it’s not freaking rocket science, but it’s delicious.
That said, we eat unreasonable amounts of it around our house. Most days, it’s merely toasted homemade bread, the avocado seasoned with lemon, salt and peppers (black and Aleppo). But more is more. So I regularly upgrade with yummy toppings, whether for company or mere kicks.
Some of our favorite assortments:
blackberries / shallot / basil / Aleppo pepper
sliced pear / Gorgonzola / spicy candied pecans / hot honey
garlic confit / tomato / prosciutto / balsamic vinegar
sliced radish / smoked salt
fried egg, Bad Seed chili granola (I stockpile this when I’m in New York.)
Try one (or all!) of these avocado toasts, and let me know which is your favorite!
loveRavayna
I may be a sucker for nearly any flowers, but not everyone feels that way. David has zero interest in almost all of my floral arrangements, that is, except for when I make a candied bacon bouquet. It’s a perfect Valentine’s Day treat for anyone, especially an enthusiastic carnivore.
One of our favorite restaurants at home in New Orleans, Elizabeth’s, makes the most amazing praline bacon. Over the years, I’ve refined my hot-and-sweet candied bacon recipe- we served twenty pounds of pig candy on our wedding dessert buffet, and I make it regularly for friends, family, special occasions and no reason whatsoever.
For such an impressive display, it’s not an unreasonable amount of work. Yes, drilling holes in the bottom of your mini-muffin pan (wearing eye protection, pleaseandthanks) may take a minute, but that just gives you the ability to whip up a batch of bacon roses anytime.
Candied Bacon Roses
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loveRavayna
Carnival season is hands-down my favorite time of year, and king cake is one of those confections I just can’t say no to. Whether classic cinnamon swirl, cream-cheese-filled king cake or a traditional French galette des rois, it’s probably having a date with my mouth.
We were fortunate enough to have a dear friend ship us a king cake from the legendary Manny Randazzo’s, and it totally hit the spot. Most years, I wind up making several king cakes throughout carnival season- this recipe from Sucré, on Magazine Street, is my go to, and Randazzo’s and Sucré are by far the best king cakes available by mail. but i have a serious affinity for the French king cake, or galette des rois… la Boulangerie makes my favorite in town.
But, according to #12 of my #16in16, this is the year of taking on those intimidating cookery projects. So after a brief foray of pricing out having galettes de rois shipped, it was game on. As luscious as this pistachio-and-citron version from Gontran Cherrier (who makes my very favorite croissants in Paris) looks, I decided to save that and focus on the traditional French almond frangipane filled confection. I worked with Clotilde and David Lebovitz‘s recipes, adapting them and making the frangipane from scratch.
I didn’t trust myself and my limited artistic talent to provide even decorative cut work, so lots of overlapping salad plate tracings did the job with style. It’s super important to flute and seal the edges properly so that the frangipane doesn’t bubble out. And make sure your egg wash doesn’t drip down the sides- it will inhibit the pastry’s puffing. With traditional king cakes, you’d bake in a ceramic fève, or insert a plastic baby into the baked king cake. Here though, I went super old-school and baked in a whole almond (and was a total five-year old and stole it from David’s slice to claim the carnival queen title.)
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