memorial day
professional party person
the ever elusive day-job is not something i bring to this newsletter. i enjoy my work, but when i cross the threshold of this apartment, all other selves become the important body - the cook, knitter, paper-maker, pet-mother, avid-reader, baker, lover, homemaker, writer. turducken-author.
this most recent promotion, at a chic boutique hotel in a chic part of williamsburg, comes as my first “big girl job,” with a salary and perks and health insurance. as it turns out, i am well suited to the lifestyle of an office-dweller, with the prospect of having a good job and a good life to return to at the end of each day. i am now a party person with office hours, and this natural introvert has some work to do.
living up to the new title of professional party person, a few bakes from a few recent summer time parties are featured below.
the prospect park picnic: stacy pearl’s perfect strawberry muffins.
a friend from work was recently accepted into a fantastic grad school and threw this prospect park peak-summer soirée as a going-away-congrats-bye-bye outing. stacy pearl’s strawberry muffins are a hit (a separate work colleague actually commissions these from me for his wife). sweet, fruity, portable, and relatively heat-stable, these tender-crumbed bakes were the right kind of treat for a picnic on a grassy knoll in the summer sun.
stacy pearl’s perfect strawberry muffins - recipe available here.
the mcgolrick park farewell: natasha pickowicz’s fennel, hazelnut, and chocolate spears
a different friend, also from work, left new york city last week, after decades of living in brooklyn, in a home down the street from me. her departure for san francisco has been bittersweet, much like the chocolate she enjoys so much, and these spears aka biscotti were a perfectly balanced cocoa, fennel, and nutty cookie that everyone enjoyed as we sat in mcgolrick park at sunset.
fennel, hazelnut, and chocolate spears
makes twenty-five to thirty cookies
ingredients:
100g/ 2 eggs at room temperature
115g/ 4oz/ 8 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
150g/ ¾ cup granulated sugar
6g/ 1 tbsp fennel seeds - i substituted with anise seeds
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g/ ¾ cup plus 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
25g/ ¼ cup almond flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp kosher salt
130g/ 1 cup hazelnuts
140g/ 5oz dark chocolate, roughly cut (about 1 cup)
flaky sea salt
recipe:
separate one of the eggs. set the white aside to be used for brushing on the cookies later.
cream the wet ingredients. in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (or in a large bowl using a hand mixer), beat the butter, sugar, and fennel seeds until fluffy and pale, about three minutes. scrape the mixer bowl with a spatula. drop in the whole egg, the yolk, and the vanilla and beat to combine, another minute.
incorporate the dry ingredients: in a small bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, and kosher salt. tip the mixture into the stand mixer and beat on the lowest speed until the ingredients are halfway combined and the flour looks streaky, eight to ten seconds. remove the bowl from the stand mixer, add the hazelnuts and chocolate chunks, and stir by hand. transfer the dough to the fridge to chill for at least one hour, or up to four days.
preheat the oven to 350℉. top a half-sheet pan with a piece of parchment paper and lightly mist the paper with cooking spray.
lightly coat your hands with cooking spray. place the dough on the prepared sheet pan and shape into a twelve-by-three-inch rectangle one-inch thick. brush the surface of the dough with the lightly beaten reserved egg white and sprinkle the surface with flaky sea salt. bake the mound until the edges are deeply browned and the center is slightly puffed but baked through, thirty-five to forty minutes (the dough will spread quite a bit.) let the cookie cool completely.
using a serrated bread knife, slice the cookie, on a diagonal, into batons six-inches long and about three-quarters-of-an-inch wide. arrange the batons, cut side up, on the pan, tightly packed together. return to the oven and bake until lightly golden on the surface, about ten minutes. let cool completely and store, tightly covered, at room temperature for up to two weeks.
the “welcome home” bbq: natasha pickowisz’s pine nut sablés with taleggio
the final bake of the holiday weekend came to honor an arrival. a third work friend whose brother has been living in europe and assisting refugees from ukraine, was returning to live in new york city and it warranted a backyard barbeque and celebration. these snacky sweet-and-cheesy cookies seemed like an interesting challenge but one this crowd may really go for, and the cookies all went! when paired with the taleggio as the recipe suggests, it does taste a little musky, but even that was enjoyed. something to have before or after the main grilled courses, as a balanced and textured bite.
pine nut sablés with taleggio
makes forty three-inch cookies - i halved the recipe for this occasion
ingredients:
225g / 8oz unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
100g/ ½ cup granulated sugar
60g/ ½ cup powdered sugar
40g/ 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
210g/ 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
45g/ ⅓ cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp kosher salt
40g/ ⅓ cup pine nuts
flaky sea salt
60g/ 2oz taleggio cheese, at room temperature
recipe:
in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer), beat the butter, granulated sugar, and powdered sugar until just combined, one to two minutes. scrape the mixer bowl with a spatula so all the ingredients are mixed evenly, then paddle for ten seconds. drop in the egg yolks and vanilla and paddle to combine, another minute.
add the all-purpose flour, buckwheat flour, and kosher salt to the mixer bowl. paddle on the lowest speed until the ingredients are just combined, eight to ten seconds.
cut two twelve-by-sixteen-inch pieces of parchment paper (about the size of a half-sheet pan). place the dough in the middle of one piece of the parchment and gently shape it into a square. place the other piece of parchment on top. use a rolling pin to firmly press the dough down. using strong, forceful motions radiating out from the center, roll the dough out until it’s three-eighths-of-an-inch thick - it should end up about the sizes of the pieces of parchment. transfer the parchment pack top half-sheet pan and set in the refrigerator to thoroughly chill, at least one hour.
remove the parchment-sandwiched dough from the refrigerator. carefully peel the top sheet of parchment (if it sticks at all, the dough is not chilled enough; try freezing it for twenty more minutes) and lay the parchment flat on the counter. sprinkle the pine nuts on top of the dough and press gently with a rolling pin so they adhere to the surface. use a sharp knife to cut the dough into batons three-inches long and one-inch wide. let the cookie firm abc up in the freezer for fifteen minutes before baking.
preheat the oven to 350℉. to bake in batches, top two half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly mist the paper with cooking spray.
arrange twenty cookies in four rows of five on each sheet pan, leaving at least one-inch of space between them. add a pinch of flaky sea salt to the top of each cookie. bake until the edges are slightly darkened and the centers are soft, but not raw, sixteen to eighteen minutes. let cool completely on the pan.
add a thick smear of taleggio cheese to the top of each cookie, and eat immediately. if baking in advance, store the cookies in an airtight container and add the cheese right before serving.
original recipes courtesy of stacy pearl and natasha pichowicz. original photographs. all rights reserved by author.
this author pays respects to all exterior works and authors presented.
a downloadable pdf copy of the recipe can be found here.
Life of the party!