Pain D'Amande: Italian Almond Cookies

I savor weekend mornings. It is so lovely to sleep in, loll out of bed to be handed a hot, freshly brewed cup of coffee, and then collapse again on the couch to leisurely read the paper. It gets better: eating these cookies. Before a bigger brunch production, weekend mornings allow for a treat over coffee. It depends on the weekend, and what I've been able to bake during the week (sometimes we have a slice of this). But these cookies are a favorite, both for their taste and texture and because the dough freezes so well. I take a log of dough out of the freezer, slice it up, and 15 minutes later have another round of the crisp, caramel-y, nutty goodness ready to munch. These are wonderful with coffee as well as with ice cream (these are a good choice, too). 

A couple weeks ago I found an undersized cookbook at the library that I almost passed by: Biscotti.  I almost passed by it because I didn't immediately notice the smaller print: Recipes from the kitchen of the American Academy in Rome, Rome Sustainable Food Project. Hmm -- what was this all about? Well, this is a very sweet little book from a cool program in Italy. It has a surprising number of recipes for its size, an introduction by Alice Waters, good photos, and overall thoughtfulness. The title 'biscotti' refers to a collection of Italian (or Italian-inspired) cookies, not just the super-crunchy, 'biscotti' slices served at every coffee shop everywhere.  The ingredients and recipes reflect the seasons, sustainability, and simplicity. The cookies are smaller and less sweet than typical 'cookies' -- and that is a good thing. These cookies are delicious and memorable.

Chocolate & Banana Pudding Parfaits (Vegan!)

This pudding is luscious, creamy and delicious -- both a tribute to how fabulous vegan treats can be and also to how well they can disguise as their non-vegan twins. You probably would not guess by the taste that this is not a regular, fabulous, milk/cream/eggs-based pudding. You probably also would not guess that it's made with... tofu. This is the first time I've tried vegan pudding. I was unsure if I would like it. I do! And here it is to inspire you!

Zucchini Marmalade Bread

I've been continuing on my zucchini craze lately -- trying desperately to eat the pounds of zucchini that appear each morning on my super-happy zucchini plant bush. I've also continued to tackle Tartine as my bed-side book of choice before I have to return it to the library. This recipe for zucchini marmalade bread utilizes both my stock pile of zucchini as well as my pantry full of homemade marmalade. It makes a moist, flavorful bread with a lot of depth. It is lovely as is, and toasts well. We enjoy eating it for breakfast as well as for an afternoon treat with a cup of tea.  If there's a break in the heat this summer, and you can bear to turn on your oven, I recommend giving this recipe a try. If the heat is unbearable, grate up some zucchini and freeze it for later.

Blackberry Swirl Frozen Yogurt

I'm still obsessing over blackberries from our big u-pick trip a couple weeks ago. Blackberry ice cream is now my favorite ice cream flavor. And blackberry puree has been a great addition to my morning yogurt. So good, in fact, that I knew it would be delicious swirled into a frozen yogurt. My, oh my, is it ever! I used Greek yogurt in this recipe and I love the tangy richness. Other plain yogurt could be substituted.  In fact, other berries could be substituted, too. Raspberries or another cane berry would be easy to sub in.

Almond Rochers

Tartine Bakery on the corner of Guerrero and 18th in San Francisco used to be my neighborhood bakery when I lived there a few years ago.  Tartine has so many delicious baked goods, lunch choices, goodies and strong espresso, plus an awesome location near Delores Park -- it's no wonder the line is usually out the door and around the corner.

While many tout the joys of the pressed sandwiches and (amazing) bread, bread pudding and chocolate mousse, I LOVE their tiny, underplayed Almond Rochers.  These little meringue cookies may be the least expensive choice on the menu, but they are so so good.  Meringue-y, yet crumbly, chewy and crunchy, a little marshmallow-y, nutty.  They are sweet, unassuming and absolutely delicious.  And they keep their integrity for a long time: up to two weeks!  Enjoy these with tea, with coffee, in the morning, afternoon or evening.  They can be crumbled on top of ice cream.  But, seriously, they are perfect all on their own.  Despite needing to have a few things organized, they are also simple to make.

Langes de boeuf (aka lovely French cookies)

When I'm at the library I like to pick up books on subjects I don't know anything about.  That's how I end up with  Writing Picture Books and Graffiti Planet.  More often the books I pick up are related to cooking or baking -- like this one: Puff, by Martha Holmberg.  It's a cookbook completely dedicated to puff pastry.  I didn't know anything about puff pastry before, and now I have several hours worth of puff knowledge (making and eating), as well as several dozen delicate and delectable cookies (as well as several dozen more unbaked cookies waiting in the freezer).

What is puff pastry?  Wikipedia starts by defining it as a light, flaky, unleavened pastry containing several layers of fat.  Fat, in this case, is the butter.  The rolling of butter into the dough creates a flakiness during baking as the water in the butter evaporates. 

The Most-Perfect Blackberry Ice Cream

This past weekend we drove over the Santa Cruz Mountains to the coast to go berry picking.  It was an ideal morning for it -- the fog hadn't entirely lifted so it was still cool, and it was early enough that there were only a few other people out in the brambles with us.  Picking berries is addictive: you pick a few pounds and talk about wrapping it up, but then there is the perfect berry, and the next perfect berry, and the next... and before you know it there are 10 pounds of blackberries piled into your baskets, another 2 in your stomach, and a nice purple hue on your fingers and tongue.

Papaya pudding

I am so fortunate to have farmers' market and local ethnic supermarket visits as a part of my normal work schedule.  At Collective Roots, where I work, we teach lots of healthy-cooking-on-a-budget classes.  We have graduated over 150 participants from 6-week healthy cooking classes!   Working with participants from diverse backgrounds has given me the opportunity to try fruits and vegetables I've never tried (or seen!) before and to try new recipes for fruits and vegetables that I eat all the time.

So -- how does this relate to papaya pudding?  Last week when I was shopping for our cooking classes at the nearby Latino market, the papaya display was too irresistible to pass by.  So I didn't.  Happily lugging my three-pound papaya home, I wondered what I'd do with it all.  Eating a papaya fresh is always nice.  So are morning smoothies.  But with all that papaya, I started looking around for something more interesting.

Nectarine Sorbet

The farmers' market is overflowing with delicious stone fruit right now: cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines.  I'm experimenting with sorbet and ice cream flavors and the pick of the week is nectarines.  They were perfectly ripe, fragrant and sweet this week.  It has been HOT the past couple days -- in the high 90s-- so a light, refreshing sorbet was the perfect choice.  Ice cream maker or not, you can make this lovely, icy, simple treat for any hot day. 

Peanut Butter Cups

I'm on a sweet kick.  Getting 20 cookbooks dedicated to desserts from the library has not helped.  A zillion June birthdays doesn't help.  A sweet boyfriend with a sweet tooth willing to test all my new recipes doesn't help either.  So on I trudge, into more sweetness.  Project of the day: homemade peanut butter cups. 

Marshmallows

With a camping trip on the books, I started thinking about a camp-style menu.  I got as far as S'mores... which was enough menu planning as far as I was concerned.  Campfire s'mores are the quintessential childhood camp memory.  Yet I have a moral battle each time I am faced with purchasing jet-puffed, infinite-shelf-life mallows.  What to do?  Strangely and fitting enough, a homemade marshmallow vendor recently started selling at my local farmers' market.  What a concept.  I started looking around for a recipe for my own.

Apricot Almond Galette

With beautiful apricots overflowing at the farmers' market, I couldn't help but load them into this late-spring pastry.  Apricots go surprisingly well with almond, and their tartness is complemented by the sweetness of the almond cream and a sprinkling of coarse sugar. 

Madeleines

Madeleines are alluring to me.  I love their dense yet spongy texture, lovely crisp edges and subtle citrus flavor.  I love that they are shaped like shells.  And their name is sweet, too.  I never made Madeleines before because I didn't  have a Madeleine pan and am resistant to purchasing cookware that has one and only one purpose.  Recently I scored a $3 Madeleine pan at a thrift store and quickly made an exception to the one-purpose rule and started hunting for a recipe to get started.

$3 Madeleine pan

I found recipes that sounded good on trusted foodblog faves: 101 Cookbooks and David Lebovitz.  I also poked around online to try to figure out what makes a Madeleine a Madeleine.  What makes them so special?  My understanding is that traditional Madeleine, which originated in the Lorraine region of northeastern France, uses a génoise cake batter.  I read Madeleine cakes in several places.  It seems that a Madeleine is a cake and not a cookie.  Ok with me.

The Persimmon Tree

Down the street from one of the schools where I work there is a lot for sale. It is about a half acre, locked down with several fences -- a broken wooden one and a 8-foot chain link one. Sometimes there is a big dog inside the fence, too. There is nothing on the lot except a persimmon tree. A beautiful, old, leaning Hachiya persimmon tree. Since the first frost, the persimmon tree is bare of leaves which makes the hundreds of bright orange, heart-shaped fruits stand out against the sky and the otherwise stark lot. I drive by this tree nearly every day, wondering how I might get in and harvest the tree. (What on earth I would do if I had all that fruit?) Well, luckily I work with some great people, with great ideas. A quick call to the phone number posted on the For Sale sign and several of us persimmon-tree gawkers found ourselves on the other side of the fences. An hour later we were several hundred of pounds of persimmons heavier. We donated several bags, but were still left with much persimmon poundage. Time to pull out the dehydrator, freezer bags and muffin tins!