A Trip to the Homeland

Eliza and I recently returned from a trip to Rochester, New York—my hometown. We went to visit family and friends who hadn’t yet had the pleasure of meeting Eliza. While there I was struck by how many foods I have been missing since moving to Texas. I made it my mission that week to eat all the foods I can’t get in Austin. I left Rochester after a week a few pounds heavier, but with a smile on my face.

For all the delicious food in Austin, one thing I have struggled to find is some good, hearty Italian food. I’m not talking wood-fired pizzas and “artisan” pastas. I’m talking about a big bowl of stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth gnocchi covered in red sauce that took three days to make. And that’s what they serve at Agatina’s.

For the most part, Eliza was a perfect doll the entire week, but when we went to Agatina’s, she really cranked out. Before our entrees arrived it became obvious she wasn’t going to settle down anytime soon, so we got our food to go and enjoyed it at home. It was still delicious and we had tons of leftovers. It was exactly what I wanted.

Among the other foods I gorged myself on last week were white hots, real bagels, scallion pancakes (I haven’t been able to find these in Austin), and white pizza from Martusciello’s Bakery.

But enough about the savory side—what about dessert? On our last day in the Flower City, we took a trip to Savoia Pastry Shoppe, one of the best bakeries in the greater Rochester area. After hemming, hawing, and trying to rationalize just getting one of everything, we settled on three varieties of cookies, a sfogliatelle, and a pasticiotti. I inhaled nearly all the cookies myself; of the three we got, the raspberry jam sandwich cookies were the winner, but just barely. The butter cookies with a plump dollop of chocolate frosting were the perfect combo of vanilla and chocolate, and the amaretti were, of course, sublime—perfectly chewy and crispy. I wasn’t impressed with the sfogliatelle (it was rather bland), but the pasticiotti was good—sort of a sugar cookie filled with pastry cream. You could fill a throw pillow with pastry cream and it would be delicious.

We also squeezed in a trip to Schutt’s, and even though Eliza seemed thoroughly unimpressed, I had a blast. We picked up a dozen fried cakes and a half-gallon of fresh cider to bring over to my grandmother’s house. It was a perfect fall day, still pretty warm, and the donuts and cider made a great snack.

But I’m still thinking about those Italian cookies. My next baking project is going to be to try to replicate those butter cookies. The great thing about the Italian butter cookies is their versatility—both the raspberry jam cookies and the cookies with the chocolate frosting from Savoia were made from the same basic butter cookie recipe. There are countless variations—different shapes, sizes, fillings, toppings, and flavorings. I look forward to a little experimentation.

Chocolate Chippers and Blondies

It’s taken me longer than I anticipated to get this post up. Why? Because I’ve been doing some freelance work, writing a book, keeping the house in order, staying social, and . . . oh yeah—taking care of my pride and joy, Miss Eliza! Am I complaining? Not even close. I really couldn’t be happier—or busier—right now.

A phenomenon I’ve noticed recently is Entire Day Disappearance. Some days I wake up, get some coffee, feed Eliza, check my e-mail . . . then somehow it’s eight o’clock at night and I haven’t crossed anything off my to-do list. Of course, I’ve still managed to squeeze in some baking. It’s something that makes me truly happy, and I hope I will always find time for it.

When I first started D is for Dessert, I did so with the goal of really pushing myself to try some baking techniques I’ve never tried before. I pictured myself making soufflés, macarons, and maybe a Buche de Noel around the holidays. In reality, I’m lucky if I can crank out a batch of cookies before Eliza starts getting fussy. Again, I’m not complaining, just noting my limitations.

So now I’m focusing on the simpler desserts: cookies, bars, maybe a cake or two. Just because they don’t take an entire day to prepare, and require myriad exotic ingredients, doesn’t mean they’re any less worthy.

In the past month I’ve made the following recipes twice each. They’re really simple recipes that produce absolutely delicious treats. The recipes I’m posting are adapted from Cook’s Illustrated (of course) to be dairy free. In related news, I’ve been given the green light from Eliza’s doctor to go ahead and eat dairy again (yay!) so my recipes will no longer be dairy free.

The chocolate chip cookies are gorgeous—big and satisfying without sacrificing depth of flavor. They’re not overly sweet, so you could really play around with add-ins, like coconut, nuts, or peanut butter chips. The blondies have been a big hit. They truly taste like a brownie minus the chocolate. They have the same texture and chewiness as a brownie, but with a lovely golden flavor. This recipe is also super flexible; I was thinking they’d be great with mini peanut butter cups or with coconut and toasted almonds.

Dairy-Free Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from Cook’s Illustrated)

2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp table salt
½ tsp baking soda
12 tbsp Earth Balance, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix the Earth Balance and the sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in the egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in the chips.
3. Form ¼ cup of dough into a flattened ball/disk shape. Place dough disks on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
4. Bake, reversing cookie sheets’ positions halfway through baking, until the cookies are light golden brown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes.


Dairy-Free Blondies
(adapted from Cook’s Illustrated)

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp table salt
12 tbsp Earth Balance, melted and cooled
1 ½ cups brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or a mix of any kind of chips, nuts, coconut, candy bits, etc.)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a 13 x 9 pan with two perpendicular sheets of foil. Spray the foil-lined pan with nonstick cooking spray.
3. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl; set aside.
4. Whisk the melted Earth Balance and the brown sugar together in medium bowl until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Using a rubber spatula, fold the dry ingredients into egg mixture until just combined; do not over mix. Fold in the chocolate and the nuts and turn the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula.
5. Bake until the top is shiny, cracked, and light golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature. Remove the bars from the pan by lifting the foil overhang and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into squares and serve.