French bread is the ultimate juxtaposition of refinement and simplicity – just fresh ground flour, water, salt, and yeast. While making bread can challenge home bakers (part of the fun!), the purpose of our “cool control” technique is to eliminate heartbreak and make your baking endeavors easy and delicious.
The bread behind the iconic New York City Deli sandwich. It typically contains 20-30% rye flour, fermented with sourdough starter, giving it a subtle tang and malty rye notes, while the wheat flour lends a soft crust and tender, even crumb. Amazing stacked with pastrami, corned beef, or smoked whitefish.
The arrival of summer screams for the most classic of all backyard grillable foods – the burger! These buns are quick and easy (25 minutes) to make and keep well in the freezer. Golden brown on the outside, sweet and soft on the inside, these whole grain buns are the perfect base for a classic beef or bean burger, portabella mushroom or grilled chicken breast.
Challah is an ancient bread with sacred origins in the Jewish culture. Enriched with honey or sugar, and often topped with sesame or poppy seeds, this style of bread has become popular worldwide, inside and outside the Jewish community.
This type of roll was popularized by Italian American immigrants, who filled them with Italian-style cured meats, cheese and pickled vegetable antipasti (like giardinera). The original “Italian” sub inspired many variations that are now famous in their own right, like the Philly Cheesesteak (recipe below!).
These iconic pizza meets grinder bombs are a staple of the sub world. Fresh-baked Italian rolls, a fantastic tomato sauce plus your featured protein and melted mozzarella is a no brainer!
Once you master the simple and ancient process of nixtamalization, it’s easy to whip up your own tacos, memelas (see recipe below!) sopes, tamales, or pozole. Warning, once you have the real deal, there’s no going back to the industrialized imitations found all over!
This hearty, nutritious rye bread is delicious sliced thin and topped with cheese, spreads, smoked meats and pickled vegetables. Because of its density, it doesn’t go stale as quickly as wheat bread, so you can keep it on hand for a healthy snack.
This style of sourdough bread is what opened my eyes to the aesthetic and transformative side of bread making. It’s biology, chemistry, engineering, pleasure and adventure all at once.
Hot off the grilll, our duck pizza is bursting with fresh summer flavors, unctuous triple cream brie, peppery arugula and just the right touch of smokiness.
Almost any dish you can think of can be adapted for pizza, including the Greek national dish with its rich, creamy layers of lamb and eggplant. This pizza – and this moussaka – are far from traditional, but every tradition starts as a creative idea.
Our whole wheat pizza dough is the perfect canvas for pizza and calzones, from traditional favorites like pepperoni and cheese to creative combos like Pizza Mousakka and Duck with Brie and Seasonal Fruit.
These perfect little morning treats made from fresh ground cornmeal are pretty as they are tasty! The blueberries burst as they bake, making moist little pockets of goodness.
These crispy, crumbly, buttery scones were a favorite at the bakery I ran. The secret to the perfect texture is cutting the butter similar to how you would for a shortbread or pie dough. The dried sweetened cherries add a extra special sweet and sour chew, with a hint of caramelization at the edges.
These enormous dark and crusty whole wheat loaves can be made any time you like. They don’t have to be big, but they are at their best when they are a larger loaf. The balance of flavors and textures, the tangy, cool, and moist crumb, and the chewy, dark molasses crust make for a satisfying slice of toast, or loaded with your favorite sandwich toppings.
Before developing my recipe and process for making bagels at my bakery, I toured the famous bagel houses of New York and Montreal, each with their own unique style. This recipe is akin to the New York style, with a dense, chewy crumb and toothsome crust.
Not only can you make bagels at home; you can make your own lox too! In America, lox is synonymous with smoked salmon, but lox is actually just salt-cured salmon, which is easy to do in your fridge, no fancy equipment required.
Smoked Bluefish is a delicious alternative to cured salmon, and it’s easy to make at home. If you don’t have a smoker don’t worry; smoked salt and your oven make a perfectly good substitute! Tastes great on our ancient grain bagels with capers, onions and cream cheese.
For me, this is true decadence! I rarely deep fry food at home as it is messy and bad for the waistline, but you won’t find this on any menu in new england, so if you want to eat it you’ll have to get out the oil and batter!
Originating in northern Mexico and beloved throughout the world, flour tortillas are versatile, delicious and practical. Fill them with beans, cheese, vegetables and meat for a hearty burrito, or flatten them out on a griddle for a crispy quesadilla dripping with melted cheese.
