Grand Central U-Bake -- June 6th, 9am-1pm

June 02, 2009 in Portland Bread and Pas..., Portland DIY, Portland Food Products, Uncategorized

I'm much more of a cook than a baker. I make my own pizza dough and every once in awhile I'll bake a cake or some cookies but that's about it. So when Piper Davis of Grand Central Bakery came by the other day with a big bag of GC's soon to hit the market U-Bake frozen cookies, puff pastry and pie dough I felt pretty unworthy. Turns out I'm the ideal person to give them a try because I'm a novice baker who loves tasty baked goods but rarely takes the time to make them. For my U-Bake pie I started by making this...

Then I filled this...

And I ended up with this...

Just out of the oven and soon to be topped with vanilla ice cream

The line of frozen pre-made and formed cookies (oatmeal chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter and ginger molasses) are even easier. You pull out the frozen dozen, separate a few cookies, roll them in sugar, put them on the cookie sheet and 10 minutes later you have delicious home baked cookies.

Ginger molasses cookies straight from the oven

I made a whole bunch of savory treats with the puff pastry dough for dinner with a friend's family but I didn't take any photos of the cheesy puffs because the dinner was at their home and I didn't want my camera to get in the way of our eating. Luckily right before we left for their place I took a photo of the fillings...

Ricotta/sorrel pesto/mozzarella mix with bulk spicy Italian sausage

If you have a chance this Saturday, June 6th GC is rolling out its new U-Bake line (pie dough, puff pastry dough, pre-made pies and cookies) at all of its Portland bakeries. From 9am to 1pm each bakery cafe will be staffed with a baker sampling U-Bake products and sharing recipes and advice. Added bonus: 50% of the proceeds of U-Bake products sold that day will be donated to the Portland Schools Foundation. Be sweet and go buy some sweets.

Grand Central www.grandcentralbakery.com 9am-1pm Saturday, June 6th U-bake roll out at all Portland Grand Central Bakeries

Everything is Connected: Portland cheese, bread, pastries and chocolate

April 22, 2009 in Portland Bread and Pas..., Portland Chefs, Portland Food Products, Uncategorized

Portland isn't so big and once you've anchored yourself in the food community it's hard to buy a loaf of bread without some sort of connection -- oh they're using thatlocal co-op's flour or that's the amazing bread that I used to always wait in line for at the farmers market... Well, the web of connections has been growing to Charlotte's Web proportions lately as I research and write my book which is why I feel ok lumping such a diverse group of people and businesses together in this post.

A couple weeks ago I met with Piper Davis one of the owners of Grand Central Baking. We talked about the history of her family's business, which began in Seattle, while sharing a buttery strawberry raspberry danish. After getting all the details of GC's timeline and current operations I took a tour of the Fremont bakery and snapped some photos...

Last week I got to meet one of Piper's back-in-the-day employees -- Julie Richardson, now owner of Hillsdale's Baker & Spice Bakery. Julie and Piper are close friends and in many ways they've mirrored each other the past couple years, mostly in terms of writerly pursuits. More on that later, but let's just say that there are a lot of buns in the oven in terms of Portland food books by Portland food folks soon to be published.

Baker and Spice's Katie Buns sheeted and ready to spread with cinnamon and raisins

Julie told me about how she started her first bakery in Ketchum, Idaho at the wee age of 23. After moving to Portland in the late 90s she managed to build up a successful farmers market bakery business. She opened the brick and mortar Baker & Spice Bakery four years ago.

Baker and Spice's bread is baked by Richardson's husband Matt Kappler.

I also recently visited with David Briggs of Xocolatl de David. He's been crafting chocolates for more than three years in Portland and his current commercial kitchen is in the back of his friend's hopping Southeast Portland sandwich shop Meat Cheese Bread. When I visited with David there I got to try his caramelized cacao bean honey brittle, all of the base chocolates, one of his tasty fleur de sel chocolate caramels and a soon to hit the shelf chocolate bar. I met with David in the morning and with one of his friends -- Steve Jones of Steve's Cheese -- in the afternoon. David and Steve worked together at Park Kitchen for six months while David was sous chef and Steve was a server. Now David makes regular deliveries of his chocolates to Steve's shop.

David Briggs has been making his chocolates full time since leaving Park Kitchen a little more than a month ago.

That afternoon Steve and I sat in the back room of Steve's Cheese and tried some tasty Zingerman's poundcake samples while talking cheese. In addition to nearly 200 cheeses in the case at any given time Steve's Cheese also stocks cured meats and all sorts of non-perishable treats such as arbequina olive oil, harissa, sardines and pickled peppers. Oh and he'll let you borrow his Raclette machine as long as you buy at least a quarter wheel of the semi-firm, nicely meltable cheese.

Steve's Cheese case -- always cut and wrapped to order

These are the kinds of wrapped gifts I want from Steve's Cheese reach-in

Anyway the friendship of two premier Portland female bakers and a local cheese vendor and chocolatier has proved yet again that everything (in Portland) is connected, which makes my work all the more enjoyable.

Grand Central Baking Company -- www.grancentralbakery.com Baker & Spice Bakery -- www.bakerandspicebakery.com Xocolatl de David -- www.xocolatldedavid.com Steve's Cheese -- www.stevescheese.biz

The rainbow AND the pot of gold -- Pix Patisserie macarons

Pix Patisserie off the market!

April 17, 2009 in Portland Bread and Pas..., Portland Food Products, Uncategorized

I was very sad when I heard the news late last summer that Cheryl Wakerhauser was selling Pix Patisserie. The original Southeast Pix is home to one of my favorite Portland food events Dim Sum Yum Yum and the North Portland Pix is Portland's answer to French cafe seating. When the weather is decent the wicker chairs near the roll-up garage door face out toward the street and sun and the small tables get topped with wine, espresso, Belgian beer, macarons, ganache covered cakelets, housemade chocolates and more. If it's my table there's most likely a hazelnut and chocolatey Royale, a few different macarons, and a dessert wine or Lambic on it all getting equal attention.

Long live the Pix -- North Portland location

I met up with Cheryl yesterday at the North Portland Pix right after she'd tipped back some raw Chelsea Gems down the street at EaT Oyster Bar. While we talked she sipped on a fleur de sel rimmed margarita and soaked up the sunshine. Everything seemed right with the world -- especially when she told me Pix was off the market. The gist: after meeting with interested parties she doesn't have faith that anyone would be kind enough to her fabulous employees or loving enough and true to her devoted customers.

Lately she's figured out ways to spend more time working and experimenting with ingredients that she's passionate about, which is hard when you manage 40 employees at two rocking dessert-and-beyond houses and host more regular events than just about any other place in town: Annual Bastille Day Block Party, Culinary Trivia Night, Concoct Yo' Own Dessert, Monday Movie Night...

I feel lucky that I moved to Portland in 2002, the year that the original Southeast Pix opened, especially since we rented a house just a hop and skip from it for three years. When we moved to North Portland and bought a house in January 2006 the North Portland Pix had just opened its doors. If I thought that another move might garner yet another Pix I'd consider it. Pix is one of my favorite Portland places which is why I'm so happy that it's sure to shine on. No one can fill Cheryl Wakerhauser's shoes. Long live the Pix!

Pix Patisserie Southeast 3402 SE Division St. 503.232.4407

Pix Patisserie North 3901 N Williams Ave. 503.282.6539 www.pixpatisserie.com

Beneath the Cruller Chandelier of Life...

April Fool's Wedding: Voodoo Doughnut

April 02, 2009 in Portland Bread and Pas..., Portland Food Products, Uncategorized

I don't know about you but I think April Fool's is one of the best days of the year. In the past when I was a server I convinced some unassuming diners of amazing things: "A zebra just walked down the street right in front of the cafe but I can't leave because I'm the only server!" One year I fooled my boyfriend and his co-workers into thinking Gus Van Sant had met me and asked me on-the-spot to be in his newest movie. We'd start shooting in a couple weeks. This year I convinced my brother and friend that my wounded finger (I sliced the tip of it off last weekend slicing vegetables and had to go to ER -- truly) had become gangrenous. It would have to be amputated on Friday -- most likely just below the second knuckle. Hopefully it wouldn't spread...

I don't have to establish the fact of a doughnut wedding at this point because I have photographic proof above. On April Fool's Day this year (before getting my right ring finger amputated) I attended a Voodoo Doughnut wedding. Voodoo co-owner Cat Daddy locked the downtown door just a few before 11am and then quickly became a Mexican wrestler/marriage baron in order to wed Alison and Adrian. He channeled the voodoo spirit, wrote ancient cat scratch with chalk on the floor, and said all sort of hole'y things before deeming them husband and wife.

Why was I there? Because I'm writing this book and wanted to talk with Voodoo owners Kenneth "Cat Daddy" Pogson and Tres Shannon. I was also already heading across the river for my finger check-up AND Cat Daddy said the more the merrier.

I might tell you more about the magic that is Voodoo Doughnut later but for now, just for the record: Vicodin plus Mexican wrestler look-alike presided doughnut April Fool's weddings equals fun.

Headquarters of the Official Doughnut of Portland: the Portland Creme

Voodoo Doughnut 22 SW 3rd Ave. 503.241.4704

Voodoo Doughnut Too 1501 NE Davis St. 503.235.2666 www.voodoodoughnut.com

Homemade Hard Cider Pt. 1

March 25, 2009 in Portland Bread and Pas..., Portland Chefs, Portland Coffee and Ba..., Portland DIY, Portland Food Politics, Portland Gardening, Portland Meat, Uncategorized

Last fall my boyfriend and I decided to finally make good use of the apples from the ancient apple tree in our backyard. I'd heard that F.H. Steinbart Co. rented out one of their cider mill/presses every weekend in the fall for $20. I called as soon as I found out last summer when our apple tree was set with loads of good looking fruit. I thought it would probably ripen around late October just as it had the previous fall so I reserved the press for the first weekend of November. That happened to be a very busy weekend -- Wordstock, my first face-to-face with my publisher, an all-day rain garden/stormwater management class for the Organic Gardening Certification Program, and cider making 101.

Two things happened that had a huge effect on the latter. First, we lost a major limb of the apple tree mid-summer, which completely obstructed the street behind our house and sent tennis-ball-looking, unripe apples all the way up and down the street. Because of that we had to do some major emergency pruning to save the tree. The next impediment to our home cidery: the slim-pickings apples that remained ripened early. Very early. Most were good to go by early September. Although apples keep well -- two months was pushing it and to be honest there just weren't that many still on the tree. Our cider press reservation was firm, however, and no other weekends were available. I started hunting for apples.

I surfed Craigslist and found a man with a small home orchard in Woodland, Washington with ripe heritage red apples (not a variety just a description -- he's not sure what kind they are) ready to sell for a good price that sounded like they'd make a decent, but probably not great, hard cider. I was ok with a small batch of decent cider for a small chunk of change. It'd be good practice for our future bumper crop cider. I drove out with my puppy picked up the loot and headed home. The apples had been sweated (stored for a couple weeks so that they'd ripened into peak flavor and sweetness) and were ready for cider. We rinsed them, halved them and threw them into the apple mill/grinder -- stems, seeds and all...

After milling we put the apple pomace (the resulting bits and chunks) into the press and then started hand cranking the juice. That took the most time.

As you can see a lot of bits made it into the cider. That didn't matter because before pouring the cider into the carboy, with a packet of champagne yeast, we filtered it through cheesecloth. Apple Bits was a nickname my friend Mary Ellen gave me in grade school. If only she could see me now.

80-plus pounds of apples became a mere 3 gallons of cider. Our how-to book Cider Hard & Sweet: History, Traditions, and Making Your Own by Ben Watson for The Countryman Press doesn't suggest an apple to juice ratio but surfing around online it seems like the consensus is that roughly 15 pounds of apples usually translates to about a gallon of cider. Either we need to do some push-ups in prep. for this fall or our apples weren't exactly up-to-snuff juice wise.

After all that, which took the better part of a day, we had three gallons of cider in a carboy with a purge tube stoppered to the top leading to a half-full bottle of water. This way nothing noxious or foreign could travel into the cider but if the fermentation got particularly feisty and bubbly the cider would overflow into the bottle of water. We kept it in the utility room and checked on it every few hours at first and then every few days. Once the initial fermentation was over, about a week or two I think, we removed the tubing and topped the carboy with a regular fermentation lock. Then we left the cider largely unattended until January.

Hard Cider Part Two...

Much Kneaded: Portland bread and pastries

March 18, 2009 in Portland Bread and Pas..., Portland Food Products, Uncategorized

I want to write something I really, really do but between the private tastings (private dancer but no exchange of money and no need for a change of clothes), tours and interviews there's some time for my freelance, some time for my taxes (taxes!) and a little more time to actually write this book that's supposedly due by early September. So instead of writing any more I give you this post of images. I'm including some bread and pastry folks and places that I've been to and met with in the past couple weeks...