Nibby Bittersweet Chocolate Brownies

Brownies are a rare guest on this blog. I'm not entirely sure why, since I completely love them, but let's just say that it's tough work finding a recipe that lives up to the glorious boxed brownies of my childhood. Even to this day, the Duncan Hines box photos are so dang alluring; the brownies always have that perfect crackled top crust! And they look so fudgy! And they're photographed in a heaping stack! That ridiculously chocolate pudding packet brownie is the one that I want, and this ditty from Alice Medrich is pretty spot-on to my idea of perfect.

Even if you're anti-nuts-in-brownies—I am too—consider giving the cacao nibs a whirl. Walnuts sure don't have a place in the brownie of my dreams, but the nibs add a fun amount of chocolatey crunch to an otherwise deeply fudgy and soft brownie; you won't go wrong either way. Bonus: after that behemoth pork pie from earlier this week, a one-hour, two-bowl recipe is a most welcome thing.

 
Nibby Bittersweet Brownies
Adapted from Alice Medrich, Pure Dessert

Check out Apt. 2B Baking Co. for a completely gorgeous photo of her nibby brownies. Mine don't do the total fudginess as much justice as does hers!

8 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate
3 ounces unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
heaping 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt
1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
3 to 4 tablespoons cacao nibs, optional, divided
Couple pinches of flaky salt to sprinkle on top, optional

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and line the bottom and sides of an 8” x 8” or 9” x 9” pan with foil and grease lightly with butter.

2.  Put the chopped chocolate and butter in a medium heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted. Set aside to cool somewhat. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt until the mixture is lighter in color, about three minutes (excellent arm workout!), or with a handheld mixer on medium, about two minutes.

3. While whisking, slowly pour the melted chocolate mixture into the eggs. Whisk to combine, then fold in the flour and two tablespoons of the cacao nibs. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle with the remaining one or two tablespoons of cacao nibs and flaky salt if desired. Slide into the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted into the brownies comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes (mine took 35, but start checking at 20 minutes anyway). Cool completely before cutting into squares; I added more sea salt once they were cooled. These brownies tasted the most chocolately on day two, right out of the fridge (with some coffee!).

Tourtière du Shack (Pork Pie!)

Meat and I have been on tender terms. Being "vay-gun," as would say my dad, lasted through many of my youthful years until 2007, when the first thing I ate fresh into France was a foot-long spicy lamb sausage with a side of mayo fries; I returned for a second helping the very next day. And oh my god, the rillettes. France stole my Earth Balance'd heart and gave 'er back to me all buttery and larded, but it still wasn't until just last week that I handled and cooked a cut of meat for the first time. Even on the farm in Maine, I professed my love of steak but surreptitiously left the meat-touching to my less squeamish compatriots. My poor dad had to deal with our roasted duck at Christmas too, even though I swore I could handle it; no one told me there would be guts to remove! But my plan this year is to generally be less of a wiener, so it was with only the slightest of squirms that I manhandled this pork in the name of this most delicious and worthwhile pie. 

The recipe hails from Montreal's Martin Picard, who was profiled along with his maple syrup-hungry family last year in this entertaining bit from Bon Appétit. The mag doesn't have much to say on the genesis of tourtière, but it seems to be a French-Canadian specialty that has trickled down into parts of New England. Some of my farmer buddies in Maine, for instance, swore they make the best beef and venison tourtière ever, but they never got around to proving it so we can just leave the accolades for Picard. Squeamish about meat or not, you've gotta give this pie a shot; with some red wine and a round of Carcassonne, it was the most satisfying meal we'd enjoyed in ages.
 

Visible toothpick aid!

Tourtière du Shack
Adapted from Martin Picard for Bon Appétit

This pie is named after Picard's Montréal sweet spot, Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon (Sugar Shack at Pied de Cochon). He is famed for his creations with maple syrup--these doughnuts!--although there is none in this beast of a dish. His pie crust recipe uses an entire pound of butter, which I just couldn't justify, so I went with my favorite, less butter-filled pie crust instead. Feel free to swap in his original if you're lookin' to perfect your buttery sheen. 

For pastry
Adapted from Apt. 2B Baking Co.

12 ounces pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
8 ounces (two sticks) very cold butter
4 to 6 ounces ice water
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1.  On a clean counter, dump your flour and salt; mix it around with a bench scraper. Chop one stick of butter into quarters, and cut it into the four with your bench scraper. When butter is about the size of Lima beans, cut in the second stick, pulling, folding, and tossing with the bench scraper as you go, until the butter is about the size of quarters. Add the vinegar to the ice water.

2. Using your fingers, flick the water onto the butter-flour mixture, gently folding with the bench scraper all the while. You have added enough water once the mixture holds together when squeezed; it should be very shaggy.

3. Next, push the butter into the flour. Using the heel of your palm, push a small section of the dough down and away from you; this creates long layers of butter in your dough, which translates to long flaky layers in your crust. Use your bench scraper to scrape up the smear, and put it a bowl. Repeat until all the dough has been smeared and you have a bowlful of long, buttery layers. Push these into one mass, divide in half, wrap each in plastic, flatten into disks, and chill overnight.

For filling
Adapted from Martin Picard for Bon Appétit

1 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 1/2 medium onions, chopped, divided
4 garlic cloves, chopped, divided
5 whole black peppercorns plus freshly ground black pepper
5 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt), pref. local + organic, cut into 2" pieces
Fine-grain sea salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
8 medium button mushrooms, stemmed and finely chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/4 pounds ground pork, pref. local + organic
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (I added a smidgen more at the end)
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup grated, peeled russet potato, from about one medium potato
1 large egg yolk, beaten to blend, for brushing on crust

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Combine broth, 1/2 chopped onion, 1 chopped garlic clove, whole peppercorns, thyme, and bay leaves in a medium pot. Add pork shoulder; season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cover pot. Transfer to oven; braise until pork shoulder is tender and shreds easily, about two hours. Remove from oven; let cool.

2.  Transfer pork shoulder to a work surface. Shred meat with your fingers and transfer to a medium bowl. Strain pan juices through a fine-mesh sieve; add 1/2 cup juices to pork; discard solids in strainer.

3.  Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add remaining one chopped onion and three chopped garlic cloves; cook, stirring often, until soft, five to seven minutes. Add mushrooms; cook, stirring often, until almost all liquid is evaporated, five to seven minutes. Add wine; stir, scraping up browned bits. Bring to a boil; cook, stirring often, until liquid is almost evaporated, about five minutes.

4.  Add ground pork, cinnamon, and cloves. Cook, stirring to break up into small pieces, until pork is cooked through, about five minutes. Add potato. Cook until potato is soft, about ten minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in shredded pork with juices. Season to taste with salt and pepper; let cool slightly. Chill until cold, about one hour. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and keep chilled.

5.  Roll out one dough disk on a lightly floured surface into a 12" round. Transfer to a nine-inch, deep-dish pie plate, leaving overhang. Fill with cooled meat mixture. Roll out remaining dough disk into a 10" round. Place dough over meat filling. Fold overhang over top crust and crimp edges. Brush crust with egg yolk. Cut three two-inch slits in top crust. Chill for one hour.

6.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake tourtière for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F; bake until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling, 40 to 50 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes before serving. Leftovers will keep covered in the fridge for about three days; they are best rewarmed in the oven.

Suggestion: Make pastry and filling on day one; bake the whole she-bang on day two. From rolling out pastry to eating takes about 3.5 hours, so be sure to factor that in on the day you serve this.

Super Tangy Lemon Tart

Plans, plans, plans! My life is awash with plans! The transition from farmy cheesemaker to benevolent loafer and serial planner has been tough, but there are at least a few very wonderful things I'm anticipating for the year ahead. Among them is an impending, long-overdue trip home to California where I will commence immediate and sustained burrito annihilation and get some welding and woodworking lessons from my pops; Bridge lessons have been threatened by Mom. There's a sewing boot camp that I'll be attending, along with a handful of bakeshop classes, but more than anything I'm just looking forward to spending some quality time with my folks after what has been years of full-time-job-determined, one-week visits. That's the very great upside of my willing unemployment, or rather, freelancing.  

The other, more relevant-to-you upside is the abundance of time during which I can experiment with baking. This seriously tangy lemon tart, for instance, was failed, fixed, redone, redone again, and tested one last time before arriving here in all its supremely puckering glory. No cream, no meringue, plenty of zest; my sister said it made her sweat. It was also the first thing I ate the morning after New Year's, and I daresay it was a mighty fine, mouth-punching way to kick off another year. Onward!
 

Super Tangy Lemon Tart
Crust adapted from Alice Medrich, filling cobbled together from various sources

This is my very favorite tart crust these days. It doesn't shrink an iota, doesn't need to be refrigerated or rolled out, and the whole thing tastes like a vanilla cookie. What's not to love? 

For the crust
8 tablespoons (one stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour

For the filling
Finely grated zest of 3 lemons, preferably organic
3/4 cup lemon juice, from about 6 lemons
1/2 cup granulated sugar (increase by 2 tablespoons if you don’t adore tanginess)
8 tablespoons (one stick) unsalted butter, cut into small bits
3 large egg yolks
3 large whole eggs
Lemon peel and powdered sugar for garnish, if desired

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk melted butter, sugar salt, and vanilla into a cohesive paste. Add flour and whisk until fully combined. Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of an eight-inch tart tin. Be patient, and there is only just enough crust to cover the tin. Pop into the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until crust is deep golden brown.

2.  Meanwhile, combine lemon zest, juice, sugar, and butter into a medium saucepan. On the side, whisk egg yolks and egg into a medium heat-safe bowl. Over medium heat, bring the lemon mixture a simmer, then slowly pour the mixture into the egg and egg yolks, whisking all the while. Return the mixture to the pan and continue cooking until filling is thickened, about six minutes; be sure to whisk the whole time! Set a fine-mesh strainer over the heat-safe bowl you were already using, and press filling through to catch any egg solids that might have formed. Be sure to scrape any filling off the bottom of the strainer.

3.  By this time your crust should be finished baking. Pour the hot filling into the crust, smooth the top with a rubber spatula or the back of a spoon, and bake for five minutes just to set the filling. Allow to cool to room temperature for at least an hour or two, then pop into the fridge or serve at room temperature. Tart will keep for three or four days, covered in the fridge.

Words with Yossy Arefi of Apt. 2B Baking Co.!

Photos of stone fruit tartlets by Yossy Arefi

Apt. 2B Baking Co. is the reason why I make a halfway decent pie crust. Yossy herself seems to have gone on a crust quest of sorts, from which she emerged with the most decidedly delicious method courtesy of Brandi Henderson’s class on How to Be a Pie Ninja, but the lesson never would have gotten to me without Yossy's work. In countless other ways, her blog has been a perpetual source of visual, written, and, of course, kitchen inspiration, and I often find myself turning to her site whenever strikes a baking or blogging rut. Toward the end of last year, Yossy and I got to chatting about how Apt. 2B Baking Co. got started, and I not-so-subtly tried to learn the secrets behind the approachability of her work, the ease of her writing, and just how she manages to stay so beautifully inspired on her blog and in her kitchen. In the name of rediscovering inspiration for the year ahead, a transcript of our chat and a few of Yossy’s gorgeous photos are posted below; I hope you find it all as inspiring as I did! And if you haven’t yet checked out Apt. 2B Baking Co., there’s much to admire on her site and you should surely click on over. Happy New Year, my friends!
 
KARI NYE (Tanglewood Baked Goods):  Cool I think it’s going…Yeah, so hi!

YOSSY AREFI (Apt. 2B Baking Co.):  Hi!

KARI:  Okay, thanks for doing this interview with me. Your blog is so magic and awesome—I read it all the time—and I just really wanted to find out more about how you got going and what keeps you inspired. So my first official question is about how the Apt. 2B Baking Co. got started.

YOSSY:  Okay! Well it started because I had been working at a restaurant for a long time, and I got really bored. I thought the solution to the boredom would be to start an Etsy baking shop, and I started the blog in conjunction with that. It wasn’t really what I wanted to do though, so I ditched the shop after two holiday seasons and let it peter out. But I kept blogging because I really liked it and I loved the photography, and I enjoyed making food that I couldn’t make at work.

KARI:  What was it that kept you going with the blog?

YOSSY:  What I really wanted to do was have an outlet that wasn’t my job, that was something creative that I was doing on my own. I realized that I could scratch that itch through keeping up with the blog, and it was so much more satisfying than packaging cookies for people. The part that I liked was the creating and the sharing, and the photography of course.

KARI:  Were you baking at the restaurant that you were working at?

YOSSY:  Yeah, I started there as a reservationist, and I planned birthday parties and bridal showers, and it was really awful. But there was a position that was open in the kitchen, and I started to bring things in that I had made at home to show my boss that I could bake—I don’t have any formal training. I eventually convinced my boss that I could do it, and then I did for five years! I baked and decorated cakes there.

KARI:  Oh man, your pink cake blog post is like…I think I had just discovered your blog right before you posted that, and I was so stunned. I thought it was the most beautiful cake I’d ever seen, and it looked so good!

Photos of pink birthday cake by Yossy Arefi

YOSSY:  I almost didn’t post that cake at all because I didn’t like the pictures. I shoot on film so I don’t know exactly how the photos are going to turn out, and I really did not like how those turned out. But I’m really glad that I did. It’s my most popular post by a thousand percent.

KARI:  Wow, still to this day?

YOSSY:  Yeah, still every day more views on that post. It has more views, probably, than every other post combined. It’s crazy!

KARI:  So you don’t love the photos on that one, but would you consider it one of your favorite posts anyway? Or do you have some favorites that really stand out to you?

YOSSY:  I love the sentiment behind the cake post. I don’t know if many people actually read it, but I made that cake with my twin nieces in mind because they had just been born. I was feeling pretty bad about being so far away from home because all my family was in Seattle to be with the babies, and I made them that cake as a symbol of my love. I still absolutely love that post. I’m actually trying to go home in February so I can make them a birthday cake in person.

KARI:  Is that when they’re turning one?

YOSSY:  Yeah! I’m excited to get to do that. But a few other posts that I really liked are the rhubarb pie post from the summer, and I love the stone fruit tartlets because I think they turned out really well—that puff pastry! My trip to Seattle this summer was really special for me, and I love all of those posts. I did two or three that are just about that trip: there’s a blackberry rhubarb crisp, and gingered blackberry cobbler, and a blackberry jam. I had a really great trip to Seattle, so there’s just a lot of great memories associated with those.

Photos of fruit and blackberry rhubarb crisp by Yossy Arefi

KARI:  I’ve only been to Seattle once, and I feel like I missed so much. I didn’t know where to go! But I looked at all your photos from there, and the fruit is just unbelievable.

YOSSY:  Oh yeah, I don’t think that people realize that the summertime in Seattle is incredible. August and September are amazing. It doesn’t get too hot, it usually stays in the 70s, and blackberries just literally grow likes weeds everywhere—in parking lots.

KARI:  That’s so dreamy.

YOSSY:  Everybody has a fruit tree in their yard. My parents are really into gardening so they have a beautiful garden with chickens, and it’s just an amazing place in the summertime, but it gets a bad rap. But I went to Maine for Common Ground Fair, and I was there on Saturday when it was just kind of drizzling, and that’s what Seattle is like. It doesn’t pour down rain—it’s just drizzly and overcast. You adapt.

KARI:  Yeah totally, you get used to it. Have you always been a baker, or is that something that you mostly learned at the restaurant?

YOSSY:  It’s essentially something that I’ve always done. When I moved to New York, I thought I could get a job in the restaurant industry. I had enough knowledge to figure out baking, and I learned a bit at work—mostly cake decorating, like making flowers and writing names, and I can make a cake look like a tiger if you want. But all the baking technique was pretty self-led or learned through cookbooks. The restaurant itself was sort of like, “If you have time, make whatever you want.” It was really great because I would just go through a cookbook and bake every recipe from it.

KARI:  Were there any baking cookbooks that stood out to you when you were in that learning phase?

YOSSY:  I baked every single recipe in Martha Stewart’s cookie book—it had just come out. I didn’t learn a ton, but it was pretty fun to just bake every recipe like that. The books I love a lot now—and that I used a lot then too—are Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert—

KARI:  Oh, I love her!

YOSSY:  Yes! I love her so, so much. And that book introduced me to a lot of new ingredients: alternative flours, cacao nibs—and I think I’ve baked most of the recipes from that book as well. It was new to me that dessert could be more than just chocolate chip cookies and layer cakes. Also, Claudia Fleming’s book, The Last Course, was a huge inspiration. She also uses ingredients I hadn’t heard of or thought to use in desserts before, like peppercorns and herbs. I love that book a lot.

 Photos of rangpur lime bars and nibby buckwheat butter cookies, both adapted from Alice Medrich, by Yossy Arefi
 
KARI:  Yeah, I feel like when I got that book, I didn’t know what to do with it. It was a lot of gelée, and I was sort of like, “What is this? I don’t get it,” but then I dug into it and realized how awesome her book is.

YOSSY:  What I did with that book was pick and choose some of the smaller recipes. I made her roasted pineapple with pink peppercorns and then turned it into an ice cream. It was so freaking good. Roasted pineapple…with pink peppercorns…it’s so delicious.

KARI:  Yum. Well do you ever get to feeling in a rut? How do you stay inspired?

YOSSY:  I actually feel in a rut a lot—

KARI:  It doesn’t show!

YOSSY:  I try not to show it at all! I try to stay positive in my blog and my online presence. I try really hard not to use my blog to complain or be upset—it seems defeatist and doesn’t help me get out of the rut at all. My biggest source of inspiration is celebrating and embracing the seasons. It’s a good way to mark the time that’s passing and to stay fresh and new. You know, I’m not going to think up a new strawberry recipe this week since strawberries won’t be in season for another six months, but the market has 13 different types of heirloom apples that I can choose from and try to highlight. I do get really frustrated and feel like I’m in a rut, but as soon as I get into one, something new comes into season and I’ll get reinspired.

KARI:  I’m also curious about your plans for Apt. 2B Baking Co. Like, what future are you planning for your work?

YOSSY:  For me, this is a way to practice my photography and have a journal of what I’m cooking and what interests me in July 2010 or whenever. My number one goal is to work on my photography and food styling and turn that into a full-time and successful career. The blog isn’t the endpoint, but it would be ideal to make a living of the skills that I get to practice. It’s also been an incredible way to meet people who have similar interests. I lived here for three or four years without making any contacts in the food and photography world, but once I started blogging, I met a lot of people in those spheres. That inspired me to make the leap to pursue photography and food as a full-time career.

KARI:  Oh I haven’t even asked about your photography! Is that something you were self-taught as well?

YOSSY:  I studied it a little bit in college, and it was always something I did on the side. But when I got serious about wanting to leave the restaurant, I had to get serious about what I wanted to do to make a living. I wanted to continue doing something in a creative field, and photography was my other big, creative love, so I started to put a lot of energy into building those skills.

KARI:  I love your photos. They always make me hungry and like, calm.

YOSSY:  Haha, well honestly, I’m such small potatoes. To know that people actually look at and cook things that I’ve posted is super awesome.

Photos of quince custard cake and quince by Yossy Arefi (one of my favorite photo pairs!)

KARI:  I’ve been trying to remember how I came across your blog in the first place, but I can’t recall. It seems that I’m seeing your work more and more places now though—Gourmet, BuzzFeed—it’s cool to see you getting more well-known!

YOSSY:  Thanks! I’ve been working really hard to make connections, but blogging can be so weird. Sometimes it feels like you’re just throwing things into the ether. It’s so nice to know that people are receptive to it.

KARI:  Yeah, sometimes I feel really guilty about talking about myself on my blog. I always wonder, “Well what am I even offering people with this?” That’s part of why I like your blog so much. It’s so natural, and it seems like what you put out there is for other people too and not just for yourself.

YOSSY:  It’s something that I think about a lot too. Some people share a lot of personal stuff on their blog, and it’s hard to strike a balance with how much I want to share. Sometimes I feel more connected to people when they write about what they’re interested in and why, but I don’t want to share too much, or write about it every time I’m having a crappy day. I don’t want people to come to my blog and then have to read about my crappy day; I want them to come to my blog and see a cool pie that I made, or these awesome brownies, or appreciate the beautiful fruit that grows in the Hudson Valley.

KARI:  Totally. But sometimes it feels so tempting to use a blog as a platform to discuss this crappy political thing or that terrible, frustrating other thing. It’s tough to maintain the right tone.

YOSSY:  Definitely. Well there is a lot of stuff that’s frustrating about living in New York, for instance, but I try to focus on the stuff that’s positive and the stuff that I like. I can’t focus on everything that’s hard because I would just be so bummed all the time!

KARI:  That seems like the right idea. Plus I always feel inspired when I read your blog, so it must be working! Okay, well that’s about all I have.

YOSSY:  Okay, I hope I was a good subject!

KARI:  You were great! Let’s hope this recording worked, or else this was just a very inspiring pep talk.

And, special bonus! We got to chatting about New York's must-visit bakeries and coffee shops too, and below are a few of Yossy's favorite recommendations. Road trip, anyone?

Coffee Shops
Gasoline Alley

Bluebottle

La Colombe

Stumptown

Bakeries

Dominique Ansel Bakery

Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Bakeri

Doughnut Plant

Bien Cuit

Sullivan Street

Photo of saffron vanilla sugar cookies by Yossy Arefi (another of my favorite photos!)