A taste of Jewish New York with this Special Bake January 29 and 30

From one element of great eastern European Jewish culinary culture to another. Like a rare appearance of a musician with a strong cult following, Pumpernickel Raisin will be popping out of the Bakehouse ovens this coming weekend for a special, two-day appearance at the Bakeshop, the Deli, and the Roadhouse. For those in the know, Pumpernickel Raisin’s reappearance—even for two brief days—is cause for serious celebration.

Pumpernickel Raisin bread may not be prototypical Michigan baking, but it sure is good. One of my own favorite Bakehouse breads, it’s a little-known-in-the-Midwest specialty that long ago won over hearts and minds in New York City. Rye—and pumpernickel—were staples of Lower East Side Jewish eating back when folks of my chicken-soup-making grandmother’s generation were arriving en masse. (All of my ancestors had arrived by 1916. Jewish immigration was later slowed significantly by Federal restrictions during and after WWI.)

The story of Pumpernickel Raisin? Orwasher’s, the famous Manhattan bakery, says it was started at the end of WWII, but I’ve found a few references to Pumpernickel Raisin bread being sold at Ratner’s dairy restaurant on Delancey Street on the Lower East Side as early as 1905 (just a few years after Mr. Disderide built that Deli Building and the brick streets were making our neighborhood into a paragon of progressive development). I also found a funny service story about a New York Jewish waiter who worked at the Stage Deli, which, for some reason, refused to offer Pumpernickel Raisin bread. When customers would ask for it, the customer-focused server would slide into the kitchen and personally press raisins into slices of pumpernickel bread for them! That’s what we would call a serious “extra mile” here at Zingerman’s.

The Pumpernickel Raisin is particularly good spread with our amazing cream cheese from the Creamery. It’s wonderful paired with the Creamery’s Mini-Brie or Manchester. Pretty darned good with that great Koeze peanut butter we get from Grand Rapids or that Georgia Grinders almond butter I think is so amazing. Or just toasted with butter. Or even just ripped from the loaf and eaten as is! Stop by the Bakeshop or Deli to buy a few loaves. Or have some shipped to your in-laws in South Carolina!

A whole lot of tasty holiday eating

Brad Hedeman, skilled marketing manager at Mail Order and wonderful writer, says that this loaf is the “kissing cousin to our extremely popular Pecan Raisin Bread.”

Over half a pound of dried cranberries and pecans are packed into every loaf. It’s as dense and intense as our Pecan Raisin and you can use it in all the same ways. Toast and spread it with butter or Creamery Cream Cheese. Use it as a base for chicken salad sandwiches. We don’t add any sugar (there’s a small amount in the dried cranberries), shortening, or oil. Just unbleached and unbromated flour, filtered water, sea salt, pecans, and dried cranberries.

When we hit the holidays, it’ll make a great gift, but in the meantime, it’s probably just something folks ought to be buying for themselves. As with the Chocolate Cherry bread I wrote up last week, the quality of the bread itself is what actually makes the loaf so special. We use organic flour and it’s a naturally leavened dough with 18 hours of rise time. The result is chewy, dense, not super sweet, and terrifically tasty.

Cranberries, by the way, are native to both the Americas and Europe. Many believe that in New England they were introduced to Europeans by Algonquian people—the name for the berry in Narragansett is sasemineash. The Europeans called them cranberries, from the German, but also referred to them as bearberries. Given my attraction to alliteration, I’m tempted to try to alter the name of this annual offering to Bearberry Bread. Whatever one calls it, we can probably come to a consensus fairly quickly that it’s terrific.

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Pick Up Holiday Bread

Medjool dates from Rancho Meladuco in the Coachella Valley

In the desert, the sight of a date palm is almost always an indicator that an oasis is at hand. Freshwater and ripe dates have always been welcome sights for travelers. Although an oasis isn’t generally the end of the trip, it provides a short but refreshing respite from the stress of the travel. In this challenging year that is 2020, a box of these amazing handpicked dates might provide that same sort of relief. Clearly, we’re not done with the challenges at hand. But a few of those dates from Rancho Meladuco could help you get through.

I first met Joan Smith out in San Francisco a few years ago at a Fancy Food Show. Although I’d stopped at her booth to taste the dates, we actually bonded first over dogs—we both love them and we had both had a much-loved pup pass away in the not too distant past (you can see a drawing of her dog, Rocky, on the inside cover of the box). The dates, though, are what has kept us connected. I could eat the whole box in a matter of hours if I’m not careful.

In a world filled with worry and antipathy, dates are a happy event on pretty much every level. They have a long history, going back over 8000 years. They’re in the Bible and Koran. Many Biblical historians theorize that the “Land of Milk and Honey” should, more accurately, be taken to mean “Milk and date honey.” Dates today are a staple in every part of life in the Middle East, from Morocco, to Israel, on to the Persian Gulf, and everywhere in between.

How did Joan end up with a date business? Granted, she’d grown up around agriculture—her father had some experience ranching when she was growing up near Bakersfield—but the dates are a relatively recent development for her:

I’m a CPA by background and no formal background in Ag or Food. The Date Farm idea came to mind nearly 15 years ago as a way to plant a salt-tolerant, low maintenance desert crop at our ranch (a nearly 100-year-old waterfowl hunting club) to help the ranch support itself. I found a White Paper produced on how to start a Date Farm, printed it, filed it away, and kind of forgot about it . . . I didn’t try my first date until several years before I started our farm. It was a complete surprise to me that they tasted the way they do.

Five years later, she’s growing, packing, and shipping some of the most delicious dates in the country. If you’re not familiar with dates, here are a few facts from Joan:

Dates are a dry fruit, not a DRIED fruit. Dates gradually dehydrate on the tree, the sugars concentrate, the tannins dissipate, and the low moisture makes them self-preserving. Most commercial date processors don’t like handling the higher moisture dates the way we do at Rancho Meladuco. Most want the dates harvested when they are drier so they can clean and sort them by machine and pack high volumes. They are able to rehydrate the dry dates later with steam and heat. Moist dates like ours are very fragile—they tear and squash easily, and they can ferment or spoil if not stored properly. They have to be cleaned and processed carefully and slowly. But we want our dates harvested when they are perfectly ripe—which for us means still soft.

By the way, Joan taught me that it takes over a hundred days at temperatures over 100°F to make for dates of this caliber!

What to do with dates this delicious? Add them to salads and sandwiches. Drop a few into a tagine. Stuffing them works beautifully for an appetizer. Just cut it in half and take out the pit—in its place, put a walnut half or an almond. They’re really superb stuffed with Koeze peanut butter from Grand Rapids or the Georgia Grinders’ almond butter we have at the Deli. Great with goat cheese or cream cheese, especially the artisan offerings from the Creamery. Really fine with feta. Add to smoked chicken salad with some of that awesome smoked chicken from the Roadhouse. You can dip the dates in chocolate, or just stick a square of dark chocolate inside each date. Add a few pitted chopped dates to one of those watermelon and feta salads I wrote about a few weeks ago. Sprinkle onto gelato. Date shakes have been all the rage out west in recent years. For a more savory option, stuff a date with avocado, squeeze on some lime, and sprinkle a pinch of fleur de sel and then some pimenton de la vera (smoked Spanish paprika). You can also wrap them with bacon and run ’em under the broiler for a few minutes. Or serve them alongside some of the great Prosciutto di Parma we get from Pio Tosini in Italy.

In Feast: Food of the Islamic World, author Anissa Helou writes extensively about the date: “. . . the most important fruit in Islam.” She says dates are “the first food people eat when they break the long day’s fast during the month of Ramadan . . .” Since we all “break-fast” each day, Anissa’s comments got me thinking about a new morning ritual. How about, I wondered to myself, a daily, AM, date with coffee? Literally. I decided to try a new tradition while I was working on this. I might stick with it. (I once heard Carlo Petrini, who started Slow Food, say that “tradition is innovation that has worked.”) Whatever else you have going, sit down with one of these really amazing dates and a good cup of coffee (the new 2020 Holiday Blend is out!). Sip, nibble a small bit of the date, savor, breathe deep, reflect, repeat. In just the few days I’ve done it, my morning date with coffee has reminded me that, although I could eat the entire date in one bite (stopping only to spit out the pit), I can, instead, savor it in small snippets. The sweetness goes great with the coffee. It puts good thoughts in my head while I journal. I’m doing it right now, this morning, as I write. The date’s delicate deliciousness helps push the worry out of my mind for a few minutes as well. And it reminds me of the beauty of the world and brings beauty to the beginning of my day.

For more with dates, check out the Date, Fig and Pomegranate Babka the Bakehouse is making for Mail Order, as well as the Date, Sesame, and Almond Rugelach.

P.S. Joan was reading about the new “Humility: A Humble, Anarchistic Inquiry” pamphlet which prompted her to share: “I went to high school with Patrick Lencioni [who is referenced in the pamphlet]! He was a senior when I was a freshman. We attended Garces Memorial High School in Bakersfield California, a tiny private Catholic school of 500 students. He was a leader and great guy back then.”

Order dates from the Deli

One of my favorite teas has just arrived in Ann Arbor

As we enter the final quarter of a year that’s clearly been a rather difficult one for everyone, here’s a small thing that’s been brightening my days. Drinking hot cups of the most recent crop of First Flush Darjeeling tea that just arrived last week from India. It’s been decades since I drank First Flush Darjeeling for the first time. There is no other tea, at least for my taste, that comes close to the edgy, exceptional, bright, and engaging flavor it brings.

If you aren’t familiar with Darjeeling, it’s the district in India that’s wedged up between the ancient kingdoms of Sikkim, Nepal, and Bhutan, in the foothills of the Himalayas. The name “Darjeeling” means, “Land of the Thunderbolt.” The town itself faces Mt. Kanchenjunga (which means, “Five Magnificent Snow Treasures”), the third highest mountain in the world at roughly 28,000 feet. By the long standards of Indian history, tea growing in Darjeeling is a relatively recent phenomenon, dating only to the middle of the 19th century. At the time, the town itself was tiny, used pretty much just as a resort and cool weather-escape by the country’s well-to-do classes. The mean temperature of the area overall is only a couple of degrees higher than London, but the region experiences a broad range of microclimates as you move through the seasons and up into the higher altitudes. The mountainous terrain makes planting and picking particularly difficult, adding a lot to the cost of Darjeeling in comparison to tea grown on more level terrain. Using the (all important for quality) Orthodox method that the best Darjeelings like this one use, plucking only the newest two leaves and the bud at the end of each branch. You need to pluck something like 11,000 shoots to make a pound of good tea. (See Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating for more on the importance of protecting traditional Orthodox picking procedures. It’s a huge thing in the world of tea quality.)

This year the First Flush we chose is from the Jungpana Estate, located in the heart of the Darjeeling district in the northeast of India up near the Himalayas. The first tea was planted at Jungpana in 1899, a few years before Robert Greenleaf was born in Indiana, by a British colonist named Henry Montgomery Lennox. After a few changes of ownership over the years, the Kejriwal family took it over around 1956 and they continue to run it today. They do world-class work—Jungpana has long been known as one of the best gardens in Darjeeling and produces sensational teas. So much so that they’ve been consumed regularly over the years by the Royal Court in London. Jackson Konwinski and Grace Singleton at the Deli selected the Jungpana this year after taste-testing a bunch of different samples of 2019 Darjeelings. (And Kevin Gascoyne, our importer, tasted many dozens to narrow things down for us before anything arrived in Ann Arbor.) They did a great job. The tea is terrific. Topaz colored in the cup, subtly sweet, an elegant sharpness that makes me smile, and the kind of long clean finish I love so much. It’s got a lot of that Muscatel flavor that’s the hallmark of great Darjeelings. A bit of toasted almond or maybe pine nut too.

While Darjeeling’s name recognition has long been high, supply has always been low. All told—top quality and low grade combined—Darjeelings account for less than three percent of the tea grown in India. Of that Darjeeling, only ten percent or so is First Flush, and only about a quarter of that, in turn, can be counted on to be of top quality. Take note that far more Darjeeling tea is sold in the world than tea is grown in Darjeeling (yes, you read that right) so the more you know about the gardens where the tea was grown and picked, the higher the odds you’ve obtained the authentic article. Like olive oil, teas are generally at their most flavorful in the first few months after harvest. So, now’s the time to taste test this fine tea. On top of which, supplies are short. I’ll be drinking the First Flush Darjeeling regularly while we have it in. It won’t do away with all the world’s problems, but it does bring a delicious bit of calm, compelling flavor to brighten my mornings. Brew a pot, pour a cup, take in the aromas, breathe deep, sip slowly, and appreciate the day.

You’ll find the new Jungpana First Flush Darjeeling at the Deli. If you want to have some shipped to you, email [email protected] and let us know what you’re looking for.

Order Your Tea from the Deli

Upgrade your road trip snacks with help from artisan candy makers.

We believe road trip snacks are as critical as gas and a map, but we might be biased for obvious reasons. As you plan your next road trip, please remember: fueling yourself properly, whether you’re a passenger or pilot, is the key to a fun, entertaining drive. Candy, whether you choose chocolate, gummies or lollipops, is the perfect road trip snack thanks to its boost-giving properties, packability and the entertainment its deliciousness delivers.

We hate to pick favorites, but these are some of Zingerman’s Candy’s top recommended road trip snacks to fuel your next long haul drive.

1. • Zingerman’s Peanuts, 3 ways
     Kick your snacking nuts game up a notch! Available in three sweetly spiced flavors – cinnamon, salt and pepper or sweet chili. Zingerman’s peanuts are a step above your run of the mill roasted and salted selections. Try them all – they’re on sale for 20% off through the end of August!
     
   • Kolsvart Swedish Fish
     Chewy, fruity and fun, these Swedish Fish come from Sweden! And they’re gluten-free and vegan. They’re so popular we keep selling out! We think the elderflower is exceptional, but there’s also raspberry and sweet licorice + ginger. More flavors, including smoked black licorice for bold flavor seekers, are on their way!
     
   • Zingerman’s Candy Bars
     Try a Super Zzang, our foot long peanut caramel candy bar, for when the whole car needs a pick-me-up. Or one of our substantial, single-serve hand-made candy bars in a range of flavors from the raspberry marshmallow Wowza to the crispy Ca$hew Cow.

     

   • Candy Kitten Gummies
     Swap the artificial kids candies for these fun kitty face-shaped gummies made with all-natural flavor and coloring. They have fruity flavors like tropical mango, blueberry bliss, sour watermelon and more. They’re vegan, too.
   • Barnier Lollipops
     A little car companion to slowly savor while you’re admiring the roadside scenery. Choose from snappy citrus flavors like lemon and citrus or rich salted caramel.
   • Chocolate, Chocolate and more Chocolate
     If chocolate is your thing, there is just no substitute. You might need to store these in a cooler, but it will be worth it. Host an artisan chocolate tasting at the next rest area. Pass out a few squares of bean to bar chocolates from Askinosie, Goodnow Farms, and Ritual.
   • Eat Chic Oat Milk Latte Almond Butter Cups
     Going somewhere off the grid? Make sure you don’t have to go without your oat milk latte. Bring the comforts of home, reminiscent of Zingerman’s Coffee Company’s finest barista beverages, with you! Eat Chic oat milk latte almond butter cups come in a four-piece box perfect for sharing. They’re refined sugar-free, vegan, gluten-free, organic and delish. Don’t miss them.
   • GemGem Ginger Candy
     Slow melting chewy candies with perky flavor will help you pass the driving time. We can’t pick which flavor we like best: oh oh orange, gimme more mango, zesty lemon, or the classic, ginger!
   • Zingerman’s Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans
     When all else fails, go from zero to amazing in three beans. Hand-panned using freshly roasted coffee beans; specifically Espresso Blend #1 from Zingerman’s Coffee Company. Generously coated with the same 63% dark chocolate blend we use on our excellent handmade candy bars, these ovals of oomph are crunchy and indulgent.

There you have it! Nine excellent road trip snacks from Zingerman’s Candy – upgrade your snack stash by visiting Zingerman’s Candy’s online store to stock up on road trip snacks.

Stay safe, and stay sweet out there.

Is your mom famous for her sweet tooth and her impeccable taste? Does she have strategically located chocolate stashes in her life? Maybe she even has a top-secret emergency reserve? 

This Mother’s Day, give her the treasure that is finely crafted artisan chocolate and confections… it’s what she really wants! 

We spoke to our resident candy expert, Allison Schraf, retail and marketing manager at Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory, to get the low down on the top ten most covetable chocolate and confections available. 

Here’s a complete list of Allison’s top ten mom-worthy gift picks:

• Willie’s Cacao Raspberry Praline Truffles, box of 12
  These luxurious truffles come in a beautiful ready-to-gift box. Crafted from roasted almonds, white chocolate made from natural cocoa butter, raw cane sugar, and milk powder, these truffles have a deliciously stunning liquid center made from honey and freeze-dried raspberry.
• Fruition Brown Butter Bourbon Caramel-Filled Chocolates, box of 9
  In Ari’s words, these chocolates are, “Small, handcrafted shells of dark 68% chocolate from Hispaniola, filled with a brown butter caramel that’s spiked with local Hudson Valley “bourbon.” The chocolate itself is excellent—the cacao comes from small farms in the Dominican Republic. When you bite into one of the dark chocolate shells the exceptionally rich center coats your entire mouth. Big, big flavors from such a small confectionary bite. There’s a bit of toasty bitterness of the brown butter, the sweetness of the sugar in the caramel, and the warming, smoky impact of the barrel-aged whiskey. Pretty powerfully awesome. Plus they come in a beautiful gate-fold black gift box!”
• Mother’s Day Superzzang!
  Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory’s most popular candy since day one, made by hand in small batches (though the SuperZzang! Is nearly a half-pound)! Aromatic honey & peanut butter nougat, complex Muscovado brown sugar caramel, crunchy jumbo runner peanuts roasted with butter and sea salt, covered with 63% dark chocolate. A Tour de Force of the confectioner’s art.

• Candy Bar Fancy Bites Box, 15 pc
  Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory has adorned its Bites Collection box wrap with pretty flowers for Mother’s Day! The beautiful foil-stamped box is filled with 15 assorted fresh candy bars sized for the perfect bite! All our best sellers are included: Zzang!, Peanut Butter Crush, What the Fudge?, and Cashew Cow. Moms of every kind will love it!
• Paris Caramels Assorted Caramels 28 piece box
  Rich butter caramels made just outside Paris! This pretty 28-piece box is filled with an assortment of chocolate, vanilla, coffee, and hazelnut caramels. They are individually wrapped in shiny foil in a clear box, looking fancy and modern.
• Ritual “Berries & Bubbly” Chocolate Bar
  This special bar is made by first soaking the Madagascar cacao in sparkling white wine in a wine barrel where it absorbs and retains flavor when the nibs are ground and conched into a smooth, fruity 70% dark chocolate. Then it’s topped with bright freeze-dried raspberries. Celebrate Mom with this celebratory bar!
• ROZSAVOLGYI CSOKOLADE Milk Chocolate with Caramelized Lavender & Star Anise
  Nobody was more surprised than me when I fell in love with this chocolate bar, Lavender and star anise are both aggressive flavors that can throw an otherwise great chocolate off balance, but in retrospect I really should have trusted the excellent skills and instincts of Budapest chocolate makers Zsolt Szabad and Katalin Csiszar. Little crunchy bits of caramelized lavender flowers complement the rich milk chocolate and there’s just a haunting hint of star anise. Just gorgeous. (Plus the packaging and the bar itself are gorgeous too so great to gift!)

  

• Askinosie Chocolate Covered Malt Balls
  In Ari’s words, “The centers of Shawn Askinosie’s Malt Balls are spun in dark Tanzania chocolate for eight hours, so that thin layer after thin layer of cacao covers the soft, crumbly centers. Unlike industrial-commercial versions, they have none of that stuff added to give that shiny smooth look. The aroma is amazing—when you open the tin (which in itself looks lovely—craft cardboard, nice simple label, silver lid), you’ll immediately be hit with the smell of good chocolate. They make a great gift, and they’re about as fun as artisan chocolate can be! They’re not too sweet, and the dark chocolate is almost intoxicating. While I used to think of malted milk balls as cheap movie theater candy, thanks to Shawn, I now see them as a serious confection, a way to showcase quality and the fine flavors of great regional cacao.”
• Goodnow Farms Chocolate bar, “Spiced Apple Cider”
  Monica and Tom Rogan, the innovative founders and chocolate makers of Goodnow Farms Chocolate, soak their single-origin, directly sourced Zorzal Dominican Republic nibs in apple cider from Honey Pot Hill Orchard. When they’ve infused long enough, they are dried and ground into chocolate (along with freshly-pressed Zorzal cocoa butter). Finally, they add dried Macoun apples and just the right amount of Tanzanian cinnamon.The crisp and sweet flavors of the apples are front and center and are perfectly complemented by the complex notes of the Tanzanian Cinnamon, and it’s all beautifully married to the complex, amazing chocolate. Sublime!

• French Broad Chocolate 3-bar bundle.
  Fantastic bean-to-bar chocolate made in Asheville, NC. They come in lovely, elegant gold foil-stamped pale blue boxes.
  • 44% Malted Milk – Delicious caramel notes abound in this beautiful bar made with craft barley malts, organic milk, and craft chocolate
  • 53% Dark Milk – Deep fudgy milk chocolate with fruity notes, made with browned organic butter. Decadent!
  • 70% Peru – Just chocolate and sugar in this single-origin chocolate.
    Tasting notes: cinnamon, cherry and lemon over a creamy cocoa base.

There you have it! This year’s top ten best picks for your sweets-loving mom. We hope this list helps you select the perfect Mother’s Day gift. If you need any help making your selections be sure to visit our temporary pop-up at Zingerman’s Coffee Company.

If you’re ready to buy your gift now, visit Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory’s BRAND NEW web store at: zcob.me/candy-online!