We’re busy ushering in the holidays across the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses with all sorts of seasonal favorites. The Bakehouse is baking loaves of Cranberry Pecan bread and the Coffee Company is brewing up batches of Holiday Blend coffee. The Deli is mixing up their house blend of Hot Cocoa Mix. Mail Order is busy shipping everything from heirloom turkeys to loaves of Chocolate Babka across the country.
While we’re looking forward to sharing all of those treats with you and yours, we also wanted to bring you a few of the dishes that help usher in the holidays for some of our Managing Partners. They’ll be whipping them for friends and family throughout the holidays, and now you can, too. And, since they’re all two-bite recipes, you can share and enjoy more of them!
A Holiday Recipe from the Bakehouse
We first created Espresso Stars for our most beloved BAKE! class, Fancy Schmancy Holiday Cookies, at the suggestion of Nikki Lohmann, one of our BAKE! Instructors. We started the class in December 2009, and have been teaching it every holiday season since, adding more sessions along the way—we now teach the class 100 times between Thanksgiving and Christmas! The combination of coffee, chocolate, and buttery shortbread was such a hit that, for a time, they made it into our regular line-up at the Bakeshop, Zingerman’s Coffee Company, and Zingerman’s Roadhouse.
This recipe can be found in our Fancy Schmancy Holiday Cookies cookbooklet, a bite-sized collection of some of our favorite cookies from the class over the years. I’m excited to share that it will also appear in Celebrate Every Day: A Year’s Worth of Favorite Recipes for Festive Occasions, Big and Small, our second full-length cookbook, which will be released in the fall of 2023. We packed it full with nearly 80 recipes, most of which have never been published, and included a number of guest favorites. We can’t wait to share it with you!
These shortbread cookies are flavored with freshly ground espresso beans from Zingerman’s Coffee Company, making them a rather adult addition to a dessert line-up, both in terms of flavor and the little jolt of caffeine. We like the added help staying awake until the celebratory ball drops at midnight in New York City’s Times Square on New Year’s Day; but if you’d prefer less of a burst of energy, feel free to use decaf beans. (Just don’t be tempted to try and swap in instant espresso powder, which is designed to dissolve; we want both the flavor and the texture from the freshly ground coffee to be front and center.) To make them look as festive as they taste we partially dip them into chocolate, and make the effort to find gold luster dust or gold leaf to garnish them.
Chocolate-Dipped Espresso Stars
Makes 2 to 3 dozen cookies
1/2 cup (110 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 cup plus 1 Tbsp (150 g) all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp (10 g) espresso beans, finely ground
1 cup (170 g) semisweet chocolate, chopped
Gold luster dust or edible gold leaf (optional)
Make the cookies
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and salt until sugar is well mixed in.
Add the flour and ground espresso beans and mix until the dough holds together. If necessary, use your hands to gently knead the dough together into a ball.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4-in (6 mm) thick. Cut out cookies using a 1 1/2- to 2-in (4- to 5-cm) star cutter. You can reroll scraps and cut out more stars, but take care not to overwork the dough. This cookie will be delicious in many different sizes and shapes. Use what you prefer and what you’re able to find. If you choose a much bigger cutter, leave them a little thicker. If they are large and too thin they will break easily.
Carefully place cut cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, evenly spaced about 1 in apart.
Bake for 30 minutes. The tops should look dry and cookies should be slightly browned. Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely to room temperature before dipping in melted chocolate.
Garnish the cookies with melted chocolate
Melt the chocolate slowly in the microwave or over a double boiler until just melted.
Dip 1/3 of each cookie into the melted chocolate, then place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If you have gold leaf use a couple of small pieces as garnish and apply them to the soft chocolate. Let the cookies sit at room temperature until the chocolate hardens.
If desired, lightly brush gold luster dust over the hardened chocolate.
Storage:
Store the cookies in an airtight container, with parchment paper between layers of cookies, at room temperature for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw frozen cookies at room temperature before enjoying. If thawing cookies with luster dust, do so gradually, moving them from the freezer to the refrigerator, and then to room temperature.
Tip!
Luster dust is a type of decorating powder used to add color and sparkle to cakes, candy, cookies, and other sweet treats. It’s available in stores that sell cake decorating supplies or online, as is edible gold leaf.
A Holiday Recipe from the Deli
You definitely know it’s the holiday season when you start smelling Spiced Pecans in the Deli kitchen. Every batch is made by hand and bagged right at 422 Detroit Street. We get the pecans from the South Georgia Pecan Company in Valdosta, Georgia, and use a spice blend we make ourselves using Épices de Cru spices.
There is a disco dancing spiced pecan cartoon on our Spiced Pecan bag and a few years back we figured out we could print them with sparkly red ink. Nick Jaroch painted a poster of this pecan guy with glittery pants that is one of my favorite pieces of merchandising ever at the Deli. We like to make big, bountiful displays of these bags all over the Deli. Like hanging tinsel on your tree, it’s festive and fun and you know the holidays have arrived.
—Rodger Bowser, Zingerman’s Deli Managing Partner
Spiced Pecans with Apples & Cheddar
Pick up a bag of Zingerman’s Deli Spiced Pecans, crisp local apples (like from Nemeth Farms in Milan or Kapnick Orchards in Britton), and a block of cheddar—you can’t go wrong with Nor’Easter Cheddar from Cabot, but the new cheddars from Deer Creek in Wisconsin are also pretty fabulous. Put these three items on a tray and viola! A simple, yet delicious combination that’s sure to win over your kids, neighbors, or a crowd!
A Holiday Recipe from Mail Order
Zingerman’s Mail Order does half its years’ business in the month of December. That kind of surge is as crazy as it sounds. We go from a nicely busy business to a rather insane business. Our staff quadruples. Food and boxes fill our warehouse to the rafters. Trucks and people and conveyors are constantly in motion. The operation runs 24/7. It’s kind of nuts. I’ve known no other version of December for the past two and a half decades, it’s a really strange yet exhilarating way to spend the holidays.
—Mo Frechette, Zingerman’s Mail Order Managing Partner
Preserved fruits, candied fruits, fruit cakes—they all say the holidays are here. They’ve been part of festive eating for centuries. For me, outside of jam on toast, I rarely eat fruits like this from January through November. But I crave them in December. Agrimontana’s Italian cherries are the handcrafted, flavorful alternative to the ubiquitous blue and white jars of Amarena cherries you see at cafes. They taste of dark fall fruit, sweetened in their purple syrup. Combining them with chalk white Brabander goat gouda is stunning to look at and, frankly, a blast to eat. I think of Brabander as the milkshake of cheese—creamy, sweet, and easy to eat. Why not have a cherry on top?
Goat Gouda with Wild Cherries
Spoon one or two Agrimontana wild cherries from the jar and drape them on a thick shard of Brabander Goat Gouda cheese.
We like to keep it fresh at Zingerman’s Deli. Every year, we update the menu, adding new items and, yes, even saying goodbye to some items—we also like to freshen up the look to reflect the evolution of the work from our fantastic design staff. This year we have a few hellos and goodbyes we want you to know about along with some very exciting changes.
The New Stuff
We’ve added two delicious new sandwiches to the Deli menu, and we’re excited to say that both were created by some long-time Deli fans, including one who just happens to work here. The #79 Sparky’s Get Your Zing On is stacked with our corned beef, provolone, New Mexico green chiles, tomatoes, Ray’s yellow mustard and Russian dressing. We’ve also added one of our popular “Sandwiches of the Month”— #58 Ham Horn, peppered ham, peppered bacon, mayo, pimento cheese and Marcia’s Munchies Spicy Pickles on grilled Rustic Italian bread.
Deli Chef and co-owner Rodger Bowser is also very excited about the latest addition to our Monger’s Platters lineup: the new Fish Monger’s Platter. This seafaring delight features a chunk of smoked white fish and smoked salmon from Tracklements, plus a rotating selection from our tinned fish faves. It comes with lemon, capers and crusty bread.
#79 Sparky’s Get Your Zing On
Fish Monger’s Platter
New-and-Improved Greens
Rodgers also super psyched that we’ll now have our own Zingerman’s custom mixed greens blend. “For as long as I have worked here we have made our own mixed lettuces. Cut, wash, spin—all of it. I have never liked the pre-made ‘spring mixes’ coming in the bags since they tend to never hold up to real dressings,” he says. “We’ve started working with Chef’s Way Farm in Hillsdale, Michigan, which will be providing us with Certified USDA Organic mix of kales, lettuces, beet greens, and escarole.”
With Chef’s Way, we’ve finally found a farm that can produce fresh, delicious greens for us all year ‘round. It’s Rodger’s dream come true for this to be happening in Michigan, and he’s so happy that there’s finally a grower who can do it. These greens are a big flavor and nutrition upgrade, and they’re on all our salads.
Is It Really Goodbye?
Goodbyes are never easy, but sometimes we have to part ways—even with sandwiches we love—for various reasons. For instance, sometimes a sandwich uses a special ingredient that we don’t use on any other items, or it just doesn’t sell well. This time around, we bid farewell to #32 Big Al’s Saturday Night Special, which has been on the menu for decades; #57 Nic’s Opportunity, a.k.a. “the pizza sub”; #11 JJ’s Pastrami Special, which has been on the menu since we opened; and #7 Kelly’s Menage a Turkey. We don’t just up and nix items without a lot of deliberation, but we do know that when one delicious door closes, another opens.
That’s why we’ve also made the tough choices to say farewell to the Mediterranean Experience Platter, #446 Paprika Sunrise breakfast sandwich. Some kid’s items also stopped cutting the mustard, so there will be no more Roanola’s Bologna Baloo and Lil Leo’s Tea-wich. It turns out most kids want the Kids’ Hummus Plate and the Mile’s Math-Mozztician, which are definitely staying on the menu.
The last goodbye we’re is to the Manhattan Fish Platter. However, this is just a kinda-goodbye because of that new ish Monger’s Platter we just told you about!
Have any questions about the new menu? Come on into the Deli and ask away! Or drop us a line at [email protected].
Tag: RODGER BOWSER
At Zingerman’s, we believe that delicious food and new experiences are the cure for the winter blues. That’s why we’re really excited to announce our Winter Hungarian Feast! Hosted by Zingerman’s Deli co-owner and head chef Rodger Bowser and our Hungarian friend Gábor Bánfalvi, this multi-course meal scheduled for Sunday, January 28 at the Greyline will honor the traditional Hungarian celebration of disznóvágás, which includes the harvest and preservation of pork.
The pork we’ll be using throughout the evening’s menu will come from the Mangalica pig, a Hungarian breed, specially sourced by Rodger right here in Michigan. “It is always exciting to work with the traditional sources of food when your doing meals from different food cultures of the world,” says Rodger. “Sourcing the Mangalica from Meadowbrook Farms in Benton Harbor, Michigan made writing this menu easy. The hog really lends itself to ‘winter’ food and all the traditional Hungarian dishes. With the Mangalica’s fat content, there will be plenty szalonna and lardo to go around.”
Gábor Bánfalvi
Each course, from Hungarian Bean and Barley Stew, called sólet, to a traditional meat platter, will include this very special pork. The meal will begin with with szalonna, traditional fire-roasted bacon served with bread. “Bacon roasting goes back to this ritual that Hungarians do. ‘Szalonna’ means ‘bacon’, and it’s an essential part of Hungarian cuisine and the old-school Hungarian lifestyle,” says Gábor. “Every family, a couple of times of year, eats by the campfire, and instead of roasting marshmallows, we sit down with a piece of bread in our hand—typically the bread is covered with sliced red onions—and a stick with a nice piece of bacon on the end of it.”
Gábor says that wine plays a big part of the “ritual” as well, and he’ll be helping us complete the experience with Hungarian wine pairings he’s chosen to perfectly complement each dish. “Hungary is one of the oldest European wine-making countries. We have a very old wine culture,” Gábor explains, adding that he’s working on a diverse selection that will include crisp sparkling wines, medium-bodied reds, and maybe even an aromatic wine to go with desserts.
A Hungarian market visited during our last Zingerman’s Food Tours trip to HungaryZingerman’s Bakehouse’s Esterházy Torta
And desserts will be pretty special, too. Made by our own Amy Emberling of Zingerman’s Bakehouse, the sweetest portion of the night will be a selection of Hungarian specialties: esterházy torta, rigó Jancsi, and dobos torta, which have received the seal of approval from Gábor. Here’s what Amy had to say about the erházy torta in the new Zingerman’s Bakehouse book: “This classic Hungarian torta is pure elegance—petite and beautiful to look at, refined and balanced in flavor, with a perfect level of sweetness….” We think it will be the perfect ending to this ultimate winter feast!
Our Winter Hungarian Feast takes place Sunday, January 28, at the Greyline from 7:00 – 9:00 pm. Cost is $80 per person and includes multi-course dinner and wine pairings. Would you like to attend? Check out the full menu and reserve your spot here today.
Rodger is making extra batches of double-smoked Hungarian bacon and sausages from the Mangalica breed to offer those who wish to extend the flavor into the winter. Limited supply.
Spend some more time with Gábor! He’ll be our special guest host at BAKE! for A Taste of Hungary. At this presentation and demonstration, Gábor will share his stories from his travels around Hungary while we demo Palóc Leves soup, Pogácsa, and Poppy Seed Rétesfor dessert. Sign up here!
Tag: RODGER BOWSER
When we launched our Zingerman’s Potato Chips back in February, we were pretty excited about our three varieties: Tellicherry Pepper, Grey Sea Salt, and Detroit Street Barbecue. However, it didn’t take long for us to begin fantasizing about more new and exciting flavor possibilities. In fact, Deli Managing Partner Rodger Bowser had his eye on one particular flavor even before the first bags hit the shelves—and now he’s made the snacky dream a reality with Zingerman’s Potato Chip Special Edition Spanish Paprika.
“We were mixing bowls of spices up with chips hot out of the fryer, and I was like, ‘Alright, let’s try that paprika one’,” he says. “It was an eye-opener. I mean, it was definitely a showstopper, so I couldn’t wait to do this one.”
Rodger thinks paprika is an unsung hero of the spice world, but this chip just might be the perfect way to introduce people to how fantastic it really is. He says the flavor is a bit reminiscent of paella, minus the saffron—slightly smokey and just a teeny bit spicy. Currently, they’re only available at the Deli while supplies last.
Rodger says this is just the first of Special Edition chips, and we can expect more in the future. He has lots of ideas he’d like to try. “This is our opportunity to play around with flavors,” says Rodger. “Hopefully they will introduce people to some they’ve never tried before.”
Get Zingerman’s Potato Chip Special Edition Spanish Paprika at the Deli while supplies last. They’re a one-off, so once they’re gone, they’re really gone! Don’t miss ’em.
LMB is an organization near and dear to Deli Co-Managing Partner Rodger Bowser’s heart. An avid cyclist, himself, Rodger (Grace Singleton, also a co-managing partner, is a cyclist, too!) is a dedicated supporter of LMB’s mission. The non-profit organization promotes cycling and safety and works to improve conditions for cyclists on Michigan’s roadways.
“I want to bring a little more awareness to non-cyclists about bike safety,” says Rodger. “We wanted to capture May, the Commuter Month, and spring, when everyone is finding their bikes again now that it’s warmer, and bring the same energy.”
Ride On Down, Round On Up is a great way to bring your energy to cyclist education, too! Round up your bill. Drop a few coins or a few dollars in the boxes. You can also give online and read more about LMB’s work on their website.
Tag: RODGER BOWSER
At last, we have our own chips! What took us so long? Quite honestly, we don’t know, but, we think the chips we’re now making—with the help of two great companies—were worth the wait.
The project first began last year, almost by accident. The holiday months are traditionally the time when Co-Managing Partner and Deli Chef Rodger Bowser retreats to the kitchen. “It’s kind of nice,” he explains. “There are fewer meetings—and just less stuff to do—and October through December is my favorite time of year to cook because fall foods are the best.” It was during one of those sessions that he got the idea to make small batches of chips as a weekend special. He figured it’d be a good way to sample the Épices de Cru spices that the Deli sells.
“We’ve been working with Épices de Cru for a long time. They’re very exciting, and their spices are exciting,” says Rodger. Not too surprisingly, the spices from the Montreal-based company, which sources their world-class products from all over the globe, tasted great on the freshly made chips. That got him thinking about making them a regular menu item, but the time and process required to make chips in-house on a daily basis didn’t seem feasible.
“I thought, ‘I don’t want to fry chips. There’s got to be someone who’s way better at this than me that I could get the spices to,” he says. Suddenly, he realized what the Deli shelves were missing: Zingerman’s brand potato chips! It was what he calls “an ah-ha moment.”
Photo by Ryan Stiner
The first thing he did was cold call Great Lakes Potato Chip Company, a family-owned business from Traverse City, Michigan, that he was eager to work with. They were very receptive. “The owner, Chris Girrbach, said, ‘This is a no brainer. We’re kind of wondering why you didn’t call earlier.’ The conversation was a slam dunk,” says Rodger, who loves what Great Lakes Potato Chip Company is doing and that they’re using Michigan potatoes. “They’re making a great skin-on potato chip. The flavor’s great, the crunch is nice.”
When he mentioned the idea to Ari and fellow Managing Partners in the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, his enthusiasm was matched. “We were off and running. Now I had to figure out how to get the product to market,” he says, laughing.
He began testing different flavors with Great Lakes, sending them the Épices de Cru spices, which he felt were an absolute must for the chips he wanted to produce. They experimented with 20 different varieties over a few months and settled on three crowd-pleasers to start production: French Grey Sea Salt, Barbecue, and Tellicherry Black Pepper. They discovered some unexpected flavors that worked well, too, and Rodger is planning a few special edition runs that could include Trinidad curry, Spanish paprika (he’s the most excited about this one) and maybe even a chip that tastes like Zingerman’s famous pickles.
Photo by Ryan Stiner
After some serious number crunching, countless spreadsheets, and finding a great distributor (Cherry Capital Foods, another company that Rodger admires, got the gig), the next step was creating the great packaging that Zingerman’s is known for to pull the project together. Staff illustrator Ryan Stiner created a fun depiction of the Deli for the new bags. “I was really excited to get to work on this project – potato chips are one of my favorite foods! I knew I wanted to create something iconic – so that whenever and wherever you saw these bags you’d know where they came from and the quality they stood for. I quickly realized that the deli building looks pretty similar to a bag of chips and the design just kind of came together from there.”
Rodger says Zingerman’s Potato Chips are a true collaboration of excellence. “It’s a trifecta: Zingerman’s recipes, Great Lakes Potato Chip Company, and Epices de Cru spices. Three is the magic number.”
Preserved fruits, candied fruits, fruit cakes—they all say the holidays are here. They’ve been part of festive eating for centuries. For me, outside of jam on toast, I rarely eat fruits like this from January through November. But I crave them in December. Agrimontana’s Italian cherries are the handcrafted, flavorful alternative to the ubiquitous blue and white jars of Amarena cherries you see at cafes. They taste of dark fall fruit, sweetened in their purple syrup. Combining them with chalk white Brabander goat gouda is stunning to look at and, frankly, a blast to eat. I think of Brabander as the milkshake of cheese—creamy, sweet, and easy to eat. Why not have a cherry on top?
