Tag: ZINGERMAN’S BAKEHOUSE
From the pages of our Zingerman’s Bakehouse cookbook, comes an ideal summer dessert for celebrating Independence Day, or any day. Tender homemade biscuits are the perfect partner for farmers market fresh berries or stone fruits, topped with whipped cream. Here’s the recipe!
Sweet Cream Drop Biscuit Recipe
Makes 12 biscuits
3 cups plus 2 Tbsp (440g) All-purpose flour
1/4 cup (55g) granulated sugar
2 Tbsp (28 g) baking Powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp (145g) unsalted butter, cold
1 cup (235g) whole milk, cold
1 cup (245g) heavy cream, cold
Demerara sugar for sprinkling tops
1. Preheat the oven 375ºF (190ºC)
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix with a wooden spoon to combine evenly.
3. Dice the cold butter into 1/2-in (1.5-cm) pieces and add to the dry ingredients. Using your fingers or a pastry blender, work the butter into the flour mixture until it’s reduced to pea sized pieces. It also helps to pick up the mixture and rub it together between your palms. This step is important for creating tender biscuits. The butter coats the grains of flour, making it less possible to form long gluten strands that would give the biscuits a chewy rather than tender texture.
4. Make a well in the center of the ingredients, and pour in the milk and heavy cream. Use a fork to gently mix the wet and dry ingredients together until homogenous. Let the mixture sit in the bowl for 15 minutes. This will allow the dry ingredient to fully absorb the wet ingredients without overmixing.
5. Using a 2-oz (59-ml) portioner or a 1/4-cup measure, drop level scoops of biscuit batter onto a sheet tray lined with parchment paper. Leave at least 3 in (7.5 cm) between the biscuits to allow for spreading during baking. Sprinkle Demerara sugar on the tops of the biscuits.
6. Bake the biscuits for 13 to 15 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom and edges. Let cool to room temperature before serving.
Every year, the Library of Michigan and Library of Michigan Foundation (via a committee of librarians, retail booksellers, journalists, and readers) awards 20 books—both fiction and non-fiction—a place on the Michigan Notable Books list. This very special recognition goes to titles written about Michigan or the Great Lakes region by a Michigan author. We’re excited to announce that this year, the Zingerman’s Bakehouse book by Bakehouse co-managing partners Amy Emberling and Frank Carollo made the list!
“Frank and I were particularly pleased with this recognition,” says Amy. “It was a total surprise, and it felt good because it came from the local community. It’s meaningful for us!”
The 2018 list includes a wide range of books, from a biography of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie and history of the Detroit uprising of 1967 to a collection of poems inspired by Great Lakes shipwrecks and a coming-of-age novel. Zingerman’s Bakehouse was one of only two books centered on food and drink—the other was Brewed in Michigan: The Golden Age of Brewing in the Great Beer State by William Rapai. While the cookbook tells the story of the Bakehouse with over 60 of our most popular items, regional classics, like pasties and Detroit-style pizza (along with the Polish-American Midwestern favorite paczki), are also featured.
Announced earlier this year, the award winners were celebrated at the 2018 Night of Notables on April 9 at the Library of Michigan in Lansing. The keynote presentation of the night was a discussion with Pulitzer Prize and Michigan Notable Book recipient Richard Ford, the author of 12 books, including Independence Day and Canada. Monica McFawn, also a Michigan Notable Book author, moderated the talk.
The experience was memorable for Amy, who says she felt extremely honored to be included in such an esteemed group of, as she joked, “real writers”. However, she says that the most exciting part of the award is that she and Frank have the opportunity to tour Michigan libraries—most recently the pair visited Parchment Community Library, and they’ll follow that up with appearances at Bellaire Public Library May 18, Dearborn’s Henry Ford Centennial Library May 22, and Saline District Library June 11.
Check out the video:
Baking can be challenging—even for professionals. Our BAKE! class instructors, who’ve helped countless bakers improve their skills with our hands-on baking classes over the years, were brave enough to share their baking mishaps with us. You’re not alone!
Read Carefully and Double Check
“I was trying a new recipe for a syrup based amish pie. Something went REALLY wrong! I think I added a leavener that was not supposed to be in there. When I put the pie in the oven, the filling started bubbling like lava and then foamed up and poured all over the bottom of my oven. It started a fire and the house was filled with smoke. It took me months to get my oven clean!” – Arie
Stay Focused
“I messed up many recipes as a young teenager because I loved to talk on the phone and bake at the same time! Yes, it’s a bad idea. It made me the master of leaving things out, putting ingredients in twice and sometimes only doubling half the ingredients in a recipe. Disaster! These days I rush too much…and then things are not disasters but aren’t quite perfect and the process isn’t so fun.” -Amy
Know Your Tools
“I broke a mercury thermometer in the sugar syrup for making Italian buttercream, before I had ANY IDEA what I was doing!” -Sara
Use Great Ingredients and Taste Before You Bake
“The night before Thanksgiving years ago, I was making a pumpkin pie. I made a crust from scratch and was very proud of it. I had to use an off brand pumpkin puree because the store was out of the good stuff. I had it all mixed up and poured it in the shell. Then I tasted the filling and found it DISGUSTING! I tried pouring it out of the shell, but made a mess. I was so mad I just tossed the whole thing, went to the store, and ended up buying a pre-made pie shell and filling.” -Nikki
It Takes Practice
“I once tried to make Cardinal Slice but I didn’t know what I was doing. My meringue wasn’t stiff enough, my ladyfingers were extremely sloppy as I did not know how to pipe them. The whole thing was a mess!” -Sue
“A labor of love.” That’s how Robyn Eckhardt, describes the process of producing her new cookbook Istanbul and Beyond. A journalist by trade, Robyn and her husband, photographer David Hagerman (who took the gorgeous photos for the book), traveled throughout Turkey for 16 months in search of the country’s best food—along the way they met plenty of generous locals who invited them into their kitchens to share meals and recipes.
Istanbul and Beyond, as the name suggests, covers more than just the food found in Instanbul, Turkey’s cultural capital. At her recent demo classes at BAKE! (the hands-on teaching bakery at Zingerman’s Bakehouse), Robyn explained that she and David wanted to go “beyond” Istanbul in very specific ways. For one, they wanted to challenge preconceived notions that Turkish food is just one thing, instead linking the country’s diverse cuisines to their respective regions. It was also their desire to take their readers beyond the parts of Turkey that are most commonly visited by foreign tourists and Turks, alike.
The book, and Robyn’s demo, spanned from the Black Sea to the Syria-adjacent Hatay region to Hakkari, which borders Iran and Iran. Each area has it’s own culinary traditions, reliant on topography and what is able to be grown and produced locally. Near the Black Sea, for instance, the climate is similar to that of the American Pacific Northwest with its cool, damp climate and lush greenery. Fish is the main protein here, but cows also flourish thanks to large grazing pastures, making dairy a big part of the diet. Corn is also a popular staple, and dishes like Cheese Fondue with Corn Flour are popular in the eastern Black Sea Region.
Fields of hazelnuts grow in the Giresun, a Black Sea city known as Turkey’s “hazelnut capital”, and Kadayif Cake is a result of the abundance. “Almost every pastry chef in Giresun has a version of this cake, and they serve it with dense Turkish ice cream,” says Robyn. The dessert is a mixture fine pastry threads called kadayif, skinned hazelnuts, milk, butter. It’s drenched in a simple syrup while still hot, resulting in a moist, not-too-sweet treat.
While cows are plentiful in the north, the southeastern Hakkari has jagged hills and mountainsides perfect for goats and sheep. There’s also not a lot of farming land available, so foraging for greens and the plethora of herbs that pop up in spring is necessary. Robyn represented the cuisine of this region with Meatballs with Pumpkin & Spice Butter—the meatballs, which are lighter than you might expect, are made with ground lamb, rice, minced onion, and a bit of ground dried chiles and dried purple basil. Tomato paste gives the broth depth, and the sweet mildness of the pumpkin cools down the slight spiciness of from chile. This dish was a favorite.
The most common bread in the east and southeast is pide, a thick, chewy bread that’s shaped into circles and ovals or longer, thinner shapes. Bakers add their own flourishes to the bread, decorating it by pressing on it with their fingertips and topping it with sesame or poppy seeds. It’s used for dipping and served with meze.
Perhaps the most surprising of the dishes was the delicious Sun-Dried Tomato and Pomegranate Salad from the Hatay province. Visually stunning, the salad starts with a layer of sun-dried tomatoes, which are topped with pomegranate, red bell pepper, fresh mint and salty white cheese, like Bulgarian feta or ricotta salata. The dressing is a pomegranate molasses that’s poured on right before serving. Robyn says she got the recipe from a friend, who serves it as a Hatay-style breakfast, but she thinks the vibrant red and green might make a nice Christmas dish.
Want to add more great recipes like this to your repertoire? Take a BAKE! class! Check out the full schedule here. And don’t miss another great guest chef—sign up for the BAKE! email class announcements.
Tuesday was a big day for Zingerman’s Bakehouse. After months and months of anticipation, Zingerman’s Bakehouse, the cookbook, was finally released. Around the ZCoB, we’re ecstatic! It’s a beautiful book with 65 meticulously tested recipes designed to work for novice, casual, and advanced bakers, and it features over 50 color photos and lots of Zingy illustrations. To celebrate, ZingTrain hosted a book release party at the Greyline, featuring a Q&A from veteran journalist (and a great friend of Zingerman’s) Micki Maynard, authors and Bakehouse owners Amy Emberling and Frank Carollo, and plenty of delicious snacks from Zingerman’s Catering.
Here are a few photos from the event:
Are you excited for the new book? Then, you’ve got to get one of your own! Available at bookstores everywhere, at your favorite online realtor, Zingerman’s Bakehouse, Zingerman’s Deli, or on Zingermans.com.
We just celebrated Zingerman’s Bakehouse’s 25th anniversary, and now we’re excited to announce three awesome, amazing, fantastic (I told you we were excited!) special events to usher in the release of the new cookbook. Published by Chronicle Books, Zingerman’s Bakehouse, which includes over 50 color photos, behind-the-scenes stories, illustrations, and 65 tested recipes, will be available through national and local booksellers as well as Zingerman’s retail locations starting October 3. We’re planning a Q&A with authors and Bakehouse co-owners Frank Carollo and Amy Emberling, a special brunch, and tasting. Each event will include a book signing.
Join us:
Zingerman’s Bakehouse Book Debut
Tuesday, October 3, 2017 | 4:30-6:30pm
Zingerman’s Greyline, 100 N. Ashley St., Ann Arbor
As a Special Edition of their popular Speaker Series, ZingTrain will mark the release of Zingeman’s Bakehouse by hosting a book debut celebration with Frank and Amy. Veteran journalist Micheline Maynard will lead a discussion that will touch on baking and behind-the-scenes stories from 25 years in business. Ticket includes abundant appetizers and desserts from Zingerman’s Catering featuring Bakehouse breads and sweets, a drink, and a copy of the book—the authors will sign books for all guests during the event. Ticket price is $75 per person, available online at Zingerman’s Events.
Zingerman’s Bakehouse Cookbook Brunch
Saturday, October 21, 2017 | 10:00am-12:00pm
Zingerman’s Roadhouse, 2501 Jackson Ave., Ann Arbor
Zingerman’s Roadhouse’s Special Event #215 will put a tasty spin on beloved classic products from Zingerman’s Bakehouse. The brunch will include a plated toast course plus a buffet-style menu featuring Parmesan Pepper Croque Monsieur, Vegetable Strata, Panzanella Salad, a flight of donuts and more. Frank and Amy will be on hand to meet guests, share stories, and sign books. Ticket price is $50 per person, available online along with full menu at Zingerman’s Events. Books can be pre-purchased for a discounted price when reserving tickets and will be distributed to guests at the event. Books will also be available for purchase at the event.
Zingerman’s Bakehouse Book Signing & Tasting
Wednesday, November 8, 2017 | 6:30pm-8:30pm
Zingerman’s Delicatessen, 422 Detroit St., Ann Arbor
Zingerman’s Delicatessen will host an evening of Bakehouse flavor while Frank and Amy reminisce about 25 years in business. The event will also include Deli sandwiches featuring the best of Bakehouse breads, Magic Brownies, and other surprises. Each guest will go home with a signed copy of the new book. Ticket price is $50 and available online at Zingerman’s Events.
We can’t wait to see you!