Category Archives: Bakeries

A Whale of A Gift

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Delicious whale tail-shaped cookies from Honolulu Cookie Company.

Delicious whale tail-shaped cookies from Honolulu Cookie Company.

 

Bypass all the craziness of crowds at the mall today — and still give a whale of gift to friends and family this holiday season.

Honolulu Cookie Company’s newest creation is exactly that — a shortbread cookie shaped like the tail of a Hawaiian Humpback whale.

The Hawaiian Islands boast one of the most important Humpback whale habitats on the planet. The whales migrate to Hawaii each year to reproduce.

The cookie company will be donating a bevy of its whale cookies to fund-raising and educational events hosted by Pacific Marine Life Foundation, a non-profit that supports marine research and conservation in the Pacific basin.

Besides drawing more attention to the whales, the cookies are just plain delicious, as evidenced by the sample I recently had a chance to try.

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A Taste of Pan dei Morti

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Have you had your Pan dei Morti yet?

Have you had your Pan dei Morti yet?

 

All Saints Day, Nov. 1, and All Souls Day, Nov. 2, just got a little sweeter.

Thanks to Emporio Rulli, that is.

In commemoration of All Saints Day, which honors all saints, and of All Souls Day, which is a day of prayer for the deceased, the Italian bakery is baking a new bread, Pan dei Morti.

I recently had a chance to try a sample of this new treat, which will be available through December at all Emporio Rulli locations, plus on its online site.

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Join the Food Gal in Conversation with Cronut Creator Dominique Ansel

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Yup, the pastry meister behind the Cronut is coming to town.

Yup, the pastry meister behind the Cronut is coming to town.

 

Join yours truly as I host a Q&A with the legendary Pastry Chef Dominique Ansel at 6 p.m. Nov. 4 at Williams-Sonoma in Palo Alto’s Stanford Shopping Center.

Yes, the man who started the Cronut craze is coming to the Peninsula to sign copies of his new cookbook, “Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes” (Simon & Schuster).

Ansel, a James Beard Award winner, was classically trained in Paris and was formerly executive pastry chef at Daniel in New York.

The one and only Dominique Ansel. (Photo by Lam Thuy Vo)

The one and only Dominique Ansel. (Photo by Lam Thuy Vo)

He opened his eponymous bakery in New York in 2011. Since then, throngs have lined up each day before dawn, hoping to snag his irresistible mashup of a croissant and a doughnut. Or a Cookie Shot. Or a Waffle Affogato. Or another of his wildly whimsical concoctions.

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Baked Therapy

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Nothing can keep me from baking a batch of these scones.

Nothing can keep me from baking a batch of these scones.

 

I can be swamped with work…

I can be sleep-deprived…

It can be 100 degrees that day…

But when I feel the urge to bake, I can’t be stopped.

What can I say? It’s my therapy. It’s my relaxation. It’s my treat to myself and others.

So when a review copy of the new “Baked Occasions” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang) landed in my mail, I immediately dropped everything else and started leafing through it.

BakedOccasions

This is the fourth cookbook by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, the owners of the popular Brooklyn baker, Baked. It includes 75 recipes perfect for holidays, special events and just any day that is an occasion of any sort. Find recipes from “Toffee Coffee Cake Surprise” to “Easter Coconut Sheet Cake” to “Peppermint Chocolate Meringues.”

“Chinese Five-Spice Sesame Scones” caught my eye from the start because I love the intoxicating fragrance of five-spice in stir-fries.

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Discover the New KitchenTown in San Mateo

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Rediscovering the cookies I loved as a kid.

Rediscovering the cookies I loved as a kid.

 

If you’re a long-time or native San Franciscan like myself, you probably grew up with these Danish butter cookies.

My aunt would bestow a box on our family every Christmas. The box would be lined with rows of five different types of golden-hued cookies. The oatmeal was always my favorite, and the one I reached for first.

When my aunt retired, so did the cookie gift-giving. And I never had them again.

Until now.

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