peanut, peanut butter

b and i hosted birthday brunch at our house this morning.


he and his family are all peanut butter maniacs, so i made this cake:


being not such a peanut butter person, this was new territory for me. i searched around for recipes and this one, posted over at smitten kitchen, came up looking like the best bet. oh my goodness, it may well have been the most rich cake i've ever baked.
the recipe is amazing -- super straight-forward and easy peasy, and it sure as heck makes for one deliciously intense cake.
there were six of us, and this is all the dent we were able to put in it:


phew! who wants to come over to help finish it?!!? have a delicious weekend, friends. xo.

residual heart-shaped sweetness

last night i baked up a batch of sweets for my far-away sweet:


they're the peanut butter and jelly (well, half are filled with strawberry jam, the other half are filled with nutella) sandwich cookies that i often make, but cut into heart shapes this time to go with the valentine season.

and that reminded me of some other heart-shaped treats i've made before and i decided that i'd go ahead and share:

Quick Tips: How To Make Heart-Shaped Cupcakes on Howcast

two notes: one - the marbles won't explode. i was worried about that, too. they will be very hot, though, so leave them in the tin until they've cooled! and two - that's not my voice.

it was a scooperbowl

i'm sorry; it's another ice cream post.
sunday's flavour was:
fresh mint from the garden:


plus cacao nibs from the always-inspiring spice station:


plus family-farmed cream, local(ish) happy chicken eggs, organic sugar and milk:


such hoity-toity ingredients, eh? it's worth it. this was the first of these batches that i made custard-style, with eggs. i used
david lebovitz's recipe (here - ps; i've just discovered mister lebovitz - i'm an instant fan; his blog is delightful!) and it certainly was good, and pretty (sorry, i didn't take any photos of the finished ice cream...) but i think i am definitely more interested in the non-egg recipes; they're just so pure and delicious!
i also whipped up a batch of strawberry that morning and took all of the different kinds i've made over the past week over to be shared with friends while the dudes watched football.

coming up soon - crafting with a whole big bag of sawdust. (what?!??) you'll see...

adventures in ice cream making

(i know it may look like it, but i promise this isnt turning into a food blog!)
last sunday funday, my friend amy and i got an ice cream maker. we'd been talking about it for months and finally went for it. our first batch was straight up vanilla and it was heavenly.

i brought the ice cream maker home with me and made batch number two:


i was going to do another straight up vanilla and just play with the recipe a little, so i went to the store to get just organic milk and cream. well, pms got the best of me and i came home with cookies (and wine) too. the cookies were those caramel stroopwafel things and although they were kinda good, they werent AS good as i thinking they would be. but i had a hunch that they may be delicious in ice cream, so i built my recipe around them. brown sugar, a touch a molasses, vanilla and the chopped up cookies. pretty darned delicious.

batch number three, which i just finished, was inspired by these beauties:


so pretty, right? they're pink peppercorns, that i picked off a tree the other day. oh, california - you do amaze me.


so, i crushed a few of them up and put them into the ice cream base; milk, cream, sugar, and a teeny splash of vanilla.


so good! it turned out a little more subtle than i was hoping for; it could use more pepper -- but still, not bad for something that can be whipped up in 30 minutes! it's a good thing i just joined a gym.
i hope you all have a super sweet weekend. xxoo.

ooh, it's been a while...

...hasn't it? i'm sorry, i've been terrible about keeping up the blog.


i've been doing plenty -- lots of blog-worthy projects in making and baking - but i've been so unmotivated to take photos along the way! and who wants to hear about the lemon souffles that i made, or the rug i knit for my bathroom, or about any of the projects that i'm trying to get through, without photos? i don't think it's nearly as interesting without images to accompany the stories. so, that's why i haven't posted....
and, i admit, it's also because i haven't exactly been kicking ass with work... i had a really lovely little break spending time with people that i love and doing extended christmas-ing and new-years-ing.
but now i'm back on the west coast and it's been in the 80's since my return and that's making me feel energized and motivated!
with all this sunshine, it'll be a lot easier to take photos and keep up with my projects and posts - okay? good. thank you.
(above -- little cakes baked today in my new favourite cast iron baking mold. {thank you, b!} they're flavored with lemon from our beautiful lemon tree - which is covered in the fruit right now!)
sending you all sunshine, - kj.

it's christmas

the bats and rats are baked and decorated:


(not my best year for decorating... it's been a busy few months; i was feeling rather lazy...
... but this one's pretty special, in its own way, right?)


plus many many other varieties of cookies including, but not limited to: holiday biscotti (one of the best biscotti recipes i've tried. it works every time -- and certainly shouldnt be limited to the holiday season!), mexican hot chocolate cookies, sis's ginger snaps, pizelles, fleur de sel caramels, meringues, pecan puffs, shortbreads and sugar cookies, and lots of others.

okay - gotta run for now.. i'm being beckoned to decorate this gigantic christmas tree....


happy happy happy christmas eve to all of you. thank you for following me through another great year! more posts soon!
xoxo-kj

(me and emil!)

bunnies for breakfast

a plateful of bunny scones on our way to easter breakfast with friends in los angeles.


my mama had made these strawberry-rosemary scones for valentines day and they were delicious. with the bunny head cutter (that claire and i searched all of L.A. for) they're perfectly adorable, and delicious, and super easy to make. here's the recipe -- it's a good one.

obsession of the day

granola


i made one batch, using the recipe in this month's everyday food (i checked - it's not up on the site yet.) the other day.
it's so easy to make and so delicious that i had to try more...
so i went to epicurious (my regular go-to -- i like using the reviews to see how others did with the recipes.) and found this recipe, which i used as my base guide for the next batch. inspired by my one of my favourite cookies, i did a batch of cranberry pistachio. yum.


and then, as usual, i couldnt stop there - i had to make just one more batch... (i've explained before - i tend to get obsessed and i feel a need to make not just one of something, but to do it over and over again until i have made it mine.)
so then i made vanilla maple almond. sooooo delish!


go mix yourself up a batch! it takes only like 5 minutes to throw together and about 20 minutes to bake. you can make it with any combination of nuts and/or fruits that you want or that you have on hand - way cheaper and maybe even healthier than the stuff you buy in stores. yaaaaaay granola!
ps - i promise that i will be back to posting about normal crafty stuff soon. i've been working on some bigger projects that are taking a while to finish and they're not quite ready to be photographed yet. thank you to those of you who have sent me emails and posted comments these past couple of weeks - you are such an inspiration to me!

kitchen conundrum

big cake


little cake


happy birthday, baby.

my bloody valentine

this is what happens when two single girls spend an afternoon making valentine's day cookies:


(and then they go out and have several cocktails -- that's next.)
haha! check out the ones with the bullet holes -- those are so funny! they're my favorites.
we really wanted dragees to use as bullets to the hearts, but there are none to be found in greenpoint, brooklyn -- none. there are also no heart-shaped cookie cutters. i think we did pretty well with our free-form cutting and our red and white and pink and black royal icing applied via home-made ziplock piping bags.
(thank you for being my cookie valentine, L!)

cupcakes...

... are so freakin' fun to make, and strawberry buttercream rocks.


baby shower today was great. i'm happy and proud to know so many really amazing women. xo to y'all.

that sweet little cupcake miss b.

how awesome is this?! aidyn wrote her name and bella drew these little faces. she's three months away from being three. do you see how amazing these drawings are?!?!?!?! look at the eyes --- she even drew the iris! look at the spacing of the eyes and noses and lips! look at the beards -- she drew beards! and the hair -- she described that as "crazy hair."

additional awesomeness: we made cupcakes.


(seven-minute frosting is so fun for decorating!)

2009 -- fine.

in the days leading up to new year's eve, as friends asked the question, "what are you doing?" (i dont know, what are you doing?) "what are you doing?" (i dont know, what are you doing?) i knew only one thing: i wanted to greet the new year eating french macarons and drinking champagne with some good friends. it just seemed like such a decadent and celebratory thing to do -- so that's what i did.


i've been wanting to make these for months, but never had the right reason or occasion -- new year's eve seemed as good a time as any. so, in my mama's kitchen, i whipped up the meringue cookies. it took me a few batches to get them right -- i've never made these macaron/macaroon things and i didnt really know what i was going for. i'm used to making meringues, so in my first two batches, i was being careful not to deflate my whipped egg whites. (that's why the pink (vanilla) ones and the slightly over-cooked white (almond) ones have swirly texture to them.) but by batch number three -- the green pistachio ones, i figured out that the mixture had to be mixed more to get the texture right. by the time i did the chocolate ones, batch number four, i knew what i was doing. i brought the baked cookies with me to brooklyn and assembled them there, an hour or so before going out to meet up with friends for the new year toast. the almond and the chocolate ones got nutella fillings, the vanilla ones got raspberry pomegranate jam, and the pistachio ones got a vanilla buttercream (as suggested by alec).
in the end -- i'm pleased with my first attempt at these beautiful little pastries. they really are not difficult to make -- you've just got to be gentle and careful with them when assembling (the cookies are really delicate.) and they really are impressive to look at. tastewise, i dont know if i am a fan -- they are SOOOO rich. i think i am going to have to seek out someone else's macarons so i know what they are supposed to taste like.


thank you ron and jay and alex and kent for a lovely new year toast...
and thank you, friends and family and blog-readers and chez customers and fans and supporters, for a really cool 2008. it's been exciting and i feel really pleased and proud of what i've been able to accomplish for chez-sucre-chez in such a short amount of time. so seriously -- i could not, definitely could not, have done this without you all. you've been so sweet and good to me.
let's make 2009 super-fine.
(any one out there got loads of money that they want to invest in a bakery/shop? we've got the location, the business plan and the desire... )

visions of cookie birds danced in my head

this is what my dreams consist of in the weeks before christmas:


cookie designs.
i've been dreaming up these birds for the past week. mama went out and bought the very thinnest piping tip available so that i could carry out my vision -- she's so supportive of my dreams.
they aren't EXACTLY what i had in mind (do artistic ambitions ever turn out exactly as they were imagined? mine dont...) but i'm happy with them. originally i had wanted them just to be decorated with fine, delicate feathers, but then i found that the bird shapes that i had cut were all really too small for that idea. so i just went freestyle and doodled patterns and designs on them. i like that they turned out a little dutch-y.


happy christmas, dear friends and readers! i hope you are all in a place that makes you very happy, surrounded by people you love. xo, k.

cookie cooking

rounds one and two of x-mas cookie baking are complete. those of you who know my family and me know that we don't take christmas cookies lightly. we used to honor the annual christmas cookie WEEKEND, but now that kelly and i are all grown up, things have changed and it's even tough to find a single day where all of our schedules align. this year we had x-mas cookie day, where the little ones have become the head chefs and artistic directors.
aidyn is already a master at the roll and cut:


and so is bella! (check her out in the smock i made her!)


notice that the cookies with sprinkles on them are crushed; that's because aidyn put them on, and bella took them off (and into her mouth).


awesome.



and then last night, i baked up the traditional bats and rats. oh yes, bats and rats. i realized that this is year three that i have been posting my bats and rats on this blog! hole-y! (here is year one and here is year two.)

the decoration of the bats and rats this year is decidedly more cutesy than the previous couple of years.
the bats got all dressed up in hearts and sparkles:


and the rats got hearts for eyes:


hey, wait a minute -- what's that blue-scarfed rat?
it's the hanukkah rat! (by request of my friend jay.)


i also tried hands and hearts -- or loves and gloves, but my royal icing wasn't the right consistency...



there are more cookies to be made.... so, more later.

good night and thank you!

nyc this weekend was a blast.
ron -- good times at coco as always.
dana and greg -- great party.
divine studios sale -- wonderful experience.
but now i'm tired -- i havent had much sleep in the past week -- i need to get some zzzzzz's; christmas-cookie-baking-day is tomorrow!
so now i'm all finished with this year's holiday craft fairs -- and i've just kicked off a last-minute procratinators' special sale in my etsy shop -- i'm ready to clear out my remaining inventory! get it -- here.
x's and o's to all of you, friends.
just so i have an image for this post:


aunt mary's cracked black pepper cookies! i made these for this weekend's holiday party. mmmmm, sweet and spicy.

by request -- here's the recipe, which i am thrilled to share, as long as when you make them and serve them, you call them Aunt Mary's Black Pepper Cookies, in honor of my late great aunt mary. my great aunt mary was one of my very very very favourite people. she was quirky as heck, and handy, too. she lived in a huge old farmhouse (which i STILL regret to this day that i did not somehow buy.. it was built in 1777 and it was torn down after her death and a stupid housing development was built on the property.... GRRRRRRRR!) where she housed her collection of gnomes, stored her completed jigsaw puzzles under the rugs, and made me rings of firefly glowers.
wear a witch hat when you bake these:

Aunt Mary's Black Pepper Cookies:
1 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 c. sugar (3/4 for dough, 1/4 for tops of cookies)
1/2 t ground pepercorns
1/2 c. butter

blend the flour, baking powder, 3/4 c. of sugar, and crushed pepper in food processor. stir butter over medium heat until it browns. add to flour and process until dough forms compact ball. roll into small balls. dip bottom of glass in sugar and press each ball gently to 1/2" thick. bake at 300 degrees on lowest rack for 20 - 25 minutes.

candy-striped twist

i tried out this recipe for peppermint sticks from the december issue of martha.
the finished pieces and my photos of them are not so pretty-pretty as i would like them to be, but hey, this was the test-run.





when i got my magazine in the mail, i looked through it and immediately thought that THIS was the one recipe i most wanted to try. i had never made this kind of candy before - oh how exciting - a new thing to try! the ingredient list and the process both looked simple enough, so i gave it a go.

here at my parent's house with my mama and my pop and my niece and nephew all standing by, it became this super-fun family activity. the recipe really is very easy to follow, it is just the timing that is a bit tricky. you have to move very quickly with the molten candy (and it is VERY HOT -- wear winter gloves UNDER your rubber gloves!) and i was certainly thankful that my papa was standing by and jumped in to help. he and i pulled the candy (pulling and stretching it into long ribbons -- read the recipe to see what i mean) as aidyn and bella watched the excitement. mama was there to help out with the food-coloring, the bottle of which was just about empty, which is why we didnt get much more color than the pale swirl of pink that you can see in the photos. it was super super super neat-o. the flavor is PERFECT -- they are so super yummy and i wouldn't change a thing from the original recipe. it's really just the process that is tricky. you just need to be prepared and have some help on the ready. it was fun having aidyn and bella look on as the candy turned from yellow-y goop to pretty white ribbons as papa and i crafted our own visions of peppermint sticks. he rolled his to create smooth, perfectly-formed candy cane sticks while i left mine rustic and textured in more of an attempt to really bring out the twists.
a day later and the finished candies are a little sticky (mama suggested rolling them in a little bit of powdered sugar, but i havent tried it yet) but other than that -- totally awesome. we'll be making these again next time the family is all gathered around, right before christmas.

july four

pie heart brooklyn

i've extended my stay in brooklyn a few days longer -- enjoying the culture and the company of my friends just too much to want to leave.
inspired by my peeps ron and jay, and the fresh goodies available at union square greenmarket, i baked up a strawberry rhubarb pie to share with my friends.
mmmmm. thanks for the love, support, and fun, friends. xoxo.

by ganache i think i've got it

here's an update from last night's baking disappointment.
i covered the animals in ganache... i'm not sure if it successfully covered up or eliminated the vegetable oil taste, (i haven't tried one yet.) but this definitely gives them more of the kind of look i was hoping for.
okay, so now i know what i need to do next time. and oh, there will be a next time.