Oh lord, where do I begin? You know when you have one baking goal for the day and then it kind of seems like Jesus and Buddha and Mayor Daley and everyone else in charge of your life just doesn’t allow it to happen? Well, that was my Sunday. All I wanted was to make these brownies I’ve been dreaming up and it was like every star in the sky was aligned exactly in a way that prevented any store in the entire city of Chicago from having the kind of cocoa powder I needed. I went to Whole Foods, I went to Southport Grocery, I went to Treasure Island… anywhere one might expect to find this particular kind of dark cocoa and I came up empty handed every time.
I went home feeling frustrated, knowing that you guys have to be sick of reading about the various bake sales I’ve been throwing and in need of a new recipe. Then it dawned on me – bake sale, duh. As I mentioned in my last post, my friend Lisa and I recently put together a bake sale as part of a benefit for Wild Claw theater. One of the items I made was vegan peanut butter chocolate pillows from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. As she was checking one of them for quality control, Lisa said they reminded her of these ganache-stuffed chocolate chip cookies she’d had in New York. I mentioned on my Facebook page that I wanted to make those cookies for Lisa and a few people said they sounded like Keebler Magic Middles.
Homemade Magic Middles, you say? This sounds like a Bake and Destroy project if ever there was one! I could not for the life of me wrap my brain around how to keep the chocolate inside gooey once the cookie was cool, so I took a cue from the vegan chocolate peanut butter pillows and concocted a kind of dough using Nutella.
OK, so that’s the middle, but it’s not really a middle unless it goes inside of another cookie. Being that I still wanted to make Lisa’s dream cookies I opted for a chocolate chip recipe. I didn’t think my usual would hold up to being stuffed, so I did some searching and found a recipe for chocolate chip-stuffed cookies. I figured if those could be filled with chips, they could be filled with little Nutella balls. Heh… balls.
I figured wrong. I should have known from the amount of butter in the cookie recipe that these were not going to create the same stretchy, sturdy cookie cave that the ones in Vegan Cookies provide. But the fact that the recipe calls for so much dough for each cookie gave me hope that they’d turn out like those giant scone-sized cookies you see at Whole Foods sometimes. I was a fool.
So I carefully made and rolled what were, essentially, Nutella Tootsie Rolls, and made this giant batch of chocolate chip cookie dough. I fought off attempts to eat said dough from both Teno and Tony and formed giant, baseball-sized Nutella-stuffed chocolate chip cookies on two cookie sheets. I had a passing thought, before I did all the work, to see what would happen when I put Nutella in the microwave compared to what happens when I put peanut butter in the microwave. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I really wish I had preformed that little experiment and saved myself two sticks of butter and a jar of Nutella.
Thumbs down.
When the timer went off, I peeked in the oven and laughed. One sheet held a gigantic, flat chocolate chip cookie – about 12″ around. Cookie Monster would have ate that shit up. The other sheet held 6 completely flat cookies, square on the edges from running together. The Nutella turned into chocolate-hazelnut diarrhea and, in short, the ass fell out of my cookies.
As I was chiseling the least repulsive looking cookie from the pan and cursing my stupidity, Tony reminded me that failure is what Bake and Destroy is all about. I had an idea, I tried something new, and in the end, I was not successful. Big deal. We can’t all be Bakerella, you know? Shoot, even Bakerella has her off days I bet. So I snapped a picture, dumped the completely inedible cookies in the trash and left Tony to do the dishes while I started documenting the recipe so I can make some changes and try it again sometime.
Want to see if you can find the winning formula to homemade Magic Middles? Well, don’t start with this recipe!
For the filling:
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons Nutella
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 & 1/4 teaspoons milk
1/8 teaspoon vanilla
For the cookies:
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large cold eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Then you probably shouldn’t:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two cookie sheets with Silpats or parchment paper.
Make the filling first by mixing all of the ingredients with a hand mixer until it forms a moist, firm dough. If it’s a little too stiff add a splash more milk, if it’s too wet add a bit of extra powdered sugar. Knead the dough a few times and then divide into 12 even pieces. It’s easiest to to this if you slap it down on your counter – it will naturally form what looks like a giant uncooked cookie/huge cat turd. Then cut that in half and roll each half into a snake. Cut each snake into three pieces. Then roll each piece into a ball and set aside. You can refrigerate the dough balls while you work on the cookie recipe. Or you can just eat them and save yourself the heartache.
Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar for about 1 minute. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix for another rminute. Then, with the mixer on low speed, add the flour and mix until everything is incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Roll 2 tablespoons of dough between your palms and flatted slightly to form a 2 inch disk. Place the disks on baking sheets, spacing them about 4 inches apart. I could only fit 6 on each sheet. Of course, they turned into one giant cookie anyway – so who cares?
Then place one Nutella dough ball in the center of each disk and top with more chocolate chip cookie dough – try to cover the Nutella with the remaining dough. Bake for 15 minutes, then cool on cookie sheets for 10 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Ask your husband where he keeps his jackhammer, you’re going to need it to get these off the cookie sheet. Try to eat a piece you manage to break off, declare it “a bit much” and then dump everything in the sink and walk away.
So, that’s my big return to posting recipes on my blog – a big batch of shitty cookies. Whatever. I’m ordering the cocoa powder I need and so help me Godzilla, these brownies are going to be amazing even if I have to bake them in the belly of Satan himself. Oh, and Lisa and I are making a macaron video for BrutalSnack. So there’s still fight in me left.
Have you had any good recipe fails lately? C’mon, make me feel better, tell me about them.
Mad love to everyone who came out to see Lisa and I at the WildClaw Dance of the Demented! Even though my voice was shot I had lots of fun gawking at mostly-naked ladies and watching Lisa get hit on all night. One of the highlights was catching (amazing) costume designer Thomas Spanos not-so-sneekily taking our picture. Had we not ended up talking, he may never have sent me the video at the end of this post. (Not for the kids… unless the kids are awesome.)
I’m working on something new – if you’re a Facebook fan you already know what it is. I hope to have results – good or bad – posted in the next few days. But in the meantime, I thought I’d post a little present for you guys! If you’ve seen my Vegan Elvis Comeback Special cupcakes you’ve seen these toppers. So I’m posting my world famous Elvis toppers right here for your to download and make yourself for free. Don’t say I never did anything for you.
Last week I dubbed myself a “crusty old bake sailor” because of my new found love of bake sales. This week end I’m sailing the bake sale seas once more, this time to raise money for Chicago’s fabulous WildClaw Theater.
You may remember that in October I was a judge for their awesome old time radio competition, Deathscribe. Well now they’re putting on a production of William Blatty’s Legion (the sequel to The Exorcist) and the horror nerd in me could not be more excited.
Check it out:
And he asked him, “What is thy name?”
And he answered, saying,
” My name is Legion: for we are many.”
(Mark 5:9)
How fucking metal is that? But before the show hits the stage (3/15) we are raising funds for this little gem of a theater company to help make it all possible. My friend Lisa from Brass Knuckle Brownies and I will be sharing a bake sale table packed with her “so good, they’re bad” brownies and my vegan cookies and cupcakes. (And I do plan on having one non-vegan flavor – Death by Chocolate, of course.) And as if tasty treats from your favorite creeps weren’t enough, check out all the other hotness going down this Saturday:
FEATURED ARTISTS
Watch top illustrators create horror art, live, as they draw the night away, choosing from a bevy of sexy models and graphic scenes throughout the venue. Bring your sketchbooks and laptops and join the asylum.
Featuring these top artists working live:
- Dave Dorman (Aliens/Star Wars/Batman)
- Tony Akins (Jack of Fables/House of Mystery)
- J Anthony Kosar (Avatar/Buckaroo Bonzai)
- Ray Frenden (Burton Snowboards /Wired/The Misfits)
- Alex Wald (Ultraman/Shoalin Cowboy)
- Jessica Joy (smART Show)
- Charlie Athanas (WildClaw Posters)
PLUS:
A special guest appearance by Michelle L’Amour’s internationally acclaimed burlesque beauties, the Chicago Starlets.
Tunes for the asylum provided by:
- dj white russian
- DJ Vapor Eyes
- DJ Miles Beyond
- DJ Chas Vrba
- The Ordeal
Plus, you can get “possessed” by the team of professional makeup artists for just $5!) Emergency exorcisms will be available from a priest at the end of the bar.
Dancing, cupcakes and naked ladies! I mean… what kind of a douche doesn’t want to go to this? So come on out, this Saturday, February 20th 9:30pm – 2:30am and dance your face off at The Viaduct Theatre (3111 N. Western Avenue, Chicago). It’s $20 at the door, or $15 in advance – costumes encouraged!
I made this for my appearance on WTTW, but many of you were too lazy to go look at their website… so here it is!
This set of recipes embodies my split personality during the winter months. There’s a side of me that’s ecstatic for the cold weather because it’s an excuse to indulge in comfort foods. But there’s another side of me that wonders why I continue to live somewhere that’s buried under snow for four months out of the year – and that side wants to forget about fall and winter flavors and turn its attention instead to light, summery flavors that are just around the corner. Turns out, that second personality has gotten her way, and I’m taking off to visit my grandparents in Florida this week*. So as an ode to Florida, and to my grandparents’ love of a traditional breakfast at a low-low price, I made this trio of desserts called The Early Bird Special.
Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees and grease your donut pan with vegetable shortening or oil. Sprinkle the cavities with sugar, shaking out excess.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside. In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, syrup, butter, eggs, milk, vanilla and maple flavor. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, mixing just until combined.
Fill each donut cavity 2/3 full and bake for 8 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Remove from pans while still hot and cool on a wire rack. Best served warm.
Bacon Nest
Being a vegetarian, I used Morning Star Farms veggie bacon for this, but the real thing will work as well.
Using a pizza cutter, slice cold bacon into thin strips. Heat two tablespoons oil in a large skillet. Carefully drop strips into hot oil, allowing them to curl as they cook. Turn pieces over to ensure proper cooking. (Veggie bacon tends not to curl, so to achieve the “nest” look you’ll need to manipulate it with tongs while it cooks.)Place nest atop donuts and drizzle with maple syrup.
OJ Granita
You’ll need:
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
Zest of 2 oranges
Juice of 6 oranges (12 oz)
Juice of one lemon
Then you:
In a small sauce pan, bring water, sugar and orange zest to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until sugar is dissolved. Mix in the orange and lemon juice, and pour into a shallow pan. A baking sheet with raised edges works well, or a jelly roll pan.
Cover with foil and freeze 1-2 hours until solid around edges. Scrape mixture with a fork, mixing from the edges inward. Repeat the freezing and scraping process every 30 minutes (at least three times) until the entire mixture is flakey.
When ready to serve, scrape into serving dishes.
Chocolate-covered Espresso Beans
You might want to use decaf if you are actually serving this to your grandparents.
Choose freshly roasted medium roast coffee or espresso beans – a local roaster is best for truly freshly roasted beans. (Coffee & Tea Exchange, for example.) Any good quality chocolate will do – I like Ghirardelli dark chocolate. You can use chunks, squares or chips.
Set up a double boiler – which is simply one heat-proof vessel sitting atop another. I use a Pyrex glass bowl over a large pot. In the bottom pot, heat 2” water on medium-low heat– you don’t want the water to actually touch the top pan or bowl. Place the chocolate – chopped, if you’re using squares or chunks – in the top bowl and slowly melt it while you stir. Once the chocolate it smooth, turn off the heat and allow it to cool for a minute.
Mix in 1/3 cup of espresso beans. Use a small spook or fork to remove the beans from the chocolate and place them on a sheet of wax paper to cool – make sure the beans are not sticking together. You can cool them in the refrigerator or freezer if desired. When the chocolate cools and hardens, serve them in an espresso cup along side your donuts, bacon nest and granita.
First of all, thank you to everyone who stopped by the Arluck’s Tender Bakery table at Arluck Time this past Thursday night. Lisa, Shannon and I (from here on out known as the ladies of Brutal Snack) had so much fun slangin’ cupcakes and educating Chicago’s metal scene about proper French macarons! Thanks to our generous customers and donations we received from Letizia’s Natural Bakery, Angel Food Bakery and Bake It Pretty we were able to raise over $400 at our little table alone! combined with the auction and other fund-raising items the night generated over $6000 in donations for Grind for Life.
If you missed it, you also missed out on Lisa’s ridiculously good salted caramel brownies and macarons, Hollie’s dark chocolate cream cheese cupcakes, a few cupcakes I made and lots of treats from our donors – not to mention possibly the best Sweet Cobra performance to date. I believe there are already snippets here and there on YouTube and you can see our bake sale pictures here.
It was such an inspiring night I couldn’t stop gushing about how much I love my friends for two days. (If you’re a Twitter follower or Facebook fan I do apologize for the mushiness I subjected you to.) It also really reminded me why I bake – to bring people together and to make them happy.
I’m 100% dedicated to doing whatever I can to use my powers for good – so whether I’m telling you about a local business that deserves your support (hello Fritz Pastry, Angel Food Bakery, Vanille Patisserie…) or throwing what little celebrity status I have behind a non-profit bake sale that’s my new mission. I’m hoping to throw these bake sales as often as I can find a place to hold them – for different causes that deserve a little cash here and there. Heck, maybe Tony will let me throw one in my living room and you guys can all come over and watch movies while you support a worthy cause. Anyway, thanks to everyone who helped, it was an amazing night.
I have a new donut recipe just sitting in a Word document waiting to be unleashed on you, but I wanted to be sure to post my thanks and invite you all to the pastry orgy first. And now, without further ado, let’s get baked!
Nate Meads is some kind of a pastry wizard. Before he and his partners Elaine Heaney (also his lovely wife) and Jared Nance opened Fritz Pastry I was a die-hard American bakery fan. Brioche? Gateau Breton? Stick it in your ear, Frenchy. I’ll have a big slice of chocolate cake with plenty of buttercream.
My problem wasn’t so much with the buttery breads and subtle flavors I’d come to associate with European pastry – it was the snoozefests I’d suffered at the hands of these foods. Mmm, tastes like… plain.
Yes, Nate is well known to be a technician, executing even the lowly muffin with the precision of a surgeon. But he’s no croissant-producing robot. He’s a young guy, a dare I say it… cool guy. And he’s managed, at least in my opinion, to breathe some new life into what I used to believe were stodgy old pastries.
I am not alone in this opinion. In fact, Nate was recently named one of the “Twelve Most Important Chefs Right Now” (alongside a couple of zeros named Rick Bayless and Rick Tramonto). He is also responsible for a vegan blueberry muffin that brought tears to The Urban Housewife’s eyes, and he once made me a salad so scrumptious I completely forgot I was eating salad.
It doesn’t hurt Nate’s case in my book that his wife and business partner Elaine happens to be my peeps (a Joliet native) who may or may not have had a high school job in the Louis Joliet Mall with me. She also has a charming way of working Descendants lyrics into casual conversation. But don’t let the fact that she and I have shared Auntie Annie’s pretzels while wearing Mexican wrestling masks cloud your judgement, just take a gander at the press they’ve received in their single year in business and you’ll see that this charming little sweets shop is no joke.
In order to properly introduce you to a shop that I find cool on so many different levels, I asked Elaine (and Jared and Nate) few questions – ok, a shitload of questions – so hang onto your macarons because things are about to get freakin’ sweet. (Read all the way through and you’ll be rewarded with a chance to win something I know you’re going to want!)
Elaine, where and when did you meet Nate?
Nate and I met back in 1996 through a mutual friend, Bob Lanham, when we were attending junior college and Nate was in the culinary arts program.
I have a very vague memory of being told that Elaine had a boyfriend who worked at a doughnut shop. Is that true, and was it Nate?
Vegan treats shot by The Urban Housewife
It IS true. He baked at this doughnut shop in Bourbonnais and he smelled like doughnuts and sugar ALL of the time. My friends knew how much I liked eating and also that I did not know how to cook, so when they found out that he was a baker, they all told me that we were going to get married.
So when you guys first started spending a lot of time together, what were you both up to?
I was really focused on school for teaching children with disabilities. Nate was taking culinary classes for a little while, baking at the doughnut shop, cooking at this Mediterranean restaurant and, of course, playing in a band…skateboarding.
You guys just celebrated your 10 year anniversary – I’m dying to know if you ate anything/anywhere particularly fancy or exciting for that.
That’s super funny because we always make such a big deal about our marriage anniversary. We either host a nice party or go out to a really fantastic dinner with a ton of friends, but this year we’ve just been so devoted to the shop and we really spend so much time here. Well, when the big 10 year anniversary came around we worked open til close…so we just decided to grab Chinese from this hole-in-the-wall joint on Ashland, made our own little table in the back of the shop and the two of us had an awesome celebratory dinner.
Can we get a Wikipedia version of Nate’s culinary career so far?
Sitting on the counter watching his mom bake, fast forward–>>> baker at Donut Time in Bourbonnais–>>> pastries at Brasserie Jo–>>> pastries at The Everest Room –>>> pastries at TRU –>>> executive pastry chef at Blue Water Grill Chicago –>>> Fritz Pastry!
I really love the balance you guys have struck at Fritz of high-quality, impeccably crafted food, in a casual-but-elegant environment and then like – bam, the prices are totally reasonable. What kind of decisions did you have to make about the menu, the ambiance and the pricing before you opened? What was your philosophy while making those decisions?
Thank you for noticing that balance. The three of us (myself, Nate, and Jared) all wanted to create a space that we would want to patron ourselves. We envisioned serving the high-quality, made from-scratch food that you might get at Tartine in San Francisco, along with the small, but very important touches of service that you would get at the Payard that used to be on Lexington in New York. However, we would obviously prefer that our guests not have to pay inflated prices. Ultimately, we wanted to build a concept using quality and seasonal ingredients, and also an approachable, comfortable atmosphere that is affordable.
Before you were an owner, Elaine, you were a food blogger yourself. I remember reading your posts about traveling and eating. Do you keep up with your blogging anymore, or is Fritz a 24/7 operation?
True, I did blog about our destination eating! Sadly, we have not traveled for well over a year. Since the early planning stages of the pastry shop, we’ve been pretty devoted to staying close to Chicago and staying focused on the shop. However, we can look forward to reading Nate’s blog that he’s starting.
Of all the places you’ve traveled and eaten what’s your favorite food city? If you could instantly transport to any restaurant or pastry shop you’ve been to before, where would you go and what would you eat?
For Jared, its San Francisco. He really enjoys the northern California farmer’s market influence that is at every establishment. For Nate and myself, we absolutely are beyond stoked about New York and all of its food. Our favorite New York spots are ChikaLicious, John’s pizza by IFC on 6th, and Adour.
The chef and a wee fan snapped by Fritz Pastry
Where do Mr. and Mrs. Fritz Pastry dine most often in Chicago?
Nate could no doubt eat Coalfire pizza everyday and I could probably eat Ben Pao everyday….Ben Pao just has THE most flavorful vegetarian dishes.
From an outsider’s perspective, you guys have had a great first year. You’ve got a loyal clientele, lots of great press, you’ve got a great staff – looking back now how would you sum up your first year in business?
Well, 2009 was pretty awesome to say the least. The efforts and support from all of our friends and family really made this all happen. There was always a group of us here laboring away, staining tables and chairs, building shelving, knocking down tile… The warm response from the neighborhood and the media in Chicago is just overwhelmingly touching. Our staff is made up of all of our close friends, so that makes coming to “work” everyday more than enjoyable.
Nate – I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy both your sweet and savory creations; of the two, do you prefer to make one over the other? What is your general approach to your food?
I definitely enjoy making pastries much more than savory food. I think it has to do with the smell. The scent of a great savory sauce or dish can bring a certain amount of joy, but for me that moment when you can smell that a tart or a cake or a cookie is finished just by catching the aroma on the other side of the kitchen is magical. As for approach… I’d like to think that I aim for classic technique and time tested flavor combinations.
Tell me about FritzCakes – is that a traditional recipe or something you guys developed?
FritzCakes are Elaine’s recipes that have been adjusted here and there over the years. They’re just basically our style of cupcake that happen to be vegan…a little less sweet than other cupcakes with a touch of sweet/salty frosting.
Which of your items are you particularly proud of or a fan of? Is there something you could eat every day?
Jared’s favorite for sure is the blueberry muffin, in fact, he does have one every day. Nate is a big fan our croissants and springerle cookies. I would say my number one is the gateau breton, but because it is so intensely buttery I can only eat it once in awhile. The blueberry muffin is something I can definitely devour everyday.
Chicago has a lot of bakeries (thankfully) but not so many pastry shops – I think you guys filled a need for danish and croissants in Lakeview… have those been particularly popular?
Yes, its interesting because in so many cities there really are pastry shops EVERYWHERE and that is something we were really excited to contribute to Chicago. We
Lemon macaron by Fritz Pastry
definitely hope that our croissants and danish and brioche are quickly becoming neighborhood favorites. There is so much time and care that goes into each of those doughs. Nate and Sara spend hours and hours each day making sure that the doughs are perfect…and if they ever are not perfect, they get tossed.
Although you are not a “punk” pastry shop persay, I know you both from the 90’s Joliet/Chicago punk rock scene. In fact, I remember Elaine’s My Space profile picture from a few years back was a Black Flag cupcake you’d made. Other than always having a song I love playing in the shop, how do you think you’ve incorporated what you picked up from your punk rock roots into your business?
To all of us, music is totally special and inspiring. We play everything from Joey Cape to Cat Stevens to Smoking Popes…or pieces by Yann Tiersen to Joey Ramone to Miles Davis, yet all of the songs are so fitting to sipping on a cup of tea and eating a croissant in a European-inspired pastry shop. The punk subculture is essentially concerned with individual freedom and a non-conformist viewpoint…so here in the shop that could translate into creating what we want to create and serving what we want to serve. Trend and business-wise, it could seem wiser for us to open up a bakery filled with cupcakes and cookies, but we were more than comfortable with taking the risk of bringing lesser known pastries like pithivier to our Lakeview neighborhood because we really believe in what we do.
You carry loads of vegan pastries, most of which are “secretly vegan,” meaning that you don’t market them as such, and non-vegans buy them often. What are some of the vegan options in rotation and what made you decide to offer so many options? I know you blew Melisser’s mind when we stopped in, and she’s a tough one to impress! Has the tightly-knit Chicago vegan community picked up on your “secret” and started making regular purchases?
Well, Elaine was vegan for several years, and during that time we baked a lot and found that vegan sweets can be tasty if made well. We think it is a breath of fresh air for our neighborhood moms to be able to stop in and get a variety of affordable treats for their children who have egg or dairy allergies. The Chicago vegan community has been beyond supportive and do call and stop by regularly. Its great to be able to offer all of our vegan friends birthday cakes and doughnuts and muffins that they can really get excited about.
Before there was Fritz, I bought vegan cookies at a craft fair from you and our friend Malissa. How long were you two baking together?
Yes, Malissa, our good friend Missy and I started a company called the Invisible Wives several years ago. We ran it for about two years, mostly special order sales & selling our baked goods at hardcore shows. It was super fun, but because it wasn’t our main focus, we eventually became too busy with our “real-life” jobs to keep up with it.
You guys recently announced your mission to make 100 macaron flavors in one year. Where did this self-imposed challenge come from? I have to tell you, the editor-in-chief at Baking & Pastry North America told me that cupcakes are out, macarons are in. Do you think 2010 will be the year of the macaron? What flavors have you done so far and what are some interesting ones we can look forward to?
Every year should be the year of the macaron!! We were just looking at Twitter one evening and one of the feeds was from StarChefs.com asking what everyone’s New Year’s food resolution was …. and Nate just blurted out “to make 100 new flavors of macaron in the shop”. We decided that most of the flavors we do should come from our loyal guests’ requests. Immediately a long list of flavors collected: chocolate w/orange, rootbeer, and lemon poppyseed have been big hits. Pretty soon we’ll be seeing ginger and one made with Intelligentsia’s organic loose leaf masala chai.
You have a great tea menu, a rarity in Chicago pastry shops. I know you carry Intelligencia’s King Crimson tea – could you talk them into a custom King Diamond tea? Because that would be awesome. You could serve it with a danish because he’s the “great Dane.”
That’s a fantastic idea! We’ll pass that along with all of our fingers and toes crossed.
Photo by Martha Sarno
Elaine does a great job running your Twitter account – I love checking each morning to see what’s fresh out of the oven. Have you found it to be a valuable tool for gaining new customers as well as serving current customers?
Thumbs up to Twitter! So many people come over when they read the feed of what kind of danish is being served or what new soup we have for lunch. We really get excited about making things as convenient as possible for our guests…which is why we also added online ordering to our website. Event planners for offices can easily order breakfast pastries by the dozen for meetings…you can order birthday cakes online…someone in New York or California can order macarons to be shipped to their door! It is unbelievably convenient. Beyond that, soon we’ll be featuring some videos that illustrate from beginning to end on how to make croissants or macarons or whatever. At the end of the day, we want our guests to be as excited as we are to come back in the next morning.
And so you guys know, you can find out what’s hot out of the oven, and what the macaron flavor of the moment is by following Fritz on Twitter @fritzpastry.
Last question – this one is for all the aspiring pastry chefs reading – which cook books should every pastry chef have on his or her shelf?
There are a lot of really great books out there, but I would say Jacques Torres: Dessert Circus, Extraordinary Desserts You Can Make at Home. There are great basic recipes that always work. Plus, it shows how to make a super creepy clown face dessert (p.156, the mask)
Thanks so much to the folks at Fritz for letting me peek inside their kitchen! And now it’s your turn to be a fancy-shmancy pastry chef! Leave your suggestion for one of Nate’s 100 macaron flavors by 2/8/2010 and you’ll be entered to win a $50 gift certificate from Confectionery House! Choose from chocolate molds, top-quality baking ingredients, or even cute cupcake papers – $50 worth just for dreaming up a killer macaron. And as if that were not enough,Lucky Cupcakes Hairclips is also working on a Fritz-inspired hair bow for the special cowboy or cowgirl who wins the drawing! I’ll choose a winner at random next Monday.
(For some reason I blurted out that Fritz Pastry is in my neighborhood, Ravenswood when, in fact, they are in Lakeview. Wishful thinking.)
Thanks for playing everyone, the giveaway is closed! The (random) winner was Desiree with her suggestions: horchata, matcha and Hawaiian Punch! Enjoy your adorable Lucky Cupcake Hairclips bows and your $50 spending spree at Confectionery House!
If you were to walk by the Chicago Tonight green room last night you would have seen what appeared to be three very different women nervously making conversation over a basket of peanut butter cookies. Had you come inside with us, though, you would have met three people on a similar mission – to de-stigmatize eating and food. To wake people up to the fact that eating for pleasure doesn’t have to be gluttonous or unhealthy but that rather, a passion for cooking and eating can only lead to a healthy relationship with food.
Of course, as I write this, I am eating one of the peanut butter cookies Angie of Angie’s Pantry supplied us with back stage so… don’t cross me off the glutton list too quickly. Seriously, though, meeting Angie and meeting Dana Joy Altman of Real Food Rehab just reinforced what I’ve been feeling for the past few years, since becoming a food blogger myself – food is more than fuel for your body. It’s a unifying force, an expression of love and passion, and it’s a giant ball of yarn for curious cats like me.
Anyway, it was loads of fun to wander the WTTW hallways. For a kid who grew up watching Bob Serat on the morning news it was a total “look, ma, I really made it” moment. You can watch the segment below – and for the record, 2010 is the year of the French macaron, not the coconut macaron. Although I will not say no to one of those, either. (More on that soon when I post my interview with the folks behind Fritz Pastry!) You can findthe recipes for my retirement village-inspired trip of desserts, the Early Bird special on the WTTW site.
Toward the end of 2009 planet Earth lost one of the coolest people to ever walk upon it -- my friend, Mat Arluck. In the short time I was lucky enough to know him, Mat made me laugh, gave me great advice about black metal, played with Teno, made me feel awesome about my chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes, played in one of my favorite bands and taught me a lot about taking the high road.
After a tough battle with cancer, Mat passed away at his parents house on Thanksgiving day, sending shock waves of grief throughout Chicago and the vast music and skateboarding communities he was so deeply involved in.
Out of our sorrow, however, there came something positive -- an outpouring of support by Mat’s friends for Grind for Life, an organization started by pro-skateboarder Mike Rogers, to provide financial assistance to cancer patients and their families when traveling. I asked friends and family to donate in place of a gift for my birthday and was absolutely overwhelmed to raise over $800 in less than two weeks.
I recently read a letter from Grind for Life stating that thanks to Mat’s friends (and to those of you who donated for my birthday!) they were able to send $1000 to a three year old’s parents to help take him from California to New York for treatment. Turns out, it was one of Mat’s friends who referred the child’s family to Grind for Life -- and Mat’s friends who helped that same child. Yep, Mat had some remarkable people in his life -- just a testament to the kind of guy he was.
On February 4th Mat’s friends and family will come together at the Beat Kitchen in Chicago to celebrate Mat’s 40th birthday with a concert and auction benefiting Grind for Life. Some proceeds will also be put into a college fund for Mat’s nephews, Luke and Reece, whom he loved dearly.
If you knew Mat (or even if you didn’t), I hope you can make it, and I encourage you to buy your tickets early as he had lots of friends and we’re all excited to get together and remember him. You can see the band line up and buy your tickets on the Beat Kitchen site.
I’ll be there selling Mat’s favorite cupcakes -- peanut butter and chocolate, although I’ve heard he cheated on me with some other cupcakes that will be for sale as well -- along with some of my greatest hits (vegan Elvis comeback specials, French toast cupcakes, etc -- baked in cute papers from Bake It Pretty) and treats donated from Letizia’s Natural Bakery and Angel Food Bakery. Shannon from Slash & Dine will be there helping me get the goods into your hands so some out and say hello! (Special thanks to Sweet Cuppin Cakes for all their help with this, too!) All the money, of course, will be going to the causes of the night.
I miss Mat every day, and I can’t wait to meet his family and to remember him with all the people who loved him. Thanks again to everyone who donated and who has helped me to get the word out. Stay tender.
Arluck joke. If you get it, you should go to the benefit!
Hey Midwest! Catch me on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight Thursday, January 28th along with Chicago Gluttons and Dana of Real Food Rehab as we discuss eating and blogging in The Big Onion. If you don’t get WTTW in your ‘hood it looks like they post most episodes on their site after they air.
You can also check out the WTTW site on 1/28 for the recipes to make The Early Bird Special, as seen above. It’s French toast donuts topped with a veggie bacon nest and pure maple syrup. An orange juice granita and chocolate-covered espresso beans. It’s my ode to my grandparents in Florida, who I will be visiting shortly before the show airs.
I’m closing up The Shop while I’m in Florida, and opening up again after I’ve moved into my fancy new condo. If you’re subject to Bake and Destroy withdrawals you can follow me on Twitter and check out my new project, Brutal Snack. Word.
I wasn’t going to pester you guys with any more Cupcake Wars posts – at least not until Food Network called me to say they loved the show and want to bring it back as Natalie Slater’s Cupcake Wars Starring Natalie Slater. But as I was live-Tweeting the show last night I realized you guys had a lot of questions about the show, so I thought I’d do one last CW post to address those questions. (I also read lots of crappy comments about the show, and I actually have some insight as to why it wasn’t 100% up to your standards.) I’ll organize the best I can. Unlike judging cupcake shows, organizing is not my specialty.
General info & background stuff
If you want to know how I ended up on the show, check out a previous post I did. There are a few videos from a few of the days I was in LA as well – you can click through to those from that other post. That post will also cover questions you might have about why I was dressed like a Mormon and also, why I was so reserved when – as any of you know me in real life can attest to – I am generally pretty loose with the snarky remarks. We’ll get back to that later.
A lot of people asked about the host of the show and the other judges, so let’s cover that. The show was hosted by Justin Kredible. Justin’s been on a bunch of TV shows including Rachel Ray, but more importantly, he put my iPhone inside of a balloon right in front of me using magic. Yeah, because he’s a magician. Well, he’s “like a magician, only cooler.” He also did a card trick that totally freaked out the next person I want to talk about – Jane Lockhart.
Jane owns Sweet Lady Jane on Melrose Ave. I admit that I hadn’t heard of it until I landed in LA, but once I was there almost everyone I spoke to said “You have to get the triple berry cake at Sweet Lady Jane!” I looked it up, and apparently there are lines out the door every day for Jane’s fine desserts. She has the most gorgeous eyes I’ve ever seen, fabulous clothes, and she’s the best story teller I’ve ever listened to. She told me a story about a break in she experienced – in broad daylight – that gave me goose bumps.
On the other side of me at the judge’s table was Candace Nelson, founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes. As in, every-celebrity-you’ve-ever-read-about-and-then-pretended-you-didn’t-really-care-about’s favorite cupcakes Sprinkles Cupcakes. Justin said it in her intro – she put cupcakes on the map. I’m repeating myself, but she was so easy to talk to and fun that I forgot all about the zillions of cameras pointed at my face.
And then of course there were a slew of rotating judges… but no one asked me about them. So apparently there’s nothing more to say about that.
FAQ
These are all the questions I can remember that more than one person asked me.
Why were you all covered up?
Short answer: I don’t know. Long answer: Read the post I mentioned above. If your next question is why was Dave allowed to show his tattoos but I wasn’t – beats me! No idea.
Who did you really think should win?
Remember that time I was a judge on a cupcake show? And remember at the end when I was one of the four people who chose the winner? Yeah. I thought Elfie should win, that’s why I picked her.
Did you really pick Elfie based on her display?
No. If you recall, Elfie also won the tasting round at the very beginning. In fact, after the show wrapped, Candace and Jane quizzed her about her cupcake recipe because it was amazing. He cupcakes tasted delicious and her display was a show-stopper. Does that mean Erica’s cakes and display weren’t also great? Of course not. But we had to pick a winner and Elfie edged it out with her combo of yumminess and glamour.
What up with white Carmen Miranda?
Good question. I asked that too, but it was cut. Apparently “Carmen” was a friend of Elfie’s and the only person who could…uh, stand in a table…last minute. Paula Garces actually offered to be Carmen next time. I would have loved to see that.
How could you send the pregnant girl home first?
Dude. That was so hard. First of all, I loved Monica’s idea. Everyone else went spicy sweet and she was like – eff it, I’m making a churro cupcake. The cake and the fried tortillas were perfect. The frosting, as Candace mentioned, was thick and too sweet. It happens to everyone – if you’re reading this, you’ve botched your frosting. It sucks that it happened to such a sweet girl during the competition. Was it the worst cupcake I ate during the contest? No way. This got cut too, but Dave’s first batch that we tasted was really over baked. I’m kind of a pig, so I just dove in, but it really bothered Candace. His cupcakes were gorgeous, but the tasting batch was pretty dry and compared to Elfie’s, it didn’t knock my socks off. If I was the only judge that might have been it for Dave – as nice as he was. But I was one of four, and majority ruled.
You should also know that unlike Top Chef, we had like, three minutes to make decisions. The contestants were standing outside the test and producers were waving their arms at us and telling us to hurry. Still, when Monica was leaving and told me she reads my blog I pretty much wanted to punch myself in the face.
What else got cut?
Oh, lots of stuff. The scenes were the judges walked around ala Carrie Vincent and asked all kinds of questions. The part where Dave got flustered and dropped his poster board on the ground. The part where Elfie’s table broke with White Carmen Miranda still inside. The part where I asked why she was white. That’s how it goes!
Why was it so bright?
I don’t know. I write a baking blog. Go read a TV production blog.
Retorts to shitty comments I read
That show looked low budget.
Well, as pilots go, it really wasn’t. There were like, 50 crew people running around – all paid well I’m sure – we got paid, we got fed, some of us got flown in from Chicago and put up for a few nights on the UCLA campus. Yeah, it’s not Diners, Drive-ins and Dives or whatever – it’s a pilot. Pilots are cheaper than real shows. If it makes you feel better, Candace had like $40,000 worth of diamonds on. Does that makes you feel better? No, I didn’t think it would.
It sucks they picked Elfie even though Erica’s cupcakes tasted better.
Erica’s cupcakes tasted good. Her display wasn’t red carpet-worthy. Elfie’s cupcakes were dope and her display had everyone talking. I think what people are getting hung up on was Paula’s comment that she preferred Erica’s cupcakes. Again – that was one person’s thoughts among four who were making the decision. Personally, I would have liked to see Monica’s display because James (who you might recall as the giant “master carpenter”) said she was the only one who hadn’t planned on making a giant dress.
I fell asleep.
Yeah… the show needs some tweaking. If Food Network picks it up I think they can make it the next Cake Challenge, though. Cupcakes are small, there isn’t a lot you can do. But they could throw curve balls like requiring that all the cakes are vegan – or introducing mystery ingredients ala Iron Chef. And most of all, they could have me back on and not make me wear a crazy Mormon outfit.
You don’t eat cupcakes with a fork.
You do when you’re on TV. Do I eat cupcakes with a fork at home? No! I’m not a crazy person! But we were tasting so many at a time, it was the only non-disgusting way to do it.
Other questions you asked
My grandpa wanted to know what we did with all those cupcakes. The ones that didn’t go to the Alma Awards were eaten by the cast and crew. Yeah, that’s right. We ate them. We’re on a show called Cupcake Wars! We obviously enjoy eating cupcakes!
Who cuts your hair?
Seriously. People asked me that a lot. The answer is, my friend Shannon cuts it at Lather Salon in Chicago. She and I are working on a video blog together so stay tuned for that hotness.
Skin secrets. Spill them.
Not to sound like an acne medication commercial, but never in my life did I think women would want my skin secrets. Well, the truth is, I’m a vegetarian, I drink lots of water, get plenty of sleep, I don’t drink or smoke (ever, ever) I stay out of the sun (always) and I wash my face twice a day with AcneFree. I know that sounds like a commercial, but that’s what I do, so shove it. I also bathe in the blood of virgins – but that’s like, once a year, so I don’t think that’s it.
Where did you get that dress?
I actually wore that dress on the plane and never intended to wear it on air. I bought a super cute dress to wear on air, but it showed about 2″ of wrist tattoos so it was banned. To answer the question, it’s a $14 dress from Marshall’s. It’s falling apart right now. Monica has offered to have it turned into a cute apron for me, but I kind of feel like it’s my unlucky lucky dress. I might wear it until it disintegrates.
Would you do it again?
You bet your sweet ass I would.
Even if you had to cover up all your tattoos again?
I just got a giant neck tattoo – so good luck with that!
How can I tell Food Network what I thought about the show?
In the end, the best part of watching the show was reading all my friends’ comments via Twitter and Facebook through the whole thing. From the impatient “There seems to be a severe lack of Natalie” from the people who thought I was competing to “Yeah, there’s Natalie! And I can see her knuckle tattoos!” I really appreciated that you guys hyped the show, tuned in, Tweeted along, and continued to write sweet things after it was over. You guys are on my “do not stab” list for sure.
I know I left things out, so if you still have questions or comments just post them – I’ll answer everything I can!
Last week I dubbed myself a “crusty old bake sailor” because of my new found love of bake sales. This week end I’m sailing the bake sale seas once more, this time to raise money for Chicago’s fabulous 
I made this for my appearance on 
, Extraordinary Desserts You Can Make at Home. There are great basic recipes that always work. Plus, it shows how to make a super creepy clown face dessert (p.156, the mask)
Did you really pick Elfie based on her display?
That show looked low budget.
. I know that sounds like a commercial, but that’s what I do, so shove it. I also bathe in the blood of virgins – but that’s like, once a year, so I don’t think that’s it.
