At The Snapery Bakery, we decided that, although brioche is delicious, it’s not exactly ideal for burgers, which is what it’s most demanded for. Brioche is too sweet and rich to be slathered with sugary sauces, a fatty patty and a slab of melty cheese. So, of course, we had to develop a bun ideal for burger use.
I first tasted m’smen traveling in Morocco. I bought a piece of the tender, buttery, flaky bread drizzled with honey from a street vendor. It was an exquisite culinary experience. So years later, in 2009, when the Arab American Family Support Center referred three strong candidates from Morocco to our training program, my first question was, “Do you know how to make m’smen?” One of the three, Bouchra, taught us how to make the bread and, much to her surprise, it quickly became one of our best sellers. M’smen, also called rghaif or melloui, is often served with fresh mint tea, but we hear from our customers that they use it for all sorts of things, including making tuna sandwiches. You can mix and divide the dough up to 8 hours before shaping, allowing ample time for the gluten to relax.
This is one of my personal favorites, and it’s also the most popular rye bread in our bakeries. It’s a light and tender loaf that stays fresh for a long time. Here, the fabulous, intense taste of dark malt and rye is supplemented by the lovely crunchiness of pumpkin seeds. If you can’t get your hands on cut rye berries, which give the bread a chewy bite, you can just as easily use cracked rye berries.
Slab pies turn out to be the perfect solution for cocktail hour. Inspired by a phyllo filling from The Silver Palate Cookbook, I first combined spinach, gorgonzola, and walnuts in my early 20s when I decided to have a cocktail party. I made so much, I spent five days filling and freezing tiny phyllo appetizers. They were devoured and everyone was amazed, but I never did it again. Since then, I’ve shied away from large fussy projects and tend toward simplification. Pie is all that. And this pie is all that and more.
This recipe is inspired by the now famous Salty Honey Pie served at Four and Twenty Blackbirds in New York City. I have added tahini and chocolate to my pie as they are natural bedfellows and seem to bring out the best in each other. Add a pinch of sea salt flakes and a touch of vinegar to round things off and this is what you get.
This recipe starts with the funny act of putting whole apples in the freezer and ends with one of the most electric desserts you’ve ever had. In the middle, when you rip the thawed apples in half with your bare hands, you get to feel like a bodybuilder on Muscle Beach or a very strong raccoon.
When we were testing recipes for this book, our friend Paul came to the house carrying a basket of figs fresh from the tree. Being a warm and friendly team, we happily accepted his offer to make us a dessert. When we first tasted his tarte, we knew the recipe had to be in the book. Once you’ve tried it, you’ll be hooked, too. Figs are a rich source of minerals, including magnesium and calcium, and are also powerful antioxidants. This is a delicious dessert with no refined sugar or gluten—a summer delight.
This is a summer treat to make when peaches are at their best. If you wish, replace the peaches with apricots, the strawberries with raspberries and the Kirsch with Drambuie.
Cake for breakfast is a thing, in case you didn’t know, and one of the best kinds to eat in the morning is angel food cake. It’s light, delicate and sponge-like, making it an ideal vehicle for loads of fresh fruit. Fruit=breakfast, therefore this cake=breakfast. It’s simple math! This recipe calls for strawberries that marinate in sweet sugar and flavorful vanilla bean paste—there’s your fruit! The first time I made angel food cake, I was so proud of myself. Yes, it does require a lot of egg whites, but you can use the leftover yolks in shortbread, Hollandaise sauce or pudding. Or scramble them and eat them for breakfast with your cake.
One summer, my family and I went on vacation to Scotland, where I ate haggis every day and enjoyed truly the best fish-and-chips in the world in the lovely little seaside town of Anstruther. On the short drive from Anstruther back to St. Andrews, a pasture full of Holstein-Friesian cows caught our eye. We just had to stop. Turns out, they were grazing in the pasture of a dairy that had a restaurant. Stuffed though we may have been, we just couldn’t keep ourselves from buying some fresh cheeses and several desserts. This one was our favorite. Thank you for the recipe, St. Andrews Farmhouse Cheese Company!