Thanksgiving is one of my favorite and most important holidays and I’m grateful that I’ve been able to spend almost every single one with my immediate family, cooking all day. We don’t change the recipes, but rather, look forward to eating the tried-and-true classics that we’ve been preparing for over a decade. Here is a roundup of some of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes.
When I’m in Brooklyn, I always stop at Fan Fan Doughnuts to see what Chef Fany Gerson is baking. She always coming up with exciting new things to keep her menu fresh and this fall, she’s gone all out to celebrate Día de Muertos with pan de muerto.
“Pan de muerto is my absolute favorite bread in the entire world, and we eagerly wait to make it! This classic bread is found all around Mexico, but everyone makes it a bit differently. Ours is a buttery bread (not rich like a brioche) flavored with orange zest and orange blossom, finished with a buttery sugary topping.” – Fany
I had the pleasure from learning how to make challah from former Bouchon Bakery chef Nick Bonamico. He is now creating amazing things at Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco. Way back when I was producing Facebook Lives (remember those?) at Williams Sonoma, we invited Chef Nick to demonstrate a round challah, one of the bakery’s bread offerings during Rosh Hashanah.
This cookie recipe comes from the Paris bakery-cafe Mokonuts Bakery. It is a newly opened sister shop to the restaurant Mokonuts that is on the same block and is one of my favorite reservations. Yes, I specifically say reservation, because it’s tiny inside, seating maybe 20 diners at most, so I highly recommend booking ahead. The menu changes daily, including the fresh-baked trio of cookies offered for dessert. For one of my meals, I had Vietnamese coffee with orange, cherry leaf with sesame and chocolate buckwheat. Her signature cookie flavors are now made for the bakery, including: miso peanut butter, black sesame tahini and chocochunk (shown in the photo above). Enjoy as is or a la mode.