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.
I’ve always preferred eating cherries fresh, but this cherry clafoutis convinced me that they are delicious baked as well. When I worked at Williams Sonoma, we hosted a special dinner at Chef Dominique Crenn’s now-closed Petit Crenn in San Francisco. The menu was full of French classics like salade nicoise, ratatouille, and finished with a cherry clafoutis that I still remember to this day. The dinner was 6 years ago. I dug a giant spoon into the warm dish, revealing a glorious custard-y bake, dotted with the largest Bing cherries I had ever seen.
These cheddar and scallion biscuits were one of my favorite bakes during the pandemic. The recipe comes from Chef Mei Lin. I cheered her on as she won her season of Top Chef and I’ve been fortunate enough to have met her for work and when I’ve traveled to LA. You must try the cod fish sando at her casual Chinese eatery, daybird in Silverlake. It’s a gourmet filet o’ fish and it’s amazing. Now that you’ve got a food rec, back to biscuits!
She posted about the cheddar and scallion biscuits on Instagram, and I was immediately mesmerized by the gorgeous cross-section. My first batch got turned out decently but the biscuits were a bit lopsided, so after troubleshooting with Mei and getting some great tips that I’ve shared below, my second batch was fantastic. That’s the photo above. Hope you love them as much as I do.
