Cle Elum Bakery

Torchetti
Cle Elum Bakery, $.90/each

Founded in 1906, the Cle Elum Bakery still relies on its original brick bread oven and several of the recipes the original brought with him when he came over from Italy.  Among these, the popular torchetti cookie:  "Italian Pastry made with Butter, Yeast, and Spices.  Enjoy with Coffee, Tea or dipped in Red Wine."

The Osmanovich family bought the bakery in 1947 and it is still run by their descendants.  They were probably responsible for introducing the "divinity" cookie ($.75/each), a meltaway cloud of shortening, powdered sugar, and nuts similar to cookies found in Russia, Greece, and Mexico.  

Cle Elum Bakery 
501 E 1st St 
Cle Elum, WA
509/674-2233
 

Khapse

Khapse
Tibetan Association of Washington, $15 with Losar dinner

Seattle's tiny Tibetan community puts on a Losar celebration that's everything I like a New Year's bash to be:  colorful, well catered, teeming with raucous children, and equal parts mystery and welcome.

I wandered into the Shoreline Senior Center shyly, not knowing a soul, but in under a minute I was offered at seat at a friendly table.  As we made introductions, a man came by with a large box and tongs, topping a paper plate already full of extra-spicy Cheetos with a delicacy I'd only ever read about, a treat both mysterious and hospitable:  Tibetan "cookies", or khapse. 

Made from dampened wheat flour and small amounts of salt, sugar, or both, khapse's appeal has more to do with appearance and texture than with flavor.  The dough is rolled into sheets, cut into strips, and wrought into a variety of traditional or whimsical shapes.  Finally, a dip in boiling oil gives the flimsy sculptures structural integrity and crunch.  

In Tibet, Losar season calls for vast quantities of khapse, from elaborate coils and curls that are stacked into offering towers, to simpler twists stored in a tin and brought out to eat with tea whenever a visitor stops by.  In the lead-up to Losar, professional khapse makers will make house calls, using portable deep fryers to create temporary outdoor kitchens for the freshest cookies.  

My first bite wasn't promising; my butterfly-shaped khapse was so hard and dry that my jaw ached after two chews.  Then a new acquaintance arrived back at the table with a round of hot, milky tea and some advice.  A quick tea-bath transformed my khapse into something much more enjoyable, and I polished it off wing by wing as the adults around me discussed the difficulties of the past year and their brightly-dressed children dashed around the room, laughing.  
 

New Year's Cake

New Year's Cake

This New Year, how about partying like it's 1834?  You'll just need a batch of New Year's cakes.

The practice of making New Year's cake arrived in this country with seventeenth century Dutch immigrants, spread from there to their New York neighbors, and then to Quakers and Congregationalists.  The cakes were a perfect match for the old New York custom of throwing open one's doors on New Year's Day to a parade of visitors.  The occasion called for impressive but achievable refreshments, so hostesses relied heavily on small cookie-like cakes; they might be cut into exacting shapes, dotted with exotic aromatic spices, or embossed with ornate designs. 

The popularity of the illustrated cakes sparked an entire industry centered on the production of carved wooden "prints" of varying size and intricacy for both commercial and home use.  John Conger was one noted print carver; his large mahogany molds are now rare and extremely valuable.

With no Conger in my kitchen, I tried making my own mold--but new to both carving and using this type of mold, I made several rookie mistakes.  Next time I'll carve my designs more deeply, roll the dough and then chill it before doing the embossing, and let the raw cookies sit overnight as instructed.  The finished cookies were great with coffee:  light and just sweet, with the unexpectedly cool, savory flavor of the caraway seeds--and the faint hint of my intended design!

 
New Year's Cake Recipe
-circa 1834, from William Woys Weaver, America Eats

2 sticks salted butter
2 c sugar
1 c sour cream or plain yogurt
2 T caraway seeds
5 c pastry flour
1 t baking powder
1 1/2 t cream of tartar

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in the sour cream and caraway seeds.  Sift together the flour, soda, and cream of tartar twice, then sift into the batter and mix well.  Wrap and allow to ripen in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.

Roll part of the dough out to 1/2" thickness and if using a mold, press it into the dough and then cut out the cookie; if not using a mold, use a knife or cookie cutter to create shapes.  Rework all the dough scraps until all of it is used up.

Set the cookies on greased baking sheets with at least 1/2" between them.  Let them sit in a cool place overnight so that the imprints will set.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake for 10-12 minutes; the bottoms should be golden and the tops pale.  

Lengua de Gato

 
Lengua de Gato
Sweet Coconut Bakery, $5.75/12

I went to the Urban Craft Uprising summer show to check out some jewelry...and left with cookies.  I have my priorities.

Seattle's Sweet Coconut Bakery is a young company on a misson:  "to create sweet treats that might induce you to sit down, maybe put your feet up, and enjoy a cup of coffee, cocoa, or tea. Let time tick slowly, as you would if you were on vacation on a tropical island, where coconuts abound, and life is sweet."  

Sweet Coconut's treats are largely Filipino, American, or some combination of the two.  Crisp, rich little cookies that resemble cats' tongues in both shape and texture, lengua de gato are a Spanish recipe beloved in the Philippines and here given a Seattle spin with the addition of cacao nibs from Theo Chocolate.  Sweet Coconut's menu includes other well-traveled favorites such as polvorones (shortbread), pastillas de leche (cooked milk candy), sampanguita (coconut-butter cookies), macaroons, marshmallows, brownies, and peanut butter cookies.  

Available around Seattle at selected farmer's markets--and the occasional craft fair--these treats can also be Sweet Coconut treats can also be ordered from Sweet Coconut's Etsy shop.   

Pastelería y Panadería La Ideal

Conchas
Pastelería y Panadería La Ideal, 3/$1.00

Seattle's South Park neighborhood has always been something of an outlier. In the late 19th century the expansion of downtown Seattle pushed Italian immigrant George Colello off his original farm at what is now First and Jackson; Colello became one of the first of many farmers, mostly Italian and Japanese, to raised produce in South Park for sale at stalls in Pike Place Market.

Ironically, the area's industrialization during the 20th century left South Park dangerously polluted. Over the years the neighborhood has also struggled with crime and gentrification, and as if all that weren't enough, the bridge that had been South Park's most direct connection to the city since 1929 was closed in 2010 and its replacement is still under construction.

So it's both a wonder and no wonder at all that in 2007 master baker and Mexico City native Fernando Marquez Galicia looked around South Park and saw both a market and a need. As he told the Catch the Culture website, “South Park has lots of Latinos, lots of good people, and South Park needed a bakery.”

Today Pastelería y Panadería La Ideal is an aromatic neighborhood hotspot. The fresh-daily treats run the gamut from simple sweet breads (pan dulce) and pastries to fancy desserts. There's creamy caramel-topped flan, empanadas filled with fruit jams, jiggly gelatinas in colorful small cups, and pastel tres leches, a cake bathed in three kinds of milk (evaporated, condensed, and cream).

Conchas (above) are light buns topped with a soft sugar paste; before baking lines are stamped or raked into the paste, giving the bun a vaguely shell-like appearance. I also tried buns filled with custard (below left) and cream cheese (below right).

La Ideal is cash-only, but almost everything is between $0.50 and $1.00. So much about visiting South Park seems a little like traveling back in time--including the opportunity to gorge on fresh baked goods after spending only the small change scrounged from the floor of the car.

Pastelería y Panadería La Ideal
8909 14th Ave S
Seattle, WA

206/767-4002

Fig Cookies

Fig Cookies,
Portera's Panetteria, $4/bag

Sure, the renovated Market in the heart of New Orleans' French Quarter is a genericized tourist trap: where else can you find feathered masks, taxidermy ashtrays, blingy sunglasses, and marked-up cans of chicory coffee?

In at least twenty other souvenir shops within a four-block radius.

But in other ways the French Market still has its own unique texture, accumulated over the two centuries that trading has taken place on the site. For a glimpse into that past, turn your back on the sparkliest stalls and head for the tables reserved for a rotating cast of small-scale vendors and craftspeople.

Maybe you'll run into Cynthia Portera, smiling from behind two card tables piled high with colorful cookies and sweets. Pastries from Portera's Panetteria are a delicious reminder of the Sicilian migrants who once made up almost half of the French Quarter's population, many of whom made their livings more or less this way, selling fruit or sweets from carts, stalls, or small shops.

Portera's products are based on Sicilian traditions; ingredients and flavors that signal the island's rich heritage of Mediterranean and North African influence. Cookies include potent little nuggets scented with anise or lemon, and cucidate stuffed with fig jam and topped with sugar sprinkles (above). For special occasions there are bouquets of candied almond "flowers" (the five petals invite health, wealth, long life, fertility, and happiness) and, in season, bags of the shaped pastries offered on a St. Joseph's Day altar (including a sandal, wreath, cross, crown, and loaf).

Portera's Panetteria
12652 River Rd.
Destrehan, LA 70047
985/764-0291