Pears Aplenty and Platter-Sized Pretzels
October’s Chef’s Kisses
Hello friends! Some of the leaves outside of my window have begun to turn red, sunrises (now happening at the end of my run) have looked extra fiery, and the sun is setting before I begin cooking dinner. All of this, coupled with the chilly winds blowing in through my kitchen window, is shifting my eating habits. Fresh salads have (largely) been replaced by heartier roasted vegetables, my morning peaches and melons have become apples and pears, and the cooler, darker days have me craving far more indulgent dishes.
So, this month’s Chef’s Kisses (my favorite food-adjacent moments from the month) reflect these seasonal shifts. This month, I posted recipes for an apfelstrudel that looks (and sounds) like a pile of crinkly leaves and dark chocolate muffins with a peek-a-boo pear. I also ate lots of pears in delicious, dairy-laden dishes (pancakes, puff pastry, bread, cheese, etc.), and practiced my pretzel plait work.
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Plenty of Pears
I have always enjoyed cooking and baking with pears in the fall (lots of tarts and salads, and always with cheese–more on that below). I love their teardrop shape, wrinkly leaves, floral-honey flavor, and juicy, thick flesh. Outside of aesthetics, I had admittedly never thought all that deeply about which pear I should be using for which dishes, but this summer in Naples, I saw a series of artworks cataloguing different varieties available each month. I do not have access to so many varietals, but I decided to buy as many as I could from the Union Square Greenmarket to find out what I like about each of them and how best to use them.
Some notes:
Anjou is fantastic served raw in salads or on a cheese plate
Asian pears are delicious out of hand, crisp and refreshing like an apple, also great served raw in salads or on a cheese plate - fantastic for when you want some crunch
Bartlett is so juicy and sweet, but can over-ripen (and get mealy) quickly. For a juicy/soft and very pear-y addition to a cheese plate or salad these are a great option.
A perfect Bosc has a beautifully meaty and toothsome texture (the firmness of the flesh keeps it from being too mealy even when over-ripe). My go-to for roasting and poaching. You can find mini Boscs at some markets (I would avoid other baby varietals outside of small Seckels, as I find they never quite ripen.)
Clapp is super floral, honey-like, juicy, and really, really lovely, but unavailable until next year in my region (their season ended in early October). These are also unreal for roasting and poaching, as long as you don’t cook them for too long
Comice is creamy and silky (a delicious pear to eat out of hand) and great served raw in salads or on a cheese plate.
Seckel pears have a strong skin but very supple and sweet flesh once pierced (a perfect little 4-bite afternoon snack). Another fantastic choice for roasting and poaching. Great for mini moments (think individual pear tartlets - more on thay below, a little poached pear with ice cream, or my chocolate pear muffin recipe)
And one last thing that I learned this month (I feel a bit silly sharing this, but I myself forgot): once your pears are ripe, store them in the fridge to stop them from over-ripening and getting mealy
You can tell when a pear is ripe by pinching the top of the neck; if it’s just beginning to soften, or appears wrinkly at the top, it’s ripe
Bartletts, Comices, and Clapps will also begin turning yellow, maybe developing a few brown spots, when ripe; Seckels and Clapps will begin to blush.
I ended up baking and cooking with a lot of Boscs and Seckels (and a few Clapps) this month. I was able to find really tiny Boscs and Clapps at Locust Grove Fruit Farm at the Union Square Greenmarket, and made two pear pancakes (a sourdough big-pan pancake and a crepe) with the Boscs.
For the sourdough big-pan pancake I just cooked it up exactly as the recipe suggest. For the crepe, I gently cooked the pear in maple syrup, constantly rotating it to get all sides equally drenched in delicious sugary syrup.
Then I played around with one of my favorite combinations: pears, bread, and cheese. I love a roasted pear for cheese pairings (as an eternal fan of soft on soft foods), so I wondered if I could bake bread with a pear and then smother them together in cheese. This led to mixed results. First, I was baking whole pears in a domed sourdough loaf (Boscs only, as any other varietal would release too much liquid). I had to cut the proofed loaf and squish the pears in, inhibiting some rise, and I added whole pears to reduce the amount of liquid being released, meaning no coring and no seasoning. While this was fine, and technically worked (and was good with butter and a triple creme, but what isn’t), it wasn’t what I was hoping for. The pears were a little bland and not cooked through enough.
In the second version, I made sure to slice the pears thinly and season them, and I placed them on top of sourdough focaccia, like I would for a potato focaccia. This was great, but I wanted more pear flavor. I made it again with thicker slices of pears, and it was amazing. The pears sizzled away in olive oil and salt and got nice and soft. I paired it with a creamy, cool burrata, and it was truly a perfect bite. I think Bartlett pears are my new favorite focaccia topping.
Another great pear-cheese combo, of course, is pears with Gorgonzola Dolce. I had one perched on a pie crust, and the other as a fried polenta cake. They were some of the best things I have eaten in the last few months. I loved it so much, I made each version two and three more times, respectively. I roasted the pears en papillote with some butter and a touch of white wine, until tender. For the pie, I brushed the outside of the pear with some of the good balsamic and stuffed it with the Gorgonzola Dolce while it was still warm. In two versions of the polenta cake, I stuffed Gorgonzola Dolce inside the polenta cake (delicious, but difficult to time, as the cheese can explode from the cake). For the most recent version, I fried up the polenta as usual and then stuffed the warm pear with the cheese. The pear of choice for this was a roasted Clapp (so juicy and sweet, like honey). I highly recommend making either of these. Versions of either the puff or polenta with baby Boscs or Seckels would be my dream holiday cocktail party canape!
Finally, (more) pears and (more) puff pastry. I made a pear tarte tatin last winter and loved it, so I wanted to make another. It’s just like making an apple one, but you sub in halved and cored pears. I like to serve it hot with cold (homemade) ice cream. This one was nowhere near as good as last year’s, so I will try again soon. I made a savory version as well: pears with fennel, a fantastic combo. It’s a little sweet, a little anise-y, and both the fruit and veg have a lovely, meaty texture. That being said, I didn’t love my tatin glaze; it felt a little too blonde because I was relying on a small amount of sugar. So, I tried again:
For the second savory pear and fennel tatin, I added in endive for a bit of bitterness (I love how endive cooks down and gets a bit jammy), and used balsamic and honey in place of sugar. This lent a rich caramel color to the dish without introducing too much sweetness. This combo will now be my go-to for savory tatins in the future. It was perfect. I loved it so much that I made it again in a vol-au-vent format–also delicious (what a surprise).
If you’re looking for pear recipes of mine on Instagram there is last week’s chocolate pear muffins, and on Substack, last year’s pear and almond tartlets.
Platter-Sized Pretzels
In 2017, halfway between Frankfurt and Nuremberg, I hopped off a tour bus and into a biergarten. The other people in my group ordered more substantial dishes, but once I saw the giant pretzel the size of my head, I knew it was going to be my lunch.
As a lifelong New Yorker, the smoky-salty-dry-soft pretzels at the sidewalk stands have always had a special place in my heart. Not to mention the simply intoxicating, doughy, buttery, tender perfume of Auntie Anne’s, my favorite food chain scent. This pretzel in Germany was a little different, simply bread-y/chewy and salty and lye-y– and amazing.
The following year, I began making pretzels every fall. And in February of 2020, I made my first batch of sourdough pretzels and have made the same recipe since. When I made them at my then-boyfriend’s (now-husband’s) apartment, one of his roommates proclaimed it was the best pretzel that he had ever had. Every year I have to agree–it really just might be the best. The recipe is from The Perfect Loaf, and I only make one small adjustment, subbing 100-150g of all-purpose flour for bread flour.
Beyond my love for pretzel flavor, I like to make them every year because I adore experimenting with how to size and shape them. Just like pie crust, I have always admired how different bakers choose to play with their pretzels: arms crossed near the top or bottom, tucking the arms in underneath, keeping the dough thick throughout, or making a wide belly with skinny arms. They can also be oblong, oval, perfectly round, or braided or bowed (see mine above), as well as topped with a myriad of crunchy toppings (I loved the sesame seed version I ate here this summer). Pretzel dough is quite fun to work with because it is so low-hydration and a bit extensible–you can get really creative.
The first platter-sized pretzel I made this year weighed as much as 1 ½ baguettes, and it rolled out to 6 feet long. I shaped it, rested it overnight, baked it for lunch the next day, and served it over a white cheddar, pickled mustard, and fennel seed sauce. It was perfect when hot out of the oven, but we also snacked on it all day, and it stayed excellent. I later ate some of it with a pear and kale salad for balance.
The second edition I made was an infinity pretzel, because why not? This was very fun, and if you enjoy making lattice-crusted pies, I would certainly suggest practicing some infinity knots with pretzel dough.
Bite-Sized
I voted yesterday :) To find out if early voting is available in your state check out this website, and you can find candidates endorsed by the Working Families Party here!
I had a blast at the Great Community Bake Sale earlier this month, supporting Heart of Dinner, Make the Road New York, One Love Community Fridge, and The Teaching Kitchen at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House. Thank you to everyone who showed up! I loved loved loved getting to meet you. I also got to try a few really amazing things. The hot dog bun from Elbow Bread was the best I’ve ever had the pleasure of trying. Radio Bakery’s walnut custard was salty-sweet-earthy perfection (you already know about my love for walnuts and custard), and the quince tart from Clodagh Manning (Pastry Chef at Zimmi’s) was another perfect dessert–the pastry case was fantastic, I could tell she thoroughly worked the butter into the flour to get that beautifully crumbly texture. I asked her what her other secrets were, and she said Kerrygold and a hard first bake of the crust before adding any toppings. I see more Kerrygold and harder bakes in my future.
For my mother’s birthday, I made her my Brooklyn blackout birthday cake, as I do for her every year <3 (photos of this years and last years above). We also went to see David Byrne on his ‘Who Is The Sky?’ tour. I’ve been listening to all of my favorite Talking Heads songs since (this is my favorite of the week), and they’re a salve. David’s creativity–the why (behind the music), the how (lyrical storytelling), and the what (it sounds so fresh, freeing, and relevant all these decades later)–is more inspiring than I can put into words.
This month, I launched a new series, Baking Blocks. It’s all about introducing a baking/pastry fundamental in its simplest form, and sharing ways you can build on it through customizations and experimentations, ultimately tailoring it to your tastes. Part 1 was a plain vanilla pudding (with additions like butter and egg, swapping sweeteners, and adding extracts, essences, spirits, and infusions). Part 2 was for chocolate, caramel, and peanut pudding flavors, along with tips for pairings and plating. Stay tuned for next month’s evolution, pudding pie.
And if you’re looking for more pie now, I have last week’s apple-strudel-pie recipe, September’s pie-pattern newsletter, and my mile-high-apple pie recipe from two years ago.