Lavender Sea Salt Sables

It's a little ironic, as someone who posts recipes on the internet, that I am afraid of internet recipes. What bugs me about all recipes and cooks.com and all that? They're not really tested, and half of the comments are "I made this, it was awesome, here are the three hundred things I changed about it" and I just can't get on board with that.

I want to know that someone somewhere measured and timed and sliced and baked more than once and got the same result. I want to see a publishing house behind the book. I've been burned before by the hard bound variety (I'm looking at you, booze cakes), but not as often as by the internet. I want to know that what I'm investing my organic sugar and butter in (and time!) is going to turn out GOOD.

This is probably why my sister and I have about two drafts for every one post. The recipes that we forget about or aren't so enthusiastic about posting are forgotten, left lingering in the purgatory of blogger. You aren't missing those, internet friends.


I went to my cookbook on the internet, Smitten Kitchen. Deb at Smitten Kitchen has always been good to me. Searching through her cookie recipes I found one that didn't require any fancy ingredients or equipment (I've been living with boys who don't cook. Even a lime is hard to find around here, forget about a zester).


These are super simple and delicious. They're like the danish ones in the blue tin, stacked neatly in the white paper. Only you don't have to wait until Christmas, and they're all gone before they get stale.


I added the lavender and sea salt to satisfy a craving. I actually tried no fewer than three variations on lavender before I got it right. It became my white whale, getting them right.  The secret is to use food grade lavender, not the kind from the supplements department, and really crush it up with the salt (I used the tiniest mortar and pestle ever). The lavender is actually really nice and doesn't taste a thing like soap, but if it's not your thing that's cool too.  I'm not offended if you don't like them, more for me! I ate three of them for dinner last night (and some ice cream for a well balanced meal).


These are really nice and really simple.


Sables from Smitten Kitchen via Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets who adapted from Boulangerie Poilane. Confused yet?


1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 cups of flour
3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
3/4 teaspoon food grade lavender flowers


1. Using a mortar and pestle, combine the salt and lavender. Mix them till  you are sick of it, this will take about a minute. I whisked this mixture into the flour.


2. pulse the butter in your food processor until smooth. Add the sugar and pulse until blended. Next, add the egg (don't forget this, not that I have ever done it, but it will be much better with the egg) and pulse until it is smooth and satiny. Add the flour mixture, pulse 10-15 times until it is just combined. Divide the dough into two equal portions, roll into logs, and refrigerate 4 hours or as long as you can stand to wait, up to 4 days.


3. Preheat your oven to 350F. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the logs 1/8-1/4" thick discs and place about 1-2" apart on the sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned on top. They are so good and crumbly if you can let them cool before eating. I understand that is nearly impossible, but in case you have self control it is totally worth it.

The first one always burns.

Hello Fall

Can you believe i took this with my phone?

I have been making this all summer when I can't stand to be in the kitchen longer than ten minutes.  Now that apples are more in season I'll let you in on my secret: cooked endive. I like to make this when I want to eat something good and don't want to have to stay in the kitchen while it cooks. 

The first time I had this, I think it knocked my socks off. I had never had a cooked endive and now I don't know what took me so long. Endives are incredibly bitter, but super sweet apples and grapes really make this gorgeous. That's all it is! Endives, apples, and grapes. You'll figure out a ratio of sweet to bitter that works for you. I like more grapes than apples with mine. 

Here's how it works: 

(from Dorie Greenspan's Around my French Table)

cut an endive in half like a hot dog

do the same with one apple, then quarter it. cut off a strip of skin from the backside; you just want to expose more of the apple to the pan to get a little more liquid out of it. You will only use 1/2 of the apple (see the picture)

rinse a handful or two of grapes.

Add two sprigs of rosemary if you have them. It will smell amazing, but I don't usually have it. 

Turn a pan on medium and melt a tablespoon of butter. Add everything to the pan and reduce the heat to low. Let cook for 30 minutes or until softened, turning halfway through. Seriously, that's it. I let this serve me  as one small meal. To serve more, use double the stuff. You'll figure it out, I promise. 

Summer Fail

The past few weeks have been nuts.  First I moved. Then the earth moved. Then there was a hurricane. Then I had no power for five days. The entire summer has gone that way: things interrupted, fits and starts, eating like a little bird. I think I had hummus and veggies for at least 6 meals last week.

Being without power wasn't that bad because I was gone for the first two days of it. Imagine how surprised I was when at 1am, I got home to an apartment building whose front doors were unlocked. I was certain I was going to be attacked before I could gouge my perpetrator's eyes out like The Boyfriend so enthusiastically taught me. Obviously, I was safe in my locked studio. Then it hit me: no power means the freezer isn't working. Four pints of ice cream, gone (Talenti gelato: new obsession). Even worse, the Italian meringue frosting I made (and put on a phenomenal cake from this cookbook, with lemon curd), gone. Leftover lemon curd I was hoping to put on cookies? Also gone.

This is kind of breaking my heart all over again. I ate bread and peanut butter for two days straight. It's too soon to talk about. 

Hot milk cake with lemon curd and italian meringue frosting

So while I have power and my own kitchen again and hope to resume baking activities soon, maybe someday I will also have The Internet and it will not require walking uphill both ways in two feet of snow or through a hurricane to tell you about my adventures.