Alder Pastry and Dessert - Portland

I get excited about new bakeries in Portland, especially ones that make real French macarons. I had heard about a new bakery that opened in April on East Burnside, and once I read this local review, I was dying to try it. Alder Pastry is pretty plain on the outside (and the inside for that matter) but the real magic is in their two bakery cases.

These pastries are fantastic!!! Everything is fresh and changes often. After agonizing over the cases for a minute I decided on a goat cheese and herb crusted croissant, their signature Brittany dessert, kouign aman, and of course an oversized lemon macaron.

goat cheese and herb croissant

The croissant was an amazing flaky pastry with a killer creamy/herby goat cheese inside. Far superior to most croissants I've had.

kouign aman and a lemon macaron

The kouign aman... I don't really know what to say except it's a crunchy, flaky, buttery, salty masterpiece. I've never heard of these before but it's certainly their specialty. The large lemon macaron was a bit large but very good by Portland standards :) I've been back again since these photos and tried another macaron that was coconut/strawberry and it was even better than the lemon!

Banana Walnut Bread

I like to think I bake things that are healthy. At least that is what I keep telling myself since I go through insane amounts of granulated sugar. However any time I include fruit and nuts in a recipe, at least I don't feel as guilty eating it for breakfast all week. This is why I really love banana bread. Plus it's so easy to make!

Probably the hardest part of the recipe is finding really ripe bananas to include. That is essential to getting nice fluffy bread since it's hard to puree under-ripe bananas. I've made this recipe with pecans and with walnuts and find that either work just fine. 

Once you've mixed all the ingredients together and poured them in the loaf pan, make sure to tap the pan on the counter to get out air pockets that like to form in the lumpy batter. Then you're ready to bake!

The banana bread bakes for around an hour and comes out looking and smelling terrific. Voila! Semi-guilt free breakfast for the week :)

Fuji Bakery - Seattle, Washington

The best bakery I've been to in Seattle. And I almost skipped it due to a terrible rain storm, even for a native Portlandian like myself to deal with. It was the last stop on our trip, and was completely worth it! 

It's a very small shop near the train station in Seattle, with only four seats that I could count and just two large pastry cases to order from. They pride themselves in being a truly Japanese bakery and it shows in the beauty of the pastries. They also all looked incredibly fresh and some used interesting ingredients.

Le Panier - Seattle, Washington

The got me with macarons. Right at Pike Market is a cute French bakery that attracted my attention with some very authentic macarons!

There were seven classic flavors to choose from: chocolate, raspberry, vanilla, cafe, pistachio, orange-ganache and lemon. We ordered one of each and they were neatly placed in a macaron sized box for safe traveling. The taste and texture were fantastic. My personal favorites were the vanilla and pistachio. I also liked that they were made the classic French way of only flavoring the filling. Mmmmm....

New Orleans King Cake

The most delicious way to celebrate Mardi Gras. I really love New Orleans king cakes and the traditions that go with them (who got the baby?). Unfortunately it's really challenging to find people in Portland that share my love of king cakes or have even heard of them. They're missing out! So I decided to bake one for my friends and share it at a Superbowl party. 

It starts by making a pretty simple dough with an active yeast packet, and placing it in a bowl to rise for a couple hours.

Once the dough is ready, roll it out into a large rectangle and spread the filling EVENLY over it. I didn't really follow this part exactly but it's very important that the filling is spread evenly right up to the very edges of the cake or it will end up a little lopsided like mine. Oh well...

Marionberry Hazelnut Rugelach

There's something so fun about rolling pastry twists. This rugelach is made with a cream cheese-based dough that yields a very light and tender pastry. I opted for a very Oregonian take on the pastry, filling it with local marionberry jam and hazelnuts to add a nice burst of flavor. Really any kind of filling would be delicious.

I start by chopping up the hazelnuts (in hindsight I would chop them smaller) and putting them under the broiler for a couple minutes to bring out their flavor.

The dough was quick to prepare and after cooling it in the refrigerator for about an hour it is ready to roll out. While it was cooling I mixed up some cinnamon-sugar. The ratio that seemed the best was about 8:1 sugar and cinnamon. The dough is really sticky so I'm using a good amount of flour to keep it under control.

Sticky Pecan Cupcakes

Sticky and oh so sweet! The only way I can describe the brown sugar, honey and pecan topping on these easy to make cupcakes is amazing. Perfect for those of us who need a sugar rush at breakfast, or just enjoy a nice sticky bun.

 Doing a little prep work for the stickiness, I cut wax paper circles for the bottom of the cupcake tin.

sugar + molasses

= brown sugar

Since this recipe is pretty simple, I'm going to do my new favorite trick and make my own brown sugar so that it can be extra dark and rich. Just add some molasses to granulated sugar and fluff with the fork until it's all mixed in. Mmmmm...

Using an appropriate spatula

Once the cupcake batter is quickly mixed together in the Kitchen Aid, I'm melting the brown sugar, honey and butter together on the stove. Taste testing is strongly recommended.

Lemon Pound Cake

Mmmmm... lemon. Lemon pound cake and lemon glaze to be exact! The bright citrus combined with the fun shape of a bundt pan is just what I'm in the mood for. Plus I have never used my bundt pan before and have finally found an excuse to break it in!

Usually this pound cake would be done in a loaf pan but this looks so much more fun. The original recipe calls for cake flour, but I'm using some whole wheat pasty and cake flour instead.

Use a microplane to zest

This gadget works well for juicing

Zesting and juicing the lemon smells so good and makes me feel like I'm making the most of the fruit. Using the combination of zest and juice creates the best flavor for baking. The zest and juice are then combined directly with the sugar before mixing it with the butter.

Creamy lemon mix

Using the whip attachment to cream the butter and lemon-infused sugar. It takes about 5 minutes and lots of scraping down the bowl to get it nice and creamy.

Cranberry Orange Muffins

These are definitely not chocolate! As the holidays are coming to an end, I don't even want to hear the word chocolate, let alone bake with it. So instead I made these berry treats. The sweet orange smell of these muffins all through my kitchen was enough to make these worth baking!

The tangy cranberries are really what makes these muffins different. I used fresh cranberries, however frozen or dried cranberries can work too. The recipe originally called for a lot of orange zest, way too much! I used the zest of two small oranges that I just happened to have but one large orange would do. Just enough to get the smell and slight taste of orange but not overpower the rest.

There's nothing better than creaming butter and sugar together into a smooth and light mixture. It takes about 5 minutes of creaming to get there, so thank you to my faithful assistant Kitchen Aid for making this happen...

Putting them in the baking tin I quickly realize this recipe makes more like 18 muffins. They look pretty even before they are baked, but why not add some more color? Orange colored course sugar does the trick. Voila!