downton audrey

hey y'all! i had a rather exhausting, somewhat wine-soaked weekend, so i'm taking it easy with a bit of hulu with a side of blogging. i've become obsessed with downton abbey - about a year too late, i know - watching the first two seasons in a matter of about four days, because that's how i do. the show is essentially a soap opera set in the early 1900's, which is captivating enough, but the costuming is absolutely to die for - for me, it rivals even that of mad men - gorgeous, long art deco frocks, elbow length gloves, fabulous jewelry. it inspired me to snag this skirt, and do my best modern-downton - sort of last year's anthropologie catalog meets downton abbey meets dark-rooted-bedhead.




top: anthropologie
skirt: madewell
necklace: gift from sam
necklace: old anthropologie
shoes: (hard to see) rachel comey

anyhow, last weekend, after the resounding success that was braised lamb neck, i grabbed some lamb lollipops from work and planned a meal around them - a fishcake salad to start, mussels for an appetizer and then lamb lollipops with a fennel and green apple slaw and beet pureé. the preparation was actually quite simple, but so, so good.






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apple and fennel slaw

one small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
one green apple, thinly sliced
2 T honey
2 T apple cider vinegar
a few fronds of fennel, chopped
sea salt

combine all ingredients and let them sit for at least thirty minutes.

beet and greek yogurt pureé

about 2 large beets, cooked til soft and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup greek yogurt
sea salt

place in blender. buzzzzzz.

lamb lollipops

spice rub: i used rubbed sage, fennel pollen, sea salt, fresh thyme leaves
4 lamb lollipops
a splash of olive oil

start the oil in a pan, on medium high; let the pan get nice and hot, then place the lollipops in. cook for about 2-3 minutes (depending on thickness) each side; let them rest for a few minutes, then serve atop the slaw and puree. ta-da!

and one final note! i've had some exciting press lately - an interview with the host of all things considered on npr (which i have to admit is very much a dream come true for me, the biggest of all NPR nerds) and then today my macarons are featured on nymag.com! (and just in time for valentine's day. . . i have a feeling the next week will be an exceedingly busy one.)


macaron flavors (clockwise) coconut cream, nutella, mint chocolate chip, lavender black pepper and lemon rosemary. (photo by nymag)

thank you, truly and deeply, for all your kind words - i'll do a post soon to address some questions i've been getting in the comments.

much love to you all,

xo audrey

days gone by

which, a simple google search reveals, is the english translation of "auld lang syne." (**the more you know**) (or at least, it was news to me.)



dress: jill stuart
shoes: c/o seychelles
tights: HUE
flower brooch: thrifted

just a quickie today! sam and i were back up in connecticut this weekend for new year's day - a good friend has the misfortune of a december 31st birthday, which generally means that there is no shortage of parties on his special day, but not-a-one for him. his lady changed that this year, renting out a party bus to drive us and several of his close friends around hartford. i'm more of a dinner-party, champagne toast, dance with friends type of girl on new years, but i have to admit i had a pretty good time hopping from bar to bar. and it was a perfect excuse to snatch up this dress that i've been coveting for months upon months, for a fraction of even the sale price it's listed for on shopbop - one of the many benefits of living in new york city, i suppose.





so. . . this is pretty much everything i could want in a dress. bright colors, whimsical shapes (yes, i used the word "whimsical" and yes, i do kind of hate myself for it), gorgeous pleating. . . if i could wear it every day, i would. and it was warm enough saturday night to throw my go-to sweater over it and walk out the door.

and i THINK i'm a couple steps closer to finding a way to style this overgrown pixie cut into something i like. it requires the assistance of a blowdryer, which is a bit more high-maitenance than i'm used to, but i think i'll suck it up until it's long enough to throw into a ponytail.

and i'll leave you with one last shot of some food porn - i wouldn't feel right completing my first post of the year without it. i thought these macarons matched my outfit pretty well, so here they are: grapefruit curd flavor, made just before the new year.



i hope everyone had a fantastic new year! 2011 had to be my best year yet - i married the love of my life, found my dream job and am pretty much as happy as could be. i wish the same to each of you.

xoxo audrey

it's beginning to look a lot like. . .

hello hello!

well, believe it or not, i am STILL nursing this cold, and starting to forget what it feels like to have a nose that isn't runny, and a head that isn't almost too heavy for its neck. one of my readers, lauren, pointed out that i shouldn't nap in the afternoon, and i think she's right - unfortunately i've become stuck in this awful cycle of wake up super early & tired, work for 8 or 9 hours, become exhausted, go home, nap, wake up for dinner and find myself unable to fall asleep at a reasonable hour, and repeat. i've also been watching a lot of law and order: special victims unit, which is doing some pretty weird things to my dreams.

regardless of all of this, i've been working like a maniac and honestly loving just about every minute of it. (except the first thirty or so. try as i might, i am just not a morning person.) with the holidays coming i'm trying to get some ideas together for the bakery (which, i should mention, is called the annex, in fort greene. if you are in new york please stop by!! it's a small place, you'll see me.) what holiday cookies and treats do you like? as a pastry chef with an admittedly saltier tooth than sweet, this time of year can be hard for me - so i've been focusing my time on macarons, always my favorite.








from the top: raspberry lemonade, blueberry white chocolate, caramel apple cider, chocolate espresso, pear ginger, and peppermint dark chocolate.

thank you all for the sweet and encouraging comments. it's a job that hardly feels like work, but i have to say i'm anxious to get my energy back and my sleep back on schedule so i can get back to normal again - i feel like i've been on some kind of strange baking vacation where all i do is work, eat and sleep.

if you have any holiday recipe ideas you'd like to share, please let me know! i'll let you know if i'm serving your cookies in the bakery.

xo audrey

walking dead

good afternoon! sam and i rushed back from portland yesterday morning, and i went straight from the airport to work. . . it always sounds like such a great idea to save $50 and get an extra night with your friends when you're buying the plane tickets, but i'll tell you, waking up at 4 am after a late-night sushi party is ROUGH. and working through it is rougher. i spent yesterday in major zombie mode.

before we left for portland, i made a batch of extra-large macarons. when i was in school, we were taught to make them about the size of a quarter - petit four size - and it has been a really hard habit to break, maybe because you get so darn many out of a batch and they're so tiny and cute that way. i decided it'd be easier to travel with extra large macs rather than a box full of delicate little guys, so i made them about three times their usual size, and i will never go back.



raspberry vanilla macarons with dark chocolate ganache

100 g aged egg whites, preferably at room temperature
28 g sugar
5 g egg white powder
1 t bakto vanilla ground vanilla beans (or vanilla bean paste, or just plain vanilla if that's what you have on hand)
1/2 t bakto raspberry extract
a few drops of deep red food coloring
120 g almond flour
200 g powdered sugar

for ganache:
200 g dark chocolate
about 3/8 cup (or 6 T, or 1/4 cup plus 2 T. it's a clumsy amount.) heavy cream

as always, get everything measured out and a nice big space cleared. i like to go ahead and prep 3 baking pans by trimming parchment to fit them and securing them down with butter before i start, and get a piping bag ready with a tip about the size of a pencil eraser.

sift together the almond flour and sugar and set aside. now combine the sugar and egg white powder. using a handmixer, whip the egg whites until they are foamy and no longer yellow; slowly add the sugar mixture and beat until you have a nice meringue, with peaks that will still droop a touch. before you're finished, add the extracts and color and mix until they're evenly combined. the egg white powder does a good job of preventing an over-mix, but you want to make sure not to under beat it, too - it should be nice and shiny.



at this point, shake off the beaters and grab a good, flexible rubber spatula. grab the sieve you used to sift together the flour & powdered sugar, and add the flour/sugar mixture to the meringue in five additions, sifting it through the sieve again each time to evenly distribute it. gently fold the flour each time until you don't see streaks anymore.





all right! pour all this into your eagerly awaiting piping bag; i usually fit mine over a quart container, twisting the tip, so i can pour it in there with both hands and get every bit out of the bowl.

move to your trays. the trick we were taught in school was to count as your piping, a quick "one-two-three," so that they all turn out the same size; err on the size of giving yourself too much space between cookies, because they'll spread a bit after being piped and even a bit more when baking. after you pipe a sheet, tap them once, hard, on the table to release air bubbles.

then just let 'em sit. while this is happening, turn your oven to just under 300; i'd definitely get a thermometer, if you don't have one already, as my busted old brooklyn oven actually burns at 375 when i have it set to 300, so i have to watch it and adjust accordingly.

let them rest, preferably not somewhere super hot or humid, until they develop a skin, and you can poke them gently without the batter coming off on your finger. pop them in your preheated oven and set a timer for six minutes, then rotate them and bake for six more - this is perfect for my oven, but yours might need a bit more or less time, so watch for them to start to barely turn light brown on their feet and take them out then.

let them cool entirely before peeling them off the parchment; you can refrigerate or freeze the shells if you don't want to fill them immediately, otherwise melt 2/3 of the chocolate with the cream over low heat on the oven, and mix in the rest of the cold, chopped chocolate after it's all melted. this should give you a good consistency for piping; pipe a dollop onto one sandwich, match it with a mate, and voila. these things only get better with a day or two in the fridge, so don't be afraid to make them ahead of time.

i know i've done macarons to death, but i continue to be delighted with them; as a pastry chef with a seriously stunted sweet tooth, i never tire of the mix of textures and the fact that you can make any flavor combination under the sun with these things. the raspberry flavor in this is as good, or better, than when i've tried pulverizing dried raspberries to use - i highly recommend all the flavors bakto offers. the woman behind the company is a scientist really does an incredible job of extracting the most natural tasting flavors. give 'em a try.

that's all from me for today. we had such a fantastic time up in maine and have lots to show for it, as soon as i've rested up and gotten my act together a bit.

xo audrey

in technicolor & sepia tones

now, with all the videos and wedding photos out of the way, it's back to our regularly scheduled programming.

wednesday night i had the privilege of attending an event at the coach store on bleecker street. it was a lovely event (as per usual, the waiters pegged me as "the girl who will eat anything" and always came to me first with their trays of h'ordeuvres and champagne [not that i'm complaining,]) not only for the food, drink, & beautiful bags, but it was teeming with lovely ladies - claire, christine, keiko, kim, natalie, lindsey, katy, and jenni. we all chatted, ate and drank, eyeballing the lovely purses all the while, until closing time when we got to choose whichever one we wanted. i selected this bright red shoulder bag from their new collection, which i think will work nicely with all the color in my wardrobe. i wore this peter jensen dress i snagged on sale at asos awhile ago and have been saving for a special occasion since. (for the purpose of full disclosure, these photos were actually taken in my kitchen last night while macarons were resting, haha. i woke up too late wednesday morning to take pre-event pictures, and got home way too late on wednesday.)





dress: peter jensen
brooch: c/o tiffany
shoes: thrifted
belt: thrifted
purse: c/o coach

i adore this dress. it has all this smocking (is that the right word?) coming off the collar that floats behind you as you walk. it's a tad big, though - i need to figure out a way to take it in a tad at the waist. and the red of the purse and blue of the dress are pretty much my favorite color combination, ever.

so! one of my exciting weekend plans is attending a bastille day party tomorrow evening in manhattan. i have a feeling i was invited half because they wanted me to bring sam and half because they wanted me to bring macarons - but hey, if i can put on a dress and dance, i'll take whatever invite i can get. so i stayed up last night baking a batch of vanilla bean shells, to be filled with dark chocolate ganache.



now. a word about macarons. i get emails asking for tips or advice from time to time, and i'm always happy to share any tips i have - after all, i've made my fair share of them, for events large and small, and i even went to french culinary school to be taught the proper way, for goodness sake. i STILL have my struggles with the things. some of it i blame on my awful, brooklynite oven - it's got hotspots worse than a damn volcano, and it often leads to leaning, wonky-footed macarons. sam has seen me lose it over a botched batch on more than one occasion. BUT. after a few pretty-damn-perfect batches in a row, i think i have three words that will change your macaron world forever: egg.white.powder.

when i'm having a tough time with macarons, i turn to this lady: she is a macaron master. her most recent french macaron recipe (linked) includes 5 grams of egg white powder with your sugar (what you use to make the meringue) and every time i've used this recipe they've been spot on. last night i tried it in my awful oven for the first time, and every single macaron came out, dare i say, perfect. here's the recipe i used last night:

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vanilla bean macarons with dark chocolate ganache

100 g egg whites (room temperature)
29 g sugar, with one whole vanilla bean's seeds scraped in
5 g egg white powder
125 g almond flour
200 g powdered sugar

sift together the almond flour and powdered sugar; set aside. combine sugar & egg white powder. whisk your egg whites (i just use a hand mixer, it gives you a bit more control than a stand mixer,) until there's no more yellow and they're white and foamy; slowly add the sugar/egg white powder, whisking all the while, and beat and beat until you have not-quite-stiff peaks and your mixture is white and glossy. use a sieve and sift in the almond flour/powdered sugar mix in five batches - mix in a fifth, fold in with a spatula until it's well mixed, and repeat 4 more times. once it's all combined and no lumps remain, spoon this into a piping bag and pipe onto parchment paper on a heavy duty sheet pan (pipe a tiny bit of batter onto the four corners of the tray, so that the parchment sticks down,) leaving about an inch between each dollop. tap the tray twice, hard, on a table to release any bubbles and let the macarons sit until they don't stick to your finger when you touch them - i let them go for about an hour. place them in a pre-heated 300 degree oven and bake for about 12 minutes, rotating halfway through.

for the ganache:

4 ounces of dark chocolate and 4 ounces of cream. bring the cream to a boil and immediately pour over the chocolate; let it rest for a minute or two, then whisk slowly, from the inside, until it's all combined and smooth. let it sit until room temperature and then pipe a little dollop onto one half of a paired up macaron shell. voila!





what are your plans for the weekend? tonight i think we're staying in and taking it easy, and then tomorrow we've got some more baking to do (and i'm hoping to sneak off to the brooklyn flea) before our party in the evening. then on sunday, any of you new yorkers should come to williamsburg - my friend rachel, who started up terrific magazine, is bringing together a bunch of awesome brands, food, and booze for a big sale at union pool.



i'll be stopping by there early afternoon then heading to another friend's place for some barbecue and homemade ice cream.

hope you have a great one!

xo audrey

back in the swing

hello everyone. i have to admit, it has been tough to figure out how to jump back into this. i'm waiting for my photographer to send her official wedding photographs, so i kind of want to hold off on the big-official-homerunballerina-got-hitched post, but writing about anything else seems kind of silly, too, since getting married was, you know, pretty much the biggest thing that's happened to me, ever. so i begged my little sister to send me some of her husband's beautiful photos (thanks andy!!) so that i could at least do a little wedding lead-up post.


our banner, made by the lovely caitln of nice

i left work a week before the wedding and took the train up to connecticut to get started on wedding preparations. my to-do list was pretty horrifying. i'd already made a piñata and dyed all 85 cloth napkins, but i still needed to design placecards, cut them out, decorate the piñata, create signs for all the food, and make the topper for the cake. . . not to mention baking everything on the dessert and appetizer menus, which, by the end, had gotten a little out of control. five kinds of macarons, two types of pie lollipops, rosemary creme brulee spoons, malted chocolate chip cookies, and mini lemon blueberry tarts, plus, of course the wedding cake; and for appetizers, two kinds of quiche, lobster rolls, 2 different cold salads, deviled quail eggs, and sam's specialty potatoes. sam had been gone all weekend, fishing with his buddies in the connecticut river; rather than be a responsible adult, staying home and crossing some things off this to-do list, i went out harder than i have in years for three nights in a row, so that not only did i accomplish zilch on the list prior to arriving in connecticut, but i actually took all of monday off once i'd gotten there, choosing instead to kick up my feet, sip some wine, and bask in the glow of my fiancé's presence because hey, we had all week!

yeah, i'm kind of dumb sometimes.

tuesday i spent the entire day sifting almond flour, beating meringues, and folding in colors to make all the macarons: strawberry balsamic mascarpone, lemon cherry dark chocolate, clementine honey white chocolate, chocolate caramel sea salt, and coconut lime. that night my parents arrived, and we had a nice quiet dinner at home as i slowly hyperventilated into my pinot grigio. this was not going as planned. yes, knocking out all the macarons was a big coup; but i had three days left, two of the evenings already set aside for other plans, and a laundry list of things to accomplish.

thank god for dettmars.



my mom and dad got in tuesday, and the rest of the dettmar brood (my older sister emily, her adorable son pete, my sister esther & her husband andy, and my little brother colin,) trickled in over the course of wednesday and reported for duty. we made repeated trips to grocery stores; they chopped strawberries, made pie dough, assembled lollipops, quiches, salads, and cookies. basically, they saved the wedding. i truly wouldn't have been able to do ANY of it without them, and i'm eternally grateful. luckily for me they are all married already, with the exception of my little brother, so i won't be forced into indentured wedding servitude until he finds the right lady. i hope he gives me a couple years to recover.


filling quiches; the tarts, quiches and macarons, ready to be brought out


sam's famous potatoes, and the god-forsaken deviled eggs (quail eggs are my nemesis. i won't be making these again for awhile.)

everything turned out beautifully. the morning of the wedding i woke up at 6 am with butterflies, and went with my dad to pick up bagels and donuts and ride over to the house to start the final preparations. my mom and sister had decorated and filled the piñata the day before; my sister-in-law (and our reverend) sheila sat at the dinner table finishing the placecards; by dad, brother and brother-in-law spent practically the entire day blowing up 700 balloons to fill the roof of the tent (despite andy's CRIPPLING allergies which he was too sweet to complain about.) my mom and esther tied ribbons to the pie pops to identify flavors, and two of my former co-workers showed up and became honorary family members by busting ass all day to assemble the cake, bake all the cookies, make buttercream, and finish the creme brulees.


my cake topper, and my mom & sister's handiwork


rosemary creme brulee spoons; malted chocolate chip cookies


this is what 5 hours worth of balloons look like.

in the end, i know everyone says it, but i look back on that day and just feel so incredibly grateful for my friends and family. people woke up at the crack of dawn (and in my family's case, REPEATEDLY woke up at the crack of dawn, to be subjected to such menial tasks as peeling impossibly small eggs and curling ribbons on the ends of lollipops) to make our wedding exactly what we wanted, and it absolutely, positively was. there is nothing about the day i would have changed (except, perhaps, my choice of facial hair remover, but more on that later,) and i am eternally grateful for all the wonderful, generous, talented people i'm surrounded by that made it possible. i love you all, and i am forever in your debt. i promise i'll make you dinner one of these days to show my gratitude. yes, you. every last one of you.


we got married under the apple tree. . .


and ate dinner and danced under the tent.




much, much more to come. i should have our photographer's photos in a couple of weeks, and there are some really amazing details i haven't even gone into - our florist put together the must gorgeous centerpieces and bouquets i have ever seen, i swear, and the dancing was, as my mother would say, off the heezy. (yes. she really would say that.)


much love,

xo audrey

party time, excellent

bonjourno! well, it is raining in new york today, but the sun seems to be shining down on this brooklynite today, no matter the weather. last night i got to attend bulgari's launch party for their new perfume, bulgari mon jasmin noir. yes, that's why i've been chained to my kitchen for the last few nights - they asked me to design four different petit fours, based on notes in the perfume: jasmine, madarin orange, bergamot, lemon, and nougatine. the scents so perfectly lend themselves desserts, and so rarely do i get an opportunity to conceptualize a project and take it all the way through to the end (usually people tell me exactly what they want, and i make it,) that this was really a dream job for me. i decided on making mandarin orange macarons with bergamot infused buttercream; mini lemon meringue tartlets; smoked almond nougatine, dipped in oaky dark chocolate and sprinkled with smoked sea salt; and a jasmine petit four cake, covered in a honey jasmine glaze and drizzled with white chocolate.

somehow i only managed to snag photos of the finished macarons before dropping them off; a professional photographer was there, though, snapping away, and she promised to send me some pics of the desserts once she's uploaded them, so they'll certainly follow. there was also a [apparently fairly well known] photographer, patrick mcmullan, on hand to take people photos, and he took lots and lots of me, sam, my dad and my friends, so hopefully i'll have a couple of those to share as well.





so, more on that to come - i was just so excited to finally share this big secret thing that has taken over my life (and kitchen) for the last couple of days! i have to give so much credit, love, and praise to my saintly fiancé, sam, for all his help - when i'm up until 4 am baking, i don't clean up after myself, and he's the one who gets stuck with the job. he also sifted ingredients, made grocery store run after run, customized boxes for me so everything would fit just so, and helped me painstakingly top one hundred lemon meringue tartlets with a single gold dragee. he is an angel. i couldn't have done it without him.

but enough basking! today at work we're having a party to welcome a new person, say goodbye to someone departing, and celebrate the wrapping of a job; it was for nascar, so there will be a decidedly nascar theme to the evening - pbr, a nacho bar, and pigs in a blanket are on the menu. (my god, i look back on this and see what a chronic hyphen and semi-colon user i am. i think i have a grammar problem.) a party's a party, however low-brow, so i got a little fancied up for the occasion.





top: lilla p (giveaway coming soon!)
skirt: anthropologie
tights: a gift from my sweet little sis! (from aa)
shoes: jeffrey campbell, from oak
barrettes: from ban.do

another lilla p top, another ban.do accessory. i've totally blown my ban.do load now - three items in three days, and that's all i've got. this top is going to get a lot of wear, i can tell - so comfy, and in such a pretty color.

all right. that's long enough for now! i've got a nacho bar to set up! i'll have more details of last night's event soon.

xo audrey

holiday cheer

aloha! i spent a good part of this weekend laid up with a nasty cold (thank heavens for sudafed,) which gave me ample time (and sudafed-fueled energy) to whip up some holiday treats.







chocolate brigadeiros (i put whiskey in mine,) vanilla bean pralines, peanut butter rice krispie bars (the recipe is actually from the bakery where i work!), gingerbread spice cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream, toasted almond and raspberry jam macarons, and eggnog snickerdoodles.


now i have a lovely assortment to bring to sam's family for christmas this weekend.

happy holidays, everyone!

xo audrey