Archive for Baking

The Best/Easiest Crumble Recipe Ever

July 22, 2011 · Filed under Baking, Esther Cooks, Fresh Produce · Tagged , , ,

I figure this is just in time for our shipment of 3 Springs Fruit Farm peaches….

Note: It pains me to share this. I know it’s silly, but I hold all the recipes my mom uses close to my heart, even the ones she gets from cookbooks. So, easy as this recipe is, I’m sharing an important part of me with you. It makes me uncomfortable, sad, and nostalgic. So pardon any cheesiness (although I am the least cheesy person on earth) and accept this gift I present to you (which is not at all a narcissistic sentiment).

I’m a big advocate of my mom’s cooking. Seriously, my mom is the best cook in the world. She’s better than your mom, hands down. Oh, your mom was taught by her authentic Italian G’ma? Yea, mine’s still better. Oh, your mom was trained by Julia Child? My mom was trained by herself. Oh, your mom is a chef at some super classy restaurant? Whatevs, my mom pwns your mom any day of the week.

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Nanas.

May 2, 2011 · Filed under Bakery, Baking, Sweets · Tagged

If you’re like me, you enjoy a thoroughly out of season, non-local banana now and then.

If you’re like me, you sometimes buy too many of them and forget you have them.

If you’re like me, you don’t like the taste of a weird, overripe, black banana.

Well boy oh boy do I have some solutions for you.

There are two things that I do with old nanas.

  1. Freeze them for later use
  2. Make a bangin banana bread

Let’s talk about freezing first.

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Pies! Pies! Pies! (Breads, Cookies, Cakes and Whoopies too)

November 11, 2010 · Filed under Bakery, Baking, Holiday, Specials, Sweets · Tagged

We’ve just finished compiling our list of special-order baked goodies for Thanksgiving! Last year, pies, pumpkin eclairs and dinner rolls from Wild Flour Bakery went over really well, so all that’s back on offer, plus treats from Baker E (working out of her newly captained Flying Monkey kitchen in Reading Terminal) and our neighbor, Jessie Prawlucki, pastry maven and co-owner of Fond. Before we get to the goods, here’s the fine print: We need all orders by the Sunday before Thanksgiving (for pick-up Wednesday) and require a 50 % deposit. Now, onto the menu.  Read the rest of this entry »

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The Baker E/Flying Monkey Pumpple, Now on Pre-Order

November 5, 2010 · Filed under Bakery, Baking, Holiday, Specials, Sweets

 

Photo courtesy of the Today Show

We were stoked to see our girl Elizabeth Halen (AKA Baker E, whose whoopie pies you’ve been eating since we opened) represented on the Today Show by her epic Pumpple Cake. E, who’s been busy since taking over Flying Monkey at Reading Terminal in October, creates the two-layer Pumpple by baking a pumpkin pie inside a chocolate cake (first tier), topping it with an apple pie baked inside a vanilla cake (second tier) and frosting the sweet stack in glorious buttercream icing. Currently, you can only get the Pumpple at Flying Monkey, but now you can also pre-order them from Green Aisle for the holiday season. Pumpples are a foot tall and nine inches across. One will feed 40 and runs $75. Just give us three days notice, please, and drop off a deposit if you wouldn’t mind. For more Pumpple visuals, here’s a link to the Today Show video.

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Intern Sara’s Debate: To Crumble or to Cobbler?

July 19, 2010 · Filed under Baking, Fresh Produce, Local, One-Stop Recipe

That is the question.

The Crumble...

...and the Cobbler

Whether ’tis nobler to bake the gorgeous local fruit now being sold at Green Aisle into a crumble or into a cobbler is purely a matter of personal taste: are you hankering for a sweet crunchy oatmeal topping or a sweet cornmeal biscuit topping? Whatever your pleasure, both recipes are linked after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

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Spice Smugglers

April 7, 2010 · Filed under Baking, Green Aisle Exclusives · Tagged

Last week, one half of Green Aisle traveled to Africa. We trekked the grassy savannahs alongside lions and zebras. We plundered the cinnamon-scented equatorial jungles of Zanizbar, where vanilla vines tangle with cardamom bushes. We braved a 13.5-hour flight from Dubai to JFK in coach! We’ve lived to tell the tale and cleared customs with some special treasure just for the Green Aisle faithful. Get the full list of booty after the jump, but we’ll tell you now we’re partial to the dried Pilpili chilies, whose label comes with this too-awesome-to-be-made-up warning: “NOTE: Zanzibar chilly is strong. Neither play with it nor put in your sense organ.” Read the rest of this entry »

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James Beard-Endorsed Wares at Green Aisle

March 24, 2010 · Filed under Baking, Breakfast, Green Aisle Exclusives, Local Restaurants, Middle Eastern, Prepared Foods, Snacks, Sweets · Tagged

Philly is going to be well-represented at the James Beard Awards this year, and how ’bout these apples, we stock goodies from two local nominees!

Photo: Jason Varney for Philadelphia Magazine

There’s heavenly pumpkin bread from Bibou, nominated in the category of Best New Restaurant, and

Photo: Mike Persico for Grub Street Philadelphia

from the Best Chef Mid-Atlantic category, Mike Solomonov, whose za’atar-dusted hummus tahina is so addictive you need serious willpower not to scarf the entire container in one sitting.

Congrats to all the local nominees!

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Treasures of Mexico

February 9, 2010 · Filed under Baking, Drinks, Specials, Sweets

 

 

Before we get to the goodies we’re brought back from our trip to Mexico, our sincere apologies that this blog has been barer than the trees outside. Instead of posting last week, we were combing the artists’ colony of Todos Santos, located along the cactus-fringed highway halfway between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz. Here, we picked up some gorgeous Cafe La Choya coffee, vials of the floral, complex vanilla extract for which Mexico is famous and some brick-heavy bars of chili-infused 70%-cacao chocolate. To be on the safe side, we only smuggled in a few of each, so hurry on over, before these Mexican treasures say adios. / Coffee $15 / Vanilla $10 / Chocolate $18

 

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Stocking Stuffers from Green Aisle

December 23, 2009 · Filed under Baking, Gifts, Gluten-Free, Sweets

We know, we’re not even close to done Christmas shopping either. Fortunately, we’ll be filling up friends’ and family’s stockings with goodies right from our shelves. Take Fee Bros. bitters, available in a recently restocked rainbow of flavors. They’ll slip perfectly into the stockings of your cocktail connoisseurs, and only set you back $6.75. Peeps more stocking stuffers from Green Aisle after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

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