Grand Central Bakery - Artisan Baking - Cafe Cuisine - Bread Pastries Sandwiches Soups - Portland OR - Seattle WA

The Joy of Prunes

I love prunes. I love prunes the way some people love chocolate. I love their deep, dark complex flavor, the way they soak up bourbon, brandy or tea and their lush, slightly sticky chew when baked in a cake, tart or custard.

It is a maligned fruit, better known for its digestive properties than for its taste, which is too bad. If anything, the prune is romantic-think Agen prune, Armagnac and pruneaux.  Aren't those lovely words that evoke a wintery French countryside? Keep your dried plums-I'm sticking with prunes.

Chocolate Cream Pie

I'm not really the cream pie type, and I blame it on JP Patches, the early morning clown of my Seattle childhood.

Scary!

He'd hear a knock on the door and open it only to get a pie in the face. See for yourself on YouTube!  I never thought it was funny and I still don't.

January Baking

The holidays are over, and with them the requisite baking projects - Bûche de noel, pumpkin and pecan pies, stollen, gingerbread. These are all excellent baked goods that I somehow can't get through November and December without making and/or eating - but seem out of place come January. And except for citrus, seasonal fruit is gone, too. This is the season to call upon your larder.

Holiday Panettone

Every year at Grand Central Bakery we try to outdo ourselves with our Panettone.  Mel Darbyshire, GCB Portland Head Baker, shares her thoughts and methods for her version of this amazing holiday treat.

Panettone Queen, Mel Darbyshire

First, a little history. Panettone is classic Italian bread produced for Christmas and New Year originating from Milan.

Holiday Pumpernickel

So it's that time of year, everyone is thinking "holidays" - what to eat, where to go. As head baker of Portland's Grand Central Bakery, when I think "holidays" I think "Pumpernickel!" It has become one of our main holiday breads. For the last 2-3 years when we're debating what holiday breads to make, the "Pump" (my nickname for it) comes up and we always come around to making it.

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Cranberry Pear Galette

Everybody has their favorite go to procrastination activity...cleaning, paying bills, matching socks...  Me?  I bake.  I had deleted about 20 opening sentences to this blog before I started to think about dessert, the bowl of ripe pears attracting fruit flies on my counter and the big bag of fresh cranberries in my fridge.

Fresh Dried Shell Beans

David and I have the best visits with my brother Sam and his family, when we just drop in on them. They live and farm in Underwood, Washington. Sam spreads a vibe of pleasant productivity and there is a pattern of work, chatter and eating that feels nourishing to be around. Last weekend when we dropped by Sam was busy shelling beans from his garden. His patio was covered with wire racks full of different kinds of fresh dried shell beans.

Time for Pie

Last night I baked my first apple pie of the fall because my mother, and bakery founder, Gwen Bassetti made her annual trip to town yesterday with a truckload of her big bumpy "Basssetti" apples. Grand Central Bakers will use these unique apples in pies, tarts and cakes but I could not resist taking a few home to make dessert.

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Good Eggs

I don't care which came first, I'm just glad we have eggs. I love eggs and while I have suffered through the dismal pallor of conventionally raised eggs, I feel blessed that I have a steady supply of "good eggs". I buy the same eggs from Mark and Catherine Anderson at Champoeg Farm that our lucky Grand Central customers enjoy on all of our breakfast sandwiches at the bakery.

My mother spoiled us on farm fresh eggs.

Grand Central Apple Cake

For a couple weeks now Alan Frost from Riverwood Farms in Dayton, has been delivering boxes of his sweet Johnagold and tart Honeycrisp apples to the bakery. This means our seasonal cake now celebrates the apple and today I'm baking Cream Cheese Apple Cake at home.

Over the years at Grand Central Bakery, we have baked this tasty cake in many forms. We have sold it as a cupcake topped with maple cream cheese frosting.