South End 1595 Washington St, Boston MA 02118 617 267 4300 Mon-Fri 7a~9p; Sat 8a~6p; Sun 9a~5p || Fort Point Channel 12 Farnsworth St, Boston MA 02210 617 338 4333 Mon-Fri 7a~7p; Sat 8a~6p; Sun 9a~3p
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Flour Bakery + Café

Spring 2008 Newsletter

 

Okay so it's not really spring, in fact it's not even sort of close to spring, but every now and then the sunshine peeks out and gives us hope that winter will not last forever.  Inside the bakery it's toasty and warm, and this is where we like to be!  Here's some notes and thoughts about the latest goings-on at Flour.  We hope to hear back from you with your suggestions and comments and feedback!  (BTW, some of you on this email list are from out of town and are receiving our weekly updates with our dinner specials at Washington Street - if you'd like to be removed from this list and simply receive the occasional newsletters we send out, please let us know and we'll be sure to stop sending you the weekly specials!)

 

1.  Happy Birthday Flour2!

2.  Superbowl and Valentine's Day treats

3.  New items

4.  Promotions within Flour

5.  Upcoming events

6.  Shipping sticky buns

7.  Congratulations Pie Bakery!

8.  Recipe Share

 

1. Happy Birthday Flour2!

It's really hard for us to believe that Flour on Farnsworth passed its one year mark a few weeks ago on January 19!  As is Flour tradition, we passed out free mini cupcakes to all of our customers at F2 that day and we all wished each other a happy birthday.  We have loved being in a new neighborhood and are so grateful for the support and loyal patronage of the Fort Point Channel crowd.  Special thanks to the incredible staff that has been with us since day one - that would be Jeff, Sarah, Sarah aka Ruby, Cristina, Shira aka honeydew, Matt, Hosmin, Rita, Aristeu, Orlando, Johnny aka Primo, Nicole, and Aaron aka dawg.  We couldn't have done it without them!  And we continue to build on our strong team that we hope will be around to help us celebrate our second anniversary.

 

2.  Superbowl and Valentine's Day treats

Nicole our head pastry chef goes a little nuts around the holidays and Superbowl Sunday and Valentine's Day are no exception.  We've already been selling football-shaped sugar cookies decorated with our favorite players' names, and for Valentine's Day you'll see the annual appearance of our sweetheart cookies.  These are heart-shaped cookies frosted with sweet sayings such as "be mine" and "kiss me"...and we also offer our naughty cookies with sayings that I can't repeat here!  Over the years these X-rated cookies have been selling more than the sweet ones almost two-to-one.  Who would have thought that we have such a racy clientele!  We start selling these on February 9th.  In addition to these cookies Nicole will be selling a limited number of boxes of hand-made, hand-dipped chocolates that she makes each year just for V-Day.  These go quickly so if you are interested please do call and place an order.  Plus we will have pink peppermint oreos, chocolate cherry bread, pink cupcakes and a plethora of fruit tarts and little chocolate cakes for you to order for your sweetie.

 

3.  New items

We've been hearing many requests for vegan items and the bakers have their testing hats on in full force.  We've recently introduced the caramelized apple and raisin vegan muffin (which is delicious in its own right) as well as the Flour Power bar which has rice cereal, nuts, brown rice flour, dried fruits and seeds.  Yum!  Rice crispy treats are a trip down memory lane and now that we've introduced them to our roster, we can hardly keep up with demand - it seems that you all love them as much as we do.  And keep your eyes out for a new sour cherry pastry that we will be starting soon, inspired by an incredible sour cherry tart we picked up recently at Canto 6, our friends Alex and Evangeline's amazing bakery in Jamaica Plain.  Holla!

 

4.  Promotions within Flour

Most of you know Nicole and Aaron from one bakery or the other...and in the past few months you've probably seen more of them at both.  Nicole Rhode, who has been with Flour almost since the very beginning, was recently promoted to Head Pastry Chef for Flour, overseeing pastry quality and production at both bakeries.  Aaron Constable, who has been at Flour for over 6 years, has been promoted to General Manager, overseeing service and overall operations at both.  Both Nicole and Aaron have played such a huge part in the growth and continued success of Flour and giving them more room to spread their talented wings seemed a natural step.  We are incredibly lucky to have them both, and I can't thank them enough for all they do for Flour!  Taking Nicole's place at Flour1 heading up production of the baking kitchen is Karoline Boehm-Goodnick, who was a part-time baker for us for a while before taking the plunge and becoming full-time baker and pastry chef at Washington Street.  Congratulations all!

 

5.  Upcoming events

a.  Nicole and Sarah (pastry chef at Flour2) are participating in a Girl Scout Cookie Bake-off Contest on February 5 at the Hotel Commonwealth with their caramel chocolate bread pudding using Samoas cookies.  The contest benefits the Girl Scouts and helps sponsor scholarships.  Good luck!

b.  On April 1 come join us at the annual Joslin Diabetes Center Taste of Ginger event!  We will be there in full force offering a healthy and delicious pastry offering.

c.  Nicole and I (Joanne) are attending the James Beard House along with a number of Boston pastry chefs on May 11 to cook a Mother's Day Brunch at the Beard House.  It's truly an honor to be invited and we are pleased as punch to be a part of this fun event.

 

6.  Shipping sticky buns

Some of you may have seen us on Throwdown with Bobby Flay where we were paid a surprise visit from Chef Flay in a sticky bun challenge.  I'm proud to say our sticky buns won and many of you have asked if they can be shipped.  We started shipping due to high demand and if you'd like to place an order please email us at catering@flourbakery.com.  A few caveats to be aware of:  we will only ship overnight (as the buns are really not edible after 2 days or so) but unfortunately overnight shipping is really costly - it can range anywhere from $45-60 per shipment;  we ask for a minimum order of 6 buns; and we ship on Mondays for Tuesday arrivals.  Thank you for understanding these constraints and if you've ordered them from us already, let us know what you think!

 

7.  Congrats to Pie Bakery!

Our friend and fellow baker Paige Retus who baked with us for a short while has opened up her bakery Pie Bakery in Newton Center and it's absolutely dreamy.  We've been several times already in the month that it's been open and each time we have more and more compliments to shower on Paige.  Check them out for some great pies!

 

8.  Recipe share

We love sharing our recipes so that you can create some Flour treats and deliciousness at home!  Here is a recipe for an old favorite, our lemon bars, which we no longer carry at the bakery but make for a wonderful afternoon treat.

 

LEMON BARS        

An old favorite of the bakery’s, these bars are sweet, tart, buttery, and light.  Cut them into smaller squares for a afternoon tea.

 

Rick’s Shortbread

½ pound unsalted butter

4 tablespoons (1.75 ounces) sugar

2 tablespoons (.5 ounces) confectioner’s sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg yolk

1 cup (4.5 ounces) all purpose flour

1 cup (4.5 ounces) cake flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt.

1 recipe lemon curd (see below)

 

  • Using a kitchen aid mixer and paddle attachment or mixing by hand with a wooden spoon, cream together butter and sugars on medium speed until mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
  • Beat in vanilla extract and egg yolk until thoroughly combined.  Scrape bowl down with a spatula to make sure that all of the yolk is mixed in with the butter/sugar mixture.
  • Sift together flours, baking powder and salt.
  • Using the mixer or a wooden spoon, slowly blend the flour into the butter/sugar mix on low speed.  Mix until the flour is totally blended in and the dough is homogenous.  Make sure to scrape bowl down with a spatula again during the mixing to combine the flour in thoroughly.
  • Scrape dough out of bowl and onto a sheet of plastic wrap.  Wrap dough entirely with plastic and press down to form a flat disk about ½ inch thick.  Place in refrigerator for about 15 minutes, until the dough has firmed up but is still pliable.
  • In the meantime make the lemon curd (recipe below).
  • When the dough has firmed up enough to become manageable, take it out of the plastic wrap and roll it in between two large sheets of parchment paper into a 9x11 inch rectangle.  It will be about ¼ inch thick. 
  • Keeping the dough on the parchment, transfer the dough and parchment into a 9x11 inch metal or glass baking pan that has sides at least 2 inches high.  Press the dough to fit the bottom of the pan and allow the parchment to come up the sides of the pan.  Don’t worry if the dough is not perfectly smooth – it needs to be about the same thickness throughout the bottom but it does not have to be smooth. 
  • Bake in a 350 degree still oven for about 20 minutes, until the shortbread is light brown, the same color as maple wood.
  • Remove from oven and pour lemon curd filling on top of shortbread.  Smooth the filling evenly over the shortbread with a spatula.
  • Bake again in a 350 degree oven for another 15-20 mintues, until the curd has set and jiggles like firm jello.
  • Remove and let cool to room temperature.
  • Refrigerate for at least 4 hours until the curd has set.
  • Gently tug the parchment on all sides and when the bars are loosened from the pan, slide them out onto a cutting board.
  • Trim the sides of the lemon bars and cut the bars into 9 pieces.

 

Lemon Curd

2 cups + 2 tablespoons (17.75 ounces) lemon juice

¼ pound unsalted butter

¼ cup (2 ounces) heavy cream

2 cups (14 ounces) sugar

8 eggs

4 egg yolks

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

 

  • In a medium saucepan, heat together lemon juice, butter, and cream until just under a boil.
  • Whisk together sugar, eggs and egg yolks in a medium bowl until combined.
  • Remove liquid from the heat and gradually whisk in a little bit of the hot liquid into the sugar/egg mix.  Continue whisking in a little more hot liquid into the eggs until all of it is added.  This is called tempering and it allows the eggs to slowly and gently be brought up to the same temperature as the hot liquid .
  • Return the mixture to the saucepan and place it over medium heat.
  • Stir mixture continuously with a wooden spoon, making sure to scrape the bottom of the saucepan to prevent the eggs from scrambling at the bottom.  Cook mixture until it thickens and coats the spoon with a thick enough layer of curd that you can draw your finger through it and it holds a line.  This will take about 5-8 minutes, depending on the heat of your stove.
Remove from heat and strain the curd through a fine sieve.  Scrape curd into a pitcher and pour onto shortbread base above.