Gillian Shaw of Black Jet Baking Co. (left), Jaynelle St. Jean of Pietisserie (right)

The Bay Area has a lot going for it. Our summer lasts longer than most, fresh produce and farmers markets abound, and around every corner there’s something interesting going on—from museums to music festivals to a new hike or a scenic drive. The local food community is fiercely supportive, and small businesses and food trucks are popping up in neighborhoods all around San Francisco and the East Bay. Jaynelle St. Jean, owner of Oakland’s sweetest pie window Pietisserie, and Gillian Shaw of Black Jet Bakery are among those businesses.

St. Jean started baking in high school, but never thought she’d actually have a business featuring pie. And she didn’t necessarily set out to do so, either. One day, she decided to give pie away out of the window of her mom’s house in San Francisco: “I dressed up the window with striped curtains and I served pie by the slice to anyone walking by on a glass plate—the point was that I’d get to meet them and they’d stay there. People loved it. I loved it.”

After moving around to a number of commercial kitchens and locations to sell her pies (St. Jean even does “Random Acts of Sweetness,” showing up unexpectedly at parks and street corners to give away slices), she has slowly become known as “the pie lady” and is constantly thinking about how to grow the little pie window from its Friday home in Old Oakland’s Swan Market to a bigger, more permanent home.

“I think that what I found is that pie does for other people exactly what it does for me. It’s about what it represents– about sustenance,” St. Jean says. “I used to be a legal assistant. I used to do a lot of thing, actually. But now, at the end of the day I make pie. It makes people happy. I get psyched about how I can impact people’s day and mood.”

Making Pies at Pietisserie

Gillian Shaw of San Francisco’s Black Jet Baking Co. shares a similar experience in starting small, moving around, and hustling to gain customers and brand recognition. Shaw moved to San Francisco from the East Coast to attend pastry school. After graduating, she started baking at Moose’s in North Beach and then moved on to The Liberty Café where she really learned how to make pie. There Shaw also met Max Newman, who now works closely with her at Black Jet, and made an important realization: “I’m a baker, not a pastry chef. I like rustic.”

Shaw rented out a commercial kitchen and began pumping out nostalgic sweets like pop-tarts and devil dogs to anyone who would try them.

“When I first started Black Jet, I was working two jobs and the insanity of that was too much--it was time to quit,” Shaw said. There was a lot of juggling and not a lot of sleep. “When your dream is coming true, it’s kind of scary. It doesn’t feel like a Disney movie. You ask yourself, what if I mess this up? And those days of driving around with Black Jet samples and putting yourself out there and really selling it...that was really challenging.”

Today all of the sampling and small-scale deliveries have paid off and Shaw has a much-coveted booth at San Francisco’s Ferry Building Marketplace, which attracts six million visitors each year. You’d think she’d start settling in. She’s not.

While she feel very much at home in the spot in The Ferry Building, Black Jet Bakery has outgrown their kitchen space and are working to find a brick-and-mortar that would house a kitchen and a storefront, hopefully, in a year’s time. “We definitely want a home,” Shaw said. “As much as the commercial kitchen is collaborative and great in that way, we want a neighborhood spot. The Liberty Café gave us a taste of what that means. Liberty was an open baking space and I loved getting to see all of the customers. We really want that.”

Pietisserie Lattice Work

St. Jean is also working towards brick-and-mortar. “I think that Pietisserie offers great pie but also offers an experience, and for that to be fully articulated, that has to happen in a place,” she said. “I’m concerned with neighborhoods and being a good neighbor and living a certain pace.”

Neighborhoods are also important to Shaw. She loves the loyal food community in San Francisco, and having the opportunity to bounce ideas off of friends like Sara Spearin of Dynamo Donuts and Eileen Hassi of Ritual Coffee. It’s work, sure. But at the end of the day, it’s not just about you anymore. When you’re in the food business and you’re producing a product that sustains and nourishes others, it’s bigger than that. It’s about your friends, the people on your block, the visitors you meet who write letters telling you how much they love your pie; it’s about your city; it’s about the life you choose to create for yourself in the community you’ve come to love. A community that loves you back and will constantly welcome you home.

Find Jaynelle at Swann’s Market every Friday from her 7-foot tall, 5-foot wide window in addition to other locations around the Bay Area. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook for updates on specials and events.
Photos of Pietisserie courtesy of Robin Jolin.

Find Gillian Shaw at her Black Jet Baking Co. booth in the San Francisco Ferry Building, and enjoy her treats at the following Bay Area spots. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook for updates on specials and events.
Photos of Gillian Shaw courtesy of Paige Green.

Sunday was my birthday! Were she still baking among us, my grandmother, Fae Rosenbaum, would have celebrated the day by showing up with no less than three proudly Saran-wrapped plates of cookies: her perfectly plain, perfectly perfect chocolate chips; her crunchy, nutty sesame rounds; and best of all, the towering achievement of any bubbe, her flaky, tender, cinnamon-sugary rugelach, chubby golden-brown pastries filled with jam, raisins, and nuts.

Sad to say, for all the New Yorkers among us, rugelach haven’t made the jump from East Coast to West. You can find them, good, bad, and indifferent, in just about every deli and bakery with a somewhat Jewish clientele, right next to the black-and-white cookies, the hamantaschen, and the garishly bright rainbow cakes (these last also known as 7-layer cookies, and more Italian-American than Jewish, but happily co-opted).

Here, though, the few bakery-and-deli versions available are rarely worth eating. More often than not, they’re stale and wan, with the texture of soggy papier-mâché, lumpen and underbaked. In my experience, the only ones worth eating around here are those from from San Francisco's Noe Valley Bakery, where the cherry-chocolate and pecan-raisin versions are little delights of tender, sweet, and crunch.

Which means, of course, that if you, like me, crave a plateful of good rugelach on your birthday, you’re going to have to roll your own. Like all filled-and-rolled cookies, they take a little time and one-by-one effort, but I wouldn’t call them fussy. They don’t have to look perfect; in fact, being a little homey and misshapen here and there just makes them more authentic, in my opinion. (Professional kitchen experience has made me a neater cook than I would be, left to my own familial inclinations. The women of my family have always cooked with a kind of exuberant, love-crammed zeal that shrugged at a few lumps and crumbles, as long as the end result was delicious.)

So, where to start? A rugelach, if you've been so sadly deprived as to never yet to see one, is a fat little pastry, traditionally crescent-shaped (although my grandmother's were always squarish), made from a rich but not sweet butter-and-cream-cheese dough, wrapped around a filling of jam, raisins, nuts, or chocolate chips. Cinnamon and brown sugar usually found their way into the filling; the jam was usually apricot or raspberry. A good rugelach barely contains the abundance of its filling, and the dough hits a irresistible sweet spot between tender and flaky. They are best small, maybe two bites each, and most delicious when just an hour or two out of the oven.

The dough is a rich one, sticky and tricky to work with unless you keep it very cold. As much as I support instant gratification in home baking, rugelach dough, like pie dough, is much better for a few hours' rest in the fridge. This will re-harden the fats and keep the pastry flaky when baked. To make life even easier, throw together the dough in the evening, wrap it and pop it in the fridge, and take it out for filling and rolling the next day. It also freezes well.

What you fill it with depends on your mood, and most importantly, what your own grandmother put in them when she showed up at your house with her own Saran-wrapped plate. I'm always a little suspicious of chocolate-chip rugelach; much as I adore chocolate in every other guise, its richness here seems like overkill against the buttery pastry. Nuts, raisins, and jam, that's the ticket, or even just nuts and raisins over a swipe of melted butter and a sprinkle of brown sugar and cinnamon. Pecans are best, walnuts second, and both should be toasted and chopped to chunky crumbles. Currants make a neater pastry, but raisins are fine, and can be chopped if you want a slightly more uniform filling. Just don't be stingy. No one wants a skimpy rugelach! And bake until they're a fine golden brown, top and bottom. A little more browned is better than too pale. Don't use flavored or low-fat cream cheese, while you're at it, check the label to make sure it doesn't have a lot of weird and unnecessary ingredients in it. You'd be surprised what kind of stuff ends up in what should be an unadulterated dairy product these days.

These are a lovely thing to have on the table when you're laying out a table of bagels and lox, with lots of coffee and the New York Times crossword at the ready. You're already stocking up on cream cheese and butter for the bagels, make a few rugelach while you're at it. What could it hurt?

Grandma's Rugelach
I never saw my grandmother cook from a printed recipe. Flour was measured in a coffee cup, and things like cinnamon and sugar went in by eye. I'm still trying to make rugelach as good as hers; here is my approximation of her recipe.

Yield: 36 rugelach
Prep Time: 45 minutes, plus 3 hours' resting time
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
3 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature, cubed
8 oz. butter (1 cup, 2 sticks), cubed
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream

Filling:
3/4 cup apricot jam
1/2 cup currants or raisins
1 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted and chopped
3 tbsp sugar mixed with 1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp milk or half-and-half, for glazing

Instructions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, stir together the flour, sugar, and salt. Using the paddle on a slow speed, beat in the cream cheese and butter until a soft dough forms. Beat in the vanilla and sour cream.

2. Divide the dough into three rounds. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill for at least 3 hours or overnight.

3. Preheat oven to 375°F. Leaving remaining rounds in the fridge, unwrap and roll one round into a circle approximately 10 inches across. Spread a thin layer of jam across the round, then sprinkle with currants, nuts, and a little cinnamon sugar. Cut the round into 12 equal triangles. Roll up each triangle from base to tip, bending the two points inward to form a crescent. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. (You can also roll dough into a rectangle, cover with jam, nuts, raisins, and sugar, and roll up lengthwise to make a long roll. Slice into 1-inch sections.)

4. Place pastries on a parchment or Slipat-lined baking sheet. Brush with milk and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar. Bake 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.

The autumn equinox has passed, and at sundown today, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins. (Happy 5773!) One of my favorite parts of this important but still joyous holiday is the mandate to start the year with sweetness. No radicchio, no vinegar, nothing bitter or sour. That will come in due time, as part of life. But right now, while the new year is still untouched and full of promise, it should hold nothing but sweetness. Honey is a traditional part of the new year's table, as are new fruits, those that have just ripened during this autumn season but haven't found their way into your kitchen yet. They can be served as is, baked into desserts, or slow-braised with chicken, duck, or brisket.

We have a rich variety of such fruits to choose from this season: dusty blue, oval-shaped French and Italian sugar plums, excellent for baking in cakes and tarts; luscious juice-dripping melons; grapes of all colors and sizes, from golden, winey Muscats to brilliant Autumn Flames; the first greeny-yellow Bartlett pears and rough-skinned amber Asian pears. And of course, figs, the crown of our fall harvest. There are Black Mission and Brown Turkey figs, green Kadotas and crazy Candystripes. They are frankly seductive, not juicy like a peach but lush and yielding when perfectly ripe.

Ripeness is all, though: an unripe fig is a hard, chalky thing with all the appeal of seedy spackle. So, first rule of thumb: make sure your figs are ripe. How to tell? A ripe fig should give a little. A drop of clear, sticky juice oozing from the tiny hole at the base is a good thing. You don't want moldy or wrinkly, but softer is better.

It also depends on what you're doing with them. Almost-mushy figs are the tastiest, but they're not going to slice neatly. A wonderful salad for firmer figs this time of year is arugula and mixed lettuces tossed with wheels of peeled orange and quartered figs, dressed with a shallot-sherry vinaigrette and showered, just before serving, with sliced, toasted almonds and nubbins of fresh goat cheese (chevre). Or you can make a divine hors-d'oeuvre by cutting a cross in the top of each fig, tucking in a nubbin of goat or blue cheese, drizzling them with pomegranate molasses and running them under the broiler until the fruit swells and the cheese just begins to melt. Truly, one of the best ways to treat a fig that I've ever discovered.

A warm fig is a sexy fig, and so I love baking with fresh figs this time of year. I can imagine this schiacciata d'uva made equally delicious with halved figs instead of grapes. The cake below started as your typical fall apple cake, loaded with diced apples, toasted walnuts, a sweet spice mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. But it grows up and becomes a little more elegant when the apples and walnuts are swapped out in favor of figs and almonds, and when the cinnamon is nudged out by the fragrant, camphor-y aroma of cardamom. The seeds of one or two pods of fresh green cardamom, freshly ground or crushed into a cup of sugar, will give more than enough perfume to this cake. You could also crush the dried blossoms of a few stalks of lavender into your sugar instead, to a different but equally lovely effect.

Recipe: Fig Cake with Almonds
Summary: Want to go wheat-free? You can replace the white and wheat flours in this easy autumn cake with a mixture of oat and barley flours.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 25-30 minutes
Total Time: 45-50 minutes
Yield: 1 cake

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose unbleached white flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 oz (10 tbsp) butter, softened
1 1/3 cup cardamom or lavender sugar
grated rind of 1 orange
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
8 ripe fresh figs, stems removed, quartered
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup sliced almonds

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 10” round baking pan or 9"x13" rectangular pan.

2. Sift flours, baking powder and soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.

3. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until each one is thoroughly incorporated into the batter before adding the next. Beat in orange rind and vanilla.

4. Beat in one third of the buttermilk. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the remaining buttermilk.

5. Spread batter in the prepared pan. Press figs lightly into the batter, cut side up, in a decorative pattern. Drizzle with honey and scatter with sliced almonds.

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean and cake is pale golden-brown. Let cool on a rack before removing from pan.

7. Serve with a dollop of crème fraiche or Greek yogurt mixed with honey.

When you spend time at the Three Babes kitchen in South San Francisco, you'll inevitably see a lot of pie. An employee is shaping dough, the mixers are whirring, a friend is making streusel, family members are slicing fruit, rap is playing from the ipod, and there's a certain controlled chaos that makes it feel like one big ol' pie party rather than an obligatory baking production. I went to interview the Three Babes to find out how the business started, how they got such a kick-start so early on, where they find inspiration, and what keeps them going as new business owners in an expensive and competitive city. What I found out: they're driven by late nights, a strong friendship and admiration for each other, close and supportive families, and heart. Lots of heart.

Ingredient Prep at the Three Babes Kitchen

Anna Derivi-Castellanos, Lenore Estrada and Katrina Svoboda are the gals behind the booming pie business that specializes in a pie subscription service, deliveries, and fantastic pop-up cafe on Saturdays and Sunday as Stable Cafe. You'll also find them soon at the Civic Center Farmers' Market on Wednesdays and Sundays. They're a busy bunch. Most strikingly, they're a busy bunch that just started the business in March of this year. March! They're gaining new pie customers and fans each day, and are making anywhere from 65-85 pies each week. That's a lot of pie for a company that's barely six months old.

When I visited the kitchen on a Thursday evening in August, the babes were in full pie-baking mode. Lenore's family was having a big reunion that weekend, so her brother was in the kitchen helping along with a few friends. Lenore was whipping up a chocolate custard, stopping frequently to ask for taste-testers: "Okay, what does this need? What does this need?" She and Anna debated about whether to add honey or a little more sugar. This was all happening as Anna was preparing a simple staff meal of sausages on wheat rolls with sauerkraut. She cut them in half and laid them out for everyone, and in unspoken agreement, the kitchen stopped and everyone shared a bite to eat. Rolling pins down, knives down, mixers stopped. Anna said at first she was a little nervous about how to feed the kitchen, but now it's almost natural. She had to buy sausages for the week's savory pie as it was, so she just folded it in to the kitchen meal. It was important. They work together, they eat together, they tell stories and share jokes together.

Lenore, Anna, and Lenore and husband Cesar

This teamwork and reliance on one another is really how the business began in the first place. Anna and Lenore have been friends since grade school in Stockton, CA, and Katrina and Lenore attended college together and went on to work at the same company. After a few years of struggling to feel at home in a career and feel truly happy with what she was doing, Lenore started thinking about pie. Anna had finished pastry school and had helped open a restaurant and Katrina had always been an avid baker and was blogging about food on the side. It seemed like good timing. The rest is history. Lenore decided to move from Boston to the Bay Area and begin working with the gals full-stride to help make the pie business a reality. Now, they just needed a name.

The girls decided on the name "Three Babes Bakeshop" over the phone. It had been quite a long process that involved three families, numerous friends, and one growing Google Doc. And a lot of head scratching. Finally, one day we just laid it all out and started fresh: "What do we all have in common?" we asked ourselves. To get the ideas rolling, the conversation started out with: "Well, we're three babes who..." That was it. A name had been cemented. If fit perfectly.

The three women knew that they could make some mean pie, but they obviously needed somewhere to sell it. They pounded the pavement looking for a spot with good foot traffic that would allow them to sell their wares in some mutually beneficial arrangement. When they approached Stable Cafe, the timing was just right: they made arrangements to essentially lease out the shipping container in the garden/courtyard each weekend. Customers come and buy a slice of pie from The Babes, a cup of coffee at Stable, and everyone is happy.

Lenore with the Sunday menu

When I asked the gals why they chose pie, they mentioned how they grew up in Stockton constantly surrounded by fresh, seasonal fruit. "We always knew we wanted to do something homey--something all-American. We thought for awhile about doing biscuits, but Anna's always been known for her pies and growing up we always had birthday pie instead of cake," Lenore said. Pie was just the obvious choice. Anna's great-grandfather was a pastry chef and Anna and her mom frequently bake pies together. Lenore's mom bakes as well, and Lenore began playing around in the kitchen when she was five.

So do they wish they had started with something easier and more cost effective like cupcakes? "No way," Lenore answers. Looking around the kitchen at all of the beautiful figs that Lenore's dad had just picked that morning and her brother and husband were so carefully chopping -- you could see why. With their pies, they're paying homage to the seasons, to their families and where they came from, and to the one dessert that truly nourishes in a way that others just can't. What really struck me was the variety of pies and the fact that, with a few exceptions, they're all new flavors each week. This takes a great deal of planning, creativity, and innovation. When you're in the midst of building a business from the ground up, this isn't easy.

So the rest is pie making history, then? Not really. Anna and Katrina both work full-time jobs, so Lenore and her younger sister do a lot of the daily errands, farmers' market runs and deliveries throughout the week. Anna tests and plans out the week's recipes in her (not so) free time and puts in long days Thursdays and Fridays transitioning from her day job into Babe baker at night. I asked Lenore and Anna how they keep each other going and if they ever look around and ask themselves, "what are we doing?" Do they ever have doubts?

In my own business, Marge, I've definitely had days, particularly after a difficult, rainy week without earning a profit, when I wonder why I'm not working a traditional job with great health benefits and reliable pay. Anna says she thinks about this issue frequently and there are moments when she suffers from a significant lack of sleep and wonders, "Is this what I really want?" But the answer always comes up with a resounding "Yes." "The cool thing is, it's up to you. I wouldn't have it any other way," she says. Anna's doing what she loves, working for herself, and getting to spend more time with Lenore in the kitchen. The two women haven't had the opportunity to really spend time together as adults in this way and their friendship just continues to grow and strengthen as they rely on each other not just as childhood friends but as adults, confidants, and business partners. Lenore agrees, noting "The finances scare me, sure. But I actually don't have those 'what am I doing' moments. Even when we were staying up all night; I'm still so excited!"

Anna serving up pie at Stable Cafe

So what's up next? The gals are interested in having a storefront at some point and know that they can't live at Stable forever. They're constantly inspired by local bakers like Gillian from Black Jet Baking Company who just secured a sweet kiosk in The Ferry Building. They find inspiration for pies from old Southern cookbooks and their mom's stash of family recipes. The week I visited, they were featuring a new Pink Lemonade Pie that was one of Lenore's mom's favorites. As written it was made with a can of pink lemonade and cool whip, so they knew that wasn't going to fly. They reworked the recipe to include mascarpone cream, fresh raspberries and plum pulp. It sold like crazy. On a sleepy Sunday morning, I tried the Lemon Lavender Custard with Green Figs and their signature Salty Walnut. The custard pie is perhaps the most perfect late summer pie: the figs were sweet and tender and the custard was oh-so-lightly scented with lavender and lemon. The Salty Walnut was heartier with plenty of chopped local walnuts and little-bit-gooey filling. Not too sweet like so many nut pies with the perfect amount of salt. I can see why there were so many regulars. The couple sitting next to me in the Stable courtyard recounted some of their favorites this past summer. So far, the winner was the Red, White, and Blue Pie the gals did for the Fourth of July although to come to this conclusion, there was some major debate: "No remember that Berry Crumble one they did? Oh, wait what about that Lemony Custard?"

For these women the weeks start to run together. Weeks that are filled with slices of pie--a feeling the Three Babes can obviously relate to. But for The Babes, the pie flavors and the weeks don't so much run together as create a very full picture of a successful spring and summer that they're ready to grow from and build upon. As their production numbers keep rising and they question what their next move will be, they continue to make deliberate decisions in the kitchen not to grow too quickly. When I asked about saving time and using a sheeter instead of hand-rolling each pie, Lenore told me that just wasn't an option. It resulted in an inferior crust--something they're not willing to sacrifice for speed or greater production numbers. While they're looking ahead towards future opportunities, it's always with one foot firmly planted in place to remind them of the families that support them, the town that they came from, the farmers that supply their fruit, and the city the call now call home. From an outsider's point of view, regardless of the direction, it's looking bright and sunny for these women every which way.

There is yet another new cafe that recently opened in the Grand/Lakeshore neighborhood of Oakland, and this one is not only worth a visit but a return trip, too. The first thing I heard about Joseph Dunbar's Kitchen 388 was that they were doing housemade pop-tarts, and since I do them for my business Marge, I had many friends writing me to go and check it out. Scope out the competition, so to speak. Then I heard they serve Four Barrel coffee, and I'm a big fan of Four Barrel and have a hard time finding it in the East Bay. Do note that they serve drip coffee and cafe au laits, but currently aren't doing espresso drinks. So if you have your heart set on a foamy latte, you'll have to keep traveling up the street.

Upon walking into Kitchen 388, you may feel like you're in your favorite college cafe. The interior is a little-bit-sterile with bright art on the walls. They've tried improving the ambiance by adding Strauss bottles filled with flowers and a nice bar for cream and sugar, but it still feels dated. But that's about where my criticism ends. The folks are warm and gracious and seem genuinely happy to be working there. The food is affordable and truly delicious. The menu isn't necessarily revolutionary or anything that you won't find at another great local cafe, but they're doing it really well.

For breakfast, we ordered the Baked Eggs, Salmon Tartine, and the Banana Nutella Pop-Tart. I'm not quite sure where you can go in town and get a lovely breakfast for $5.95 -- a few bucks more for a coffee. This was a delightful surprise. The Baked Eggs were simple but tasty with a little basil on top and ripe summer tomatoes on the side. The Salmon Tartine was fantastic -- I'll be back for this. Really great bread, a generous portion of salmon, a dollop of cream cheese, juicy tomatoes, onions and capers: hearty and delicious. And the pop-tarts that everyone's been talking about. What's the verdict?

They were good. I must say. The pastry is more soft than flaky but the amount of filling is perfect: they don't come off as too spare or too gloppy. I chatted with the pastry chef, Alicia Toyooka, and she explained that they're having a tough time keeping up with demand. She's currently doing three varieties: a strawberry/rhubarb, a pecan, and the banana nutella. Everything is housemade and seasonal, so when strawberries and rhubarb are out of season she'll start to look towards pears and apples for inspiration. Alicia noted that they don't have much in the way of large-scale bakery equipment at Kitchen 388 so she's literally been doing every batch of dough the old-fashioned way: no mixer, cutting the butter into the flour by hand each morning. I respect this. While her decision's born from necessity and lack of space/equipment, I choose to do my pie dough this way because I really do think you can tell a difference. And this is evident in Alicia's pastry, too.

While we didn't have lunch, they offer a nice selection of salads and sandwiches and other small sweets (slices of apple cake and cookies). They also sell housemade jams and pounds of Four Barrel coffee to take home. As far as what's in the cards next, it looks like extended hours and possibly some exciting evening pop-up dinners and other events. Kitchen 388 is currently open from 8-4 but they're revisiting this and want to get a feel for the neighborhood before they decide what they best move will be here. As for pop-up dinners, it sounds like this is a preliminary idea, but Oakland could use a little after-hours food buzz; bring it on, Kitchen 388. We're waiting.

Kitchen 388
388 Grand Avenue
Oakland, CA 94610
(510) 893-3005
Hours: 8 am-4 pm Tuesdays-Sundays (closed Mondays)
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In the late summer, a baker’s fancy turns to thoughts of pie. Everywhere you look in the markets, you’re confronted with gorgeous fruit in season.

Naturally, this is the time of year to hold pie contests. The 5th Annual Mission Pie Contest pulled in 20 hopefuls on Sunday, and the people who showed up were as varied as the pies they brought to the competition.

Mission Pie co-owner Krystin Rubin preps the contenders. Can you tell which one will win Best in Show? Hint: it’s staring you right in the face!

After the judges got an eyeful of the complete pie (appearance was a key judging factor), Mission Pie co-owner Krystin Rubin cut them open. You’d think, as a professional, she’d cast a jaundiced eye over some of the sloppier entrants, but no. “Each one is just a delight to encounter. The amount of care that’s gone into each one of these... Really, it’s touching to me, how seriously all the contestants are taking this.”

While the judges tasted and took notes in the kitchen, the contenders and their supporters dove into the rest of the pies laid out in the front room.

Checking out the competition while the judges deliberate back in the kitchen.

Callie Arnold, a pre-school teacher currently from West Marin, made a chocolate cherry pie. She acknowledged preemptively that the recipe makes for a pie that’s “a little soupy,” but that’s exactly why she thinks it works. Arnold loves how the cherry juices run out and mix with the chocolate. Years of practice have made her confident of this pie’s charms, but she harbored doubts when I talked to her, right after she tasted the Shaker Lemon.

The Shaker Lemon.

Clothing designer Michelle Tannenbaum of San Francisco was also worried about the Shaker Lemon. She made a galette with plums, pluots, and Mission, Adriatic and Kadota figs. The filling came courtesy of Knoll Farms, the famous fig producer from Brentwood. OK, so I’m biased, because I did a story on them two years ago for NPR and I was blown away by their fruit. Tannenbaum was more than blown away. After years of arriving at the open of the Ferry Building Farmers' Market to get first crack at their fruit, she finally began selling for the Knolls at their stand. The habit is cheaper that way.

With 20 pies on the table, Judge Patricia Hewitt has got to take careful notes.

Back in the kitchen, the judging continued. Filmmaker Kyle Garrett recently started The 7 Squared Project, a documentary series highlighting non-profit and otherwise “purposeful” businesses in San Francisco. Mission Pie, with its mission driven approach to community building, is one of his subjects. Of course, I had to ask him about the Shaker Lemon. Garrett thought it “pretty spectacular,” even though he’s not a huge lemon fan. “It was kind of crisp and chewy at the same time. The flavor was not overpowering.“

Judge Kyle Garrett clears his palette with a sip of water.

While there were professional bakers on the judging panel, (Michelle Pusateri of Nana Joe's Granola and Mission Pie’s Sharon Litzky) Mission Pie’s co-owners Krystin Rubin and Karen Heisler like to make sure non-professionals are well represented, too. Each year, the previous year’s winner is invited to judge. Patricia Hewitt won the contest last year with a honey pie, made with honey from her own bee hive. “A honey mousse pie, really. With a very flaky crust.”

The Emperor Norton

Hewitt was immediately taken with the concept of the Emperor Norton, a chocolate nut concoction. “It’s incredibly sweet and nutty, and Emperor Norton probably was sweet and nutty, too. I’m really thrilled to see someone incorporating the history of San Francisco into a San Franciscan pie contest.”

There must be some way to find the metaphoric significance in the toughness of the crust as it relates to the character of the famous 19th century oddball, but I can’t think of it off-hand. Somebody had to hold the plate down, so Hewitt could make off with a bite of the Emperor Norton using her compostable fork. Still, she was smitten.

After 90 minutes, with the crowd in the front room buzzed with restless energy. They’d already fixed on their pick for People’s Choice. But the judges in the kitchen took their time, deliberating earnestly.

Everybody loved the flaky crust on the Shaker lemon, but only on top. The bottom was gummy, and in a pie contest, anything less than a dynamite crust will take you out of the running. The judges waxed lyrical about the crust on a lime blackberry Italian meringue that “revealed itself in layers.” Best Crust by a unanimous vote.

Emperor Norton walked away with Most Creative. But the crown for Best in Show went to something entirely different, an unassuming pie with none of the visual flash or dazzle of its competitors. It was, one judge said later, “a sleeper.”

When the group got to the Coffee Break Pie, they all murmured the word “love” in unison. Even though one judge worried the taste was so “classic,” there was a good chance this pie came straight from an old recipe book. As if that would be a problem. Executing a pie recipe properly is no small feat.

The judge needn’t have worried. Coffee Break Pie did not exist before Sunday.

Sarah Jones takes the crown to thunderous applause.

For the past two weeks, Sarah Jones of Dallas (and more recently Palo Alto) has been baking “non-stop.” She baked every night, and ate pie for breakfast, searching for the perfect recipe. Her colleagues in accounting at Apple have also been gamely gaining weight in support of her bid.

Jones found something close in Bon Appetit: a recipe for caramel coffee creme brulee. And then she found another, for a salty honey pie.

“So I basically took a salty honey recipe, substituted caramel that was infused with coffee for the honey and then did a Biscoff cream (creamed cookies, people!) and sea salt." She had been looking for Nutella in the market and came across the Biscoff instead...

“At the last minute, I decided to lighten it up with the Biscoff cream, and I think that helped cut the sweetness a little bit.”

“I was so afraid,” Jones said, “because everybody had fruit, and I was going to go fruit. And I just decided, you know, I’m going to go really rich.”

She must have been gauging the tenor of the room, because the People’s Choice was indeed fruity to the max: Ru Cymrot-Wu’s Olallieberry and Peach.

Ru Cymrot-Wu wins the People’s Choice award

Two awards for summer fruit. Two for rich and creamy. In all honesty, they were all of them poetry on a plate. In this kind of a contest, everybody wins.

I've been walking by for months trying to peek through the papered windows. Hoping and hoping that one day on my stroll, the doors would just magically swing wide open. Sometimes I'd actually force myself to go a few weeks without checking, convinced that the next time I did, a new bustling cafe would be livening up the sleepy morning stretch of Grand Avenue that I call home. You see, for all of the cafes and amenities we have, we don't have an independent morning spot with great espresso, coffee and interesting morning pastries. Until now.

Now let's get one thing straight: Charlie Hallowell, chef/owner of both Pizzaiolo and Boot and Shoe Service, doesn't do things half-way (and thus, I think, the wait for the perfect time to take that kraft paper down from the windows). From wonderful fresh salads and delightful wood-fired pizzas at Pizzaiolo to those fantastic salty olives and strong cocktails (and pizza, of course) at Boot and Shoe Service -- there are innumerable reasons to visit both. And since moving to Oakland I find myself frequenting one of the sturdy wooden tables at Pizzaiolo drinking a macchiato, nibbling on a cinnamoney donut hole and stealing internet from the tenants upstairs. The morning service there is lovely and the locals have caught on: it's packed.

And finally: the new cafe adjoining Boot and Shoe Service, formally DiBartolo Cafe, opened last week and looks pretty promising. In short time, I predict, it too will be packed. Like Pizzaiolo's morning service, there are a variety of simple pastries and morning cakes and lots of seating (they are keeping it wi-fi free for now) at counters along the whole periphery of the space. The inside is spare and clean with high ceilings, brick walls, and fantastic light. Hallowell has opted to serve Sightglass coffee, and the staff and other customers I chatted with seem thrilled with the decision for a few reasons. It's local, it's excellent, and it's not Blue Bottle (which, while fantastic, is ubiquitous these days).

You can find a short list of coffee drinks including lattes, cappuccinos, macchiatos and the like along with a special mocha made with a housemade chocolate consisting largely of dark Valrhona chocolate. If you're into drip coffee they brew one cup at a time, taking just as much time and care with a simple cup of coffee as they do a more involved espresso drink.

They also offer housemade granola in a bowl with fruit and milk/yogurt or in a big ball jar for $10 ($1 of which is a deposit for the jar). I haven't had a chance to try the granola yet, but the staff insists it's the best you'll ever have. It's on my to-do list this week.

What I have tried are their perfect cappuccinos, crumbly currants scones and buttery almond cake. The pastries are all done in-house by the pastry chef at Pizzaiolo, so if you're familiar with the carefully curated sweets there, you'll feel right at home. I've always been a big fan of their scones because they're not huge and hefty, but rather: light, simple, and seasonal. And the almond cake is the perfect morning compliment to a cup of strong coffee: not too sweet, buttery, with a nice sweet layer of almonds on top.

While they're not currently rolling out any special savory items midday, there are plans to do a variety of breads and spreads and more fixed-menu sandwiches in the future. So stay tuned. And another exciting aspect of the space to come: there are plans to open in the evenings for espresso beverages, plated desserts, and cocktails. The idea is that it can serve as a spillover for folks waiting for a table at Boot and Shoe Service but can also be a new spot to come and snag a cocktail or have an evening espresso before a stroll around the lake.

So they're off to a great start. And like all great starts, there's a definitive reason to go and check it out now, but there's also promise in what's to come down the line. A most welcome addition to the neighborhood.

Boot and Shoe Service
3308 Grand Avenue
Oakland, CA 94610
(510) 763-2668
Hours: 7 a.m.-3 p.m. everyday

After two months of relishing the transient taste of summer fruit, I've reached the midsummer doldrums. Suddenly I'm not as obsessively smitten with the cavalcade of fruit available this time of year. Of course I still enjoy eating a ripe peach or crisp cherries, but after spending most of May and June smelling and caressing each peach or apricot as I pick through the lot to find the perfect one, I'm a little over it. Nope. At this point I now simply toss four or five pieces of stone fruit into a bag, cart them home with everything else, place them in a bowl on the counter and hope that someone eats them in the next day or two so they don't molder and collect fruit flies. The more I think about it, the more I find that my relationship with summer fruit is sort of like a romance. You start off all hot and bothered by the unique amazing characteristics that make you fall in love, and end up taking the object of your devotion for granted later when life returns to normal. But that doesn't mean that my time romancing summer fruit is over, because baking brings out a whole new sense of wonder.

Each summer I try to find one or two new fruit recipes. Last year I couldn't seem to make my cherry almond tea cake enough, and I still find that recipe to be very appealing. This summer it's an apricot cream tart. Like so much in life, a series of mishaps led to the creation of this recipe. I was going to make a peach tart, but then the peaches I had bought turned out to be flavorless (more evidence of my waning devotion to picking the perfect summer fruit). So with only eight apricots on hand, I stared at my blind-baked tart crust and began to imagine new possibilities.

The idea of a cream tart sounded intriguing, and so with some advice to check out Julia Child's Tarte Normande aux Pommes recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I proceeded. As with most Julia Child recipes, the cream filling in the recipe had a lot of actual heavy whipping cream in it, an ingredient I didn't have on hand. Plus I am trying to reduce the use of whipping cream in my life (and arteries). So after doubling the recipe and altering some key ingredients, I laid my apricots on top of my crust with some sprinkled sugar and then poured in the filling. After about a half hour I opened the oven door to find one of the prettiest tarts I've made in ages. But would the taste live up to the presentation? As a matter of fact, it did. The cream filling was rich and dense while the apricots nestled within offered not only sweetness, but also a welcome hint of tartness to counterbalance the flavors.

My love affair with summer fruit is now revived.

APRICOT CREAM TART

An apricot tart with cream filling inspired by the Tarte Normande aux Pommes recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes
Yield: One 10-inch tart

Ingredients:

1 pre-baked tart crust (recipe below)
8 medium to large apricots (you can also use peaches, apriums, pluots or nectarines)
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar for the cream filling plus 1/4 cup for the fruit
1/3 cup flour
1 cup whole milk
1 Tbsp brandy or 1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp apricot jam (optional)

Instructions:

1. Line the bottom of the pre-baked tart crust with apricot jam if using.

2. In a medium bowl, whip the eggs with 2/3 cup of sugar for about one minute. Add in the milk, flour and brandy (or vanilla extract) and then whip until fully incorporated.

3. Cut the fruit in half and remove the pits and mix with the remaining sugar. Lay the fruit on the tart crust in a circular pattern.

4. Gently pour the filling into the crust, being careful not to cover the fruit.

5. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, or until the filling is just firm.

6. Remove tart from oven and let cool before serving.

CREAM CHEESE TART CRUST

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 35 minutes
Yield: One 10-inch tart crust

Ingredients :

1 stick cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
3 Tbsp cold cream cheese
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 Tsp salt
~5 Tbsp cold water

Instructions:

1. Mix butter and salt into flour with your fingers, a pastry cutter or in a food processor while pulsing until mostly incorporated.

2. Add in cream cheese the same way you added in the butter.

3. Slowly mix in the water (being sure that it's very cold) until the flour mixture starts to hold together and then stop.

4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or dump in a large ziplock bag (I prefer the latter) and refrigerate for at least a half hour (or up to one day).

5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or 325 in a convection oven) while you roll out your dough and then place in a 10-inch tart plate.

6. Poke some holes with a fork on the bottom of the tart crust, line the dough with foil or parchment paper and then lay some pie weights or dried beans on top.

7. Bake for 15 minutes and then remove the pie weights/beans and foil/parchment paper and bake for another 7-10 minutes or until just barely turning golden.

8. Remove crust from oven and let cool.

Maggie Foard has a table next to me at the Marin Country Mart Farmers Market. She's a fairly new vendor there, but we're such a tight-knit vending community that when there's some down time in the morning hours, there's chatting and catching up and networking... and lots of coffee. Perhaps most importantly, there's time to try each others' treats. So after sampling Maggie's decadent goat's milk fudge, I knew I wanted to learn more about her process, the evolution of her company, and where she sees herself in the next few years.

First it must be said that there's a bit of a stigma surrounding the word "fudge." For so many, it conjures images of an overly-sweet, gooey confection. Often you really can't even taste the cocoa or chocolate, and it ends up seeming overly processed and fake. But Maggie's fudge is the exact opposite. The flavor profiles are complex, the cocoa distinct -- this is a very special product. I fell in love with the Dark Chocolate Almond Fudge right away. It's fantastic to slice off slowly with tea in the afternoon or to sneak into the kitchen late at night for small slices to accompany fruit or sliced peaches. Maggie's goats butter shortbread cookies are also noteworthy: they're a little more subtle in flavor than cow's butter shortbread which tend to be decadent with a rich butter flavor. These have the same texture and crumb, but are lighter and quite lovely, especially when dipped in Maggie's goat milk caramel sauce. The product certainly speaks for itself, but Maggie's passion and drive certainly help, too. A product and a face to get to know if you're not yet familiar.

1. Tell me a little about your business and how/why you decided to start it.
I had an epiphany with goat cheese a few years ago. After avoiding dairy products in general for many years, I discovered that I could eat goat cheese and goat milk products instead of cow's milk and I felt better. That sent me whirling into a whole new food group and the next thing I knew I was under contract to write my cookbook, Goat Cheese. This brought me into the local wonderful world of cheese and milk. The fudge came about in a flurry of desserts -- making up for all those years of avoiding sweets because they all had cow's milk in them! I began making goat's milk fudge for my local goat dairy a couple of years ago and it was so popular that I decided to take the fudge to the big city! That is how Kidding Around with Chocolate was born, just last September. Cheese Plus on Polk Street and Rainbow Grocery were my first two customers.

2. Do you think living in the Bay Area allows your business to flourish? If so, how so?
I am a native of San Francisco so I can't really imagine living too far from the city for very long. I do live in the coastal mountains an hour south of the city where I keep a few goats and chickens of my own. So I am not a city dweller any more but still crave the hustle and bustle of the city. It's in my blood. The entire Bay Area is such a "melting pot" and people are so open to trying new things. The newer the better, in fact, kind of like little food thrills. It's a foodie mecca.

3. What have been the highlights of being a small business owner in the Bay Area thus far?
Getting to meet other small food producers and gaining an appreciation for just how much work goes into really good products. It's mind blowing when you find out how much time it takes to produce real food. How much milk it takes to make that pound of goat cheese and how much work it took to get to produce that gallon of milk that went into it. Thankfully somebody is producing the goat milk that I use to make the fudge and caramel. I can't imagine having to run a dairy farm AND produce food from it. Cheese makers have a hard life. They are an interesting bunch.

4. What challenges are you facing right now in terms of growth or vision?
Moving product around is the hardest part. I have driven 5 hours round trip in the pouring rain to get a pan of fudge to a new grocery store customer. You lose money by the time you pay for the gasoline, but you need every new customer you can get. I am hoping to get picked up by a local distributor that serves the specialty food and cheese shop world so that I can focus on making the product and on new product development. Right now, there just aren't enough hours in the day.

5. What inspires you, day to day?
Nothing puts the smile on my face more than when somebody tastes the fudge for the first time. They say things like "Oh my God, that's the best thing I have ever tasted." And the kids love it, too. Their eyes go wide. They drag their parents to my booth at the farmers market. This really keeps you going.

6. What are your goals for the future of the company?
I can see myself producing a whole line of goat milk confections & sweets as there are so many people like me that truly love goat dairy products. You can see this now in just about any grocery store. Whole Foods in Mill Valley, for instance, has 4 different brands of goat milk side by side. Several brands of goat milk yogurt, goat milk kefir and even goat butter. And the front and center stars of the cheese dept -- the local goat cheeses. In the last few years, goat cheese has gone from being an obscure little known gourmet only food that used to be only imported from France to a local everyday staple in many households. California goat cheeses are world class. People really want a variety of foods made with goat dairy and that includes desserts made with goat milk!

It's that time of year again -- the grills are uncovered, fireworks stands [used to] start popping up near busy intersections, and everyone and their mother is digging through cookbooks in search of Fourth of July recipes. This week, kids will be running around with sparklers while mom and dad solidify plans for their annual Independence Day barbecue.

While grilled goodies are usually at the top of everyone's mind on July 4th, there's still the all-important matter of dessert. It seems like every year, someone makes the traditional sheet cake that looks like the American flag. You know the style: It's huge and white with a square of blueberries for the star portion of the flag, and row upon row of strawberries and frosting dollops to make up the stripes. It's a good cake, one that I've eaten and enjoyed countless times. Yes, I said countless. Which means I'm really, really bored with the same old flag cake, which I've been eating for 30-something years.

This year I decided to shake it up a little. I eschewed the white cake for something richer (chocolate! ganache!). Since it's Independence Day I decided to keep the red, white and blue decorations, but I sat down and thought about the best way to go about using these colors without recreating the hackneyed flag design (to you lovers of the flag cake, really, no offense). After a few days of pondering I decided to create a layer cake for a more interesting look, with half of the fruit on the inside of the cake, peeking out the sides.

I think you'll like the end result: A rich, smokey cake with light, colorful accents of summer fruit and whipped cream. Kids will love the headiness of the chocolate, and adults will appreciate the departure from the norm.

A Tower of Chocolate: The Three-Layer Fourth of July Chocolate Cake
Makes: One really thick 9" cake, which will be cut into three layers servings
Prep time: 60 minutes, including decorating
Cook time: 50 minutes

While making this cake, I decided to go the lazy route and used a 9-inch cake pan that's 3-inches deep. I poured all of the batter into one pan and then sliced it into three thinner layers with a cake leveler. There is also a gluten-free version of this Fourth of July cake.

Ingredients

For cake:

• 2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chopped
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 6 tablespoons hot coffee
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cup sugar, divided
• 4 large egg yolks
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 large egg whites

For decorating:

• 4 cups of whipped cream
• 1 carton fresh strawberries, cleaned, cored, and sliced in half
• 1 handful each of fresh blueberries
• 1 handful each of fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup chocolate ganache, warmed and ready to pour

Instructions

To bake the cake:
1. Butter single 3-inch deep, 9-inch cake pan, lining the bottom with a round of parchment or wax paper (trust me, this will make your life much easier). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Over a double boiler, melt both kinds of chocolates together with the 6 tablespoons of coffee. Stir until smooth, then set aside until the chocolate reaches room temperature.
3. With an electric mixer, beat the butter and 1 1/4 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. While beating, slowly drizzle in the melted chocolate, following with the egg yolks one at a time.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5. Mix half of the sifted dry ingredients into the creamed butter, then add the buttermilk and vanilla. Follow with the rest of the dry ingredients.
6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
7. Fold half of the egg whites into the cake batter to lighten it up a bit, then fold in the rest, stopping just when there's no trace of egg white visible. Do not overbeat or you will flatten the batter.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan with a parchment round in the bottom. Smooth the top of the batter with your finger and bake for about 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Cool cake completely before decorating.

To decorate the cake
Note: If you're going to slice your cake horizontally, I'd recommend putting it in the refrigerator overnight (or at least a few hours) to firm up before slicing. The firmness of the cake will allow for more effective slicing. I highly recommend the use of a cake leveler, though a serrated knife will work in a pinch.

1. Level your cake by removing the rounded top where it rose in the oven. You can either use a long serrated knife or a cake leveler. I use the leveler, because it's a cheap tool that does the job very well, and it's a lot easier to make straight layers by walking the leveler in a sawing motion, instead of making crooked layers with a serrated knife.
2. If you poured all of your batter into a single 9" pan, cut it into three layers of equal thickness.
3. Place your base layer of cake onto a lazy Susan or other turnable decorating surface. Trust me, this will make your life easier.
4. Scoop whipped cream into a pastry bag, and using a large star tip of your choice, pipe a series of swirls around the edge of the cake, with a large swirl in the middle. It should look like this:

   

5. Decorate each dab of whipped cream by adding a piece of fruit into the middle. Do not add any fruit to the large swirl of whipped cream in the middle.
6. Using the pastry bag, add a small dab of whipped cream between each larger swirl. Top each dab with a blueberry. When you're done, it should look something like this:

   

7. If you have three layers, gently place the middle layer of cake on top of the decorated layer, making sure it's straight. Decorate with whipped cream as you did the first layer, so that they look the same.
8. Place final layer of cake on top of decorated layer. Pour 1/2 cup ganache into the center of the cake, and using an icing spatula gently push the ganache to the edges, allowing it to artfully dribble over the sides. NOTE: You don't want a lot of ganache flowing all over the place. You just want a few drips down the side as an accent.
9. Set the cake in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to solidify the ganache.
10. Decorate the top of the cake with more whipped cream and fruit, like you did the other layers. You can be as creative as you want here, so go all out! When you're done, push more fruit into the visible whipped cream between the layers where it needs a little color. You should have something similar to the photo below.
11. This cake should be put in the fridge overnight to tighten up the whipped cream, which may droop and run in hot weather. Refrigerator until about an hour before serving. If it's especially hot that day, leave it in the fridge until just before you cut it.