Breakfast pastries – Jim Drohman

Buttermilk biscuits à la Café Septième

Jim — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 22:57:48 +0000

This recipe came from my friend Richmond Tracy who was head baker at legendary Seattle Café Septième, now long departed. The original location in Belltown was a tiny hole in the wall with three south-facing tables outside, where you could sit, back against the whitewashed wall, soaked in the morning sun and enjoy a big bowl of café crème with one of these biscuits hot out of the oven.

The trick to getting flaky biscuits is to use the best quality butter and make sure that it stays cold. Use butter straight out of the refrigerator and work quickly so that your hands don’t melt the butter. In French, the act of rubbing together butter and flour is described by the verb sabler, from the word sable meaning sand. When done right, your mix of butter and flour resembles sand. You gotta love a language with SO many verbs to describe actions involved in cooking and eating.

Brioche is back!

Jim — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 16:00:00 +0000

House-made brioche are back at Le Pichet and Café Presse. Made from a rich dough with eggs, butter and milk, they come hot out of the oven every morning when we open! Served with butter and house-made jam, they are available while they last.

Breakfast starting at 9am

Jim — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 17:35:00 +0000

Café Presse is up and serving breakfast Wednesday through Sunday starting at 9am. Omelettes, baked eggs, house-made pastries and Caffe Vita coffee. And coming soon, we will once again be serving our house-made whole milk yogurt with toasted walnuts and local organic honey.

New breakfast pastry at Café Presse

Jim — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 19:43:44 +0000

New for Fall 2019, Pumpkin Pecan coffee cake. Miam Miam.

Big beautiful brioche photo

Jim — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 22:50:57 +0000

This photo of the brioche at Le Pichet comes courtesy of widely-admired food writer Ronald Holden, who writes, among other things, the self-described “crisp, crunchy words, typed fresh daily” that make up the blog Cornichon.org

Says Ronald:

Had the Oeufs Plats for breakfast the other day; yummy. Big surprise was the brioche, which I’d not had before. Oooh, was it good! Put the photo on FB and got plenty of drooling comments.

PS the brioche are available every day at Cafe Presse and Le Pichet

Quince Jam

Jim — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Quince are an under appreciated fruit. Cooks know them as the last fruit to be harvested in the Fall, and the real indication that winter in Seattle is on its way. My grandmother use to include them in other jams and jellies because of their high pectin content. But they are also make lovely jam in their own right, with a flavor that is reminiscent of apples but more floral and very distinctive. Their taste pair well with vanilla (as in this recipe) but also with bay leaf. Try this jam on toast for breakfast or with hard, strong flavored cheeses.

Recipe makes about 3 pints.

Almond Breakfast Cafe

Jim — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:31:26 +0000

This dense, almond cake is featured every morning as a breakfast pastry at Cafe Presse, along with our house-made croissants, pain au chocolat and brioche. Thanks to Desiree for requesting this recipe.

Makes 1 cake, about 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar
5.5 oz almond paste
5.5 oz room temperature butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1/3 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
sliced almonds for garnish

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Butter and flour the loaf pan. Sift the flour and baking powder together, set aside.
In a mixer, beat the almond paste and sugar with the paddle attachment for several minutes, until the paste is broken up and looks sandy. Add the salt and half of the butter and beat on medium speed until the mixture is a smooth paste. Add the rest of the butter and beat until light and fluffy.
With the mixer running on low, add the eggs to the almond mixture one at a time, waiting after each addition for the eggs to be completely absorbed before adding more. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle, add the extracts and beat until combined. On low speed, fold in the flour mixture until just combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, top with sliced almonds. Bake in a 350 F oven until the cakes feel firm to the touch in the middle, about one hour. Cool for twenty minutes, unmold and serve.