Butter Me Up
Bye blue tin cookies (but still save that tin for buttons like granny taught you)
Here are your weekly Pocket Pebbles, smooth stones of inspiration for the weekend …
Where are they now? It all began with a Bostock pastry sometime in 2016 on a weekday morning in San Antonio.
Publicist folks had ferried a group of journalists (including me) to Bakery Lorraine in the city’s Pearl District, and I wasn’t really enthused because their picks for eats hadn’t been anything to write (or write home) about up to this point.
Then I took a bite of a flaky pastry, sweet with frangipane, and immediately asked, “Who is back there in that kitchen?” then followed it with “And what is this pastry again?”
That day, I met Anne Ng and Jeremy Mandrell, who ended up being interview 16 for the fledgling The Southern Fork podcast. While my sound production might have been questionable, my nose for talent was spot on. This baking couple met on the overnight baking shift at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery in Napa, and before parting ways with Bakery Lorraine a while back, they brought macaroon madness to San Antonio.
So I learned about Bostock. I gushed over these two, and ended up writing a profile of them for Bake from Scratch. And I kept interviewing culinary people and recording it, still always having a soft spot for a pastry with frangipane.
If you listen to this early interview, you will realize that Anne and Jeremy can’t help but bake, with a bakery or without. It’s what they do -- I mean, speed racks once took over their dining room and the table had to go … And because of them, I’ve had to learn another pastry term:
Sablé
“sah-blay,” a classic French butter cookie
It’s been a staple in French homes since the 17th century (lucky them). The word literally means “sand.” That might sound strange until you take your first bite; the name perfectly describes that delicate, crumbly texture that melts away on the tongue.
Jeremy and Anne insist butter is the thing when it comes to their new Butternubs. Honestly, I don’t think they have to really explain that. Think about those butter cookies you craved as a child -- or was that just me -- that came in a blue tin. Then imagine those are sawdust knock offs of the sablé.
Butternubs are the real thing. They come individually wrapped, which I assume is for freshness but I took as a pause to briefly consider the calorie intake of each one. And they also come in chocolate, a variety I have not shared with anyone.
