Pushkin's Bakery

1820 29th Street, Sacramento, CA 95816.
(916) 376-7752
http://www.pushkinsbakery.com/

Mr.S. and I have a ritual, on weekends we like to duck out of his house before all the crazy chaos begins and grab a cuppa joe at Temple. The large patio is great for people watching and gives us some time to wipe the sleep from our eyes and gather our bearings. Awhile back we noticed that a small bakery had opened in the plaza that houses Temple Coffee and Revolution Wines, called Pushkin's Bakery. The husband and wife run bakery was said to be dedicated to being wheat/gluten-free and dairy free. Music to my lactarded ears! Anyhow, we kept trying to pop in there to grab a little somethin' delish to nosh on but for some reason it was closed whenever we'd stop by. Bad timing, I suppose. Last weekend we finally scored. We were able to purchase several baked treats and enjoy them on the patio as we savored our hot cups of coffee.

 

When we entered the store, we were immediately greeted with the delicious aroma of fresh pastries baking. It was intoxicating and caused my stomach to growl in anticipation. The woman in front of us in line was busy bombarding the (very) patient gentleman working the counter with a million and one questions, so we had plenty of time to peruse the various baked goods in the display case. There was a nice variety of gluten and dairy free choices- cookies, cupcakes and breads. We settled on vegan zucchini bread, vegan banana walnut bread, a peanut butter cookie and one strawberry scone. The zucchini bread was wonderful; it was toothsome, ever so slightly sweet and extremely moist and spongy (I know a lot of you absolutely abhor the word "moist," but it's the best way to describe this bread). The zucchini was grated quite finely, making this a perfect treat if you're trying to sneak some veggies past your kidlet's eagle eye and picky palate. The homemade banana bread had nice big juicy bits of banana that you could see; however, the bread part itself tasted very sugary and had a gritty texture. I may have just gotten a bad one but not sure if I'd order that particular bread again. I did, however, like that the breads came in individual mini-loaf serving sizes- just the perfect amount for snacking.

Now Mr. S. fancies himself a connoisseur of peanut butter cookies. He gave Pushkin's crunchy PB cookie a thumbs-up and declared it "solid." I was able to wrestle away a crumb from him and agreed that the cookie exhibited a lot of peanutty flavor. The price was a bit steep for one cookie ($2.75) but we did appreciate that Pushkin's uses all natural ingredients solely from gluten-free manufacturers. My strawberry scone was the only clunker of the morning. It was extremely dry and I felt like I was munching on a thick dough brick with hard icing. Also, there was only one minute bit of strawberry in the whole scone.

Service there is terrific. Both owners were very friendly, helpful and willing to offer product recommendations. I noticed that they didn't rush customers even though it was busy and were happy to answer questions (no matter how many or how absurd).

Most gluten-free, dairy-free and/or vegan baked goods I've come across have tasted like cardboard or have been so dense that you could seriously maim someone if you lobbed it at their head. Not Pushkin's...but don't take my word for it, give this small business a try yourself. On my next visit, I think I'd like to try one of their delicious looking vegan chocolate-banana-peanut butter cupcakes (try saying that one really fast!)...and perhaps a salted pecan one too or maybe one of their "dudes" (mini pb cookies with chocolate chips and chocolate ganache). Ahhh, decisions, decisions.... ☺

* Note: the hours are a bit funky. They're only open Tues-Sat and don't open until 9am. So no Sunday/Monday or early morning pastry pickups here.

* Pushkin's also does catering and makes full-size wedding cakes.

* Get there early for the best selection, they do tend to run out of things quickly.

Artichoke & Goat Cheese Tart with Parmesan-Polenta Crust

I've been dying to make this recipe ever since I read about it in Maria Speck's book, "Ancient Grains for Modern Meals." Her book had some fantastic gluten-free recipes and has a way of making you want to incorporate grains more in your life without any heavy-duty food preaching. The tart sounded wonderful and I'm a huge fan of savory tarts, especially ones that use goat cheese. Did you know that fresh goat cheese has a third of the fat and calories of cream cheese made from cow's milk? It also has half the cholesterol and twice the protein. Plus for those of us who are lactarded, goat cheese is much easier to digest...not to mention, that it tastes delicious.

I pretty much followed Maria Speck's recipe as written but I did opt to throw in some shallots and garlic. (Is there anything I won't throw garlic into?) I also was out of Greek yogurt so I used organic, plain, lowfat yogurt in it's place...it worked fine. I thought the tart came out great, but next time I might go slightly lighter on the rosemary (but that's just my personal preference). If you're looking for something a bit different from your average quiche or frittata to take to a brunch, this would be a good choice.  This recipe would also work well with asparagus.

Artichoke and Goat Cheese Tart with Parmesan-Polenta Crust
(slightly adapted, from Maria Speck's book, "Ancient Grains for Modern Meals")

Crust:
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/4 cups polenta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 large egg, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Bring the broth and water to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the salt. Slowly add the polenta in a thin stream, whisking constantly, and continue whisking for 30 seconds. Decrease the heat to low and cover. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon every few minutes to keep the polenta from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let sit, covered, for 10 minutes, stirring a few times. Stir in the cheese, egg and pepper.

2. Grease a 10-inch tart pan or cake pan with olive oil. Have a glass of cold water ready. Spoon the polenta into the pan and press it out, pushing it up the sides. Dip a wooden spoon or your hands in the cold water to help the polenta along. Set aside for 15 minutes and then form an even rim about 3/4 of an inch thick with moist fingers, pressing firmly. Don't worry if the crust looks rustic.

3. Put a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 375 F.

Artichoke filling:

1 cup plain Greek yogurt or organic, plain, lowfat yogurt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup finely chopped scallions
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
2-3 tablespoons chopped shallots
2 cloves, garlic minced
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
12 ounces artichoke hearts, canned or frozen
1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1. Sauté the shallots and garlic in a small pan.

2. Whisk the yogurt, eggs, scallions, parsley, rosemary, shallots, garlic salt and pepper together until well-combined. Cut the artichoke hearts into quarters and distribute them evenly over the polenta crust. Sprinkle the goat cheese on top of the artichokes and pour the yogurt filling evenly over the artichokes. Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.

3. Bake the tart until the top turns golden brown and the filling is set, about 45 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for at least 20 minutes, though 40 is better. The tart can be prepared up to one day ahead.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Sometimes life's about the small celebrations just as much as it is about the big ones. It could be something simple as you hooking up your new TV all by yourself, that your kidlet learned how to do a wheelie on his bike without crashing or that your horrible boss was switched to a different department. This weekend, Mr.S. finally sold his car and whoo boy was he excited! That BMW has been a pain in his rear for the last few months and he's been wanting to 86 it for ages and get a more practical vehicle; in his case, a SUV since we haul the kidlets and their buddies around a lot. Also, it would come in pretty handy for when we go camping or on roadtrips. To celebrate, I baked him a batch of peanut butter cookies (his favorite kind of cookie). A batch all to himself. I even used "creepy peanut butter," a joke between us. It's the all natural peanut butter, you know the kind if you let it sit too long it separates and you have to stir it up? He loves the stuff. And it turned out he loved the cookies as well.

If you're interested in making up a batch, they're super easy to make and only require 4 ingredients. I found the recipe on a PBS site and it makes about a dozen soft, thick, very peanuty cookies that are gluten-free. And since there's only four ingredients, this would be a great recipe to use if you wanted to bake cookies together with your kidlet.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies (adapted from PBS Parents: Kitchen Explorers Four Ingredient Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies)

Ingredients

1 cup natural peanut butter* (my current fav for this recipe is Trader Joe's Valencia Creamy Peanut Butter with Sea Salt)
1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* if you're using unsalted peanut butter, add a pinch of sea salt

Instructions

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

- Using a hand or stand mixer, mix the ingredients on low speed until well combined.

- Place a Silpat on your baking tray.

- Take about a tablespoon and a half's worth of dough and roll it into a ball. Then lightly "smash" it down into a cookie shape.

- Place on the Silpat. Continue with the rest of the dough. Be sure to leave adequate room between the cookies.

- Once done, use the tines on a fork to push down and make a cross-hatch design on the tops of the cookie.

- Place the cookies in the oven and bake for about 12 minutes.

- Once they're done, take them out and let them cool on the tray for about 2-3 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack. (If you move them before that, they will fall apart).