Almond Cream

Almond cream is a common filling in classic pâtisserie, made of almond meal, butter, sugar, and eggs. It is often prepared by the bucketful in professional bakeries, and scooped daily …

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How To Make Custard

A custard is an age old dessert made with eggs, sugar, and cream, cooked together into silky smooth bliss. The flavor of a custard, sweet and a little eggy, is …

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Rough Puff Pastry

350g       flour all purpose 450g       butter cold 10g         salt 175g       ice water Place the flour and salt in a medium sized bowl and place in a freezer for 10 minutes. …

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Creme Chiboust

3 parts pastry cream 2 parts italian meringue Place the pastry cream in a medium sized work bowl and whisk until smooth and even. Add any flavorings you’d like here, …

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Creme Baumaniere

300g pastry cream 25g grand mariner 150g cream whipped to soft peaks place the pastry cream and grand mariner in a medium sized work bowl and whisk together until very smooth. …

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Pastry Cream Recipe

This pastry cream recipe has evolved from years of making several other chef’s recipes. I make use of two small appliances, a stand mixer to whip the eggs, sugar, and …

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Cornmeal Cranberry Muffins

***We get our fine cornmeal from Hazzard Free Farms, which you can order online, using their floriani flint cornmeal for this recipe. It’s bright yellow. When we make this with blueberries, …

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Poached Fruit Puree

a/n  fruit pitted or cored as needed 5000g  sucrose 10000g   water 500g  lemon juice 1 vanilla bean a/n  aromatic herbs, spices, liquor, tea, wine 1. Place sucrose, water, lemon juice, …

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Rhubarb Sorbet

600g       water 300g       sucrose 100g       glucose atomized 100g       vermouth ransom 100g       verjus white 350g       rhubarb juice 300g       rhubarb puree from cooked rhubarb 5g           malic acid 1g           xanthan Place water, sucrose, …

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Heat Stable Chocolate Cremeux

A note: This cremeux has been stabilized to be heated. It takes a few tries to discover the nuances in your kitchen oven that will heat the pudding through without …

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Archives

Warm Chocolate Purse by Dana Cree, published 2/12/2015 Blackbird Crepes by Dana Cree, published 3/6/2015 On being a female chef by Dana Cree, published 4/2/2015 Rhubarb Sorbet, Then and Now by Dana Cree, published …

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Authors

Dana Cree Dana started this blog in 2013 as a way to open a window into the pastry kitchens at Blackbird and Avec restaurants in chicago where she helmed the …

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Meet Danielle!

Danielle Snow walked into my life one lunch service, over a year ago. She had applied for the pastry cook position I had posted, and took it upon herself to …

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A chef on “vacation”

Friday, Nov 27th, 2015 my latest contribution to Chefs Feed delves into what it’s like for a chef to vacation. I struggled to write this piece, as I had only …

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A Long-winded Post on Pacojets

If you want to start a lively debate, put a savory chef and a pastry chef in a room and bring up Pacojets. Invented in Switzerland in the 1980s and …

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Sweet on Mathew

 Mathew Rice, the pastry chef at The Publican restaurant in Chicago, sat down for a lovely chat about his recent experience on the first all dessert episode of the Food …

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Meet Leigh!

Jose M. Osorio, Chicago Tribune Leigh Omilinsky has been haunting the pastry departments of Chicago for the past decade, a city not far from where she grew up. From the …

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A pastry chef without

I’ve been quiet this summer. It’s not you, really. It’s me. I’ve been without words, drained of them. I was promoting my book, and in doing that I traversed the country, …

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About

October 4, 2015 In a small nook in the back of the kitchen. On half a table shared with garde manger. Around the corner from the walk in. Against the …

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Community

We at The Pastry Department are working hard to build something special for our community of pastry cooks, pastry chefs, pastry students, and otherwise pastry minded folk. Sign up to …

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Contact

Dana Cree @deensie Leigh Omilinsky @leighomilinsky Ron Mendoza @rm_pastry Harry Flager @harryflager Follow our life in pictures on Instagram! Dana Cree @deensiecreensie Leigh Omilinsky @leighomilinsky Danielle Snow @Danielleywell Ron Mendoza …

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Tiramisu

I am a tiramisu purist. To me this means the quintessential Italian dessert is made with aged ladyfingers dipped in espresso, softened between layers of mascarpone that has been lightened …

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Some Things I’ve Learned About Mochi

Before working for Dana Cree, I knew mochi to be a chewy topping for frozen yogurt or a thin veil wrapped around adzuki bean paste. The Blackbird pastry kitchen offered a …

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Blackbird Crepes

Friday, Mar 6th, 2015 I have been the pastry chef of Blackbird restaurant for almost 3 years now. A respectable tenure by all means, but one that comes at the …

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Mille Feuille

Tuesday, Dec 9th, 2014 One of the most striking desserts I’ve had this year came from a place I had only considered for their decadent burger, a good beer and …

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Bourbon Gooey Butter Cake

Friday, Nov 21st, 2014 Blackbird went through a big transition recently. We bid goodbye and good luck to David Posey, the Chef de cuisine I’ve worked with for the past …

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parmesan cruller

Monday, Nov 3rd, 2014 Inspiration most often comes in the least likely packages. Our most recent dessert, a Parmesan cruller glazed in white chocolate, and served with basil and blackberries, …

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Coconut Haystacks

Thursday, Jul 10th, 2014 Sitting high above the countertops on a shelf many of can only reach on tip toes, we keep larger containers of dry goods we access on …

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Culinary Schools

Thursday, Apr 10th, 2014 The topic of culinary school has come up lately here in Blackbirds pastry department as we get to know the newer members of our team, Krystle …

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Molten Chocolate Cake

Thursday, Jan 23rd, 2014 On the occasion I leave my restaurant for the night, or have entire days off, I can occasionally be tempted to join the greater part of …

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thinking about gluten and wheat

Friday, Nov 15th, 2013 I make a strong effort to keep one, if not two (or three!) gluten free desserts on the menu at blackbird. Yes, it’s a hot topic …

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Rice and Chocoalte

Friday, Dec 13th, 2013 We’ve been playing with a lot of starchy components in the blackbird pastry kitchen these days. Specifically, potatoes, rice, and beans. It’s been an interesting venture. …

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Black Raspberry

Friday, Aug 16th, 2013  photo by Christian Seel “The running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven” according to the prose of Walt Whitman. A testament indeed to the wide reach of bramble berry vines, …

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A Guide to Pie Crusts

Tuesday, Nov 17th, 2015 My latest installment over at Lucky Peach is just in time for your holiday baking! A guide to pie crusts includes the in’s and outs of making …

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Starting the conversation

Saturday, Oct 3rd, 2015 The window I’ve opened here into my own kitchen experiences no longer looks into a pastry department. Instead, it looks into a fledgeling dairy, a pasture …

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Rhubarb sorbet, then and now

Wednesday, Apr 8th, 2015 A rhubarb sorbet made today took my thoughts back 10 years to the first menu I had creative control over. I had just started my tenure …

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Waffling

Wednesday, Mar 5th, 2014 It took a brunch baby shower at Avec and the guests request for an off-menu item to be served for me to see it. As I …

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Found In Translation

Monday, Feb 3rd, 2014 The only thing constant about Blackbird is that it is in constant flux. The restaurant, founded to house the cuisine of Paul Kahan 16 years ago, …

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Hold For Service

Tuesday, Jan 7th, 2014 A comment on twitter regarding the last post about posset doubted the recipe’s authenticity due to the inclusion of 2 sheets of gelatin. I can understand …

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Staging

Tuesday, Nov 24th, 2015 mise en place. (not pictured: impossibly fluffy shaved ice made using a wooden device that appeared to be held together with string, rubber bands, and a …

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A Recipe for Transperancy

Tuesday, Nov 17th, 2015 It’s been a busy past few weeks….but isn’t it always. Seven weeks ago I was happy to participate in the Valrhona C3 competition held at the StarChefs …

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What to do when your chef leaves

Friday, Oct 16th, 2015 The latest column from Chefs Feed, this one discusses what happens to those left behind when a chef leaves. I’ve left a team behind at blackbird, just as …

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Creative Obligation

Thursday, May 28th, 2015 I’m doing something really mean to my staff this week. I’m taking away all their mingardise recipes. Not to test their memorization skills, or make their …

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Warm Chocolate Purse

Thursday, Feb 12th, 2015 The pastry department at Blackbird, with all it’s nuances and challenges is structurally straightforward. Our menu invites guests to dine with an appetizer, entree, and dessert, …

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Danish

Thursday, Jul 18th, 2013 It wasn’t development on a new dessert that brought Danish into our pastry department. It wasn’t a desire to explore the limitations of lamination, a lesson in classic technique …

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An Amaretto Cake

Saturday, May 31st, 2014 Our pastry work at Blackbird has remained exploratory in nature. We rarely use a recipe twice. Instead of relying on something we’ve mastered, we push ourselves …

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Sorghum Syrup

Friday, Aug 9th, 2013 What flavor is your sugar? This is a question we ask ourselves when we start developing a dish. Sugar, for us, is a family, not that …

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