David Lebovitz, What Are You Reading?

After working as a pastry chef at several restaurants in San Francisco, including almost thirteen years at Chez Panisse, David Lebovitz now lives in Paris where he leads culinary tours and writes books that we all know and love. A couple of the latest of those books are The Perfect Scoop, which is a favorite of mine, and The Sweet Life in Paris, which is a great read with great recipes like dulce de leche brownies. His brand new book is Ready for Dessert, and this one brings together the best of his desserts with new photos and additional recipes. On David’s blog, there’s always something entertaining, delicious, or informative and probably a combination of all three. I had to ask him, what are you reading?


David:

Right now I'm reading The Belly of Paris, a new translation, and what I'm particularly enjoying about it is that it brings the city of Paris from a whole different era back to life. The giant market, Les Halles, must've been amazing and the descriptions of the piles of food and the people who worked there are so vivid and make me a bit sad that the market was torn down in the name of "progress."

I recently read Kitchen Chinese, by Ann Mah, a novel about a young woman moving back to China and rediscovering her identity by becoming a food writer.

I also enjoyed The Tenth Muse by Judith Jones. A lot of people don't realize how important she's been to modern cooking; she discovered and was responsible for getting everyone from Julia Child to Marcella Hazan published. She lived in Paris, too, which made the book a nice reminiscence of a time when French cooking was still loaded with cream-soaked gratins and bustling bistros.

Am looking forward to baking my way through Farmers' Market Desserts, by Jennie Schacht. It's filled with things like cobblers and pies, using all those wonderful fruits that are starting to appear at my market this month.

On deck, is The Butcher and the Vegetarian by Tara Austen Weaver. Am looking forward to diving into her story about her conversion from vegetarian to meat eater. She's a great writer and when I pull myself out of the kitchen, I'm devouring this book next.








Thank you for participating, David! Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.

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Dulce de Leche Brownies

I just finished reading The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz. While expounding on the inconveniences and curiosities associated with Parisian living, he also describes the wonders that are the chocolates, cheeses, and breads to be found in that city. I have to question his assertion that there's not a decent cup of espresso served anywhere in Paris, but I’m sure he’s checked every viable option. I reached the end of the book too soon, wanted to read more stories about the real Paris, but also couldn’t wait to get cooking. I started with the last recipe in the book which is dulce de leche brownies. Lebovitz used these brownies as bargaining chips and gained friends quickly with these in tow. They’re easy to make, and with dulce de leche involved, I couldn’t resist.

Bittersweet or semisweet chocolate is recommended, and I used a bittersweet Callebaut. That was melted with butter in a saucepan over low heat. Cocoa powder was whisked into that mixture, and then three eggs were incorporated one at a time. Sugar, vanilla, and flour were added, and I included the optional toasted, chopped pecans as well. Half the batter was placed in the baking pan, and then one third of the suggested quantity of dulce de leche was plopped on top. It was swirled into the batter, topped with more batter, and more dulce de leche was spooned on top and swirled. I can’t be sure that I used the correct amount of dulce de leche. It’s entirely possible that I used a little extra and then set about greedily swiping what remained in the jar into my mouth. You’re instructed to only slightly swirl the dulce de leche into the batter to avoid it baking into a bubbly mess. I don’t know if I achieved perfection in swirlation, but the resulting brownies did not seem bubbly or messy.

Despite the fact that these brownies included dulce de leche and pecans which are two of my favorite things, I really baked them for Kurt. He liked them when they were first cut, but true to form, he was even happier with them after they had been chilled in the refrigerator. I usually disagree with this cold cookie and dessert bar preference of his, but I have to admit these brownies were great either way. Even chilled, the dulce de leche was luscious as ever, the chocolate was rich-tasting, and I’m not even a brownie fan.