cookbook library -- flour: spectacular recipes from boston's flour bakery + cafe.

my first and only visit to joanne chang's flour bakery was in november 2011 when my boyfriend mentioned these delicious sticky buns he used to get on his walk to work back when he lived in boston.   he told me that these said sticky buns competed against bobby flay on the food network's throwdown and won.  after that i was convinced.

we strolled in around noon and the line was out the door!  that was a sign that this place had to be good.  and i was right.  before i knew it i had a mouthwateringly, gooey sticky bun in my hands.  i left flour that day with my tummy feeling very satisfied and my heart feeling very happy.

it wasn't soon after that we discovered that she had a cookbook.  i was so in love with the bakery that i had to have it.  and so may i present to you.... 

sticky buns from joanne chang's flour bakery.

after waiting and waiting for the brioche to proof, i was finally able to make my sticky buns.  i must say, this recipe is very time consuming (about 30 minutes of kneading, 6 hours to proof in the refrigerator, and 2 hours for the dough to rise... more or less 9 hours in total), but it was definitely worth it.  the bread was moist and rich.  the goo was sticky and flavorful.  i only have one word to summarize it.  YUMMY!

a nice golden brown :D

brioche loaves from joanne chang's flour bakery.

the last time i tried to make brioche, they turned out kinda horrible.  the bread was hard and almost inedible.  ever since then i have been scarred.  i didn't want my bread to be rock hard.  thats the complete opposite of what bread should taste like.  but i have decided to face my fears so that i can flour bakery's oh so famous sticky buns.

to ease my fears i will do this step in batches.  well.... i had to since the recipe calls for the dough to proof for at least 6 hours in the refrigerator....

look at it go!

chocolate hazelnut cookies from joanne chang's flour bakery.

sorry that i don't have my own pictures but i decided to make these on a whim and honestly, i just forgot.  sorry.  i'll update this post when i make them again.  which will be soon because they were super delicious.  

photo borrowed from playingwithflour.com

macaroni gratin from thomas keller's bouchon. cupcake style.

my boyfriend has his team holiday lunch potluck and he volunteered me to make his favorite macaroni and cheese.  i made this for him once because i was testing recipes from thomas keller's bouchon cookbook and he hasn't stopped requesting it since.  and luckily for him, i love it too. 

so there i was, the night before, prepared to make this delectable goodie and they boyfriend says to me "how am i going to reheat this?".  that was a problem.   i guess its not common for offices to have an oven and the pyrex pan i was planning to use would be too big to fit in the microwave.  after a couple of minutes of brain-storming, we came up with a solution.  a very cute solution, might i add.

Fresh out of the oven!