Summer Celebrations. Our yard is open for ceremonies big and small. If you fancy handmade wood benches and wood stacked backdrops, inquire about our Whole House (and whole yard) buyouts. Feasts@stissinghouse.com
The Best Bit. Our own Clare de Boer is launching a bi-weekly recipe newsletter. Sign up here!
Zoe’s Doughies. We're thrilled to welcome back Zoe Kanan to Pine Plains. She'll be making wood-fired bagel sandwiches for our brunch menu and dropping her famous squiggle donuts into our pastry baskets. We'll have two very special Sunday brunches with Zoe on July 23 and July 30. Book your table on Resy! You can also pre-order a Bagel Box or Squiggle Donuts to take home on our website here.
Blueberry bushes are exploding in the valley, and we’re showing off their fruits in our blueberry buckle at brunch and our wood-fired blueberry & cornmeal crisp at dinner.
This month, we’re less ‘in the fields’ and more ‘in the kitchen’ with Zoë Kanan of Zoe’s Doughies. After hosting a sold-out bagel pop-up at Stissing House last summer, she’s back this month (July 23 and 30) making hand-rolled bagels and adding some delicious donuts to our menu.
Zoë is also a two-time James Beard Awards nominee in the Outstanding Pastry Chef and Rising Star categories, and a member of Eater’s Young Guns Class of 2019. She’s incredible.
Here, we chatted with Zoë while she was taking a break in Greenpoint to watch the East River flow by.
What’s your earliest memory of food?
Preparing deviled eggs in preschool, as an educational and motor skills exercise. I remember plucking out yolks, mixing a filling with mustard, mayo, and pickle relish, then scooping it back in the cavity of each egg. I think it was my first time cooking anything and I remember feeling so proud.
What’s an ingredient you’re excited about baking with right now?
I have two:
Sheep’s Milk Yogurt. It brings a sweet and grassy tang to baking and desserts. Free summer dessert idea: the Alice Medrich classic Yogurt Tart (made with sheep’s milk yogurt) and a pint of macerated raspberries on top. Yum. It’s outrageous when made into frozen yogurt.
Mace. The spice, not the spray. It’s the sister to nutmeg, made from the dried aril encasing the nutmeg fruit. It has a tropical, pepper-y heat that I love pairing with stone fruit and vanilla.
What’s inspiring you right now?
I recently visited the Grolier Club to view their current exhibit "A Century of Dining Out: The American Story in Menus, 1841-1941". It’s a beautiful collection of handmade and printed menus from all kinds of meals and occasions across the U.S. There’s one from a 1904 vegetarian restaurant on 18th St called The Laurel, and another from a Halloween Party in 1912 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Lots of lace and fringe and maximalism in the design. No QR codes here.
The cookbook(s) every home baker/chef should have in their kitchen:
Golden by Honey & Co is a baking book I return to again and again for sweet and savory baking recipes and inspiration. Make the bourekas!
Hello, My Name Is Ice Cream by Dana Cree is canon for anyone with frozen dessert inclinations. Start with the sherbets and don’t look back.
I always find something new to obsess over in Everyone’s Table by Gregory Gourdet. The book is grain free and dairy free, which is often exactly what I want after a day in the pastry kitchen. The High Summer Salad with Coconut Dressing and Herbs is heaven on a platter. The fiery cabbage relish Pikliz does crazy things to a hot dog, or anything on the grill.
What are you listening to or reading?
This summer I’ve been listening to lots of Gal Costa (love the self-titled album) and an Irish shoegaze band called Just Mustard. I overheard a bartender recommend them in Chicago and am so glad I eavesdropped. I also try to catch the breakfast show on NTS radio with Zakia Sewell on Thursdays and Fridays. Some go-to podcasts include anything the Kitchen Sisters record, How to Talk to People, and Drifting Off with Joe Pera. And lately I’ve been enjoying pieces in Lux Magazine, a collection of essays called Thin Places, and actual newspaper clippings from the Houston Chronicle Food Section that my mom mails me from home.
On travel:
I traveled A LOT last year, mostly work-related. It was a whirlwind year full of new people and places. Right now I’m feeling filled up by being home in New York and the many universes contained therein. I do have a weekend jaunt to Martha’s Vineyard planned, plus a week on a lake near Skaneateles, NY this summer. I’m coming for you Doug’s Fish Fry.
My partner is from Kansas City and I think it’s a hidden gem with an excellent and burgeoning food community. Internationally I dream of visiting Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and much more of Asia.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Do what only you can do. It’s so simple but I lean into that one a lot