I’m quite sure I found out about this book while working as an intern for a local lifestyle magazine. (Though the internship didn’t lead directly to further employment, it did acquaint me with my future wedding photographer!)
Given my love for cooking and my growing interest in local, seasonal foods and flavors, this book fascinated me from the start. Organized around eight chapters, each representing a distinct season in the Upper Midwest, The Birchwood Cafe Cookbook is a guidebook to local living, with super unique and hyper-seasonal flavor combinations I have never seen matched in another book.
Unfortunately, I only got to eat at the Birchwood Cafe once before it closed in 2021, but I have fond memories of the lavender lemonade and pasta salad I enjoyed there with my mom that summer day.
I’ve cooked from this book here and there a bit, but I’ve never done a deeper dive into a single chapter before now. In all honesty, the book might have shined a bit more for me if I started in a chapter that includes peak produce and encourages a bountiful trip to the farmers market. Nevertheless, I had fun immersing myself in all things “Thaw” and experimenting with a few new-to-me flavors.
I’m already looking forward to the “Scorch” menu I’ll prepare this summer or next!
sunny day sandwich
With the weather flip-flopping between wintry mix and warm spring, I led the week with the Sunny Day Sandwich, a vegetarian sandwich befitting the season.
This cheffy, dressed-up sandwich relies on the sunflower seed spread and the quality of the rest of the ingredients sourced to make it. Fortunately, I bought some incredible parmesan cracked black pepper focaccia from a local gourmet grocer to use to make the sandwich. Unfortunately, the pears I bought to roast for the sandwich were a bit over-ripened by the time I roasted them, resulting in pear mush that didn’t serve the sandwich well at all.
Oh, and the “golden beet” I bought to roast for the sandwich? Actually an oversized radish. Shame. (User error; I was in a hurry and didn’t look closely enough when I put this vegetable into my cart at the store.) I roasted it anyway to see if I could make it work for this dish, and it absolutely didn’t work. (Blech.)
The sunflower seed spread, focaccia, and microgreens carried this sandwich in the end, but it wasn’t enough for me to want to eat it more than once. A pity, since it’s probably an excellent combination of flavors as long as the ingredients are right (and sufficiently toothsome).
savory waffle
This is the first time I’ve ever made a Savory Waffle! Once I roasted and cooled the sweet potatoes, the whole thing came together really quickly and easily.
The recipe called for 6 eggs (!) and a surprisingly large amount of baking powder given the quantity of waffles it makes. That should have been enough for me to know that this batter would Rise (note the capital R), and that I should have used a waffle iron that could accommodate for the rise.
But it was midweek and late, and I wished I had a gordita from Taco Bell and the day off from work, so logic didn’t carry me this far.
My Nordic-style waffle maker sort of did the job, but as the batter rose, it pushed the waffle maker open enough to significantly undercook one of the five heart segments of the waffle while the others started browning too fast.
So this recipe was a bit of a fail in that regard, though the parts of the waffle that did get done tasted alright. I’ll likely stick with sweet waffles going forward, unless I’m quite sure my waffle maker is up for the thick, potato-y batter.
honey almond bars
These Honey Almond Bars aren’t flashy; they won’t be the ones to sell out first at a bake sale nor the ones people will load on their plate first at an Easter party. But give them some time: Once someone cuts a square and takes a first bite, word travels fast, and soon everyone will want to try one.
You really can’t go wrong with honey and shortbread. I made these bars late at night on my birthday, and I got them ready faster and more easily than most other bar recipes I’ve ever made. It helped that the butter had to be cold (I never keep it at room temp!) and that I could pour the hot almond-honey topping over the parbaked shortbread base while the base was still hot from the oven.
The shortbread base and topping are mostly butter (a stick and a half!), which is why they taste decadent while still maintaining an unassuming air. The only thing I’d change for next time is opt for sliced almonds instead of slivered almonds. The texture of the slivered almonds looks gorgeous in the pan, but I think the sliced almonds might lend a more complementary texture to the eating experience.
. . . . . . .
The Birchwood Cafe Cookbook is organized by seasons, which means it’s a book one must revisit throughout the year, with the freshest of locally grown ingredients at hand. I love the seasonality of this book and can’t wait to explore the rest of the year of Minnesota bounty with the inventive recipes the authors shared. The more I page through The Birchwood Cafe Cookbook, the prouder I am to live in Minnesota. I wish I’d been able to eat at the namesake cafe more than once!
The Birchwood Cafe Cookbook: Good Real Food, Beth Dooley, Marshall Paulsen, and Tracy Singleton. November 1, 2015, University of Minnesota Press.