Last night, we took a Kitchen Conservatory staff field trip to eat desserts at Sidney Street Cafe. Why? Because one of our own, Christie Saali (who started working at Kitchen Conservatory in 2000) is now the pastry chef at Sidney Street. We had to eat each and every one of her delectable desserts. Pictured here are Sidney Street executive chef Kevin Nashan, Anne Cori, and pastry chef Christie Saali in the green chef’s jacket on the right.

Christie’s dessert menu includes pumpkin whoopie pie, chocolate-peanut butter pie, apple tarte Tatin, and sticky caramel pecan cake. We were wowed by her ice creams and sorbets, especially the pear sorbet and the caramelized-macadamia nut ice cream. But, hands-down, my favorite dessert was the “cookies and cream” — a cookie jar of cookies served with a shot of creme anglaise. She is making her own jam for the pinwheel and sandwich cookies, plus the cookie jar includes a yummy molasses cookie. She graciously shared the recipe for the buttery lemon-ginger shortbreads.

We are very fortunate that Christie continues to teach wonderful cooking classes at Kitchen Conservatory, not only on pastry, but also on some of her other favorite foods (pork, dim sum, duck confit).

Thank you to Sidney Street Cafe for a fun outing!

Sidney Street Lemon-Ginger Shortbread

• 9 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest (use a microplane grater)
• 1/4 cup finely-chopped crystallized ginger

Mix together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix together the flours, ground ginger, salt, and zest. Fold into the butter mixture. Fold in the crystallized ginger. Press the dough into six 4.75-inch individual tart pans with removable bottoms. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and, using a fork, prick the cookies into six pie-shaped triangles. Then remove the cookies and cut into wedges while still warm.