Recipe of the Month - Green Goddess Dressing

It’s time again for our Recipe of the Month! This month, David is sharing the recipe to his delicious Green Goddess Dressing. Packed with fresh herbs, zesty lime juice, spicy ginger juice and creamy greek yogurt, Green Goddess is the perfect seasonal dressing for your fall salads. It is rumored that the original recipe came from San Francisco’s Palace Hotel in 1923 where chef Philip Roemer named his recipe to honor hotel guest/actor George Arliss for his role in the hit play, The Green Goddess.

Green Goddess Dressing

So try this recipe at home and be sure to tag us on social @dandrewsbakery and use #dandrews. If you don’t feel like making the dressing yourself, stop by this week for lunch and build your own salad with always fresh ingredients and one of our four homemade dressings.

Green Goddess Dressing:

1 cup (230g) ginger juice

1 cup (249g) lime juice

1 cup (143g) pumpkin seeds (raw)

1 cup (17g) tarragon

1 ½ cups (24g) cilantro

1 ½ cups (22g) parsley

1 roasted poblano pepper

½ smashed garlic clove

2 TBSP (40g) honey

2 TBSP (40g) salt

2 cups (512 g) Greek yogurt

Yield is 6 cups.

1) For the ginger juice, peel and slice raw ginger. Put in blender and barely cover with water.  

2) Blend on high and then strain in cheesecloth.

3) Then, put all ingredients except greek yogurt in blender. Blend on high speed for 45 seconds.

4) Place greek yogurt in a bowl. Strain the mixture in cheesecloth.

5) Whisk together and enjoy!

D'Andrews Custom Catering

Got a meeting to plan for the office? Is that special event right around the corner and you need to arrange the catering? D’Andrews has you covered! Everything at D’Andrews is made in-house, from scratch, with only the best ingredients and attention to every detail. To accommodate any event, we offer hearty lunch entrees, sandwiches on house-made bread, desserts and custom cakes. We also have everything from freshly brewed boxes of coffee to mini pastry platters that will curb a sweet tooth. 

D’Andrews Catering

We offer many of our regular menu items in large format to feed a crowd. Our yogurt parfait, made with David’s famous homemade granola, can be ordered in bulk to feed groups of 12 to 15.  For our party mini sandwiches, we take our popular lunch sandwiches, like the Chicken & Avocado or BLT, and create bite-sized sandwiches for the perfect snack. 

Don’t forget about our custom cakes! Known in Nashville as the “go-to” place for amazing cakes, whether you need a small cake for 6 people or a sheet cake for 45, D’Andrews can create a custom creation to fit any celebration. So if you’re planning a small get together or large gathering, a morning coffee or lunch for 100, D’Andrews will make it memorable.

For catering, call the bakery directly at 615-375-4934 to place an order.

Recipe of the Month - Chocolate Chunk Cookies

We’re at it again - it’s time for our recipe of the month. We know last month’s Carrot Cake recipe may have been a little challenging for beginner chefs, so David is taking it back to the basics and sharing his tried and true Chocolate Chunk cookie recipe. David is also adding in some pro baking tips that have helped him time and again.

D’Andrews Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Whenever David goes to a new bakery for the first time, he always gets the chocolate chip cookie. “Start with the basics,” he says, “if it’s a good cookie, it’s going to be a good bakery”.

What makes D’Andrews cookies stand out is that we use a mix of white and dark chocolate to give the cookies a better contrast. These delicious treats are crispy on the outside and gooey inside with chocolate in every bite. David recommends melting the butter before combining ingredients to create this perfect consistency. He also says to always add the flavorings (vanilla/almond extract/salt) in with the butter. The fat from the butter attracts flavoring better than flour or eggs.

David’s final pro baking tip is “don’t be afraid to rest your cookie batter for days, even weeks. The longer the batter rests in the fridge, the better the flavor develops. You are only limited by the expiration date on the butter or eggs”.

So try this recipe at home and be sure to tag us on social @dandrewsbakery and use #dandrews.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies:

3 sticks (340g) Unsalted Butter (Melted)

1 3/4 cups (400g) Light Brown Sugar

1 cup (200g) Sugar

2 tsp (15g) Kosher Salt

2 tsp (10g) Vanilla Extract

Dash (1g) Almond Extract

2 (110g) Whole Eggs

2 (34g) Egg Yolks

4 3/4 cups (595g) All Purpose Flour

1 TBSP (15g) Baking Soda

2 cups (250g) Dark Chocolate Chunks (74%)

2 cups (250g) White Chocolate Chunks (36%)

Yield is around 25 cookies.

1) Cream together melted butter (but not hot) with sugars, salt, vanilla and almond extract.

2) Add room temperature eggs and egg yolks one at a time.

3) Fold in sifted flour and baking soda.

5) Fold in broken pieces of chocolate.

6) Use ice cream scoop to portion cookies. 

7) Cookies are best if they rest for 24 hours.

8) Bake at 325 for 7 minutes, turn and bake another 5 minutes.

D'Andrews Celebrates a Milestone

Today, our owner and Executive Chef, David Andrews turns another year older.  What we are even more excited about is the one year anniversary of D'Andrews Bakery & Cafe on July 20th.  Stop by next week for a sweet treat and help us celebrate these two milestones.

Hazelnut and Dark Chocolate Cake with our Handcrafted Nutella

One of our favorite "sweet" stories comes from David himself:

One year ago, I was celebrating my birthday and imagining, as D'Andrews was just about to open, who my first customer would be. Would they be a local, someone I knew from my childhood growing up in Music City, or would they be a visitor from out of town? What would they order? Would they pay with a $2 bill that I could frame and hang on my wall?  When July 20th finally arrived, we were anxiously anticipating the visit of our very first customer.  Sure enough, as our doors opened, Nashville showed up to welcome us to the neighborhood with open arms.  That first customer I had been so excited about stepped up to the counter and made his order - two of our fantastic D'onuts - a sugared brioche donut filled with vanilla cream.  We offered coffee or tea and he simply wanted the donuts. When I rang up the order, the total came to $7.11, my birthday.  I felt like, right then, the universe was trying to tell me that everything was going work out for D'Andrews Bakery.

We are so humbled by the way Nashville has embraced D'Andrews Bakery & Cafe over the past year and are looking forward to getting to know more guests who we welcome as friends in the coming years.

What is a birthday without a cake? Do you or someone you love have a birthday coming up? Let us create a memorable custom cake to celebrate their special day. Here at D’Andrews, we take pride in our attention to detail while also showing off our creative side. Our customers have asked us for some beautiful cakes that really fit the personality of person they are made to honor. We offer a variety flavors and designs so our customers can celebrate their birthday in style. We can create anything from small cakes that feed 6-8 people, to cakes for a crowd that feed up to 45.

Thank you again to all our customers for your support over the last year. We appreciate each and every one of you!

Recipe of the Month - Carrot Cake

"Your carrot cake reminds me of my grandmother’s!” is something we hear often here at D’Andrews Bakery. The smooth texture and sweet and spicy flavor combined with the luxurious mascarpone cheese frosting create the perfect delicacy.  We twisted David’s arm, and for the first time he is sharing his famous recipe, along with some fun facts about carrot cake.

D’Andrews Carrot Cake

Did you know that the history of carrot cake is believed to date back to an English carrot pudding from the 1500’s? It is also believed that George Washington ate carrot cake in a tavern in what would today be lower Manhattan in 1747 on British Evacuation Day. Historically, carrot was used as a substitute for sugar when it was difficult for people to access sugar. Because of this, carrot cake made a resurgence during World War II when sugar was scarce. 

David first learned the technique of making the cake in the style of a mayonnaise while working at Gotham Bar & Grill in NYC. That recipe used vegetable oil, but David prefers grapeseed oil for a cleaner taste. Tweaking his recipe the past few years, taking away the pineapple (although delicious) and walnuts, it was the addition of parsnips that really set his cake apart. They add a pleasant earthiness to the cake.  The use of muscovado sugar from Sri Lanka and Vietnamese cinnamon are also vital to the fantastic flavor. Consistency at the bakery is achieved by always measuring out all the ingredients with a scale, leaving no room for error.  In the recipe below, we offer both the cup and gram measurements for you.

D’Andrews Carrot Cake:

4 Whole Eggs (room temperature)

1 2/3 cups (330g) - White Sugar

1 2/3 cups (330g) - Muscovado Light Brown Sugar (Billington’s)

1 3/4 cups (400g) - Grapeseed Oil

1 1/2 tsp (7.5g) - Vanilla Extract (Madagascar)

3 TBLS (45g) - Buttermilk

Pinch (1g) - Ground Nutmeg

1 tsp (4g) - Ground Dried Ginger

1 tsp (4g) - Ground Vietnamese Cinnamon

4 tsp (20g) - Salt

2 1/2 tsp (12g) - Baking Soda

1 1/2 tsp (7.5g) - Baking Powder

3 3/4 cups (480g) - AP Flour (we use King Arthur)

3 1/4 cups (400g) - Shredded Parsnips

4 cups (480g) - Shredded Carrots

2 1/2 cups (400g) - Dried Golden Raisins

1) Whisk on KA high sugars and warmed eggs for 5 min

2) Mix Oil, BM & Van- slowly pour into risen egg/sugar mixture

3) Whisk, Sift Whisk Dry and fold into mixture

4) Fold in Grated Carrots/ parsnips

5) Fold in Raisins

Bake 325 for 15 min turn 10 min

Recipe yields 1 half sheet tray

Mascarpone Frosting

1/1 cup (113.5g) Butter

2 cups (230g) 10x sugar

1/1 tsp (2g) Salt

1/2 tsp (2g) Vanilla extract

1 1/8 cup (250g) Mascarpone Cheese

Cream for 5 min room temp butter and sugar w/ salt & vanilla 

Fold in room temp mascarpone cheese

The cake is then completed with a brush of vanilla simple syrup, made with equal parts water and sugar and infused with a vanilla bean.

Try this recipe at home and be sure to tag us on social @dandrewsbakery and use #dandrews!