1. Gingerbread
Man
The Cronut creator on thinking outside
the gingerbread house for the holidays
hen Dominique Ansel, chef and owner of
an eponymous bakery in New York, got
the ingenious idea to combine breakfast
favorites the doughnut and the croissant
into one delectable Cronut, he was hailed
as “a culinary van Gogh” and “the Leon-ardo
da Vinci of modern confection” by even the harshest food
critics from around the globe. His bakery holds Zagat’s highest
ranking in the category.
But if your holiday plans don’t include a trip to Manhattan
to sample Ansel’s signature gingerbread cake, our gift to you is
the recipe straight from his personal files. — Michele Shapiro
What’s your all-time favorite
holiday dessert?
In France, Christmas for me was
a really good caramelized apple
tart with lots of butter, sugar and
liberal use of Calvados brandy.
What’s your favorite holiday
tradition?
I love choosing the tree and decorating
it. Last year we did it at the bakery and
I hand-carried a 10-foot-tall tree into our little greenhouse.
Dominique Ansel: The Secr et
Recipes (Simon & Schuster)
In your book, you talk about thinking outside the gingerbread
house. What are three creative uses for your gingerbread cake?
It’s perfect for a holiday-inspired tiramisu. Just soak the gingerbread
in milk and assemble it with a little mascarpone cream. You can also
bake it into French toast or bread pudding.
If you could create a gingerbread man or woman to represent a
character from any CBS series, who would it be?
Maybe two gingerbread women for 2 Broke Girls. They did a whole
episode about the Cronut and I thought it was hilarious.
DOMINIQUE ANSEL’S GINGERBREAD CAKE
Yield: One 8-inch-square cake
Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degr ees Fahrenheit, pref-erably
on a c onvection setting. Melt butt er in
microwave and se t aside.
2. Combine s alt, baking soda, baking po wder,
nutmeg, flour and sugar in a bo wl and mix
together using a whisk.
3. Add eggs and pe ar purée t o dry ingr edients
and mix until smoo th. Add melted butter; stir
to combine.
4. Pour mixture into a nons tick pan and bak e
on the middle r ack until g olden brown and
springs back t o the t ouch, about 12 minut es
(depending on the kind o f oven you use).
5. Let cool; serve at r oom temperature.
Dominique Ansel
maitre d’
Ingredients:
¾ cup uns alted butter
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking
powder
1 teaspoon ground
nutmeg
1¼ cups all-purpose
flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons
granulated sugar
2 eggs
6¼ ounces pear purée
ansel: Timothy Kuratek/CBS
114 DECEMBER 2014 | watch! cbswatchmagazine.com

2. maitre d’
Favorite My
Holiday Treats
TV stars share “sweet” traditions
worth celebrating
Evette Rios,
Recipe Rehab
Cariou Christmas Shortbread Cookies
(adapted from The Purity Cookbook)
Ingredients:
2 cups butt er, softened
¼ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup icing sugar or br own
sugar (or ½ cup o f each)
4 cups flour
Co lored sprinkles or chopped
maraschino cherries, f or
garnish
Carlson: Acepixs/ImageCollect; Cariou: Eric Leibowitz/CBS; rios: Vanessa Stump/Trium Entertainment
“Being Swedish, we would open
our presents on Christmas Eve
after church. Then Christmas
morning, my mother would make
us all Swedish pancakes, which
we would eat while we enjoyed
our holiday gifts. Although
some of my traditions have
changed with my o wn children,
Swedish pancakes on Christmas
morning is one that w e still
honor—delicious!”
— Amy Carlson, Blue Bloods
LISTEN UP!
I Love the Holidays, an album o f
holiday music by Blue Bloods star
Amy Carlson’s band Office Romance,
is available on iTunes.
“My favorite cookies are alfajores. They’re traditional
Latin American cookies with a dulc e de leche filling.
I love making them bec ause they’re fun to assemble
and get the whole family inv olved. It’s a group effort;
everyone pitches in to fill and c oat them. Henry Ford
would have been proud of my family’s division o f
labor, but maybe no t as proud of how many ‘fall o ff’
the assembly line!”
— Evette Rios, host,
Recipe Rehab
Len Cariou, Blue Bloods
Amy Carlson,
Blue Bloods
“I love my wife’s Christmas shortbreads, and look forward
to them every year. She brought the recipe, and the tradi-tion,
from her family. Every year, Heather sets aside a day
to fill the house with Christmas music and the fragrance of
baking shortbreads. Those cookies are like gold melting in
my mouth.” — Len Cariou, Blue Bloods
Instructions:
1. Cream butter with vanilla and sugar . Mix
in flour 1 cup at a time.
2. Split dough int o two batches. Roll one
batch out ont o floured surface and cut with
cookie cutters. Repeat with sec ond batch.
3. Decorate with c olored sprinkles and/
or chopped mar aschino cherries. Bake for
10 minutes at 350 degr ees Fahrenheit.
cbswatchmagazine.com watch! | DECEMBER 2014 117