Chronicle Books Blog

Honey-Ginger Apple Croustades with Cinnamon-Sugar Walnuts

Makes six 3 1/2-inch croustades

Croustade is just another way to say “rustic tart,” but it sounds good, doesn’t it? These individual croustades look so sweet on a dessert plate. And because they’re rustic, there’s no need to worry about shaping the pastry-just fold up a little border and you’re done. I take these a step beyond a simple fruit tart by sprinkling them with crunchy glazed spiced walnuts, but they’re perfectly lovely unadorned, too.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus about 2 tablespoons melted butter for glazing
1 1/4 pounds apples (about 5 medium, I like Braeburns and Fujis), peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks to make about 5 cups
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of kosher salt
1 sheet (about 9 ounces) frozen puff pastry, thawed
Cinnamon-Sugar Walnuts (recipe follows)

Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until sizzling, then add the apples and toss to coat. Sauté until a lot of the moisture has steamed off and the apples start to soften and brown, 8 to 10 minutes.

Add the honey, ginger, cinnamon, and salt and toss to blend. Taste and add more of any of these flavorings if you like. Set aside to cool.

On a lightly floured counter, roll the pastry into a 10-by-15-inch rectangle. Cut into six 5-by-5-inch squares, then trim off the corners of each square to make a rough round.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Arrange the pastry rounds on a baking sheet and prick each one at 1/2-inch intervals. Portion the apple filling evenly among the pastry rounds, leaving about a 1/2-inch border of pastry. Wet the border with a little water and loosely pleat it to create an edge that embraces the apples; the pastry won’t cover the center of the apple filling. Brush the edge with some of the melted butter.

Bake the croustades until the pastry is pale gold and set, about 18 minutes; brush a little more butter onto the pastry and continue baking until the pastry is puffed and a rich golden brown on the border and undersides (lift one to check), another 5 to 7 minutes.

Slide the croustades onto a cooling rack. Sprinkle each one with a heaping tablespoon of Cinnamon-Sugar Walnuts and let cool for at least 15 minutes or up to 1 hour before serving.

Do ahead
To make these ahead, fill and shape the croustades, freeze them unwrapped until firm, then wrap well in plastic and freeze until ready to bake. Bake directly from the freezer and add a few minutes to the cooking time.

Cinnamon-Sugar Walnuts

Makes about 1/2 cup

These nuts are tasty for munching as well as for garnishing the croustades. Be careful when you’re stirring because the sugar gets very hot.

1/2 cup walnut halves
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Pinch of kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Line a plate with foil. Put the walnuts, sugar, and salt in a small skillet and heat over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar starts to melt but is not yet syrupy and the walnuts start to smell toasty. Don’t let the sugar caramelize. Pour the nuts onto the plate, sprinkle with the cinnamon and let cool completely.

Put the nuts in a heavy plastic bag and crush them with something heavy. You want small pieces with a little bit of powder. Taste and add more salt or cinnamon to taste.

Purchase Puff.

Click here for more great recipes.

Peter Perez
Senior Marketing Manager

When Chronicle’s Design Desk started blogging this March we felt a little nervous about putting into words the visual world we see and love. Luckily there are plenty of things we’re eager to share.

Inspired by the year-end “best of” lists popping up everywhere from Book By It’s Cover’s The Best of BBIC 2008 and Time Magazine’s Top 10 Everything we’ve decided to look back on our maiden year.

Our best critics are our readers, so we looked to them to decide what was most popular. We got the heaviest traffic on our We Heart Anthropologie post. Perhaps you like their crafty creative spirit and vintage pretty aesthetic as much as we do.

The runners up were the Art of Covers for a Collection of Movie Posters and AIGA’s 50 Books/50 Covers posts.

The Art of Covers for a Collection of Movie Posters got the most comments with a total of eight (one more than D.I.Y. Campaign Design and We Heart Anthropolgie). Clearly film and design belong together. Perhaps a reminder to hit the theaters more often?

The best offline, non-digital post we saw all year was Jake Gardner’s “Here’s Your Yellow Print Outs…” (above). A reminder to not be wasteful.

The designers posting for the Design Desk may not be natural writers, er… I mean bloggers, but we probably like some of the same things you do, if you like Chronicle publishing… so we hope we haven’t sounded like square-glasses, hipster sneaker dweebs.

All the best in the New Year (and more design nerdy-dom to come every Monday)!

Suzanne LaGasa
Designer

Stratosphere

The sweet Muscat and acidic berry notes are lovely with the delicate, floral crème de violette. This recipe is adapted from Lucius Beebe’s 1946 classic, The Stork Club Bar Book. It was served at the Stork Club in New York. The original recipe called for Champagne.

2 whole cloves
3/4 ounce crème de violette
5 ounces Moscato d’Asti, chilled (alternatives: Asti, Prosecco extra dry, Champagne extra dry)
Lemon twist for garnish

Place cloves in a chilled 6-ounce sparkling-wine glass. Add crème de violette. Top slowly with chilled bubbly. Stir gently. Garnish with short strip of lemon peel, first twisting it over the glass to release the flavorful oils into the drink.

Serves 1

Purchase Tiny Bubbles.

Click here for more great recipes.

Peter Perez
Senior Marketing Manager

Thanks to that one iconic picture of Johnny Cash flippin’ the bird, the one-finger salute is the de facto gesture when it comes to rock musicians proving authenticity and attitude. Makes sense: Cash believably claimed to wear black for the “poor and beaten down,” so it follows that his hand gestures embodied his contempt for authority and good behavior. Or had something to do with the way his addiction to pills modulated his personality. Whatever the case, it takes a little more of a leap of faith to imagine the dudes from Ratt or Warrant — responsible for “Round and Round,” and “Cherry Pie,” respectively — have a problem with authority beyond the fact that it sometimes gets in the way of partying.

Neil Zlozower’s new pocket-sized photo book, Fück Yöu follows in the footsteps of his previous photo book for Chronicle, Van Halen: A Visual History 1978-1984. Compiling every photo Neil has taken with his model(s) giving the camera the finger, it comes packed with an unhealthy dose of L.A. hair-metal glitz and glam and all the pomp attitude that scene embodied. Some of the people featured in the book’s pages are ubiquitous (Tommy Lee and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith) and some are comparative unknowns (Lääz Rockit? Big Cock? Trixter?); some look like they’d legitimately kick your ass (Lemmy, Tom Araya), and others are so cuddly the finger feels like a hug (Van Halen’s Mike Anthony is incapable of telegraphing danger, Chick Corea is wearing a keytar, for Christ’s sake).

Whatever the case, the rock star moodiness documented by the book has a funny way of translating into real life — it’s not hard to find footage of rockers devoting serious attention to putting audiences in their place. The videos below aren’t anywhere close to an exhaustive list of stupid band/audience interactions (a recent post on the Limewire blog comes closer), but they’re illustrative examples of those times when self-aware rock star moves are awkwardly forced to become more than just poses.

“Danzig getting knocked out”

All in all, does it really matter what this dispute was about? Certainly, Danzig getting dropped with a single punch is the punch-line (no pun intended) to this brief clip, but the pre-fight moments are just as interesting. It’s almost like a nature documentary. Cue David Attenborough voice: “Threatened, the 5’4” Glenn Danzig broadens his body and plants his feet to appear larger and surer in his Prince-sized frame than he would in casual interaction. He attempts to gain control over the confrontation by initiating physical aggression, but soon becomes victim of his own haste. Those that have gathered to watch turn their attention to the victor.”

“Henry Rollins beats up a fan”

It didn’t take long for hardcore punk’s reputation for violent shows to attract all manner of unstable folks looking for a forum to pour their pent-up aggression on kids in the pit. Which isn’t to say that this type of person wasn’t hardcore’s audience in the first place. LA — and, for that matter, punk or what remains of it — still hasn’t escaped from Black Flag’s long shadow. This clip from their early years illustrates the kind of punishment Henry Rollins was only too ready to dole out to shit-talking “fans.” More nuanced than simply stupid — and it’s viscerally frightening the way we observe Rollins’ sinewy body gleefully building up the rain of punches to come — this is the sort of universal “fuck you” gesture that hair-metal bands adopted in spirit, but were too career-minded to back up with real violence. Proof that the roots of the ‘tude were always already self-conscious, and not a little scripted. It didn’t take long for Flag to slow down the tempos, grow out their hair, and settle in for a long metal grind that was basically impossible to mosh to, but great for smoking weed and chilling out. Bummer?

“QOTSA’a Josh Homme gets mad at fan at concert.”

I go from sympathizing with Josh Homme in the first sentence of his incredibly involved, venomous rant — where he asks the audience to not throw shit at him when he’s sick, goddamnit — to hating him with the same amount of scorn that he lavishes on the sixteen-year-old-looking kid he singles out here. What’s truly amazing, though, is how each un-PC wordbomb he deploys to humiliate his “assailant” shows Homme growing further and further into a grotesque caricature of himself. Potentially ironic machismo lapses into real machismo, here, and the results are petulant insecurity and long-winded go-nowhereness. How gross.

“Jay Reatard – My Shadow w/Ass Kicking in Toronto”

This feels, to me, like the least dumb of all the videos. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that naming yourself “Reatard” is a gesture that goes a long way in proving your lack of pretension. It could also be that Reatard is in the middle of a musical winning streak that puts Rollins’ and Danzig’s (not to mention Homme’s) recent output to shame. So while you have to be patient for this one, it’s all good: you get to hear one of Mr. Reatard’s pop-punk gems before seeing him tear the shirt of a guy’s back. This seems legitimately retaliatory considering the fact that the guy unplugged Reatard’s guitar, but then again it’s common knowledge that this prolific, Memphis-based musician isn’t exactly a pacifist.

“Nickelback get’s hit with ROCKS!”

This one is satisfying for obvious reasons — Nickelback makes Candlebox look like the Jesus Lizard. It also pinpoints exactly what this Canadian group of post-grunge meatheads inherited from hair metal: a fussy temper and fussier hair. The hissy fit documented in this clip shows the band’s frontman, Chad Kroeger, delivering a passive-aggressive tirade against the rock-throwing segment of the band’s audience at a Portuguese festival. While wanting to walk off the stage when people are trying to beam you with rocks makes obvious sense, Kroeger’s peevish tone has the same pampered quality the band derided in their song “Rockstar.” It also calls to mind the video of a ’94 Jesus Lizard performance where David Yow takes a glass flask to the jaw — it appears to break on impact with his head — and then gets back up and finishes the song. So, um, Mr. Kroeger, what were you saying about rock ‘n’ roll?

Order Fück Yöu.

Brandon Bussolini
Web/Publicity Intern

Every six months Chronicle Books grants six-month Fellowships to recent design school graduates. It is the perfect opportunity for young designers to get their feet wet in the publishing world, and to gain experience at such a great company. Sadly, December marks the end of another Fellowship term and, as a goodbye, the Fall 08 Fellows thought we would put together a list of what it means to be a Fellow at Chronicle Books.

A is for Archive room
A very fun thing for a new Fellow to do is to peruse the Chronicle archive room, which contains a copy of everything published in the company’s history.

B is for Book factory
The Fellowship is advertised via posters in design schools. This year Allison and Grace felt it was important to give an accurate representation of what the inside of Chronicle’s office looks like.

C is for Chronicle events
A big part of Chloe’s Industrial design fellowship was to coordinate the details of Chronicle’s presence at trade shows and events.

before:

after:

D is for DIY business cards
Waiting for us on our first day was a big box of blank business cards that we could personalize when we found ourselves hobnobbing with San Francisco’s design elite.

E is for Eyeglasses
Chronicle’s logo is an ever-present theme. After spending some time here, you see things differently.

F is for Festivities
In between work hours, Chronicle Books has many festivities, including picnics, parties, guest lectures, bagel breakfasts, movie nights, hot dog days, etc, etc, etc.

G is for Gnomes
We managed to keep it a pretty good secret, but the Fall 08 fellows are actually gnomes who disguise ourselves all year-round to look like normal people. On October 31st when everyone else was dressed in costume we came as our regular selves, and none was the wiser.

H is for Halloween
Speaking of Oct 31st, that day is a pretty big deal ’round these parts. Even though us Fellows weren’t dressed in costume, we still managed to be a part of the design department’s prize-winning Halloween enchanted forest festivities.

I is for Island
Everyone in the office describes where we sit as “Fellow Island,” but truth be told, it’s more accurately described as a peninsula.

J is for Jargon
Words like galley, FPO, mechs, key title, bellyband, ancillary, blow-ups, gatefolds and front matter are now a part of our day-to-day vocabulary. Jealous?

K is for Kiss cut
This term is so pleasing that it deserves its own post. During the day it means to diecut the top layer but not the backing of self-adhesive paper, and is used for creating stickers. When the lights come down, it’s the name of at least three of the Fall 08 Fellows’ hardcore metal bands.

L is for Lab, Design
Design Lab is an integral part of the Fellowship. This is our workshop where we meet with Michael Carabetta, Chronicle’s Creative Director, and brainstorm about materials, form, and books, and develop new and exciting concepts that could possibly compliment Chronicle’s existing catalog.

M is for “Make it Pop”
If there’s one thing that all design fellows learn while at Chronicle Books, it’s to “Make it pop.” Ka-pow!

N is for No Cute Zone
In an attempt to expand our vocabulary, Fellow Island was declared a no “cute” zone. Also discouraged was saying “for sure” in agreement; “most def” is the preferred alternative.

O is for Oatmeal
The breakfast of Champions; the Fellows’ fuel. Where would we be without a warm morning meal?

P is for Puppy Cam
Like the rest of the world, the Fall 08 Fellows could not resist the adorable vortex that is the Puppy Cam. Like the Shina Ibu 6, the Fall 08 Fellows have grown and it’s now time for us to put down the gigantic stuffed carrot and move on.

Q is for My Quotable Kid
In Grace’s publishing fellowship, she designed this handy journal for keeping track of your funny kids.

R is for Resumé
This stint will make a great addition to each of ours.

S & T is for Show & Tell
The weekly design meeting where new projects are shown and discussed is one of the highlights of the Fellowship.

U is for the Ultimate Card Game Book
During Allison’s publishing fellowship, she learned everything she could possible need to know about playing cards while she designed this essential resource.
(Pattern illustrated by Arthur Mount)

V is for Vunce Upon a Time
Lizzie built this promotional piece for Vunce Upon a Time by J.otto Seibold and Siobhan Vivian, a scary-cute children’s book about a vegetarian vampire. The kit included instructions on how to be a vampire and a template for a jack-o’-lantern with fangs.

W is for What do you see Under the Sea
Molly worked on this interactive children’s book, turning paint swirls into an underwater world. (Fishy stickers to come!)

X is for X-Acto
Used extensively by the fellows for making up those mockups! Be careful with these as they are very sharp, right Chloe?

Y is for whY did we decide to do an alphabet…?
Some letters just don’t write themselves!

Z is for Zzzz’s
As in, time to get some.

Happy Holidays from the Fall 08 Design Fellows. We’ve “most def” had the best time at Chronicle Books!

Molly Baker – Children’s Design
Lizzie Crowely – Marketing Design
Chloe Fung – Industrial Design
Grace Partridge – Publishing Design
Allison Weiner – Publishing Design