F6 THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2019 LATIMES.COM/FOOD
sales, for more than 30 different
charities, since February 2017.
Mandell, pastry chef Steph-
anie Chen (Sugarbear Bakes,
“The Great American Baking
Show”) and others in the food
community host events in small
public spaces such as parks and
parking lots, as well as the
cultured butter palace of the
Manufactory.
The confections at Gather
for Good traced a star map
of local pastry chefs, including
Nicole Rucker of the recently
shuttered Fiona, Lincoln Carson
of Bon Temps, Cecilia Leung
of Lincoln and Little Flower,
Pizzana’s Candace Nelson,
Shannon Swindle of the
Lucques Group, the Gourman-
dise School’s Clemence Gossett,
Leah Chin-Katz of the Manufac-
tory and Ivan Marquez of Bro-
ken Spanish. Sherry Yard, for
many years Spago’s restaurant
and corporate pastry chef, pir-
ouetted in a pink lace dress on
chalked concrete.
The crowd, a mash-up of
shoppers, activists and many of
the city’s best pastry chefs,
clapped and raised glasses,
while others picked out cakes or
slices to buy — all proceeds were
donated to Planned Parenthood
and the Yellowhammer Fund,
which helps fund women’s repro-
ductive rights in Alabama.
(Cake slices went for $5; whole
cakes started at $50.)
Gather for Good raisedOn a recent sun-shot after-
noon outside the Manufactory in
downtown Los Angeles, a crowd
collected around tables loaded
with ornate cakes, decorated
with fresh flowers, piped frosting
and buttercream slogans that
read “mind your own uterus”
and “no more hangers.” It was
a community action meeting
masquerading as a high-end
bake sale; Michelle Obama
meets Antoine Carême.
Around the country, pastry
chefs are banding together and
throwing old-fashioned bake
sales to raise funds for causes
they care about. It’s hardly a new
model: Folks have been trading
cookies for cash and causes — in
classrooms, churches and on
sidewalks — for decades. Sherry
Mandell, who works with funds-
and awareness-raising collective
Gather for Good and helped
organize the Manufactory event,
said the idea for the group
“started the night of the elec-
tion.”
“A bunch of pastry chefs were
texting me, crying,” she recalled,
including one who tearfully la-
mented: “ ‘All I know how to do is
make really good pie crust.’ ”
Gather for Good, founded by
pastry chef Zoe Nathan (Milo &
Olive and Huckleberry in Santa
Monica) has raised more than
$93,000 in small grassroots bakealmost $6,000 that day, Mandell
said; its next event was held this
month to help support immi-
grant children held in border
camps.
“I can’t believe we have to do
this,” said Christine Moore,
founder of Little Flower and Lin-
coln in Pasadena, as she forked
up cake at a table on the Manu-
factory patio. “We’re going
backwards?”
A few weeks earlier, Jessica
Koslow had convened a lineup of
top pastry talent for the kickoff
of her Pastry Action Network,
benefiting the Yellowhammer
Fund and the James Beard
Foundation’s Women’s Entre-
preneurial Leadership Program.
Koslow’s event included New
York pastry chef Natasha Pick-
owicz, whose annual Manhattan
bake sales benefiting Planned
Parenthood are the progenitor
of the model. This year, Picko-
wicz’s third hosting the event,
she raised $96,000 for the wom-
en’s health organization.
“There was something about
a bake sale that’s nostalgic,
that’s rooted around community
and church basements,” Pick-
owicz said.
They gathered at Sqirl,
Koslow’s East Hollywood toast
and jam joint. The conceit was
similar: a way to convert lemon
turmeric conchas and Chinese
herbed pancakes into cash for a
cause.
It was the inaugural event forwhat Koslow hoped would be the
start of many, with changeable
locations, chefs, pastries and
causes.
P.A.N. sold well-appointed
boxes of pastries from Picko-
wicz; Zoë Kanan (Simon and the
Whale, Studio at the Freehand
Hotel in New York); Caitlyn
Jarvis (Henrietta Red in Nash-
ville); Anna Posey (Elske in Chi-
cago); Jess Stephens (the soon-
to-open Onda in Santa Monica);
and the Sqirl pastry team of
Sasha Piligian, Cat Flores and
Krista Hernandez. Tickets for
the event, which included a large
box loaded with pastries and
swag, went for $50.
Koslow had brought the five
women — though their gender,
she said, wasn’t a requirement;
only their skill and commitment
— to Los Angeles, putting them
all up in a nearby Airbnb.
“We’re all friends through In-
stagram,” Jarvis said, “but we’d
never really met each other.”
The group had, by all ac-
counts, an ad hoc sugar-fueled
slumber party, then went into
production mode.
Weeks after the bake sale, the
large white P.A.N. tea towel that
Koslow included in the pastry
boxes seems a flag not of surren-
der but of continued, persistent
negotiation.
And a pretty handy way to
transfer breads and cakes and
cookies from one woke kitchen
to the next.Allison ZauchaFor The Times Allison ZauchaFor The TimesDania MaxwellLos Angeles TimesPastry chefs take
action to aid women
By Amy ScattergoodAllison ZauchaFor The TimesPastry chefs, from left, Anna Posey, seated, Natasha Pickowicz, Zoe Kanan, Caitlyn Jarvis, Sasha Piligian and Jess Stephens.
The opinionated desserts were sold by Gather for Good in support of Planned Parenthood and the Yellowhammer Fund.Allison ZauchaFor The TimesArmenian
Shortbread With
Cardamom and
Mahleb
Pastry chef Sasha Piligian of
Sqirl restaurant in Silver Lake
adds cardamom and mahleb
to her take on traditional
Armenian shortbread, which
is usually made with just
butter, flour and sugar.
Mahleb are the kernels found
inside the pits of sour cherries
and have an almond scent
with a faintly bitter taste and
a vanilla aroma. It’s best to
buy whole kernels and grind
them yourself to capture their
delicate flavor, but you can
buy powdered versions as
well. Even without mahleb,
these shortbread are unique
in the way they bring together
clarified butter and powdered
sugar to make a rich and
tender cookie.
2 hours plus chilling. Makes
about 13 dozen.
(^6) green cardamom pods
(^1) cup high-fat,
European-style unsalted
butter
(^2) packed cups powdered
sugar
12 ⁄ 3 cups all-purpose flour
(^1) teaspoon mahleb kernels,
finely ground
(^1) teaspoon kosher salt
1 Press on the cardamom
pods until they crack open
slightly. Put in a small sauce-
pan and add the butter. Set
over medium-low heat and
melt the butter. Continue
cooking until the dairy solids
foam and rise to the top then
sink to the bottom. Skim the
foam off the top of the melted
butter and discard. Remove
the pan from the heat. Slowly
pour the butter into a liquid
measuring cup and refrigerate
until the fat is solid.
2 Using a small spoon, pierce
through the solid butter at the
edge and down to the bottom
of the cup and remove a small
scoop of the butter. Pour out
any liquid dairy from the
bottom of the cup. You should
be left with a scant cup of solid
clarified butter. Pick out the
cardamom pods and discard.
3 Combine the clarified butter
and one cup powdered sugar
in a stand mixer fitted with
the paddle attachment. Beat
on medium speed, scraping
the bowl occasionally, until
fluffy and pale, about five
minutes.
4 Meanwhile, whisk the flour,
mahleb and salt in a medium
bowl. Add half the mixture to
the whipped butter and beat
on low speed until just incor-
porated. Scrape the bowl, add
the remaining dry ingredients
and beat on low until the
mixture begins to form large
clumps.
5 Scrape half of the dough
onto a large sheet of plastic
wrap. Form into a log the
diameter of a quarter and
wrap tightly. Repeat with the
remaining dough. Refrigerate
until firm, at least one hour.
6 Heat the oven to 350 de-
grees. Line two large baking
sheets with parchment paper.
7 Unwrap one log and cut into
eighth-inch-thick slices. Place
the rounds half an inch apart
on one prepared sheet. Re-
peat with the remaining log
and sheet.
8 Bake one sheet at a time
until the edges are just set and
the tops just dry, seven to nine
minutes. Do not let the cook-
ies take on any color. Cool
completely on the sheets on
wire racks.
9 Place half of the remaining
powdered sugar in a large,
shallow bowl. Carefully slide
one sheet of cookies into the
bowl and carefully toss and
turn with your fingers until
evenly coated. Transfer to an
airtight container. Repeat
with the remaining powdered
sugar and cookies.
Make AheadThe dough can be
refrigerated for up to two days
before slicing and baking. The
cookies can be kept in an airtight
container for up to one week.
Adapted from Sasha Piligian.
Leslie GrowFor The Times