INdulgent No. 1--Serenity, Zionsville, IN

INdulgent No. 1--Serenity, Zionsville, IN

It was really FALL and the weather starts to cool down quite dramatically. Honestly I hope it can wait for another week or so, at least until November. Anyhow, it's time to have a warm tea or coffee in a sunshine late morning combining with a filling brunch to spend the weekend.

This is my first INdulgent post which is a category to make a journal of my Indianapolis restaurant journey. 

This week, I will share with you a cute little historical house called Serenity in Zionsville, an also cute little town northwest of Indy.

First comes the Official site and the Groupon deal.

There are a lot of options here. You can ask for hosting wedding, ceremony or try Sunday brunch, afternoon tea or catering. 

First of all, this was the first time that I walked through the main street of Zionsville. It reminds me of Nashville near brown county. Tranquil, peaceful and friendly. As always, pumpkins are everywhere. 

  

The front door is kind of normal and not quite impressive.

When we walked inside, it smelled and looked like Victorian era. Pretty tableware and decoration all around the place. Granny wearing aprons busily served the guests.

The brunch started with a selection of drinks including orange juice, house tea and coffee. We ordered house tea and coffee. I must say they are all very good especially the tea. They changed it every now and then. This time it was cherry herb and it smells amazing!

I am not quite a coffee person. So I am sorry I don't quite have the fine palate to judge their coffee. I loved to see the swirl of cream in the coffee though! So elegant! 

Then, they served us a small chocolate chip scone which is not dense which is good but also not standout. The only thing I did figure out was they used Ghirardelli 60% chocolate chips which is a wise choice.

Then the main plate: 

If I was right, they are: 

Bread pudding: soggy, bland and weirdly salty as the dominant seasoning. Why?

Double cheese egg snuffle: also kind of soggy, the cheese is not bad but they are just supermarket plain Americans and Swiss. 

Mini rosemary sausage: not cheap made but didn't have much meaty boldness. Strong rosemary and herb blend, kind of overpowered. 

Grilled veggies: average, fair

Arugula garden salads: average, the croutons are fresh but I can tell they didn't use high quality bread so it lacks the "burst of wheat" flavor.

Fruits: at least they are fresh enough. 

Bottom line: I probably would not bother try them again.

Then, we ordered two desserts. Carrot cake with coconut, assorted nuts and cream cheese frosting; and lemon cake. The carrot cake really won and it probably is the best carrot cake I have ever had in the US. They are not too sweet, not greasy. You can really taste the coconut and roasted walnuts. Also, instead of butter cream frosting, they chose partially fondant frosting which leave the whole thing a little chewiness and perfectly balanced the crumbly texture of the main cake part. The spice is also about just right, not over powered or under-reached. 

The lemon cake on the other hand, was quite disappointing. There is indeed a little tartness in the frosting which is not bad, but the cake part is just too too dense and dull. I am surprised they failed for probably the easiest question.

As a summary, I would not recommend here as a classical brunch place. But they do have regular lunch menu which might worth a try. At least the atmosphere and decoration is quite pleasant. And the afternoon tea sounds interesting since their tea is indeed a home run.

Their lunch menu

After the bunch. We continued walking through the main street. It was sunday so there is not so many people and stores are closed mostly. Still, it was a good time.

And...We saw this sign in the front door of a shop. By chance...I guess this is part of the altitude of people in Zionsville...LOL...

The very first "sweet teeth" post--Margarita cookies

I don't know why it took me so long to post this first blog after that rather "loud" announcement about my plan. But anyways, here I am. The very first "SWEET TEETH" post.

Today, I want to share with you a really simple recipe which is considered to be quite foolproof yet very unique in texture (superior crumbly) and delicious. It has a featured cracked edges. And this is also a good recipe to use up left over egg yolks.
Margarita cookies!

















I archived this recipe for a super long time when I was in China. It's supposed to be perfect for newbies baker. While I am a...er...intermediate baker probably...LOL, it's hard to believe that I still didn't make this yet until today. But when I tried to look up in English websites for more references, I found it was another cookie variety. Anyway, this is maybe Chinese version Margarita cookies but they are absolutely delicious!

Enough buzzing, let's start!

Ingredients:
All purpose flour 100g
Corn starch 100g
Butter 65g
Corn oil 30g
Confectioner sugar/icing sugar 50g
Pinch of salt (about 1/8 tsp)
2 cooked egg yolk 
Vanilla extract/powder/paste 1/2 tsp

Steps:
Depending on how long it takes your oven to be heated, you can preheat it at ~375F/180C before start or preheat it later. This is a pretty sturdy dough and it's fine to leave it for a while in the fridge.

1. Use microwave to cook the egg yolks about 10-20s at high setting if you didn't have hard boiled egg yolks. Mesh them through a sieve.
2. Cream the butter with the confectioner sugar and salt together until pale in color and lightened in texture. Some people say it's a feather-like stage.
3. Add the meshed egg yolk and blend well
4. Add the corn oil and blend well
5. Sieve the AP flour and corn starch, add the vanilla extract/powder/paste and blend well. The dough would exactly smells like gourmet vanilla ice-cream right now. So attempting! 
6. You may find the dough is really crumbly at this point. That's fine as long as you can somewhat form them into small ball-like dough.
7. Divide them into preferred size ball, put on a baking sheet/baking tray lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil and carefully press each of them with your thumb until you are happy with the "crack" formed at the edges. If they fall apart, just gently pile them together. They will stay together as they were baked.
8. Put the tray into a preheated oven for about 20min or until you see a lightly golden colored around the edges.

Cool completely and they are ready to serve!

















Why this recipe works?
1. The combination of butter and corn oil (vegetable oil) makes it really crispy and crumbly while whole butter recipe usually make it a little denser.
2. The corn starch decreased the gluten content a lot which also makes this cookie just melt in your mouth as you bite them.
3. The cooked yolks add another layer of crumbliness to this cookie.
4. The original recipe didn't call for vanilla while I thought it would be nice to have it since this is basically a "dry custard" cookies considering the ingredients. I guess this is also why it smells so much like vanilla ice-cream.

I hope you enjoy this easy yet delicious recipe and give it a try! This will make you reconsider the definition of "crumbly" and "crispy" for a cookie.