Southern France

🥐Today’s the 10th anniversary of the opening of the first Southern France shop. It’s a very bittersweet moment, as it’s almost been one year since its larger iteration closed. Ten years ago, I was shaking and quaking in my work clogs, wondering if we would have any customers come in that day. As if setting a precedent for years to come, we sold out early😉
🥐 Thanks to everyone who gave me, the staff, and the shop love and support over these 10 years… and the few folks who placed special order items that first year while I worked out of a shared kitchen. Thank you for letting me and the SF family feed you, hug you and your kiddos, have long conversations over lazy afternoons while we got to know each other, and for inviting Southern France into your homes for celebrations big and small.
🥐 I thought I’d be back to work by now, but life be life-in’. Who knows what the future holds, but today I hope you take a moment to feel the warmth of Southern France🥰🥐🩷

Banana Bread🎉🎉🎉 This banana bread is so delicious and a hit at any time of year! If you use the good butter and eat it warm, you taste the butter first and it’s heaven. Absolute perfection.

Ingredients:
Butter unsalted: 1/2c (113g)
Sugar: 1c (200g)
Salt: 1 tsp (6g)
Bananas, mashed: 1c (227g)
Whole eggs: 2 lg (120g)
Vanilla extract: 1tsp (5g)
Baking soda: 1tsp (5g)
AP flour: 1 1/2c (188g)
Sour cream: 1/2c (115g)
Instructions:
Cream the room temperature butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy. This could take up to 10 minutes, so be patient. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add room temperature bananas to butter mixture. Mix until bananas are small bits; should look weird and gross😉. Add room temperature eggs, one at a time, and vanilla extract, on the slowest mixer speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Sift all-purpose flour and baking soda together. Slowly add dry ingredients and sour cream in thirds, alternating until fully incorporated, making the last dollop of sour cream the last addition to the mix. Scrape bowl down and gently mix on slowest speed one more time, 30-45 seconds. Grease your loaf pans with pan spray with flour generously, or grease with unsalted butter and lightly dust with flour. Preheat oven to 350F and bake for 20 minutes, rotate the pans, and another 20 minutes. Check for doneness by plunging a toothpick in the middle. If it comes out clean, it’s done! Let pan cool for about 20 minutes, then remove from loaf pan and let cool on a cooling rack another 20-30 minutes... if you can wait that long! Yield: one banana bread loaf.

Mama’s Sugar Cookies🥰

Butter, unsalted 1 1/3 c (151g)
Sugar 1 1/2c (250g)
Salt 1/2tsp (2.5g)
Whole eggs 2 (120g)
Vanilla extract 2tsp (10g)
All-purpose flour 4c (480g)
Baking powder 3tsp (15g)
Whole milk 2 2/3tbsp (41g)

Cream the butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy. This could take up to 10min if your butter is cool. Make sure to scrape down your mixing bowl. Add eggs and vanilla one at a time, letting each one incorporate before adding more. Let this mix together until smooth and creamy. Make sure to scrape down the bowl very well. Bring any butter chunkies up to the top and mix until fully incorporated. On the slowest mixer speed, add AP flour and baking powder mix a little at the time, alternating with the milk, until all ingredients are combined. Stop the mixer and do a good scrape down, then mix one more time so there are no dry bits. Turn your dough onto plastic wrap. Flatten the dough into a 3/4in thick square with your hands, wrap well in plastic wrap, and place in the fridge. In a home fridge, the dough needs to set a minimum 1.5-2hrs, or overnight. Once chilled, cut the dough in half and roll out to desired thickness on a floured surface. You can use cookie cutters or round cutter. I like to work with 1/2dough at a time and keep the other half chilled. You can press the dough back together, roll and cut it all at one time. Personally, I like to pop the cut cookie dough back into the fridge for 30min to chill before going into the oven. You can also make this dough into drop cookies, just make sure to give them a little squish so the flatten before baking. Sprinkle with colored sugar, nonpareils, or both! Bake at 350F on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Keep about a finger’s width in between each cookie, as they spread and rise a bit. 9-10min for softer cookies, 11-13min for crispier cookies. Makes approximately 40, 3in round cookies. This dough, cut or not, will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.