I find myself slowly walking up and down the aisles at Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma daydreaming about owning every single item on the shelves more often than I’d like to admit. Cooking is just my thing, and I can never get enough kitchen-related stuff.
You may like to spend hours in a shoe store, but I would prefer to look at tortilla presses and interesting sauces. So when Hamptons Lane recently reached out to me asking if I was interested in partnering up to offer a coupon code to our Boxy Ladies readers, I nearly knocked my husband over to reply YES! YES! A THOUSAND TIMES YES! We are very excited to offer this exclusive coupon code to our readers:
Use code BOXYLADIES10 and get $10 off your next Hamptons Lane box!
Read on to see why I love this box so much!
Hamptons Lane is one of the best food-related boxes available. Each box is packed (and I mean packed) with high-end, gourmet items that spotlight a different region, food, ingredient, skill, or activity – and you can always skip that month or replace that month’s box with another. Even better, they also allow you to preview the box before deciding to purchase it (a rarity in this industry). It costs $47, which is kind of a steal considering everything that’s included.
This month’s theme was Tarts & Pies, which is a world that I have, until recently, feared. Cooking is easy for me and something I can do with my eyes closed. I haven’t needed to follow a recipe in about a decade, I can whip up anything without much effort and hardly stop to think about what I’m doing. But baking is an entirely different story. Bread requires a bit of chemistry know-how, cake is just so tempting to get from a box, and dough simply seems like a lot of work for someone as lazy as myself. My husband dove head first into baking last year, and has since become something of a baking wizard. He has taught me a few tricks that have opened up this whole new world. What I’m saying is this box is pretty well-timed.
One last thing before I show you the goodies – each box comes with a gorgeous book full of recipes, tips, and info about the products. This is super helpful for someone like me, who had no idea what pie weights were (but now I own some fancy ones that will be put to good use for the holidays!). Aside from the book’s usefulness, it’s serious eye-candy.
Fox Run Essential Ceramic Pie Weights – $8.00: I may be the last person I know to own pie weights. They are used for blind baking crust (which is when you want to bake an unfilled crust, like for a cream pie which has filling that doesn’t need to be baked). They’re used to hold the crust’s shape and distribute heat evenly. It’s going to be hard not to gloat when my first pie crust comes out totally perfect.
Decorative Leaf Presses, set of four – $19.00: Hamptons Lane had these adorable presses made especially for this box! I’ll be using these dough presses for cutting out cute shapes to put on top of a pie, but it looks like you could use them to make cookies too. The presses are quite nice; they have some heft to them and the spring is a great touch.
RawSpiceBar Spice Blends in Chicken Pie and Pumpkin Pie – $8.00 (for both): It’s so cool to see RawSpiceBar popping up in other subscription boxes! If you’ve read my RSB reviews, you know what a big fan I am of their spice blends. The pumpkin pie spice blend is a combo of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, mace, and star anise, so it’s got the right flavor profile for some cold-weather baking. The chicken pie spice mix blends tarragon, sage, white peppercorns, thyme, allspice, black peppercorns, garlic, and marjoram, and is unlike any other spice blend that I own. Really excited about this one.
Cloister Honey Whipped Cinnamon Honey – $8.00: This award-winning raw honey is seriously delicious. It’s whipped with Korinje cinnamon and has a truly unique flavor that would be delicious on a wide variety of things – biscuits, roasted vegetables, ice cream, or just eaten from a spoon (guilty).
Fat Daddio’s Professional Rectangular Tart Pan – $14.00: This high-quality, durable pan has a removable bottom which is super handy. Unsurprisingly, Fat Daddio’s products are designed by bakers, so they are both top of the line and made to be useful. I have an asparagus tart recipe that is going to seriously benefit from this pan!
Terre Botanicals Handmade Sweet Orange Sugar – $13.00: I love infused sugars, salts, and oils! They add just a little oomph to a recipe, but I usually have to make them myself. This sugar is subtly seasoned with sweet orange and it smells divine. They suggest adding it to tea or sprinkling it on pies and cookies. This bag is also quite large, it’ll last for a while.
Fox Run Double-Sided Pastry Cutter – $7.00: This simple tool adds so much to the presentation of a pie or tart. Messy edges can look cool in a rustic sense, but if you want to make a pie that’s Martha Stewart-approved, you’re gonna need to clean it up. This dual-purpose cutter crimps and cuts, plus the wooden handle is a cute touch.
Final Rating: A+
This box was a breath of fresh air for me. I’ve been getting boxes recently that I haven’t been too impressed by, but this one more than made up for it. The retail value of everything is $77, which is a $30 savings at the $47 HL price tag. I loved that there was a good mix of tools and ingredients, and every single item was something new to my kitchen (which is kind of an incredible feat). I am really excited to see what’s in the December box!
Cheers!
Jill
Complimentary box was sent in exchange for an honest review; All opinions are my own.