Gourmet or Gourmand

Cincinnati's "Via Vite" e molto BENE!!

2009-08-15T10:26:00.002-04:00

I went for my second dinner at Fountain Square's "Via Vite" restaurant yesterday. Each trip has left me and my husband enormously impressed. The restaurant sits right on the square and the exterior walls are basically all glass, so you can see all the salsa dancing, the crowds, the families, the singles mingling out on the square. You can feel the positive energy out there, and it's like you're in another city altogether -- not somewhere tucked in the mid-west. The restaurant also has outdoor seating, which would be ideal on a perfect summer or fall evening.

Equally as impressive is the interior of the restaurant. The decor in this place is pure class: beautiful wood tables, lovely banquettes covered with a tan and brown fabric, a sparkling bar, gorgeous lighting. It's modern and sleek without being intimidating. The waitstaff is young and seems to be mostly male, and while they are not perfectly polished they are eager to please.

The food: We went to Via Vite yesterday for Cincinnati's Downtown Restaurant Week -- a group of downtown restaurants are offering $35 3-course dinners all week. I chose to start with a warm goat cheese salad with truffle oil and pistachios. That salad could have been my entire meal, not that it was so filling but it was so GOOD. The flavors blended perfectly together and the vinaigrette they used was light and didn't mask the delicate truffle flavor in the oil. They paired it with a Pinot Grigio which was a really great pairing.

For my main course I had something called gnudi. It basically means "nude" in Italian, and it is the interior of what would be a ravioli or a tortellini (ricotta and spinach) with a light egg coating but no pasta. It was very delicate, served in a buttery sauce (which may have been a bit too heavy) and with shaved truffles. I LOVE those truffles, they just make my toes curl. They paired this dish with an Italian red wine...I can't remember which but it was good. And their glasses of wine are VERY generous.

For dessert, I had the espresso creme brulee. It was simple, but the texture was perfect and it was a bit lighter than most creme brulees I've had. Nothing to write home about, but nothing to be disappointed in either.

I feel like Fountain Square has been reborn, with the evening activities all summer and the new restaurants that flank its sides. Via Vite was packed yesterday evening, and I suspect it will remain packed as long as it keeps serving up such wonderful Italian food.

Daring Baker's Challenge for July: Marshmallow Cookies

2009-07-27T10:55:00.003-04:00

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Remember Mallomars? Those yummy cookies with a chocolate covered marshmallow on top? Ahh, the joys of youth....Since I hadn't had one of these cookies since I was probably 10, I was so suprised when we were asked to create our own version for this month's Daring Baker's Challenge!

We were allowed to make a variation as far as filling goes, so I filled mine with a dollop of raspberry jam, very simple. The hardest part of this challenge was probably the marshmallow and getting it onto the cookie without a sticky disaster on your hands. But with a pastry bag I was able to manage it pretty well, and it was very exciting to make my own marshmallow after thinking about it for years but putting it off!

These were really excellent and gobbled up in no time, but I think that in the future I will buy them, they were a little bit time consuming for something that is not necessarily better homemade!

Mallows(Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies)

Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 10 min

Inactive Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 10 min

Serves: about 2 dozen cookies

• 3 cups (375grams/13.23oz) all purpose flour

• 1/2 cup (112.5grams/3.97oz) white sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon salt• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 3/8 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter

• 3 eggs, whisked together

• Homemade marshmallows, recipe follows

• Chocolate glaze, recipe follows

1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.

2. On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.

3. Add the eggs and mix until combine.

4. Form the dough into a disk, wrap with clingfilm or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.

5. When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.

6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

7. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.

8. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.

9. Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.

10. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.

11. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze.

12. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.

13. Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

Note: if you don’t want to make your own marshmallows, you can cut a large marshmallow in half and place on the cookie base. Heat in a preheated 350-degree oven to slump the marshmallow slightly, it will expand and brown a little. Let cool, then proceed with the chocolate dipping.

Homemade marshmallows:

• 1/4 cup water

• 1/4 cup light corn syrup

• 3/4 cup (168.76 grams/5.95oz) sugar

• 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin

• 2 tablespoons cold water

• 2 egg whites , room temperature

• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until “soft-ball” stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.

2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve.

3. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix.

4. Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites.

5. Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff.

6. Transfer to a pastry bag.

Chocolate glaze:

• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate•

2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

1. Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

Daring Bakers Challenge for June: Almond Tart!

2009-06-28T12:18:00.004-04:00

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding

Hostess: Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict
Co-hostess: Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Bakewell tarts…er…puddings combine a number of dessert elements but still let you show off your area’s seasonal fruits.

Like many regional dishes there’s no “one way” to make a Bakewell Tart…er…Pudding, but most of today’s versions fall within one of two types. The first is the “pudding” where a layer of jam is covered by an almondy pastry cream and baked in puff pastry. The second is the “tart” where a rich shortcrust pastry holds jam and an almondy sponge cake-like filling.

The version we’re daring you to make is a combination of the two: a sweet almond-flavoured shortcrust pastry, frangipane and jam.

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows) Bench flour 250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish. When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Jasmine’s notes:
• If you cannot have nuts, you can try substituting Victoria sponge for the frangipane. It's a pretty popular popular cake, so you shouldn't have any troubles finding one in one of your cookbooks or through a Google search. That said, our dear Natalie at Gluten a Go Go has sourced some recipes and linked to them in the related alt.db thread.
• You can use whichever jam you wish, but if you choose something with a lot of seeds, such as raspberry or blackberry, you should sieve them out.
• The jam quantity can be anywhere from 60ml (1/4 cup) to 250ml (1cup), depending upon how “damp” and strongly flavoured your preserves are. I made it with the lesser quantity of home made strawberry jam, while Annemarie made it with the greater quantity of cherry jam; we both had fabulous results. If in doubt, just split the difference and spread 150ml (2/3cup) on the crust.

Annemarie’s notes:
• The excess shortcrust can be rolled out and cut into cookie-shapes (heck, it’s pretty darned close to a shortbread dough).

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Jasmine’s notes:
• I make this using vanilla salt and vanilla sugar.
• If you wish, you can substitute the seeds of one vanilla bean, one teaspoon of vanilla paste or one teaspoon of vanilla extract for the almond extract

Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Annemarie’s notes:
• Add another five minutes or more if you're grinding your own almonds or if you're mixing by hand (Heaven help you).

Daring Baker's Challenge for May: Apple Streudel

2009-05-27T15:28:00.006-04:00

Or shall we say, "Ahhhpfell schtruuuudelll". My little girl is going to a German immersion school next year, much to my linguistic chagrin (why can't the French school be as good as the German school? Why? Why?). So it is high time I learn how to cook SOMETHING German, and hey, why not start with a "schtruuudell"...just my luck that it was chosen as this month's Daring Baker's challenge by Courtney of Coco Cooks Linda of make life sweeter.

When I first heard that this was the challenge, I must admit that I made a frown face...there's really nothing about streudel that entices me. I'm not a fan, I can't stand rolling things until they are paper thin, and I thought "what in the world am I going to do with a streudel that is as long as my arm?" But then I bucked up and thought "I could be the Queen Mum of Fairview German Language School with my homemade streudel, I'll be "the streudel mom"" , and off I went.

I will have to say that the rolling process was one of the worst experiences of my culinary life. I think I developed biceps on my biceps rolling this dough. I may need to visit a chiropractor. I understand now why people just buy their streudel rather than make it. Yeesh. But once it was filled (a messy, messy process) and rolled up, I slit the top and added some pearl sugar and "voila"....I got myself some streudel! It was yummy too, great with vanilla ice cream. But this makes a huuuuge load of streudel. Be streudel-ready, or have a streudel party.

One thing about streudel...eat it hot, fresh out of the oven. Otherwise your streudel will be soggy and messy....

Guten Appetit!

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Preparation timeTotal: 2 hours 15 minutes – 3 hours 30 minutes
15-20 min to make dough

30-90 min to let dough rest/to prepare the filling

20-30 min to roll out and stretch dough

10 min to fill and roll dough

30 min to bake30 min to cool

Apple strudelfrom “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

2 tablespoons (30 ml) golden rum

3 tablespoons (45 ml) raisins

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (80 g) sugar1/2 cup (1 stick / 115 g) unsalted butter, melted, divided

1 1/2 cups (350 ml) fresh bread crumbs

strudel dough (recipe below)

1/2 cup (120 ml, about 60 g) coarsely chopped walnuts

2 pounds (900 g) tart cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into ¼ inch-thick slices (use apples that hold their shape during baking)

1. Mix the rum and raisins in a bowl. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in another bowl.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the breadcrumbs and cook whilst stirring until golden and toasted. This will take about 3 minutes. Let it cool completely.
3. Put the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a large baking sheet with baking paper (parchment paper). Make the strudel dough as described below. Spread about 3 tablespoons of the remaining melted butter over the dough using your hands (a bristle brush could tear the dough, you could use a special feather pastry brush instead of your hands). Sprinkle the buttered dough with the bread crumbs. Spread the walnuts about 3 inches (8 cm) from the short edge of the dough in a 6-inch-(15cm)-wide strip. Mix the apples with the raisins (including the rum), and the cinnamon sugar. Spread the mixture over the walnuts.
4. Fold the short end of the dough onto the filling. Lift the tablecloth at the short end of the dough so that the strudel rolls onto itself. Transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet by lifting it. Curve it into a horseshoe to fit. Tuck the ends under the strudel. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter.
5. Bake the strudel for about 30 minutes or until it is deep golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Use a serrated knife and serve either warm or at room temperature. It is best on the day it is baked.

Strudel doughfrom “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed

2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough

1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.
2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally.Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).
3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.

4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it's about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

Tips-

Ingredients are cheap so we would recommend making a double batch of the dough, that way you can practice the pulling and stretching of the dough with the first batch and if it doesn't come out like it should you can use the second batch to give it another try;- The tablecloth can be cotton or polyster;- Before pulling and stretching the dough, remove your jewelry from hands and wrists, and wear short-sleeves;- To make it easier to pull the dough, you can use your hip to secure the dough against the edge of the table;- Few small holes in the dough is not a problem as the dough will be rolled, making (most of) the holes invisible.

Daring Baker's Challenge for February: Flourless Chocolate "Valentino" Cake

2009-02-27T23:25:00.005-05:00

When I saw that this month's challenge was a flourless chocolate cake, I danced a jig in my soul...these are easy cakes to make, they come out great and the challenge allowed us to make an ice cream of our choice. I haven't made ice cream in ages so that was an added "bonus".

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. They chose a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge. I did mint ice cream instead.

The first thing that hit me about the recipe was its minimalist ingredients...I have made flourless chocolate cakes, and my favorite one has 1/2 cup of sugar in it. I assume this is to cut the "bitter" from the bittersweet / semisweet chocolate. And so, not wanting to mess with the recipe, I made it exactly as printed.

The cake was very easy to make (melt chocolate and butter, beat egg whites, voila) and it puffed up really nice. As it was baking, I made mint ice cream from Pierre Herme's Chocolate Desserts cookbook, which was easy to make and delicious but incorporated waaaaaay too many mint leaves. I don't like to chew my ice cream! But at least my dessert had fiber.

So the judgment hour was upon me as I brought my cakes and my ice cream to a friend's house for dinner. The first bite was definitely an 'oh wow this is good' bite for all of us. But I noticed that after about 3 bites, all the forks kind of went down and coffee drinking and chatting continued. Why were we not devouring this dessert? It was chocolate, it was cake, it was VALRHONA and cost me a bundle to make! Eat, dammit!! EAT! I know at that moment I wasn't even involved in the conversation, I was just waiting for someone to eat. But they seemed done. Why?

I think, in all honesty, that the chocolate (56% cacao) was too bittersweet, and that the recipe needed that 1/2 cup of sugar. This clarifies why the other flourless chocolate cakes I've made included a bit of sugar and tasted better in the end. I do think that this cake was good, but that the sugar would have made it much more "devourable".

In all, this is a good recipe but not the one I will use for flourless chocolate cake in the future. Or maybe I'll try it again, but add some sugar and see how it turns out! As for the ice cream, it was delicious...but Pierre calls for one heck of a lot of chopped mint!

Bon appetit!

Chocolate Valentino

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped

½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter

5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.

2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.

4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).

5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.

8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C

9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.

Pierre Hermé's "Classic Hot Chocolate"

2009-02-04T09:47:00.003-05:00

I feel like I've been a prisoner in my own home for the last week. Snow, snow, snow. You can only have so many snow days before you start to lose it a little. So I search for something to life my spirits. And nothing goes with snow quite like a good hot chocolate....which becomes the highlight of my snow days. Typically I serve my small children Swiss Miss. They love it, me..not so much. But it's warm and tastes somewhat like chocolate, so I just do it. But I had my last cup two days ago, there's no going back after Pierre's hot chocolate....

So yesterday while the snow was literally piling up outside, the kids were in bed, my husband was on the road trying to get home, I decided to make myself some real European hot chocolate. Anyone who's been to a café in Paris and ordered a "chocolat viennois" knows what I'm talking about...their hot chocolate is so rich, so decadent, you feel it from your head to your toes. The tastes almost come in layers, with a great punch of chocolate at the end. So I pulled out Pierre Hermé's "Chocolate Desserts" book and made his very simple "Classic Hot Chocolate".

One sip made me want to break out one of those Madeleines I made a few weeks ago. This sip took me right back to a little café on the Ile St. Louis in Paris, where they make the best and richest hot chocolate you'd ever drink. I never knew their secret, but it's one of those "must visits" when I'm in Paris, summer or winter. Turns out, their secret is just good, real chocolate. Not powder, but real dark chocolate. I never knew...it's as easy as that. Pierre's recipe proves it.

I might make another tonight...It's full of anti-oxidants, so they say!

Classic Hot Chocolate

(serves 2...I made 1/2 the recipe for one serving)

2 cups whole milk (I used skim, but I know whole would have been soooo much more sinful)

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup sugar (I found it a bit too sweet. Next time I will omit the sugar and add it at the end if necessary)

4 ounces melted bittersweet chocolate (NOT CHIPS)....a good chocolate like Valrhona would be best ( I didn't pre-melt mine, I just chopped it and let it melt in the milk)

Bring the milk, water and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Add the chocolate and stir with a whisk until it combines. Pull the saucepan from the heat and whip for about one minute with an immersion blender or in a regular blender. Serve immediately in large cups, or you can refrigerate it for two days, covered tightly.

Madeleines

2009-01-23T16:20:00.003-05:00

In Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past (A la recherche du temps perdu) he uses the taste of a madeleine dipped in a cup of tea as a catalyst to involuntary memory in his main character. As a man, Swann takes a bite of a madeleine dipped into his cup of tea, and immediately he is thrown back to his grandmother's kitchen where he recalls the same flavors and scents as a young boy. If you've seen the movie "Ratatouille", they do the same thing when the food critic takes a bite of food at Remy's restaurant and is immediately transported to his childhood kitchen and mother's cooking. We've all had that experience, where we taste, smell or hear something that makes us recall something from our past.

I think Proust had a great idea in choosing the madeleine for this purpose. After living in Europe and having madeleines rather frequently, I find that every time I have another one, I am immediately swept back to the streets of Paris, madeleine in hand. Or at the breakfast table in Tours, having madeleines and coffee. Madeleines were a big part of my European life, shall we say. I have been dying to make madeleines at home for years, yes years. I used to buy them at Trader Joe's, so I didn't have to make them, but TJ's discontinued them (foolish error!)...so I have been left to my own devices. I scoured Dorie Greenspan's Baking cookbook (a MUST HAVE by the way) and found a plethora of madeleine recipes. I chose the basic one, but I will try the others in the future, because this is one easy recipe.

I made the madeleines for a New Year's Day brunch, and they were devoured in no time. Unfortunately I didn't get the characteristic hump on the back of the madeleines like I would have liked. I understand the trick to that is having cold batter. Mine was in the refrigerator overnight, so I'm not sure where I went wrong, but practice makes perfect! In any case, these are a keeper, and they will wow your friends!!

Traditional Madeleines

Source: Dorie Greenspan, Baking: From My Home to Yours

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
½ cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¾ stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Working in a mixer bowl, or in a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the eggs to the bowl. Working with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed until pale, thick and light, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla.

With a rubber spatula, very gently fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the melted butter. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours, or for up to 2 days. This long chill period will help the batter form the hump that is characteristic of madeleines.

(For convenience, you can spoon the batter into the madeleine molds, cover and refrigerate, then bake the cookies directly from the fridge; see below for instructions on prepping the pans.)
GETTING READY TO BAKE:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter 12 full-size madeleine molds, or up to 36 mini madeleine molds, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Or, if you have a nonstick pan (or pans), give it a light coating of vegetable cooking spray. If you have a silicone pan, no prep is needed. Place the pan(s) on a baking sheet.

Spoon the batter into the molds, filling each one almost to the top. Don’t worry about spreading the batter evenly, the oven’s heat will take care of that. Bake large madeleines for 11 to 13 minutes, and minis for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are golden and the tops spring back when touched. Remove the pan(s) from the oven and release the madeleines from the molds by rapping the edge of the pan against the counter. Gently pry any recalcitrant madeleines from the pan using your fingers or a butter knife. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

If you are making minis and have more batter, bake the next batch(es), making certain that you cool, then properly prepare the pan(s) before baking.

Just before serving, dust the madeleines with confectioners’ sugar.

Makes 12 large or 36 mini cookies

Serving: Serve the cookies when they are only slightly warm or when they reach room temperature, with tea or espresso.

Storing: Although the batter can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, the madeleines should be eaten soon after they are made. You can keep them overnight in a sealed container, but they really are better on day 1. If you must store them, wrap them airtight and freeze them; they’ll keep for up to 2 months.

Inaugural Carrot Cake!

2009-01-20T16:20:00.002-05:00

I'm off to an Inauguration Party tonight chez some good friends. I've been asked to create an "Obama cake". I was stumped, I'm not a great decorator and had no clue how to make an "Obama cake".

Thank goodness for the Internet...where you can find things like "Obama's logo stencil" for free! I downloaded, made this wonderful carrot cake from Epicurious.com (the BEST CARROT CAKE EVER), and frosted it with gobs of cream cheese frosting.

To make the design, I cut the stencil out, and used cake "glitter" which I purchased at Michael's. Et voila....an Obama-teau!

Daring Baker's Challenge for November: Caramel Cake

2008-11-25T19:12:00.005-05:00

Caramel is good. Who doesn't like it? Especially salted or with good chocolate, you can't beat a good hunk of caramel. But caramel in a cake...and in its frosting...well, too much of a good thing suddenly becomes not so good anymore. That's how I feel about the Daring Bakers Challenge for November: caramel cake. A bite of this cake was good, a few bites made me wonder about when my next dental appointment was, and a piece of it made me feel pretty uneasy for the next 24 hours. Yes, I should have stopped. But I soooo wanted to like it and so I kept forcing it down.

It has to be hard to choose a recipe for the Daring Bakers group. This month this daunting task went to: Dolores, Alex, and Jenny. A huge thank you to them for doing what so many of us have never had to do. Here you have a group of well over 1,000 people around the world, all with varying abilities and tastes, and as with everything in life you simply can't please everyone. I give kudos to all those who do all the research necessary to choose a recipe for the Daring Baker's group.

Usually I'm rather challenged and pretty excited about the monthly challenges. But this cake just didn't do it for me, and I'm sure that this is just a personal opinion. The cake prep itself was very straight-forward, as was the icing. The real challenge in this cake was in making the caramel, so that's good that bakers who had never made their own caramel got a chance to do so. The cake just turned out so very sweet, even with the addition of a huge amount of fleur de sel in the icing, it was still almost inedibly sweet. I brought it to dinner for a friend's birthday, and suffice it to say that this dessert-loving group ate very little of their servings and then declined taking home the leftovers. This was not a good sign! I think the cake would have been better either unfrosted, or with a cream cheese frosting. Something to cut the sweet factor waaaay down.

So, making this cake was a good experience in caramel, but I don't think I would make it again. My always reliable taste-testers were unimpressed, and there are simply too many other great cakes out there and too little time!

The recipe can be found on the Web site of Shuna Fish Lydon, who created it.

Chocolate Espresso Macarons

2008-11-25T12:26:00.003-05:00

More and more, I am being associated with the macarons I bring to various parties and events. After 1 1/2 years of making them, I think I finally have the right recipe and "touch"...it takes a lot of practice to get that touch. But really, once you have it you have it, and you suddenly become a macaron superstar in your circle of friends and family.

So for a recent event I brought along a few batches of macarons: chocolate, salted butter caramel, and espresso. The other two recipes are already on the blog, the espresso ones are new so I will post about them here.

These suckers pack a punch of espresso, they taste great with coffee or hot chocolate and require nothing more than a bit of espresso powder.

For Macarons:
1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 cup almond flour
3 egg whites at room temperature
3 Tb. granulated sugar
pinch of cream of tartar
caramel coloring

Blend the confectioner's sugar and the almond flour in a food processor. Begin to whip the egg whites in a stand mixer until they start to froth. Add a pinch of cream of tartar, and as they foam up more gradually add the granulated sugar. Beat until stiff.

Add the almond mixture to the egg white mixture and fold until the mixture begins to flow "like magma". I would say this will take about 40 - 60 turns of the spatula.

Fill pastry bag fitted with 1/4 " tip and make 1 inch mounds on cookie sheets lined with either parchment or a silpat. Let sit for at least 20 minutes. Sift a bit of espresso powder (not too much) on each macaron before baking. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12 minutes.

Chocolate/Espresso Filling
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2 teaspoons corn syrup
1/2 cup cream
1 Tb. butter
1 tsp. espresso powder

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a small to medium bowl. Heat the cream, espresso powder and corn syrup until hot and bubbles form on the outside edge of the cream. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for 1 minute. Add the butter and stir until it comes together. Refrigerate until ganache is at a spreadable consistency.

Spread ganache over the flat side of one macaron cookie. Top with another macaron.

.

The Best Pumpkin Pie You'll Ever Eat

2008-11-19T22:13:00.002-05:00

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin pie. It's always rather gloppy and heavy, you could ball it up and throw it at the person sitting opposite you if you really wanted to. That's not appealing to me in my pie, or my dinner guest. So while perusing my Thanksgiving edition of Bon Appetit magazine, I saw an entire section devoted to the almighty pumpkin. Intrigued by some pretty good looking recipes, I decided to take on their "Pumpkin Butterscotch Pie" and go one further: I used a REAL pumpkin. No can 'o pumpkin puree for moi, I got the real thing. I had never done this in my life, and didn't know if it would make a difference.

OH MY GOD. The difference was astounding. The real pumpkin made the pie really light and smooth, almost like a light custard, rather than heavy like canned pumpkin tends to be. I've vowed that from now on, this will be my pumpkin pie recipe, and real pumpkin will be my partner in crime.

I'm cooking for zee French for Thanksgiving this year (well, not all zee French, only 3), and I'm pretty sure they've never thought to make a pumpkin into a pie. This pie will surely amaze.

(To get pumpkin puree, slice pie pumpkin (not Halloween carving pumpkin) in half, remove seeds and strings, turn upside down in about 1/2 inch of water in a pan, and bake at 350 until the pumpkin is soft, about 45 minutes. Remove the flesh from the pumpkin shell, puree in a food processor until smooth. Let cool before you use it for the pie.)

Pumpkin Butterscotch Pie

Crust:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp salt
10 tsp chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubews
3 Tb. ice water

Filling:
3/4 cup packed golden brown sugar, divided
2 Tb. unsalted butter
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup Scotch (I didn't use this)
1 1/4 cups whipping cream
1 cup canned pumpkin (or puree of one small pie pumpkin)
3 large eggs
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice

Crust:
Mix flour, sugar and salt in processor. Add butter. Using on/off turns, process until very course meal forms. Add 3 Tb.ice water. Using on/off turns, process until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if too dry. Gather dough into ball and flatten into disk. Wrap and chill for one hour.

Roll out dough to 12 - 13 inch round. Transfer to 9 inch diameter glass pie dish. Fold edges under and crimp as you wish. Chill dough until firm, about one hour.
(I used a tart pan with high sides, and i froze the dough for one hour, it eliminates bubbles while baking).

* Crust can be made one day ahead, cover unbaked crust and keep chilled.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line crust with sheet of foil. Fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake 20 minutes. Remove foil with beans. Bake until just beginning to turn golden brown, piercing with fork if bubbles form, about 15 minutes longer. Cool completely.

Filling:
Combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, butter and salt in medium saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil until deep brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add Scotch, then cream (mixture will bubble a lot) and whisk until smooth. Return to medium hea t and stir until most caramel bits dissolve. Strain butterscotch mixture into small bowl. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

Whisk remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar and pumpkin in large bowl. Whisk in eggs, then spices. Add reserved butterscotch mixture, whisk to blend.

*Can be made one day ahead, cover and chill, rewhisk before using.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour filling into crust. Bake until just set, about 50 minutes. Cool to room temperature, about 3 hours.

*Can be made 8 hours ahead, store at room temperature.

Chocolate-Glazed Chocolate Tart with Fleur de Sel

2008-11-08T23:36:00.002-05:00

If you are looking for an incredible easy dessert recipe for a chocoholic in your life, this is BY FAR the one. I jokingly refer to it as "chocolat/chocolat/chocolat" because it's basically three layers of chocolate: a chocolate cookie crust, a very smooth and truffle-like dark chocolate interior, and it is finished off with a gorgeous, shiny chocolate glaze.

The entire tart takes very little time or effort to make, and once served it disappears in no time. I've had friends beg me for the recipe, they like it so much. I found the recipe in the Paris edition of Gourmet Magazine (September, 2008...by the way, this edition is full of fabulous recipes). I have made the tart quite a few times, and after some experimentation I found that a sprinkling of fleur de sel on the finished tart makes the chocolate taste even better...it's that sweet and salty thing everyone loves. Plus, the fleur de sel looks so pretty on the shiny glaze.

Ingredients:
Crust:
9 chocolate graham crackers or chocolate cookies, finely ground (to make one cup)
5 Tb. unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar

Filling:
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
9 oz. bittersweet chocolate (not more than 65% cacao), chopped
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Glaze:
2 Tb. heavy cream
1 3/4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tsp light corn syrup
1 Tb. warm water

For Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Stir together all ingredients an dpress evenly onto the bottom and up the sides of a tart pan with a removable bottom. Bake until firm, about 10 minutes. Cool for 15 - 20 minutes

For Filling:
Bring cream to a boil, then pour it over the chocolate and let stand for 5 minutes. Gently stir until smooth. Whisk together eggs, vanilla and salt in another bowl, then stir into the melted chocolate.
Pour filling into cooled crust. Bake until filling is set about 3 inches from the edge, but center is still wobbly. This will be about 20 - 25 minutes.
Cool completely in pan on rack, about one hour.

For Glaze:
Bring cream to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in chocolate until smooth. Stir in corn syrup, then warm water.
Pour glaze onto tart, then tilt and rotate tart so glaze coats top evenly. Let stand until glaze is set, about one hour.
Sprinkle fleur de sel over top of glaze. (optional)

*Tart is best the day it is made. If you need to make it earlier, make it without the glaze and chill for one day. Bring it to room temperature, then add the glaze.

Daring Baker's Challenge for October: Pizza!

2008-10-28T23:20:00.007-04:00

When I discovered that this month's Daring Baker's Challenge was homemade pizza, I was all at once happy, relieved, confident and a bit under-challenged. Happy because who doesn't love pizza? Pizza is a mainstay of my regime....love it, at least once a week. Relieved, confident and under-challenged? Well, that's because I make pizza just about once a week, using this exact recipe! Oh well...at least it's something I love to make and the family loves to eat!

The recipe is excellent. It makes some great pizza dough. Some of the best I've ever had, even in a pizza restaurant. It's easy, too. The trick is, you MUST let the dough rest overnight, and you MUST be sure to use ice water and cold flour. I've made this pizza dough so many times and it hasn't always come out great, usually because I skipped one of those two steps.

I decided to make two pizzas: one with olive oil, cheese (asiago/parmesan/mozzerella blend), figs and prosciutto for me and my husband, one with tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni for the kids. As usual, they were gobbled up in one sitting!

Here's the recipe, and a big thank you to Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yums for the challenge and sharing one great recipe with a lot of new pizza makers!

RECIPE SOURCE: “The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread” by Peter Reinhart. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA. Copyright 2001. ISBN-10: 1-58008-268-8, ISBN-13: 978-158008-268-6.

***************

~ BASIC PIZZA DOUGH ~
Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.

Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter).

Ingredients:
4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled - FOR GF: 4 ½ cups GF Flour Blend with xanthan gum or 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup corn flour, 1 cup oat flour, 1 ½ cup arrowroot, potato or tapioca starch + 2 tsp xanthan or guar gum
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast - FOR GF use 2 tsp
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar - FOR GF use agave syrup
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

DAY ONE

Method:
1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water.
The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.

NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil(a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.

DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).

NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

NOTE: Make only one pizza at a time.
During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping.
In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.
You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.

11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

NOTE: Remember that the best pizzas are topped not too generously. No more than 3 or 4 toppings (including sauce and cheese) are sufficient.

13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.

NOTE: After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°.

If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pane to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly.

14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

Pierre Hermé's "Financiers"

2008-10-28T15:24:00.002-04:00

I've been eyeing the recipe for Financiers in my Pierre Hermé cookbook for a long, long time. This is a treat I've had in France a few times, but not enough to be a real pro at what they should taste like. And usually they are not made of chocolate, but there seems to be nothing wrong with a chocolate financier! So my intrigue was at a high, all I needed was an excuse to bake them. My excuse? My French class was hungry for a treat. Enough said.

Basically, they are a chocolate almond cookie. The name translates more or less to "banker", because the pastry shop where they originated catered to many of the "financiers" in the bourse district of Paris. They are traditionally shaped like a bar of gold, but now you see them baked in boat-shaped molds. I used a baking pan with multiple mold shapes (flowers, hearts, bundts, etc.) and they turned out great.
Because of the almond flour, they are very moist and can be kept at room temperature for a number of days. Easy to make, yummy to eat...my kind of treat!

Ingredients:
3 /12 ounces (100 g) bittersweet chocolate
3 lg eggs
1/2 cup plus 1 Tb. sugar
1 cup finely ground almond powder or finely ground blanched almonds
1 stick plus 1 Tb. unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3 cup plus 2 Tb. tepid water
1/3 cup plus 2 Tb. all purpose flour, sifted

Preheat your oven to 350. Butter and flour molds (rectangular, boat shaped, something that holds about 3 Tb. water. Adjust cooking time if you have different sized molds). Place molds on jelly roll pan.

Melt chocolate in bowl over and not touching simmering water. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. It should be just warm to the touch when you use it.

With an electric stand mixer, whisk the eggs, sugar and almond powder together on medium-high speed until it is pale. Reduce speed to medium, add butter in 4 or 5 peaces and beat until just incorporated. On low speed, add chocolate and mix to blend. Add the water, increase speed to medium, and beat until it comes together.
Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour. (This batter can be kept covered airtight in the refrigerator for a couple days).

Spoon batter into molds until they are almost filled, and bake for 15 - 18 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cookie rack and cool for 3 minutes, then remove cookies from the molds. Cool them airtight to room temperature.

Optional: add a sprinkling of cocoa powder or confectioner's sugar

Chocolate Tart with Salted Butter Caramel

2008-10-10T17:52:00.003-04:00

I noticed a few years ago that the salted butter caramel rage had hit France with a vengeance. You could find it everywhere: from Pierre Hermé and Ladurée's macarons to Berthillon's ice cream, everyone had this flavor in their repertoire. And they still do, it's extremely popular over there, and will probably remain so since it's soooo delish. It's just catching on in the U.S. (we're always a few years behind France in all things hip and trendy). In fact, I noticed that Starbucks even has a salted butter carmel hot chocolate...which kind of scares me yet intrigues me at the same time....don't know if I should try it or run from it.

So I was invited to a friend's for dinner tonight and was in charge of all things sweet. It's my favorite contribution, of course, and I wanted to do something that would please all ages, since 50% of us were under 5. So I went to my old Bon Appetit magazines and found this yummy looking tart that seemed almost like a candy bar, with its caramel and chocolate combo. I had all the ingredients. Had the time. Had the patience for caramel....so I went for it.

The tart in itself is super easy to make. You only bake one thing: the crust. And the crust is very yummy with the little bits of cocoa nibs (which are probably not necessary if you don't have them or want to invest in them). The hardest part is the caramel, but that's not even hard, you just have to be sure not to burn it. I take it off the stove when it is uniformly amber in color, about 7 - 9 minutes into its boil. The final result of this tart is not unlike a snickers bar without the nuts. It's sweet, but daaarn good. The caramel, if you cook it correctly, will be soft and perfect under the very nicely softened layer of chocolate ganache. The tart is good, damn good. In fact, we scarfed the whole tart down in a matter of minutes, it's pretty addictive. It was requested to go in my "repertoire"...and so it shall. The only thing I would change would be to add just a bit more fleur de sel, the salt did not come out as much as I would have liked.

So, for a pretty easy yet impressive dessert, I highly recommend this one. Plus, it's trendy now, you could be hip like Starbucks!

You can find the recipe at Bon Appetit's web site, Epicurious. com.

Tarte Tatin

2008-10-07T22:02:00.004-04:00

Tarte Tatin is the fancy French way of saying "Upside Down Apple Pie". This pie has four ingredients: puff pastry, apples, sugar and butter, and it is one of the most common desserts in all of France. You can order this in Paris restaurants or enjoy it in country homes. The best thing about it is it's simple, anyone can make a tarte tatin. I learned how to make this tart from the family I lived with when I was in France as an undergrad, "Madame" used to make these in a matter of minutes, or so it seemed. She had that Frenchy-french way of whipping all sorts of goodies up in no time.

Now that it's the fall, and apples are plentiful and the temperatures are dropping, it seems like a great time to whip up a nice, warm tarte tatin. I made one for my family last weekend, and my children loved it, my husband was reminded of the tarte tatin he had on a trip to Paris, and I was feeling rather guilty for all the butter and sugar involved. But 'tis the season, so they say.... we must eat tart.

Ingredients:
4 granny smith apples
3/4 cup sugar (or 1/2 cup if you want less sugar)
3/4 stick unsalted butter
1 sheet puff pastry, defrosted

Use a 9 or 10 inch oven proof saute pan (with sloping sides).
Peel, core and slice apples in quarters.
Melt butter in the pan, then add sugar. Remove pan from heat, and place apples cut side down on top of the butter/sugar mixture. Pack them in tight, and cut small pieces of apple to fill in any gaps.
Replace on heat and let sugar carmelize to a golden amber.
Meanwhile, cut a circle of puff pastry about one inch wider than the pan.
Once apples are carmelized, place the puff pastry on top of the apples and roll the overhand in (it's ok, it will shrink).
Preheat oven to 350. Place pan in oven for 30 - 40 minutes, until puff pastry is golden brown.
To serve, carefully and quickly flip the pie over on a serving platter (holding pan with one hand, platter with the other).
Serve with vanilla ice cream or creme fraiche. Use cinnamon if you like it!

Homemade Cinnamon Bread...yummmm

2008-10-04T21:02:00.003-04:00

After what I would call a humongous hiatus from my kitchen due to some of the worst months of my lifetime, I seem to be trying to make up for lost time at record speed. I was in the kitchen most of the last few days, making everything from bread to pie to homemade tomato sauce. And what they say is true, it is so incredibly therapeutic. Not good for the waistline, but therapeutic nonetheless.

Yesterday was a chilly day here in Cincinnati, and with the fall chill always comes my desire for homemade bread. My Peter Reinhart book The Bread Baker's Apprentice gets its greatest workouts in the fall and winter months, when I'm dying for the smell of yeasty bread wafting through my house, and especially for that of cinnamon. Better than the best air freshener, that's for sure. So yesterday I cracked the sucker open once again and decided to try Reinhart's recipe for cinnamon bread. Well, technically his recipe is for Cinnamon Raisin Walnut bread, but I have picky toddlers in my midst, those who thumb their noses at any foreign objects in their otherwise uniformly smooth bread dough. So I forwent the fun stuff and kept it to the basic cinnamon.

This recipe was easy. I mean Eeeeeassssy. Throw ingredients in your Kitchenaid mixer, blend, rise, done. Of course, I have a Kitchen aid mixer, so that helps enormously with the toughest part: kneading. But really, the recipe is neither difficult nor time consuming and the results are, well....my family of four has already eaten 1 1/2 loaves of this stuff, and it has been less than 12 hours since it was baked. There you go, we are gluttons...but only for the good stuff.

Cinnamon Bread (A Variation of Peter Reinhart's Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread):

3 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
4 tsp. granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. instant yeast
1 large egg, slightly beaten
2 Tb. shortening or butter, melted
1/2 cup buttermilk or whole milk, at room temp.
3/4 cup water, at room temp.

for cinnamon swirl:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tb. ground cinnamon

For cinnamon topping:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tb. ground cinnamon

Stir together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer (or by hand if you don't have an electric mixer). Add the egg, shortening (butter), buttermilk and water. Stir together or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment until the ingredients form a ball. Adjust with flour or water as necessary.

Sprinkle flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter, begin to knead. Or, with an electric mixer, use the dough hook. Knead by hand for about 10 minutes, by maching for about 6 - 8 minutes. (If you want to add raisins and nuts add them during the final 2 minutes of the mixing, you may need to add them by hand to evenly distribute them.)

Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat it with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for about 2 hours or until doubled in volume.

Divide dough into 2 equal pieces. Mix your cinnamon and sugar together and set aside. Roll the dough pieces out into two 5 x 8 inch rectangles. Sprinkle 1/2 the cinnamon and sugar mixture on each rectangle. Tightly roll up the dough, from the short side up, pinching tightly after each roll. Place loaves in lightly oiled loaf pans and mist the tops with spray oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Proof for 60 - 90 minutes, or until the dough comes up above the lip of the pan and is about doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 350. Place loaf pans on a baking sheet, but be sure they are not touching.

Bake for 20 minutes, then turn the pan 180 degrees and continue to bake for about 20 - 30 more minutes. The finished bread will be golden brown on top and on the sides and will make a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom.

Immediately remove the bread from the pans, brush melted butter on top, and roll them in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. This gives them a wonderfully sweet crunch.
Let cool for about an hour before serving.

Daring Baker's Challenge for September: Lavasch Crackers

2008-09-28T20:58:00.002-04:00

Ok, so no, these are not my crackers. But wow, they do look nice! Sowhere's the photo you ask? I took photos, I swear I did!! They are sitting in my husband's camera in his office. I've waited all weekend, and finally decided I'll just have to be a slacker daring baker and just post without the photos. When they come home, I will post them! In the meantime, here's my story:

This month's challenge came from one of my favorite cookbooks: The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. Man, can he ever explain how to do bread. I have made multiple recipes from this book, and he really holds your hand from beginning to end. Thus producing lovely bread!

On the other hand, lavasch crackers were not really my thing. No, I didn't dislike the recipe, (I hate when posters moan and groan about a recipe...they should just get over it and on with it). It's the sweet tooth in me, I just get more excited about a recipe that makes me lose sleep at night and anticipate how it will turn out. This recipe not a showstopper, however it was a very reliable and "baker-friendly" recipe, a good one to have on hand if you ever want to make your own crackers. I guess that's the thing...I kind of find it easier to purchase the crackers and make the dip! Although our hostess, Shel, did give us the added bonus of making our own vegan (read: no animal product) spreads. I made white bean hummous and tapenade.

Here is the recipe for the Lavasch:

The key to a crisp lavash,...is to roll out the dough paper-thin. The sheet can be cut into crackers in advance or snapped into shards after baking. The shards make a nice presentation when arranged in baskets.

Makes 1 sheet pan of crackers

* 1 1/2 cups (6.75 oz) unbleached bread flour or gluten free flour blend (If you use a blend without xanthan gum, add 1 tsp xanthan or guar gum to the recipe)
* 1/2 tsp (.13 oz) salt
* 1/2 tsp (.055 oz) instant yeast
* 1 Tb (.75 oz) agave syrup or sugar
* 1 Tb (.5 oz) vegetable oil
* 1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 Tb (3 to 4 oz) water, at room temperature
* Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, or kosher salt for toppings

1. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt yeast, agave, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water, but be prepared to use it all if needed.

2. For Non Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should pass the windowpane test (see http://www.wikihow.com/Determine-if-Bre … ong-Enough for a discription of this) and register 77 degrees to 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), satiny to the touch, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

or

2. For Gluten Free Cracker Dough: The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), and slightly tacky. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

3. Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing).

4. For Non Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.

or

4. For Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Lay out two sheets of parchment paper. Divide the cracker dough in half and then sandwich the dough between the two sheets of parchment. Roll out the dough until it is a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. Slowly peel away the top layer of parchment paper. Then set the bottom layer of parchment paper with the cracker dough on it onto a baking sheet.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices on the dough (such as alternating rows of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, kosher or pretzel salt, etc.) Be careful with spices and salt - a little goes a long way. If you want to precut the cracker, use a pizza cutter (rolling blade) and cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.

5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).

6. When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. You can then snap them apart or snap off shards and serve.

Daring Baker's Challenge for August: Eclairs au chocolat!!

2008-08-29T14:55:00.006-04:00

I almost fell off my chair when I found out that this month's DB challenge was CHOCOLATE ECLAIRS. I love all things French, and I especially love all things Pierre Herme! Since I bought his book I have amazed myself at how wonderful his recipes turn out. Needless to say, this challenge wasn't for every-day eclairs, it was for PIERRE HERME eclairs! It's like having a French pastry shop in your kitchen!

One thing you have to understand about eclairs. A French eclair is a delicate pastry filled with wonderful pastry cream. Chocolate ones are filled with chocolate pastry cream, coffee ones are filled with coffee pastry cream. These should not be confused with the Dunkin Donuts huge bavarian cream filled "eclair". No no no, that will not do! I saw so many DB folks filling their eclairs with bavarian cream and just thought NO!!!....you must use the fabulous pastry cream by Pierre Herme!! If you make it, you'll know why...

Anyway, long story short, I made the recipe and had no troubles whatsoever (lots of folks had problems with the "puff" part). I made both chocolate and coffee eclairs. For the coffee ones, I just made a vanilla pastry cream but added 3/4 cup espresso to it, and used a coffee glaze (espresso mixed with confectioners sugar). With my extra egg whites, I made chocolate macarons, just for a 1-2 French whammy.

I served these at my birthday party and people were asking me who did the catering. They were the first thing devoured from the buffet table! That's when you know you have a hit!!!

So a huge thank you to Tony Tahhan and to MeetaK for this fantastic challenge, I think everyone is a lot more comfortable with French pastry now!!

Here's the recipe, fear not its length!!

Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by
positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with
waxed or parchment paper.

2) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.
Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers.
Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.
The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.

3) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the
handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the
oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue
baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking
time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Notes:
1) The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Assembling the éclairs:

• Chocolate glaze (see below for recipe)
• Chocolate pastry cream (see below for recipe)

1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the
bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.

2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40
degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of
the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the
bottoms with the pastry cream.

3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms
with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream
and wriggle gently to settle them.

Notes:
1) If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water,
stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create
bubbles.

2) The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.

Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• ½ cup (125g) whole milk
• ½ cup (125g) water
• 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the
boil.

2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium
and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very
quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You
need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough
will be very soft and smooth.

3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your
handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time,
beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough.
You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do
not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you
have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it
should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.

Notes:
1) Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.

2) You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking
sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the
piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Chocolate Pastry Cream
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by PierreHermé

• 2 cups (500g) whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp (75g) sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
• 7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
• 2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.

5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

[bNotes:[/b]
1) The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

2) In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.

3) Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

Chocolate Glaze
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 1 cup or 300g)

• 1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
• 3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
• 7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1)In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.

2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Notes:
1) If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly  in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.

2) It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.

Chocolate Sauce
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 1½ cups or 525 g)

• 4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 cup (250 g) water
• ½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
• 1/3 cup (70 g) sugar

1) Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.

2) It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

Notes:
1) You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.

French Fruit Tart with Vanilla Pastry Cream

2008-08-01T16:47:00.004-04:00

Go to any patisserie in France and you are sure to see these amazing-looking fruit tarts in the window. They look so complicated, so fancy and so impossible to recreate, but in reality....they are easy as tart. Bwa hahahahaha.

Seeing all the great fruit in the grocery store these days, I decided it was high time I make one of these fruit tarts. So I got the fruits that I usually see most ofen in France: raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and kiwi fruit.

First I made the crust. This is a wonderful shortbread crust, but it is not tough and has a great crumb. It is not overly sweet so it doesn't take over your tart. It's quite the perfect tart dough.

While that was baking, I made the vanilla pastry cream. The trick here is to be sure not to scald your milk, or you will have clumps in your cream. Also be sure to gradually add your eggs so they won't cook in the hot milk. Otherwise, as long as you keep your eye on it and don't overcook, the vanilla pastry cream is really simplet to make and takes no time at all. I refrigerated that overnight, and the following day I put it all together before leaving on a cookout with friends. They ooh-ed, the ahh-ed, they ate and ate and wanted more. It was really a success. So much so that I think I should make this one a summertime staple, and I think it would make great little mini tartlets for a reception, or similar.

Bon appetit!!

For the Tart Dough:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. confectioners' sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
9 Tb. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

Put all dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the pieces of unsalted butter over the top of the dry ingredients, and pulse until the butter is cut in and the mixture looks like coarse meal. Break up the yolk a bit before you add it to the food processor, and then add it and process in long pulses until the dough comes together, you will hear the noise of the motor change.

Buttter a 9 inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. You want to keep it crumbly here, it doesn't have to be perfect. Freeze crust for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a piece of aluminum foil and fit it (buttered side down) over the crust. Put the tart pan on a baking sheet, bake the crust for 25 minutes, then remove the foil. Continue baking until the crust turns golden brown (don't let it burn!) about 8 - 11 more minutes.

Let cool. You can do this and store it up to 5 days before you need to serve it.

Vanilla Pastry Cream:

2 c. whole milk
6 large egg yolks
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. cornstarch
1 1/2 pieces of vanilla bean (or 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract)
3 1/2 Tb unsalted butter, but into pieces and at room temp.

Boil the milk and the vanilla (if using beans, scrape the seeds into the milk and include the pods)in a small saucepan. As this is heating, in a medium saucepan whisk the yolks with the sugar and cornstarch, until thick and well blended. Still whisking, drizzle in about 3/4 cup of the hot milk in order to warm the yolks. Continue whisking as you slowly add the rest of the milk. Put the pan over medium heat and whisk constantly, bringing it to a boil. Keep mixture at a boil, continuing to whisk, for about 1-2 minutes, and remove from heat.

Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the butter until they are fully incorporated. The pastry cream will be smooth and silky, not clumpy. Scrape cream into a bowl and let it cool off. You can place a piece of plastic wrap right on the surface of the cream so you don't get a skin. Refrigerate until it is cold and ready to use. You can keep it for up to 3 days.

Assembly:

When you are ready to serve your tart, pour the cooled pastry cream (give it a pass or two with a whisk to incorporate it again) into the tart shell. Add fruits of your choice (I find that berries or fruit that isn't too juicy works the best) over the top. If you want a glaze, use about 1/3 cup of jelly of your choice and one teaspoon of water, boil it, let it cool, and using a pastry brush "paint" your fruit.

Daring Baker's Challenge for July....

2008-07-29T23:03:00.004-04:00

I'm so sad to say that I was not able to make the seemingly delicious Hazelnut Torte that the Daring Bakers made this month. My beloved, wonderful, funny, sweet, beautiful, smart and way too young sister Audrey passed away from a hard fought battle with breast cancer on July 13. This has rocked my world more than anyone could ever have told me it would. I will miss her for the rest of my life.
Soon, very soon, I hope to get back in the kitchen.

Pierre Hermé's "Moist and Nutty Brownies"

2008-07-03T16:12:00.004-04:00

I'm a Pierre Hermé addict, which you can tell by my continuous references to him on my blog. One visit to his wonderful pastry shop in the 6th arrondissement in Paris is enough to convert even a sugar-phobe...it's like a museum or a fine jewelry store. When I got his cookbook "Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé" for Christmas, I swooned. Perfect perfect....

What I like about his book is that his recipes are so well written, clear, well explained (thanks Dorie Greenspan!) and most of them have great photos. I've made some damn tasty treats from this book! So when I wanted to make some brownies for a picnic, I thought "Must make Pierre's brownies."

Perhaps I cooked them a tad too long, but they weren't as good as I had hoped they would be. They weren't bad, they were gobbled up, but they didn't wow me like so many of his other recipes do. I found them more cake-like than brownie-like, with no chew at all. And they didn't look as moist as those in his photo, so maybe I baked a bit longer than I should have. I think I've had better luck with the Moosewood brownies I've made in the past. But I should probably give Pierre's one more chance.

Here's Pierre's recipe, as found on p. 61 of his book:

5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter at room temp
4 large eggs, room temp and slightly beaten
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 c. all purpose flour
1 1/4 c. pecans or walnuts, lightly tasted and coursely chopped

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Butter a 9 x 12 inch baking pan, fit the bottom with parchment, butter the parchment and dust the inside with flour. Tap out excess flour
-Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. Leave chocolate to cool slightly, to about 114 cegrees.
-In the meantime, beat the butter until it is smooth and creamy but not airy. Stir in the cooled chocolate, add the eggs, then sugar, then flour and nuts, stirring until each addition is just incorporated.
-Pour batter into pan and smooth the top, bake for 19 - 22 minutes, until the top is dry but the center is still wet. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool for 20 - 30 mn.
-Remove brownies from pan as you would a cake. Remove the parchment paper from the bottom and turn over to cool right-side up. Cut brownies into 18 small pieces.

A Daring Bakers Danish Nightmare

2008-06-29T20:39:00.000-04:00

I simply did NOT succeed at this month's daring baker's challenge. Oh my...it was not pretty. I mean, I can make all sorts of breakfast pastry-type goodies: sticky buns, cinnamon buns, brioche, you name it. But this danish did me in.

Why? I don't really know. I found the recipe a little bit incomplete as far as the instructions for braiding go, and so I think that was my major downfall. The pastry tasted fine, it just looked horrible. I didn't understand that you had to make the braid actually TOUCH the dough on the other side. So mine opened all up. It was also incredibly hard for me to roll. It just KEPT bouncing back to a small rectangle. Even when I would let it rest, it did no good. I couldn't figure out how to cut it to make two rectangles, I found that a bit fuzzy as well in the instructions. But I did my best to figure it all out!

For my filling, I did two: one with raspberry and almond creme, and one with dark chocolate and pistachio creme. The raspberry one was soooo ugly, I didn't even photograph it. I over-filled it you see. Never over-fill your pastry! The pistachio one is here. It tasted good, but I think my guests were a bit afraid of the look!

The challenge was hosted by Kelly of Sass & Veracity, and Ben of What’s Cookin’? I thank them for the challenge, but I'm not sure I will re-attempt this one!

Here's the recipe!

DANISH DOUGH

Makes 2-1/2 pounds dough

Ingredients

For the dough (Detrempe)

1 ounce fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1/2 cup whole milk

1/3 cup sugar

Zest of 1 orange, finely grated

3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped

2 large eggs, chilled

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

For the butter block (Beurrage)

1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

DOUGH

Combine yeast and milk in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Slowly add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice. Mix well. Change to the dough hook and add the salt with the flour, 1 cup at a time, increasing speed to medium as the flour is incorporated.

Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if it is sticky.

Transfer dough to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Without a standing mixer: Combine yeast and milk in a bowl with a hand mixer on low speed or a whisk. Add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice and mix well. Sift flour and salt on your working surface and make a fountain. Make sure that the “walls” of your fountain are thick and even. Pour the liquid in the middle of the fountain. With your fingertips, mix the liquid and the flour starting from the middle of the fountain, slowly working towards the edges. When the ingredients have been incorporated start kneading the dough with the heel of your hands until it becomes smooth and easy to work with, around 5 to 7 minutes. You might need to add more flour if the dough is sticky.

BUTTER BLOCK

1. Combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature.

2. After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and ¼ inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour.

Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed.

Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

4. Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight.

The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

APPLE FILLING

Makes enough for two braidsIngredients

4 Fuji or other apples, peeled, cored, and cut into ¼-inch pieces

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Toss all ingredients except butter in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 - 8 minutes. Then add the apple mixture and sauté until apples are softened and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. If you’ve chosen Fujis, the apples will be caramelized, but have still retained their shape. Pour the cooked apples onto a baking sheet to cool completely before forming the braid. (If making ahead, cool to room temperature, seal, and refrigerate.) They will cool faster when spread in a thin layer over the surface of the sheet. After they have cooled, the filling can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Left over filling can be used as an ice cream topping, for muffins, cheesecake, or other pastries.

DANISH BRAID Makes enough for 2 large braids

Ingredients 1 recipe Danish Dough (see below)2 cups apple filling, jam, or preserves (see below)

For the egg wash: 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk

1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet.

2. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.

3. Spoon the filling you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.Egg WashWhisk together the whole egg and yolk in a bowl and with a pastry brush, lightly coat the braid.Proofing and

Baking

1. Spray cooking oil (Pam…) onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch.

2. Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.

3. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown.

Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.

Happy Birthday Paulie

2008-06-14T21:58:00.003-04:00

My boy turned 3 the other day, and with that came the obligatory birthday party with all the fixings. On his wish list? Scooby Doo décor and cupcakes, lots of cupcakes! So we Scoobied up the place with napkins, table cloths and all the Scooby parephrenalia I could find, and then I got to work on those cupcakes.

For the cupcakes, I decided on white cake (Dorie Greenspan's recipe for her Party Cake) with the BEST bittersweet chocolate frosting ever. I have literally been hunting, searching high and low for a really yummy homemade chocolate frosting. It has been years. I like buttercream, but they tend to taste like I'm devouring a stick of butter. Then a friend gave me the book "Birthday Cakes". In it, I found it...the absolute best chocoalte frosting recipe out there. (At least for now). This frosting is fantastic, it's a recipe by Emily Luchetti, which is on page 60 of the book. My husband, who usually avoids frosting, couldn't get enough of this one. But careful, it's rich and addictive!

PS I used the leftover frosting for pistachio macaron filling, it was divine.

Bittersweet Chocolate Frosting:

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

8 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

3 cups confectioners' sugar

pinch of salt

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup plus 2 Tb. milk

In a double boiler over simmering water, melt the chocolates and butter together. Remove from heat and let cool to lukewarm (114 degrees).

Sift the confectioners' sugar and salt together into a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine the vanilla and the milk. Whisk this mixture into the confectioners' sugar. Add the melted and cooled chocolate and stir until smooth. Use on cake or cupcakes.

Daring Baker's Challenge May: L'Opéra, Ispahan Style!!!

2008-05-27T23:21:00.005-04:00

Ahhh, l'opéra....The cake I've yearned to make in my own kitchen yet feared with every fibre of my apron. Until the Good Ol' Daring Bakers got a hold of me and forced me to do it! Yes, this month's challenge was the elusive Opera cake, but with a twist: No chocolate, no coffee buttercream. Yowza...what to do what to do...

Lis and Ivonne --otherwise known as the grand pubas of the Daring Bakers group -- offered up this challenge. They requested that we dedicate our challenge to a former DBer, Barbara of winosandfoodies.com. I am more than happy to oblige, and would like to go a step further and also dedicate my challenge to my own sister who is facing a very brave battle with breast cancer, which is why I chose to color my cake with pinks. It is also why I have not been the best blogger in the world these days, I've been so very preoccupied. But the cake and the love I put into it was worth the efforts and time I set aside for it.

Ok, on to the challenge. First, let me say that I LOVE Opéra cake, especially chocolate and coffee. Especially in Paris. Especially at Ladurée. But I've never done my own, and I've never seen one that wasn't made of chocolate and coffee. So when we were sworn off those flavors, but told we had to do something "light in color", I thought "how about pink?" When I realized I would make the cake in "breast cancer pink" (however, let's just say there is really nothing pretty or pink about breast cancer), I started thinking of flavors. This led me back to Paris (everything leads me back to Paris), and to the infamous Ispahan. So that was it: I would flavor my cake with rose and raspberry, in honor of the ever-so-yummy Ispahan by Pierre Hermé.

So then, off to the challenge. Ok folks, this cake took forever to make! It was not hard, just time consuming. The joconde (fancy word for "almond cake") was pretty easy, however I had to purchase a second jelly roll pan which was a bummer. The joconde was easy to make and bake, and turned out just fine, no issues at all.

The buttercream was another story. I have made many an Italian buttercream before, but for some reason this one simplywould NOT set. What a runny mess it was! So I took the advice of Tartelette (aka Helene) and put some of the runny buttercream in the freezer, re-incorporated it into the rest, and voila, it was picture perfect. I added rose essence to the buttercream, along with pink food coloring. I think I put in too much rose flavoring, the cake was too "rose" in the end. Next time I'll put in 1/2 the amount.

I made the cakes, cut them to size, brushed them with syrup (infused with Chambord), applied the buttercream, and wrapped it tightly for storage in the freezer, since I didn't need it for another week. (I planned to serve it at my friend Sharon's birthday party the following week. Thus the "S" on top!) The day before I served it, I defrosted the cake in the refrigerator and made the white chocolate mousse. This, I flavored with raspberry, by simply adding seedless raspberry jam to the melted white chocolate. Once the mousse was applied to the top of the layers, I froze it again, made my white chocolate glaze, and glazed over the top of the frozen cake.

The verdict? My friends LOVED it, although I do think it tasted too much of rose. They had never tasted anything quite like it. Compliments flew all over the place. But, the next time I do this cake, I will do it the old fashioned way, with coffee buttercream and a dark chocolate ganache.

I thank Ivonne and Lis for making me try it, now I feel it is something I can make for multiple occasions!

Here's the recipe!

For the joconde

(Note: The joconde can be made up to 1 day in advance and kept wrapped at room temperate)

What you’ll need:•2 12½ x 15½-inch (31 x 39-cm) jelly-roll pans (Note: If you do not have jelly-roll pans this size, do not fear! You can use different-sized jelly-roll pans like 10 x 15-inches.)

•a few tablespoons of melted butter (in addition to what’s called for in the ingredients’ list) and a brush (to grease the pans)

•parchment paper

•a whisk and a paddle attachment for a stand mixer or for a handheld mixer

•two mixing bowls (you can make do with one but it’s preferable to have two)

Ingredients:

6 large egg whites, at room temperature

2 tbsp. (30 grams) granulated sugar2 cups (225 grams) ground blanched almonds (Note: If you do not want to use almond meal, you can use another nut meal like hazelnut. You can buy almond meal in bulk food stores or health food stores, or you can make it at home by grinding almonds in the food processor with a tablespoon or two of the flour that you would use in the cake. The reason you need the flour is to prevent the almonds from turning oily or pasty in the processor. You will need about 2 cups of blanched almonds to create enough almond meal for this cake.)

2 cups icing sugar, sifted

6 large eggs

½ cup (70 grams) all-purpose flour

3 tbsp. (1½ ounces; 45 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1.Divide the oven into thirds by positioning a rack in the upper third of the oven and the lower third of the oven.

2.Preheat the oven to 425◦F. (220◦C).

3.Line two 12½ x 15½- inch (31 x 39-cm) jelly-roll pans with parchment paper and brush with melted butter.

4.In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or using a handheld mixer), beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Add the granulated sugar and beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy. If you do not have another mixer bowl, gently scrape the meringue into another bowl and set aside.

5.If you only have one bowl, wash it after removing the egg whites or if you have a second bowl, use that one. Attach the paddle attachment to the stand mixer (or using a handheld mixer again) and beat the almonds, icing sugar and eggs on medium speed until light and voluminous, about 3 minutes.

6.Add the flour and beat on low speed until the flour is just combined (be very careful not to overmix here!!!).

7.Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the meringue into the almond mixture and then fold in the melted butter. Divide the batter between the pans and spread it evenly to cover the entire surface of each pan.

8.Bake the cake layers until they are lightly browned and just springy to the touch. This could take anywhere from 5 to 9 minutes depending on your oven. Place one jelly-roll pan in the middle of the oven and the second jelly-roll pan in the bottom third of the oven.

9.Put the pans on a heatproof counter and run a sharp knife along the edges of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Cover each with a sheet of parchment or wax paper, turn the pans over, and unmold.

10.Carefully peel away the parchment, then turn the parchment over and use it to cover the cakes. Let the cakes cool to room temperature.

For the syrup

(Note: The syrup can be made up to 1 week in advance and kept covered in the refrigerator.)What you’ll need:

•a small saucepan

Ingredients:

½ cup (125 grams) water

⅓ cup (65 grams) granulated sugar

1 to 2 tbsp. of the flavouring of your choice (i.e., vanilla extract, almond extract, cognac, limoncello, coconut cream, honey etc.)

1.Stir all the syrup ingredients together in the saucepan and bring to a boil.

2.Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

For the buttercream

(Note: The buttercream can be made up to 1 month in advance and packed in an airtight container. If made way in advance, you can freeze the buttercream. Alternatively you can refrigerate it for up to 4 days after making it. To use the buttercream simply bring it to room temperature and then beat it briefly to restore its consistency.)

What you’ll need:

•a small saucepan

•a candy or instant-read thermometer

•a stand mixer or handheld mixer

•a bowl and a whisk attachment

•rubber spatula

Ingredients:

1 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar

¼ cup (60 grams) water seeds of one vanilla bean (split a vanilla bean down the middle and scrape out the seeds) or 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract (Note: If you are flavouring your buttercream and do not want to use the vanilla, you do not have to. Vanilla will often enhance other flavours but if you want an intense, one-flavoured buttercream, then by all means leave it out!)

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1¾ sticks (7 ounces; 200 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

flavouring of your choice (a tablespoon of an extract, a few tablespoons of melted white chocolate, citrus zest, etc.)

1.Combine the sugar, water and vanilla bean seeds or extract in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat just until the sugar dissolves.

2.Continue to cook, without stirring, until the syrup reaches 225◦F (107◦C) [*Note: Original recipe indicates a temperature of 255◦F (124◦C), however, when testing the recipe I found that this was too high so we heated to 225◦F and it worked fine] on a candy or instant-read thermometer. Once it reaches that temperature, remove the syrup from the heat.

3.While the syrup is heating, begin whisking the egg and egg yolk at high speed in the bowl of your mixer using the whisk attachment. Whisk them until they are pale and foamy.

4.When the sugar syrup reaches the correct temperature and you remove it from the heat, reduce the mixer speed to low speed and begin slowly (very slowly) pouring the syrup down the side of the bowl being very careful not to splatter the syrup into the path of the whisk attachment. Some of the syrup will spin onto the sides of the bowl but don’t worry about this and don’t try to stir it into the mixture as it will harden!

5.Raise the speed to medium-high and continue beating until the eggs are thick and satiny and the mixture is cool to the touch (about 5 minutes or so).

6.While the egg mixture is beating, place the softened butter in a bowl and mash it with a spatula until you have a soft creamy mass.

7.With the mixer on medium speed, begin adding in two-tablespoon chunks. When all the butter has been incorporated, raise the mixer speed to high and beat until the buttercream is thick and shiny.

8.At this point add in your flavouring and beat for an additional minute or so.

9.Refrigerate the buttercream, stirring it often, until it’s set enough (firm enough) to spread when topped with a layer of cake (about 20 minutes).

For the white chocolate ganache/mousse (this step is optional – please see Elements of an Opéra Cake below) (Note: The mousse can be made ahead and refrigerated until you’re ready to use it.)

What you’ll need:

•a small saucepan

•a mixer or handheld mixer

Ingredients:

7 ounces white chocolate

1 cup plus 3 tbsp. heavy cream (35% cream)

1 tbsp. liquer of your choice (Bailey’s, Amaretto, etc.)

1.Melt the white chocolate and the 3 tbsp. of heavy cream in a small saucepan.

2.Stir to ensure that it’s smooth and that the chocolate is melted. Add the tablespoon of liqueur to the chocolate and stir. Set aside to cool completely.

3.In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream until soft peaks form.

4.Gently fold the whipped cream into the cooled chocolate to form a mousse.
5.If it’s too thin, refrigerate it for a bit until it’s spreadable.6.If you’re not going to use it right away, refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

For the glaze (Note: It’s best to make the glaze right when you’re ready to finish the cake.)

What you’ll need:

•a small saucepan or double boiler

Ingredients:

14 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped

½ cup heavy cream (35% cream)

1.Melt the white chocolate with the heavy cream. Whisk the mixture gently until smooth.

2.Let cool for 10 minutes and then pour over the chilled cake. Using a long metal cake spatula, smooth out into an even layer.

3.Place the cake into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set.

Assembling the Opéra Cake

(Note: The finished cake should be served slightly chilled. It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 1 day).

Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper.Working with one sheet of cake at a time, cut and trim each sheet so that you have two pieces (from each cake so you’ll have four pieces in total): one 10-inch (25-cm) square and one 10 x 5-inch (25 x 12½-cm) rectangle.

Step A (if using buttercream only and not making the ganache/mousse):

Place one square of cake on the baking sheet and moisten it gently with the flavoured syrup.Spread about one-third of the buttercream over this layer.Top with the two rectangular pieces of cake, placing them side by side to form a square. Moisten these pieces with the flavoured syrup.Spread another third of the buttercream on the cake and then top with the third square of joconde. Use the remaining syrup to wet the joconde. Spread the remaining buttercream on top of the final layer of joconde and then refrigerate until very firm (at least half an hour).Make the glaze and after it has cooled, pour/spread it over the top of the chilled cake. Refrigerate the cake again to set the glaze.Serve the cake slightly chilled. This recipe will yield approximately 20 servings.

Step B (if making the ganache/mousse):Place one square of cake on the baking sheet and moisten it gently with the flavoured syrup.Spread about three-quarters of the buttercream over this layer.Top with the two rectangular pieces of cake, placing them side by side to form a square. Moisten these pieces with the flavoured syrup.Spread the remaining buttercream on the cake and then top with the third square of joconde. Use the remaining syrup to wet the joconde and then refrigerate until very firm (at least half an hour).Prepare the ganache/mousse (if you haven’t already) and then spread it on the top of the last layer of the joconde. Refrigerate for at least two to three hours to give the ganache/mousse the opportunity to firm up.Make the glaze and after it has cooled, pour/spread it over the top of the chilled cake. Refrigerate the cake again to set the glaze.

Serve the cake slightly chilled. This recipe will yield approximately 20 servings.

My Apologies

2008-05-12T18:19:00.002-04:00

I've heard from a few folks who come to my blog regularly, wondering where my goodies have gone. My sister is sick and I have been spending most of my weekends with her, and that is my regular baking and cooking time. Hopefully things will be back to normal again very shortly, stay tuned....and thanks for your interest and your patience.

Daring Baker's Challenge for April: Sitting Out

2008-04-25T08:16:00.002-04:00

No DB challenge for me this month. I have a very sick family member and have been helping her every weekend this month, so I haven't had time for much baking. That's why the blog has been slow lately...sorry.
Hopefully things will get back to normal soon!

Trader Joe's Frozen Croissants

2008-04-16T21:01:00.003-04:00

I've died and gone to Gai Pareeeee....Not really, I've actually only driven to Trader Joe's where I found to my glee that they are now stocking FROZEN CROISSANTS! A while back I posted about how good their frozen chocolate croissants are, wondering if they would ever get smart and add the infamous pain au chocolat's plain yet scrumptious sister in pastry-hood, the croissant. And it must be good karma, my wish was their command! Today while shopping, in the midst of the frozen food delights (you have to admit, TJs has awesome frozen goodies) I spied something croissant-esque. Was it? Yes it was! A tiny little box of 8 mini frozen croissants!

To make them is a snap. All you do is let them proof on the counter overnight and pop them in the oven in the morning. Your kitchen develops that highly sought-after French pastry shop smell (oh yum) and in 20 minutes you have hot croissants. And they are GOOD. REALLY good. And at $3.99 a box, much more affordable than the frozen croissants that Williams-Sonoma sells (plus you don't have to pay extra for shipping, or wait for them to arrive in your mailbox).

So, in these days of zillion dollar plane tickets and value-less dollars, if you're yearning for a real French breakfast, get ye to Trader Joe's! (No, TJ's does not pay me for this, I'm just a die-hard fan of the good stuff and toot its horn whenever I can).

Daring Baker's Challenge: Dorie's Perfect Party Cake

2008-03-30T09:56:00.010-04:00

Dorie Greenspan is one of those people who is so lucky to have found her true calling in life. From what I gather about her, she is a former writer who found her love for pastry and became a pastry chef. Put these two talents together and what do you get? One heck of a great cookbook writer, whether it be her own books or writing those of others (Pierre Hermé comes to mind). But I had never actually made one of her personal recipes until this month, thanks to Morven at the Daring Bakers.

This month's challenge? Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake. I looooove to bake cakes, I'm not much of a decorator but I can make a good cake, so I was very excited to try a new one. Plus, this was a white cake which I've never made before. The first thing I did was to go to the bookstore to see what the cake should look like in the end (and I decided that this is a book I must buy, it's huge and has a zillion great recipes in it). The photos of the cake were gorgeous, all white and fluffy with some beautiful pink filling inside. To me, the cake screamed Easter, so I decided it would be our Easter dessert.

Making the cake was really quite simple. One thing I've learned about Dorie Greenspan's recipe writing, you don't mess with it. What she says goes, and if you follow it precisely you will have excellent results. So I just followed her recipe to the "t" and it all came together great. Many DBs had trouble with the cake not rising, but mine rose just fine so I'm not quite sure what the problem was. The buttercream whipped up so smoothly and easily and it spread like a dream. I heated my raspberry jam so it would be a bit more liquid, and then brushed it on the cake rounds, which worked nicely and kept it from being too gloppy. I was very careful in spreading the buttercream over the jam, trying not to mix them, I just rocked my wrist back and forth over the buttercream until it came to the edges of the cake. For the most part that did the trick.

As for the decorating, I wanted the cake to say "Easter" but not be too crazy. I toyed with making pink and green macarons for the outside, but ran out of time. So I found these really nice pastel colored mints at the Fresh Market and applied them to the sides of the cake. They looked really Spring-like and pretty. Plus, they are delicious.

The cake was "refreshing" everyone said. It had an excellent. tight crumb and the lemon flavor was light and made the cake really fresh for Springtime. The buttercream, while good, was a bit heavy and I would probably use a white chocolate whipped cream next time, but it was still very yummy. Would I make this again? Certainly, especially for a birthday, Easter or a shower. This is a keeper.

To see other beautiful Daring Baker cakes, check them out here.

For the Cake

2 1/4 cups cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt1

¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)

4 large egg whites

1 ½ cups sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream

1 cup sugar

4 large egg whites

3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing

2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable

About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut

Getting Ready

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean

Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream

Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.Remove the bowl from the heat.Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.

Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.

During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake

Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.Spread it with one third of the preserves.Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream.Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover).Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top. Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.ServingThe cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing

The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Playing Around

Since lemon is such a friendly flavour, feel free to make changes in the preserves: other red preserves – cherry or strawberry – look especially nice, but you can even use plum or blueberry jam.Fresh Berry CakeIf you will be serving the cake the day it is made, cover each layer of buttercream with fresh berries – use whole raspberries, sliced or halved strawberries or whole blackberries, and match the preserves to the fruit. You can replace the coconut on top of the cake with a crown of berries, or use both coconut and berries. You can also replace the buttercream between the layers with fairly firmly whipped sweetened cream and then either frost the cake with buttercream (the contrast between the lighter whipped cream and the firmer buttercream is nice) or finish it with more whipped cream. If you use whipped cream, you’ll have to store the cake the in the refrigerator – let it sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before serving.

Jean-Robert's Lavomatic Restaurant

2008-03-27T16:40:00.003-04:00

One of the best things about living in Cincinnati is that Jean-Robert de Cavel lives here too. That sounds like I'm some sort of stalker-like freak, but this man is a reknown French chef who is giving Cincinnati what it has been desperate for for years: excellent restaurants in all price ranges. And they are French restaurants to boot, so I can get a regular French cuisine fix. His are not chains restaurants, nor are they all haute cuisine, but unique neighborhood spots. His Jean-Robert at Pigall's was recently named one of the top 11 restaurants in the country, and it is the only 4 Mobil star restaurant in the state of Ohio. I'm sure the 5th star is coming soon. Bravo Jean-Ro!!

His restaurants include: Pigall's for high end French fare, Jean-Ro bistro for typical Parisian bistro food, Greenup Café for French café fare including great breakfast pastries, Chalk (which I still have to go to, it is new) and the newest of the bunch: Lavomatic.

My husband and I went to Lavomatic (the French word for "laundromat", which the restaurant used to be) over the weekend, not knowing what to expect. We had heard the menu included "hearty French fare" and we knew that it was one of the new establishments in the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood (which doesn't have a warm and fuzzy reputation) which is being renovated as the Gateway Quarter. Other than that, we went in blind.

Lavomatic, which only opened a few weeks ago, takes reservations from 5 - 6:30 p.m., after that seating is first-come first-served. Since we have to line up babysitting (and the moon and the stars) to get out of the house, we reserved at 6:30. A bit "early bird special", but it worked for us. When we arrived at the restaurant, the downstairs was already full, so they brought us upstairs. Much to our surprise, we the only diners upstairs, so it seemed a bit cold and lonely up there. I guess someone has to arrive first, though! The décor in the entire restaurant was clean yet rather stark: celery colored walls, white chandeliers, bamboo floors and tables, it was very light which was nice but we agreed the place could probably use a splash of color here and there for visual warmth. Another "ambiance" problem: we couldn't hear the music upstairs, and our waiter said they were working that kink out, but we felt a bit like we were placed in the "naughty chair" by Supernanny herself, all alone upstairs with no music.

Our waiter was good, he could explain the menu fairly well. We started with the charcuterie plate, which included saucisson, mousse de foie and country paté as well as a proscuitto-type ham. It was served with toasted baguette slices, country mustard and some pickled vegetables. It was excellent, not at all unlike something I would have at a restaurant in France.

The service became spotty once the dishes started coming out. We had multiple people bringing things up to us, and it seemed as though none were really sure who was supposed to do what. Our appetizer dishes remained on the table while they were trying to give us our first course, which led to a lot of dish-passing between us and them. They left a few dirty appetizer dishes on the table after serving the main course, which wasn't very appetizing. I'm confident this is a kink that will be worked out, because it's oh-so-very not "Jean -Robert".

For our main courses, my husband had the shellfish medley for $17. It was very much like a French bouillabaisse (calamari, shrimp and mussels in a very nicely flavored broth), but on the menu it said it came with "rouille". Rouille, from what I know, is usually a mayonnaise based sauce that they serve in France with bouillabaisse, along with some croutons. Think aioli. But there was no rouille with this medley, so I'm not sure what the rouille was supposed to be. The medley was good, my husband's only problem was getting a good flavor of the broth. The dish wasn't served with a spoon and the seafood wasn't soaking in the broth, so he tried to do it with bread. Next time, we'll ask for a spoon if they don't offer it themselves.

I ordered the Roasted Salmon for $18. It was served over Israeli couscous and covered with preserved lemon and a very light beurre blanc sauce. The mixture of the tart lemon (which also tasted salty) with the sauce was excellent and the salmon was done just perfectly. It literally melted in my mouth. I would definitely order that again. I finished my meal before my husband, and as the waiter was reaching to take my plate away he immediately asked if we wanted dessert. This is one of my restaurant pet peeves, when everyone is not yet finished with their main course and the waiter is already asking for dessert orders. Again, not very Jean-Robert.

Lo and behold, the best part of our meal was in fact the dessert. I truly think that my dessert was the best restaurant dessert I've ever had in Cincinnati, and that includes in the famed Pigall's. I ordered the chocolate torte with laurel creme anglaise for $7. This torte was like none I've ever had: melty and smooth in the middle yet not served warm, and clearly made with a high quality chocolate. There was a dash of fleur de sel on top which was genius, the pastry chef should be paraded about the restaurant for that idea! I devoured it, it was so delicious. My husband had the creme brulée infused with mint and chocolate madeleines on the side. Again, a home run. We kept going between each other's desserts in awe. High-five to the pastry chef at Lavomatic, every restauranteur should wish she was on their team. The only dowside to dessert, the waiter left with our dessert orders without asking if we'd like coffee or tea. And he never did ask, so we never brought it up. There's something about the power of suggestion that really works, especially when it comes to coffee with dessert.

In the end, the bill was moderate. We each had two glasses of wine (wine list is VERY impressive, especially by the glass), we shared a first course, had two main courses and two desserts, and our bill came to $98. We thought that was a very fair price for the wonderful meal we had just had. Hopefully the music will come on upstairs and the service will get a bit more on top of things, but since this is a very new restaurant I can cut them some slack.

I'll definitely be back!

Address: 1211 Vine St. in Over-the-Rhine

Phone: 513-621-1999

Hours: Opens at 11:30 a.m. for lunch Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. for brunch Saturday and Sunday; kitchen closes at 9:30 p.m. Sunday though Thursday, 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The kitchen will also serve a limited late-night menu.

Hot Cross Buns, Hot Cross Buns, One a penny Two a penny Hot Cross Buns!!

2008-03-24T15:19:00.004-04:00

Easter just isn't Easter without Hot Cross Buns. I've had some wonderful ones and some really tough and chewy ones, some filled with all sorts of dried fruits and some rather plain. But they are so easy to make that I tend to make them myself for an Easter treat.

Traditionally, Hot Cross Buns are served in Great Britian for breakfast on Good Friday, the cross representing the cross that Jesus died on. But in the US they are served throughout the period of Lent, and many families have them on Easter.

I've tried multiple recipes, but I like this one that I base on the Sweet Dough recipe in the America's Test Kitchen cookbook. The dough includes butter and has a brioche-like texture to it, it's very good. My 4 year old daughter won't have dried fruits of any kind in her baked goods, so I leave them out, but I add some spices and lemon zest for more depth of flavor.

Sweet Dough:

3/4 cup buttermilk, warm

6 Tb. unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm

3 large eggs, lighty beaten

4 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 envelope instant or rapid rise yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

2 Tb. grated lemon peel

2 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/4 tsp salt

(1 cup currants or raisins, optional)

Icing:

1 large egg beaten (for the top of the buns)

1 Tb water

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1 Tb milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk together the buttermilk, butter and eggs in a medium bowl.

Mix 4 cups of the flour, the sugar, yeast and salt, lemon peel, nutmeg and cinnamon in a mixer fitted with dough hook. Slowly add the buttermilk mixture (and dried fruit if you are using it) and mix until it all comes together, one minute or so.

Increase the speed to medium-low and mix for about 10 minutes, adding flour if needed.

Turn the dough out on a clean surface and knead by hand for about 1 minute. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and wrap tightly. Let dough rise until doubled in size, about 2 - 2 1/2 hours

Turn the dough onto a floured counter and divide into 12 equal pieces. Rollthe dough into tight balls and arrange on a greased 9 x 13 baking dish, wrapping tightly in greased plastic wrap. Let buns rise again until doubled in size, about 1 - 1 1/2 hours

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a sharp or serrated knife, mark an "x" in the top of each bun. Whisk the egg and water together, and brush it over the tops of the buns and bake until golden brown, about 25 - 30 minutes.

Let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together the sugar, milk and vanilla and with a spoon or small knife fill in the "x" on each bun with this glaze.

Serve warm or cool completely.

* To make these ahead of time, do everything up to the shaping and place the shaped buns in the refrigerator overnight. The following morning, let the rolls rise for 1 - 1.5 hours, mark the x and bake as instructed.

Cheesecake Thumbprints for Springtime

2008-03-19T20:35:00.003-04:00

So, tomorrow is the first day of Spring, or so they tell us. I don't know how the weather has been where you live, but here in Cincinnati it's been a little wacky. Two weeks ago we had a snowstorm, last week we had the 60s and today we are building an arc because we are certain there will soon be a flood and most of mankind will be washed to sea. Must pack my Kitchenaid Mixer. Anyway, the rain started mixing with snow tonight, so now we have slushies all over the streets.

If pending doom is not a reason to bake something colorful and Spring-like, I don't know what is. Since tomorrow is my little girl's last day of preschool before her Spring Break (no, we are going nowhere exotic, unless you count the public library...must find activities...), I decided to make some yummy thumbprint cookies filled with cheesecake filling to give to her teachers as Easter gifts. Nothing like bribing the teachers with baked goods! Not that I need to bribe the teachers or anything...but it's a skill that will come in handy in the next 20 years of my life...

These cookies are yummy. They are light, in spite of the cheesecake filling. The cookie base is delicious, not too sugary (only 1/4 cup) and with a delicious crispness that pairs perfectly with the cheesecake filling. The filling is very easy to make, but the cookies can be hard to fill. Don't over-fill them or you will have filling spilling over onto your cookie sheet. Trust me it's ugly.

The only problem with these cookies, which I didn't think of before I made them, is that they don't package well. The filling cools to a soft and tacky texture, so they stick to each other and to anything they come in contact with. So putting them in boxes was, well, interesting to say the least. Hopefully they won't be too ugly when the teachers open them up!

Cheesecake filling:

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

pinch of salt

2 large egg yolks

3 tsp. sour cream

1/4 tsp vanilla

Beat cream cheese until light and add the 1/2 cup sugar and pinch of salt. Beat again until smooth.

Add the egg yolks, sour cream and vanilla. Beat until smooth and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Thumbprint Cookies:

2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

1/4 c. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 egg yolk

2 cups flour

Preheat the oven to 350.

Beat butter and 1/4 cup sugar on medium, add salt and egg yolk. Beat on low speed, adding flour gradually.

Shape level teaspoons into balls and place on cookie sheet lined with silpat or parchment paper. Space cookies one inch apart. Indent each ball with your thumb.

Bake 10 minutes, remove and make the indents again (be careful not to burn yourself, rotate fingers if you must). Rotate the pans in the oven.

Bake 8 minutes longer.

Fill each cookie with the cream cheese mixture (you will have some left over), bake another 8 minutes.

Happy St. Patrick's Day: Irish Soda Bread with Currants

2008-03-16T09:57:00.004-04:00

For as much as I love France and all things French, I have to admit that I'm an Irish gal, and my beloved dad never let me forget it growing up. On an almost daily basis, I would hear "Don't forget, you're an Irish girl." just before he would go on to sing the praises of the Irish (the best looking, the brightest, the best voices, the best food, etc.). My grandparents had immigrated from Ireland in the early 1920s, and there was immense pride in their homeland which transferred to my dad. Growing up, I would hear story after story of my Irish grandparents, from my grandfather's great humor to my grandmother's and great aunts' cooking (Irish stew, Corned beef and cabbage and of course Irish Soda Bread). My poor mother, who has never been much of a cook herself, couldn't compete. I recall one corned beef episode that was scarring...for everyone involved...but I won't get into those details here.

I must say that I enjoy an Irish pub, where I dive into all the fish and chips and shepherds pies I can. But I'm not one to tackle Irish cuisine at home. It's heavy and it makes enough to feed a typical Irish family, and we're only 4 here...which means too many leftovers. One exception to this rule is Irish Soda Bread because it is both easy (takes 5 minutes to mix up) and relatively good for you (just two tablespoons of butter).

What I love about this soda bread is that it has a slight sweetness without being too sweet, it is not floury or too heavy in the least and it has some moisture to it. It's the perfect soda bread recipe if you ask me, and anyone can try it, you don't have to be a culinary genius! I sprinkle pearl sugar on top of mine, which is probably a huge Irish taboo, but it looks and tastes very good. Almost like a light crust. This bread is excellent with some honey butter and you can toast it days after you make it, it still tastes great.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Irish Soda Bread with Currants:

3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup cake flour

2.5 Tb sugar (plus one tablespoon for sprinkling on top, optional)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 Tb. unsalted butter softened

1.5 c. buttermilk

Optional:

2 Tb. pearl sugar for top

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment or a silpat.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. One tablespoon at a time, work in two tablespoons of the butter with your fingers, you will end up with a coarse meal-like dough. Stir in the buttermilk and the currants and mix with a fork until it comes together. Transfer to a floured countertop and knead just until the dough holds itself together, it will be bumpy, not smooth. This will take less than one minute.

Pat the dough into a 6 inch round, 2 inches thick and place on the baking sheet. If desired, sprinkle with one tablespoon of sugar or two tablespoons of pearl sugar. Mark an "x" on top with a very sharp or serrated knife. Bake until golden brown, around 40 - 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Melt the remaining one tablespoon of butter and brush over the top of the loaf.

Mama mia, la pizza!

2008-03-12T15:32:00.005-04:00

As much as I love a fancy meal out, I have to admit that I'm a pizza junkie, I love the stuff. Too much. I could seriously eat pizza every day if my rear would allow it. Pizza- not beer - is the main reason for my college weight gain that I have thankfully lost due to my realization that pizza is both angel and devil. But now I have kids who love pizza. Damn. Why couldn't they love brocoli? So now I've started making my own pizzas at home, which is making my habit much worse... But this time I'm watching the old arse.

I've experimented with probably 10 different pizza dough recipes. Everything from supermarket bobolis (not so great) to Martha Stewart's and Mario Batali's (the redhead chef that makes pizza crust with white wine while sporting his Crocks). While they did their jobs as base of the pizza, none of them ever really made me happy. They were all rather flat and didn't have much flavor. I wanted a "poof".

And then I met....Peter Reinhart. Well I didn't meet him, I received his bread baking book (The Bread Baker's Apprentice) as a gift. He has a trick to a good pizza dough, it's a two day process. Not a busy two day process, not like Julia Child baguettes or anything! He says "The single biggest flaw in most pizza dough recipes is the failure to instruct the maker to allow the dough to rest overnight in the refrigerator (or at least for a long time). This gives the enzymes time to go to work, pulling out subtle flavor trapped in the starch. The long rest also relaxes the gluten, allowing you to shape the dough easily, minimizing the elastic springiness that so often forces you to squeeze out all the gas." (p. 209) In other words, you mix the dough on one day, refrigerate it overnight, and 2 hours before you want your pizza you let the dough rise on the countertop at room temperature. The result? A pizzeria syle pizza crust, easy to "toss" (if I could only figure it out, I could toss it....right now I "pretend toss" for my kids), it puffs up perfectly and tastes good enough to eat all the way down to the crust!

This recipe makes 6 mini pizzas, but I usually get two big pizzas out of it. Peter would probably frown at that, but I like a thicker crust. I make one huge pizza for the family and freeze the rest of the dough for the following weekend. I have to admit that people are rather surprised that this is homemade dough. It's not necessarily the very best pizza I've ever had, but it's definitely the best homemade pizza I've ever had. And there's nothing like doing it yourself!

For the homemade sauce, I simply simmer a can of pureed tomatoes with two tablespoons of olive oil for about one hour. That's it! It tastes fabulous! And for the cheese just be sure to use an Italian blend, you can find it pre-grated in packs in the supermarket. Just using mozzerella will create a very oozy, melted and not very flavorful cheese. Toppings are up to you!

Buon appetito!

From Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice

4.5 cups unbleached bread or all-purpose flour, chilled

1 3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp instant yeast

1/4 cup olive oil

1 3/4 cups ice water

Sift together the flour, salt and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer. With the paddle attachment, stir in the oil and the cold water until the flour is absorbed.

Using the dough hook, mix on medium for about 5-7 minutes, creating a smooth, sticky dough. The perfect consistency will stick to the bottom of the bowl but clear the sides. Add water or flour as necessary. Your dough will end up elastic and sticky.

Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer to dough to the counter. Using a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, mist the parchment with oil. Cut the dough into the amount of pieces you will need (2 for two large pizzas, 4 for medium pizzas, 6 for individual pizzas). Sprinkle flour over the dough, and gently round each piece into a ball. Place the dough balls on the sheet pan, mist the dough with spray oil and cover with plastic wrap.

Refrigerate overnight, or up to 3 days. (This is where you can freeze some in food grade ziplock bags and use in the next 3 months).

On the day you make the pizza, remove the number of dough balls from the refrigerator 2 hours before making the pizza. Dust the countertop with flour, mist with oil and place the dough balls on top of the counter, sprinkling them with flour. Gently press the dough into 1/2 inch thick discs and sprinkle again with flour and spray oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 2 hours.

45 minutes before you make the pizza place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

Make the pizzas by gently lifting up the dough disc and laying the dough across your fists, stretch carefully with a bounce, stretching to desired diameter. Lay the dough on a piece of parchment paper that is on a flat baking sheet, so you can slide it right onto your pizza stone. Top pizza with desired sauce and ingredients (less is more, here) and slide into the oven for about 7 minutes.

Beignets à la Tartelette

2008-03-09T13:21:00.008-04:00

If I could be the fly on the wall of someone's kitchen (not that she has flies on her wall), it would be that of Hélène, aka Tartelette. First because she's French and I love all things French. Second because she has a gorgeous blog that I love to read and I admire greatly, everything is perfection. Third because she can really bake like a pro and she always has something deeeelishhhh to serve up to lucky neighbors and guests. Frankly, I wonder how she doesn't weigh 500 pounds, I sure would if I baked like with such frequency. Helene's trick is that she's generous and gives to her lucky neighbors! For all these reasons, I'd love to see her in action. Not to sound like a stalker or anything...

So this morning, with 12 inches of snow on the ground and noplace to go, I decided it was time to make some of Tartelette's beignets. I had read about them last month and thought "this must be made when the time is right". Nothing like a foot of snow on the ground to make the time seem simply perfect!

I have made beignets before, but only from the Cafe du Monde box 'o beignets that I picked up at the grocery store one day. They weren't bad, but they were definitely "from a box" and didn't rise nicely, didn't puff nicely, were kind of tough. They were not like at the actual beignets of the Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. Anyway, I don't know why I've never tried them by scratch, I never make anything from a box, so why the beignets? Well, after seeing how easy they are to whip up I will never buy a boxed beignet again!

I followed Hélène's recipe and changed just a few things: I don't have orange flower water so I omitted that completely, and I added a teaspoon of sugar for some sweetness. Next time I will probably add a little bit more sugar, I like my beignet dough a touch sweeter (but not too sweet or it's overwhelming). But these beignets were so simple! Mix up a few ingredients, let the dough rise for around 45 minutes, roll out the easy to roll dough, cut the beignets (I made 12 rectangular beignets from this recipe) and deep fry in canola oil until golden. Start to finish the beignets took just over one hour, and during the rising time I emptied the dishwasher from last night, took a shower, made some coffee, it was multi-tasking extraordinaire! I fried up 6 of my 12 beignets and put the remaining dough rectangles in the freezer for another weekend. That's what I love about baking with dough, it freezes well and then bakes up perfectly!

There is one beignet left, it's for my husband....but he doesn't know it's there, so maybe it will mysteriously disappear before he returns from work...

Snow Day Baking: Ghirardelli's Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-03-06T22:28:00.003-05:00

There's just something about a snow day that makes me want to bake. It's not that this happened in my youth, there wasn't a lot of baking going on in my house growing up. A bag of Chips Ahoy was a treat for me back then. These days, being stuck inside on a cold, snowy day gives me the urge to fill the house with two things: warmth from the oven and the wonderful smells of goodies fresh from the oven. Plus, it gives me something to do on a day where I'm a prisoner in my home, my kids are going haywire and I need the psychotherapy that baking delivers!

This winter has been particularly harsh, and we have had a number of snow days, so I've been doing a lot of snow day baking. Granted, my daughter is only in preschool now, so snow days are not what they will be in a few years, but I take full advantage of the snow day joy I used to feel as a student and teacher! Yipeeee, a snow day!

Last week, we had not only a snow day but an ice day...ice was falling from the sky leaving us in a cocoon of ice. It was cold and grey, and I needed to bake something...the urge hit me. Looking in my cupborads I found that I had some Ghirardelli chips and all the fixings for chocolate chip cookies, and I was elated to know that I would soon have some chocolate chip cookies. But which recipe to follow? Such a conundrum.

I'm always looking for the Holy Grail of chocolate chip cookie recipes. I've tried so many. Martha Stewart has a few, the chocolate chunk recipe I've done on this site is good, but still doesn't wow me. I tried her daughter's (Alexis) "favorite chocolate chip cookies" and was kind of disgusted by the results...very flat, very chewy and oily as can be. I don't like that kind of cookie. I tried giving them away and was given a look of confusion by the recipient.

So the search goes on. This day, I decided to flip the Ghirardellis over and use their recipe since it was new to me. (I have since discarded the package, but you can find the recipe on the back of any Ghirardelli chip package).

What I liked about these cookies was that the end result had a perfect chocolate chip cookie shape (they didn't spread out too much) and a ton of flavor. Of course, I toyed with the recipe and used three kinds of chips: milk, dark and white, plus added some toasted walnuts. So good. Eaten straight from the oven, they were a dream. I liked them better than most chocolate chip cookies I've made.

The only down side I found was that once they cooled they got rather hard. Not "too" hard, but they totally lost their softness and chew. They were still excellent and looked and tasted just as good as anything I've ever seen for sale, but they were too hard for my taste.

So, I'll keep looking for the perfect CCC recipe. I think I'll try America's Test Kitchen next, those look good, they promise their secret methods will produce a chewy cookie, and to top it all off tomorrow might be another snow day!

In the meantime, don't be shy.... go grab a bag of Ghirardelli (whose chips are excellent by the way) and try out their recipe, it's a good one especially if you enjoy a crunch.

It's Restaurant Week in Cincinnati!

2008-03-04T13:47:00.002-05:00

Here we are, a mere 6 months-post the last Restaurant Week and another is upon us. During September's Restaurant Week, I ate a phenomenal meal at Pigall's for pennies (well, for $25.07 or somewhere around there). Pigall's has recently been named one of the top 11 restaurants in the country by Zagat's, so let's just say that meal was a STEAL.

This time, Pigall's is not participating, sadly. They probably realized they lost a lot of money during the week (they did not skimp on ingredients, presentation or service). Or perhaps they are tired, or over-booked, or realizing they are fabulous and don't need Restaurant Week, who knows. A close second to Pigall's is Daveeds in Mt. Adams, who is happily participating. That's where I would choose to spend my $25.

What's the deal? Reserve between March 3 and March 9, and you get a three course meal for a set price of $25.08. The proceeds go to the Independent Restaurant Association.

You can see the whole list of participating restaurants here.

Rustic Honey Whole Wheat Bread

2008-03-02T20:29:00.004-05:00

Two things are happening to me right now: one, I'm trying to eat better and two, I'm getting way into baking bread. These two things don't always go hand-in-hand. I want to bake yummy sticky buns and monkey bread, but that is nottttt eating better. So I am always in search of the holy grail of healthy bread recipes. At least until I get the urge to make homemade croissants and eat 1/2 of them before anyone in the family knows they exist.... Not that I would do that....That would be mean....

So anyway, I found a good recipe for "Rustic White Bread" ever-so-useful America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (a book I really like because of its photos, its explanations and its easy and foolproof recipes). Using it as a base, I decided that a way to make it a touch healthier ( i.e. get rid of some heinous carbs) would be to exchange 2 cups of whole wheat flour for 2 cups of all-purpose flour and it worked like a charm. I kept the honey in, because honey is great in whole wheat bread.

What I liked about this recipe was that it was not as time consuming as many bread recipes I've used. After baking for daaaaaaays on end with Peter Reinhart, Julia Child and Nancy Silverton's recipes, all of which are time consuming to say the least, it was a pleasure to finish my bread in a total of 4 hours (rather than two days!). The two rising times are 1.5 hours each, which is very do-able, and we were able to enjoy the bread for an afternoon snack and then with our dinner.

This bread bakes up wonderfully with a great chewiness and crisp crust. I have found that having a steam pan in the oven is essential for the best results, as is spraying the bread during the first few minutes of baking. If you want a bread that is excellent and rather easy, this is the one for you.

Ingredients:

2 cups bread flour

2 cups plus 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 envelope instant yeast

2 tsp. salt

1 3/4 cups warm water

2 Tb honey

Mix the dry ingredients (minus the 1/4 cup whole wheat flour) in the bowl of a standing mixer using the dough hook. At low speed, add the water and honey and mix for about one minute, until the dough comes together. Turn the mixer off and cover the bowl right on the mixing stand with plastic wrap for 15 minutes.

Increase the speed to medium-low and mix until the dough is smooth and elastic, 10 minutes. If you need more flour, add the remaining 1/4 cup flour. Your dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick a bit to the bottom).

Turn the dough out to a lightly floured counter and knead for one minute. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a draft-free area for 1 - 1.5 hours.

When the dough is doubled in size, turn it out to a clean counter and dimple it with your fingertips. This will release some of the air. Once the dough is flattened a bit, pull up the sides to form a tight ball. Place the shaped dough on a sheet of parchment and cover loosely with greased plastic wrap. Let it rise again for about 1.5 hours.

Place baking stone in oven and preheat to 500 degrees F. Place a cast iron pan on the bottom of the oven (or very bottom shelf) and preheat it as well.

Let the baking stone heat up for about 30 minutes and no longer than one hour.

Once the dough has risen again, slice an "x" in the top with a very sharp knife or razor blade. Slide the parchment paper with the bread onto the baking stone. Pour 1.5 cups of water in the cast iron pan to form steam. Using a mister, mist water on the bread and on the walls of the oven. Bake for 30 seconds, remist the bread and walls. Bake for 30 seconds, re-mist again. Bake for 30 seconds and mist for a final time.

Bake for an additional 12 minutes (or less if it is getting too brown) at 500, and then lower the oven temperature to 400F and bake for another 20 minutes. When the bread is done, it will sound hollow when thumped.

Transfer to a wire rack and cool.

Daring Baker's Challenge: Julia Child's French Baguette

2008-02-28T22:08:00.006-05:00

Ohhhhhh la la. I've always wanted to bake baguette, but I've been afraid, very afraid. I mean, I've been lucky enough to have lived in France and I know faaaaaar too well what a "real" baguette is supposed to taste like. A French baguette is a dream, to smell a freshly baked one is one of those Proustian experiences. And that's the mythical French baguette that is SO hard to reproduce. I've had multiple baguettes in the USA and none even come close to the real French baguette: a golden hue, a slight crunch when you squeeze it, giving in to a soft and chewy center with big holes and a great flavor. Some say it's a difference in the flour that is available in France versus the US. Regardless of why, I have always been a "baguette in France" aficionada!While living in France, I would eat baguette for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was one of those people who bought baguettes at the bakery and would gnaw the tip off in the subway before the baguette was even cool, making my fellow metro-riders green with baguette envy. Baguettes were a staple for me. I didn't think I could EVER make one of my own. Until now....

In come the Daring Bakers and the challenge posed by Breadchick and Sara: Julia Child's French Bread. At first I winced at the challenge, not because I didn't like it, but because I knew this was the one thing I had avoided for so long. And because I would know too well if it failed.

So I tackled the recipe, which is long but the steps involved are easy. I used my KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook attachment, which made it even easier. Add ingredients, mix up, let rise. Easy as pie. I loved the way this dough rose: so fluffy and light with great big bubbles. It was a beautiful dough. My problem came in the shaping. I think I might have deflated too many of the bubbles. I had a tight crumb but was looking for something a bit more chewy and with larger holes. The final product tasted great, though, and the three baguettes I made from it disappeared within the day. I had a little left over the next day, which I spread with Nutella and had my semi-Proustian moment. No, my baguettes were not worthy of a Parisian boulangerie, but they weren't bad either. They just need fine tuning.

My one question for other bread bakers out there: how do I get that wonderful French baguette crust? My crust seemed so hard, too hard for baguette. I was looking for something that was golden, which gave a crisp crunch but wasn't too dense, and I found that my crust was too dense. What's the secret? (I steamed the oven, sprayed the walls with water, etc.)

If you plan on making this bread for dinner, be sure to start early, at around 9 a.m. at the latest. It takes a lot of time to ferment, so you need to time it just so. But the recipe says to let it cool for 2 hours before eating. Whatever. I cut into mine after 20 minutes!! SOOOOO good to have warm bread.

Anyway, I loved the recipe and look forward to doing it again because like all things I'm sure that with French baguette "practice makes perfect"!

Bon appétit! Here's the recipe courtesy of Breadchick! and of Sara, of Iliketocook. And to see the other amazing results, check the Daring Bakers blogroll!

Cinnamon Buns for a Cold Winter's Day

2008-02-25T15:03:00.005-05:00

I don't know about you, but in the winter I crave cinnamon. Anything warm and sweet with cinnamon in it just calls my name. So this past weekend, with the snow falling, I decided to break out The Bread Baker's Apprentice and try Peter Reinhart's cinnamon buns.

I'm quite the novice at the old yeast thing. Just having something "alive" in my baked goods gives me the willies. But in reality, yeast is so easy to work with and makes you feel like a bread-baking phenom. I mean, all you really need is a KitchenAid mixer and a packet of yeast. You can do anything!

So I got out my mixer and my yeast (and other necessary ingredients) and went to town. The buns were very easy to make, easier and less time consuming than the Brioche Sticky Buns I have made in the past. But I have to say, the Brioche buns are lighter and have a wonderful taste and texture, and I like them a little more....probably due to the 5,000 pounds of butter you put in them!! Actually, the brioche buns call for 1.5 sticks of butter (16 Tb.) plus one stick for the topping, where these cinnamon buns call for 51/2 Tb. of butter. Many fewer calories! And the brioche buns call for 5 eggs, while these call for only one. So if you are feeling rather decadent and like you can spare a few hundred calories, make the brioche buns. But if you just want the yummeee taste and smell of a warm cinnamon bun without a billion calories, these are for you. All time requirements are in RED.

Ingredients:

6 1/2 Tb. granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt
5 1/2 Tb. unsalted butter at room temperature (but not too soft or runny)
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp. lemon extract or 1 tsp. grated lemon zest
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. instant yeast
1 1/4 cups whole milk at room temperature
1/2 cup cinnamon sugar (6 1/2 Tb. granulated sugar plus 1 1/2 Tb. ground cinnamon) *** I would double this for a greater cinnamon taste.

Glaze:
Sift 4 cups of powdered sugar in a bowl. Add lemon, orange or vanilla extract, and 6 Tb. - 1/2 cup of warm milk. Whisk quickly until all the sugar is dissolve, adding the milk slowly until it is a thick and smooth paste.

For buns:
Cream together the sugar, salt and butter using the paddle of an electric mixer.
Whip in the egg and lemon until smooth.
Add flour, yeast and milk.
Mix on low speed until you get a ball, switch to the dough hook, increase to medium speed and mix for about 10 minutes. (if kneading by hand, it's about 15 minutes). Your dough will be silky and tacky but not sticky. Add water or flour as needed to achieve this consistency.
Lightly oil a large bowl and tranfer the dough to the bowl, coating the dough ball with the oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for 2 hours at room temperature. Dough should double in size.

Transfer the dough to a counter dusted with flour.

Roll out the dough, about 2/3 inch thick and 14 inches wide x 12 inches long if you are making large buns, 18 inches wide x 9 inches long if you want smaller buns.

Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar (I would double what he calls for, I found there to be not enough cinnamon flavor with his measurements) over the dough.

Roll up the dough into a log, starting at the side closest to you.

With the seam down, cut dough into 8 - 12 large pieces or 12 - 16 smaller pieces. Place the pieces on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, about 1 inch apart.

****This is where I realized I didn't need 16 cinnamon buns for the following morning, and I didn't want to bake any of them at the moment. So I froze 8 to have later, and I retarded the rest of them by putting the other 8 in the refrigerator. The next morning, I took them out of the refrigerator and let them rise for 3.5 hours on the countertop. For the frozen ones, I will remove them from the freezer the night before and let them rise overnight on the countertop.

If you are making the buns for the same day, this is the time you will let them rise. Proof at room temperature for about 1.5 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and bake for 20 - 30 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Let them cool for 10 minutes, then spread the glaze over the top.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-13T22:26:00.002-05:00

If I could, for Valentine's Day I would personally give Pierre Hermé a smooch. But he would probably think "Who eez zeez crazeee americaine?" Why the love for Pierre? His book, his dreamy book, Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé. Since I got this book for Christmas I have been wowing friends and family with his fabulousness, albeit on a smaller scale and maybe not so perfect. But hey, most of them have never tried his stuff so they know nothing...

So tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and now that I'm a mom that means more than just buying my husband a bottle of cologne and having some dinner. Now kids are involved, and teachers come with the package. So, for my preschooler's teachers, I decided to make chocolate macarons. A major crowd-pleaser, you can't go wrong with macarons as a gift. I've made them multiple times in the past, David Lebovitz's recipe, Sherry Yard's recipe, and today I decided to tackle good old Pierre's recipe. Since everything else in his book seems to die for, these probably would be too.

Macarons are macarons, and all the recipes resemble each other more or less. And every batch could be a huge success or a major bomb, you never know until they come out of the oven. But Hermé is a scientific baker, and I knew that there would be a reason for his very precise measurements and kind of wacky baking method. My macarons did not come out perfectly, though. To the average Joe, they look great. But some of them have the bumpy top that all macaron bakers come to despise like the devil himself. My slip up was in beating my egg whites...I beat them too long (preschooler needed some attention in the middle of the whipping). Not TOO too long, but my macarons ended up with too much puff on top. But no matter, they still turned out DELICIOUS.

Pierre does something I havena't seen in another macaron recipe. He has you start at a very high temperature (425) and lower it to 350 once the macarons are in the oven, then put a wooden spoon in the door. What I found is that this leads to a very very tender macaron. Nice and soft in the middle, but not too soft.

To quote my husband as he bit into one of the "ugly" ones: "My God, these are good."

Pierre Hermé's Chocolate Macarons

Prepare 3 baking sheets with either a silpat (my preference) or parchment paper.

Have ready a pastry bag with 1/4 inch round tip.

1/2 cup egg whites (about 4 egg whites) at room temperature

2 cups plus 2 Tb powdered sugar

1 1/3 cups almond flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder (Dutch processed is best)

Sift together the powdered sugar, almond flour and cocoa powder. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, whip the egg whites until glossy peaks form.

With a rubber spatula, combine the dry ingredients with the egg whites, in 3 or 4 additions. Fold the dry ingredients in, and continue folding until you get a cake-batter-like consistency. If you make a peak with the batter, it should disappear rather quickly. Keep folding until you get that consistency.

Fill a pastry bag with a 1/4 inch round tip with the batter, and pipe 1 inch circles on your baking sheets. Dust with additional cocoa powder.

Let them sit out for 15-30 minutes. (Pierre says 15, I usually go a bit longer).

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When the macarons are ready to bake, bake them one sheet at a time. Place the baking sheet in the oven and immediately lower the temperature to 350. (Each time you bake a new pan of macarons, re-preheat the oven to 425 before putting them in, and lower it to 350 once they are in.) Put a wooden spoon in the door of the oven, leaving it slightly ajar. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.

Pierre's method: When macarons come out of the oven, pour a bit of water underneath the parchment paper. Let the water get under the entire sheet of paper by moving the pan a bit. Let the macarons soak up some of that moisture for about 15 minutes, then carefully peel the macarons from the paper.

My method: I use a silpat, so I just wait for the macs to cool and then I peel them off the silpat mat. But one day I'll try the magical paper/water method and see if it makes a difference.

Filling the macarons:

Chocolate Ganache:

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

2 teaspoons corn syrup

1/2 cup cream

1 Tb. butter

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a small to medium bowl. Heat the cream and corn syrup until hot and bubbles form on the outside edge of the cream. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for 1 minute. Add the butter and stir until it comes together. Refrigerate until ganache is at a spreadable consistency.

Spread ganache over the flat side of one macaron cookie. Top with another macaron.

Refrigerate and serve the following day, or keep at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

French Crepes

2008-02-12T12:05:00.000-05:00

Last week being Mardi Gras and all, I decided to break out the crepe pan and make some crepes for dessert, just like we used to when I was living in France. The idea of crepes on Mardi Gras is to get rid of the butter and eggs from your house, since you aren't supposed to indulge in those during Lent!
So I have already done the Julia Child recipe which I really like a lot, and I decided to try Tartelette's recipe, since it calls for beer and that is something I've never put in a crepe! The idea behind the beer is that it gives the crepes these yummy holes.

I liked her recipe, although I have to say my crepes were a bit tougher than the Julia Child recipe. Could be me, could be the recipe, not sure. I filled them with homemade chocolate sauce or cinnamon, sugar and butter. They were gobbled up in no time, and my kids declared they "love" crepes! Mission accomplished.
Here is Tartelette's recipe:

Makes 12 crepes

250 g flour
2 cups milk
3 eggs
1 Tb. oil
pinch of salt
1/2 cup light beer

In a blender or food processor, combine all the igredients and pulse until fully incorporated and no lumps remain.
If you decide to do it by hand: combine the flour and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the center and add the eggs, oil and a little bit of milk. Work the batter with a whisk, and slowly add the remaining milk, until the batter comes together and the lumps disappear. Add the beer.
No matter what method you used, strain the batter if necessary. Refrigerate, covered for an hour.
In a saute pan set over medium high heat, laddle 1/4 -1/3 cup batter (depending on the size of your pan) and cook 1-2 minutes on each side.

Pierre Hermés "Concorde"

2008-02-03T19:57:00.000-05:00

Not long ago, I would have never believed I could make a Pierre Hermé recipe. For those who don't know of him, he is the Pastry God of Paris. Make that of the Universe. His shops are constantly full, with lines out the door, all for the possession and comsumption of one of his beautiful creations. I myself have waited in line for 45 minutes just to buy one of his macarons. And it was worth every second...

What gave me the courage to try one of Pierre Hermé's recipes? I made macarons. I really think that once you can successfully make macarons (and I mean French macarons, not American macaroons), you feel like you can create just about anything in the kitchen. My courage skyrocketed, and off I went.

So, I received my Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé cookbook for Christmas, and I am determined to make everything in the book. I started with the Chocolate Decadence Cake, which was so easy and probably one of the best desserts I've ever made.

Over the weekend, I had guests coming for dinner, so I decided to tackle the ever-famous "Concorde". The "Concorde" (named after the Place de la Concorde in Paris) is one of the most popular cakes at Lenotre, where Pierre Hermé did his apprenticeship. It's basically meringue and chocolate mousse. It looks a LOT more difficult than it is. As long as you have the right equipment (stand mixer, pastry bag) you can definitely make this cake.

My girlfriend said to me: "You could be a pastry chef in Paris." after she ate this cake. Now THAT'S a compliment!

Meringue:

1 cup (200 grams) confectioners' sugar

3 Tb. Dutch processed cocoa powder

4 large egg whites at room temperature

1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar

-Position oven racks into thirds and preheat the oven to 250 degrees F, (120 degrees C).

-You will need three 9 inch parchment rounds (or trace two 8 1/2 inch circles on one sheet of parchment and another 8 1/2 inch circle on a second sheet of parchment).

-Fit a large pastry bag with a plain 1/2 inch tip (1.5 cm.) (I used a 1/4 inch tip and it worked ok).

-Sift the confectioners' sugar and cocoa powder together in a bowl.

-Beat egg whites at room temperature in a clean and dry mixer bowl. Once they start to form soft peaks, add half of the granulated sugar. Continue beating until you get firm peaks. Reduce the speed to medium low and gradually add the remaining sugar, beat until combined.

-Remove the bowl and with a large rubber spatula gently fold in the sifted confectioners' sugar/cocoa mixture. Work delicately folding, you will lose some air and that is normal. Combine until the sugar/cocoa powder is completely absorbed.

-Spoon 2/3 of the batter in the pastry bag and begin to pipe a spiral in your circles. Start from the center and pipe a spiral all the way to the outside edge, trying to keep the disk thin (1/3 inch), uniform and with no holes. Pipe all three discs in this manner. Use an offset spatula to even out the discs or fill in holes if necessary.

-With the remaining batter, make a series of long strips everywhere you can on your parchment paper (or silpat). You will cut these up to place on the top and sides of the cake.

-Bake for 1.5 - 2 hours with the oven door ajar (use a wooden spoon), rotating the pans two or three times during baking.

-Turn off oven and leave the meringues in the oven to dry, for another 2 hours, with the door closed.

-Transfer the meringues to racks to cool, remove the parchment and store in a cool dry place, in an airtight container. (Can be made up to one week in advance).

Chocolate Mousse:

8 3/4 oz (250 grams) bittersweet chocolate (I used Valrhona)

2 sticks plus 1 1/2 Tb (8 3/4 oz, 250 grams) unsalted butter at room temp.

6 large egg whites, room temp.

1 Tb sugar

3 large egg yolks, room temp., beaten lightly

-Melt the chocolate over simmering water.

-When chocolate is melted and hot, add the egg yolks and stir together. (I did this because I didn't want to consume raw egg yolks. Pierre Hermé has you add the three egg yolks to the whipped egg whites. It worked perfectly fine the way I did it.)

-Cool to about 114 degrees F (45 degrees C)

-Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the butter until it is very smooth. Add the cooled chocolate in three additions, beating until well blended.

-Scrape chocolate mixture into a large bowl.

-Thoroughly wash and dry the mixer bowl and whisk.

-Whip the egg whites on high speed until they hold soft peaks. While the mixer is still on high, add the sugar and continue to whip until the whites hold firm and glossy peaks. (Here is where Pierre Hermé adds his egg yolks and whips for another 30 seconds).

-With a large rubber spatula, stir 1/4 of the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture to lighten. Then fold in the rest of the egg mixture.

-Mousse should be used immediately.

ASSEMBLY:

-Use a cardboard cake round as your base (trim it if necessary).

-Put a dollop of mousse in center to hold the first meringue disc in place.

-Cover the first meringue disc with almost 1/2 of the mousse.

-Put the second meringue disc on top of the mousse, jiggling it so that it is even.

-Cover second meringue disc with 3/4 of the remaining mousse.

-Top the mousse with the third meringue disc, flat side up.

-Cover entire cake (top and sides) with remaining mousse.

-Freeze for two hours.

After freezing:

-Cut up the long strips of meringue that you made into small (1 -2 inch) pieces. Use your hands (like I did) or a serrated knife. You will use these to decorate the top and sides of the cake.

-Using a blow dryer, gently heat the cake top and sides in sections. (DON'T melt the cake!!) Add the meringue bits to the softened mousse, however you choose to add them.

Freeze for 2 hours, then wrap cake well and freeze overnight.

In the morning, remove from freezer and refrigerate until ready to serve.

(The cake can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or frozen and wrapped airtight for up to one month. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator.)

If you like this cake, vote for me for Culinates Death by Chocolate contest!!!

Daring Baker's Challenge: Lemon Meringue Pie

2008-01-28T12:32:00.001-05:00

Finally I have something to post. Not that I have been deliberately avoiding my blog, but after the diabetic coma I was in post-holidays, I had to take a break from the baking. Plus, my arse wasn't getting any smaller. Or my husband's. Or my toddler's.

But the Daring Bakers call, and the call for the month was a Lemon Meringue Pie. Now, when I found out it was a lemon meringue pie, although I LOVE lemon meringue pie, I was a touch disappointed just because a) I have made these and find them rather simple to make and b) I think of LMP as a summertime dessert, not something for the 5 degree weather we've been enduring. But, when it's my turn to choose a challenge, I'm sure I'll come up with something that won't be everyone's cup o tea. And plus, now I have lemon meringue pie in the house, and that's never a bad thing.

I made tartlets instead of a pie, since I had some cute tartlet pans and have never made Lemon Meringue Tarts.

So I made the dough (thank God for the food processor) which was super easy to make and roll. I made my crusts first, they turned out just perfect.

Then I completed the filling, and there again, it came together perfectly. I think the trick to lemon curd is to know when the it is thick "enough" but not too thick while it is cooking on the stove. If it gets too thick, it gets glumpy and chewy. I look for a runny pudding consistency.

So I filled the tarts, made a gorgeous meringue, piped the meringue, everything was going along swimmingly. My children were on their stools saying "oooh, ice cream, ice cream!"...anything fluffy white and swirled equals ice cream in their worlds.

Before baking, I recalled that many of the Daring Bakers were having a problem with this lemon curd actually setting. Many said it was too runny even after being baked. So I looked at the baking time suggested, then looked at my traditional LMP recipe's baking time, which was much longer but at a lower temperature (300 degrees F). So, dummy that I am, I thought it would be a good idea to do the longer bake at a lower temperature.

Well, they baked up beautifully, they taste great, but the meringue hardened and cracked. LMP is NOT supposed to have hardened and cracked meringue. And no LMP that I've ever made has turned out that way. I simply had them in the oven too long, and I think that since I had a lot less meringue on each tartlet than I would have had on a whole pie, the meringue hardened. It kind of tastes like a meringue cookie on top of the lemon curd. But the lemon curd cooked beautifully, and the cookie-esque crust tastes delicious. Lesson learned, next time don't listen to the other people, just follow the recipe as is.

Speaking of which, here is the recipe:
Check out the other results of the Daring Bakers here.

Lemon Meringue Pie
Makes one 10-inch (25 cm) pie

For the Crust:
3/4 cup (180 mL) cold butter; cut into ½-inch (1.2 cm) pieces
2 cups (475 mL) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (60 mL) granulated sugar
1/4 tsp (1.2 mL) salt
1/3 cup (80 mL) ice water

For the Filling:
2 cups (475 mL) water
1 cup (240 mL) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (120 mL) cornstarch
5 egg yolks, beaten
1/4 cup (60 mL) butter
3/4 cup (180 mL) fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon zest
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract

For the Meringue:
5 egg whites, room temperature
1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) cream of tartar
1/4 tsp (1.2 mL) salt
1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) vanilla extract
3/4 cup (180 mL) granulated sugar

To Make the Crust:
Make sure all ingredients are as cold as possible. Using a food processor or pastry cutter and a large bowl, combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt.Process or cut in until the mixture resembles coarse meal and begins to clump together. Sprinkle with water, let rest 30 seconds and then either process very briefly or cut in with about 15 strokes of the pastry cutter, just until the dough begins to stick together and come away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and press together to form a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 20 minutes.Allow the dough to warm slightly to room temperature if it is too hard to roll. On a lightly floured board (or countertop) roll the disk to a thickness of 1/8 inch (.3 cm). Cut a circle about 2 inches (5 cm) larger than the pie plate and transfer the pastry into the plate by folding it in half or by rolling it onto the rolling pin. Turn the pastry under, leaving an edge that hangs over the plate about 1/2 inch (1.2 cm). Flute decoratively. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the crust with foil and fill with metal pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Cool completely before filling.

To Make the Filling:
Bring the water to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan. Remove from the heat and let rest 5 minutes. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together. Add the mixture gradually to the hot water, whisking until completely incorporated. Return to the heat and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. The mixture will be very thick.

Add about 1 cup (240 mL) of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks, whisking until smooth. Whisking vigorously, add the warmed yolks to the pot and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in butter until incorporated. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla, stirring until combined. Pour into the prepared crust. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on the surface, and cool to room temperature.

To Make the Meringue:
Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, salt and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually, beating until it forms stiff, glossy peaks. Pile onto the cooled pie, bringing the meringue all the way over to the edge of the crust to seal it completely. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack. Serve within 6 hours to avoid a soggy crust.

Free-Style Lemon Tartlets(from "Ripe for Dessert" by David Lebovitz)
Prepare the recipe as above but complete the following steps:To roll out tartlet dough, slice the dough into 6 pieces. On lightly floured surface, roll each circle of dough into a 5 inch disk. Stack the disks, separated by pieces of plastic wrap, on a plate, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.To bake the dough, position rack in oven to the centre of oven and preheat to 350ºF (180ºC). Place the disks of dough, evenly spaced, on a baking sheet and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown. Cool completely.

To finish tartlets, first place oven rack in the upper third of the oven and increase heat to 425ºF. Divide the lemon filling equally among the disks, mounding it in the centre and leaving a 1-inch border all the way around. Spoon the meringue decoratively over each tartlet, right to the edges, in dramatic swirling peaks.Return tartlets to oven and bake for about 5 minutes, until the meringue is golden brown.

Salted (or not) Caramel

2008-01-18T21:54:00.000-05:00

A lot of people are incredibly intimidated by making their own caramel. I was too, for a time, until I gave it a go. I think what is scary about it is the unpredictability...it can easily burn if you cook it too long, and you have to know when to take it off the stove. But really, making your own caramel is pretty simple.

I like salted caramel, I think the addition of the salt gives a great layer of flavor to the otherwise uber-sweet caramel. I make this to put over ice cream, in macarons, under wonderful chocolate or ginger cakes. The uses go on and on. You could even harden it just a touch and make caramel candies from it.

One word to the wise...DON'T TOUCH! Boiling hot sugar is HOT, and it will burn the fingerprints right off of you. It's tempting, but no tasting until it's only warm!

If you want the unsalted version, just take the salt out of this recipe:

Salted Caramel

3 tablespoonscorn syrup

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

2/3 cupdouble or heavy cream

3/4 - 1 teaspoon (level) rock salt or coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons/25g unsalted butter, diced

Bring the corn syrup to a boil in s medium sauce pan.

Gradually add the sugar, stirring until the sugar has started to caramelize and turn golden brown.

Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan, bring the cream and salt to a boil.

Remove the caramel from the heat and cautiously add the cream . Do be careful because the mixture will probably bubble up in your pan.

Stir carefully over a low heat until smooth.

Remove from the heat, add the diced butter, and stir again until smooth.

Restaurant Review: Tinks in Cincinnati

2008-01-15T14:09:00.000-05:00

I live in a fairly eclectic corner of a rather conservative town. The area of town is called "Clifton" and it's full of professors, students, artists and the like. I've lived here for what seems a lifetime, and I've seen restaurants come and go.

One of the best restaurant additions to our corner of town is definitely Tink's. Tink's is a semi-high end American restaurant that serves just plain delicious food. I have rarely had a bad experience there, and when I was last there with a group of eight girlfriends, we were treated to such flawless service and delicious food that I realize I have to recommend it to others.

The menu crosses from meat to seafood to vegetarian, there is truly something for everyone. The best appetizer they have, in my opinion, is the smoked salmon tartar...served with wasabi on thin, crisp potato pancakes. It's to die for. My favorite entree here is the shrimp and grits. Sounds simple and possibly sloppy, but it's got boursin, cheddar grits and a tasso demi glace, it's phenomenal. Don't count the calories, it's too good to ruin with a calorie count!

The atmosphere is beautiful, with one whole wall a huge paned glass window. The wait staff is consistently delightful, they are the kind that remember you from your last visit, even if it was months ago. And the food is timed perfectly. It's just a great restaurant. I can't wait to go again!! Thanks Tink's, for coming to Clifton!

Liege Sugared Belgian Waffles

2008-01-12T15:45:00.000-05:00

Ok, everyone has had a Belgian waffle of some sort. Head over to IHOP and you can get a round "Belgian Waffle" usually covered in fruit, powdered sugar and whipped cream. These are not bad, rather tasty, easy to make at home...

But are they REAL Belgian waffles? I think not. Anyone who has meandered through the streets of Brussels, Bruges or of course Liege in Belgium has been lucky enough to taste a bona fide Belgian waffle...sugary, caramelised, and with no need for toppings (although the best chocolate sauce in the universe is always available to dribble over the top). I had a boyfriend from Belgium way back when, and I spent many a day in Belgium, getting to know and love these waffles.

But back in the states I never tried to replicate the true Liege Belgian waffle. I was happy with yeasted Belgian waffles that I could whip up at home. After re-tasting these delicious treats thanks to Jean-François, a Belgian transplant that lives here in Cincinnati and sells his waffles at various Farmer's Markets and cafés around town. His waffles are called "A Taste From Belgium". And let me hand it to him, they ARE a taste from Belgium. One bite and I had a true Proust-with-the-Madeleine moment...I was transported to a damp cobblestone street in a cute village of Belgium, devouring my warm waffle...

So I did some research, and came up with this recipe for "Liège Belgian Waffles". (Found on ChowHound, but no source was given). They are not "perfect", but they are darn close to the real thing. The secret, I have found, is to use pearl sugar (same as I used on my brioche). This is what caramelizes in the waffle iron. You can get pearl sugar from L'Epicerie.

Sugar Waffles from Liege (Luikse Wafels) (Gaufres Liegeoises)

Batter 1:

1 1/4 ounces fresh cake yeast or 2 1/2 packages active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water (about 100 degrees F)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 large egg, beaten

1/3 cup milk, warmed to 100 degrees F

Batter 2:

9 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 cup pearl sugar or 3/4 cup crushed sugar cubes

Prepare Batter 1:

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warmwater with 1 tbsp. flour and the sugar. Let stand for 5 minutesuntil foamy. Sift the remaining flour into a large mixing bowl.

Make a well in the center and add the yeast mixture, egg and milk.Mix well with a wooden spoon to make a smooth batter.

Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place until the batter hasdoubled or tripled in volume.

Meanwhile, prepare Batter 2:

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the butter, flour, salt, vanilla, bakingpowder, cinnamon (if using), granulated sugar, and pearl sugar into a paste.

With your hands, work Batter 2 into Batter 1 until well mixed. (I used my mixer with the dough hook attachment).

Shape the dough into 10 balls, approximately 2 1/2 to 3 ounceseach. Flatten each ball into a disk and dust lightly with flour.

Bake in a medium-hot waffle iron.

Don't let the iron become too hot or the sugar will burn.

Bake until the waffles are goldenbrown but still slightly soft, 3-4 minutes.

Serve the sugar waffles lukewarm or cooled to room temperature on a rack.

Sugar waffles will keep well for several days in an airtight container, if you manage to have any left over.

Brioche

2008-01-09T22:44:00.000-05:00

Brioche always scared me...until I started making breads and sticky buns and other yeast-filled treats. Now I am dying to make the perfect brioche. Anyone who has been lucky enough to have a fresh, light, flaky brioche in France knows what a treat these can be...and I want to be able to make them at my leisure!

So, I simply took the Brioche Sticky Bun recipe from Nancy Silverton and made sticky buns with 1/2 the dough, and 12 mini brioche with the other half. It was so easy, scary easy. I am not thrilled with their forms, I have to work on forming my balls and getting them looking like a Pillsbury Dough Boy head (if you know what I mean!), but WOW were they delicious. My very tiny children each ate 2 at one sitting, and my husband and I probably downed 3 each. We both found they tasted best without jam. The jam takes away from the lightly sweetened dough.

I sprinkled the egg washed tops with Pearl Sugar that I purchased from L'Epicerie.com, and I baked them at 350 for about 25 minutes.

I'm getting really into this bread thing!

Chocolate Decadence Cake

2008-01-06T22:52:00.000-05:00

I have found it: the perfect, fudgy chocolate cake recipe. It contains very little flour, but is not considered a flourless cake. It is moist and rich and so full of good chocolate flavor, you won't believe your tastebuds. Friends who ate it said in one long breath: "Oh my God this is so good" when they took the first bite. My husband horded it, even putting off his New Year's diet so he could indulge in the cake. Best of all, it's one of those cakes that is so easy to make (5 ingredients) that you can't believe it could possibly taste this complicated.

It took me 15 minutes to make the cake. (Minus baking time, but really, there's no work in that). It required two bowls, one for the chocolate and one mixing bowl. My kitchen remained clean, it was phenomenal...I will be sure to make it for a last minute "throw together" dessert that will make people think I went to the high end bakery in town to impress them with a fabulous cake.

Where did I find it? None other than the flawless Pierre Hermé. It's one of his recipes (called "Suzy's Cake") in his Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé book, one of the treasures I received for Christmas. If you love to bake and love a challenge, I highly recommend this book, it is full of must-bakes! I can't wait to try some of them, hopefully I am worthy! If not, I'll gladly head to his bakery in Paris...it's like a pastry museum!

Ingredients:

8 3/4 oz. bittersweet chocolate (I used Valrhona, 71%), finely chopped

2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs at room temp.

1/2 cup plus 1 Tb. all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 9 inch cake pan, line the bottom with parchment, butter the parchment and flour the pan.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, set it aside to cool, it should be just warm when you mix it in with the rest of the ingredients.

Beat the butter and sugar in a mixer with the paddle attachment for about 4 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating between each egg for about one minute.

With the mixer still running (not too high), add the chocolate and beat until just incorporated.

Again with the mixer still running (not too high), add the flour and beat until just incorporated. Finish mixing the ingredients with a rubber spatula, being sure all the flour has been incorporated into the batter.

Fill the cake pan and bake for about 28 minutes or so. When you take the cake out, the middle will look like it's not yet cooked. That is normal. A knife inserted in the center will come out with some batter on it. That too is normal. You don't want to over-bake the cake.

Cool on a wire rack. When the cake is at room temperature, place the cake in the refrigerator for an hour or two, this makes it easier to unmold.

Unmold cake onto a wire rack and then invert onto a serving platter.

The cake is FABULOUS with whipped cream or creme anglaise. The cake can be kept wrapped at room temperature or in the refrigerator for 3 - 4 days, or frozen for up to a month.

Caramel au Beurre Salé Macarons (Salted Butter Caramel Macarons)

2008-01-03T20:54:00.000-05:00

If you've ever been to France, particularly Paris and particularly in the past 3 - 4 years, you have been witness to the explosion of salted butter caramel. Berthillon, the famed glacier on the Ile St. Louis, now has a Salted Butter Caramel ice cream which is so good I could seriously lock myself in a closet with a few gallons of it and go to town. Ladurée and Pierre Hermé have developed fantastic macarons filled with salted butter caramel, which I stock up on while in town.

Inspired, I decided to try my own salted butter caramel macaron. For the shells, I used a plain macaron batter. But I filled them with a FANTASTIC salted butter caramel. The caramel is REALLY hard to handle. It oozed, it got stuck places, the shells slid around...I probably should have waited for the caramel to set just a bit longer. But wait too long and you have a hard caramel that will crack the delicate shells. Must practice more...nothing wrong with macaron practice.

I put a few grains of sea salt on the top of each macaron before they baked. That added a little more of the salt flavor. My husband thought they tasted like the best caramel corn he's ever had...The French would probably not approve of a macaron being compared with caramel corn, but I think he's right...

Anyway, for the macarons:

1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar

1 cup almond flour

3 egg whites at room temperature

3 Tb. granulated sugar

pinch of cream of tartar

caramel coloring

Blend the confectioner's sugar and the almond flour in a food processor. Begin to whip the egg whites in a stand mixer until they start to froth. Add a pinch of cream of tartar, and as they foam up more gradually add the granulated sugar. Beat until stiff.

Add the almond mixture to the egg white mixture and fold until the mixture begins to flow "like magma". I would say this will take about 40 - 60 turns of the spatula.

Fill pastry bag fitted with 1/4 " tip and make 1 inch mounds on cookie sheets lined with either parchment or a silpat. Let sit for at least 20 minutes. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12 minutes.

For the caramel:

3 tablespoonscorn syrup

1 1/2 cupscaster sugar

2/3 cup double or heavy cream

3/4 - 1 teaspoon rock salt or coarse sea salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced

Pour the glucose syrup into a large saucepan and bring it to a boil.

Slowly add the sugar, stir until dissolved and continue to cook until the sugar has started to caramelize and turn golden brown. You shouldn't touch the sugar while it is going through this process.

Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan, bring the cream and salt to a boil.

Remove the caramel from the heat and gently add the cream.

Stir over low heat until smooth.

Remove from the heat and add the diced butter.

Stir until smooth. Let it set until it is spreadable, then use it on your macarons.

Sorry For a Prolonged Absence!

2008-01-03T18:05:00.000-05:00

With the holidays and a lot of travel to see family, "le blog" kind of got swept to the side. But I'm home and with the New Year will come many new yummies to share.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and that 2008 will be full of blessings!

Daring Bakers Challenge: Yule Log or Buche de Noel

2007-12-22T16:14:00.000-05:00

Ahhh, la buche de noel. I've been teaching French since the early 90's, talking to my classes about the lovely buche, eating buche from patisseries in France and some places in the U.S., but never daring to make my own buche. Enter the Daring Bakers and their challenge for December: make yourself one yule log with genoise, coffee buttercream and meringue mushrooms.

I had the the desire, I had the recipe, I had the occasion: one of my best girlfriends, who is French, was moving away (sniff) so for her party I would present my very first buche ever. Problem was, she is no fan of the coffee buttercream. No worries, I made a few changes. I made the buttercream chocolate and I covered the buche with chocolate ganache.

The recipe was super easy to follow. The day before I made the cake, I tackled the mushrooms. I had never done this before, and it was amazingly easy. As long as you have a pastry bag and large round tip, you're good to go. My husband even thought they were real mushrooms, so that was a bonus!

The genoise baked up with no problem. After baking it, I flipped it onto a moist dishtowel covered by a piece of parchment paper and let it sit in the fridge till I was ready to fill it.

My buttercream was a breeze to make, I just make sure that I add the butter piece by piece and not get too antsy if it looks curdeled. It all comes back! It was light and fluffy and delicious.

I thought "this is a breeeeeeze!"

Until I filled and rolled my genoise.

Filling the cake was easy, no problem. Although I probably over-filled it. When I went to roll it up, it did not really form a log...it formed a sandwich, folding over onto itself. Buttercream went ooooozing everywhere. I had an oozing yule sandwich. But from the outside, it looked log-esque, so I continued.

My ganache idea backfired at first. I cut stumps off the ends of my cake and attached them to the side and top of the log (next time I will forgo this step, it just made it more cumbersome to deal with). Then I tried to frost the entire thing. Perhaps my ganache was just too stiff, but it would NOT stick to this cake to save my life. I had a yule mess on my hands. It was ugly, too. I was cursing the buche and that has to be blasphemous in the yule log world.

So I made ANOTHER recipe of ganache (this thing was chocolatey!) and simply poured it over the cake while it was still liquidy. That worked!!

I added some "fir branches" by crystalizing rosemary branches, put on a candy star and some candy canes, and adding my mushrooms (WARNING, don't store your mushrooms in the refrigerator or freezer, and DON'T add them until you are about to serve your cake. They mush up fast).

So, here's the recipe according to the Daring Bakers! Go check out their results as well!!

Yule Log

(from Perfect Cakes by Nick Malgieri and The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Dessert)Daring Bakers Challenge #14: December 2007Hosts: Daring Baker Founders Ivonne (Cream Puffs in Venice) and Lisa (La Mia Cucina)

Recipe Quantity: Serves 12
Cake should be stored in a cool, dry place. Leftovers should be refrigerated
Plain Genoise:

3 large eggs

3 large egg yolks

pinch of salt

¾ cup of sugar

½ cup cake flour - spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off (also known as cake & pastry flour)

¼ cup cornstarch

one (1) 10 x 15 inch jelly-roll pan that has been buttered and lined with parchment paper and then buttered again

1.Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.

2.Half-fill a medium saucepan with water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat so the water is simmering.

3.Whisk the eggs, egg yolks, salt and sugar together in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer. Place over the pan of simmering water and whisk gently until the mixture is just lukewarm, about 100 degrees if you have a thermometer (or test with your finger - it should be warm to the touch).

4.Attach the bowl to the mixer and, with the whisk attachment, whip on medium-high speed until the egg mixture is cooled (touch the outside of the bowl to tell) and tripled in volume. The egg foam will be thick and will form a slowly dissolving ribbon falling back onto the bowl of whipped eggs when the whisk is lifted.

5.While the eggs are whipping, stir together the flour and cornstarch.

6.Sift one-third of the flour mixture over the beaten eggs. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the flour mixture, making sure to scrape all the way to the bottom of the bowl on every pass through the batter to prevent the flour mixture from accumulating there and making lumps. Repeat with another third of the flour mixture and finally with the remainder.

7.Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

8.Bake the genoise for about 10 to 12 minutes. Make sure the cake doesn’t overbake and become too dry or it will not roll properly.

9.While the cake is baking, begin making the buttercream.

10.Once the cake is done (a tester will come out clean and if you press the cake lightly it will spring back), remove it from the oven and let it cool on a rack.

Coffee Buttercream:

4 large egg whites

1 cup sugar

24 tablespoons (3 sticks or 1-1/2 cups) unsalted butter, softened

2 tablespoons instant espresso powder

2 tablespoons rum or brandy

1.Whisk the egg whites and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Set the bowl over simmering water and whisk gently until the sugar is dissolved and the egg whites are hot.

2.Attach the bowl to the mixer and whip with the whisk on medium speed until cooled. Switch to the paddle and beat in the softened butter and continue beating until the buttercream is smooth. Dissolve the instant coffee in the liquor and beat into the buttercream.

Meringue Mushrooms:

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

½ cup (3-1/2 ounces/105 g.) granulated sugar

1/3 cup (1-1/3 ounces/40 g.) icing sugar

Unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting

1.Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Have ready a pastry bag fitted with a small (no. 6) plain tip. In a bowl, using a mixer on medium-low speed, beat together the egg whites and cream of tartar until very foamy. Slowly add the granulated sugar while beating. Increase the speed to high and beat until soft peaks form when the beaters are lifted. Continue until the whites hold stiff, shiny peaks. Sift the icing sugar over the whites and, using a rubber spatula, fold in until well blended.

2.Scoop the mixture into the bag. On one baking sheet, pipe 48 stems, each ½ inch (12 mm.) wide at the base and tapering off to a point at the top, ¾ inch (2 cm.) tall, and spaced about ½ inch (12 mm.) apart. On the other sheet, pipe 48 mounds for the tops, each about 1-1/4 inches (3 cm.) wide and ¾ inch (2 cm.) high, also spaced ½ inch (12 mm.) apart. With a damp fingertip, gently smooth any pointy tips. Dust with cocoa. Reserve the remaining meringue.

3.Bake until dry and firm enough to lift off the paper, 50-55 minutes. Set the pans on the counter and turn the mounds flat side up. With the tip of a knife, carefully make a small hole in the flat side of each mound. Pipe small dabs of the remaining meringue into the holes and insert the stems tip first. Return to the oven until completely dry, about 15 minutes longer. Let cool completely on the sheets.

Marzipan Mushrooms:

8 ounces almond paste

2 cups icing sugar

3 to 5 tablespoons light corn syrup

Cocoa powder

1.To make the marzipan combine the almond paste and 1 cup of the icing sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat with the paddle attachment on low speed until sugar is almost absorbed.

2.Add the remaining 1 cup of sugar and mix until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.

3.Add half the corn syrup, then continue mixing until a bit of the marzipan holds together when squeezed, adding additional corn syrup a little at a time, as necessary: the marzipan in the bowl will still appear crumbly.

4.Transfer the marzipan to a work surface and knead until smooth.

5.Roll one-third of the marzipan into a 6 inches long cylinder and cut into 1-inch lengths.

6.Roll half the lengths into balls. Press the remaining cylindrical lengths (stems) into the balls (caps) to make mushrooms.

7.Smudge with cocoa powder.

Assembling the Yule Log:

1.Run a sharp knife around the edges of the genoise to loosen it from the pan.

2.Turn the genoise layer over (unmolding it from the sheet pan onto a flat surface) and peel away the paper.

3.Carefully invert your genoise onto a fresh piece of parchment paper.

4.Spread with half the coffee buttercream (or whatever filling you’re using).

5.Use the parchment paper to help you roll the cake into a tight cylinder.

6.Transfer back to the baking sheet and refrigerate for several hours.

7.Unwrap the cake. Trim the ends on the diagonal, starting the cuts about 2 inches away from each end.

8.Position the larger cut piece on each log about 2/3 across the top.

9.Cover the log with the reserved buttercream, making sure to curve around the protruding stump.

10.Streak the buttercream with a fork or decorating comb to resemble bark.

11.Transfer the log to a platter and decorate with your mushrooms and whatever other decorations you’ve chosen.

Fresh Ginger Cake

2007-12-19T20:29:00.000-05:00

My little girl's preschool was having an "International Dinner" where we were each supposed to bring in something from our heritage. Her school is riddled with people from every continent, so I knew it was going to be an interesting dinner and I didn't want to fail my heritage. But what should I make, I wondered. My heritage is basically Irish and French. Irish soda bread? No, it can be too hard. Irish Corned Beef and Cabbage? No, to cabbage-y, too hard to transport. French Crepes Suzettes? Too many flames. Chocolate mousse? Too typical French, I'd have to wear a beret and a striped tee-shirt while serving it. I had nowhere to go, pouring through magazines and cookbooks, everything was either too blah or too difficult.

So I relied on my American heritage...figured my clan has been here for just over 100 years, that has to count for something. By kizmet, I received my monthly email from David Lebovitz with a surprise addition: his most asked for recipe, the Fresh Ginger Cake. I had never made it before, and was weary that it called for oil instead of butter (I'm a firm believer that cake should be made with butter and butter alone). But I put away my petty butter prejudices and made the cake. It was easy as can be, and when I presented it on the table it was not only the prettiest dessert there, but it was gobbled up by the masses.

ONE WARNING: it is VERY gingery, this cake. Not for the weak of palate. At first I wasn't sure how much I liked it, but smothering it with fresh, homemade whipped cream did take a little of the ginger bite away. I had one piece left over and ate it for breakfast the next day (breakfast of Champions). By then, the ginger seemed to have mellowed a bit. So I recommend making this the day before you need it.

Some people serve it with whipped cream, like I did. Others use a caramel sauce or lemon curd. All in all, I do think it does need something "on the side", as only Sally Albright could order it....

Fresh Ginger Cake from David Lebovitz's Room For Dessert

One 9-inch cake; 10 to 12 servings

Ingredients:

4 ounce (120 g) knob fresh ginger

1 cup (250 ml) mild molasses (sometimes called 'light' molasses)

1 cup (200g) sugar

1 cup (250 ml) vegetable oil, preferably peanut or colza (I used canola)

2 1/2 cups (350 g) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 cup (250 ml) water

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1. Position the oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Line a 9 by 3-inch (23 by 6-cm) round cake pan or a 9 1/2-inch (23 cm) springform pan with a circle of parchment paper.

2. Peel, slice, and chop the ginger very fine with a knife or food processor.

3. Mix together the molasses, sugar, and oil. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper.

4. Bring the water to the boil in a saucepan, stir in the baking soda, and then mix the hot water into the molasses mixture. Stir in the ginger.

5. Gradually whisk the dry ingredients into the batter. Add the eggs, and continue mixing until everything is thoroughly combined. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 1 hour, until the top of the cake springs back lightly when pressed or a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

6. Cool the cake for at least 30 minutes. Remove from the cake pan and peel off the parchment paper.

Savory Shortbread: Blue Cheese and Pecan Shortbread

2007-12-15T22:29:00.000-05:00

Now I know what you might be thinking: yuck, blue cheese. I am not at all a fan of blue cheese in its naked and natural state. Too strong for my delicate tongue! But these little shortbread cracker/cookies paired with a mango or ginger chutney are FABULOUS, the tastes blend together really nicely and the sweet of the ginger takes the bite out of the blue cheese.

I served these at a dinner party as an hors d'oeuvre. At first they were just looked at...people were not confident in the chutney part, I think. But then one person ate one...his eyes bulged (that was a good thing). The next person ate one, said "Wow, the tastes come at you one at a time!" and the next thing you knew my platter was empty.

I served them with a "schmear" of cream cheese (I love the word "schmear" and find it is not used quite often enough), then a toasted walnut and finally a "dollop" (gotta love the word "dollop" as well...) of ginger chutney. I bought my ginger chutney at the local Fresh Market in the jams/jellies section of the store. The tastes merged so well. First you taste the chutney, then the cream cheese and walnut, then "bam" you get a nice taste of blue cheese, but nothing too strong.

They make a gorgeous hors d'oeuvre for holiday parties, particularly if you cut them out with a small (1 inch) fluted, round cookie cutter. Very pretty.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup blue cheese (I used Bleu d'Auvergne) at room temp.

3 Tb unsalted butter, room temp.

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/4 tsp. coarse salt

1/3 cup chopped toasted pecans

for topping:

Ginger chutney (I used about 1/2 of a small jar)

1/2 c. walnut halves (you will need one for each shortbread)

Italian flat parsley for garnish

Combine blue cheese and butter in food processor and process until creamy.

Mix flour, cornstarch, pepper and salt together in a small bowl. Add to the blue cheese mixture.

Pulse to combine.

Add the chopped pecans, process until incorporated.

Remove mixture from food processor and shape into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Place the chilled dough on a lightly floured work surface and cover with a piece of plastic wrap. Roll dough about 1/8 inch thick and cut into 1 inch circles using a fluted cookie cutter (or circular if you don't have fluted...you can play with your shapes here, use a leaf cutter, a flower, as long as it's smallish). Place on a parchment or silpat-lined baking sheet and bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Let cool.

**Shortbread can be prepared up to 3 days in advance and stored in an airtight container. Assemble one hour before serving.

Assembly:

Spread a bit of cream cheese on each shortbread, top with a walnut half and a teaspoon of ginger chutney. Add a leaf of parsley for garnish.

Bon appetit!

Christmas Cut Out cookies

2007-12-12T13:16:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again, when I don't see my countertops from December 1 - January 2. Literally, they are covered in flour, confectioner's sugar, mixers, beaters, you name it, it's on my countertop. Having a smaller kitchen doesn't help.

I am one of those Christmas cookie freaks who literally bakes almost every day of the season. I give them as gifts, along with the macarons that I have just figured out! I make about 5 -6 types of cookie, but my most favorite is the colorful Christmas cutout cookie.

I use the Williams-Sonoma sugar cookie recipe, and it is so good people ask "what is in these to give them flavor?" They are delicious. Here is the recipe which I posted last month.

For the icing, I use some meringue powder and make royal icing. It gives a great result, although it is a bit of a hard icing.

Some cut out tips:

1. Be sure your dough is chilled but not so cold you can't roll it.

2. Roll your cookies thin. A thick and doughy sugar cookie is kind of blah. I roll mine to about 1/8 inch.

3. Use saran wrap when you roll. Just put a piece of saran wrap over the dough (and under also, if you choose, but I just use a floured countertop). Your rolling pin will NOT stick, no matter what.

4. Watch that oven, don't burn the cookies. But don't underbake them either. These take about 8 - 10 minutes or so.

5. Use silpats. They are a bit of an investment, but they last forever and make your baking SO successful!

6. If you want to make a lot of cookies during the season but don't want to be in the kitchen day in and day out, make a few recipes of the dough, cut out your shapes, freeze them on the silpat-lined cookie sheet, and the store them in the freezer in an airtight container. Then bake as you need. It's a great way to save on time.

Good luck! Enjoy your cookie endeavors, I'll be posting more as the season progresses!

Christmas Macarons: Peppermint, Pistachio and Chocolate

2007-12-08T14:40:00.000-05:00

To me, The greatest thing about the internet is that I can look up how to do just about anything. Got a question? Google it! (or Yahoo it, or whatever you use). One of my food blogging heroes is Helene from Tartelette. She's GOOOOD. Everything she bakes turns to yummy gold. And she knows what she's doing. Got a question? Ask the tartelette.

I'm a huge fan of French macarons, and I finally learned how to make them the French way (whipping egg whites adn then folding in the almond/powdered sugar mixture). Problem is, they didn't always turn out uniform, they were sometimes too hard, sometimes too puffy, there are just so many variables. So when I decided to tackle macarons using italian meringue, I went to zee famous Tartelette. Of course, there in her site was a number of wonderful recipes for foolproof macarons. Sure, they take longer to make than the French meringue method, but they are supposed to be the real deal, every time. And of course, Helene often prefers this method when she makes her fabulous macarons, so she had a fabulous recipe! But she's French, you see...her recipes are often in grams and whatnot. Silly rest of the world with their metric system...So I had to put my very non-mathematical brain to work and do some converting. Alas, I came up with a recipe that works.

The macarons that I got from this recipe are just about as Pierre Hermé/Ladurée worthy as I have ever done. And every pan turned out great. No misses, it was like the heavens opened and I was welcomed into the macaron paradise so few get to see...ahhhhhhh!!!

For Christmas, I decided to do peppermint/chocolate, pistachio/chocolate with ginger (which I learned through Helene's web site), and David Lebovitz's recipe for chocolate macarons. I will try the Italian meringue method with chocolate macarons next, but I didn't tackle it this time since David's recipe is always so good.

I'm really happy with the results. I'm bringing them to a Christmas party tonight, and judging from how many my husband and I have already devoured, I don't think they will last too long!!

Here's the how-to:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup egg whites

3 Tb. sugar

1 1/4 c. powdered sugar

1 c. almond flour (for pistachio, I did 1/2 c. almond and 1/2 c. ground pistachios)

2 tsp. flavoring if applicable (for peppermint, I used peppermint extract.)

Coloring (I used green for the pistachio and pink for the peppermint)

For syrup:

3/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. water

Begin by placing the 1/4 c. water and 3/4 c. sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Once the sugar syrup registers 170 degrees on a candy thermometer, start whipping 1/2 of your egg whites (so 1/4 cup of them). When the egg whites have started to froth, slowly add the 3 Tb. sugar.

When the sugar syrup gets to 230 on a candy thermometer, add it in driblets to your egg whites (which should hold soft peaks at this point).

Whip the mixture for 10 - 15 minutes, until fluffy and cool.

Mix the remaining 1/4 cup of egg whites with the ground almonds and powdered sugar. (I do this in a cuisinart food processor). Fold this mixture into the meringue mixture.

Fill a pastry bag with a 1/4 inch tip with your mixture. Pipe 2 inch circles on cookie sheets lined with parchment or with a silpat (I use a silpat).

Bake at 320 for 12 minutes (12 - 15 minutes, I do 12).

Fillings:

I filled all my macarons with chocolate ganache. The pistachio ones have about a teaspoon of ginger in them, for added zing. (Do this to taste). This recipe will fill about two macaron recipes.

4 oz. chocolate

1/2 cup cream

2 tsp. corn syrup

1 Tb. unsalted butter.

(added flavoring if you want (peppermint, coffee, ginger, etc.)

Chop chocolate in small pieces and place in a heatproof bowl. Heat cream and corn syrup in a small saucepan. Once it is hot and bubbles on the sides of the pan, pour it into the chocolate. Let sit for about 5 minutes. Add butter and stir until all the chocolate is melted and incorporated.

Refrigerate until ready to use. If necessary, let soften before using (I like it pretty soft so I don't break my macarons while filling them).

Gingerbread House

2007-12-04T08:58:00.000-05:00

Nothing says Christmas and kids much like a gingerbread house. I never had these growing up, I didn't have an artistic/culinary mom. Now that I have my own wee ones I wanted to add some fun Christmas traditions, so I went out and got a gingerbread house kit by Wilton at Sur la Table. (Yes, that's cheating, but when you have a 2 and 3 year old you cheat).

The kit is really nice. It comes with everything you need, down to the candies and the piping bag and tip for the icing. Putting the house together was a labor of love, it took some time and the house fell over more than once. But the final result is pretty good if I do say so myself! Don't look too closely!

The kids love it, they want to devour it. But I don't think we'll be eating this creation. For our gingerbread needs I'll make some little men... So we have our house on a shelf and we admire it from afar!

I have found that if you wrap a gingerbread house in plastic trash bags and then put it in a box and in a cool, dry place, you can use it as decoration the following year as well. Unless of course you want the gingerbread challenge every year!

Sherry Yard's Panna Cotta Chocolate Cake

2007-12-02T20:52:00.000-05:00

OOOOOOH MYYYYYYYY this was a HIT. A super duper uber hit. People wanted to lick their plates, that is the kind of hit this cake was.

I got the recipe for this cake out of the Christmas edition of Bon Appétit. It's a Sherry Yard recipe, and it looked phenomenal on the page. I was a bit nervous about it, it seems to incorporate a bunch of tricky steps, but it wasn't tricky at all. In fact, it was rather fool proof.

The cake presented so beautifully. People were wowed just looking at it. But then the taste is spot-on too. Very chocolatey but not too rich or heavy. I'll definitely make this one again for Christmas dinner.

A couple things about the recipe: it calls for two springform pans. Don't worry. I used one 9 inch springform pan and one regular 9 inch round cake pan. That cake fit perfectly well on top of the one in the springform pan.

Another change I will make next time: for the chocolate band, it says to make it 3 inches high. I found this only "just" came over the top of the cake. For a prettier visual, I will make it 5 inches high next time.

Do try the cake, it is really just fantastic.

Holdiay Entertaining: Gougères

2007-11-29T15:05:00.001-05:00

PHEW. Between the Daring Bakers Potato Bread, Thanksgiving and my girl's fourth birthday, I'm a bit wiped out... I mean, a gal can only cook so much in the span of two weeks! I need a personal chef.

But a dinner party on Saturday night has me back in the kitchen yet again. I'm tackling the appetizers first, because I can store them and just bring them out on Saturday night.

I've decided to serve kir royale as an apéritif, and nothing goes with champagne quite like a good gougère. And as a bonus, gougères are such an easy appetizer. You can make them in advance and freeze them, reheat them for the party and make everyone go "ooooh". I learned how to make these yummy snacks in France, official home of the gougère. They are a light appetizer but really satisfying due to the gruyère cheese.

To make these, you should have a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch tip. If you don't have that, you can drop them by spoonfulls, but they won't have the same look to them. Although once they puff up they tend to get all out of whack, so it probably doesn't really matter much! You should also have a food processor or stand mixer.

This recipe made about 75 gougères.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup water

5 1/2 Tb. unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

1 cup all purpose flour, sifted

5 eggs

3/4 cup grated Gruyère cheese

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Put Silpat mats on three baking sheets. (or use parchment)

Place the 3/4 cup water, butter, and salt in a small saucepan and heat to a boil.

Remove from the heat and dump the flour in quickly.

Using a wooden spoon, mix the batter quickly until it starts to form a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan. You will probably see a thin film on the pan.

Let this cool a touch, then put it in a food processor.

After it has cooled off a little, add four eggs, one egg at a time. Pulse until each egg is incorporated before you add the next egg.

Add the grated cheese and pulse again until well combined.

Transfer the batter into a pastry bag (you will want one that is about 16 inches long), fitted with a 1/2 inch plain tip.

Pipe 1 inch mounds on the baking sheets.

Beat the remaining egg and brush each gougères with some of the egg wash. Flatten pointy tips with your finger.

Bake until the gougères are puffed up and golden, about 20 - 25 minutes. Check for doneness by opening one up and being sure it is no longer wet inside.

Let the gougères cool a bit, and then serve warm.

***Do ahead: You can make the gougères ahead of time and store them in the freezer in an airtight container. From freezer, reheat at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes or until warm.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Potato Bread

2007-11-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

While perusing through many-a-food blog, I kept noticing this logo for the "Daring Bakers". Digging in some more, I found out what this secret blog society is: almost 400 food bloggers (mostly bakers) who challenge each other once a month with a wonderful recipe. Everyone makes the same thing, and then posts on the same day! I wanted in! They let me in! So now I am a Daring Baker! Oh my...

So the challenge for the month of November was potato bread. I am someone who rarely makes bread. Ok, I never made bread in my life before this. But I was a DBer now, and this was the given challenge.

It didn't seem too terribly hard, to be honest. Nothing like the brioche sticky buns I made a while back. So I went for it.

The dough for this recipe is considered to be sticky. Since I had no previous experience with bread, I had no problem with the dough. I'm lucky that I have a kitchenaid mixer with a dough hook, that helped get me started. And then I just used plenty of flour while kneading and it came together beautifully.

I made 12 dinner rolls (which my kids devoured in two days) and a focaccia. I think this dough would work great for pizza as well, although it's a bit more dense than a typical pizza dough.

There's nothing like making something you've never made before and having it work, work well, and taste great! If you've never made bread before, try it out. You'll be surprised how easy it is, and fun as well. For Christmas I've already asked for The Bread Baker's Apprentice and some French bread pans.

This challenge was given by Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups:

Tender Potato Bread(from Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour & Tradition Around the World by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid; who also wrote Hot Sour Salty Sweet)

Makes 1 large tender-crumbed pan loaf AND something more; one 10X15 inch crusty yet tender foccacia, 12 soft dinner rolls, or a small pan loaf

Ingredients:
4 medium to large floury (baking) potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks. Tanna Note: For the beginner bread baker I suggest no more than 8 ounces of potato; for the more advanced no more than 16 ounces. The variety of potatoes you might want to use would include Idaho, Russet & Yukon gold, there are others. I USED 2 MEDIUM YUKON GOLD POTATOES

4 cups(950 ml) water, reserve cooking water

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

6 ½ cups to 8 ½ cups (1 kg to 1350g) unbleached all-purpose flour (King Arthur's is good)

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

1 cup (130g) whole wheat flour

Making the Dough (Directions will be for making by hand, although I used my Kitchenaid mixer):
Put the potatoes and 4 cups water in a sauce pan and bring to boil. Add 1 teaspoon salt and cook, half covered, until the potatoes are very tender.
Drain the potatoes, SAVE THE POTATO WATER, and mash the potatoes well. I ran mine through a potato ricer.

Measure out 3 cups(750ml) of the reserved potato water. Add extra water if needed to make 3 cups.

Place the water and mashed potatoes in the bowl you plan to mix the bread dough in.

Let cool to lukewarm (70-80°F/21 - 29°C) – stir well before testing the temperature – it should feel barely warm to your hand. You should be able to submerge you hand in the mix and not be uncomfortable.
Add yeast to 2 cups all-purpose flour and whisk.

Add yeast and flour to the cooled mashed potatoes & water and mix well.

Allow to rest/sit 5 minutes.
Note about Adding Yeast: If using Active Dry Yeast or Fresh yeast, mix & stir yeast into cooled water and mashed potatoes & water and let stand 5 minutes. Then add 2 cups of flour to the yeast mix and allow to rest several minutes. If using Instant Dry Yeast, add yeast to 2 cups all-purpose flour and whisk. Add yeast and flour to the cooled mashed potatoes & water and mix well. Allow to rest/sit 5 minutes.
Sprinkle in the remaining 1 tablespoon salt and the softened butter; mix well.

Add the 1 cup whole wheat flour, stir briefly.
Add 2 cups of the unbleached all-purpose flour and stir until all the flour has been incorporated.

At this point you have used 4 cups of the possible 8 ½ cups suggested by the recipe.

Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, incorporating flour as needed to prevent sticking. The dough will be very sticky to begin with, but as it takes up more flour from the kneading surface, it will become easier to handle; use a dough scraper to keep your surface clean. The kneaded dough will still be very soft. Place the dough in a large clean bowl or your rising container of choice, cover with plastic wrap or lid, and let rise about 2 hours or until doubled in volume.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead gently several minutes. It will be moist and a little sticky.

Forming the Bread:

Divide the dough into 2 unequal pieces in a proportion of one-third and two-thirds (one will be twice as large as the other). Place the smaller piece to one side and cover loosely.

To shape a large loaf: Butter a 9 x 5 x 2.5 inch loaf/bread pan. Flatten the larger piece of dough on the floured surface to an approximate 12 x 8 inch oval, then roll it up from a narrow end to form a loaf. Pinch the seam closed and gently place seam side down in the buttered pan. The dough should come about three-quarters of the way up the sides of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 35 to 45 minutes, until puffy and almost doubled in volume.

To make a small loaf with the remainder:Butter an 8x4X2 inch bread pan. Shape and proof the loaf the same way as the large loaf.

To make rolls: Butter a 13 x 9 inch sheet cake pan or a shallow cake pan. Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces. Shape each into a ball under the palm of your floured hand and place on the baking sheet, leaving 1/2 inch between the balls. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 35 minutes, until puffy and almost doubled.

To make focaccia: Flatten out the dough to a rectangle about 10 x 15 inches with your palms and fingertips. Tear off a piece of parchment paper or wax paper a little longer than the dough and dust it generously with flour. Transfer the focaccia to the paper. Brush the top of the dough generously with olive oil, sprinkle on a little coarse sea salt, as well as some rosemary leaves, if you wish and then finally dimple all over with your fingertips. Cover with plastic and let rise for 20 minutes.

Baking the bread(s):
Note about baking order: bake the flat-bread before you bake the loaf; bake the rolls at the same time as the loaf.

Note about Baking Temps: 450°F(230°C) is going to prove to be too hot for the either the large or small loaf of bread for the entire 40/50 minutes. Put the loaves in at 450°(230°C) for 10 minutes and then turn the oven down to 375°F (190 °C) for the remaining time.

Note about cooling times: Let all the breads cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Rolls can be served warm or at room temperature.

For loaves and rolls: Dust risen loaves and rolls with a little all-purpose flour or lightly brush the tops with a little melted butter or olive oil (the butter will give a golden/browned crust). Slash loaves crosswise two or three times with a razor blade or very sharp knife and immediately place on the stone, tiles or baking sheet in the oven. Place the rolls next to the loaf in the oven.

Bake rolls until golden, about 30 minutes. Bake the small loaf for about 40 minutes. Bake the large loaf for about 50 minutes.

Transfer the rolls to a rack when done to cool. When the loaf or loaves have baked for the specified time, remove from the pans and place back on the stone, tiles or baking sheet for another 5 to 10 minutes. The corners should be firm when pinched and the bread should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

For foccaia:Place a baking stone or unglazed quarry tiles, if you have them, if not use a no edged baking/sheet (you want to be able to slide the shaped dough on the parchment paper onto the stone or baking sheet and an edge complicates things). Place the stone or cookie sheet on a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 450°F/230°C.

If making foccacia, just before baking, dimple the bread all over again with your fingertips. Leaving it on the paper, transfer to the hot baking stone, tiles or baking sheet. Bake until golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack (remove paper) and let cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

I put herbed feta cheese, roasted tomatoes, rosemary and olive oil on my focaccia. It was fabulous.

Sugar Cut Out Cookies for Thanksgiving

2007-11-17T21:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I really didn't make these yummy cookies for Thanksgiving, they were for my daughter's fourth birthday party. I love these sugar cookies. They are made with a vanilla bean which gives them a fabulous flavor, and they are thin and crisp as well. People usually say "Wow, this actually tastes like something" when they bite into one of these cookies, I suppose they have grown used to the doughy or flavor-less sugar cookies that are so abundant now.

How did I decorate them? Royal icing and disposable pastry bags. Yes, it took a while, but it's a great creative outlet and they turned out ok if I do say so myself! They flew off the plate at the party, and I included some in the goody bags each guest took home (along with a gingerbread man and two chocolate macarons!)

The recipe for the cookies comes from the Williams-Sonoma Holiday cookbook, which I bought over 10 years ago so I don't even know if it's in print anymore. But it's a fail-safe cookie and I refuse to use another recipe. Try it out for the holidays!

Williams-Sonoma Holiday Cut Out Cookies:

1 cup (8 oz./ 250 g) unsalted butter at room temperature

3/4 cup (6 oz./ 185 g) sugar

3 egg yolks

1 piece vanilla bean, about 2 inches long

2 1/2 cups (12.5 oz/ 390 g) all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

In a bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.

Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the butter mixture. Mix well.

In a sifter, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Sift the flour mixture directly onto the butter mixture. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat until well mixed.

Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Shape each portion into a ball and then flatten the balls into disks. Wrap the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. (Can be prepared up to 3 days ahead). Let it soften slightly at room temperature before continuing.

Position a rack in the upper third of an oven an dpreheat to 350 degrees F (180 C). Butter two large baking sheets (I use silpats, they are great). On a lightly floured work suface, roll out a dough disk 1/4 inch thick. (I usually cover the dough with a piece of plastic wrap, so my rolling pin won't stick to the dough). Using cookie cutters, cut out desired shapes. Transfer the cutouts to the prepared baking sheets. Gather up and reroll the scraps to cut out more cookies. Repeat with remaining dough disks.

Bake until the cookies are golden on the edges, about 8 minutes. Transfer to racks and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.

**Do-ahead tip: Make the dough and cut out the shapes ahead of time, freeze the shapes, then bake them as you need them. Always have fresh cookies!

Royal Icing: I used Ateco's meringue powder to make a great royal icing. I used gel coloring (Wilton makes a ton of colors) to color the icing, and my pastry bag with various tips to get the designs I wanted.

If you want, you could use simple confectioner's sugar and cream.

Pumpkin Pie with Toffee and Pecans

2007-11-12T19:58:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago I did something I've never done before: I entered a pumkin pie contest. I don't know what came over me, but for some reason I needed some unknown third party to taste and judge my baking. And I'm not even an avid pie-baker!

So I made this really nicely spiced pumpkin pie, following a recipe I found on Epicurious, and using Martha Stewart's dough recipe. One thing about pumpkin pie crust, you have to be sure it is COLD before prebaking it. If it isn't cold enough, it will shrink up to 1/2 its size! And use pie weights, they will help with that shrinkage as well.

The recipe is extremely easy, that's what I love about pumpkin pie. The biggest challenge is the crust. I made my crust in a pretty French quiche tin, and people raved about the look.

How did I do in the contest, you ask? Second place. Not bad, but not first! (My guess is they didn't like the spin on the classic pumpkin pie: toffee and pecans around the top). Ahh, a challenge for next year. I won two tickets to the aquarium that we already belong to, the irony of it all.

So, on to the pie:

Martha Stewart Flaky Pie Dough:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tb granulated sugar

1 1/4 tsp. salt

2 1/4 sticks cold unslated butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup plus 1 to 2 Tb. ice water

-Pulse flour, sugr and salt in a food processor to combine. Add butter and process until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream until dough just holds together (no longer than 30 seconds).

-Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or up to 2 days). Dough can be frozen for up to one month, thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

-On a lightly floured surface, roll out one disk of dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into a 12 inch round. Fit dough onto the bottom and up sides of a pie dish. Roll and pinch the overhang.

-Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prick bottom of crust all over with a fork. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. Line with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake until edges begin to turn golden, about 15 minutes. Remove weights and parchment. Return to oven and bake unti the center is golden brown, about 15 minutes more. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

For Pumpkin Pie Filling:

1 15 ounce can pure pumpkin

2/3 cup packed golden brown sugar

2/3 chp whipping cream

1/3 cup whole milk

2 large eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. ground allspice

1/2 cup chopped and toasted pecans

1/3 cup English toffee bits (I used Heath bits)

Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 375 degrees. Whisk first 12 ingredients in a large bowl. Pour into prepared crust. Bake until filling is set, about 55 minutes. Transfer to rack. Sprinkle nuts and toffee around the edge of the hot pie, forming a border. Cool completely. (Can be made 6 hours ahead, let stand at room temperature. I made mine the day before and it was very good, the crust got more tender overnight as well.)

Joseph Beth's Bronte Bistro

2007-11-11T14:52:00.001-05:00

Today was a rainy Sunday in Cincinnati, my husband had to work all day so I was stuck with entertaining two very small children. My thought was to go play with Thomas the Train at Joseph-Beth Bookstore, followed by brunch at their café. I had never had brunch there, only lunch and dinner, and it's usually pretty good. Perfect plan, I thought...perfect plan!

So out we went, under the rain, on our adventure. After about an hour of Thomas antics (my limit) we headed for the bistro...there was a wait. Ask any parent, being told there is a "15 - 30 minute wait" at any restaurant when you are stuck with a 2 and 3 year old is like being told "and our waiting room is in the bowels of hell, right this way...". But it took 20 minutes and we perservered (after a million "do you want to go home?" threats made by yours truly)...

The hostess, by the way, was delightful and tried to help me entertain the wee-ones.

We got to our table and I could feel the eyes of my fellow brunchers upon us..."Oh GREAT, KIDS!" I know that's what they were thinking. Oh well...One must eat.

Our waitress arrived. You know that feeling when your waitress arrives and you are CERTAIN she hates your very existence and that of your offspring? That's the kind of waitress we got. Greeeaaat. I should have made the same threat to her as I did my kids: "Do you want to go home?" But that would have gotten spit in my coffee, so I refrained.

So I took a look at their brunch menu. This café is known for serving from the store's cookbooks, so you got to see the inspriation for various menu items. They had all sorts of things on the menu: omelets, scrambled eggs, creme brulée french toast, fritattas, you name it. It all looked good, but I settled on the scrambled eggs, which came with Paula Dean home fries (read: fat fat fat fries), bacon, toast and a fruit cup.

When "Debbie Downer" the waitress came back, I asked her for two chocolate milks for the kids, a cup of coffee for me, and a pumpkin muffin, pronto! I wasn't demanding, but I needed something to entertain the "petits monstres" until our meals were ready. I think she rolled her eyes and off she went to pour a couple chocolate milks.

She returned with a blueberry muffin. Although I had ordered pumpkin, I made zero fuss. First of all because she scared the hoo-ha out of me, and secondly because I just needed food to entertain these babies of mine. I think this is what is behind the obesity epidemic in America...moms shoving food at their children so they won't make a fuss in restaurants. Debbie took my order, and I ordered the scrambled eggs, a grilled cheese and silver dollar pancakes for the kids.

My cup of coffee began running low. I figured someone would be by to magically fill it up again...It never happened.

We got our meals. Immediately I was confused. My scrambled eggs were not scrambled. Are scrambled eggs supposed to be a mass of egg with cheddar cheese melted on top? Isn't that an omelet, or some version of an omelet? I saw no evidence of scrambling going on in this egg. But no way was I going to say anything to dear old Debbie, an egg is an egg. But to make matters worse, they had no taste. That was a downer. First it's Debbie Downer and now Scrambled Egg Downer. The fruit was rather tasteless, and the bacon wasn't great either. It wasn't fatty, which was good, but it didn't have much going on. Kind of like eating a greasy salt lick. I would suggest they invest in some Applewood bacon, that stuff is the pork product of the Gods. Love it.

I had been nursing my coffee, which was now 7/8 gone. My waitress looked so pissy..at everyone. I tried to flag her a couple of times to get more coffee, but she flew right by me every time. I swear, she hated my existence. Some elderly woman next to me had a question about her bill and WOAH boy I had to divert my eyes...it was like watching Medusa herself in the process of turning human flesh to stone. This gal was either having a bad day or a bad life, I wasn't sure which. So I didn't ask for more coffee, I just wanted out.

I ate 1/2 the eggs, one piece of enormously dry and cold toast, a few pieces of tasteless melon and bacon and some YUMMY home fries. Leave it to Paula Dean to put cream cheese in her breakfast potatoes, but that works. It was the best part of my meal. You can't really go wrong with home fries and cream cheese.

Near the end of the meal, I glanced over at my 2 year old son. He was covered in syrup. Uh-oh, I was going to need help from dear old Deb. When she came back to the table, I nicely asked her for a glass of water (shouldn't I have had a glass of water already?) so I could douse my son and she absolutely glared at me and just nodded yes. No words. No facial expression (maybe she had just had Botox injections??) I couldn't believe it as she walked away to satisfy my incredibly demanding needs.

Needless to say, Deb got much less than my usual 20% tip.

I go to Bronte Bistro often, since I go to Joseph-Beth Bookstore often. For lunch it is pretty good, they have great salads. But this brunch, with its solid scrambled eggs, dry and cold toast, non-refilled coffee, bland bacon and tasteless fruit, I have to give it a C-.

First Watch is right down the street from here, they have the best brunch in town. I should never have strayed.....

YUMMEEE Spice Cake with Blackberry Filling

2007-11-07T19:28:00.001-05:00

This cake was truly a labor of love. All of my girlfriends get together during the year to celebrate each others' birthdays, and we rotate being hostess with the mostess. I was lucky enough to be the hostess for my very dear friend Rhonda. She's the kind of friend who really notices the efforts, the details, the deliciousness of my (or anyone's) cooking. It's always so fun to bake for someone who appreciates it. So I couldn't wait to get cracking.

She was married one year ago, and her wedding cake was a spice cake with blackberries. Lo and behold, I found it in July 2001 Bon Appetit. I think this is much more of a fall dessert than a summer dessert, but there it was, smack dab in the middle of the summer's issues of BA.

I made the cake lovingly, decorated it to the best of my abilities (must take a course in this) and presented it to my friends. Rhonda was beside herself with joy. She said "This is better than my wedding cake"...which I doubt, but it was a wonderful compliment. It was moist, had the perfect amount of spices, and the cream cheese frosting recipe is a keeper. Needless to say, we all got up from our birthday cake extravaganza groaning. But a good groan.

The cake itself is really easy. You just need a springform pan. Oh, and I cheated on the filling. Instead of buying 1/2 pint baskets of blackberries (at $4 a pop!) I used a really good quality blackberry jam. It worked just fine.

Spice Cake:
2 cups cake flour
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed golden brown sugar
3 large eggs, separated
1 cup sour cream

For filling:
3 1/2 pint baskets blackberries
1/4 cup sugar
(But I used 1 1/2 cups blackberry jam)

For frosting:
1 1/2 8 oz. packages cream cheese, room temp.
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp.
5 cups powdered sugar
2 Tb sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:
1 1/2 pint basket blackberries

Preaheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour 9 inch diameter springform pan with 2 3/4 inch high sides. Sift first 7 ingredients into a small bowl. Using the electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Ad brown sugar and beat until well blended (about 3 minutes). Beat in egg yolks. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternately with the sour cream in 2 additions. Using clean and dry beaters, beat the egg whites in a medium bowl until stiff but not dry, fold inot the batter in 2 additions. Transfer the batter to a prepared pan.

Bake the cake until the top is golden and tester comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool cake 10 minutes, cut around pan sides and release. Cool cake completely on rack.

For Filling:
Mix berries and sugar in bowl and mash with a fork. Let stand 20 minutes - 1 hour
OR: like I said, a good blackberry jam works just as well.

Frosting:
Beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in sugar, then sour cream and vanilla. Beat with paddle attachment to get rid of

any air and make smooth as batter.

Cut cake horizontally into 3 equal layers. Place bottom layer, cut side up, on platter. Spread 1 cup frosting over. Spread half of filling (about 3/4 cup) over frosting, leaving 1/4 inch plain border at edge. Top with second cake layer and 1 cup frosting, then remaining filling. Top with third cake layer, cut side down. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Refrigerate until frosting sets, about 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead, cover loosely, keep chilled until 1 hour before serving.) Garnish cake with 1/2 pint berries.

Cinnamon Macarons

2007-11-04T22:39:00.001-05:00

The best thing about making homemade ice cream is that you have a bunch of egg whites left over and you can experiment with macarons. Macarons need a lot of experimentation and practice to get them right. I still find that no two batches are alike, but I'm still working on it! To date, my most successful ones have been chocolate which almost never fail. But these turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

To make these, I made a basic macaron batter and mixed in two teaspoons of ground cinnamon. I had no clue if that would be enough for a good flavor, and it turns out I was on target. They taste really good...

Of course, my macarons were not perfect. The first batch had HUGE feet. Way to big. They ooked like little hats with enormous rims. The second batch turned out just right...smooth dome, frilly feet, perfect consistency inside.

I filled them with a swiss buttercream. I made a basic vanilla swiss buttercream and added a bit of pumpkin pie filling to it. The end result is a cinnamon/pumpkin extravaganza of a macaron! Perfect for the fall!

Basic macaron recipe:
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup almond flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
3 egg whites, room temperature (I let my eggs sit out overnight)
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Pulse first three ingredients in a food processor, set aside.

Beat the egg whites in a stand mixer until foamy. Add granulated sugar and beat until you get stiff peaks.

With a rubber spatula, blend the powdered sugar mixture and the egg white mixture. Mix until a peak in the batter disappears within a few seconds. It should "flow like magma" so they say.

Pipe onto parchment (or silpat) in 1.5 inch rounds. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes (depending on the heat of your oven, my oven cooks hot so I do 12 minutes).

Let cool on silpat, and then peel cooled macarons off.

Spread buttercream on bottom of one macaron and top with another. Store in a air-tight container at room temperature for 3 - 5 days.

Restaurant Review: Seny Tapas Bar

2007-11-03T23:04:00.000-04:00

Ok, I know a lot of you who are reading this are not from Cincinnati. But I also know that many of you have had the experience of being so excited about eating at a new restaurant, only to be disappointed in the end. Such was my experience at Seny, a new Spanish tapas bar/restaurant in Cincinnati.

Call me a tapas snob, if you will. But I love love LOVE real Spanish tapas. I lived in Madrid as a college student, and was introduced to some of the best tasting cuisine in the world. They can do a lot with a tapa, and they are really not complicated to make. But I never make them for myself for some reason. So when I saw that there was a new tapas restaurant coming to town I was thrilled. And when I read the web site for this tapas restaurant, I read that they guaranteed the real deal...no more chips 'n dip called "tapas" like you find in so many restaurants these days. Ay caramba, I was going to have some tapas!!

I had visions of Madrid, of the jamon serrano hanging from the ceiling, or of the manchego being cut from huge rounds. I even had visions of my favorite States-side tapas restaurant: Café Babareeba in Chicago. I couldn't wait to experience that joy in my hometown.

So, my husband and I got a sitter (at $8/hour you want to have a GOOD meal) and headed out to Seny. And it went downhill from there.

First, we were terribly early for our table, so we got a drink at the bar. What else but sangria? I couldn't wait for a good, authentic sangria. Ok, some problems here. The sangria was being tapped from a huge sangria pitcher. Well, when you tap sangria, you don't get the fruit. And sangria served without fruit is like Sonny without Cher, Gladys Knight without her Pips, etc. Something was terribly missing, there was no va va va voom. The sangria tasted like red wine and seltzer water. It was refreshing, but there was a kick missing, a fruitiness, a sweetness, something was just not there. I asked the very accomodating bartender for some fruit, and he gave me a plateful, which I immediately squeezed into my drink. Thank goodness for nice bartenders, they keep the customers happy.

Once we were seated, we took a look at the menu, which was fairly limited for a tapas place (again, I am partial to Café Babareeba or Café Iberico in Chicago, who have enormous menus). The menu was split in four groups: Cold tapas, warm tapas, traditional tapas, and main dishes. The cold and warm tapas were all fancy-schmancy small plates of food. They looked good, but nothing spoke to me like a traditional tapa. Looking at the list of traditional tapas, my mouth watered. I remembered reading on the Seny web site that they planned to serve REAL traditional food from Spain, no fooling around with the tried and true. And so we ordered. Our first round was Spanish Tortilla, Gambas al Aioli and a Spanish charcuterie plate.

The Spanish tortilla was served warm. WARM. OK PEOPLE, everyone knows that in Spain your Spanish tortilla is a cold tapa. It is served cold, always. The aioli they served it with was excellent, but the tortilla itself was without flavor, and it was WARM. I've never had a flavorless Spanish tortilla. I tried and tried but could not locate the flavor. Thank goodness for the aioli, which I schmeared all over my poor hot tortilla. When I asked the waiter "Why is this warm?", he said he didn't know, and ventured to guess it was a Cincinnati thing. Hmmmm....

On to the gambas (shrimp with garlic butter). They were excellent. The shrimp were perfectly well cooked and seasoned, and the garlic sauce was very flavorful. Points for gambas.

Charcuterie platter: this had chorizo, cured meat and jamon serrano on it. This was the best thing we ate during our dinner. It was also the only thing that wasn't prepared in the kitchen. Ay ay ay.

We were still hungry, so we got three more tapas: shrimp fritters with mint sauce, patatas bravas and ham and spinach croquetas.

Shrimp Fritters: this was on the fancy schmancy side of the menu, so I had nothing to compare it to in Spain or elsewhere. They were good, but nothing to get too excited about.

Patatas Bravas: (fried potatoes served with spicy aioli sauce) These were good, but I felt like I was eating breakfast home fries with aioli sauce. Patatas bravas are usually large wedges of potato, not little squares. The spicy aioli sauce was great though.

Croquetas: NOOOOOO! How can you destroy the staple of all Spanish Sunday dinners, the croqueta?? They made them with WAY too much beschemel sauce (I think it was beschemel) so that when you bit into one it just oozed white sauce. I didn't see any ham in my croquetas, and very little spinach. So I'm not quite sure what I was eating. Beschemel croquetas? They weren't very flavorful either, they needed something to accompany the sauce. How I yearned for a good chicken and ham croqueta at this point of my meal. Those are so yummy....

When asked if we wanted dessert, I jumped at it...obviously I do enjoy my desserts. The chocolate croquetas we asked for at first were sold out. So we asked for the "tapas desserts", which we understood would be a few different small versions of their desserts. I've had this at Babareeba and it's excellent (mini flan, mini rice pudding, etc.). We also asked for decafs.

The decafs came toute de suite. Too fast. I still had half a croqueta in my mouth and the waiter is giving me a decaf. No cream or sugar. I asked for both. I got the sugar immediately. I asked again for cream, I got a little pitcher of something...it wasn't cream. I poured it in my coffee...it was skim milk. Now, I realize this is a new restaurant and there are kinks and all...but cream? Come on, folks. I took a sip of the coffee....watery, flavorless, blech. Thank God they didn't charge us for it.

The desserts arrived. I kid you not when I describe them this way: Little Debbie meets Dunkin Donuts. DIOS MIO! I couldn't believe what I was eating and seeing. I should ask for a job making desserts there, because Deb and Dunkin' are just not getting the job done. There were four little cakes on a long, pretty dish. Two tasted EXACTLY like the Little Debbie strawberry snack cake. One was a chocolate "pastry" (aka Munchkin donut) covered in glaze (aka Munchkin donut glaze). It tasted like a Munchkin, to the "t'. I HATE a chocolate dessert that doesn't taste like chocolate. There was one cake on this plate that was worth the calories, it was an almond based cake with a hard sugar glaze. It was good. The rest...no me gusta, nada.

So, will I go back to Seny? Not sure...I want to believe they will work things out, locate the spice rack, give the food some flavor, refrigerate the tortillas, add fruit to the sangria glasses and hire a new pastry chef. If those things happen, and my husband and I find ourselves with $65 to spend on dinner (this was our bill), maybe I'll go back. Until then, I'm off to Honey!

"How'd You Do That?" Apple Pie

2007-11-01T13:46:00.000-04:00

Ok, this is really Martha Stewart's Spiced Apple Pie from the November issue of her magazine. But if you make the fluted round cutouts instead of a traditional crust, everyone who sees it will shout "How'd you DO THAT?" It's like clockwork, every time. Anyway, to get this result is really not that hard...and it turns out so gorgeous.

(Note to self...buy a Martha Stewart Living subscription. I keep buying them at the grocery store check out, a huge rip off. Although worth every penny.)

So about my pie: I brought this for dessert at a friend's house, and paired it with the salted butter caramel ice cream (previous recipe). It was a great pairing. I baked the pie the day before, and we warmed it up during dinner at 350 for 15 minutes, which was perfect. It was a plate-licker.

The following day my husband and I reheated the few leftovers we had in the microwave. I don't suggest that technique, it destroys the flakiness of the crust. One must not destroy a Martha pie.

Keep in mind, this pie requires a lot of time. Not energy, but time. You spend a lot of time refrigerating things for one hour, and then an eternity in the oven. Don't do what I did and start when you are supposed to be meeting someone at the park with your children later...you will be held hostage at home by your pie. Be sure you have some free time.

So, here's the recipe...enjoy it!

Pâte Brisée:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, chilled

1 1/2 teaspoons course salt

1 Tb. granulated sugar

2 1/4 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

7 - 10 Tb ice water (I used 8)

Pulse flour, salt and sugar in a food processor. Add butter nd pulse until you get course crumbs, about 10 seconds.

With food processor running, add ice water slowly in a steady stream, until dough holds together and is neither wet or sticky. About 30 seconds.

Divide dough into two portions, and shape each into a disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight. It can be frozen for up to one month, just thaw it in the refrigerator overnight before using.

To make the fluted piecrust:

You will need a fluted round cutter (1 3/4 inch or 2 1/2 inch)

Roll out one portion of the dough to 1/8 inch thick and fit it into the pie plate. Roll out the remaining dough to 1/8 inch thick and use a 1 3/4 inch fluted round cutter to cut out about 70 rounds, re-rolling the scraps. (I used a 2 1/2 inch cutter and made 40 rounds).

Place the filling in the pie plate, mounding it in the center. Lightly brush the edge of the crust with an egg wash of 1 Tb. heavy cream and 1 egg yolk.

Arrange the rounds around the perimeter (all the way to the edge) of the piecrust and on top of the filling, overlapping them slightly. Lightly brush the top of each round with egg wash as you work so they will adhere to one another.

Repeat the process, overlapping rounds in a spiral all the way to the center, until the pie is covered. Lightly brush the entire surface with egg was and sprinkly with fine sanding sugar. Refrigerate for one hour before baking.

Spiced Apple Pie:

Makes one 9 inch double-crust pie

Pâte Brisée (above recipe)

4 pounds Granny Smith apples

1 Tb finely grated lemon zest

2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1 tsp. coarse salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

3 Tb. cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces

Egg wash:

1 large egg yolk

1 Tb. heavy cream

Sanding sugar

On a lightly floured work surface, roll 1 disk of dough to 1/8 inch thick. Fit into a 9 inch deep dish pie plate. Trim edges flush with rim, refrigerate for one hour.

Roll remaining disk of dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut out 70 rounds with a 1 3/4 inch fluted round cutter. Place rounds on a parchment-lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Peel and core apples. Thinly slice half of them, cut remaining apples into 1 inch pieces.

Toss together the apples, lemon zest and juice, sugars, flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl. Place filling in the piecrust, mounding in the center. Dot with butter. To make the egg wash, whish the egg yolk and cream in a small bowl. Lightly brush the edge of the piecrust with the egg wash. Arrange the dough rounds over the filling, working in a spiral from the outside in to the center, overlapping as you go. Use the egg was to help them stick together. Once the filling has been covered, brush the entire top of pie with egg wash and sprinkle the top with sanding sugar. Refrigerate pie for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F., with racks in the middle and lower positions. Place a foil-lined baking sheet on the lower rack to catch any juices. Place the pie on the middle rack and bake until the crust begins to turn golden brown, about 25 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 and bake until the crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling, about 1 hour 10 minutes (I did 45 minutes and it was done, my oven runs hotter I think). Tent with foil if the crust browns too quickly. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream

2007-10-30T22:24:00.000-04:00

Ever since I purchased my second-hand Cuisinart Ice Cream machine for $10 the other week, I have been perusing various ice cream recipes looking for one to hit the spot. Those that keep coming back to me are David Lebovitz's...probably because he wrote an entire book devoted just to ice cream, The Perfect Scoop, and probably because he has the best ice cream recipes around.

So, I had made a bunch of salted butter caramel macarons (post to come soon), and I had so much caramel and so many egg yolks left over I thought I would make an attempt at the salted butter caramel ice cream from the book. Keep in mind, until now the only place I had ever eaten this flavor of ice cream was in Paris, at the famed Berthillon. And boooooooy is it good. Sinful. Decadent. Impossibly good.

So, off I went to my mini ice cream maker and my ingredients, and I actually created salted butter caramel ice cream from scratch. Not only that, but it was EASY. Bien sûr, it may not have been as good as Berthillon's (I think I went too heavy on the salt in my hard caramel), but it was delish nevertheless. I served it with homemade deep dish apple pie (post to come soon) and folks swooned. The mixture of sweet and salty is just perfect. My two year old licked his bowl clean. But two year olds do that, so maybe it wasn't the compliment that I took it as. I'll take what I can get.

My advice: 1) Don't eat this ice cream immediately. The pieces of crunchy caramel have to soften up before you dig in, otherwise you'll be digging them out of your teeth all night. Wait overnight and watch how they soften and ooze. It's yuuuummmy.

2) Be patient while making your caramel. Don't stir too much. Just relax.

3) Use good course sea salt (sel de mer). Not table salt. Trader Joe's sells course sea salt for rock bottom prices.

Trader Joe's Frozen Chocolate Croissants

2007-10-28T10:07:00.000-04:00

Ahhhh, le pain au chocolat. Once you've had a "chocolate croissant" or "pain au chocolat" in France, it's so hard to find a good one elsewhere. You immediately become a croissant snob. Le snobisme du croissant. What's wrong with foreign croissants? Too often, they are either bready, or dry, or use too little chocolate or the wrong kind of chocolate, I could go on. I've been more than disappointed with the pain au chocolat I've found in the U.S. The absolute worst are the ones with chocolate sauce or caramel sauce drizzled on top. Blasphemy!

So, I was in the Trader Joe's frozen food section the other day, gazing lovingly upon their vast array of frozen treats. It seems as though every week they have something new, and very often it is French. (Their French apple tart is fantastique, by the way.) So last time I saw something I had never seen before. There between the puff pastry and the pie crust (both are also new from what I know) was a tiny little box of joy...chocolate croissants. Boy, did they look good on the box. But I know how that goes...nothing ever turns out as good as it does on the box.

So I bought them, took them out of the freezer last night before bed (they have to rise for 9 hours from frozen) and we had them this morning with coffee. Let me tell you....no longer do I have to make the trip to my favorite French café for my "pain au chocolat"...(Greenup Café in Covington, Kentucky if you must know)...these will do JUST FINE. They are light, they are a touch crisp on the outside, the chocolate is high quality and there are TWO BARS of chocolate! They are buttery and divine. I highly recommend these for anyone who has a craving for an authentic chocolate croissant, you won't be disappointed.

Oh, and when in France, please ask for a "Pain au chocolat" (literally "bread with chocolate"), not a "chocolate croissant". The latter is an anglophone invention and doesn't work in French!

Williams-Sonoma's Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

2007-10-27T16:23:00.000-04:00

We made our annual Jack-O-Lanterns today, and that means a table-full of sloppy pumpkin innards to contend with. But nothing is left to chance with those folks at Williams-Sonoma, they are right on top of our pumpkin-carving-day needs: there was a recipe for toasted pumpkin seeds included in their pumpkin carving kit (beware, the saws break very easily...).

So after cleaning all the goop off the seeds, I quickly stirred together this concoction. I can't say it's the best thing in the world, I might prefer simple salted pumpkin seeds, but the house does smell like a dream.

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh pumpkin seeds (pulp removed)

1 Tb. unsalted butter

2 Tb. brown sugar

2 Tb. honey

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. cloves

1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper (I skipped this)

Salt to taste (I used corse sea salt)

Preheat oven to 350.

Use a dry, non-stick saute pan that is oven-proof. Over medium heat, toast the pumpkin seeds stirring often to avoid burning, until lightly golden (5 minutes or so).

Add the butter and cook until seeds are evently coated in melted butter.

Add the brown sugar and all other ingredients, mix well.

Spread the seeds in an even layer in the pan. Bake in the oven until the entire mixture is coated and the seeds are crunchy, about 15 minutes.

Martha Stewart's Chocolate Chip Cookies

2007-10-25T22:37:00.000-04:00

A rainy day and two four year old girls running around my house sent me straight to the kitchen to a) get away and b) create a diversion for the kids that didn't involve listening to Barney or the Wiggles. God love 'em.

So, out came the tried and true Martha Stewart Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. With two giggling girls sitting on stools around the KitchenAid mixer, we beat and blended and tasted raw (yes raw) cookie dough to our heart's content.

Trouble with 4 year olds, they want to touch everything...from the dough you are trying to ball up and bake, to the hot oven, to the hot pans, to the hot cookies, you get the drill. There was a lot of "No, don't touch! Hot!" going on in my kitchen today. And then they don't quite understand that you can't grab a scorching hot cookie straight from the oven and scarf it down immediately. Let's just say their 4 year old cookie patience was being pushed to the limits with all these regulations.

Anyway, back to the recipe. Let me tell you that these cookies are excellent. The Martha Stewart chocolate chip cookie recipe creates the perfect consistency for a chocolate chip cookie: crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, with nice soft and melty chips. I used 1/2 white chocolate and 1/2 semi-sweet this time, because I was low on semi-sweet. They are also excellent with chopped walnuts.

Her original recipe calls for a 18 minute cooking time. I found mine were just about done at 13 minutes, though. You don't want to over-bake these cookies, or they will be too crisp.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 large whole egg, plus 1 large egg white

2 oz. semisweet chocolate chunks (about 2 cups)

Preheat the oven to 375F, with racks in the upper and lower thirds. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and both sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add the vanilla, whole egg, and egg white. Beat on low speed until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture in two batches; mix until just combined. Mix in chocolate.

Shape 2 heaping tablespoons of dough at a time into balls and place about 1 1/2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are golden brown, about 18 minutes ( I did 13). Transfer parchment and cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Mmmmmm....French Macarons!

2007-10-22T16:25:00.000-04:00

Anyone who has tried the beloved French macaron while visiting Paris knows why these little cookies are such big deals these days. Bite into one Pierre Herme or Laduree macaron and your foodie life has suddently taken a turn for the better: you experience a crisp shell that cracks as you bite into it, giving way to a light-as-air, moist interior. It is a sandwich cookie resembling a burger of all things, and the filling in the center is always creamy, often adding a very unexpected kick of flavor to your macaron.

The problem with macarons is finding them in the U.S., where most people think of a "macaroon" with its coconut-y chewiness. No, French macarons are not at all the same. They are made with egg whites, confectioners sugar and almond flour.

The difficulty in making your own macarons comes down to the mixing. It has to be done just perfectly....if you mix your batter too much or too little you won't get the perfect result (shiny dome, no cracks, little frilly feet). A rule of thumb in making French macarons: once you see the batter "flow like magma", or the tip of batter disappear when you pull out the rubber spatula, you know you are ready to pipe.

To be successful in this endeavor, you need to have the right equipment: a stand mixer, a food processor, parchment paper or silpats and a pastry bag with a 1/4 inch wide round tip.

For Chocolate Macarons, I tried a number of recipes but find my greatest success with David Lebovitz's recipe. With his, you get the perfect frilly feet, the crisp shell, and the interior is the perfect consistency. I have never had a failure with this recipe, which is not the case with so many others I've tried. I have tweaked it a bit, by lowering his temperature and cooking time (this is probably a difference between my oven and his, I think my oven cooks hotter than it should). Good luck, and if it doesn't work the first time, try try again!

French Chocolate Macarons:

1/2 cup almond flour (or you can grind your own almonds very fine)

1 cup confectioners sugar

3 Tb. dutch process cocoa powder

2 egg whites at room temperature (let them sit for a few hours up to one day)

5 Tb. granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 (the original recipe calls for 375, but 350 works better for me).

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpats.

In a food processor, process the almond flour, confectioners sugar and cocoa powder until combined. Set aside.

Beat egg whites until they begin to froth. Add the granulated sugar gradually, and beat until stiff peaks but not dry. It is important that you don't over beat or under beat your egg whites.

Remove bowl from stand mixer and add the dry ingredients. Using a rubber spatula, fold the ingredients together, the egg whites will fall and that is ok. Mix until the batter "flows like magma" or a peak dissolves into the batter.

Fill pastry bag with batter and pipe 1 inch rounds on your silpat or parchment paper (some people draw circles on their parchment, but it's pretty easy to pipe out the circles without). I also like to sift some cocoa powder on top of my macarons, it makes them look beautiful.

Let the macarons sit for about 20 minutes before putting them into the oven. Only bake one pan at a time, in the center of your oven. I bake mine for 12 minutes (the original recipe calls for much more). Remove from oven and let sit until cool, then peel from parchment or silpat. Once cool, the shells can be filled immediately or frozen in an airtight container and filled later. I don't like to freeze filled macarons, but I know you can.

What you are looking for: a rounded and shiny dome with no cracks, little frilly feet (not too big) around the bottom and a slightly chewy interior.

Ganache:

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tsp. light corn syrup

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate finely chopped (I use Valrhona 56%)

1 Tb. butter, cut into small pieces

To fill the cookies, you can either use a pastry bag or an icing spatula. I've done both and there's really no difference, but the pastry bag is less messy. Just fill one shell and put another shell on top. The macarons should be left to sit at least one day and up to 3. They get softer as they sit, and the result is a Laduree-worthy macaron!

Bon appetit!

Dark Chocolate Cut Out Cookies

2007-10-17T22:39:00.000-04:00

There is a baby shower in the family this weekend, and I look upon this as an opportunity to bake something. So I offered to be in charge of "all things sweet". I've been cooking for a week! Cookies, macarons, and tomorrow cupcakes.

One of the cutest creations I came up with were these dark chocolate bear cut outs. Not only do they look good, but there is a LOT of chocolate flavor to these cookies. To me, there is nothing worse than taking a bite of something that is supposed to be chocolate and finding it flat and tasteless. I find that I keep eating it, looking for that chocolate fix...but it never comes.

Not with these teddy bears, let me tell you! They pack a punch (as well as plenty of cocoa powder and chopped dark chocolate). Be careful, though, the dough is VERY fragile (and extremely delicious raw...but who eats raw dough??). It takes a long time to stiffen up in the refrigerator, and even then it gets sticky fast when you are working with it.

The recipe says you should bake at 325, which I did. I ended up with very tender cookies, which do break easily (I hope they last until Saturday!). I happened to bake one cookie at 350 by accident (it was on another pan...) and it turned out much sturdier and crisp. I think I'll go that route next time!

Dark Chocolate Cut Outs

2 Tb. unsweetened cocoa powder

3 oz. bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. instant coffee powder dissolved in 1 Tb. hot water

In a food processor, combine the cocoa, chocolate and 1/4 cup of flour and process until the chocolate is a fine powder. Add the remaining flour, baking powder and salt. Pulse to blend. In a bowl (or stand mixer), cream together the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and coffee. Stir in the flour mixture, mixing well. Shape dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill until firm.

Preheat oven to 325 (or 350 for crisper cookies). Divide dough into quarters, and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Cut out shapes and transfer to ungreased (or silpat lined) baking sheets.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until firm. Transfer to racks to cool.