"I'll be frank, those biscuits were goooood"
I mentioned in my last post that we now had a Dachshund living with us; well if this little guy were human he would be the equivalent of my nephew. "Notorious Dee Oh Gee" or "OH-gee" (as my little girl calls him) hails from Texas and belongs to my brother and sister-in-law. Oh-gee has been with us since July and will be staying until sometime in April while my brother and sister-in-law get their freak on make exciting changes in their lives. Since arriving at our house he has chewed through 2 pairs of shoes, destroyed every single one of his toys, run off about 6,000 times and messed on the carpet waaaay too many times for his own good. I have tripped over and stepped on him so many times I'm embarrassed to put a number to it, I have threatened to send him back to Texas at least once a day and he has been given "time-outs" for barking while the girl naps about 1700 times since July. He has made friends with the neighborhood dogs, (including a little terrier who comes over almost every morning and afternoon) and took it upon himself to go over and introduce himself to a neighbor whom we hadn’t even met yet. Oh-gee and the little girl have become quite close and the two of them are constantly trying to find ways to get me out of the kitchen so they can raid the pantry for cookies and biscuits. He’s really a good little pup and for all my moaning and groaning he has made our lives so much richer, when the time comes it’s going to be hard to send him home.
These biscuits were a big hit in so many ways. They were easy to make and my toddler really enjoyed the different tastes and textures of the grains as they went into the bowl. Actually it was a very good project to do with her. We picked the mint and parsley (with permission) from a neighbors garden and talked about the taste and smell of the herbs while we were snipping away. The different grains and ingredients made interesting contrasts in color and texture and the dough was gritty feeling and satisfying to play with. The mint (we added extra) made the biscuits smell wonderful and they baked to a satisfying golden brown color that made them look they had been made with rich beef stock (hmm, maybe next time actually use beef stock!). They also tasted pretty good too, there was nothing in them that humans can't eat so the little girl and I sat down with the dog and had “tea” and biscuits, Oh-gee loved them. The recipe makes quite a few dozen (depending on the size of the cookie cutter), so we packaged some up in cellophane bags, made labels, tied them off with bows and shared them with some of the neighborhood dogs.
From Epicurious
Neither overtly salty nor sweet, and with a pleasantly grainy texture, these biscuits won a loyal following among staff dogs — as well as humans.
Special equipment: a pastry or bench scraper; a dog-biscuit cookie cutter*
Pulse flours, cornmeal, oats, wheat germ, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with pea-size butter lumps. Add 1 cup water and pulse until a coarse, dense dough forms.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead in parsley and mint until well distributed. Gather, then halve dough with scraper. Form into 2 balls and flatten each into a 6-inch disk.
Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 2 large baking sheets.
Roll out 1 disk of dough into a round (1/3 inch thick) on a well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin. (If dough becomes too soft to roll out, wrap in plastic and chill until firm.) Cut out as many biscuits as possible and arrange about 1/4 inch apart on 1 baking sheet.
Gather scraps and reroll, then cut out more biscuits. Repeat with remaining dough, using other baking sheet.
Whisk together egg and 1 tablespoon water. Brush biscuits with egg wash and bake, switching position of sheets halfway through, until tops are golden brown, about 35 minutes total. Turn off oven and dry biscuits in oven overnight.
Cooks' note: Biscuits keep, layered between sheets of wax paper or parchment, in an airtight container at room temperature 1 month.
*Available at sweetc.com.
Gourmet
December 2005
I have been holding out on you my dear, dear Internet. This was a cake I made waaaay back in April, and I am only just now getting around to writing about it. I have plenty of excuses but I know you don't want to hear them-so I will just tell the truth.
I forgot!
The bad thing about having made this cake so long ago is that I don't remember too many details about it. I do remember that I made the cake for company and that I had been pressed for time. The cake took longer to make than I had anticipated so I ended up in one of those stereotypical situations where the doorbell rings just as I am pulling the cake out of the oven. I know we ate it just a few hours after I made it and NOT after letting it stand overnight as per the directions. I do remember that the baby had "helped", I even have a cute picture of her lying on the floor covered in cake batter clutching one of the electric beaters and sucking on her bottle. I don't remember anything being too difficult about making the cake itself, except perhaps having some doubts that the "swirl" was going to happen without my helping it along. Hmm, now that I'm thinking about it I DO also remember that I had been annoyed because the cake came out a bit dry (I need to calibrate my oven or something-that’s been happening to me a lot lately). I also remember that I thought the cake was a bit too sweet, but I'm also a very tough critic of my own cooking, everyone else thought the cake was delicious. I don't know. I sometimes think its hard to step back and look at the whole process of my cooking objectively, I always put so much effort into making something, letting my anticipation build-up so much (perhaps unrealistically) so that when I finally get to sample the end result, I am often just a little let down. I guess I'm silly. Anyway, it was good cake and you know how much I love pound cake and this one had the added bonus of being MALTED! Mmmmm, malted.
From "Baking in America" by Greg Patent
This is a beautiful, mysterious cake. Part of a vanilla batter is spread in the pan, chocolate is added to the remainder, which is poured over the light batter. The two batters are not marbled or swirled. During baking the chocolate layer is "swallowed" by the lighter batter and is only revealed when you cut into the cake. You can find malted milk powder in supermarkets, where dry is milk is sold.
1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower third position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 10x-4-inch tube pan, with a removable bottom, with cooking spray and dust all over, including the tube, with fine dry bread crumbs (not flavored). Tap out the excess crumbs and set aside.
2. Resift the flour with the malted milk and salt; set aside.
3. Beat the butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed for 1 to 2 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar about 1/4 cup at a time, beating for about 30 seconds after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat for 6 to 7 minutes, until fluffy and light in color. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating for about 30 seconds after each addition. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat 1to 2 minutes more. Scrape the bowl and beaters.
4. On low speed, add half the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Beat in the milk, then the remaining flour, bating only until well combined. Scrape 5 cups of the batter into the prepared pan and level the top with a rubber spatula. Add the chocolate syrup, baking soda, and almond extract to the remaining batter and beat only until thoroughly combined. Pour the chocolate batter over the light batter and smooth the top, do not mix the two.
5. Bake for 1 hour and 25 to 1 hour and 30 minutes, until the cake is golden brown on top and springs back when gently pressed and a toothpick inserted into the thickest part comes out clean. Do not over bake
6. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Cover with another rack and invert the tow. Carefully remove the pan, cover with another rack, and invert again to cool completely right side up.
7. Transfer to a cake plate and let stand, covered, for several hours, or preferably overnight, before serving. Use a serrated knife to cut into thin slices.
Makes one 10-inch tube cake, 12 to 16 servings
I go cuckoo-crazy* for pound cake. I will do the penguin polka.* for pound cake. It doesn't have to be fancy pound cake or homemade, I'll take a slice of supermarket pound cake with no complaints or upturning of my nose. I grew up eating supermarket pound cake, my grandparents used to keep a box of Entenmann's All Butter Pound Cake on the kitchen table and one of my favorite things to do was break off a beastly hunk and hide in the laundry room behind the boiler shoving cake into my mouth and licking crumbs off the floor sit at the table taking very dainty bites of a wee slice of cake while reading a book. So back in April, a few days before my reading group was scheduled to meet I was feeling nostalgic for pound cake and thought I'd make one for the group. I thought of serving it with whipped cream and some kind of berry sauce just to gussy it up but I didn’t want to get any fancier than that. I started leafing through my cookbooks and came across the "Brazilian Bolo" recipe in Home Baking by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. It wasn't quite a pound cake recipe but it appealed to me because of the interesting use of coconut milk but no butter or any other dairy product, that, and it's simplicity really hooked me in. I went ahead and gave it a try.
*Clearly, I’m watching way too much “Oswald”
I actually followed the alternate directions offered in the recipe for a “Citrus Bolo” which called for the zest of an orange or lemon added to the sifted ingredients. Yum, I LOVED the flavor and fragrance of this cake although I did think the cake turned out a bit too dry. I achieved the "firm" but not the "moist” crumb and I was kind of disappointed. I don’t know if that’s because I over beat the egg whites, or because I had to stop a couple of times to keep my “helper” from throwing refrigerator magnets and Cheerios into the batter, or I let the cake bake too long, or my oven was too hot or what. Everyone at the meeting and then later that night Tom (who got the leftovers and normally doesn't eat anything coconut) gave two thumbs up and said the cake was delicious. I thought maybe everyone was being polite but then no one took me up on my suggestion to dip it in coffee or milk or to eat it with ice cream (I was thinking that while the ice cream melted it would make the cake a little moister) so maybe it was just me. I will definitely be making this cake again and next time I'll be careful not to let it get too dry.
From Home Baking by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.
Makes 1 tall ring-shaped or tube cake with a firm moist crumb, lightly dusted with sugar
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 10-inch Bundt pan or a tube pan, and dust lightly with flour.
Sift the flour, cornstarch, and baking powder together into a bowl. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer (or a whisk) until stiff but not dry; set aside.
In a medium bowl, stir the egg yolks and sugar together to blend. Gradually add the yolk mixture to the egg whites, beating at medium speed (or whisking) until incorporated. Add about 3/4 cup of the dry ingredients, mixing on low speed (or stirring in with a wooden spoon), then add about 1/3 cup of the coconut milk, and mix well. Repeat, alternating the dry ingredients and coconut milk and mixing completely.
Pour the batter into the pan. Bake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clear, about 40 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, then invert onto a rack. Sprinkle on a dusting of sifted confectioners' sugar (about 2 teaspoons, or more if you wish). Let cool completely before sling (see Note).
NOTE : As the cake stands, the confectioners' sugar will melt and give it an attractive sheen. If you prefer the look of a white dusting of confectioners' sugar, just before serving dust the cake again with 2 to 3 teaspoons confectioners' sugar.
Citrus Bolo We like to amend this simple cake by adding orange or lemon zest. Grated or minced zest from 1 (preferably organic) fruit gives the cake a great flavor. Add the zest to the sifted dry ingredients.
I call this "Waiting for Cream Cheese"
On my walk home from work last night I met up with a womans ankle boot, probably about size 8, sitting smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk on 34th St. I didn’t stop to take a closer look at the boot although now I'm kicking myself (bah-dum-bum) for not inspecting it closer because I’m curious about who designed the shoe; it had an aura of expensive about it. Now, before I ask the obvious question I just want to preface it by saying that this is not an unusual sighting for me, I have actually seen this many times (with different types of shoes) in my almost 23+4+3+2+1+ 5 years on this earth. Is this a NYC thing or does it happen elsewhere too? This is the kind of thing that agitates me- HOW DO YOU JUST SO HAPPEN TO LOSE A SHOE AND NOT RETRIEVE IT? How?
It has been an exhausting week here at MH5. The baby is still sick and we have now changed her name from Ellina to Hurlina--it has been that kind of week. Enough with the laundry already! Joking aside; I still feel somewhat helpless and am still stumbling around trying to find the right groove with her and how to comfort her, it seems like every time she gets sick she has different comforting needs. This time around nothing seems to be working except just laying in my arms, which is more than fine by me, but makes it very hard to go to the bathroom at times. I've been lucky that baby daddy has had a light work schedule this week so I've had more help than usual with the day to day and that has been a real blessing. I think I would have gone insane otherwise. Anyway, I hope this doesn't last much longer because I want my happy baby back.
I did do two things that made me happy this week; the first was get away for a few hours for some much needed “me” time. I weighed all my options and decided that of all the things I should have been doing what I really wanted to do was go to the thrift store and wander around for a few hours touching other peoples stuff and going through other peoples books. I can’t tell you what a world of good that did for me, I was able to clear my mind for a little while AND I scored big time finding 3 books I'm looking forward to reading; "Frenchman's Creek" by Daphne Du Maurier, "The Raw and the Cooked" by Jim Harrison and "The Ballad of The Sad Cafe" by Carson McCullers.
I call this "Waiting for fork"
The other thing I did was bake a cake (recipes to follow). It wasn't just any old cake though, it was a cake I made from an idea I had in my head; the fact that it turned out well, was just...well...it was the icing on the cake!
I have recently been looking for ways to clear out the spice cabinet a little. I have some things in there that are now approaching the 1 year mark and while I can't stand the thought of just chucking them out I also don't want to use them past the 1 year mark because I have no idea how long they were around before they came to live with me. I do buy most of my spices at Kalustyans; it is a fabulous store that I have the great pleasure of living close to and because I know they are a high traffic establishment I trust that most of the spices I buy from them are fresh, but even so I still I don’t like using anything past a year.
I decided a ginger cake would be just the thing to make and I knew that Tom and “the locusts” would appreciate a little snack. I found a basic recipe for Gingerbread Cake on Epicurious and using that as a guideline I altered the recipe to fit what I was looking for which was a moist chocolate ginger/spice cake that gave a little bite from the ginger and a little heat from the white pepper with little bonus pockets of chocolate love where the mini chips hadn’t quite melted. I also wanted to frost it with a tangy cream cheese frosting that had a little bit of a surprise to it and that is where the cardamom fit in. I think I achieved what I was looking for quite successfully, Tom and “the locusts” raved about it, but I was a little disappointed, I think I could have added more of all the ingredients but I was too afraid to overwhelm people with all the different flavors. I did run out of molasses while I was in full swing with the baking and with the baby being sick I didn't want to go out so I topped off the 1/3 cup of molasses with 2/3 cup of Lyle's Golden Syrup and all I can say is YEAH!
The frosting idea came from another Epicurious recipe for Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting but which I then turned into something special by adding the cardamom. I have to tell you, that vanilla cream cheese frosting recipe called for FOUR CUPS of powdered sugar, I used one cup and thought it was bordering on the very sweet side. If you ever decide to use the Epicurious recipe consider this a warning. I ground my own caramom from green pods that I had on hand but you can more than successfully use pre-ground powdered cardamom. I would err on the side of caution when adding it to the frosting because this is a strong mu-tha of a spice. Things can go wrong way too fast and you can suddenly end up with something that tastes a lot like perfume if you are not careful.
Frost With: Vanilla Cardamom Cream Cheese Frosting
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Sift together flour, baking soda, spices, cocoa, espresso powder and salt.
Beat together the shortening, sugar, and egg in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. In 3 batches, alternately beat in the flour mixture and molasses mixture at low speed until smooth. Pour the batter into a greased 9- by 2-inch square metal baking pan or 2 loaf pans.
Bake cake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, about 45 to 55 minutes depending on your oven. Cool cake in pan on a rack. If you like you can store it until the next day which will let the flavors mellow and develop better but who can wait?
This step is optional, the cake is good without it but it also compliments the spices in the cake adding a new dimansion to the yummy goodness.
This is very much a "to taste" recipe, I like my frosting a lot less sweeter than most people do so I cut way back on the sugar but you can always add more. The original recipe used 4 cups! I added the cardamom gradually stirring and tasting each time until I achieved the desired taste, I sugeest doing the same especially if you are not keen on cardamom.
Using electric mixer, beat 12 ounces cream cheese, 1/2 cup butter and vanilla extract in large bowl until smooth. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time (if using more than 1 cup), beating until smooth after each addition. Gradually add the cardamom powder increasing the amount after each taste until desried amount is reached.
I saw a beautiful movie over the weekend, "Children of Heaven." I was surprised to learn that the movie has been out since 1999 although I don’t know why I was surprised, I’m not really known for having my finger on the pulse of things. I actually thought this movie was recent. HA! Anyway, it’s an Iranian film about a boy from a poor family and the personal sacrifices he makes after losing his sisters only pair of shoes.
Among some of the things I really liked about the movie were the little vignettes of domestic life, they were subtle yet beautiful; the rhythm of the shoemakers needle as it pierces through the leather, a batch of bread being baked by a group of men and the unified harmony of their movements, the rhythmic “clunk” of the fathers chisel as he chops sugar for the mosque, the way the mother crouches to stir a pot of soup; actions that we tend to take for granted in our daily life but that which the Director Majid Majidi makes us stop and notice. This theme of paying attention to the details of daily routine and domestic duty is something I’ve been exploring within my own life recently and it was interesting to see it highlighted here. I don’t want to say more because I don’t want to spoil the plot, I’m not a fan of giving it away, especially without warning so if you’re interested in reading some reviews with possible spoilers then click here and or here. This movie was a refreshing change from the spate of Hollywood dreck I’ve recently had the misfortune to watch; I highly recommend “Children of Heaven”
If you're like me and are interested in further exploring Iranian/Persion cuisine I found a couple of links to get us started just click here and here!
The baby is sick, on Sunday she had a sudden and unexpected 24 hour bout of vomiting followed by high fevers and no appetite on Monday. I used to be squeamish, there was a time when I would gag at the very thought of vomit but being a mother has cured me of all those silly notions, especially after most of what she was spewing landed on me. The loss of appetite as been tough though, I am a “feeder” by nature, feeding people has always been my way of showing affection and nurturing, I worry that if she doesn’t eat she wont have the energy she needs to fight this thing but getting her to eat even the littlest morsel of something has been difficult. I made a gruel of rice and chicken broth with teeny bits of chicken; she repeatedly turned her face. I made a gruel of oatmeal and milk and sweetened it with brown sugar; she showed some interest but then in the end turned it down after a few bites. I scrambled an egg; it ended up on the floor. I soft boiled an egg; it was met with suspicion and a tight lipped sneer. I buttered toast and watched her clutch it in her fat little fingers while trying to fight the nausea that was wending its way through her system, she tried but in the end she couldn’t bring herself to take even the tiniest bite. I feel so bad for her, there seems to be nothing I can give her, luckily she’s drinking some Pedialyte® and taking a little of her milk bottle, otherwise she wouldn’t be getting anything. She spent most of Monday in my arms whimpering and sleeping and while I was trying to comfort her I thought back to the day a little over year ago when Tom and I were bringing her home from the hospital. We were both amazed at how no one questioned whether we knew what we were doing or if we would be capable of taking care of this little being, there was no test to take or license to apply for, we just packed her up and left the hospital. I remember worrying about how I was going to take care of her, I worried that she would stop breathing, I worried that she wouldn’t eat because we had trouble with her latching on to me, I worried that because she was a January baby she was going to get sick right away, like any new mother I worried endlessly about anything. I can’t help but be amazed at how the parenting instinct just kicked right in, we stumbled along that first year and did what we felt was right and when she finally did get sick we didn’t stop functioning like I thought we would but managed to get through it. So why am I sitting here feeling so helpless once again?
My reading group met last Friday evening, it was the first meeting I’ve been able to attend since the baby was born 14 months ago. Don’t get me wrong, I love my daughter but I was excited to have an evening off, excited to see my friends and looked forward to a glass of wine (or two) and a discussion that didn’t involve poop or anything else baby related. As usual, I baked something for the occasion and because it had been so long since I last attended a meeting I wanted it to be something special. I had originally planned on trying something from the Sherry Yard book I recently wrote about but the recipe I wanted to use called for an ingredient that I had to special order. The other recipes seemed a little too involved and advanced for me so I quickly went through several of my other cookbooks fighting the urge to do something complicated and grandiose like I have been known to do in the past, there wouldn’t be enough time and I didn’t need to add any more stress to my day. I found an interesting and simple enough recipe in “The Last Course” by Claudia Fleming with Melissa Clark a book which I really like because the desserts seem innovative and interesting and the few recipes I have tried have been fantastic so far.
The picture of the Chocolate Brownie Cookies is what sold me, they looked like meringue cookies and they were sandwiching a scoop of Milk Chocolate Malted Ice Cream (another recipe from the book that I’ll have to try) and I couldn’t help but think this was the perfect combination of chocolate, cookie and cake I was looking for and that everyone in the group will love. Obviously I didn’t have time to make the malted ice cream so the plan was to run out and get some coffee ice cream as a substitute but I never got a chance. I goofed up making the cookies; I might have over beaten the eggs and I used a cookie scoop instead of a teaspoon thinking the scoop was teaspoon sized but oops! it was not. I didn’t end up with 5 dozen cookies like the recipe stated, more like a dozen and a half, and at the last minute rather than frantically try to make another batch I decided to serve them as cookies and not cookie sandwiches . They were good, a little denser than they were supposed to be I imagine and they didn’t crackle or look at all like the picture but they were still, really, really good. Fleming has a theory that extra bittersweet chocolate (between 66 and 80 percent) has a more intense flavor therefore enhancing the chocolate making for a more powerful taste experience; I’ll have to agree with her on that now that I’ve tried these cookies for myself. I'll have to make them again so that I can achieve the light texture and crackle that Fleming describes at the beginning of the recipe.
We did have enough ingredients in the apt. for me to make a little super secret snack treat for Tom as a thank you for watching the baby while I had adult fun. He really liked the "sundae".
From “The Last Course: The Desserts of Grammercy Tavern” by Claudia Fleming with Melissa Clark
"These are one of my signature cookies. They taste like miniature brownies--but oh, the texture! They're reminiscent of a meringue, with a soft chewy, fudgy, center and crisp exterior that crackles appealingly. Since these cookies are smaller and less dense, they have an elegance that brownies lack. And they don’t require the same commitment as a big, gooey bar. I can never eat just one of these. They are also a particular favorite of Grammercy Tavern owner Danny Meyer, who can't eat just one either!"
Yield: 5 dozen cookies
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, briefly whip the eggs to break them up. Add the sugar, espresso, and vanilla and beat on high speed for 15 minutes, until thick.
4. While the eggs are whipping, place the butter in the top of a double boiler, or in a metal bowl suspended over a pot of simmering (not boiling) water, and scatter the extra bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate on top. Heat until the butter and chocolate melt. Remove the boiler top from the water and stir the butter and chocolate until smooth.
5. Gently fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until partially combined (there should still be some streaks). Add the flour mixture to the batter and carefully fold it in. Fold in the chocolate chips. If the batter is very runny, let it rest until it thickens slightly, about 5 minutes.
6. Drop the batter by heaping teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets and bake until puffed and cracked, 8 to 9 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before removing from the baking sheet.
Substitute 1/2 cup chopped toasted nuts or dried sour cherries for an equal amount of the chocolate chips.
This is the final entry of the four part series, the other parts found here and here and here about a cake I made from a recipe I found on Epicurious.com
I feel so silly admitting this but I fell asleep writing this entry last night! I've been so tired this week, the husband has had to be at work very early every morning so I have had to take over the morning duties with the bambina as well as put in my regular day with her and then go to work in the evenings. To make matters more tiring, now that the girl has turned one she has decided that strollers are for babies and naps are for old people. I spend quite a bit of the day chasing after her and let me tell you, she’s fast! I was so tired when I got home last night that after 20 minutes of typing I lay down on the couch for just five minutes and somehow those five minutes lasted all night. Anyway, boohoo enough about how tired I am you came here for cake and so my bunnies-- its cake you're going to get!
There is only one word to describe this cake and that word is FABULOUS! Everything about it worked. The ease of the recipe, the fun factor, the unusual ingredients and the exotic taste, it was an all around success and I'm really proud that I was able to pull it off without becoming frantic and overwhelmed. I think this is a sophisticated cake without being a pretentious one if that makes any sense. I think what I’m trying to say is that even with the “foodie appeal” of the ingredients it’s a cake I think everyone will like.
The cake was deep and rich but not too sweet; it was moist and dense, but not dense in that thick way that can feel like a lump going down your throat. The cake smelled wonderful-- uber chocolaty and wonderfully gingery; bottle that scent and you might get me to start wearing perfume (bah! no you won’t I’m allergic to perfume). I shared the cake with my coworkers after Tom begged me not to let him eat the whole cake by himself, they all really liked it, one of them even told me it made his day. My boss raved about it and licked her fork clean proclaiming me the best baker in all the land, she’s right you know. <cough> Tom thought it was good too and coming from him that's saying a whole lot because the dear boy gets quite anxious when my cooking begins to get a little ambitious with flavors and textures.
Now, having just said all that there ARE a few quirks about the recipe AND a thing or two that I changed that I want to discuss just so that anyone who wishes to try this can expect few surprises. I followed the recipe exactly with one exception, and that was the part where I was to chop the reserved ginger and add it to the cake batter. Tom saw me chopping away and asked what I was going to do with "all that ginger." I replied “put it in the cake” to which he replied "oh, you know, there are a few foods I’m not too crazy about and one of them is ginger." I try to be an accommodating wife, and on occasion, I do consider my husbands feelings, and so, not wanting to ruin his cake pleasure I held back with the ginger this time. I’m sure if I had used all the ginger the cake would have had much more depth but I thought why scare everyone away with the first attempt. I can always bake another cake and add all the ginger another time. The other quirky thing was the amount of batter I ended up with. I followed the recipe and yet somehow ended up with 4 layers of cake and not three, but that might have been because I used three different sized pans. *shrug* I dunno.
Wasabi, wasabi, wasabi, next time I will definitely add more wasabi. Naturally, I tasted the ganache by itself and thought the taste of the wasabi was just barely there, the taste of it definitely got lost once the ganache was incorporated into the cake and merged with the other flavors. So yeah, if you want a more distinct taste of it go for more wasabi.
This had to be one of the easier, less fussy cakes I've baked. I would even consider this a cake that can be baked on a day when I feel like making a cake but don't want to fuss. The fancy fillings and toppings can certainly be left out; this cake would be good all on its own.
While stirring the pretty chocolate water I was reminded of a scene from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where Augustus Gloop is tempted by the river of chocolate that runs through the factory. Paying no attention to Mr. Wonka's shouts not to touch anything lest he contaminate the river, Augustus leans his portly body over to drink and falls in. Luckily for me this was only a bowl and so when I leaned in for my taste I only made a little splash. Anyway, it was unsweetened cocoa powder and it didn't taste very good.
Right on top of the chopping board is the amount of ginger I used in the cake batter and in the ramekin is the amount of ginger that was supposed to go in the cake batter. Like I said earlier, had I used all the ginger I think the cake would have had much more character but would have probably been less appealing to some people.
The recipe said to beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. I'm never quite sure what the "fluffy" stage is and so I'm always guessing. This looked fluffy to me and so I stopped beating the butter and sugar at this point. On a side note: butter + sugar = finger licking yummmy!
Here you see the finished batter, pretty smooth and creamy looking, no?
Ok. So the recipe instructed to bake the cakes in three 8-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. I own three cake pans but they are all different sizes. I have one 9-inch pan with a 1-inch high side, one 9-inch pan with a 1.5-inch high side and one 8-inch pan with a 4-inch high side. I'm not sure if you can see it in the photo but all the cakes came out uneven. I tried my best to measure the batter out evenly but I guess I was a bit off in my calculations. The cake baked in the 4-inch high sided pan was cut in half and it turned out it was enough for another layer. I suppose I could have crammed that layer in my mouth left that layer out but who can think straight when there are not one but THREE chocolate cakes in front of you.
Here we have the lovely first layer already drenched with ginger syrup and waiting for a layer of ganache.
With the ganache.
The second layer waiting for the syrup and ganache.
I ran into a little problem here. While getting ready to put the third layer on I realized it was wider in diameter than the other 2 layers. I had mistakenly used the 2, 8-inch layers first and so I was going to have overhang if I didn't do something to correct for my mistake. I decided to try and see if I could switch the layers without hurting the cake too much. It wasn't so bad, all I did was slide the 2 layers off the stand and then placed the larger layer down on a new doily (it cracked but I didn't think it was a big deal), the hard part came when I had to put the 2 layers BACK!
Bleh! All that switching of layers was for naught because I wasn't thinking about the fourth layer. When it was time for the fourth layer which was also 9-inches in diameter I decided the heck with it and just threw it on top. If there is one thing that I have learned from my baking these last three years it is that frosting can hide a multitude of sins.
A close-up of the lopsided beast.
Here we have my finished cake. I thought it turned out nicely even though I wasn't very creative with the decorating.
This is just a view of it sliced. The slice was used for the opening picture up top but you knew that.
The cake was an ambitious attempt in terms of flavors and it proved to be a satisfying challenge what with its many steps and unique layering of flavors but for me, this plate of leftover cake shavings was the best part. Cooks treat and I didn’t have to share it with anyone.
From Epicurious.com
TREND: Exotically flavored chocolate WHO: Katrina Markoff, CEO of Vosges Haut-Chocolat in Chicago WHAT: Markoff, one of the first to infuse chocolate with unexpected ingredients, named this Asian-tinged creation after one of her most popular truffles. Its Japanese flavors — ginger, wasabi, and black sesame seeds — are the building blocks for an inspired cake.
For black pearl ganache:
Place chocolate in medium bowl. Bring cream, ginger, and wasabi to boil in small pot. Pour hot cream over chocolate; cover with plastic wrap and let stand 15 minutes. Whisk cream and chocolate until smooth. Mix sesame seeds and corn syrup in small bowl to coat; stir into chocolate mixture. Let cool to lukewarm. Stir in butter. Cover and let stand at room temperature overnight to set.
For ginger syrup:
Place 1 cup water, sugar, and ginger in small saucepan. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into pan; add bean. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Simmer 2 minutes; remove from heat. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour for flavors to blend.
Strain syrup into small bowl. Chop ginger. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate ginger and syrup separately.)
For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour three 8-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Line bottoms with parchment paper.
Whisk 2 cups boiling water, cocoa powder, and reserved chopped ginger in medium heatproof bowl. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in large bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract. Add flour mixture in 4 additions alternately with cocoa mixture in 3 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Divide batter among prepared cake pans; smooth tops.
Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in pans 5 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks; cool completely. (Cakes can be prepared 1 day ahead. Wrap with plastic wrap and store at room temperature.)
Additional Black Sesame Seeds
For whipped cream frosting:
Beat cream in large bowl until soft peaks form. Add sugar, vanilla, and ginger. Beat until stiff peaks form.
Using long serrated knife, trim rounded tops off cakes to create flat surface. Place 1 cake layer, cut side up, on plate. Brush top with 1/3 cup ginger syrup. Spread half of ganache over top of cake. Place second layer, cut side up, atop first layer. Brush with 1/3 cup syrup; spread with remaining ganache. Top with third cake layer. Brush with remaining syrup. Spread sides and top with whipped cream frosting. Sprinkle top with black sesame seeds. Refrigerate until ganache is set, about 4 hours. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before serving. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.)
*Available in the Asian foods section of some supermarkets and at Asian markets.
Makes 10 to 12 servings.
Bon Appétit
January 2005
The other day I became a Domestic Goddess. I didn't set out to become one, it just sort of happened after I baked a fabulously dense, decadently rich, yet surprisingly easy cake from Nigella Lawson's cookbook, How to Be a Domestic Goddess. I was in a crisis, I needed comfort food and on the very cover of Nigella's book it says: "Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking" so you know I was all over that cookbook trying to find just the right recipe. I was in desperate need of a project to take my mind off the crisis at hand and since I have always found baking to have a calming effect I picked up Lawson's book. I also needed to cram fattening baked goods into my gaping maw bake a lovely treat for my little family.
The crisis came about as a result of a terrible haircutting experience. You see, I have spent the last couple of years not getting my haircut because the one person who always did a fabulous job cutting my hair moved away leaving me stranded (pun intended), because of her abandonment (yes YOU Mariella sniff, please come back), my very curly hair became very long and quite unruly, my friends started calling me Sideshow Bob. I didn't care what they called me, Sideshow Bob, Hair Won't Lay Flat, She Who Must Put A Comb Through Her Hair, what did they know about curly hair and bad hair seasons, they had blissfully straight hair that never gave them problems. Anyway, these days I don't have the time it takes to make nice with my do what with taking care of Little Miss and working part-time so I finally got a haircut…sadly though, it was a very bad haircut. It's really my own fault, I waited too long, I should have taken my time to look at different salons and interview haircutters, but by the time I finally decided I couldn't stand another minute of my messy head I just blindly walked into a salon and let them choose a haircutter for me, stupid, stupid, STUPID. So I became a Domestic Goddess as a result of my disastrous haircut because I needed to drown my sorrows in comfort food, but not just any old kind, I needed comfort in the form of chocolate cake and I needed it BAD. I look like Roseanne Rosanndanna now, do you blame me for wanting to crawl under the bed to cry and eat cake?
This is a terrific cake, delicious and easy to make, and like Nigella suggests, it really is much better the next day, if you can bring yourself to wait, but if you can't, it tastes really good fresh from the oven too. This cake is such a treat that I suggest using the best quality chocolate you can afford, it really turns this into something even more special and makes it the kind of recipe that becomes a family tradition or a signature cake.
From How To Be A Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, put in a baking sheet in case of sticky drips later, and grease and line the loaf pan. The lining is important as this is a very damp cake: use parchment or one of those loaf-pan shaped paper liners.
Cream the butter and sugar, either with a wooden spoon or with an electric hand-held mixer, then add the eggs and vanilla, beating in well. Next, fold in the melted and now slightly cooled chocolate, taking care to blend well but being careful not to overbeat. You want the ingredients combined: you don't want a light airy mass. Then gently add the flour, to which you've added the baking soda, alternately spoon by spoon, with the boiling water until you have a smooth fairly liquid batter. Pour into the lined loaf pan, and bake for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 325 degrees F and continue to cook for another 15 minutes. (MH5 note: all ovens vary, I know mine is most certainly off by 25 degrees so for me this cake took closer to an hour to bake.) The cake will still be a bit squidgy inside, so an inserted cake tester or skewer won't come out completely clean.
Place the loaf pan on a rack, and leave to get completely cold before turning it out. (I often leave it for a day or so: like gingerbread, it improves.) Don't worry if it sinks in the middle: indeed, it will do so because it's such a dense and damp cake
Makes 8-10 slices
The past few weeks have been a blur of activity...we've had several visits from various family members AND have ourselves been out visiting with various family members and friends. There was a fabulous weekend at the house where we grilled and ate just about everything in sight and drank lots of delicious wine, there have even been a few good dining out experiences that may even be blog worthy if I can ever find the time to catch up with myself. I've been spending my days taking Little Miss to just about every park and playground in this city and browsing through every bookstore or gourmet food market we find along the way. My evenings are spent at work while Tom takes his turn caring for the baby. I have had no time to cook, or even restock our now almost empty cupboards and all I have to say is waaaaah I really miss cooking.
So, in true Deb fashion, on the hottest, steamiest day of the year with some free time to kill before needing to get ready for work, I decided to whip a little something up. Of course it is just like me to decide that the one thing, the ONLY thing I wanted to make required using the oven. I mean really, can you blame me? What's sweating and losing a few quarts of water when there is fresh biscotti to eat?
The recipe for these wonderfully crunchy textured and fragrant biscotti came from a beautiful and creative cookbook called "The Last Course-The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern" by Claudia Fleming with Melissa Clark.
The cookies were a little unusual to make, well unusual to me at least because of the addition of fresh rosemary (ahhhh, its hours later and my fingers still smell like rosemary). They are very tasty cookies, I LOVE that you can smell AND taste the rosemary and anise, and was surprised that the orange zest didn't make more of an impression considering how much I used. The cornmeal added a light crunchy texture to the cookie and that was nice. I had been worried that the cornmeal might make the dough too difficult to slice but my fears were unfounded and the biscotti slicing event was THE BEST so far. These are not sweet cookies by any means, they are meant to be dunked and eaten with sweeter things like dessert wine or creamy sweet Vietnamese style coffee. If I were to make these again (which I will) I would add a little more sugar to the dough and perhaps finish the final baked cookie off with a little piping of white or dark chocolate.
From "The Last Course-The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern" by Claudia Fleming with Melissa Clark. (notes in italics are mine)
Yield: about 2 1/2 dozen biscotti
Prehat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the nuts out on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven, stirring occasionally, until they a lightly golden around the edges, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack (keep the oven on)
In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Turn off the heat and add the orange zest and rosemary. Let cool.
In the bowl of an electric mixer set on low speed, mix together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda, and anise. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. add the cooled, melted butter mixture and mix to combine. Stir in the nuts. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
With wet hands, (this really does help) form the dough into a log 2 inches wide and place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (your log is going to spread out, and no matter how many times you try to shape it back into a nice 2 inch log it will spread. Don't spend another minute worrying over it, this actually works out in the long run) Brush the log with egg wash and bake until it is a deep golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let it cool on a wire rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees F.
Using a serrated knife, slice the log on a diagonal into 1/4 inch-thick pieces. Arrange the biscotti on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets and dry them in the oven until crispy, about 1 hour. Let cool on a wire rack.
Serving Suggestion
When I read that the very lovely Renee of Shiokadelicious! had put the call out for the latest Is My Blog Burning? event and that the subject was to be an internet cake walk I heard the call and I answered thinking to myself, "I am SO THERE!" What a lucky coincidence that I had recently purchased some cake decorating equipment, a turntable, a new icing knife, and a starter decorating set with tips and vinyl bags. I was excited, these IMBB events are turning out to be a lot of fun, and can be as challenging as each individual food blogger or non food blogger or even non-bloggers want to make it. What I really like most is the non-competitive approach and the invitation to join the event is open to anyone that might be interested. Its fun and inspiring and the ideas so far have been terrific, as for the latest incarnation, I can’t think of a nicer way to spend some time...with a cup of coffee and cake, lots of cake, and without any of the calories!
Normally I'd spend time surfing the internet looking for recipe ideas and inspiration but because of my recent interest in cake decorating I've been reading a really great book called The Whimsical Bakehouse by Kaye Hansen and Liv Hansen This mother-daughter team hail from Ardsley, New York and are the owners of the Riviera Bakehouse, famous for its delicious and well... whimsical creations. I was lucky enough to try one of their cakes at a wedding I attended a few years ago and I must tell you, the cake was terrific (that is no easy feat Dear Reader since I find most wedding cakes to be just ok if not just a little eh) The execution of the cake was just beautiful and was tailored to fit the couple in a way that had special meaning to them and their new life together. It was a memorable cake, not just for the couple but for me too and when I found out the Hansen’s had recently written a book (2002), I bought it. The book is terrific, and really takes into consideration the novice baker; should you wish to recreate one of their designs then step by step instructions are provided, or, if you would rather just use the excellent information about baking, slicing, icing and decorating cakes and apply it to an original creation you come up with on your own, then the book makes it easily possible. I highly recommend it.
This was by far a much easier cake to bake than any of the other cakes I've tried baking recently. I'm not sure why, but the batter just seemed much more flexible, and less fussy to work with, which was nice. I was lucky to find cake flour which is funny because I wasn't really looking for any when I spotted it on the supermarket shelf, but since it was there, and I was there, I put it into my basket, earning an approving little gurgle from Ellie. If you can't find cake flour, a substitution for it is; for 1 cup of cake flour, substitute 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour. I used a little less sugar than the recipe called for, (probably about 1/4 cup less) because I wanted to use 4 ounces of semisweet chocolate instead of the 1 1/2 ounces the recipe asked for. I also roughly chopped the chocolate instead of shaving it and I'm glad I did, the resulting cake was moist and sweet but not too sweet, and with every few bites I was rewarded with a nice chunk of chocolate. The cake actually reminded me of a giant chocolate chip cookie! In their book The Hansen’s talk about letting your cake cool off completely before icing it, and I followed their orders, a little too well actually, having had to abandon operations for a long while to tend to the Bonnie (or is it Bonny?) Lass. Because I was unable to get back to the cake right away, it sat on my cooling racks for several hours and because of that it dried out a little. I decided that brushing a soaking solution onto the layers might help bring some extra moisture back into the cake as well as add a little extra super secret flavor surprise. I made a mixture of equal parts sugar, coffee and Kenya Gold, which is a coffee liqueur I brought back from a trip to Kenya a few years ago, then brushed each layer with some of the "secret juice", letting it soak down into the cake but not making it soggy. I think the additional step helped out with the dryness alot.
For anyone that knows me, they know I'm not a big fan of frosting and more often than not, I scrape it off of my cake and fling it across the room leave it on the plate whenever I have a slice of cake somewhere. I find that too often frosting tastes either way too sweet, in that gives-you-a-sore-throat kind of way, or its way too flavorless (!) and I do not enjoy the slick greasy feeling that buttercream, especially buttercream that is made mostly of vegetable shortening leaves in my mouth. So, it was with some trepidation that I embarked on making the buttercream recipe from the book. Kaye's Buttercream uses real butter...ALOT of real butter, but I think that’s part of what makes it so good. (just a little side note here, isn’t it funny how once you know what goes into a recipe the less desire you have to eat it ? I found that knowing the buttercream has 6 sticks of butter in it made me want to run to the Dr. and check my arteries like RIGHT NOW! ) The meringue step is quite an interesting technique, something I've not seen before and it was fun to make especially when I get to the part where I had to beat in molten hot sugar! This was by far the best buttercream I have ever tasted. I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup and was very happy by that decision because the end result was subtly sweet fluffy cream that married well with the cake.
I love chocolate and I love hazelnuts and so when I saw the recipe for the Chocolate-Hazelnut Mousse I knew that it would be the perfect filling for this cake. Now, I very rarely buy or keep Nutella in the house because it is evil... dangerous... and so tempting and delicious. A jar, even the smallest eensiest one, does not last an hour a day with me around and so I don't bother ever buying it, otherwise I'd have to be 47 feet tall for my height to match my weight. I made the mousse and I really grooved on it, so luscious and richly decadent, however, the mousse did not hold up well as a filling for the cake. It may be that I could have done something wrong when making it, I don't know, but it was runny and kept oozing out of the sides of the cake even with the border of buttercream that I had piped all around the outer edge to prevent the mousse from doing just that. I suggest making the mousse and eating it as a separate dessert and not as filling. As for the leftover Nutella, I have no idea what happened to it okay.
Decorating the cake is by far the most fun part of the whole process and I really had to resist the urge to overdo it. I have not yet had the chance to sit down and make practice flowers and so after starting to pipe green colored buttercream onto the sides of the cake to simulate flower stems and leaves and having a tough time of it I decided to go with the more simple design you see above. I think sometimes less is more, and I was quite happy with the end result. To get the darker buttercream I mixed some of the leftover mousse into the white buttercream, aren't I clever?
In my opinion, this isn't a cake for little children, (gawd, when did I start sounding like a mother?) it's loaded with caffeine from the coffee and chocolate, there's lots of sugar to make the little ones jitter and vibrate, and if you do add the extra step of using a soaking liquid like I did, then the additional coffee and alcohol really makes this an unsuitable cake for kids. Besides, if you share with the little ones then there's less cake for you and that just aint right!
The cake was incredible tasting. The buttercream is by far the best I've ever had and the chocolate-hazelnut-mocha combination is right on. I'm going to bring a few slices in to work to share with the co-workers because this is so good I don't want to keep it to myself.
Adapted from The Whimsical Bakehouse by Kaye Hansen and Liv Hansen
Start by greasing and flouring two 8x3 inch round pans. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Have all your ingredients at room temperature. (let me interupt here with a Deb notation: I suggest reading through the recipe and getting all your ingredients together, measured, and mixed before starting, it really, really helps not to have to keep stopping once you get started).In the bowl of an electric mixer, (a bowl and a handheld mixer works well too) beat at high speed until light and fluffy:
Add at medium speed and beat well
On a piece of wax paper, sift together:
In a separate bowl dissolve:
Add:
Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture alternately with the coffee-flavored milk, beating at medium-low speed until the batter is smooth.
Fold in by hand:
Pour 2 cups of batter into one prepared pan and the remaining batter into the other. Bake the less full pan for 18 to 25 minutes and the fuller pan for 20 to 30 minutes, or until cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cakes on a wire rack for 15 to 20 minutes before turning them out of the pans.
Yield: 6 cups of batter
In a sauce pan, bring to a boil:
Use a clean brush and cold water to wash down any sugar crystals that form on the sides of the pan as the water heats. When the sugar comes to a boil set a timer for 7 minutes, and let boil.
After 5 minutes, in the bowl of an electric mixer, ( a handheld mixer works just as well) begin to whip at high speed:
Whip until stiff. They should be done when the timer goes off.
With the mixer on high speed, slowly beat the sugar syrup into the egg whites, pouring the syrup to the side of the bowl to avoid the whip. Continue to beat until the bowl is cool to the touch, about 10 minutes. Slowly add:
When the buttercream begins to jump out of the bowl, reduce the speed to low.
Mix in at low speed:
Beat until light and fluffy. At some points the mixture might look curdled. Just keep beating it; it will become smooth again.
Yield: 8 cups
In the bowl of an electric mixer at high speed, (a handheld works well too) whip until stiff:
Soften by heating in the microwave for 10 to 20 seconds or over a pan of hot water (I used hot water):
Gently fold the Nutella into the whipped cream.
Yield 4 1/2 cups
So my first attempt at making a “pretty” cake didn’t turn out as I expected. Well, scratch that, actually, it did turn out as expected, it just didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to. I wasn't able to achieve the pretty flower perfection that I saw in the March 2004 issue of Martha Stewart Living, but I'm not disappointed with what I got either. It became quite clear to me at 3 am Wednesday morning after I had finally had it, and was slapping lemon mascarpone icing into pastry bags with my hands (forgive me, I was tired and frustrated) that the Martha Stewart cake decorator person in the article was clearly NOT an amateur. I guess I knew that before getting into this but I chose to remain consciously naïve. I should just stick to bread baking, but I don’t wanna…so I'm not going to. I'll be the first to admit that spending an entire day, a day that went well past 3am to bake and decorate a cake is a little absurd, but having now had a taste of what I can do with the new decorating set, I was wildly satisfied with myself when I was done. I'm hooked, I want to decorate cakes, cupcakes cookies, doughnuts, you name it I'll decorate it. I'll even come to your house All I need to do is just slooow down the pace and really concentrate on learning technique and how to use the equipment properly, and then of coarse practice, practice, practice. I have to stop trying to run before I can even walk sometimes.
I sometimes think I give the impression that I have this incredibly well stocked kitchen with all kinds of gadgets, or that I go out and buy gadgets for every project I decide to take on. The truth is, a lot of my stuff is either handed down to me, rescued from yard sales and flea markets, bought at Goodwill, (you would not believe what people consider junk, some of the stuff is brand new!) or, I buy it new only after having searched around for the best price and spending days torturing myself with the pros and cons of why I should or shouldn't buy it, and yes, sometimes there’s the occasional impulse purchase, like the cake decorating stuff. I also improvise a lot by making things so that I can get by, like using a cheese plate and cardboard for a cake turntable. I'm glad I finally have some decent stuff though, after having made makeshift cake turntables
just to decorate cakes, I'm glad I finally have a real one.
OMG! What a pleasure it was to just smooothly turn the wheel...no more herky jerky movements or holding my breath while trying to keep the cardboard from slipping off the stand! This turntable is marble, and looks fancy, but it wasn't all that expensive, less than $20 at NY Cake Supplies.
For the longest time I've used this serrated icing knife to ice cakes. It was handed down to me by an old roommate along with a box of other kitchen stuff when we were moving out of the dorms after our college graduation (circa 1989) ACK, 1989, don't tell anyone!. It has always been kind of hard to use, the serrated edge always made serrated scrape marks on the cake, which was fine sometimes, but I didn't always want that. I don't even think this is supposed to be an icing knife.
Over the years the idea came to me to use some of my extra but never used art supplies in the kitchen (art school has its uses, right Cathy!) like these little palette knives
and these brushes.
The brushes have always been a great addition to the kitchen tools, I’ve used them in much the same way you use a pastry brush, but the palette knives along with that serrated thing have always been hard to use for icing big cakes. They were great for cupcakes, or other small delectable treats, like icing black and white cookies but not handy at all for the big jobs. Finally, after all these years, I bought a real icing knife. I can't even begin to explain what a pleasure it was using this, and in tandem with the turntable, well let's just say....rarrrr!
The recipe I used for the cake; a Lemon Layer Cake With Lemon Curd And Mascarpone came from the old standby site, Epicurious. Lately I've been having more hits than misses with them and I'm beginning to wonder why I keep going back. Speaking of recipe hits and misses I recently baked some French baguettes from a Martha Stewart cookbook that were horrible. I've had problems with Martha recipes before and have often wondered what goes on in her test kitchens because what she shows on TV and in her magazines often doesn’t translate well for me at home. The bread came out dense and flavorless and not at all like the thick crusty airy bread I was hoping for. I've been watching Food Network quite a bit since going on maternity leave and the other day I noticed that Martha actually scoops her flour from the container rather than using the "scoop and tap method" that I've always read was much better with baking. I started wondering if maybe that was part of the problem with some of Martha's recipes...are the measurements just inaccurate, especially with her baking? ANYWAY, that's another discussion for another time I guess. SO! The Lemon Layer Cake with Lemon Curd and Mascarpone turned out to be just okay, I was pretty let down. I spent a lot of time and money on ingredients for this cake, I thought that with all its fancy-ish ingredients (mascarpone, ALOT of mascarpone) it would be a rich, decadent treat laced with tart lemon flavor. The lemon curd was truly yummy, the lemon syrup was good, (like lemonade, but sweeter) the cake, which I thought was similar to the génoise I made for the Gateau Citron a while back, was good by itself, but the mascarpone icing did nothing for me OR the cake. It was thick and left a slick layer of greasy film in my mouth that was not pleasant, it lacked any real distinguishing flavor, it was more like lemon flavored pomade, okay, maybe not that bad or greasy but it would have been nice if there was some sort of other contrasting taste going on. In this case, cream cheese probably would have worked just as well and would have been less costly. To be fair, I now have a cold , so my taste buds may have been going then, but I doubt it, because Tom had similar gripes with the cake, adding that the overall lemon experience was too overpowering and the taste of the actual cake was lost. We love lemon here at MH5 but this was a bit much. I'm not going to reproduce the recipe here because I'd hate to post something I thought was mediocre, but here is the link just in case you'd like to proceed with it at your own risk.
This was by far the most fun part, except for getting the icing into the pastry bags, that wasn’t so fun. I bought the wrong size and they were kind of small so I had trouble getting my measuring cup into them. I will be getting bigger bags. I layered the cake as per the instructions from the Epicurious recipe;
"Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on platter. Brush with 1/4 of syrup. Spread 1/4 cup lemon curd over, then 1 cup lemon-mascarpone filling. Top with second cake layer; brush with 1/4 of syrup and spread with 1/4 cup lemon curd and 1 cup lemon-mascarpone filling. Repeat with third cake layer, syrup, lemon curd, and filling. Top with fourth cake layer. Brush with remaining syrup, then spread remaining lemon curd over."
I spooned 2 cups of mascarpone icing over the top of the cake and using my spiffy new icing knife I spread the icing with the ease and grace of a ballerina, turning the cake ever so gently on my fabulous new turntable. What a pleasure to have the right tools. So, with the icing on the cake and me feeling sassy because it is after all, the smoothest cake I've iced to date, I decided to get a little fancy and make ridges using this little toy. aren't I just sparkly?
I colored some icing green, and then using the smallest star tip I piped a border around the cake
I then colored some icing pink and carefully following the directions in the magazine, I tried making sweet pea icing flowers.
Hoo boy, I wasn't getting anything closely resembling the picture in the magazine so I scraped the flowers off and tried again. No go. I scraped again and tried, nope, still not happening. One more time, patching the holes I was making in the mascarpone with my small palette knife as I went. I heard the baby stirring at one point so I scraped one last time, hoping to finish up before the Little Miss needed another feeding, (I think hurrying at this point is what started to do me in). I got the idea to pipe small flowers in between the green stars on the border. That was neat looking, I liked that, so I tried it with some icing I had colored yellow, another row, next to the pink, and hated it. I scraped that off to try again, but by this time the mascarpone icing was getting warm and hard to pipe, it felt like 600 degrees in my kitchen, and I really wanted to go to bed, so I grabbed fistfuls (literally) of the icing and just dumped it into the bag, (I was tired of wrestling with the measuring cup) I fitted a big star tip on the bag and piped the rest of the icing onto the top of the cake just like you see in the very first picture up at the top of this post. I felt a little defeated by the lack of perseverance on my part but it was 3am, what was I thinking? I cleaned up, put the cake in the fridge and went to bed. Becoming the Picasso of cake decorating would have to wait for another day.
It was great fun, the right tools made it a pleasure but baking and decorating a cake all in one day was/is a little much, especially now, with a baby to care for and me being on the verge of going back to work on Monday. I may have to make shortcuts in the future, like using cake mixes or finding an easier less frou, frou recipe so that I can practice the decorating without fuss and bother. For the near future, I see myself making big batches of royal icing, which holds up much better and dries to a hardened state, a good icing for practicing flowers and designs on parchment paper to get the hang of things. Can’t wait.
There are some days when the Little Girl naps and I can sneak into the kitchen long enough to prepare dinner or experiment with a recipe before she wakes up. Then there are some days when the Little Girl just won't have any of that napping thing and I have to load her into the carriage and wheel her into the kitchen to keep me company while I cook, stopping many times (many many times) in the middle of something to tend to Her Highnesses needs. I not only trip over the cat while cooking these days, I have to manuever around the baby too. My how my life has changed!
The inspiration for this baking project came from two sources; a really wonderful cookbook called, Home Baking ~ The Artful Mix Of Flour And Tradition Around The World by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid (the same authors of Seductions of Rice and Hot Sour Salty Sweet) and an orange that was just sitting on the kitchen counter. I love the combination of fruit and chocolate; chocolate with orange/raspberry/banana/pineapple, pretty much any fruit with chocolate tastes good to me, even strawberries, which I'm not a big fan of. As I was getting set up to make the brownies I picked up the orange and thought, “yes, this might work” so I consulted with Her Highness about adding orange zest to the chocolate mixture, she smiled, and cooed her approval, and so a brownie was born. I baked them in mini muffin tins because mini muffins make you SING! those are the only muffin tins I have
The recipe was really easy, there wasn't a long list of ingredients, prep time was minimal and the cleanup at the end went quickly, which was nice. Most unusual, (to me) was the use of corn syrup for sweetening rather than sugar. I had pretty much convinced myself that I was going to ruin the brownies by adding too much orange zest and extract, the key was to constantly taste the chocolate as I sparingly added the zest and the tiniest bit of pure orange extract, letting the flavors build, adding more as I thought was needed. Its way too easy to go overboard with flavoring I think, people’s tastes vary, what might be too much for me might not be enough for someone else so I caution to add the orange zest/extract with that in mind. I sampled one of the brownies and was immediately hit with an intense EXPLOSION of chocolate, followed by a not so subtle, but not overpowering burst of orange. Each flavor was distinct yet complimented the other and I found myself enjoying one really terrific bite of chocolate. I ate one while it was still warm from the oven and then another after they had cooled down (hey, someone has to do the research). I preferred the cooled brownies much more than the warm ones, but you know, I’d never turn down a warm brownie either. I think allowing the brownies to cool; gave the chocolate time to develop and marry with the orange flavor, making the taste and intensity of each bite more powerful. These came out more cake-like in texture and that's fine by me, I prefer brownies that way. I often find the texture of brownies to be too thick and grainy, almost sandy, so the fact that they came out like cake is nice, but dangerous, because the temptation to eat more is greater...especially because they are so small. I decided to freeze most of them for future indulgences when the craving for something chocolate hits. They freeze well, and can be thawed at room temperature until they are ready, or, if you can't wait, microwave them just long enough to defrost.
Adapted from Home Baking ~ The Artful Mix Of Flour And Tradition Around The World by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
Makes 22 to 24 round brownies, 2 inches across, with a thick rich bite
1. Position rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 24 regular muffing cups (or, if necessary, grease 12 cups-bake the first batch, then re-grease and bake the second batch).
2. Place the chocolate and butter in a heavy saucepan and melt over low heat, stirring occasionally until blended and smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
3. Whisk the eggs in a small bowl, then add the corn syrup and vanilla and whisk until combined. In another small bowl, combine the flour and salt. Stir the egg mixture into the chocolate-butter mixture until smooth. Fold in the flour mixture, using a rubber spatula to stir only enough to combine.
4. Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling them only two-thirds full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Test several with a knife; the center should be cooked but still moist (the knife should come out clean but not dry).
5. Let stand in the pans for 10 minutes to firm up, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
While I've been trying my hardest to do nothing but keep my fanny parked on the couch and rest, Tom has been whirling around the apartment cooking up a storm and "nesting". Thank goodness HE'S nesting because I don't seem to have officially started yet. is that normal? On New Year's eve, after a phone call from a friend asking how to brine a roast, Tom, with mouth watering, ran out and bought a pork shoulder and brined it for us, which resulted in a fabulous New Year's day dinner of roasted pork shoulder, (the meat was so tender and succulent), scalloped potatoes and steamed broccoli. Steamed broccoli, so simple to prepare, eaten with just a tiny bit of butter and the barest squeeze of lemon has got to be one of the most fabulous things to eat, period. I decided I don't eat enough of it, so, in 2004, I vow to put more broccoli on my plate and certainly more in my stomach! Dessert was a batch of snickerdoodle cookies that I helped with by waddling into the kitchen now and again and asking if they were done yet. Yum!
Tom was using a recipe for snickerdoodles from The All American Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett, a book he gave me for Christmas a few years back and one that he and I have both grown to love. Flipping through the book while Tom baked, I came across the recipe for "Savannah Chocolate Chewies" and remembered that Tom had made them once before. They were incredible tasting. Chewy yet somehow crisp discs, intense chocolate flavor, chock full of pecans and very satisfying for the sweet tooth that's craving both chocolate and nuts. Baggett notes that these were a very popular cookie from Gottlieb's Bakery, a bakery that was founded in Savannah, Georgia in 1884 but sadly, has since gone out of business. I remember the first time Tom made the cookies, he had lived in Savannah for a while and remembered going to Gottlieb's for those very cookies, he was saddened when he read that Gottlieb's had closed it's doors, so he whipped up a batch of the cookies as an experiment to see if they were in fact the same cookie he remembered. He was quite pleased to discover that not only where they easy to make but they were indeed the very same ones he used to buy from Gottlieb's many years ago.
The day after New Year’s Day, Tom decided to bake a batch of these chewy crisp goodies for some friends that were stopping by for a visit. We had no pecans but did have 2 bags of walnuts that we never got around to using for other things so, we decided that since pecans and walnuts look so similar, that walnuts would be a good substitution. The cookies turned out really well, although the walnut taste was a bit more overpowering than the more subtle pecan, they were still quite yummy. We both agreed that in future batches, pecans are really the nut to use, a must actually, they add a lovely nutty flavor without trying to compete with the other flavors of the cookie, we think walnuts are just too strong for this type of cookie.
adapted from The All American Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett;
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.
Toast the pecans for between 5 and 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until fragrant and slightly brown. Remove from oven and let cool.
In a large bowl, mix together the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, flour and salt. With an elextric mixer on low speed, beat the egg whites one at a time into the powdered-sugar mixture. Add the vanilla and beat for 1 1/2 minutes on high speed, scraping down the sides several times. Fold in the pecans and the chocolate until evenly incorporated.
Drop the dough onto the baking sheets by heaping tablespoons, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, in the middle of the oven for 15 to 18 minutes, or until dry on the surface but soft in the centers when pressed. Reverse the sheet from front to back halfway through baking to ensure even browning. Slide the cookies, still attached to the parchment onto a wire rack. Let cool completely, then carefully peel the cookies from the parchment. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container up to three days or in the freezer for 1 month. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.
As much as I enjoy cooking and discovering how to cook new things or making a meal that I know pleases someone I care about, I also love to experiment in the kitchen too. When an experiment fails, I beat myself up about it and I feel terribly guilty for having wasted food, more times than I care to think about I've eaten my mistakes just to keep from throwing the food away. When an experiment turns out well, or, even just turns out, then you can find me doing a happy dance all over the apt. me and Charlie the cat, just dancing with glee.
Yesterday, I experimented with a recipe for biscotti.
Yesterday, we did the happy dance.
Alberto, who has a most excellent website (go see, I'll wait) mentioned yesterday that while doing his morning reading of several food bloggers he noticed that we all seemed to be in sync with one another. There seems to have been a mass coincidence of soup making and blogging about it over the weekend. I shook my head in agreement with Alberto as I read his words, yes! that's happened before and I've noticed it too! I think we do somehow influence each other through our mutual interests in food and cooking and the fact that we keep online journals about it is just terrific, it doesn't surprise me (anymore) that sometimes our cooking paths cross. I came across another cooking coincidence yesterday on Meg's beautifully written and excellent site, she wrote about her experiments with a new biscotti recipe over the weekend. I couldn't have read Meg's account at a better time, as I was about to dive head first into a new recipe for biscotti that I was also kind of sort of making up as I went along. Meg was troubled by the addition of butter that the recipe she was using called for. Not accustomed to using butter in the past when making biscotti, she went ahead and followed the recipe anyway and was disappointed with the dough, which became crumbly and difficult to work with. Meg decided the butter was the culprit. I too have had this happen to me when making biscotti and so after reading Meg's account I went through my archives and discovered that one of the dough's I've had trouble with in the past called for a full cup of butter, no wonder I've never been able to easily work with the dough. With Meg's experience fresh in mind I set out to make my experimental batch of biscotti omitting the butter and seeing what I'd get.
I'm so glad I listened to Meg.
I wanted biscotti, and I wanted gingerbread, but I wanted it to be in one cookie, so after surfing the internet for a while and finding recipes for gingerbread biscotti that didn't quite meet what I had envisioned in my mind, I decided to try and make up my own version following a basic recipe for biscotti and a basic recipe for gingerbread as a guide.
Before starting the dough, I chopped up some dried apricots, dates and walnuts and put them in a bowl. To this I added a few teaspoons of currents which had been soaking in some Grenadian White Rum, and some fresh ginger root that I had minced. I poured about a tablespoon of superfine sugar over the fruit and nuts and added more white rum to cover the mixture. I mixed it all around, covered it and let it macerate for 2 hours at room temperature. Pure White Rum is powerful stuff, it reminds me of moonshine. I brought back a few bottles of Clarkes Court after the last time I was in Grenada visiting family. I've discovered that I don't really enjoy drinking it, even as a mixer it's way too strong for me, but when used in small amounts for cooking it's pretty wonderful stuff, it enhances the flavors of fruits and adds a unique smell and taste to everything. It's nice.
I preheated my oven to 325 degrees and sprayed a cookie sheet with non stick cooking spray.
The dough was pretty easy to make. Into a bowl went 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup tightly packed brown sugar, 1 1/2 teaspons of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, a pinch of ground black pepper, 1 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg (Hi Blue! ), 1/4 cup of dark robust molasses, 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, 2 large eggs and 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. I mixed everything using a wooden spoon until it became too difficult, then I plunged my hands in and squished everything around until all was well incorporated. I turned the dough out onto a floured surface and after squeezing the excess rum out of the fruit and nut mixture, I kneaded it into the dough using enough flour to easily handle the dough and absorb the extra moisture.
I formed the dough into two logs, it was still a bit tacky, and placed the logs on the prepared cookie sheet. This went into the oven for 35 minutes and when an ice pick inserted in the middle came out clean I removed it from the oven, turned the temperature down to 300 degrees and let the logs cool for 20 minutes before slicing them. Slicing them was a pleasure. I used a serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion and there was no crumbling of the dough thanks to Meg's suggestion to not use butter. Three Cheers for Meg please! I couldn't have been happier, this was literally the first time I've sliced biscotti dough with ease and without a mess of crumbs all over the place. Once all the cookies had been sliced I placed them back onto the cookie sheet and back into the oven for 20 minutes, after 20 minutes I removed them, turned them over and placed them back into the oven to dry out the other sides for 20 minutes.
These are one fragrant but hard to bite into tooth-breaking cookie. They are a true biscotti, meant to be eaten the way biscotti is traditionally eaten, dunked into a glass of something, whether it be wine, coffee, milk, or whatever your poison. They are just too hard to eat on their own. (Consider this a warning, these cookies need to be eaten dunked in something first, should you try making them at home, don't say I didn't tell you). Aside from that, these taste really delicious. The dunking brings out the flavors of the spices and the cookie is not really that sweet, the fruit provides the sweetness and the rum adds a nice hint of warmth to the taste and fragrance.
I think I would make these again, but perhaps try to find a way to make them less hard. I wouldn't want to give them away the way they are right now and take the risk of someone trying to eat them without first dunking. With some tweaking I think this could be a successful cookie that I can eventually add to my repertoire. Overall, I'd say this was not a a complete success but also not a complete failure. YaY me!
I was on fire Wednesday. Well, not literally on fire but it certainly felt that way. The weather had turned somewhat mild for mid-November and it was humid, the combination made for a warmer than usual day. To add to this, I, who am normally cold even in summer, have been a walking furnace since becoming pregnant. I am always hot now, which I'm hoping will be a blessing during the dark cold days of December and January. If I can avoid buying another winter coat just to get through the last few weeks of my pregnancy then I will be happy. To add to my already uncomfortable situation the heat in my apartment building was going at FULL BLAST on Wednesday. I found myself in the living room stuck (literally) to the leather couch, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, windows thrown wide open, tongue lolling out the side of my mouth sprit-zing myself with a spray bottle. What's a girl to do in a situation like that? Why, the answer is simple, what any other normal person would do right? BAKE COOKIES!
So, if you can believe it, I peeled myself off the couch and sloshed my way into the kitchen to bake an experimental batch of cookies for "the locusts" (co-workers). I found the recipe on the Epicurious website and just had to try it out. (Hmm, I've been spending a lot of time there lately, no?) Lemon, black pepper, cornmeal, this was something I had not seen in a cookie before and since it's nearing that time of year when I drive Tom insane and myself to tears baking hundreds of cookies for friends and relatives, why not try and see if this might be a new one to add to my repertoire.
The recipe gets an A as far as I'm concerned. It was easy to follow, and did not take all that long to make. I did chill the dough in the freezer to expedite things; otherwise the recipe says to chill for 3 hours or until firm. Chilling in the freezer took 30 minutes and I was still able to slice the logs with a knife. What I like about this recipe is that it seems flexible. You can add the pepper, or not, or even add more if you like (I did). If you don't like the idea of pepper, I think it would go well with poppy seeds, ginger, anise, or even just plain. I not only used the 1/4 cup of lemon zest but I also added a capful of pure lemon extract AND the juice of half a lemon to really get an intense lemon flavor. I made up for the extra liquid by adding small handfuls of flour to get the dough back to the crumbly stage. Speaking of the crumbly stage, I never really achieved it, I was expecting the dough to resemble "pebbles" but it was more like a soft tacky dough. I paid no mind and made the cookies anyway and they turned out fine.
The cookies were goooood. I tasted one (ok, three) and was immediately greeted by intense lemon flavor. The cookie was crisp but not brittle and because there was cornmeal in it, there was a sandy mouth feel that wasn't so unlike eating shortbread or a pecan sandy. Then, just as you swallow the last bit of cookie there is an aftertaste/afterglow of pepper that is not unpleasant or overpowering. Very interesting and tasty little cookie these were. I'd even go so far as to call them sophisticated. They were a big hit with "the locusts." It's nice to know there's a group of people out there willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of my cooking whims, but I'm starting to wonder if just about anything would be a big hit with them! Before I left for work I arranged some on a plate for Tom to find when he came home from work. When I returned home much later that evening he told me he had tried the cookies and...he liked cookie but not the pepper. Oh well. No more cookies for HIM!
from Epicurious
"The black pepper is not necessary, but it does add interest and a pleasant warmth in the mouth. If you'd rather, add 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger with the dry ingredients, instead of the pepper. These are perfect with ice cream and fruit. This recipe uses approximately 4 lemons."
1. Whisk the flour, cornmeal, black pepper, if using, and salt together in a medium bowl.
2. Beat the butter, sugar, and zest in a medium bowl with an electric mixer, beginning on low speed and increasing to medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and beat to combine well. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture, and beat on low speed just until blended; the dough will be crumbly.
3. Press the dough together with your hands and divide it in half. Place each half on a sheet of wax paper and form each piece into a 10-by-1 1/4-inch log. Smooth each log with dampened fingers. Chill the logs, wrapped in wax paper, for at least 3 hours, or until firm.
4. At least 25 minutes before baking, position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Butter 2 large nonstick baking sheets.
5. Cut each log into 1/4-inch-thick rounds and arrange the rounds 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, for 10 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool.
Makes 6 dozen cookies.
source: Luscious Lemon Desserts Lori Longbotham Chronicle Books
I keep asking myself when, when is the ball going to drop and I have another one of those spectacular cooking disasters I seem to be prone to. I feel like I’ve had too much good luck in the kitchen recently and if there were ever a cooking project that I was going to fail at, it was this cake that I was sure was going be the one. I must remember to leave offerings to the gods of baked goods because they were certainly smiling down on me for this one. I still can’t believe I pulled it off in time and without a failure. I actually didn’t find the recipe all that difficult, it was just very labor intensive, I had to prepare several other smaller recipes before I could even get to the actual cake, and that was what began to stress me out. I admit poor planning on my part too, I should have divided things over 2 days, but I didn’t. I now know better. A hard lesson, but a lesson learned!
I actually did look at the recipe the night before, just to read through and make sure I had my ingredients list together. Little warning bells were going off in my head as I read, “recipe, Pastry Cream, page 127, 1 recipe English Lemon Curd, page 173, 4 cups prepared whipped cream, page 258” and so on! After the warning bells started to become warning gongs, and my brain began to vibrate with questions and self doubt, I abruptly stopped reading, and hurled the book across the room and decided it would be no problem. I could complete the entire cake in one day because I was SUPERGIRL and if I could master the evil slicing machine of teenage nightmares then I could conquer anything!
The recipe for Gateau Citron came from the excellent book The Village Baker’s Wife by Gail and Joe Ortiz with Melissa Beers. I really admire this book, and yet I’m also a bit intimidated by it. Gail Ortiz along with her husband Joe (The Village Baker) are the owner’s of Gayle’s Bakery in California. In this book Gayle talks about her love of baking, she shares stories of baking with friends, stories of learning her craft from other more senior bakers AND gives out advice, recipes and tips. She covers technique in a way that is so precise and so thorough, that you can’t help but get caught up in the moment and think that you too can be a baker just like Gayle!
warning: Long (winded) entry ahead, proceed with caution
I started early Thursday morning, armed with grocery list and money. The list was small, considering the many steps and the recipes I had to prepare. I was about to find out that it was not an easy order to fill. I visited at least half a dozen stores in my neighborhood, looking for, but not finding heavy whipping cream that was not ultra-pasteurized and was preservative free (more on why later). I spent too much time wandering from block to block, store to store, getting blank looks or being handed heavy whipping cream that was can you guess… ultra-pasteurized. I finally gave up and settled on an organic brand of ultra-pasteurized heavy whipping cream that to my surprise contained preservatives. I had stopped caring at that point, I mean really, I think 45 minutes is enough time to spend on something that was becoming obvious I wasn’t going to find. I had to get home and start baking.
I decided the best way to tackle the cake was to follow the recipes in sequence, rather than pick out the ones that seemed the easiest to do first. I figured Ortiz listed them in a certain order for a reason and it wasn't necessary for me, Amateur Home Baker Chick to change the order of things. I eagerly began...
The first recipe was for Pastry Cream, the kind that comes in éclairs, or cream puffs and other yummy treats. Ortiz suggests one of the best uses is to scoop it right from the bowl and into your mouth! Yeah! You're my kind of gal, Gail Ortiz. Start by warming 11/2 cups half and half over medium heat until just starting to simmer. In a bowl, mix 6 tablespoons of cornstarch and 1/2 cup sugar, using a whisk, whip in 1/2 cup water until smooth. Add 4 large room temperature egg yolks and again, beat until smooth. When the half and half has begun simmering, slowly add about one half of it to the cornstarch mixture, whisking continuously to blend. Once blended, whisk this mixture back into the half and half on the stove and continue to whisk vigorously until the pastry cream is thick. Ortiz stresses the importance of whisking continuously because of the danger of the cream forming lumps. With that in mind, I made sure my arm had non-stop whirling action, whisking and beating and preventing lumps just like the pros, and silently praying my arm wouldn't fall off! Once I had thick, lump free cream, I removed it from the heat, added 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, mixed well and transferred it to a glass bowl covering it with a plate. From time to time, Ortiz had me lift off the protective plate and stir the cream; I was helping to prevent it from forming a thick skin. You know that skin right, the same crazy scary skin that forms on scalded milk and commercial instant puddings...eww! Once the mixture is cool, Ortiz says it can be refrigerated and used for up to 3 days but should never be frozen.
I was delayed starting on this delightful confection because I was required to have 2 tablespoons of grated lemon zest ready and I did not. Grating lemon zest or any zest for that matter kind of sucks. I don't have a rasp, I have a teeny mini grater that takes forever to use and manages to withdraw a little blood from time to time. I swear to myself every time I use it I'm going to get myself a rasp...but then I forget and the cycle begins again. With the zest crisis over, on the top of the stove in a double boiler I whisked 3 eggs with 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. (My smooth actually looks kind of frothy, no?) Ortiz says you can use up to 3/4 cups sugar but I wanted things a little tart so I used less. I then added 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice that I had strained of pulp, seeds and other debris, 2 tablespoons of room temperature unsalted butter, and the 2 tablespoons of hard earned lemon zest . I cooked this over medium heat whisking vigorously the whole time. Ortiz says the curd is done when the mixture resembles slightly whipped cream. I think I may have removed mine from the heat too early, this resembled slightly whipped cream to me at the time, but it ended up being a tad more watery than I would have liked. I removed it from the heat, covered it with a plate and stirred it frequently while it was cooling. My guess is Ortiz was trying to get me to prevent that freaky skin from forming but she didn't say this time. She does say that once cooled, you may strain the mixture and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. I opted out of the straining part of the deal. I'm sorry but I could see the mess in my minds eye and it wasn't pretty, I chose wisely. This stuff was incredibly tasty, and so easy to make that I would consider making this, packaging it up in nice little jars and giving it as little treats to friends.
I mentioned earlier that I would tell you why Ortiz had me running crazy for non-ultra-pasteurized, preservative free heavy whipping cream... because it tastes better sillies! Now before you boo me, she does too say that, but she also goes on to say that ultra-pasteurized has a tendency to take longer to whip, weep water and break down faster. The higher fat content in the non-ultra-pasteurized preservative free stuff just makes better whipped cream. I'll have to take her world though, because like I mentioned, I couldn't find any of that kind. I chilled my mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer for 15 minutes before putting 2 cups of the heavy cream, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of vanilla into the bowl then turned on my electric mixer and beat the hell out of everything. I stopped when the mixture was just holding soft peaks. I covered it with plastic wrap and refrigerated it until I was ready to use it. Did you know that 2 cups of whipping cream yields 4 cups of whipped cream when done? Me either, but now we do! This I may have stopped too soon too because I thought the whipped cream was a little too runny when I was using it. Oh wait! Maybe it was weeping water like Ortiz said. No matter, I used it and no one noticed anything but me.
Now do you see why I was starting to get crazy? I STILL hadn't made the cake! The soaking solution was pretty easy to make and....OK, OK, I'll admit, I made the soaking solution and toasted the nuts before I prepared the recipe for the cake, so I did go out of sequence after all. In a saucepan, heat until just boiling, 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar. Remove from heat and let cool. Ortiz suggests adding a teaspoon of dark rum or other liqueur (its an optional step) to the solution once it's cooled a bit, but I didn't have dark rum so I decided a teaspoon of cognac would do nicely. I ended up with more solution than the cake needed, Ortiz did say that would happen. I dumped mine when I was done using it, but Ortiz does say that it can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a month.
I won't go into how I toasted nuts because I know you know how to do that. I'll just note that I could not get whole, skinned hazelnuts so I used chopped with the skin on hazelnuts. I did not try to attempt removing the skins. Once everything was toasted and ground the skins were hardly noticeable and one person even commented on how much she like the taste of the nuts, (there's a bad pun there, I just know it) so I saved myself at least a little bit of aggravation.
I know you're thinking "Finally, she's come to the cake!" and at the time, that was my thinking too, but no, not quite yet. I was delayed again by having to stop and prepare cake pans the way Ortiz instructed. I thought about skipping Ortiz's way of preparing cake pans, it seemed over the top to me and having made cakes before, preparing cake pans wasn't something I thought needed so much attention, but then I decided at least this once, to try it her way and see if it was better.
I tore off a large piece of parchment and set the cake pan, bottom down, on top. With a marker I traced along the edge of the pan completing a full circle, then removed the pan and cut out the circle. I also did the same thing with a large piece of cardboard that I knew I would be needing later on. (more on that later). I then lightly coated the edges of the pans with some butter, (but not the bottom of the pans), and then coated the buttered edges with flour. Ortiz then had me place the cut out parchment into the bottom of each pan and that was it, the pans were ready. This took about 15 minutes more time than if I had just buttered and floured everything.
The cake, once I finally got to make it, was kind of easy, but quite unusual. First, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees, well actually, it was already at 350 degrees because earlier I had toasted the hazelnuts out of sequence, remember?. In a bowl, I whisked together 5 eggs then whisked in 3/4 cups sugar. I placed the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and using my hand (!) like a whisk, stirred the eggs until they started to feel very warm. The constant movement kept the eggs from scrambling, and Ortiz notes that they should remain liquid and not looking opaque or cooked. Once the eggs started getting too warm for my hand (my hand!) to be in there much longer, I removed the bowl from the boiling water and started immediately whipping them with a hand mixer for about 4 minutes. While the eggs were whipping I melted 1 tablespoon of butter and put that into another bowl with 1 teaspoon of vanilla. I sifted 1 cup of cake flour and set that aside. Actually, I didn't have cake flour, loser that I am, so I substituted with all-purpose four. 1 cup of sifted all-purpose flour less 2 tablespoons is equal to a cup of cake flour (I hope I got that right). I sprinkled about a fourth of the flour over the egg mixture and gently folded that in. Ortiz notes that if you are too rough with the folding then you will hear the batter crunch. Well, I couldn't pass an opportunity to hear that happen, so I got rough with the batter, and sure enough it CRUNCHED! I was so tickled, I started giggling madly and was so tempted to continue making the batter crunch as I added the rest of the flour, it was that cool sounding, but I didn't want to mess up the cake if it was imperative to fold gently, so I stopped abusing the batter and finished folding in a neat and lady-like manner. After adding the flour to the egg mixture I then scooped out a generous cup of it and added it to the waiting butter/vanilla bowl, and folded it in. I then took THAT mixture and folded it back into the egg/flour mixture, gently and slowly, otherwise Ortiz notes, the butter would sink to the bottom and reduce the volume and make the cake tough. The batter went into my waiting cake pans and into the oven for 25 minutes. At this point I wandered off and started making the sugar-frosted berries I mentioned in the previous entry. Ortiz notes that the cakes are done when they begin to pull away from the sides. I removed the cakes from the oven, placed the pans on a cooling rack, ran a knife around the edges, then waited 5 minutes before removing them from the pan and setting them to cool on a rack. After flipping the cakes over I peeled away the parchment. I admit, that was kind of cool, I could easily spend at least an hour peeling parchment from cakes, it reminded me a little of how I used to let Elmer's glue dry on the palm of my hand then peel it away. Fun. I don't think I prefer Ortiz's method of preparing pans for cake though. The bottom of the cake stuck a little to the parchment and made the cake look sloppy, so for what it's worth, the next time I try making the cake, I'll prepare the pans the way I'm used to, so that I can compare my way vs. the Ortiz way.
I couldn't have been more excited to get to this point (and I'm sure Dear Reader, you are too). I was getting tired, and time was beginning to run out, so when I read that I needed to combine pastry cream with lemon curd and set it aside, then combine lemon curd with whipped cream and set that aside, I almost broke down and cried, when were all these effing steps going to end! I did it though, I had a minor breakdown first, but then I pulled myself together and did it. NOW, I was ready to assemble the cake.
Because the cake was intended to be a three-layer I had to slice one of the layers in half. What I didn't mention before was that I had poured more batter into one pan before baking, to insure that I got a thicker cake for slicing in half. Even though I made the extra effort to have a thicker cake, I was a little skeptical of being able to slice the cake with ease, it looked kind of thin. I held my breath, and sliced into the cake slowly, letting the serrated knife guide me. When it met with resistance I stopped and turned the cake and sliced again. I kept repeating this sawing, turning step until I had gone all the way around and then lifted the 2 halves apart. I DID IT!
At this point I was getting delirious and was having trouble comprehending Ortiz's very thorough but somewhat involved assembly instructions. In an effort to maintain the last of my sanity, I decided to use Ortiz's notes as a guide rather than follow it to the letter. I gave up on that about halfway and winged the rest of it, decorating the cake the way I felt like decorating it.
The cardboard that I had cut out earlier was supposed to be used as a base for the cake. I think Ortiz meant it to be used in tandem with a cake stand but since I don't have a cake stand I had to improvise. I lay the cardboard cutout on top of the bottom part of a cheese dish, the result was a makeshift cake stand. Ta-Da! Placing the first layer on the cardboard, I brushed it with soaking solution, then added a thin layer of cream, (it was supposed to be lemon curd, but somehow I had mysteriously run out), then piped a ribbon of whipped cream all along the edge. One day I'd love to own a real cake decorating kit, complete with tips cast in metal and made in assorted shapes and sizes, one that comes with a real, re-useable bag and a cute little case that neatly holds everything, but until that day, these disposable ones are great, but I digress.
Ortiz then instructed me to add a layer of pastry cream/lemon curd mixture in the middle of the piping. I thought it lacked something, but what? Looking around my kitchen my eye spotted the leftover raspberries and I quickly grabbed the pint and added them. Pretty, no? I added the second layer, brushed it with more soaking solution, added the pastry cream/lemon curd mixture, then the piping, I thought it looked too plain and added the leftover blackberries for some contrast. Better, no? Finally...the last layer. I brushed the top with more soaking solution and then the fun began. Icing the cake was not easy. I messed it up quite a few times and had to layer thick globs of whipped cream in certain areas to cover uneven spots. I wasted more than I actually used, getting quite a lot on myself, the counter and the floor. I'm not sure how long it took to ice the cake but I was pretty well covered in a thin layer of moisture when I was done, the cake fared better than me. Ortiz had some complicated instructions, (well, complicated to me considering my mental state at this point) for slipping the cake to the edge of the cardboard and using a sweeping motion to make a 1 inch border of ground hazelnuts around the bottom edge of the cake. HA! I could just see me slipping the cake off the cardboard...right onto the floor. There was no way I was even going to attempt that, so I just scooped up handfuls of nuts and threw them onto the cake, making a border of nuts that covered the sides from top to bottom, I made a HUGE mess. I did manage to get the cake off the cardboard and onto a cookie sheet by slipping two spatulas underneath the cake and lifting quickly. I zest-ed lemon rind over the cake for color but decided that it didn't do much for contrast, and looked for something else to add. I had a pomelo lying around and decided that the yellow and green would look nice together, so I zest-ed the skin of that too. I have to tell you, that wasn't one of my brightest moments. The pomelo was bigger than my grater, it was awkward and took a long time and I bled, but it sure looked better. I was starting to feel better, since I was almost finished, and in my good mood I piped a layer of cream along the bottom of the cake for decoration,immediately decided it looked horrible and scraped it off. I grabbed the waiting sugar fruit and alternating between a layer of mint, a dab of whipped cream and a berry I finished decorating the cake with an hour to spare. I thought the final product looked nice, but the real test would be later on that evening when the group ate it.
The cake was a big hit in both presentation and taste. I was proud of how it looked but I thought the taste was just eh. Maybe it's my wacky pregnancy taste buds but I was hoping for a tarter more lemony taste and didn't get it. The cream, which was delicious, seemed to be the dominating flavor and that was a disappointment for me, I really wanted more lemon flavor. The Genoise was interesting. So light, almost like an angel food but a little less airy and a bit denser. It reminded me of the fresh savoiardi (ladyfingers) I used to get at the pastry shop as a kid. I would make the cake part of the recipe again too; it was light and delicious tasting, almost like it had no calories! The group had no complaints and there wasn't any cake leftover to take a piece home to Tom so I'm guessing they enjoyed it. As for the Ortiz book, I think it's a terrific book. It's more geared towards the advanced baker but contains lots of instructions and interesting information for the beginner too. I just think that the recipes might be a bit too labor intensive. I'm all about making things from scratch, but this was a little too much to do in one day. Not the books fault, but mine, with a little bit better planning, I just might try making this again.
I’ll just begin by saying that this cake was really good. I’m not sure what I enjoyed more, making it, the way my apartment smelled while it was baking, or actually eating it. The top had just started to burn ever so slightly by the time it was ready to be taken out of the oven, so the sugar had started to caramelize, giving the cake a slight crunchiness on the top that was a nice contrast to the moist cake underneath. So good. We ate it with a dollop of whipped cream, but later on I snuck a teeny piece and ate it plain (umm, the baby wanted some) and it was just as good without whipped cream. I will say, if you're not a fan of the taste of dark robust molasses then this might not be a cake for you, the flavor isn't too strong but it is present. I found the recipe on Epicurious and for the life of me I can’t remember what led me to it. The fact that Guinness Stout was one of the ingredients was unusual to me and I decided that this was a cake I wanted to try.
I jotted down a few notes while I was making the cake, nothing major, just a few observations like; eggs don’t bounce, (HA, just kidding) whisk the egg/sugar/oil mixture well to make sure that you don’t have a slick layer of oil sitting on the surface of the bowl. The “foam” takes quite a bit of time to dissipate so don’t worry if 20 minutes goes by and you still have foam, I eventually just stirred it back into the liquid and used it. When pouring the Guinness/molasses mixture into the egg/sugar/oil mixture note that the Guinness/molasses is hot, so be careful not to cook the raw egg, I got around this by constantly stirring while pouring, not an easy task but I managed without mishap. Grating fresh ginger sucks, it gets all stuck in the grater, kind of liquefies itself and just does not easily come off, next time I’ll try freezing it and grating it frozen. I had to leave out the cardamom, I thought I had some on hand but didn’t, so I substituted with equal amounts of allspice.
So, without further delay, from the Epicurious website...
The recipe for this moist, dark, fragrant gingerbread pays tribute to Dona Abramson and Stuart Tarabour at the Bright Food Shop, a terrific little Mexican-fusion café in Chelsea where I spent some time. This was my favorite of their desserts, and it has since become a seasonal classic at Gramercy Tavern, though I've made a few adaptations and embellished a bit. My recipe has just a touch of cloves, and instead of just the ginger and cinnamon in a typical gingerbread, I use a panoply of spices, including cardamom, nutmeg, and a lot of fresh ginger, to give the cake a racy, intriguing flavor. The most unusual thing about this recipe is that stout is substituted for the water or coffee used in most gingerbread recipes. I find it adds a lot of richness and underscores the spices. Since it is made with oil, this cake will stay moist for several days. Dress it up or simply enjoy it on its own, with coffee, tea, or a beer!
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9- X 5-inch loaf pan, line the bottom and sides with parchment, and grease the parchment. Alternatively, butter and flour a 6-cup Bundt pan. In a large saucepan over high heat, combine the stout and molasses and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and add the baking soda. Allow to sit until the foam dissipates. Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together the eggs and both sugars. Whisk in the oil. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, ground ginger, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom. Combine the stout mixture with the egg mixture, then whisk this liquid into the flour mixture, half at a time. Add the fresh ginger and stir to combine. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 1 hour, or until the top springs back when gently pressed. Do not open the oven until the gingerbread is almost done, or the center may fall slightly. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes 8 servings.
I have always had a love/hate relationship with cheesecake. I know I’ve had good cheesecake in my life, I would even go as far as saying really good cheesecake but sadly those times have been few and too far between, while the times I've had bad cheesecake, well, those have been too many. I usually find cheesecake to be way too sweet, in an over the top-gives-me-a-sore-throat kind of way. That, or it's too dry, even a bit hard, and I often find myself wondering just how stale the piece of cheesecake I'm eating really is. That’s happened to me so many times too and not just with cheesecake.
Recently, I went to a wedding, and at the reception there was a "Dessert Hour" featuring many tables filled with far more dessert than myself or any of the other 250 guests could possibly hope to finish in our lifetimes. One of the dessert "stations" was setup with an elegantly dressed waiter whom, upon request, would dole out cheesecake using an ice-cream scoop and serve it to you in what looked like a martini glass. Lined along the edge of this dessert "station" were many containers filled with assorted toppings, there were strawberries, nuts, chopped chocolate, shredded coconut, granola, M&M’s and quite a few other things to choose from. I tend to be a cheesecake purist, in that I prefer my cheesecake to have the flavors baked within the cake rather than crowding the surface of the slice with toppings that can take away from the taste and pleasure of the cheesecake itself. I chose to pass on the many choices of toppings, and taking my little martini glass filled with cheesecake (the only thing I can have in a martini glass these days ) and made my way over to our table, where, after much anticipation, I eagerly took my first bite...
BLEH! It was way too sweet, and tasted too much like plain cream cheese (no other flavors present) and had the consistency of pudding. I politely swallowed my first spoonful and hurled the glass towards the dance floor where it came to a spectacular end, glass shattering far and wide as I stood and yelled "OOPA!" No, No, No, I gave it to the girl assigned to attend to our table and thanked her for taking the offensive thing away.
For what its worth, I do prefer Italian-style cheesecake, usually made with ricotta cheese, and in my experience, less sweet than the more popular New York style. It is not always easy to find, and when I do find it, again, it's not always fresh, so most of the time I just pass when it comes to cheesecake.
You can imagine then, how excited and inspired I was to try making
my own cheesecake when the November/December 2003 issue of Cook's Illustrated arrived
with a story called "Pumpkin Cheesecake Perfected" by Dawn Yanagihara
.(Pumpkin Pie is also one of those desserts I have a love/hate
relationship with too, but that will have to be a story for another
day).The idea of the "perfect" cheesecake, flavored with pumpkin and
other wonderful "Fall" spices such as ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and
allspice, just to name a few, really appealed to me. As is usual with
Cook's Illustrated , the author had tested the recipe using many
different variations of the same ingredients and many combinations of
technique before settling on the ingredients,
temperatures and cooking times, that would deem this particular recipe
"The One". As with all the recipes in this magazine, this was a
much tested recipe, so I suppose it should deserve the honor of being
called perfect, no? I decided to make it a personal challenge to take
on Cook's Illustrated claims in my own kitchen, and see if
they really did have the recipe for perfect cheesecake. I was curious,
ARE my impossibly high cheesecake standards
just, TOO impossibly high? This was a good chance to test it out, AND since my
reading group was meeting that evening, I knew I would have six
somewhat willing guinea pigs, erm,I mean tasters to try this
particular experiment on.
I'm just going to write about the recipe and what I did rather than go into the whole 3 page article detailing why the author did certain things like dry the canned pumpkin or used a water bath, etc. etc. The article itself is very interesting and I highly recommend it. The recipe AND the article, can be found in the November/December 2003 issue of Cook's Illustrated Magazine .
After adjusting the wire rack in my oven to the lower middle position and pre-heating to 325 degrees, I sprayed the bottom and sides of a spring form pan with non-flavored non-stick cooking spray. I'm not really a fan of cooking spray mainly because I can never get it sprayed without covering myself, the kitchen floor and sometimes the cat with the stuff. Charlie, (my cat) really freaks when he hears the sssss of the spray (heh, almost wrote spay) nozzle. I'm not sure why it makes him go botzo but its kind of funny to watch. So! Into the food processor went 9 whole graham crackers that had been broken into large pieces, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, this was then pulsed for 2 second blasts for the suggested 15 times. I counted just to test and see if 15 was actually the number that would do it, and sure enough, the crumbs came out even and finely ground after 15- 2 second long pulses! I then transferred the crumbs to a bowl and drizzled 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter that had been previously melted and with my spatula I mixed everything until all the crumbs were moistened. I turned the crumb mixture into the already waiting spring form pan and with my fingers (clean of course) I spread the mixture out over the bottom of the pan into a layer. Using the bottom of a small glass I ran that along the bottom of the pan to ensure that the crumbs were spread evenly and tightly into the pan, then I ran the bottom of a soup spoon over that to ensure that everything was indeed even. I thought the soup spoon step was a bit excessive because the glass had already made everything pretty much uniform, but I was following the directions as precisely as I could, and included that step anyway. I put the pan into the oven and baked until brown and fragrant for exactly 15 minutes, removed, then left to cool on a wire rack while I made the filling.
First, the Author had me bring about 4 quarts of water to a simmer on the stove and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why, but then I remembered that it was going to be needed for the hot water bath when the whole thing went into the oven for baking. I'm so swift, aint I? I was then instructed to whisk together 11/3 cups of sugar, 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (the Author never specified if that should be fresh ground or not, but I don't own any pre-ground nutmeg so I ground my own which took very little extra time), 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small bowl, then set aside. The next step was to "dry" out the canned pumpkin and I was instructed to refer to the illustration for directions. Basically, I took 3 layers of paper towels and laid them on a flat baking sheet, then spread 1-15 ounce can of pumpkin over the paper towels with a spatula to get as even a layer as possible. Surprisingly the pumpkin spread quite easily, I was skeptical at first and had visions of myself wrestling with paper towels and pumpkin goo splattering everywhere but it was not to be. I then covered the pumpkin with another triple layer of paper towels until those were soaked through. MAN! It soaked through almost instantly, I was actually surprised at how much water came out of the canned pumpkin. Peeling off the top soaked layer of towels and discarding I then flipped over the pumpkin so that it was sitting on the baking sheet and peeled off the bottom (totally soaked) layer of paper towels, discarding those, then setting the pumpkin pulp aside. The recipe called for using a standing mixer with flat beaters and here's where I had to compromise a bit, I only own a hand held mixer with round beaters. I've noticed over the years that sometimes recipes call for specific equipment, almost making it seem like you cannot go further without it, but I've discovered, mainly out of necessity that you can certainly get by most of the time without the specific tool if you have something that does just about the same thing. So, hoping that my using a hand held mixer wouldn't compromise the texture of the cake, I went ahead and put 11/2 pounds of cream cheese that I had sliced into 1 inch chunks and previously let get to room temperature, into a bowl, then beat at medium speed for about 1 minute until the cream cheese broke up and became slightly softened. I then added 1/3 of the previously whisked sugar/spice mixture and beat on medium speed for another minute until all was incorporated, then stopped to scrape the sides of the bowl. I then added the second third, repeating the mixing/scraping step above and then doing the same for the last third of sugar/spice mix. I then added the pumpkin, 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract, (I mention using "pure" only because in the same issue there is an article titled "Is Imitation Vanilla Still A Winner?" and although I haven't read the article yet, it seems to be about using imitation vanilla in cooking, which in all honesty I DON'T like the flavor of), and 1 tablespoon of the juice from a fresh lemon beating this into the cream cheese/sugar/spice mixture on medium low speed for about 45 seconds. I added three eggs that had been allowed to get to room temperature, beat on medium low until incorporated, scraped the bowl and added 2 more room temperature eggs beating and incorporating those into the mixture then scraping the bowl again. To this I added 1 cup of heavy cream (cold) beat again on medium low for 45 seconds and then gave a final stir and scrape with the rubber spatula.
I set the spring form pan onto a doubled layer of aluminum foil which I then wrapped around the bottom and sides of the pan then set the wrapped pan into a roasting pan. I poured the filling into the spring form pan, and got a little nervous when I noticed that there seemed to be more filling than the spring form could hold. The filling came all the way up the edge of the pan and I wasn't sure if this was going to be a problem since there were eggs in the mixture. I was thinking the cake might rise a bit and wondered if I should leave some batter out, but after about 5 minutes of staring blankly at the cake pan I chose to ignore the possible problem and move on. Tapping the pan slightly, to even out the surface I then set the whole thing onto the oven rack and proceeded to pour the water for the bath into the roasting pan. This is where I almost broke down and cried. There was very little clearance from the edge of the roasting pan to the edge of the spring form pan, the fit was in fact just a bit tight so, the water needed to be very carefully poured to avoid disaster. Mainly the kind of disaster that involved hot water being poured all over myself, the oven and the floor. Now, I am left handed, there is very little I can do in this life with my right hand, pouring water from a pot into a tight fitting set of nested pans should not be one of the right-handed things I do, I am quite clumsy. As I was pouring the water with my right hand, I slipped and some of it spilled into the batter, basically adding what looked like an extra 1/2 cup more liquid into the batter. NOOOooooooooo! I scared myself by the level of white hot anger I felt and was a bit shocked by the language that came spewing from my mouth. Trying not to cry, or burn myself because all this was happening while I was squatting near the open, hot oven, and not sure what to do, I actually tried scooping some of the water out with a measuring cup, managing to take about 1/2 cup of watery batter out before deciding to just close the oven door and let the damn cake bake to see what would happen. I set the timer for 1 and 1/2 hours then spent most of that time feeling sorry for myself. I had been so very careful to do everything right until the very end...
Much later, after the timer sounded off, I opened the oven door to find what looked like a fairly decent cheesecake. Could it be, did the water actually evaporate, did I get most of it out when I bailed out the pan earlier, whatever it was the cake looked pretty good to me. I removed it, set the roasting pan on a wire rack, ran a knife around the edge of the spring form to loosen the cake, then let it cool for an hour before coming back, removing the aluminum foil, draining the water and letting it cool on the rack again for 2 hours before chilling. The recipe calls for letting the cake cool for at least 3 hours and chilling for at least 4 hours but I was running out of time before the reading group meeting started and the cake would have to get a head start on chilling by sitting in the freezer for a bit. I realized after I took the spring form off the pan that what might have actually been ruined by all the water was the crust. The edges of the crust seemed soggy, and I hoped that wasn't the case, but there was nothing I could do about it at that point anyway. I would tell the group what happened and let them decide if they wanted to eat soggy crust.
I know I mentioned earlier that I didn't like toppings on my cheesecake and I don't, but the Author suggested the following as an accompaniment to the cake and mentioned that although it seemed over the top it actually went very well with all the spices and pumpkin flavor. Because it had bourbon in it, I took the tiniest taste just to check for flavor but being that I'm pregnant I didn't want to try any more than that because of the alchohol. My impression from that tiny little taste was that there was too much alcohol in it, but I would let the reading group decide if they liked it and let me know how it matched up with the flavor of the cake.
Into a bowl that I had previously chilled in the freezer (not required by the Author but I like to use a chilled bowl) I placed 1 cup of heavy cream, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/3 cup granulated brown sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon of salt and mixed on medium high speed until everything was well combined and the sugar was dissolved. I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and placed it back into the freezer for an hour to chill, just before it started to freeze I removed it from the freezer and put it into the fridge. Right before leaving for the group meeting I added 2 teaspoons of bourbon and whipped the cream with my hand held electric mixer on high speed until it became fluffy and doubled in volume. I transferred to a separate serving bowl and brought the cream, and the cheesecake to the reading group.
Everyone raved, even after I warned of the possibly soggy crust, no one had any complaints at all and the crust was eaten with gusto along with the rest of the cake and whipped cream. I even saved a piece for Tom who ate it when I returned home and who also agreed that it was very good cheesecake. As for my opinion, well, I liked the flavor of the cheesecake quite a bit. It was not cloying, the texture was very light and creamy, it tasted wonderfully of pumpkin and smelled just like fall. I did feel that the crust was too sweet, but I was the only one who felt that way. Halfway through my piece I pushed the crust aside and just ate the filling. The reading group and Tom agreed that the Bourbon cream was the perfect partner for the cheesecake. To be fair, and because I didn’t like the crust I'm going to go by majority rules, so the final opinion is... Cook's Illustrated delivered what they promised.
I blame the man standing on line in front of me at the Deli last Friday. He was quite portly and wearing an ascot...an ascot! and if I hadn't been so fascinated with him, I wouldn't have been staring and then I wouldn't have noticed that he bought a black and white cookie. When it was my turn in line, I purchased a black and white cookie too. Back out onto the street and continuing with my walk, cup of steaming hot coffee in one hand and my cookie in the other, I bit into it and imagined myself going over to the man's house and hanging out with him, the 2 of us wearing poofy slippers and eating bon-bons while we watched old black and white movies. "Oh Nelson (I named him Nelson) can you pass me the silver tea service please dah-ling?" I snapped out of it pretty fast..my cookie was stale and it pissed me off. I'm so tired of that, go to a deli and grab a bagel, it's stale, stop in a coffee shop buy a muffin, it's stale. Native New Yorker that I am, I'm actually not into making scenes, so 99.9% of the time I throw the thing out and just hold a grudge against the place forever rather than go back and demand a refund. I threw out the cookie.
Damn, I really wanted that cookie.
The stale cookie made me angry enough to want to bake my own, I figured it was a good project for Sunday afternoon (we had no plans), it would satisfy my craving AND give me something to bring the co-workers on Monday. I decided Tom needed to be involved.
Sunday afternoon I asked Tom if he would like to bake some cookies with me. He said sure, which kind of surprised me because Tom and I are like oil and water on projects together and so we avoid them... well except for the Christmas card which we kind of HAVE to collaborate on. Anyway, I was most impressed with how he didn't protest (too much) when I mentioned that we would be doubling the recipe. Now don't roll your eyes and shake your heads...I'm bringing cookies to the "locusts", I'm going to need a lot.
Nancy Baggett wrote a book called "The All-American Cookie Book". It's filled with some pretty decent recipes, has some nice pictures, and while some of the recipes are fairly labor intensive they are pretty easy to follow. I'm not going to write out the recipe-it would take me 4 days (it already takes me a really long time to write these entries), so I'll just highlight a few things from our afternoon of baking.
I'd like to just mention that I read the recipe before-hand to make sure we had all the ingredients. We needed powdered sugar, (this recipe uses quite a scary amount), so I ran out to the store, where the normally short lines were now snaking out the door. I tried not to think about being seen in public with my lazy Sunday look of- out-of control and frizzy hair, but of course it was all I could think about, well that and how if I had a hundred gazillion dollars and a personal trainer I could look fabulous five minutes after having a baby too, (my response to one of the magazines that cover the lives of the stars, because I talk to magazines while waiting on lines). Back home and flour flying everywhere, I was measuring the six cups we were going to need, when Tom asks:
"Where's the sour cream, in the fridge?"
"What sour-cream?"
"The sour cream we need for the next step"
I'd like to just point out that NOWHERE did I see sour cream when I read the recipe earlier on. So...back out, my hair even more crazy looking, because in between measuring flour and sugar I was head-banging to the sounds of Red Hot Chili Peppers. I came back home to find Tom putting the finishing touches on the tripe (you know, THE TRIPE!) Ok, before this entry gets longer than it already is (because OH MY GOD it's taking me so long to write) I'll just say that we had fun making the cookies. There really were quite a lot, and Tom was a good sport about it, especially because we didn't finish until after 10 p.m. My living room became the holding station for the cooling cookies, while Tom made the icing, I cleaned up so that we could start the assembly process of icing the cookies and making the second big mess of the day. I got to smear the vanilla Tom did the chocolate, we lined them up again to let the icing dry and then I packed them away in air tight containers.
I checked my email just before going to bed last night and there was an email from my boss. I don't usually work on Mondays, but I am working this Monday, and so my boss emailed me to tell me she had mentioned to one of my co-workers that I would be coming in and his reply was "Oh good, perhaps she'll bring goodies".
I think I'm spoiling them.
Bonus "mood cake" picture inside!
Wow! I really don't know where to begin. This cake turned out far far better than I expected. I'm actually really proud of myself. I had this idea, and an inkling of how to go about executing the idea but it all really fell into place once I began working in the kitchen. I trusted my instincts, I don't often feel that confident...in anything I do for that matter but when things come together like this, and its right... that's a great feeling. I don't know what made today different but I really enjoyed making this cake, by far the best part for me at least...was making it and sharing it with people I care about.
Awww that's so sweet...(now get on with it!).
Right, so, uh... this cake was quite unusual in a few ways-it was a marriage of somewhat unique flavors... Muscat wine, pepper and Nutmeg Syrup (scroll down a bit), and with the distinct textures of apples cooked until soft but still just a bit firm, breadcrumb for added texture- and pancake for lightness and sponge but not quite heavy or overly sweet cake, then finishing off with some pretty freaking yummy cream.
I started by making some pancake batter and letting it mellow in the fridge overnight. I omitted the salt and used more sugar to make the batter a little sweeter since I was going to be making a "cake" with it. I doubled the recipe (simply because it's this weird thing I do) but for one normal batch you would need 1/2 cup sourdough starter, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 scant teaspoons baking soda, 2 cups of buttermilk (plus extra if needed), 2 cups of flour-sifted, 1/4 cup cooking oil, and 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. Using the "Scoop and Tap" method of measuring flour-scoop 2 cups of flour into a dry ingredients measuring cup-tapping to let it settle then topping it off- using a knife, scrape off any extra by moving the knife blade over the top of the measurering cup and leveling off. Sift the flour together with the sugar, and baking soda and set aside. In a large bowl combine the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, oil and starter- mix gently, so as not to agitate the starter too much but mix it well so everything is fully incorporated. Gradually add the dry ingredients until blended. If the batter appears lumpy or sort of dough like in texture add more buttermilk until the consistency is smooth and well...batter-like. Let rest overnight in the fridge.
I had been worried about the negative effects of having missed a feeding with the starter but it was all for naught. I woke up this morning to find the babies...I mean yeasties all happy and singing! There was much activity going on in the little clay pot, and that was a good thing it made mama... er, me happy.
Grabbing my mug of coffee I set to work making the Dulce de Leche. Way back many years ago, my friends mother showed me how she makes dulce de leche and it's a method I've used since. I'll warn you now, it's not conventional by gourmet standards but it's pretty cool in my book. You take a can of sweetened condensed milk, peel off the label, place the can in a pot if simmering water (even though the label says not to) insert something inside to keep the can off the bottom of the pot and from rusting your nice pot. Cover entirely with water and simmer at very low heat for a long long time. For a thick dark caramel dulce de leche you would simmer for more than 5 hours but for todays version I let it simmer for only 2 hours. I wanted the carmelization of the milk sugar but not the thick candy like quality that a longer simmer would give it-my intended use today was a light colored sauce.
With the can simmering happily away, I diced many different types of apples. I used a combination of apples that I thought would provide both tart and sweet flavor but keep it's firm flesh when sauteed. I chose Gala, Jona gold, Granny Smith, Fuji, Braeburn, Macoun and Pink Lady. Umm...ok, I got a little carried away by the names but the combo was fabulous.
I apologize from here on in because measurements were "eyeballed" approximations since I was making things up as I was going. The apples were peeled, cored and diced then tossed with the juice of 2 lemons, about a 1/4 cup of Muscat wine, 2 healthy squirts of nutmeg syrup, a tablespoon of caster sugar (cause it's superfine), 2 capfuls of pure Anise extract, 1 capful of pure vanilla extract, (always use pure extracts) a healthy grating of fresh nutmeg, (only ever use fresh) a good dash of cinnamon, a conservative dash of ground cloves, and a pretty bold grind of black peppercorns. The peppercorns were a last minute inspiration from some vague recollection of a recipe I either recently read or read a long time ago, but noted as an interesting thing to do. I let that marinate for about an hour, and went off to butter 2 cake pans, (remember I doubled the recipe).
My original intention was to make cake-tarts? ( maybe mini cakes is a better term?) but as the time to go to work was getting closer I realized I was setting myself up for more work than necessary. So, I settled for using a bundt and a springform pan- mainly because I only have one of each. With the pans buttered and ready for non-stick action, I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees. Pouring the batter carefully into the pans I then put them into the 350 degree oven for 1 hour-I kept a close watch on the cakes through the oven door because I had no idea how long they needed to bake, after an hour a knife inserted came out clean and they looked pretty golden so I took them out. I set them aside on a rack to cool.
The first cake gave me a little trouble and I had to resort to turning the thing upside down and slide/scraping it out with a knife. The second one slipped out much easier. While the cakes were cooling, I melted one stick of butter until just starting to brown in a pan, added the apples and sauteed, adjusting the spices and adding more to taste. As a thickener I used two large pinches of flour, and some plain breadcrumbs, then off the heat, to cool. The breadcrumbs were a bit of a gamble, I wasn't sure what they would do, but thought it would be neat to try it out, they kind of got gloppy although they did add a little courseness to the apple mix and that was kind of ok. I'll probably omit them next time. Having taken the condensed milk out of the pot and letting it get cool enough to handle, I dumped the contents into a pan and stirred in 1/2 cup of warm heavy cream in which I had dissolved 1 teaspoon of instant expresso powder, whisking until just blended then off the heat.
Slicing the now cooled cake in half with a serrated knife- and using a pastry brush I brushed each half with some sauce then added a layer of apples, drizzled more sauce over the apples and covered with the top layer. More sauce drizzled over the top and then finished off with generous amounts of powdered sugar. The first cake I made came out a little awkward and sloppy but being that it was the bigger cake it was the one I took to work. The one I made for home came out pretty nice if I do say so myself. I would have liked to have had some flowers in the shot too but it was not to be.
Final thoughts: The cake was quite delicious, the tart and sweet played off each other really well, the pepper and cloves were a good choice and added a real nice distinct quality to the flavor. I'd use less Muscat next time, it was a bit overpowering but the flavor and fragrance I was going after were present. The verdict about using pancake batter-it was interesting, I think it held up rather well, although in all honesty a real cake batter would be better, not anything fancy just a standard yellow or white cake will do. All that said, this was an excellent cake, everyone loved it and I'd make it again.
Ok folks, you've earned that never before peek at the "mood cake" picture. The intent was artsy dramatic lighting...the camera had other ideas. Oh well.
This brownie recipe is another experiment using a sourdough starter as the yeast. Using a sourdough starter does not mean you're going to get sour brownies. I do confess that I prefer my brownies a little stale, so, beyond a very tiny taste I never did get a chance to eat any of this batch, but I'm told they were good.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Grease a brownie pan and set aside. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer set on medium speed. Add the eggs one at a time, beat well after each addition. Stir the dry ingredients together. Combine the vanilla and starter, then alternating between the vanilla/starter mixture and the flour mixture add them to the butter/sugar mixture. Add the chocolate chips, mix well and spread into the greased brownie pan. Sprinkle nuts and extra chocolate on top and bake in the oven for 30 mins. or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Enjoy!
These cookies taste exactly like the Amaretti cookies you can buy in gourmet specialty shops. You've seen them, they come in a fancy tin and each cookie is individually wrapped, adding to the charm of what is otherwise an extremely expensive tin of cookies. I had a lot of trouble with the cookies when I made them. They were supposed to puff up but instead they sort of spread out and stuck to the greased and floured cookie sheets I was using. I read that flour lined parchment might be better so I'm suggesting that here. I ended up scraping the stuck cookies off the sheets while they were still warm and rolling them in my hand to get the round look they were supposed to have. Not the most glamorous thing to do, but I managed to salvage what was about to turn into a cooking disaster. Regardless of that, the cookies were very delicious and worth the hassle because everyone loved them.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees
Lightly flour parchment paper and line cookie sheets.
In a food processor, chop the almonds until very fine.![](http://www.murrayhill5.net/blog/inmykitchenblog/kitchenimages/groundalmonds.jpg","groundalmonds")
In a bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff. Fold in the almonds, granulated sugar, powdered sugar and almond extract. Mix until completely blended.
Spoon mixture into a pastry bag, make walnut sized mounds onto the parchment lined cookie sheets. Sprinkle with granulated sugar, and bake for about 20 mins or until golden brown.
yeild: about 4 dozen
This recipe is very easy to make and is incredibly delicious.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F
Lightly grease 2 baking sheets. In a medium-sized bowl,
combine 4 cups flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside. In large bowl, with an electric mixer
on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating the mixture
well after each egg. Add the vanilla to the butter mixture and beat well. Reduce the mixer speed to
low and gradually the beat flour mixture into the butter mixture until well blended.
With a spoon, stir in all of the nuts. If dough is still too soft to shape, add the remaining 1/2 cup of flour a little at a time until you have a working dough. Divide the dough into four equal pieces and shape each piece into an approx. 6 x 2-inch log and
place on the large baking sheet. Bake the logs for 30 minutes or until firm and golden brown.
Transfer the logs to a cutting board. With a serrated knife making a sawing motion, cut 1/2 inch slices. Arrange the slices on baking sheet and bake the slices for another 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Makes about 6 dozen cookies. The biscotti keep well for up to 2 months in an air-tight container.
..Heh! yeah right like they'll last for 2 months, they're so good.
Enjoy.
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