Be. Baking

Homemade Granola Recipe

2010-02-21T17:38:00.000-08:00

People are funny about granola. Everyone seems to have their own verrrry specific taste preferences when it comes to this glorious oat concoction. Some people like it to be very crunchy without many chunks, others like it a bit chewier with lots of clusters. Some like nuts, others don’t, some like it to taste “healthy” while others prefer it to be a bit more dessert-like.

And really, there is a humongous difference between good and bad granola. The bad stuff is enough to convince people they hate granola…and sadly, that’s the stuff on most grocery store shelves.

But, if you take the leap and make granola at home (and it’s surprisingly easy to make), well then you never have to suffer the sad saga of crappy granola ever again.

When it comes to granola, crunchy and crispy is the way I roll. I like lots of big chunks and clusters (easier for snacking). I prefer granola just lightly sweetened, which means I can still feel virtuous eating it for breakfast, but I do like subtle hints of vanilla and some caramel/nutty flavors.

After lots of recipe testing, I found that using a combination of agave nectar and dark brown sugar for sweetness and a bit of grapeseed oil (instead of butter or another oil) provides the most mouth-watering flavor. Oh, and don’t forget the salt!

I use slivered almonds for their taste and texture, and I swear that adding some shredded coconut seals the deal. I like dried cranberries for their tang. Oh, and for some reason, a proper granola just HAS to be full of sesame seeds. This is probably my Mom’s doing….my recipe is based loosely on hers.

Crispy Crunchy Cranberry Almond Granola

3 cups rolled oats
¼ cup sesame seeds
¾ cup slivered almonds
¾ cup shredded coconut

¼ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup agave nectar
¼ cup grapeseed oil
¾ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp vanilla

½ cup cranberries
½ cup raisins

Turn oven to 350 degrees. Toast the oats, sesame seeds, almonds and coconut on a rimmed sheet pan for 7 minutes stirring once (watch the coconut because it browns quite quickly).

Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, combine dark brown sugar, agave nectar, grapeseed oil and salt. Stir occasionally until brown sugar dissolves. Take off heat and stir in vanilla.

Reduce oven temp to 300 degrees

In large bowl, mix the warm oat mixture with the brown sugar mixture and toss to coat. Add the cranberries and raisins and mix well.

Pour mixture into a greased “brownie/lasagna pan” and bake for 20-15 minutes. Let cool slightly before breaking into chunks. Keep in a sealed plastic bag or container.

Cranachan with Oat and Almond Streusel

2010-02-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

Please let me introduce you to one of my newest dessert obsessions...the Cranachan. This Scottish dessert is delectably creamy yet light and luscious.

Cranachans are made with yogurt, whipped cream, honey and whiskey and traditionally host loads of fresh raspberries folded into their creamy middles. However, berries aren’t in season but citrus is at its peak, so my version of the Cranachan includes blood orange and navel orange segments. Thinking back to childhood memories of orange creamsicles, I added a vanilla bean to the mix and the whole thing just sung.

A homemade Oat and Almond Streusel is crumbled on top, giving nice crunch and texture. This dessert is easier than pie to put together and the reward is just delicious.

Citrus Cranachan
2 cups whole milk yogurt (or greek yogurt)
2 cups heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, seeds only (or you can use 2 teaspoons extract)
½ teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
½ cup scotch
2/3 cup honey
pinch of salt
Orange segments, skin and pith removed

Whip the cream with the vanilla, lemon zest and salt until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the honey and whisky. Whisk in yogurt until completely smooth.

Fold the whipped cream mixture into the yogurt mixture in three additions. Put into serving dishes and top with orange slices and Oat and Almond Streusel (recipe below).

Oat and Almond Streusel
2 cups rolled oats
1 ½ cups sliced almonds
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup honey
½ cup grapeseed oil
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Combine the oats, almonds, cinnamon and salt in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
Combine the honey, grapeseed oil, and vanilla in a bowl. Whisk to combine. Pour the honey mixture over the oat mixture and stir with a silicone spatula to coat. Spread mixture on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper (or sprayed with pan spray) and bake for about 25-30 minutes until golden (stirring mixture after 12 minutes).

Sour Cherry and Raspberry Crumble Bars

2010-01-18T15:41:00.000-08:00

Here we are in the middle of January and I am inconveniently craving berries. I need a berry fix...and nothing else will do.

Because we are months away from berry season, baking with frozen berries or a high quality jam is a good compromise. I particularly like making Sour Cherry and Raspberry Crumble Bars. It is an incredibly simple recipe that includes a buttery and tender shortbread crust that is spread with sour cherry jam and dotted with frozen raspberries. Then, more of the dough is crumbled on top so that the beautiful jammy filling is peeking through the golden crumble.

When these bars are baking, the delicious smells that come out of the oven will make you wish air was edible.

Sour Cherry and Raspberry Crumble Bars
1 (10 ounce) jar sour cherry preserves
3/4 cup raspberries (thawed, if frozen)
1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
3/4 cups sugar
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup rolled oats

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°

Combine preserves, raspberries, and lemon juice in small bowl; mash with fork until combined but some berry pieces remain. Set aside.

Beat butter, sugar, salt and lemon zest in mixer bowl until light in color and fluffy.

Beat in egg yolks (one at a time).

Beat in Vanilla.

Mix in flour, salt and oats until a soft dough forms.

Divide dough in half.

Press one half into 15x10-inch jellyroll pan.

Spread the dough evenly with the fruit mixture.

Scatter the remaining dough on top of the preserve layer (clump dough with hands)

Bake 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

Cut into bars.

Farmer's Market Therapy

2010-01-05T15:31:00.001-08:00

Whew! We have survived yet another hustley bustley holiday season. Oh the family, oh the friends, oh the food. And then after all the commotion, suddenly it’s a new year and it’s back to reality. As I jump into 2010 I’m excited about a couple of pastry opportunities that have come my way, but along with these good things comes stress.

I was in particular need of some perspective this morning, so I put on my Nikes and jogged to San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza building where a Farmer’s Market was taking place. Just being around such beautiful produce and fabulous foods helps me feel more grounded and inspired.

The lovely citrus fruits are starting to take over…I envision some tartly sweet Meyer Lemon Curd and Blood Orange Ganache in my future.

Oh and the beautiful sweet potatoes (for those of you who watched the most recent White House episode of “Iron Chef”, I apologize for yet another sweet potato reference). But really, they are delicious.

My favorite way to cook sweet potatoes is to cut them into slices, toss them with some grape seed oil (an oil with a high smoke point and neutral flavor), salt and pepper and stick them in the oven (covered with aluminum foil)…then I turn up the heat to around 400 degrees. About 30 to 40 minutes later (take off the foil about half-way through cooking), you will have the sweetest and most delectable sweet potatoes….ever.

The real trick here is to NOT preheat your oven…stick the sweet potato slices in a cold oven and only then should you turn it on. That is THE secret to getting the best and sweetest flavor from these orange beauties.

Now that I've had my Farmer's Market fix, at least until next week, I feel ready to take on 2010 with gusto!

Share

Poppy Seed Roll

2009-12-28T16:30:00.001-08:00

Poppy Seed Rolls remind me of my Mom, who I'm missing a lot after a nice holiday visit. Since she's on my mind, I decided to bring the glory of the Poppy Seed Roll to this sweet little blog space.

My Mom’s stories of the delicious Poppy Seed Rolls she ate as a child are missing just one thing: my Grandmother’s recipe. This is obviously a situation that needs to be rectified…

And so, I took it upon myself to create the Poppy Seed Roll of my Mom’s childhood; a softly sweet, bready roll spiraled with lots of poppy seed filling.

You can opt to make or buy poppy seed filling (I’ve had luck with the poppy seed filling made by a company called Solo). However, your most delicious bet is to make the filling yourself, and its actually quite easy. Simply simmer poppy seeds down with some milk, sugar, honey, orange zest, a pinch of salt and a hint of vanilla (raisins are NOT permitted…Mother’s rules). When it tastes delicious, your filling is done.

I recommend wrapping the poppy seed filling up in a light and buttery dough. I like using the same dough I use for Cinnamon Buns, you can find the recipe here: http://bit.ly/7Pd7sj . Next, I roll out the dough, load it up with poppy seed filling, roll it up and then bake it until golden. I like to then paint it with a bit of warmed apricot jam and drizzle on some simple vanilla glaze made of confectioner’s sugar and vanilla extract.

Yum…a soft and light bread full of deliciously sticky poppy seed filling…which is slighty nutty and has a teeny little crunch. The gentle tang from the apricot jam is perfect. If you’ve never tasted a Poppy Seed Roll before, I urge you to try this out...and don’t forget to share the recipe!

Share

A Holiday Cookie Recipe and How to Ship Baked Goods

2009-12-18T18:40:00.000-08:00

Egads! The dilemma of the holiday season is upon us: what the heck to get everyone on your list. Well I have an answer for you…and it’s sweet and lovely and involves butter. Simply bake up some delicious goodies, package them ever so cutely, and…presto gifto!

To start you off right in your holiday bake-a-thon, I have a perfect holiday butter cookie recipe to share. This butter cookie is sturdy enough to hold up to extensive decorating and won’t turn to dust if jostled around a bit. It’s also so delicious that you’ll have a hard time giving these cookies away. Of course, if you “accidentally” break a few cookies…well then you’ll just HAVE to eat them yourself.

These cookies are also incredibly versatile. You can cut them out and decorate them with colored sugars, sprinkles and frostings. Or, you can turn them into thumbprint cookies with jam in the middle. Or perhaps you’d like to make them into sandwich cookies? Oh yes, you get to unleash your creative side with these babies.

After you’ve baked your storm of cookies, you can package them in a nice tin and hand them off to a friend that lives nearby. Or, for those people that don’t live so nearby, you can ship these cookies (another reason I love this recipe).

When shipping cookies, you should either wrap each individual cookie in plastic wrap or stack a few together before wrapping (sometimes I like putting the cookies into clear plastic bags instead and tying it with ribbon for a nice presentation). The cookies will need to be packaged together tightly. I like using tissue paper between each cookie/stack of cookies to insulate them.

It’s quite important to include two lines of defense when mailing cookies. You should not only have the box with the cookies inside of it, but also another shipping box. You will also need to pad the internal cookie box from the external one. I like using wadded up paper bags, but I’ve heard of people successfully using air-popped popcorn, bubble wrap or paper shreds as well.

Here’s to holiday gifts full of deliciousness!

Butter Cookies
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces and at cool room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cream cheese, cool room temperature

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the flour, sugar and salt on low speed until combined. With the mixer running, add the butter one piece at a time; continuing to mix until mixture looks crumbly and slightly wet, about 1 minute longer. Add vanilla and cream cheese and mix on low until dough just begins to form large clumps, about 30 seconds.

Remove dough from mixer and knead by hand in the bowl for 2 or 3 turns to form a cohesive mass. Turn out dough onto counter and divide in half, pat into two 4-inch disks and refrigerate for 20 -30 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough between parchment paper to 1/8 inch thick, chill for 10 minutes. Cut into desired shapes and place the cookies 1 ½ inches apart on parchment lined cookie sheets. Chill again for about 10 minutes. Bake until light brown, about 10 minutes. Decorate as desired.

Share

Low Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-12-09T11:26:00.000-08:00

‘Tis the season for holiday cookies! Sugar cookies, molasses cookies, spice cookies, nut cookies, big cookies, small cookies, rolled cookies drop cookies, cookie bars…sheesh…I’ve got a lot of baking to do! Speaking of which, I want to share one of my favorite cookie recipes with you…something to keep in your cookie arsenal for years to come: Chewy Gooey Low Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Yes, you read correctly LOW FAT cookies. Now, before you run for the hills and start cursing my name, please give this recipe a chance. I promise you that it’s not just some cardboardy cookie with the single virtue of being better for you. The number one reason you will love these cookies is because they are fantastically delicious. The low fat bit just makes the package that much sweeter.

This ooh so gooey and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe is a bit different than a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe. First, it relies on browned butter (a technique where butter is melted on the stove until it turns light brown and starts smelling nutty). Browning the butter bumps up the buttery flavor meaning you can use less of it while maintaining the same intensity. Also, in order to keep these cookies moist and chewy, dates are used. The dates are chopped up, cooked down and strained so they become a puree (and are undetectable in the final cookie). The dates do not impart any fruit flavor in this cookie, thanks largely to the browned butter.

The rest of the ingredients are more standard…I like to use all dark brown sugar because I like it’s deep intensity. A good amount of vanilla and some salt round out the rest of the flavors and make these cookies out of this world. This is a chocolate chip cookie recipe to replace all others.

Chewy Gooey Low Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from Cook’s County)

1 cup water
4 tablespoons finely chopped dates (I like using Medjool dates)
3 tablespoons butter
2 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups packed brown sugar (dark or light)
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Bring water to boil in small saucepan and add dates. Simmer until tender and most of the water has evaporated (~20 minutes). Using a rubber spatula, press dates through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium bowl (discard the bits that you can’t get through the strainer). You should have about ¼ cup of the date puree.

Cook butter in a saucepan over medium heat until nutty brown (~4 minutes). Let cool.

Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Beat (with a stand mixer or by hand) the browned butter, brown sugar and date puree in a medium bowl until blended. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. Add flour mixture and mix until combined. Reserve 2 tablespoons chips and stir remaining chips into the batter by hand.

Roll 2 tablespoons of dough at a time into balls to get 18 cookies. Space the cookies about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Press the remaining chocolate chips evenly over the cookies.

Bake until the edges are golden brown and center are soft and puffy, 15-18 minutes. Rotate the cookie sheets halfway through baking. Cool cookies completely on baking sheets.

Share

French Apple Tart

2009-12-01T18:22:00.000-08:00

It took me months to decide on a dessert to make for the Thanksgiving table. Yes, months.

Given my tendency to overdo it when it comes to desserts... **flashback to when I brought 6 different desserts to a mid-day gathering of about 8 people** ...I decided to focus on making just one lovely dessert. A novel idea, I know.

There is something nice about having only one dessert to focus on. I appreciate it more that way and there is no internal battle as to which dessert I want to be my last bite (this is a very important decision if you are me). As long as there is more than enough dessert to go around, having only one dessert available can be liberating.

For Thanksgiving, I wanted to make a fun dessert that was slightly intricate and accessibly fancy. It needed to make sense with the rest of the meal, and leave people pleasantly full, not overly stuffed. And thus began my Thanksgiving dessert debate.

First, I “decided” to make a fluffy Lemon Cake with Meringue Frosting…but no, it was a bit too intense and flashy. Then, I thought about doing a Cardamom Pound Cake with Poached Oranges…but, eh…I wanted something lighter. Maybe a Pear Cranberry and Walnut Pie? No. And on and on it went…

Right about the point when I was even annoying myself with the dessert flip-flopping, I figured it out; a classic and beautiful French Apple Tart. The recipe is from America’s Test Kitchen, so I knew it would be good.

It wasn’t just good, it was scrumptious. The crust was snappy and flaky, the apples were tart and sweetly caramelized. It was exactly what everyone wanted.

You can find the recipe here: http://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=4530&iSeason=8

Share

Peppercorns? In Shortbread?

2009-11-24T20:42:00.000-08:00

I have a baking challenge for you. Try using what are normally savory ingredients in a sweet baking application.

Now, I’m only being so commanding because I truly think it will be an enlightening baking adventure. My muse? A Cracked Peppercorn Shortbread success story.

It’s amazing how the taste of something as familiar as pepper changes when introduced into a sweet, crumbly shortbread. It becomes floral and more nuanced…without losing its kick. It’s really something fantastic.

The sky is the limit here, and creativity is key. My next flavor adventure will be a peanut butter and cayenne cookie…and then perhaps a cumin-scented butter cake.

If you want to give the peppercorn shortbread a whirl, I recommend adding about 1 teaspoon finely ground pepper for each cup of flour called for in your favorite shortbread recipe. Try using a variety of peppercorns...I used black, green and white. Then, I sprinkled the top with a mixture of sugar and more cracked pepper. Who knew pepper could be so sweet?

Share

Cardamom and Pear Upside-Down Cake

2009-11-16T14:32:00.000-08:00

I have a flavor secret weapon: Cardamom.

It wasn’t until I went to pastry school that I truly discovered and fell in love with Cardamom. In my experience, it’s one of those ingredients that many people have heard of but don’t know how to use…nor are they aware of the magical powers it possesses in the deliciousness department. Cardamom’s flavor is both pungent and sweet, it reminds me of cinnamon, ginger and citrus.

Cardamom is a member of the ginger family and is one of the most expensive spices out there (luckily, a little goes a long way). The most common varieties sold are green and black. I tend towards the green cardamom in baking, but you can use either variety depending on your taste. To me, black cardamom is a bit bitter and has kind of a blunt flavor compared to the green variety.

For maximum flavor, I recommend buying the cardamom in their pods and then grinding it in a spice grinder. You can also find it in powder form but it’s a little iffy as to how strong the flavor will be…it could have been sitting on the grocery store shelves for longer than you’d like to imagine.

Cardamom has a warm and lingering flavor that is full of complexity and is quite wonderful in baked goods. I especially like pairing it with fruit, like pears in this Cardamom and Pear Upside-Down Cake.

Here, the cardamom takes on a very warm and cozy quality that is perfect for dessert tables in the fall and winter months.

Cardamom and Pear Upside-Down Cake
Upside-Down Topping:
2 Bartlett Pears, peeled, cored and cut into ¼ inch slices
½ stick of butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons juice from an orange

Cake:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
¾ stick of butter
zest from 1 orange
¾ teaspoon cardamom
½ cup sour cream
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch round cake pan (I used a pan with a removable bottom, but it’s not necessary).

For the Upside-Down Topping:
Heat the butter, brown sugar, salt and orange juice in a skillet over medium heat. Once the butter has melted and all sugar is dissolved, take off the heat and pour mixture into the cake pan.
Arrange the Pear slices overlapping one another on top of the sugar mixture. Set aside.

For the Cake:
Melt the butter with the orange zest and cardamom. Once butter is melted, set aside to cool.
Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Whisk both sugars and the eggs together in a large bowl until thick and smooth. Slowly whisk in the melted butter mixture until combined. Add sour cream and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add the flour mixture and whisk just to combine.
Pour batter into the pan over the pears and spread evenly. Bake until cake is golden brown, ~35-40 minutes.

Cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Loosen the cake from the pan by running a butter knife or small offset spatula around the inner edge. Place wire rack on top of cake and flip over the cake (you may want to do this over parchment to catch any drips). Gently remove the cake pan and allow to cool completely.

Share

What the Fuyu?

2009-11-13T15:13:00.000-08:00

Persimmons are small, squat fruits that look like the offspring of a tomato and a sugar pumpkin. They taste like nothing I’ve had before…sweet like pears or apples with a squash-esque note. Sounds bizarre, but these orange beauties are delicious!

Although there are many different types of persimmons out there, two varieties are seen most often; the Fuyu and the Hachiya. These two types of persimmons look almost identical, but can be identified by their their shape. And, you definitely want to be able to distinguish the two...

The Fuyu persimmons are flat on the bottom and have the best flavor when they are still firm...but don’t get too comfortable munching on firm persimmons. Beware the Hachiya variety. Hachiya persimmons are incredibly tannic and astringent until they have fully ripened. They are heart-shaped and should only be eaten when they are squishy soft (spreadable even). If you eat a Hachiya Persimmon when it’s still firm, your tastebuds will hate you. If you eat it when it’s smushy gushy, your tastebuds will love you.

I’ve got an assortment of persimmons hanging out in my kitchen. The Hachiyas are still too firm to eat, so I’ve been experimenting with the Fuyu variety. Although they are perfectly yummy when eaten like an apple, sometimes it’s fun to add a little variety to the mix…like with this Fuyu Persimmon and Cranberry Compote recipe.

The compote is absolutely delicious, especially over vanilla yogurt with some toasted walnuts scattered on top. This compote is tart and a bit sweet with dried cherry/plum flavors (likely imparted by the wine). What a nice way to treat a Fuyu.

Fuyu Persimmon and Cranberry Compote
3 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 lime, juiced and zested
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/3 to 1/2 cup honey (depending on taste)
1 star anise
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
Pinch of salt
3-4 Fuyu Persimmons (about 1 lb total), peeled if desired and cut into 1/4-inch dice

Bring all ingredients except the persimmons to a boil in a saucepan, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Discard star anise and stir in persimmons. Enjoy warm or cold.

Share

Cranberry and Pear Galette

2009-11-08T14:13:00.001-08:00

The weather in San Francisco is completely unhelpful when it comes to determining the seasons. If you’re not paying close attention, an entire month can slip away with little trace. I’m still trying to figure out where October went…if it weren’t for the Halloween pictures, I wouldn’t believe it was over.

Well, at least I can count on the produce at the farmers markets to help me (loosely) keep up with the time of year. And, based on the bounty of pears, apples, persimmons, cranberries, squash and pomegranates…well, we’re in the midst of autumn.

The fall and winter months are synonymous with warm fruit desserts. Tender fruit baked with homey spices, perhaps a crisp and nutty topping, a flaky crust, or buttery biscuits that absorb the flowing juices. Perfect with a scoop of ice cream, which immediately starts melting into the fruit creating the most delicious bite. It’s impossible not to slow down for a moment and say “mmmmm”.

Pears and cranberries are a simply lovely combination in fruit desserts. The sweetness of the cooked pears melts into the tart cranberries. Add some frangipane to the mix and you can’t go wrong.

One of my favorite ways to feature fruit in desserts is in the form of a galette, or a free-form pie (think of it as a pie without the pan).

In this version, I used Bartlett Pears which turn from green to golden as they ripen. The flavor of the pears will come through, even if you start with slightly under-ripe pears. This galette is not only beautiful and delicious but as easy as…well, pie.

Cranberry and Pear Galette
For the Crust:
1 stick cold, unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch pieces
3-4 tbsp cold water
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

For the filling:
2 Bartlett Pears, cored, peeled if desired, and cut into chunks
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

1/3 cup slivered blanched almonds
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick room-temperature unsalted butter
1 egg
1 Tbsp flour
2 drops almond extract

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Place the butter pieces in a bowl or plate and freeze for at least 20 minutes. Refrigerate the water in a small cup until needed.

Place the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and process for 10 seconds to incorporate the ingredients. Add the frozen butter pieces and pulse 6-10 times until the butter and flour mixture looks like crushed crackers and peas.

Immediately transfer the butter-flour mixture to a large bowl. Sprinkle a tablespoon of the cold water of the mixture and fluff it in. Then, add another and another, until 3 tablespoons have been added. Continue to fluff and stir 10 to 12 times. It will not be a cohesive dough at this point, but before bringing it together, you need to test for the correct moisture content. Take a handful of the mixture and squeeze firmly. Open you hand if the clump falls apart and looks dry, add a bit more water (one teaspoon at a time). The dough is done when it holds together (even if a few small pieces fall off). If the butter feels soft and squishy, refrigerate before continuing. If it’s still cold and firm, continue to the next step.

Turn the dough onto a work surface and gently knead 3-6 times. Flatten the dough into a 6 inch disk and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

For the filling, put the pears, cornstarch brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and toss together. Set aside. Grind the almonds with the sugar and salt in a food processor until the almonds are finely ground. Add the softened butter and process (scrape down from food processor sides if needed). Add eggs one at a time, making sure first egg is thoroughly mixed before adding the next. Add the flour and almond extract and mix well.

Dust a work surface with flour and set the disk of dough on the flour. Dust the top with flour and roll it out until you’ve got a14-15 inch circle bout 1/8 inch thick. Fold the dough circle into quarters and transfer to a sheet pan, then unfold dough.

Put the almond mixture in the center of the dough leaving a 3 inch margin on all sides. Mound the pear mixture on top of the almond mixture and then put the cranberries on top.

Fold the excess dough up over the fruit in a clockwise direction until the fruit is enclosed (there should be about 4-6 inches of exposed fruit in the middle).

Chill the galette in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling.

Share

Halloween Macarons and Mini Pizzas

2009-11-01T22:41:00.000-08:00

Here's hoping your Halloween was happy and delicious!

Nick and I went to a Halloween potluck party hosted by a couple of our dear friends. We dressed as Betty Crocker and Chef Boyardee. I’ll let you figure out who was who…

For the party, I made Orange French Macarons filled with Grand Marnier Ganache. They were BooooOOoooozie…

Nick also decided to bake for the party, and gave homemade pizza a try (using the pizza dough recipe from my last post). He made mini pizzas with a homemade pomegranate BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese and cilantro.

Those are some treats worth sinking your teeth into!

Homemade Pizza

2009-10-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up, my Mom made pizza fairly often. I picture her standing in the kitchen with smudges of flour all over her shirt, buzzing her Cuisinart to make pizza dough. I liked helping top the pizzas, almost always opting for mushrooms, onions and red pepper. Oh, and some fresh basil if we had it. Then, Mom would slide the doughy beauties into the oven.

The baking pizza smelled yeasty, sweet and herby with a cheesy tang. If I could have eaten the air coming out of the kitchen, I would have.

Just thinking about my Mom’s homemade pizza makes me want to hop on a plane to Illinois. Since I can’t do that every time I need a homemade pizza fix, I've learned to make it myself.

Pizza is relaxed and comfy…put whatever you’re craving on top of it, and enjoy it with people you love.

Pizza Dough
¼ cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast, or 1 ¾ teaspoons instant yeast
1 cup water
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 ¼ bread flour (or All Purpose)
1 ½ teaspoons salt
Semolina or finely ground cornmeal

Pour the warm water into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the yeast, whisk by hand to blend, and allow the mixture to sit for 5-10 minutes, until the yeast is activated and looks creamy. Add the 1 cup water and 3 tablespoons olive oil and whisk by hand. Add the flour and salt. Knead the dough on low speed for 2 minutes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 20 minutes. Turn the mixer to medium-low and continue to knead until the dough is firm, elastic and smooth (3-6 minutes).

Lightly oil a tub or bowl and scrape the dough in. Brush a little oil over the surface of the dough and then cover tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough rise at room temp until doubled in size, about 45-60 minutes.

Place a baking or pizza stone (if you have one) in the oven. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Give the oven at least 30 minutes to an hour to fully heat the stone, so you get a beautiful crispy crust.

Punch the dough down very gently to expel some of the bubbles. Then, turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter. Dust the top of the dough lightly with flour, then press down with your fingers to flatten the dough into a disk about 12 inches in diameter (you can use a rolling pin if you like).

Top the pizza with whatever deliciousness you have in mind. Center your pizza on a baking sheet that has been dusted with Semolina. You can bake your pizza on the sheet, or slide it directly onto the pizza stone.

Bake for 7-9 minutes until the dough is golden at the edges and bottom (use a spatula to slide under the pizza to check the bottom).

Sweet Bookery: "The Sweet Life in Paris" by David Lebovitz

2009-10-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

Good friends, good food and good books…all together in one place. You can’t get much better than a pastry-inspired book club. Sweet Bookery includes some of the kindest, funniest and smartest people I know; my former pastry school classmates.

The first book we read was The Sweet Life in Paris by pastry chef and author, David Lebovitz. It’s a funny and endearing story about his move from San Francisco to Paris, and his experiences living as an American in Paris (with a heavy emphasis on the food). The book is full of hilarious anecdotes, words of advice and helpful tidbits. Not to mention some awesome recipes (both sweet and savory).

Since the book is full of fantastic recipes, it seemed logical to whip up a few for the meeting. I made his French Chocolate Macarons, which were less finicky than many other Macaron recipes. They had that wonderful crispy-chewy texture that is characteristic of a Macaron, and were lusciously chocolaty.

I also made some American Macaroons, which seemed appropriate given the context of the book. I used a David Lebovitz recipe for this as well (although it was from his website instead: http://bit.ly/25RXWh).

A fantastic Fig-Olive Tapenade recipe was both savory and sweet with a bit of crunch from the fig seeds that was unexpected and pleasant. I served it with Rosemary bread from the bakery where I work.

The recipe in the book for Spiced Nut Mix is out of this world good, and is a perfect sort of snack. It’s a tad spicy, slightly sweet, salty and crunchy. It’s also a lovely topping for ice cream.

A few of the other book club members brought some desserts from the book (drat! I didn’t get a chance to get any pictures of those tasty morsels).

Now, we are trying to decide what book to read next. It’s got a lot to live up to…

Chocolate-Banana Marble Bread

2009-10-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

I’m not very good at following recipes. I don’t start out trying to be a recipe rebel but once I get into the kitchen, I tend to stray from the written word.

Yes, yes, you’re right that baking is incredibly scientific and you have to be careful with your tinkering. But, if you know a bit of the “why” behind what you’re doing and have a slightly daring spirit, you should be able to twist a recipe and get something yummy. And if it tastes like an old man’s boot…well, we learn from our mistakes!

My most recent recipe interpretation was for Chocolate-Banana Marble Bread. I know the original recipe is a good one because I tried it (a good starting point). Plus, I had some over-ripe bananas in the freezer that I wanted to clear out. The freezer is a good trick if you have bananas that are super-ripe but don’t have time to bake. All you need to do is peel them, stick them in a sealed plastic baggie and put them in the freezer.

The first thing I did to the marble bread recipe was add a bit of salt. I add salt to all baking recipes if they don’t include it, just a pinch of it boosts the flavors of everything else - your final product won’t taste salty…just more delicious.

In the original recipe, there was more butter than there needed to be. I decided to brown the butter in a small saucepan over low heat to pump up the butter flavor while using less of it (a great trick I got from America’s Test Kitchen). Since I had removed some of the butter but wanted to ensure that the final product was still moist, I decided to use a bit more buttermilk than the recipe called for and substitute half of the total sugar with brown sugar. Another issue I had with the original recipe was that it didn’t call for any actual chocolate (just cocoa powder). I’m a chocolate fiend so the chocolate omission needed to be addressed, and what better way than with chocolate chips?!

Speaking of chocolate chips…I’ve had a hard time finding really delicious chocolate chips. It’s easy to see the word “chocolate” and sort of trick yourself into thinking they taste good, but lots of the brands out there don’t! I did a taste test at home and was disappointed by the majority of the brands on the shelves. My favorite brand of chocolate chips at the local Whole Foods Market are made by the company “Enjoy Life”. The chocolate chips are mini, which I actually prefer in most baked goods…the proportions end up juuuuust right.

Out of the oven, all warm and toasty. Chocolate! Bananas! Joy!

The recipe I came up with is below…please tweak it to your liking.

Chocolate-Banana Marble Bread
(Thanks to Cindy Mushet for the recipe upon which this one is based)

3 very ripe medium sized bananas, peeled and at room temp
½ cup buttermilk
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup sifted pastry flour
1 cup sifted all purpose flour (you can use 2 sifted cups of all purpose flour if you don’t have pastry flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ cup cocoa powder (Dutch-process or natural is fine…I used natural)
3 tablespoons boiling water
6 Tablespoons butter
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
¾ cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly coat a 9x5 loaf pan with melted butter or high-heat canola spray and line it with a piece of parchment that extends 1 inch beyond the long edges of both sides of the pan (this will make it easy to take the bread out of the pan).

Put butter in a small saucepan over low-moderate heat and swirl the pan as the butter melts and starts to brown…when the butter starts to smell slightly nutty and the color darkens to amber, take it off the heat and let it cool (if you burn the butter…and you’ll know if you do…start over or your marble bread will taste bitter).

Sift the flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Set aside. Put the coca powder in a small bowl and pour the boiling water over it until it forms a smooth paste. Set aside.

Put the bananas in the bowl of a food processor and process to a smooth puree (or just mash them with a fork). Transfer the puree to a large bowl and add the sugars, buttermilk, cooled browned butter, vanilla, and eggs and whisk until just blended.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredient mixture and add the wet ingredients, gently mix until just blended...mix only until there aren’t any white pockets of flour.

Transfer half of the batter to a medium sized bowl, add the cocoa paste and gently but thoroughly blend it together.

Fold half of the chocolate chips into the light batter and half into the dark batter.

Drop alternating spoonfuls of the dark and light batters into the prepared pan, then “marbelize” it by using a spoon to gently turn the batter over in 3 places down the length of the pan (you’re essentially folding the two colors of batter into one another).

Bake for 55-65 minutes, until firm to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a rack and cool completely. When cool, remove from pan, peel off parchment and cut slices using a serrated knife.

Orange Pecan Cinnamon Swirl

2009-10-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

I had some time on my hands, was feeling generous and know how Nick loves cinnamon buns. And so, I decided to bake up a delicious breakfast bread for him to bring to work…a riff on the sweet cinnamon buns he adores.

I started by making my favorite breakfast dough recipe. This dough is easy to put together and an absolute dream to work with. The only thing to watch out for with this dough is to make sure that the butter is room temp before incorporating it into the dough. If it’s not, it won’t incorporate smoothly and will take a bit more work.

Once the dough was smooth and silky, I rolled it out and filled it with orange zest, cinnamon, brown sugar, and toasted pecans (toasting nuts brings out a much stronger, richer flavor). I then rolled up the dough like I was making cinnamon buns, but then switched gears a bit. I wrapped it into a circle and cut slits 2 inches apart. Then I turned up these wedges so the filling was visible.

While it was baking, the whole apartment smelled of sweet cinnamon and I got an overwhelming feeling of comfort and “home”.

And then, out of the oven it came, and after some contemplation, I christened it “Orange Pecan Cinnamon Swirl”. I let it cool briefly and then drizzled an orange glaze over the top.

Lucky for me there was still one piece left when Nick came home that evening. It’s funny how people often feel bad taking the last piece of anything. If there’s a piece of something delicious left and I want to eat it…well, I see that as fate.

Turns out, the Orange Pecan Swirl was just as yummy for dessert as for breakfast.

For this recipe, go to the end of my post on August 28th and add the zest of 1 orange and 1 cup of toasted pecans to the filling, and substitute orange juice for the water in the glaze.

Gateau Marjolaine

2009-09-27T21:13:00.001-07:00

I laughed, I cried, I ended up with a cake…not an uncommon sequence of events in my world.

When I’m in the middle of baking a recipe involving lots of finicky components (like some sort of layer cake), I will likely reach a point when I debate scrapping the whole messy project and heading downstairs to the Whole Foods Bakery instead.

Cakes that include lots of layers and fillings almost always look bad before they look good, at least mine do. The Gateau Marjolaine, a cake with multiple layers, is a perfect example.

The Gateau Marjolaine is a cake for special occasions, and the recipe I’m familiar with consists of layers of Dacquoise (a meringue that is baked like a cake) that is then layered with chocolate ganache, coffee buttercream (or hazelnut praline buttercream) and almond cream. It is covered with rich chocolate ganache and toasted almonds or hazelnuts. Sounds delicious…and really, it is…but it’s creation isn’t always pretty…

I started losing faith in my Gateau Marjolaine fairly quickly…the cake layers were crumbling before me as I tried to smooth the fussy fillings into place. Instead of setting up as I had envisioned, the buttercreams created a sort of slip and slide with the cake. And then, there was the matter of the ganache. It had become a magnet for my clothing and was getting all over the place. I even found some in my pocket.

Luckily, I regained control of my Marjolaine mishap by putting the entire thing into the fridge and taking some deep cleansing breathes. The fridge is a good sort of time-out for unruly baking projects. It straightens things out a bit and gives the baker some more control.

After much mayhem, frustration, and eventual delight, the Gateau Marjolaine was deliciously worthwhile.

Banana Apple Muffins with Cinnamon Walnut Crunch

2009-09-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

I am in a strange sort of limbo this week. I felt so clever when I put in my two weeks notice so that my last ho-hum day at my ho-hum office job would be one week before my first happy day at my first happy pastry place.

Having this time off seemed utterly divine and blissful as I was looking forward to it. I envisioned myself spending my days lounging on the couch, enrobed in fine linens while nibbling bonbons, with not a care in the world…

But, when Monday actually rolled around, the reality of it all was quite annoying. I realized that my couch isn’t very comfortable, I don’t have fine linens to wrap myself in, and eating too many bonbons gave me a splitting headache and made me cranky. Oh yeah, and I was lonely.

So, I did what makes me feel better…I baked something. And for me, there is really nothing cozier than baking muffins.

I had some over-ripe bananas and some lovely pink lady apples around, so I decided to put that combo together and sprinkle the top with a tasty cinnamon-walnut crunch. Luckily, these muffins cheered me up and were just as wonderful as I had imagined.

Banana Apple Muffins with Cinnamon Walnut Crunch
Makes 12 muffins

For the muffins:
3 medium very ripe bananas, mashed
1 pink lady apple, chopped into ¼ inch dice (I like the skin on, but do whatever makes you happy)
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
½ cup cinnamon apple instant oatmeal (or any flavor you like…if you don’t have this around, you can just add an additional ¼ cup of flour instead)
¾ cup brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ stick of butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cups milk (I used 1%)
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Cinnamon Walnut Crunch:
*This makes more than you’ll need…use the rest to much on or put on top of yogurt.
1 egg white
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 ½ cups coarsely chopped walnuts

To make the Cinnamon Walnut Crunch:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Whisk egg white until frothy, then whisk in sugar and cinnamon. Fold in the nuts. Spread on parchment-lined sheet tray and bake for ~12 minutes, until beginning to dry. Stir to break up nuts. Continue to bake until nuts and coating are dry and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Cool and finely chop.

To make the Banana Apple Muffins:

Turn up the oven to 350 degrees (after the walnut crunch is done). In a large bowl, combine the flours, oatmeal, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger and salt and whisk to mix well. In another large bowl, combine the mashed bananas, melted but cooled butter, milk, eggs and vanilla and mix well.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the banana mixture into the well and stir gently with a rubber spatula. Mix only until there are no more streaks of flour or pools of liquid and the batter looks fairly smooth. A few small lumps scattered throughout are fine. Gently fold in the apple pieces until evenly distributed.

Grease muffin tin or line with 12 paper liners. Fill each spot ¾ full with batter. Sprinkle Cinnamon Walnut Crunch evenly on top. Bake muffins for ~17-20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Pastry School Graduation

2009-09-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

The past week was a whirlwind of flying sugar and flour. Amidst it all, I somehow got it together enough to present my final pastry project (champagne in hand) and graduate from pastry school.

The final project was a neat assignment. Each student came up with an idea for a dessert table they felt represented their pastry persona, and then got to create it and present at graduation. Fifteen hours of baking later, there were a lot of beautiful cakes and lovely set-ups.

Because I have completely fallen for tarts, I knew I wanted my project to be a sort of ode to these lovely sweets. I also decided to have a fruit or nut (or both) component in every one of my tarts to express my love for these ingredients. One of the hardest things for me was narrowing down my tart menu. I finally figured it out…
Plum Tart
Peach and Raspberry Tart
Raspberry Frangipane Tarts
Bittersweet Chocolate Tarts with Almond Crust
Lemon Poppy Seed Tarts
Coconut and Peach Tarts with Rum Whipped Cream
Caramelized Banana Pecan Linzer Tarts
Gingersnap-Peach Poptarts

Before starting in on the baking, I created a timeline for my tart project. I knew that it was going to be a challenge to get everything finished in time, and that I would likely be cursing my own name. I was right…I was still in the back of the kitchen with a torch in hand bruleeing bananas when the first guests started arriving.

In a tart fervor, everything (except for a Lemon Poppy Seed Tart I forgot in the fridge) made it to the front table.

I feel oh, so bittersweet about graduating. It’s sad to leave the comfort and warmth of my San Francisco school where I got to play with ingredients and test recipes. But, I’m also excited to take the next step.

So here I go, off to bake full time...

Oh, and I'm including the Plum Tart recipe in case you care to join in on the fun.

A Plum Tart Indeed

Almond Tart Dough:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup slivered blanched almonds
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
~2 tablespoons ice water

Blend flour, almonds, sugar and salt in processor until nuts are finely ground. Add butter and cut in using on/off turns until mixture resembles coarse meal. Mix in almond extract and enough water to form moist clumps. Knead dough briefly on work surface to combine; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate until firm before rolling, at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Roll out crust dough on lightly floured surface to 13-inch round. Transfer dough to 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Gently press dough into tart pan; trim excess and dock the bottom of the dough with a fork. Freeze crust 15 minutes.

Bake the crust 10 minutes. Continue to bake until crust is pale golden, about 12 minutes. Cool crust for about 15 minutes.

Filling:
3/4 cup slivered blanched almonds
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 stick room-temperature unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 Tbsp flour
2-3 drops almond extract
4 large plums, pitted and cut into thin slices

Grind the almonds with the sugar and salt in a food processor until the almonds are finely ground. Add the softened butter and process (scrape down from food processor sides if needed). Add eggs one at a time, making sure first egg is thoroughly mixed before adding the next. Add the flour and almond extract and mix well.

Fill cooled tart shell with almond filling, leaving 1/4 inch margin on the rim of the pastry (this leaves room for filling to expand). Then, push plum slices into the filling and bake at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes until nicely browned. Transfer to a rack.

Glaze:
1/4 cup apricot preserves
2 teaspoons water

Stir apricot jam with the water in small saucepan over medium heat until mixture boils. Strain the glaze into small bowl. Brush glaze generously over plums. Cool tart completely.

Plating Desserts - A Sugar Plum Tartlet and a Nectarine Tea Cake

2009-09-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

Plating desserts is such fun! You get to experiment with different textures, flavors, temperatures, colors, and shapes with results that are delicious and make people happy. All in all, I suppose it’s really just playtime with sweets.

It’s incredible how the same dessert component can morph depending on how it’s plated. Take a simple piece of chocolate cake for example…it could be cut in a triangle, or a circle or a rectangle…could be filled or not, have a sauce or not, be on a square plate or an oval plate or in a glass…and so on…forever.

However fun it can be, plating desserts is challenging. Although it might be easy to think up a bazillion plating ideas, when it comes to the actual dessert architecture, well that’s an entirely different story. The plate is too big, the cake isn’t the right shape, the sauce is too thick, ARGH.

Last week in class, we were given a stocked pantry (full of fruits, nuts and sauces) and were told to create two plated desserts.

The first dessert I put up was a Sugarplum and Chocolate Meringue Tartlet with Cocoa Nib Cookie Crumbs and Caramel Ice Cream.

The second dessert was a Nectarine Tea Cake and a Stone Fruit-Pistachio Verrine with Browned Butter and Rum Cream. A verrine is a layered dessert that is similar to a parfait.

Since dessert plating can induce mild anxiety attacks in the pastry-obsessed, it’s nice to have some pointers:

Go for odd numbers: Put 1 or 3 cookies on the plate instead of 2 or 4.
Balance is important but don’t be rely on symmetry: If you put a raspberry on one side of the plate, maybe put a few chopped nuts on the other side on a slight angle, or just leave it blank.
Try out different heights and shapes: Combine circles with lines and swooshes, etc.
Use interesting vessels: Try putting a custard in a jar or using a pretty glass or interesting looking plate, it’ll make a big difference.
Use a variety of textures and temperatures: Try to have something crunchy, something smooth, something warm and something cold on the plate.
The magic number 3: On a basic level, try to include the main dessert, a sauce and a garnish on each plate.
If you can’t eat it: Don’t put it on the plate…no matter how pretty it is.
Don’t put anything on the plate that isn’t in the main dessert: Just say NO to the random mint leaf!

Happy Plating!

Warm and Gooey Cinnamon Buns

2009-08-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

In the whirlwind of life, it’s easy to overlook the small things that make it beautiful…like a deliciously sweet bite of nectarine, a small dainty flower by the sidewalk, the sun on your face or a crunchy piece of toast drizzled with clover honey. It’s nice to find things to look forward to, things that make you happy and think “Oh yes, life is good.”

One of the things that makes me happy is weekend brunch – it’s one of my favorite meals to eat, and to cook (probably because there is generally a fair amount of baking involved). I like to host brunches too - they offer a nice space to catch up with friends and enjoy a bit of a slow and lazy afternoon.

Freshly baked, ooey-gooey Cinnamon Buns are a happy addition to a brunch table…the smell of the sweet cinnamon and slight yeastiness in the air is satisfying and cozy.

Cinnamon Buns are great for so many reasons…including the fact that you can make them the night before, and then just pop them into the oven the next day (which means you get to sleep in!).

The dough for these Cinnamon Buns is one of my favorite breakfast breads…it’s lighter than a brioche but still tastes rich and buttery, and it’s incredibly versatile.

You can fill the breakfast dough (or not) with whatever you want, perhaps a filling with a bit of strawberry rhubarb jam and almonds sounds good to you…or maybe a poppy seed filling with an apricot glaze. Whatever you fancy, this is one of those things you'll look forward to.

Warm and Gooey Cinnamon Buns
(adapted from Cindy Mushett)

Dough:
1/2 cup warm milk, 110-115 degrees (I used 1% milk, but you can use whatever you have)
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast or 1 1/8 teaspoons instant yeast
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 1/2 cups bread flour or unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, very soft (not melted)

Filling:
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Glaze:
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon warm water

1. Mix and Knead the Dough - Combine warm milk and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast over the top. Whisk by hand to blend well. Let the mixture sit for 5 - 10 minutes, until the yeast is activated. Add the egg and yolk and whisk by hand until well blended. Stir in the flour and salt with a silicone spatula. Attach the dough hook and knead on low speed for 2 minutes. The dough may look ragged at this point but don't worry - it will smooth out when the butter is added. Increase the speed to medium and knead for 1 minute. With the mixer running, add the soft butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, allowing each addition to blend in before adding the next. Once all the butter has been added, decrease the speed to medium-low and continue to knead for 5-6 minutes longer, until the dough looks soft and silky.

2. Rise the Dough (First Rise) - Lightly butter or oil a tub or bowl, scrape the dough in and then brush the surface of the dough with a little butter or oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp lint-free cotton towel and let the dough rise until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

3. Roll the Dough - Dust your work surface with flour. Turn the risen dough out of the tub or bowl onto the flour. Press down firmly with your hands to expel as much of the gas as possible, but don't knead the dough or the gluten will be too developed for the dough to roll easily. Dust the top of the dough with flour. Roll the dough into a 10x16 inch rectangle. Position the dough so that one of the long sides is parallel to the edge of your work surface. Brush any remaining flour from the surface and underside of the dough.

4. Make the Filling - Place the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in the bowl of the stand mixer and blend on medium speed until the mixture is smooth and slightly lightened, 2-3 minutes. Scrap down the bowl. Use a silicone spatula to spread the filling over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border along the long side opposite you.

5. Shape the Buns - Beginning with the long edge closest to you, roll the dough into a cylinder, gently tucking and tightening as you roll. Wet your fingers and rub a thing film of water along the empty border. Finish rolling the dough into the border. Roll the dough backwards so the seam is facing upward and pinch all along it to seal the dough. Turn the seam side down and use a chef's knife to cut the roll into 10 equal pieces. Set each bun with a cut side up on your work surface and gently flatten it slightly with the palm of your hand. Place the buns into a lightly buttered 10" round cake pan, spacing them evenly.

6. Proof the dough (Second Rise) - Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap or a damp lint-free cotton towel and set aside to rise until the rolls have almost doubled in size, 45-60 minutes.

7. Bake the Buns - Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and position an oven rack in the center. Bake the buns for 30-35 minutes, until the buns are deep golden brown and the center register 185 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Transfer to a cooling rack.

8. Make the Glaze - In a medium bowl, stir the confectioners sugar and warm water vigorously with a silicone spatula until there are no lumps remaining, adding a few more drops of water if needed. Use a fork to drizzle the glaze over the warm buns. Then, enjoy!

Danish Pastries You'll Want to Eat

2009-08-20T16:22:00.001-07:00

My experience with Danish…of the pastry sort…has been bleak. I blame it on icky motels' “complimentary breakfasts” where the boxed Danish (usually resembling a coffeecake) is a standard feature…neighboring stale white bread, a broken toaster and jelly in plastic containers.

Inside the feeble pastry box, with a plastic “window” (try not to look in!), is a slab of soggy-sweet Danish dough. It’s usually filled with some sort of fruity/tar-like goop and high-fructose corn syrup is mandatory. This Danishy thing is disgusting just to look at, let alone eat.

But it’s simply not fair, right or reasonable to judge all Danish against this sucrose abomination. And so, let’s figure out the real deal with Danish. Is it actually edible?

If you tend to enjoy warm, yeasty breakfast pastries (given they are made by a competent baker), then you’ll make room in your heart and tummy for the Danish. It’s sweet, crisp and soft at the same time, sticky in a nice way, and can host a variety of fillings from cream cheese to fruit to nuts to whatever else…in fact, if you have any interesting Danish filling ideas, let me know!

Making Danish follows almost exactly the same process as making Croissants (for reference, see my 7/24/09 post on Croissants). The main difference is that Danish dough contains more eggs, which makes it a bit softer and more tender. It is formed into a variety of traditional shapes and is usually brushed with some sort of fruit jam/glaze immediately after it emerges from the oven. I especially like the way a Danish wreath looks, and it’s actually a simple shape to make.

You start by rolling the dough into a rectangle, and then you fill the middle (I used a lemon cream cheese filling topped with blueberries). Be sure to leave a bit of an edge on so you can seal it without the filling gushing out.

Then, you roll it up, shape in into a circle and make slits along the sides (mine were about 2 inches deep and 2 inches apart). You then turn the dough in between the slits to face up (so you can see the filling).

Then you bake it, glaze it…and eat it.

Chocolate with Alice Medrich

2009-08-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

Oh, I wish it were last Wednesday, I wish it were last Wednesday....sigh, no luck. I suppose I shouldn't try to live in the past, but last Wednesday’s pastry class with Alice Medrich was so amazing, I can't bear to let it go. At least I can write about it, although it’s a shame there will be no tasty samples this time around.

So, “Who is Alice Medrich?” you ask. Or, if you already know who she is, then your mouth is surely watering. Alice Medrich is known in the culinary world as the “First Lady of Chocolate” (I wonder if the “First Lady of Muffins” is up for grabs…). This woman deserves her title. She introduced upscale, European chocolate desserts to America and was the founder/owner of the San Francisco based chocolate shop, Cocolat, for over 15 years. She has written numerous books, received multiple James Beard awards, and has seduced many hungry followers all over the world.

Oh, and the desserts she makes! She started the demo by making a “Celebration Cake” with layers of rum-soaked chocolate Genoise (a light, airy cake), a crunchy chocolate-hazelnut layer, chocolate mousse, mascarpone and raspberries in the final layer. The cake was enveloped in shiny, hard chocolate and was topped with chocolate fans (something she made effortlessly, but have since caused me much anxiety and chocolate dismay trying to replicate).

Alice introduced us to a relatively new technique; caramelizing white chocolate. She caramelized the white chocolate by placing it in a large metal bowl, and then putting it into a low oven (~250 degrees F), stirring every 10 minutes or so. She served the caramelized white chocolate as ice cream, scooped into the daintiest Coconut Tuile cones. On top were a few crystals of smoked sea salt (an idea she gave David Lebovitz credit for). The salt brought out deep caramel and nut flavors in the ice cream that weren't distinguishable without it. Alas, I have no pictures of this dessert…it was a mad rush to eat the ice cream before it turned into soup, I hope you understand.

Other treats of the night included Coconut Macaroons with grated lime zest and cinnamon in them...

Which she topped with a light chocolate mousse and bittersweet chocolate drizzle.

There was also a Sesame and Chocolate Torte glazed with dark, milk and white chocolate.

And of course there were lots of other chocolate goodies, including crusty French bread that was toasted, tossed in olive oil and then covered in dark chocolate. How divine.

And, as is right and good with all things dessert, there’s more! We had a chocolate tasting, which included a variety of chocolates made by different companies. When tasting, Alice recommended starting with darkest, most bitter chocolates (which had the highest percentage of cacao) and working towards the sweetest chocolates (which had the lowest cacao content). After this experience, I recommend using Valrhona, TCHO or Guittard chocolate for all baking and eating pleasures.

Roasted Red Pepper, Feta and Basil Muffins

2009-08-11T19:12:00.001-07:00

After long workdays that I spend sitting on my bum for far too long, I stroll up the San Francisco hills and wind through the (windy!) Italian neighborhood, called North Beach. I’m on my way to my pastry classroom at The Tante Marie Cooking School. Along my journey, I inhale deeply as I pass the chocolate shop on the corner of Columbus and Stockton. It smells more like rich and buttery caramel than chocolate, but is still a sweet reprieve from the usual city “aroma”- which I will avoid describing in case anyone reading this is in the midst of a snack.

Once I have climbed an urban mountain, I see the lovely Bay in the distance (some days more clearly than others, we’re at the mercy of the fog). When I see the water, I feel happier…relaxed…lucky.

And then, down the street I go, trying to look somewhat normal as I walk/run (the run part is not on purpose) down the hill towards the school, wearing a giant backpack overstuffed with my apron, checkered pants, pastry jacket and recipes.

Once inside the school, dinner (courtesy of the culinary students) is served.

In return, we leave them pastries for the next morning, which are generally well received. However, one snooty culinary student once told me that she didn’t like to eat pastries in the morning, so could we please just make oatmeal. For that comment, she will not be invited to my next birthday party…(humph). After dinner, we start baking the recipes for the evening.

And now, I’m going to flip things around a little bit…I’m going to recipe travel back to the first week of pastry school and write about muffins. I know muffins aren’t fancy, they certainly don’t require a pastry school background, and they are often passed up in bakery cases. A friend of mine even suggested that “Muffins are just ugly cupcakes." Well, that is ludicrous...maybe cupcakes are just muffins in drag! [By the way, I’m not anti-cupcake…I just like muffins better].

And now, since I’ve already time traveled, I’m going to confuse things even more. One of the things that I’ve learned from pastry school that I wasn’t necessarily expecting is a new approach towards thinking about foods and recipes. There is sort of a release from expectations…twists on ingredients and food norms that create something a bit unexpected. For example...

Roasted Red Pepper, Basil and Feta Muffins. What? A muffin? But, it’s savory. Why, yes…it is….and it is delicious!

These muffins are great in the morning…or mid-day with some soup or salad for lunch…or with a nice piece of steak/fish/whatever you fancy for dinner. In a nutshell…these muffins are just yummy. You should really give them a try, I think you’ll be happily surprised.

Roasted Red Pepper, Basil and Feta Muffins
(adapted from The Art and Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet)

2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached AP Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup (3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cups (4 ounces) jarred roasted red bell pepper, patted dry and chopped into 1/4 inch dice
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk
1/4 cup (2 ounces) olive oil
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and position an oven rack in the center. Lightly coat a 12-cup muffin tin with butter, oil, or high-heat oil spray. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl. Set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together feta cheese, roasted bell pepper, and chopped basil. Set aside.

Pour the buttermilk into a medium bowl. Add the olive oil and egg and whisk together until well blended. make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the well and stir gently with a spatula. Mix only until there are no more streaks of flour or pools of liquid and the batter looks fairly smooth. A few small lumbs scattered throughout are fine, they will disappear during the baking. Gently fold in the feta cheese mixture until evenly distributed.

Use a large ice cream scoop or two soup spoons to divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until tops feel firm and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer muffin tin to a a rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Gently run a thin knife or spatula arond each muffin to free it from the pan, lift out the muffns and transfer to a rack to finish cooling. Serve warm.

Sesame Nut Brittle Ice Cream "Sundae"

2009-08-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

Sweetly cold, creamy and scrumptiously summer…oh, ice cream. Sometimes it’s all you need, and then a little bit more. Although I’ve never segregated my ice cream consumption to certain months of the year, I do eat it more often when the sun is bright and the air is warm.

To me, there is something wonderful about ice cream...especially when it is just starting to melt. The flavors are brighter, taste is sweeter and texture is all the more satisfying. When I was a little girl, I remember filling my bowl with a few heaping scoops of Breyer’s Strawberry Ice Cream and then vigorously stirring it until the consistency had reached a slightly soupy thickness that melted into sweet cream as soon as it hit my tongue. I still think this is the ideal texture/temperature to eat ice cream.

This week in class, we had a seasonally-glorious ice cream challenge: to create an original dessert using the ice cream we had made the week prior (we were each assigned a different flavor, mine was “Sesame”). Sesame Ice Cream is admittedly exotic, I’d never heard of it until I was handed the recipe. It’s an intensely rich and smooth ice cream base that is made with tahini (sesame paste). The texture is somewhere between ice cream, peanut butter and warm fudge.

I found the finished Sesame Ice Cream in need of some textural variation. So, I made a Cashew-Pistachio Brittle that I chopped into pieces and folded into the ice cream. Once I did that, the ice cream’s taste and texture was incredible…it was rich, satisfying and had a deep nutty caramel quality like nothing I’d tasted before. It had also become highly addictive.

To accompany the Sesame-Brittle Ice Cream, I made Coconut Tuile Cookies. The flavors of coconut and sesame bring out the best in one another other, and the lightness of the ultra-crispy thin cookie was a nice contrast to the deeper crunch of the brittle and creaminess of the ice cream…a match made in dessert heaven.

I love the Sesame and Coconut combo, but was wanting for an addition of something tart in the final dessert...I wanted something fresh, something tropical. My original idea was to make a mango sauce. However, there were no ripe mangoes at the market so my teacher bought a papaya instead. I cut the papaya open, scooped the seeds out and was struck by inspiration. I could serve my ice cream in a papaya “bowl”. I decided to brulee the papaya (so the surface would be caramelized with a thin, hard sugar layer that could be tapped and broken with a spoon.

Because the papaya was rather large…and because I was feeling heavy-handed with the ice cream scoop, I decided to make my ice cream concoction a dessert for two (to share or not to share….). I put the papaya bowl with Sesame-Brittle ice cream on top of a dark chocolate sauced plate. Then, I made a mini ice cream cone (using the Coconut Tuile Cookie for the cone). Some softly whipped cream, tuile, brittle and papaya made excellent garnishes. And, luckily, the ice cream was just starting to melt when I served it...

Sesame Ice Cream

1/2 cup unsalted tahini
1 cup cream
2 tsp sesame oil
2 cups milk
1/2 cup sgar
1/8 tsp salt

*optional - any sort of nut brittle...made using your favorite recipe or purchased*

Whisk together tahini and cream until smooth. Whisk in sesame oil. Add milk, sugar and salt and whisk until smooth. Chill and freeze in ice cream machine. If adding nut brittle, add at very last minute, just to mix it in.

Croissants

2009-07-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

I must confess that I’m not a Croissant lover. I know, I know…but I prefer desserts that are fruit forward, nutty, deeply deliciously chocolate...or heck, all of those. And as much as I can see why other people love them, I have “eh” feelings towards Croissants. However, after making them for the first time, I feel kind of enlightened.

I think it is the very fact that I’m not mesmerized with eating Croissants that allowed me to focus on (and become mesmerized with) making them. I am fascinated by the skill and science behind these flaky, layered, crescent-shaped butter fiends. They take real skill and precision to perfect.

First of all, it’s true that Croissants are primarily butter…with a little flour, sugar, salt, yeast, egg and milk thrown in the mix. Here’s how it goes…

There are two basic components to making Croissants (same thing is true for Puff Pastry and Danish dough as well):

1. The Dough Block (called the “Detrempe”)

2. The Butter Block (called the “Beurrage”)

The two are pretty self-explanatory. After making, rolling and chilling the Dough Block, it’s time to make the Butter block…which is literally a block of butter. The recipe I followed uses 3 sticks of butter in the Butter Block (not to mention the 1 stick already in the Dough). The butter sticks are halved and pressed together into a square to create the Butter Block, which is then inserted into the rolled out dough.

The dough gets wrapped up around the butter and the edges are pinched shut. Next, the whole thing gets rolled into a rectangle, folded into thirds (called a “letter fold”) and refrigerated again. The rolling and folding step gets repeated three times.

When Croissants bake, the water in the butter (butter is 20% water) evaporates creating steam. The steam then lifts the dough layers apart, poofing the whole thing up. The layers then set as they cook and create the airy, flaky texture that many people know and love.

Rainier Cherry and Almond Frangipane Tart

2009-07-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

Rainier Cherries should be celebrated and experienced by all. These aren’t your typical red cherries (which I do love as well), but are a bit more unique and lesser known. They are bigger than most cherries and are yellowish-orange-pinky-red…the colors all sort of swirled together like a beautiful sunset.

Rainier Cherries have a taste that stands up to their beauty. They have a subtle tartness that is softened and made even more delicious by the extra sweet juiciness of their mellow flesh. They are the stage for a very sophisticated balance of flavors that make them intensely appealing…they taste like something both familiar and new.

What better way to show off these fruit jewels than in a lovely tart? A tart that is fruit forward, tastes delicious and is perfectly summer. A Rainier Cherry and Almond Frangipane Tart. Now, how does that sound?

This tart has the sort of rustic, homey appeal of a pie…with refined touches that make it a bit more elegant.

The crust is made with almond flour, which gets deep and nutty when baked. It plays nicely with the Almond Frangipane filling which has a lighter, gentle almond taste.

The cherries are pushed into the uncooked Frangipane filling and the whole tart is then popped into the oven to bake. About 35 minutes later, out comes a lush, beauty of a tart. It is Rainier Cherry Perfection, and simple to make too.

Rainier Cherry and Almond Frangipane Tart

Almond Tart Dough:
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 cup "AP" (All Purpose) flour
1/2 cups almond flour
1 large egg
1/8 tsp salt

Cut butter into 1" pieces and freeze for 15 minutes.

Sift together sugar, cake flour, AP flour and almond flour into the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Add butter, mix on low speed for 2 minutes, or until the butter is the size of broken walnut meats. Stop the machine and by hand pinch flat any large pieces of butter that remain.

Combine egg and salt in a small bowl and mix well. Turn mixer on low speed and add egg all at once. Mix until dough just comes together. If too dry, add 1-2 Tbsp ice cold water. Dough should be tacky but not sticky.

Wrap dough in plastic and chill for 1 hour (or up to 3 days).

Roll out dough and line pan. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Fill tart shell with parchment paper and pie weights. Blind bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes, then remove pie weights and parchment, and bake another 10 minutes until lightly golden. Cool.

Filling:
3/4 cup almonds (blanched are recommended, but not necessary)
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick softened butter
2 eggs
2 Tbsp flour
2-3 drops almond extract
~15 Rainier Cherries, pitted and cut in half

Grind the almonds with the sugar in a food processor until the almonds are finely ground. Add the softened butter and process (scrape down from food processor sides if needed). Add eggs one at a time, making sure first egg is thoroughly mixed before adding the next. Add the flour and almond extract and mix well.

Fill cooled tart shell with almond filling, leaving 1/4 inch margin on the rim of the pastry (this leaves room for filling to expand). Then, push cherry halves into the filling (skin side up) and bake at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes until nicely browned. Let cool on a rack.

Three Tarts: Fresh Fruit with Vanilla Cream, Warm Bittersweet Chocolate, and Lemon-Lime Meringue

2009-07-16T11:16:00.001-07:00

I am fantastically amused by Food Challenge/Competitions TV shows…I get quite involved (some might say too involved)… commenting incessantly, getting overjoyed when my favorite Chef wins, and flustered when a contestant does something I deem foolish (who in their right mind would attempt a Crème Brulee in 15 minutes?!?).

My amusement towards these shows is wrapped with curiosity….how would I fare in such competitions? Well, during Saturday’s Pastry Class, I got a little taste (I can’t resist throwing in a food pun now and again). Christa divided the students into teams, which were our “Bakeries”. One person on each team was assigned as the Pastry Chef, and the others were their assistants.

I got to be the Pastry Chef, which was energizing. First item of business, our bakery needed a name. It turned out that the first name initials of my teammates and I were P, B and J. How perfect! We decided to pay homage to that cozy little sandwich and be the “PB&J Bakery”.

Our fairy tale bakery was given a list of orders to complete, which included three tarts (each with a listed time for pick up by the customer) and multiple batches of Croissant dough which we would bake during the next class. [*Aside* I will write a post on Croissants in the near future. They are butterly magnificent, and a lesson in food science as well.]

Back to PB&J Bakery….our first order was for a Fruit Tart with a Dark Chocolate lined crust, a Vanilla Bean Custard filling and fresh Fruit decorating the top. When we were an hour away from the supposed “pick-up” time, we were told that the client had called and would be coming half an hour early. We had to scramble a bit, but we got our Fruit Tart done just in time. The dark chocolate lining on the crust is an excellent twist…it brings more balance and elegance to the flavor. The vanilla custard is comforting and rich, with the lightness of fresh fruit on top. It’s really outstanding.

Next, we had an order for a Warm Bittersweet Chocolate Tart, which makes me weak in the knees just thinking about…it is just THAT delicious. The filling is intense, not overly sweet, but incredibly rich and smooth. The crust has nuttiness from the almonds in the dough, and a delightful crunch that works perfectly with the creamy filling. We had to expedite this tart too for another hurried customer who showed up ahead of schedule. We got the tart done on time, but we wanted to do more with the decoration on top…I will admit that the flower petals are hiding a less than perfect design.

Our third order was for a Lemon-Lime Meringue Tart. I like the Lemon-Lime combination…the lime gives the filling an extra zing, and the meringue is light and marshmallow-like. After baking off the filling and topping it with meringue, we got out the blow torch to brown the top (please note that the browning can be done in the oven if you don’t have a blow torch laying around…). The blow torch is quite touchy and can do a LOT of damage in a small about of time if you aren’t careful…I ended up scorching some parts of the meringue (I even created a small fizzling almost-fire at one point)….but in the end, it turned out to be lovely. We successfully got the tart out in time, thus completing all orders for the day. I was happily exhausted in the end…I wonder what will come next.

I'm including the recipe of the Fruit Tart, which I've adapted below. If you are interested in any of the other tart recipes, email me and I'll send them along.

Fruit Tart
Dough:
1 2/3 cups flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
9 Tbsp cold butter, cut into 1” cubes
1 egg yolk
3-5 Tbsp ice water (depending on dough consistency)

Dark Chocolate (62%), melted over a water bath (this is for painting the baked and cooled tart shell...I didn’t measure this when I did it. Just use your best guess and if you have leftover chocolate, dip some fruit or cookies in it for later)

Vanilla Custard filling:
6 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
¼ tsp salt
4 Tbsp flour
4 Tbsp cornstarch
2 cups scalded milk (which means the milk is heated up until it is right below a boil, then use it)
1 Tbsp butter
1 ½ tsp Vanilla Extract, or ½ Vanilla Bean (If you are using the vanilla bean, use a paring knife to cut a full vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Then, using the dull side of the knife, scrape out the seeds to use. You can put the unused vanilla bean pod with the seeds removed into a bag of sugar and *presto* Vanilla Sugar at your service!)
2 Tbsp Kirsch or Cognac (if desired)

Top:
1 cup red currant jelly or apricot preserves
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp Kirsh or Cognac (if desired)
Fresh Fruit (berries, kiwis, mango, grapes, cherries, etc.)

Make the dough:
Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until the butter globs are the size of peas and crushed crackers (don’t over-mix or crust will be tough). Mix the egg yolk with 3-5 Tbsp cold water in a small bowl. Stir this into flour mixture with a fork. Bring the dough together with your fingers (very gently) and turn onto a counter. Using the heel of your hand, smear parts of the dough across the counter once (this is called “fraisage”). Mound the dough back together with a bench scraper. Do this 3 times to bring the dough together with minimal handling. Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap and press into a disc shape. Chill for ~30 minutes.

Line tart pan with dough:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Roll dough to 1/8” think and lay carefully over a 9” tart pan. Cut off excess dough, leaving a 1” border. Reinforce the edges with the extra dough and pinch off any extra that you don’t use. Prick the base with a fork. Chill again for 10 minutes. Fill unbaked tart shell with parchment paper and pie weights, then blind bake the shell for 15-18 minutes. Remove pie weights and bake another 10-12 minutes until golden and fully cooked. Cool completely.

Make the Vanilla Custard filling:
In a bowl, beat (using a whisk) the egg yolks until sticky, gradually add the sugar and beat until thick. Beat in the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Then gradually pour in the scalded milk, still beating. Pour this mixture into the saucepan (add the ½ vanilla bean if using) and bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Keep mixture at boil for 1 minute (still stirring constantly) as it thickens. Then, remove from heat, beat in the butter and the vanilla extract (if not using the vanilla bean) and Kirsch or Cognac. Strain into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap (so that the wrap is touching the top of the custard) and chill.

Brush melted chocolate onto baked and cooled tart shell and let harden (only cover the bottom and internal sides of the tart shell with chocolate, but leave the top edge as is).

Make Glaze (to brush on top of fruit once tart is compiled):
Heat jelly or preserves the sugar and Kirsch or Cognac.

Once chocolate is set, fill the tart with the Vanilla Custard and top it with fresh fruit (making sure to crowd the fruit on in whatever design pleases you). Then, using a pastry brush, glaze the top of the fruit (do this for all fruit except for raspberries…which repels the glaze and makes it look beady).

Brioche

2009-07-12T22:19:00.001-07:00

Oh my…Brioche. What a delicious and surprisingly simple bread to make. Brioche is buttery and soft with sweet and savory undertones that make it absolutely delicious on its own or as a companion to other tastes, textures and flavors.

Brioche is deliciously comforting straight out of the oven spread with a bit of orange marmalade, the bitterness of the orange peel cradled by the soft, lush buttery bread. Or, crisped in a pan as a sandwich filled with smoked gouda and roasted red peppers…the cheese oozing and gooing out the middle. And of course, it makes one of the most deliciously fluffy and decadent French toast slices you’ve ever tasted.

We often see Brioche baked into loaves, but Brioche à tête is the classical shape for this bread. It includes forming the dough into balls that are stacked in fluted tins with one small dough ball placed on top. It’s important to note that Brioche dough is quite sticky and can turn chaotic. It tries to take control of your life (or it at least resists the whole rolling situation) if it isn’t tamed by an adequate amount of flour.

The formed dough is then allowed to proof before being egg washed and baked.

When Brioche comes out of the oven, it is shiny and golden with a soft aroma that begs you to indulge in a nibble.

Taking the extra time to make and use a pre-ferment when baking up a batch of Brioche encourages a more distinct and delicious taste. The below recipe is a fantastic Brioche that is sure to make you and your eaters very happy.

Brioche
(Jeanie Brown)

Pre-ferment
105 grams flour
70 grams water
¼ tsp instant yeast

Mix together on low speed for 4 minutes and leave at room temp for 12 hours (75 degrees)

For the dough
105 grams of the pre-ferment
315 grams flour (AP or Bread)
70 grams water
1 Tb + 1 tsp instant yeast
1 ¼ tsp salt
160 grams butter (cold but pliable, take from fridge and pound with rolling pic
190 gr. Eggs (~3 ½…don’t count the shells)
3 Tbsp Sugar

Egg wash (just an egg beaten with a fork will do)

Add all ingredients to the mixer except the butter. Mix with dough hook on 1st speed for ~5-10 minutes until the dough is full developed (it should be shiny and string-like as it pulls away from sides of the bowl).
Gradually add the cold butter, slowly at first, over the period of 15-20 minutes on second speed (just break off bits of butter and throw it in…and yes, it does need to take that long to achieve the perfect texture…just be patient).
Let rise for 90 minutes.
Chill overnight.
Shape dough as desired, place in buttered pans and proof for about 60 minutes. Egg wash and then bake in a 350 degree oven (that was preheated to 375 degrees but turned down as soon as the bread goes in) for ~16-20 minutes.

Raisin, Rosemary, and Cinnamon Focaccia

2009-07-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

On lazy weekend mornings, I often wake up with dreams of baking still swirling around in my head, like the steam coming off a hot cup of coffee. Sometimes, I’m so enticed by these thoughts of baking that I eagerly pop out of my warm, cozy bed and prance into the kitchen. I swing my apron on over my pajamas, preheat the oven, and start playing with flour and sugar.

Baking in the morning is such a gentle and lovely way to start the day. The aromas fill the house (or tiny San Francisco apartment) with happiness and the promise of something delicious, soon to be enjoyed.

This past weekend, I decided to do a little advance planning and try out a recipe I’d been thinking about for awhile: Raisin, Rosemary and Cinnamon Focaccia. Although you can complete the entire Focaccia recipe in one day, you’d have to wake up before the sun to get it baked off in time for breakfast or brunch. I prefer that the sun wakes up before I do, so I put together most of the recipe on Saturday for a Sunday bake.

First I plumped the Raisins in hot water for about 5 minutes, which heightens the lush, juiciness of the Raisins in the final bread. I like to do this step with most dried fruits that I bake with to ensure that the fruits are tender and delicious…it is simply too disappointing to take a bite into an irresistible bread…only to discover that it is dotted with hard, unappealing dried fruits. Next, I proofed the yeast in warm milk and mixed in the dry ingredients. This Focaccia recipe has milk in it instead of the more traditional water, so it has a softer and more tender crumb than most (the fat in the milk coats the gluten strands in the flour so they can’t link together as easily, resulting in a more tender bread). I then left the yeast to do its magic, and waited for the dough to double in size (about an hour and a half).

I then punched the dough blob down and shaped it on a sheet tray. Then I brushed the top lightly with olive oil, covered it with plastic wrap and slid it into the fridge for later. On Sunday morning, all I had to do was sprinkle the top with some Turbinado Sugar (bigger, crunchier crystals than table sugar) and pop it into the oven.

The resulting Focaccia is softly sweet and full of juicy Raisins that are nicely balanced by the crunchy Turbinado Sugar baked into the crust. The deep fruitiness of the Raisins is enriched further by the Cinnamon and Rosemary, which not only taste delicious but smell simply divine. This Focaccia is worth the time.

This focaccia recipe was written originally to be done in a KitchenAid Mixer, but I adapted these instructions to do it without one. If you are the lucky owner of a KtichenAid, then proceed as instructed below but reduce all kneading times by about 2 minutes. Also, be sure to scrape sides of bowl and turn dough occassionally while kneading.

Raisin, Rosemary and Cinnamon Focaccia
(adapted from “The Art and Sould of Cooking” by Cindy Mushet)

2 cups plump sweet raisins
2 ¼ cups warm milk (I used 2%) heated to 110-115 degrees
1 teaspoon sugar
1 Tablespoon active dry yeast, or 2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast
5 cups bread flour (or AP Flour)
3 Tablespoons olive oil, plus additional for brushing
2 bunches fresh rosemary, leaves removed and very finely chopped (about 1/3 cup)
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2-3 Tablespoons Turbinado sugar

To plump raisins: Place in saucepan with water to cover. Bring water to boil, then turn off heat, cover pan, and let raisins sit for 5 minutes. Drain the raisins in the colander set in the sink and shake off any excess water. Spread raisins on baking sheet and cool.

Mix and Knead the dough: Combine warmed milk and sugar in large bowl and sprinkle the yeast on the top. Whisk in ¼ cup of flour by hand. Let sit for 10 minutes. Whisk in another 2 cups of flour and mix thoroughly for ~5 minutes (I used my hands for this, which I coated lightly with olive oil to prevent sticking, but a wooden spoon would do the trick).

Add the raisins, olive oil, rosemary, cinnamon and salt to the dough and mix until well blended. Add the remaining 2 ¾ cups of flour and knead for ~6 minutes (the dough will be very sticky…I kneaded the dough while it was still in the bowl by sort of squishing it together with my hands, which were lightly oiled).

Rise the dough (first rise): Lightly oil the tub a bowl, scrape the dough in and lightly coat the surface of the dough with little oil. Cover with plastic wrap or lint-free cotton towel and let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 1-1 ½ hours. If you’re using a tub, be sure to mark the starting level of the dough with a pencil or piece of tape so it’s easy to tell when the dough has doubled.

Punch down and shape the dough: Scrape the risen dough onto a greased 17x12 inch baking sheet with ½ inch sides and press dwon onto the dough firmly to expel some air bubbles (but don’t knead the dough again). Push and stretch the dough into an even layer in the pan. If the dough begins to pull back and resist stretching, you can brush the top with a little olive oil, set the pan aside for 10 minutes and then try again.

Proof the dough: Brush the dough with a little olive oil and cover pan with plastc wrap. Let the dough rise until it is almost doubled in size. Or, if you want to bake the focaccia the following day, brush the dough with a little olive oil, let rise ~20 minutes, cover with plastic wrap and stick in the refrigerator overnight.

Prepare oven: Place baking or pizza stone in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Be sure to allow ~45 minutes for the stone to fully heat.

Bake the Focaccia: If you had the dough in the fridge overnight, take it out for ~30 minutes before proceeding. If not, continue on.

Remove plastic wrap, brush the dough olive oil if it was refrigerated (you can skip this additional oil if you didn’t refrigerate the dough overnight), dimple the dough by gently pressing your fingertips into the dough, about ½ inch deep, taking care not to deflate the dough by pressing too hard or making too many dimples.

Sprinkle the dough with Turbinado sugar and bake for 30-35 minutes (check that internal temp is at least 200 degrees F). Transfer to a cooling rack, brush lightly with olive oil immediately and cool for ~10 minutes before serving. Cut focaccia with a serrated knife.

Pumpkin Financier with Blueberry Compote

2009-07-01T21:56:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin and Blueberries. These two flavors taste so delicious when combined, it’s crazy to me that they aren’t seen together more often. Perhaps it has something to do with sadly seasonal Pumpkin-cravings. It’s no secret that people tend to eat Pumpkin-heavy desserts during the Thanksgiving/Holiday season (helllllooo Pumpkin Pie), and then forget about them for the rest of the year. Poor Pumpkin…so often stuck in Libby’s cans, collecting dust until the next year’s Pumpkin Pie frenzy rolls around.

Well, let’s bring Pumpkin back for a summertime rendezvous. And, what better way to celebrate the Pumpkin rediscovery than with the delicious Blueberry? When plump and juicy Blueberries are cooked, their flavor profile changes immensely. They become deeper and more complex, able to stand up to bolder flavors and spices. In short, they become more compatible with our dear friend, Pumpkin.

So, here we go….I’ll bake up a Pumpkin Financier made with Almond flour and highlighted by browned butter, Orange zest and spices like Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Ginger.

Then, a Blueberry Compote simmered with a Cinnamon stick to top it all off.

When it’s all put together…with some softly whipped cream on top, it’s hard to remember how we ever made it through a summer without Pumpkin desserts…mmm.

Pumpkin Financier
(Pumpkin Financier recipe adapted from Sherry Yard)

5 oz butter
1 ¼ cups almond flour
1 ¼ cups AP flour
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
2 Tbsp tightly packed brown sugar
8 egg whites, room temp
1 cup pumpkin puree
½ tsp chopped orange zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and brush a 10” round cake pan with butter, line with parchment, brush with butter again.
Melt butter in saucepan until it browns (7-10 minutes). Set aside to cool to room temp.
Sift together almond flour, AP flour, powdered sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Add spices and brown sugar. Mix dry ingredients for 30 seconds. Add egg whites all at once and mix on medium speed for 3 minutes. Add pumpking puree and orange zest and mix for 30 seconds.
Add melted butter all at once. Mix for 30 seconds on medium speed, then turn mixer to high speed and mix for 3 minutes more.
Poor mixture into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, rotating pan, until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Blueberry Compote

1 pint Blueberries
Sugar to taste
Pinch of Salt
1 Cinnamon Stick

Put all ingredients in saucepan and cook over medium-low heat stirring occasionally until fruit becomes soft and mixture thickens (~7-10 minutes). Remove Cinnamon stick. Serve compote with Pumpkin Financier and a dollop of softly whipped cream.

Gateau Paris-Brest: a Delicious Pastry with a Story

2009-06-25T23:02:00.001-07:00

One of the (non-edible) things I love about food is how it can tell a story. Now, I’m not saying that the first thing that pops to mind as I’m staring at my dinner is ”Oh, my dear dinner, tell me a story…” BUT, when I’m full (and thus less impatient) I do enjoy learning stories behind the delicious bites that made my tummy happy.

One story-full pastry that I enjoy is the “Gateau Paris-Brest”. Apparently, this pastry is supposed to resemble a bike tire, in honor of a famous bike race from Paris to Brest, France. The Gateau Paris-Brest dessert starts off with a ring of the dough called “pate a choux”. Pate a choux is the same type of dough that is used for things like cream puffs, éclairs and profiteroles. The dough starts out on the stovetop and then (after being piped into the desired shapes) it is baked in the oven.

The way I was taught to make a traditional Gateau Paris-Brest, is to top the dough ring with sliced almonds before baking. After it has finished baking and is cool, it is cut horizontally and then filled with a layer of almond-praline pastry cream and then a layer of rum whipped cream. Rum whipped cream is amazing…it’s a sweet secret weapon all in itself.

Finally, this round and delicious pastry is lightly dusted with powdered sugar and gobbled up. The Gateau Paris-Brest is absolutely refined and delicious. It tastes lightly sweet and a little boozy with crunch from the almonds and a multi-dimensional creaminess that is irresistible.

Gateau Paris -Brest
(adapted from Mary Risley)

Choux Paste
1 cup water
4 oz butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs
pinch salt
2-3 Tbsp sliced almonds

Praline
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup almonds

Pastry Cream (lighter version)
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 1/4 cups milk
pinch of salt

Rm Whipped Cream

2 cups heavy cream
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp dark rum
Confectioner's sugar

Choux: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. To make the pate a choux, combine the butter, salt and water in a small saucepan. Melt butter, then bring to a boil. Off the heat, add the flour all at once, beating with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a ball and comes away from the sides of the pan. Return to the heat and cook 1-2 minutes, until the dough forms a shiny ball. Transfer dough to the bowl of Kitchenaid, fitted with a paddle. Mix at low speed until dough has cooled somewhat. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until incorporated. Place dough in pastry bad with round tip. On a parchment-lined sheet tray, pipe a ring. Pipe another ring inside the first ring. Pipe a third ring on top. Eggwash and sprinkle with almonds. Turn up oven to 425 degres and bake about 40 minutes, until very brown. Remove from oven and pierce bottom a few times to let steam escape. When cool, slice in half lengthwise, forming a top and bottom.

Pastry Cream: Combine the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. Add the cornstarch. Temper mixture by gradually whisking in heated milk. Pour mixture into saucepan. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Cook 1-2 minutes, until thick. Add the vanilla. Cool covered with plastic or buttered waxed paper to prevent skin. When cool, mix with praline.

Rum Whipped Cream: When ready to assemble, whip the cream with sugar and rum until stiff. Pipe praline pastry cream into bottom of pastry. Pipe whipped cream on top of praline cream. Cover with top pastry and dust with confectioners sugar.

Baking Bagels

2009-06-18T18:03:00.000-07:00

It’s sort of an anomaly that I’m enamored with bagels. I grew up in the Midwest, which surely doesn’t explain it. And, although I’ve been carb-centric my whole life, I didn’t experience a REAL bagel until I was nearly twenty (thanks to my move to New York when I transferred colleges).

It was an edible epiphany…the reality of a B-A-G-E-L was so different from anything I’d experienced before. I realized that I’d been duped for all these years by rolls with holes, fictitiously labeled “bagels” in the grocery aisles I’d grown up in.

To me, the perfect bagel has a chewy, crunch of an exterior that your teeth pierce through, almost with a snap. A bagel has spring and depth to it, and I love mine topped with sesame seeds. There is something about the seeds’ slight texture and sweet undertone that complement the doughy orb perfectly.

Now that I live in San Francisco, I’ve been bagel frustrated for almost a year. The bagels that I’ve encountered in the Bay Area are imposters. I had almost decided to give up when (luckily) my bagel libido was revived. I realized that I could overcome this bagel dilemma…all I had to do was MAKE them.

The recipe I used called for a “poolish” which is a pre-ferment that needs to hang out for at least 12 hours before using. When it’s ready, you make the bagel dough, which you then form and rest (for another ~6-12 hours).

Then, it’s time for boiling in a molasses-baking soda bath (the key to a bagel’s chewy exterior) and baking.

My first bagel attempt was only a partial success…I’d let my dough rest for too long, and the result was a slightly over-darkened, craggy specimen (though still tasty).

But, I was determined to perfect the art of bagel making. And, on Sunday morning, I basked in bagel glory. The little golden bagels were plump (so plump that their holes were nearly squashed closed) and chewy and divine…topped with a little cream cheese, butter or homemade strawberry–rhubarb jam…mmmm. Any takers?

Bagels

Poolish:
1 c. bread flour
1/8 t. instant yeast
1 c. water (at the temp specified on your yeast package...mine was 120-130 degrees F)
Mix well, cover and leave at room temp 3-5 hours; refrigerate overnight

Final Dough:
1 c. Poolish (from above)
1/2 t. instant yeast
1/2 c. water (at the temp specified on our yeast package...mine was 120-130 degrees F)
16 oz. bread flour
1 T. vital wheat gluten (I found this at Whole Foods Market)
3 t. kosher salt
1 1/2 T. Malt Syrup (I also found this at Whole Foods Market)
Cornmeal (for dusting sheet pan)
Toppings, if desired (sesame seeds, poppy seads, onion, salt, etc.)

Add to Water for Poaching:
1 T. Molasses
1/2 t. baking soda

Allow poolish to come to room temp.
Stir yeast into the water just to dissolve.
Combine the poolish, flour, gluten, salt, syrup and water-yeast mixture in the bowl of electric mixer with the dough hook.
Mix 1 minute at low speed, 10-12 minutes medium speed. The dough should be slightly stiff, dense, smooth and dry. Add additional water if needed.
Cut dough into 10 equal pieces (3-4 oz each). Roll pieces into balls; cover: let rest 5 minutes.
Line a sheet pan with parchment and dust lightly with cornmeal.
Roll each ball into a 6 inch rope, loop it around your hand with the ends slightly overlapping in your palm. Roll the ends on the counter to seal.
Place the shaped pieces 2 inches apart on the prepared pan.
Enclose the pan in a plastic bag and let rise 1 1/2 hours until they have increased by about 25%. Refrigerate the dough at least 6 hours, or overnight.
Position the oven rack in the middle and preheat to 475. Have a sheet pan lined with parchment sprinkled with cornmeal near the stove. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and reduce heat until the water shimmers; add molasses and baking soda to the water.
Gently drop the dough into the water, cooking in batches. Flip them after 1 minute and poach on the other side for one minute.
Remove the bagels with slotted spoon to the prepared pan. Sprinkle seeds or toppings if desired.
Bake bagels 10-12 minutes until light brown, rotating the baking sheet as needed for even dough color. Let them cool 30 minutes before eating.

Fruit Fulfilled

2009-06-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

Peaches and Berries and Cherries, oh my! I feel happy and inspired while perusing through the ever-fantastic Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market in San Francisco…the vendors’ baskets overflowing with ripe and ready fruits that are eternally satisfying just to look at, let alone eat.

For me, it’s impossible not to leap on such lush treasure…cheerfully anticipating my next bite into a perfect, juicy peach (while simultaneously regretting my decision to wear a white t-shirt).

The thing about many ridiculously delicious fruits like peaches, nectarines, berries, etc. is that they are at their peak for only a short time before they become a soggy mushy mess of unmet potential. But, have no fear…tis the season for fruit desserts!

I’ve been on a bit of a peach kick lately. Actually I’ve been on a peach kick my whole life. I even enjoy their fuzziness...something I have learned is an acquired taste. That said, you can imagine my enthusiasm yesterday when peaches, along with blueberries, were on my “To Bake” list.

I started my kitchen dance by making a Galette, which is basically an open-faced pie without the bother of a pie plate. It’s a lovely vehicle to show off sunny peaches and bright blueberries. And, it’s a super simple treat to make.

Another reason I love Galettes is that they make sense both as a dessert and as a special weekend breakfast (or mid-day snack) with a steaming cup of tea and the newspaper.

After filling the Galette up with fruit, I still had lots of peaches and blueberries in need of a home. Following my innate love for small things, I piled fruit into a couple of ramekins and topped them with pastry dough that I cut into little star shapes. They ended up looking quite cute…a perfect Fourth of July dessert.

After putting the patriotic pastries into the oven, I was still elbow deep in fruit (apparently 3 lbs of peaches and a pint of blueberries goes a long way). I added some toasted almond slices to the peach-blueberry filling for crunch and then filled a medium sized baking dish with the sweet mixture. I finished the ensemble by creating a quaint lattice top.

Into the oven my lattice topped fruit went, where it bubbled up and juiced out and turned golden brown.

Fruit desserts are divine with a nice big scoop of ice cream, which is not only delicious but also a safeguard for those of us who can’t wait to try a big bite, but don’t want a burnt tongue.

Blueberry and Peach Galette

1 2/3 cups AP Flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
8 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch dice
1/2 cup ice cold water (may not need all of it)

1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp corn starch
3 lbs peaches, sliced 1/2 inch think (~6 cups)
1 pint blueberries
juice from 1/2 a lemon

To make the dough, place the flour, salt and sugar into the bowl of a food processor and blend for 10 seconds. Add the cold butter and pulse until butter is cut into medium pieces (~5 seconds). Add cold water slowly and pulse until dough comes together in small, thick clumps (you may need to adjust the amount of water you use). Empty dough onto work surface and bring into a ball. Place in wax paper and then in the fridge to chill for at least 20 minutes.

To make the filling, in a large bowl whisk the sugar with the cornstarch. Gently toss in the peaches and blueberries, and sprinkle with the lemon juice. Let sit for 5 minutes, tossing occasionally.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 12 inches around. Fold the dough in half then half again and place on a parchment lined baking sheet, unfold to make a round.

Pour the fruit and juices (scraping the bowl to make sure you get all the cornstarch) into the pastry and mound it, leaving a 6 inch opening of exposed fruit in the center of the crust. Brush water on the pastry and sprinkle with sugar. Bake on the lower rack of a preheated 375 degree oven for 35-45 minutes.

Strawberry-Rose Roulade

2009-06-06T17:30:00.001-07:00

Oh, the delicious Roulade. This fancy sounding dessert is basically a jellyroll wearing high heels, all dolled up for a night on the town.

For me, making Roulades is soothing. A good thing to embark on when you’re in need of some Zen…kind of like the yoga of the pastry world. There is a gentle nature in their preparation, and they come together fairly quickly.

Another thing I like about Roulades is that they are easy to play with in terms of flavor combinations and tastes. I’m a flavor flirt, so I love this versatility of Roulades.

My first date with a Roulade was full of strawberries and rose…literally. I combined strawberries and rose extract with a cloud of lightly sweetened, softly whipped cream. Then, I layered the Strawberry-Rose Cream onto the Lemon-Scented Genoise Cake that I had baked earlier (in a sheet pan so it was flat).

The final step is to roll up the cake, which creates lovely swirls of cake and filling that are both beautiful and delicious looking. You can’t help but want to dive in for a luscious bite.

To accompany the Roulade, I made a fresh strawberry sauce and sugared rose petals for decoration.

Strawberry-Rose Roulade

6 large eggs

7 oz sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 ½ oz sifted cake flour

¼ tsp salt

3 oz unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 tsp lemon zest

1 pt strawberries

8 fl oz whipping cream

1 Tbsp sugar

¼ tsp rose extract

Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a half sheet pan with parchment.

Place eggs and sugar in bowl of stand mixer and set bowl over simmering water. Whisk constantly to keep eggs from scrambling. Heat mixture to about 110 degrees, or until eggs are warm and sugar is dissolved and no longer grainy to the touch.

Whip egg mixture on high speed until very light in color, thick and holds a ribbon (~10 minutes). Blend in vanilla and lemon zest.

Sift flour and salt together 2 times. With a strainer, sift 1/3 of the flour over the egg mixture and gently fold in with a whisk, spatula, bowl scraper, or your hand. Repeat 2 more times until all flour is used. There should be no streaks or lumps of flour. Whisk a generous scoop of batter into the melted butter, incorporating completely. Fold this butter mixture back into the batter. Immediately pour batter into prepared pan, using offset spatula to smooth into an even layer.

Bake cake ~ 15 minutes, until golden firm to touch and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Slice strawberries thinly (bite-size). Whip the cream, sugar and rose extract together. Fold in strawberries.

Dust top of the cooled cake with the confectioner’s sugar and place a piece of parchment on top. Flip cake out of pan onto a work surface, with a long side facing you. Carefully peal the parchment off the top. Spread filling evenly over the cake, leaving a 1” border all around. Starting with the long side closest to you, fold the edge over the filling, and then roll the cake into a log, pulling up and forward on the bottom parchment to help you roll the cake. When finished, the seam should be on the bottom. Trim ends. Lift roulade onto serving platter. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before slicing.

(From The Art and Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet, adapted by crc).

Saved by the Walnut Bread

2009-05-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

I love, love bread. I love making it, smelling it and eating it. When Christa asked who was interested in preparing a bread starter (made of flour, yeast and water) before Saturday’s class, I was an eager beaver. Of course I wanted to do it! Plus, making a bread starter is simple…really simple.

Simple or not, there are certain circumstances when one should not attempt to make a bread starter. Trust me.

I put together (or tried to) my rendition of a bread starter late-ish on Friday night. Yes, Friday night……I’m aware how lame this makes me. Anyway, I was supremely exhausted after a long week, did not have back-up ingredients (in case of a malfunction), and was emotionally drained. I mixed my ingredients together and noticed that the recipe said to knead the mixture a few times. Hmmm….my bread starter had the consistency of buttermilk…not exactly knead-able. I realized that I had accidentally doubled the amount of water and ruined my bread starter. I cried.

The next morning, I went to class bearing my failed bread starter. It didn’t matter. “Okay, don’t use that…make the walnut bread with Patty instead,” said Christa. The walnut bread didn’t require a starter and was a perfect idea to me. I also thought Patty was a perfect partner in my breadventure. She gets my humor (shocker here….not everyone does…).

The walnut bread dough is straight forward, with minimal ingredients (flour, water, yeast, salt, walnuts, and walnut oil). However, walnuts are independent, funky things that hate dough. Upon attempted incorporation, they turn into nutty missiles with bad aim…shooting out every which-way and refusing to become one with the dough.

We had finally defeated the rebellious walnuts by kneading them into submission when we noticed another unexpected result. The bread dough had decided to turn slightly purple. It was odd…made no sense…and is a characteristic of all walnut breads I’ve ever eaten. I’m not sure why the purple tint occurs, but I’m sure there is some scientific explanation. Perhaps some reaction from the walnut oil? I bet Alton Brown would know.

After our dough was done with yet another long rest, we formed it into two rounds, slashed them with “the slasher” and popped them into the oven. The bread is ready when it’s crust is golden brown, and it sounds hollow when you knock on it with your hand (don’t burn yourself….).

Walnut Bread

1 ½ tsp instant yeast
7 fl oz water, room temp.
340 g flour (~2 ¾ cups)
2 tsp salt
½ c chopped walnuts
3 fl oz walnut oil, divided in thirds
coarse salt for crust, if desired

In a large mixing bowl, mix water, flour, yeast, salt and 1 oz walnut oil; knead until smooth and then knead in walnuts (~15-20 minutes of kneading).

Let rise until double, about 1-1 ½ hours.

Knead in another oz of oil; let rise again until double.

Knead in last oz of oil; let rest 5-10 minutes.

Shape into one medium or two small loaves; let rise until almost double.

Sprinkle with salt, if desired; bake in 425 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.

What is an Entremet?

2009-05-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday’s Pastry Class was an exercise in the “real world” of Pastry (well, as real world as you can get in a classroom setting...). We were divided into groups of three people, with one person being assigned as the “Pastry Chef” and the other two as “Helpers”. I was assigned into the latter of the two categories, which was not the place I wanted to be.

I tend to be food bossy by nature. Good thing it was still early, I was tired, and was doing a good job of staring off into space (which would make it less challenging to hold back my ever-opinionated self).

The dessert of the day was an Entremet which up until this point, had been a foreign concept to me. Entremet translates literally to "between servings", and in the Pastry world is an exquisite layered dessert. Entremets are often cylindrical in shape and comprised of multiple cake and mousse layers. They do a good job of seducing people to “ooohs” and “aaaaahs”.

During our Entremet flavor huddle, I only had to bite my tongue a few times to avoid being too...ahem…authoritative. I was happy that our group’s Pasty Chef du Jour was up for compromise. Together, we decided to create an Entremet with the following layers: Lemon Genoise Cake, Raspberry Mousse, Chopped Pistachios, a second layer of Lemon Genoise Cake, White Chocolate Mousse and Raspberry Gelee. The toppers we decided on were Pistachio Brittle and Candied Lemon Peel.

It was miraculous to me how quickly the Entremet came together. After completing all the components, we layered them, refrigerating between layers to create visually distinctive lines.

We used acetate to create a mold for the finished product. We cut small circles of cake (smaller than the size of the mold, so that the cake would be covered by the mousse entirely). The finished Entremet was *almost* too pretty to eat. Almost.

A Dozen Soufflés Later

2009-05-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

I should have known I was in for trouble when I walked into pastry class and there was a giant cowbell sitting on the counter. Instead, I was too absorbed in thoughts of soufflés to even notice the bell.

I’ve eaten and enjoyed both sweet and savory soufflés many times, but was a bit wary to try my hand at creating one…soufflés fuel many a rumor mill. There are dozens of soufflé horror stories out there, usually starring a fallen soufflé and resulting in some baker having a mild mental breakdown. I did not want to have a mental breakdown, no matter how mild.

Before letting us loose in the kitchen, Christa proclaimed that “A soufflé waits for no man,” which brings me back to the reason for the cowbell. It was there to alert all of us when a soufflé came out of the oven, because we needed to taste it immediately. (Normally, we do one mass tasting at the end of the class). After Christa’s exclamation, we were off and I started making a chocolate soufflé with a fresh berry sauce.

Just as I was getting into the soufflé groove, I head the cowbell's cry “BING-BING-BING,” the first soufflé was out of the oven and ready to taste.

And, it was delicious..so I took one bite and then two. Then, I went back to work on my soufflé until a few minutes later “BING-BING-BING,” the next soufflé was ready for tasting. Armed with a spoon in my pocket, I swooped in for a big gloppy spoonful of this Grand Marnier spiked souffle and sighed happily. I liked soufflés.

Or at least I liked soufflés until I had “tried” the sixth or seventh of the evening. At that point, I still had another seven soufflés left to taste and already despised the cowbell which had started to evoke a “run away from the soufflé” fear response. I obviously had not paced myself well.

I must admit that I was a big sissy and hid in the back of the kitchen to avoid a couple of the last soufflé tastings…my teeth were starting to fall out (or at least that was my mental image). In the end, I’m glad I was a soufflé ninny because I think I was one or two soufflés away from shunning the dessert for life. Instead, I have recovered and accepted soufflés back into my life. They are appealing (when eaten in moderation). The are light and fluffy and saucy all at once…and they look quite impressive, too. Cowbells on the other hand, I will hate forever.

Here's the chocolate souffle recipe pictured above (recipe courtesy of Tante Marie Cooking School):

Souffle au Chocolate

7 oz. semisweet chocolate

5 Tbsp water

1/3 cup flour

2 cups cold milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

4 egg yolks, blended with a fork

6 egg whites

Pinch of salt

Pinch of cream of tartar

1/2 cup sugar

Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Prepare a 2 quart souffle dish by brushing the inside with butter and coating it with sugar. Clean the rim. Preheat oven to 400-degrees. Center an oven rack.

In a bain marie (water bath), melt the chocolate with the water. When melted, stir until smooth and keep warm.

In a medium saucepan, off the heat, make a paste by whisking the flour and a small amount of milk, then add the remaining milk. Add the vanilla and bring to a boil, stirring vigorously until thick. Cook for 1 more minute, then blend in chocolate and remove from heat. Temper the egg yolks, then add to the chocolate mixture.

Beat the egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar until soft peak. Slowly add sugar and beat until stiff peak. Warm the chocolate base if necessary and stir in 1/3 of the egg whites to lighten, then fold in the remaining egg whites.

Spoon the souffle into prepared dish. Use your thumb to clean the rim and "cut" into the souffle. At this point, you may cover with an inverted bowl and leave at room temp for an hour before baking. Bake in center of oven, turning it down to 375-degrees. Should take about 30 minutes. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and serve immediately.

Blame it on the Baguette

2009-05-11T23:05:00.000-07:00

French bread is so delicious. It just is…as is. The crunch of the crust is magnificent as it breaks into tiny shards of golden-brown munchy bits that taste deep and almost nutty, but simple at the same time. The soft, chewy center is a perfect sponge for whatever tasty thing you choose to christen it with (be it butter, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, fresh fruit preserves or maybe some delicious cheese). Yum.

But, French bread’s deliciousness is not an Abra-Cadabra phenomenon. In order to create a true baguette…the kind that dreams are made of (…Am I the only one that dreams about bakery cases?), one must take on a lengthy, laborious and often spaz-inducing project.

French bread making revolves around dough smack-down (the dough, after at least doubling in size, must be heaved over your shoulder, smacked down on the counter, and then kneaded with your hands, then repeated…for approximately 20-30 minutes). Appropriately, we (this was a partner project and I worked with one of my pastry lovers, Liz) named our dough “Smack Daddy”.

Before rising:

After Rising:

French bread class was a circus of bakery tools. In addition to flour catapults and dough hunks flying through the air like lassos, I (along with many of my baking comrades) turned into loud and unruly bakers. The attitude sort of came with the territory…I was swinging around dough like a cavewoman, so it seemed logical to me that I should act like one. Well, at least until the bread dough was done with it's final rise and ready for oven-time.

By far, the funniest incident of the day occurred when one wild bakerette (you know who you are,“Mo Reen”) smacked her dough down on the table, hitting the rim of a bowl of flour that was perfectly angled to attack another bread maker (we’ll call her “Jude D.”) square in the face. Poor “Jude D.” was left covered in flour and everyone was laughing hysterically…leading to a pretty good ab workout. The obvious conclusion here is that bread is good for our waistlines…or at the very least, it’s good for our souls.

**Thanks to Patty P. for taking the first picture included in this post:-)

Cakery

2009-05-05T23:08:00.000-07:00

Cakes. THE symbol of celebration…and sadly, often the culprit behind disappointed taste buds. Most of the cakes I’ve encountered in my life have been more beautiful to look at than to eat, which I think is a direct result of cakes gone wild…becoming commercialized and ubiquitous. These tepid tasting cake frauds are cloaked with frostings made from shortening instead of butter. How can you make a “Buttercream” frosting without butter?? You can’t. We, as cake eaters, are obviously dealing with a raging epidemic in the sugar and butter world.

I am relieved to say that there is a cure to this cake problem…a great recipe and the finest, REAL ingredients that you can find. Beauty is not only frosting deep.

And so, this brings me to the wonder that is cakes done right. A real cake is a fabulous thing. It can be light and airy, or dense and luxurious. It is the perfect vehicle for fruits, spices, nuts, frostings and puddings…or for nothing at all. Cakes are incredibly versatile and can be simple, impressive, rustic and comforting all at the same time. Because of the complexity that is cake, there are quite a few Pastry lessons dedicated to the topic. So far we’ve covered Chiffon/Sponge Cakes and Butter Cakes.

Chiffon/Sponge Cakes are made with meringue (beaten egg whites with sugar) for lift, and a small amount of fat (relatively) in the form of butter or vegetable oil. These cakes bake up light and fluffy, and beg to be paired with something juicy and creamy. I baked an Orange Sponge cake, which was going fine and dandy until I was forced to punch the cake in the face…it was trying to burn my finger. Luckily, the damage was minimal.

After baking many cakes and making batches and more batches of Buttercream frosting, we also learned how to make edible candied flowers. We used violas (a type of edible flower) and painted them with a meringue powder and water concoction…and then sprinkled the flowers with sugar. These flowers perched on top of cupcakes…simply adorable.

Butter cakes are obviously made with butter…and are dense and moist. These cakes are usually made using the creaming method (beating your butter and sugar together to create tiny air bubbles that help with the rise in the cake). I made a Cardamom Buttermilk Cake that was fragrant and delicious and receptive to many different flavor components. I paired the cake with Strawberries and almonds…and a dollop of whipped cream.

A Pie and a Galette...Who Could Ask for Anything More?

2009-04-29T23:12:00.000-07:00

It was eight o’clock on Saturday morning. I was coffee-less and challenged to an eight hour pie baking stint. I figured that if I could make it through the whole class without passing out in my pie dough, I would deem the day a success (low standards were necessary at this point in the day).

Lucky for me, and all my future pie eaters, I did not fall asleep in my pie dough (nor in the filling). We began the class by tackling the illusive pie crust…which must be both tender AND flaky. The crust recipe we used was for a traditional all butter pie crust (opposed to one that includes oil or shortening), called “Pate Brisee”. It was a quick dough to get together, but also easy to over-work and make tough. Ironically, the best crusts of the day were the ones made in the KitchenAid mixer, and not by hand (it pains me to even write that!).

I already adore pies...and when fruit is involved, they are one of my all-time favorite desserts. For class, I baked a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, made interesting by the addition of crystallized ginger and an almond topping.

While we are on the subject of strawberries, the below picture is a side by side comparison of a strawberry from the farmer's market (small and cute with a smooth, tender flesh) compared to a strawberry from the grocery store (huge and strangely crunchy.

Strawberry mutants aside, I think that strawberry-rhubarb is one of the best flavor combinations...ever. The bright, tart rhubarb melts with the sweet berries to create a taste that rivals even Mary Poppins in the perfection department.

After baking the pie, and feeling overly proud and accomplished, I realized I still had five hours left to bake. After briefly contemplating a nap in the corner, I got up and made frangipane (naturally). Frangipane is an almond filling that bakes up sort of puffy and is often times accompanied by pears or other fruits in tarts.

With the frangipane in arms reach (quite a good place for it to be), I needed a vehicle to drive it around. So, I made another Pate Brisee crust, put some frangipane in the center, topped it with fruit (a mixture of apple, and assorted berries with some lemon zest), and folded up the edges to make a lovely, rustic Galette. I love how scrumptious all the fruit looks, yum.

The line up of desserts that day was quite impressive.

Ups and Downs in Tartville

2009-04-23T21:52:00.001-07:00

Monday night’s Pastry Class was a haze of heat, butter, and emotional turmoil. Not only was it was the first 80+ degree day of the year in San Francisco, but we made Tarts…more specifically, Tart dough. Tart dough is mostly made of butter and needs to be kept chilled…or else the butter melts…excessively. Case in point, our teacher Christa couldn’t even convince her dough to cooperate during the demo. Instead, the dough just started sticking to everything it could attack and oozed around the counter. This is the point we all should have fled the scene screaming. But instead, we stuck around to be TARTured (sorry, when it comes to food puns, I just can’t help myself).

The basic formula for the Tart au Citron (-aka- Lemon Tart) with a Pate Sucree crust (a sweet and flaky crust) I was assigned:

1. 1. Make the tart dough (8 oz. butter, ½ cups sugar, 2 egg yolks, pinch of salt, 3 cups flour, 2 tablespoons heavy cream) and divide it in half to make two tart shells.

2. 2. CHILL

3. 3. Roll dough out and cut into the exact circle size of the tart pan

4. 4. CHILL

5. 5. Put dough in your tart pan perfectly (which is harder than it sounds)

6. 6. CHILL

7. 7. “Blind-bake” the dough, meaning you need to cover your dough with parchment and dried beans (to weigh it down) which allows the crust to bake a little so it won’t be soggy when you add the filling

8. 8. Fill the tart with a beautiful home-made lemon curd

9. 9. Bake the whole tart (the filling needs to be baked too).

The recipe seemed so straightforward, but proved difficult as an 80 degree day led to a 90 degree kitchen…with ovens blasting at 375 and chefcoat-clad students involuntarily playing slip and slide on buttery tart dough. I felt like a drunken hyena suffering from a mild case of heat stroke…and I was somehow supposed to be coordinated enough to create a delicate Lemon Tart?

As I was verbally abusing my tart dough, things were awry around me. One tart shell plunged to an untimely death as it was being removed from the oven…its flaky remains a perfect symbol for the evening.

Simultaneously, an oven started expelling smoke and the dried beans (being used to "Blind-Bake" the filling-less tart shells) began fumigating the room with an unpleasant, too-earthy odor. The overall kitchen vibe was laughably spastic.

It was about 9:15pm when I realized that there was no way I was going to have everything done in time for plating and presenting (at 9:30). I was heading high speed towards a perfect tart pan ZERO of an evening. By nothing short of a small miracle, I did manage to finish one lousy tart pan of baked dough (which Christa pointed out was slightly under-baked)…not exactly a brag-worthy evening. I had to leave the remaining tart components I had partially finished in the fridge for next class.

Update: It is now Thursday evening, and I am happy to report that I have made a full recovery from the Tart Disaster of 2009. Christa, feeling sorry for her defeated students, held a Tart Re-Do Class. It effectively restored the Pastry Morale, and gave everyone a second chance to create an elegant, beautiful, and impressive tart. The combination of intense cravings for tarts, and the fear of second failure proved beneficial. I found myself baffled by how wonderful all the tarts looked and tasted…it leaves me daydreaming (and drooling) over what delicious creations are up next.

To Meringue, or Not to Meringue?

2009-04-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

There is something both confusing and amusing about Meringues. After a series of internal debates, I have concluded that I do indeed like Meringues, despite the fact that I don’t actually enjoy the flavor of the puffy little sugar bombs. Sounds strange I know, but I’ve got my reasons for liking them…

First of all, the very appearance of a Meringue is just so darn charming. They remind me of soft fluffy clouds and whimsy. Another reason I like Meringues is that eating them makes me laugh, which I think has something to do with the texture…they are crunchy and melty and amusingly lightweight. I figure that these Meringue- attributes, along with the fact that meringues are often served with whipped cream and fruit (two things I adore), are enough for me to give them my seal of sweet approval.

I have eaten my fair share of Meringues, but I’d never actually attempted to make them (likely due to my questionable feelings towards them), until Wednesday’s Pasty Class. I was given a specific Meringue duty…to create a Pavlova, which is a type of baked meringue that is supposedly named after a Russian dancer. The Pavlova I made had a dipped-in center, perfect for filling with a lovely cream, which in this case was a Honey- Lavender Whipped Cream. The recipe also included topping the puffy, creamy dessert with Poached Strawberries.

When I read the recipe, a level of difficulty was seemingly inherent (ingredients like lavender make me wary). However, I discovered that Pavlovas are actually pretty easy to make….especially if you have a Kitchenaid mixer. A Pavlova basically entails whipping egg whites, sugar and a bit of cream of tartar together until the mixture turns into a large, opaque white mass resembling Kirby (Kirby is the star of the only video game I’ve ever been addicted to…and basically looks like a huge marshmallow).

The Honey-Lavender whipped cream called for in the recipe slightly concerned me. I don’t tend to enjoy eating lavender (although I have been pleasantly surprised by it in the past). Oh yeah, and then there was the fact that I had to use a spice grinder that smelled like a giant curry pot to incorporate the lavender into the sugar…how lovely (apparently someone had last used it to grind cumin, and the cumin would not leave despite multiple cleaning efforts). Fortunately, the musky cumin odor somehow disappeared, and lavender sugar was born…and was pleasantly floral, and only faintly sweet (which is good since it was paired with the uber-sweet Pavlova).

Before I go into the madness that is poaching strawberries, I have to explain one thing…or at least TRY to explain it. For some odd reason, I consider fruits as being in one of two categories. Category One is “Everyday Fruits,” and includes fruits that I can get every day, and easily…like bananas and apples. The Second Category is “Special-Time Fruits,” and includes fruits that are more seasonal or expensive…like strawberries and blackberries. I can deal with a mealy apple once in awhile, but I get really angry when I eat a “Special-Time Fruit” that isn’t really, really delicious.

That said, I am pissed off at poached strawberries, and have no plans to ever again poach them. First of all, poaching strawberries drains them of their beautiful brightness , and makes them look muted and almost sickly. Their taste is also muted…and develops a strange herbal quality, almost as if the berries had been steeped in tea or something. After poaching the Strawberries, I felt slightly depressed for them.

When it came to plating my Pavlova, I decided against using the mushy, poached strawberry corpses and opted for fresh strawberries instead…which I cut into little hearts (I figured it was only appropriate that these berries were mourning for their sad, mushy brethren).

After all is said and done, I think I’ll continue my confused relationship with the meringue.

Creme Brulee Trio

2009-04-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

One of the unexpected side effects of Pastry School is my newfound ability to feel wide-eyed and bushy tailed when it’s late (and late to me is 9pm. I wish I was joking). Pastry class goes until 10 pm, so I’ve had to break my normal schedule. I am no longer able to be wrapped up in my cuddly blankets, catching all the zzz’s I can, at 9:30. After ingesting such enormous amounts of sugar and feeling prosperous and excited about some beautiful pastry creation, my usual bedtime routine has been foiled!

Tonight is one of those “I can’t go to bed because I'm high on Pastry School” nights. I made crème brulee, and for the first time, I felt like I had real pastry SKILLS (one should pronounce that “skeeeeels” for maximum effect).

I started out by getting cream, a full vanilla bean (I know, I live an extravagant life), and some sugar simmering on the stove. As I was waiting for the cream mixture to scald (aka get really freaking hot), I separated 8 eggs…crème brulee isn’t exactly a “light” dessert…and proceeded to use 8 egg yolks.

I put the nonfat, protein packed whites in the communal “Egg White Bin” for use in next class (when we make meringues!). As an interesting side note, egg whites keep for weeks (it’s the yolk part that is first to spoil), so if you have left over egg whites in your fridge, try the smell test. If they don’t smell like anything, you are good to go.

When the sweetly vanilla cream mixture was good and hot, I combined it with the egg yolks, beating the mixture vigorously (remember to temper, temper, temper! Nobody likes a curdled crème brulee). Then, into the oven (and a water bath) the little crème cups went.

One can tell when crème brulees are done because they jiggle exactly how Santa’s “bowl full of jelly” does. At that point, it was out of the oven and into the fridge. While the crème brulee cups chilled, I made some decorations with caramel. Most of them looked like a small child using their non-dominant hand had taken over, but, a couple turned out to be useable.

After all this caramel madness, my crème brulees had set up enough to torch them (oh yes, with a blow torch). I felt both very afraid and strangely powerful with the blowtorch in hand...

Since I had created little caramel spoons during caramel playtime, I decided to used them to decorate the creme brulees. I topped the sugary flatware with the most beautiful pyramid-shaped sea salt, and placed them on the custard cups. All this writing has tired me out…Sweet Dreams!

Happy Easter - Lemon Poppyseed Muffins with Lemon Curd

2009-04-12T21:37:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter!

I woke up this morning, and all I could think about was how I wanted to bake Lemon Poppyseed Muffins.

I already had some freshly-made lemon curd in my fridge (I made it yesterday at Pastry School) desperately in need of a home. What could be a more perfect vehicle for this tart custard gold than a sweet little muffin?

Because it's Easter, and because all holidays make me miss my family even more than usual (and "usual" is a LOT), these muffins are in honor of my parents.

Anything of the muffin variety reminds me of my Dad...and the sour, brightness of lemon is something he'd definitely love. I knew I wanted them to be Poppyseed, because that reminds me of my Mom. In fact, I'm sure if she was here to try a bite (or ten), she would get 100 of the tiny black orbs stuck in her teeth...right in time for a photo opp.

I decided to use a basic buttermilk muffin recipe, and twist it a little. I added the zest of a couple Eureka Lemons (this is the kind that all supermarkets carry, and we know them just as the generic lemon), toasted some thinly sliced almonds for crunch, and added a quarter cup of poppyseeds. Then, after filling my muffin tins, I added a mountain of silky, yellow lemon curd right on top, dusted them with some raw turbinado sugar (which gives the top a very pleasing crunchy sweetness), and into the oven they went. As the muffins baked, the lemon curd oozed and cradled itself deep inside it's muffin nest, creating a lovely balance of flavors and textures. I'm a sucker for anything mini, so I made half of the batch as mini muffins and half as regular.

Just like how the tart and sweet complement one another in these muffins, my home-sick feeling was countered by the sweet and wonderful feeling of being able to share these muffins with my lovely boyfriend Nick's, family. I also discovered that these muffins are all the more delicious with a good glass of champagne...but, then again, what isn't?

Pastry School -Day 1 - Cookie Chaos

2009-04-11T23:12:00.000-07:00

Oh, the first day of Pastry School. In my mind, it would be exactly like the cooking shows I addictively watched, watch, and forever will watch….meaning that everything would seamlessly work out. All my ingredients would be right next to me, waiting in line on the caloric diving board, ready to jump into my bowl of butter. But, I was nowhere near as Pastry-Stealth (or coordinated) as I had imagined. Cookie chaos ensued.

The first recipe I started attacking was for Whole Wheat Shortbread with Cocoa-Nibs. Initially, the Kitchenaid Mixer and I had a slight disagreement (although I have seen them used bazillions of times, I’ve never had the luxury of owning one). Our spat began like this...first, I tried to coerce the thing into creaming my butter and sugar together...with the whisk attachment. This was a poor attachment choice. Although it did work….for 2 seconds...until all the butter was suctioned into the center of the whisk, which at this point was wildly hula-hooping around a giant bowl of air. After spending a few minutes whacking the whisk attachment onto the side of the bowl, I realized I looked like a crazy woman (sadly, this is nothing new).

After ceasing my whisk abuse, I finally got the wad of sweet butter out of the center of the whisk and decided to take a different approach. I found the paddle attachment and was able to cream my butter and sugar together with ease. In the future, I will simply ask myself “WWPDD,” ("What Would Paula Deen Do?”).

The rest of the recipe went along smoothly, as did my variation of Peanut Butter Shortbread cookies filled with Chocolate Ganache.

Well, the recipes went along smoothly with the slightest of hiccups, which came about when I realized that my Peanut Butter Cookies were starting to crack in the oven. After a slight moment of sheer legume panic, my Pastry teacher (perhaps I should refer to her as my "Pastry Godmother") assured me that this was a desired effect. Phew.

Since there are 14 total Pastry students in the class, my two-cookie contribution was only a fraction of this sweet chapter. There were many other cookies baked up, including Meyer Lemon Sandwich Cookies, different types of basic Shortbreads (one with a Salted Caramel Sauce in the center), Ginger Cookies, Almond Shortbreads, and Cornmeal Shortbread with Currants and Rosemary.

At the end of the baking madness, we embarked on a wonderful thing...the "tasting". The only part of the tasting session that was not awesome, was when we tasted a defective cookie...the baker had accidentally used salt instead of sugar. Eating a Salt Cookie is not a pleasant sensation, and is unadvisable under all circumstances.

At the end of the night, we were allowed to take home tons of cookies (and dough, which is happily in my freezer for later use). The unclaimed cookies and doughs (and there were tons of both...which almost seems criminal) were given away to a program called "Food Runners", which was started by the school's founder, and provides food to people in need. I can't wait till next class...I'll keep you posted =)