Broke. Busy. Very, very Hungry.

bread rotation, week 2

2010-02-01T22:42:00.000-08:00

I was looking forward to the second week of the bread rotation. Looking forward to it! I had a list of breads I was excited to make:

Mt Hood (a hazelnut bread)
Snowcap Rye (a three-day rye bread)
Caraway Rye (a 40% rye bread with caraway seeds)
Seeded Sourdough (with flax, sunflower, sesame, and...another seed)
Beer Bread with Roasted Barley (I substituted oats)

My partner and I finished an Indian bread that we'd started the week before, called Aloo Partha. It involved a spiced potato filling wrapped in a whole wheat dough. I wish I'd taken photos as the assembly process was complex and interesting: a ball of dough is rolled out flat and filling is spread thinly over the whole. The round is then rolled into a cylinder, and the cylinder is wrapped into a spiral shape. The spiral is then rolled flat to create a round flat bread with layers of filling embedded throughout. I wish we'd made some chutney too- this bread was hearty enough to be lunch, and a dipping sauce of some sort would have completed it nicely.

The first solo bread I made was the Mt Hood. This bread required four separate preferments, which together made up roughly half of the final dough. From right to left- white sponge, whole wheat sponge, white levain, rye levain. The white sponge exploded because the container turned out to be too small to contain its growth- it more than doubled overnight!

These are combined with additional yeast, flour, salt, and in most cases water-- but I substituted an oaked hazelnut ale that a classmate of mine had made in the previous quarter. As I added this beer to the candied hazelnuts that give this bread its name (Oregon is known for its hazelnuts) I was aiming for a very nutty, slightly sweet bread with a complex flavor.

The bread seemed to like the additional yeast provided by the beer and it grew quite nicely during the bulk ferment:

I shaped it into rounds and tried to do a pretty leaf scoring, which didn't work out so well... but the bread turned a lovely shade of brown in the oven, and came out dotted with toasted nuts:

"img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4009/4311014690_a017e13f92_o.jpg">

As it turned out, this bread might be the best thing I've ever created. The hazelnuts and the beer gave it an almost nutella-like nutty sweetness, with a richness and depth from the preferments. It had a medium crumb, moist but offset by the crunch of the nuts. My coworkers devoured this bread and day-old loaves were used for what I'm told is the most amazing french toast ever. I will probably be making this bread for my fourth quarter final project.

And then, somehow in that week, I managed to make all of the other breads listed-- a minor miracle, of which I am justifiably proud-- but I forgot to take photos of all of them. Except the snowcap rye, and I'm glad I remembered that, because it's just so pretty. So I leave you with this- a hearty rye bread topped with flour before baking so that the final proof in the oven poofs the top into something resembling (the recipe claims) one of the rocky mountains. You be the judge:

third quarter bread rotation

2010-01-27T22:13:00.000-08:00

This was my first rotation of the third quarter. I was (am) exhausted, and after the horrorfest of last quarter's bread rotation, I was terrified of breads. I just didn't want to do it. In fact, I chose it as my first rotation because I wanted to get it over with.

And then I learned to love the breads.

In this rotation, we chose which breads to do, when to do them, and how to manage our time. There was no schedule and there were very few rules. We could adapt recipes or bring in our own. I worked with a partner but this could involve as little or as much interaction as we wanted. Aside from the lack of sleep, I found this to be just lovely.

My first bread was a mushroom and farro bread, made with dried shiitake mushrooms, button mushrooms, and farro. The shiitake mushrooms were reconstituted in hot water, and that water was used as the liquid in the dough. The bread took two days- one to prep the mushrooms and the farro and the preferment, and one day to assemble, proof, and bake the bread.

The bread had a lovely earthy flavor, and the farro added texture and a nuttiness. The shiitake mushrooms were better than expected (I worried about dried mushrooms) but the button mushrooms fell flat. Next time I'd use something else- the recipe called for porcini, but I didn't have those available.

My partner and I did one bread together in this first week, and that was the german pumpernickel. This bread is composed entirely of rye and bakes over 16 hours at low heat, and then must cool for an additional four hours or so before it can be sliced. The dough involves a preferment and a soaker (rye and shredded rye) and so the final process takes roughly four days. The result is an exceptionally dense and flavorful bread, made exceptionally dark due not only to the rye but also to the maillard reaction triggered by this baking method.

The claylike dough does not want to be kneaded in the mixer; it simply coats the inside of the bowl in an interesting homage to negative space:

My three-day bread (the one requirement we had was that we choose a three-day bread) was an olive levain, made with three kinds of olives and a sourdough levain. Three-day breads have a preferment and then are given a long overnight proof after their final shaping so that they can develop more and more complex flavor. I used kalamata olives from school as well as two kinds of spanish olives (one oil-cured) from work. This bread was fantastic and I would definitely make it again. I may try to adapt the recipe for home use.

Here the bread has been given its final shape and is ready to rest and proof overnight:

Once baked, the scoring down the center makes it look as though it's just bursting with olives:

My disaster for the week was the semolina sesame bread. The preferment was very, very wet and the amount of flour in the final dough in no way yielded what the recipe claimed would be a 'stiff' product. It was downright soupy. I had to had more and more flour (durum) and in the end this probably caused quite a bit of overmixing. By the time the bread was done proofing it was clear that there wasn't enough time to bake it, and we had to retard it overnight- not usually done for this kind of bread.

By the next day, the bread had formed a crust (not enough humidity in the retarder) and while this isn't always a problem, in this case the bread had to be re-shaped. After the overmixing, the extra-long proofing, and then this over-shaping, the final product was dense and not pleasant to the taste. Alas.

I had so badly wanted to do a number of sesame breads, but after that experience, I was done with that idea.

And that was week one: german pumpernickel, mushroom farro bread, olive levain, and semolina sesame.

individual desserts

2010-01-03T08:54:00.000-08:00

This is one of the new rotations for second quarter: small desserts, or petit-fours. These are elaborately constructed tiny things that take maybe 4 or 5 bites to eat.

We started off easy, with pate a choux, which is the dough used to make profiteroles or cream puffs and eclairs. We piped this into circles like doughnuts, filled them with praline mousseline, and coated them in almonds and powdered sugar. They are called Paris-Brest and are often named to commemorate a bicycle race between the two cities (hence their wheel-like shape).

After that, we moved on to custards. We made flan, which involved filling teacups with caramel and then a rich eggy mixture and baking it in a water bath for about an hour. The process had two difficult points, neither of which had anything to do with the recipe itself. First, moving a hotel pan full of boiling water to and from an oven is frightening and scary. If the water sloshes over the tops of the cups, the custard is ruined. If the water sloshes over you, well, ow.

The second frustrating part is turning the custards out of their teacups. You run a knife around the edge of the cup, breaking the seal, and pull the custard away from the side a bit, breaking the vacuum. then you flip the cup upside down and the custard plops out like the one above, right? Ha. Witness:

Those are all the failed flans, which came out in pieces or fell apart as soon as they hit the plate. It is extremely frustrating to finish something well and then ruin it when you're trying to get it onto the plate. We couldn't sell any of those, and they all went to student lunch.

We also couldn't sell this, the large flan (we ran out of teacups), because we didn't have a take-away plate large enough and slices would have been hideous. It's too bad, because it turned out beautifully:

After flan we moved on to creme caramel, which is much the same process, except that you get to torch the tops to form a glass-like sugary caramel-y crust. Ours was flavored with bailey's irish cream and chocolate, but I didn't think that the flavors came through very well. Needed more booze, or more chocolate, or both. Or something. No pictures of that, simply because I forgot.

The next week we moved on to the petit-fours:

from left to right:
napoleons: blitz puff pastry and rich pastry cream, covered in fondant.
chocolate bombes: chocolate mousse and caramel mousse layered over rive gauche (chocolate) cake.
bavarian cakes: almond sponge cake decorated with orange tulipe batter and filled with orange bavarian cream.

The bombes were like a mini version of what I'd done in my cake rotation, so I was comfortable with those, and the napoleons are amazingly simple to make (despite being an utter mess to eat). The most complicated part of all of this was making the stripes on the bavarian-filled cake.

You make a batter of egg whites and powdered sugar and a bit of bread flour (called a tulipe batter), spread it into a sheet pan atop a silpat, and then use this giant long device to make a stripey design on it. Your hands need to move straight and your pressure needs to be perfect and even for the best result. The tray is then frozen and afterwards the cake batter poured on top of the pattern and baked. when the cake is flipped out and the silpat removed, the stripes will remain on the cake. Voila!

Then you spend an hour cutting the cake into wee strips and circles to make these cakes.

And that, folks, was the end of my second quarter in pastry school.

bread rotation

2009-12-28T09:51:00.000-08:00

Second quarter's bread rotation was extremely stressful. The workload was designed for five or six people, and one rotation group had seven. My rotation had FOUR. This might not sound like much of a problem, but it was. Every day it felt like we were worried about time, and rushing to get things done. Work that we trusted to the first-quarter students didn't get done properly and had to be re-done the next morning, costing more time. We had to get to the bakeshop early every day to get the ovens on and the first dough mixed, because otherwise it wouldn't rise in time to use. '

On top of that, I started a new job that week, and my rotation partner moved from one apartment to another. We were an exhausted mess and how we got through those two weeks is beyond me. I did miss one day of that rotation.

So all that is a way of saying that I'm going to post a lot of pictures of bread below, and I'm not sure what all of them are. I barely remembered to take photos at all in the rush to get things out and down to the case.

No idea what this one is:

This is a capuchin roll, named after the monk's caps. We made them for Thanksgiving.

Butternut squash challah, topped with pumpkin seeds, also for Thanksgiving:

Regular challah:

Judging by the irregular shapes, I'm guessing that this is rustic pain au levain, made with the pain ordinaire for lunch service (we used to make rolls for service, but no longer have the duchess that cut the dough for us, and we don't have the time to do it all by hand):

Another one I can't remember for sure, but it might be our three-day levain:

This bread was mis-weighed because we accidentally turned the baker's scale around. Instead of weighing each portion to be 18 ounces, we ended up with each portion being 30 ounces. But, it was delicious.

Naan made using a starter and wheat flour:

Hazelnut-currant bread:

dome aux epices

2009-11-17T22:43:00.000-08:00

This post is special because it means I've achieved a goal I set for this blog- posting more this year than last year. I know it's been in fits and starts and sporadic posting binges, but I've kept the blog going for two years and I've posted an average of three posts per month (almost one per week!) and that's not terrible. If I keep it going my goal is to schedule the posting binges out so that instead of getting two weeks with a post every day and then two months of silence, you get fourteen weeks of posts once a week.

Anyway, on to the point of this post: the dome. Also called a bombe. I had great fun telling people that I was building bombes at school (they are indeed heavy and delicate and complicated) and then someone told me that perhaps considering my ethnic background, I should choose different words for posting on the internet. No way. I am going to milk my punny joy for all it's worth.

This dessert contained six elements: a chocolate mousse, gingerbread bavarian cream, spice cake (mostly egg whites and almond meal), shiny chocolate icing, gingerbread syrup, and a different spice cake (rye flour, honey) that served as an ingredient in the cream and the syrup.

The spice cakes are made first, and then the syrup, the cream, the mousse. The icing can be made whenever.

First, you pipe chocolate mousse into the molds a little over 1/3 of the way up. You dunk a circular cutout of the spice cake into the spice syrup and place it in the center of the mousse, pressing it in so that it's all level. You want the mold to be about half full when the cake is in.

Then you pipe in the spice bavarian cream, leaving about 1/4"-1/2" of space at the top so that you can press in another layer of dunked spice cake. Once the cake is in and level with the top of the mold, you can go back with more cream and fill in any space in the edges.

Then the dessert needs to be completely frozen. I put it in the blast freezer overnight. When you're ready to unmold, you want your shiny chocolate icing ready. These dessserts are unmolded in a tricky way. I thought I'd flip the mold over, torch the outside, and pop the mold off. No. You take a large bowl of hot water, dunk the mold in (don't get the cake wet!) and then flip the dessert out.

Flip the dessert out. Does that sound easy? This is what it involves: hold the wet mold in one hand. In your other hand, take a cardboard round a bit smaller than the diameter of the mold, and place it over the exposed cake. Press on one side so that the dome slides in the mold, and as it slides, invert your hands so that the mold comes off and the cake ends up upright on the round in your hand. Attempt to put the round down without touching any of the mousse.

Then freeze the tray again so that the slightly-softened mousses can set before you pour slightly-warm chocolate icing over them.

This chocolate icing is gorgeous. It's a deep, shiny black and it looks glittery. It's also a giant pain in the ass and I hate it. It has to cook for ages and it has to be poured at the right temperature, in great volume, quickly. You get one shot to pour it, because it begins to set immediately and any more poured over it won't smooth out. It also never sets entirely, and therefore nothing can touch the dessert at any point after it's been poured- not your spatula, not your fingers, not the sides of sheet trays or racks or doilies. The glaze will stick and peel off in a sheet.

On the plus side, decor sticks really well!

The chocolate mousse used in this dessert might be the best chocolate mousse I've tasted, so even though the recipe is a pain, I am going to give it to you because the texture and flavor are fabulous. It's silky and decadent.

Chocolate Mousse
140g sugar
50g water
120g yolk
100g whole eggs
350g chocolate 65%
500g whipped cream

Whip the yolks and whole eggs in a mixer. Cook the sugar and water to 240F (soft ball). While the mixer is running on high, slowly pour the soft-ball sugar down the side of the bowl into the eggs. Whip on high until cool. The mixture will be light and very fluffy (this is called a pate a bombe base). Melt the chocolate and cool until the whipped cream can be folded in without collapsing. Then fold in the pate a bombe.

le monte cristo

2009-11-16T15:03:00.000-08:00

This was the second cake I worked on, and it involved six separate elements: sacher chocolate cake, pastry cream, butter cream (combined into a mousseline coffee cream), coffee ganache, and trablit syrup.

This recipe also diverged the furthest from the printed version. By way of example, I am going to give you the cake and the mousseline procedures, as written and as performed.

Sacher chocolate cake:
650g marzipan at 50% (use almond paste)
400g icing sugar (use powdered sugar)
320g yolks (note: one yolk is ~15g)
150g butter
150g cocoa
75g flour
75g cornflour (use cornstarch)
480g egg whites
70g sugar

Recipe as printed:
In an electric mixer, whip the marzipan with the icing sugar. Add the yolks and the whole eggs gradually, beating until smooth. Whisk the eggs whites and and sugar to a firm snow, then fold a part of this into the marzipan mixture, then the melted butter, and the sifted mixture of flour, cornflour, cocoa, and finally the remainder of the egg whites. Spread out onto 60cm x 40cm silpat sheets at the rate of 650g/tray.

Recipe as performed:
Using the paddle, beat the almond paste at high speed until smooth. Lower speed and add the yolks one by one, beating until incorporated before adding the next. Change to the whisk attachment. Beat the whole eggs and sugar into the yolk-almond paste until uniform. While this is happening, use another mixer to beat the egg whites and sugar to firm peaks. By hand, fold this into the egg-almond-sugar mixture. Then fold in all the remaining sifted dry ingredients. Then fold in all the butter. Spread onto one silpat-lined sheet tray.

Mousseline coffee cream:
700g pastry cream
1200g buttercream
60g trablit (coffee essence)

Recipe as printed:
In the beater, with a whisk, flavor the pastry cream with the trablit, then, in second gear, incorporate the butter cream bit by bit.

Recipe as performed:
Whip the pastry cream by hand. Whip the trablit and buttercream by hand. Fold buttercream and pastry cream together, VERY CAREFULLY, by hand. Work the mixture as little as humanly possible.

(Chef's comment: "If you put this in the mixer, at all, I guarantee that it will break.")

Even the pastry cream and buttercream procedures as written do not mention tempering the egg yolks (they say "pour scalded milk over the creamed yolks and sugar") and so basically ask you to scramble your eggs.

Lesson: careful with recipes.

The cake turned out well, with two layers of chocolate-almond cake, a layer of the coffee mousseline, and a thick layer of coffee chocolate ganache. The sheet cake had to be skinned and leveled by hand, which was a terrifying procedure, but in the end my layers looked better than I'd expected they would. The whole cake was auctioned off for charity and the small slices were sold in the pastry case.

cake and tart rotation

2009-11-15T06:47:00.000-08:00

All I did was cakes. Two weeks, three cakes, and more creme anglaise than I ever thought I'd make.

This rotation taught me a lot about recipes. Namely, that one should never follow them. They are provided as a ruse to trick the eager and unsuspecting student. The chef is waiting for you to come to him to ask about technique, at which point he will inform you that what is written on that paper in your hand will only yield disaster.

The first cake is the emeraude pistache framboise. It is a layer cake composed of a pistachio sponge cake, a vanilla bavarian, and a raspberry gelee. This cake is mostly an exercise in getting layers spread across a sheet pan to be of an even depth, and that's harder than you'd think. I don't know why someone doesn't invent a cake collar with a grid. Or one that's transparent.

As you can see, this part of the cake looks great. Nice, even layers. Until you get to that bit on the left there. Oops.

The cake was made and assembled over two days, frozen overnight, and then cut and sold on the third day.

I ended up with sixteen small pieces and two medium cakes. The slices are cut with a long double-handled knife, and we heat the blade with a blow torch between slices. Since the cake is frozen, this makes slicing through it very easy. It's like a hot cake guillotine.

breaking down a bunny

2009-11-14T08:33:00.000-08:00

Warning: this post is full of bunny bits and meaty photos. If you're just here for the sweets and are squicked out by dissection, you may want to skip what follows.

On the day I was to deconstruct the rabbit, it took a very long time to thaw. My fellow students had told me that it took them roughly two hours (!) to complete the project, but by the time I could start, I only had an hour and a half until the end of class, including the half-hour designated for cleanup. And I had to get to work. This did not bode well. But eventually, we began.

This is a bunny, straight out of the bag- it's got its hind legs tucked into its stomach cavity, which leaves it looking sort of like a fetus. This, predictably, bothered some people.

First, you take the hind legs out and remove the organs from the bunny. There will be heart, kidney, and liver. Because bunnies are classed as poultry in this country for processing, the organs are removed and then replaced during butchery, and the organs you get may not have belonged to the actual bunny in hand. Mine had three hearts, and the bunny of the student next to me had none.

The first cut (after removing the kidney, which is left attached, and residual fat) is to remove the sides of the stomach area; there would be hangar steak and skirt steak here if this were a cow.

in this closeup you can see that the tenderloins- removing these is the next step. You must be careful, as they are small and fragile.

Once the tenderloins are taken care of (they're stacked together just above the bunny in the photo below) the hindquarters are removed, cutting up around the hip joint.

the legs are then deboned, leaving in the shinbone if desired. this is done by cutting around and along the bones on the seam visible there, starting with the wide end, scraping along the bone as you go.

After the hindquarters, the shoulders are removed completely (move the arm around to locate the edges of the scapulae) and deboned entirely. If there is an elegant way to do this, I'm not aware of it. I ended up with a messy pile of shoulder meat (I spared you that photo).

This is the point at which I ran out of time. The next cut is between the short ribs (top) and the long ribs (bottom). You cut toward the neck area until the short ribs are removed and the lower/back ribcage exposed.

The ribcage is separated from the lower spine by cutting where the ribcage meets the lower spine, and the top at the neck area is cut as well. Basically, cut away the spine that is not attached to the ribs.

The long ribs are trimmed to a reasonable length on each side, and then the ribs are cut from the spine to leave you with two little racks of rabbit. The ribs on these racks can then be frenched by cutting between the ribs and sliding the meat down to expose about 1/4"-1/2" of rib.

Bones can be used for stock. Meat yield in this project was around 70%.

doughs, week two

2009-11-13T08:27:00.000-08:00

remember those failed brioche? my poor sad brioche-sans-tetes were reincarnated as something much more delicious today:

these are the brioche, hollowed out, and stuffed with leeks and mushrooms cooked in white wine and cream. the whole thing is topped with comte cheese and finished in the oven until the cheese bubbles and browns. they were SO GOOD.

this is a kugelhopf. it's a brioche-like dough, filled with (in this case) ham, comte cheese, and onion. I wanted to eat it so bad.

whole wheat croissants- i'm not a big fan of these (whole wheat? why not use nonfat butter too? just suck all the fun right out.) but people who like whole wheat said they were tasty.

this is a pithivier; it's puff pastry (in this case, italian- contains honey and white wine) filled with whatever you like. mine contain ham, apples, blue cheese and walnuts. i called it a waldorf pithivier. in the oven they went from 1/4-1/2" thick to almost two inches. Magic!

And that's it for the dough rotation- croissants (regular and whole wheat, both with pre-ferments), brioche, puff pastry, and kugelhopfs. Lots of savory items, which are (shh, don't tell) my favorite. Next rotation is culinary.

back in school

2009-11-12T08:22:00.001-08:00

So I went back to school and immediately stopped posting. I apologize. Two jobs, a new internship, classes... *bitchwhinepissmoan*. Woe is me. But, I do have pictures and other things to share, and I'm going to start now before I get hopelessly behind and give up entirely.

These pictures are from the first week of my first rotation, which was doughs.

brioche a tetes- fail. misshapen and lost their heads.

they are supposed to look like this:

and these are pain au raisin, brioche rolled with vanilla pastry cream and rum-soaked currants, finished with an apricot glaze:

and finally, almond croissants- twice baked, soaked in rum simple syrup, filled with frangipane (almond paste), coated in almonds and powdered sugar:

artpark brownies

2009-09-06T03:30:00.000-07:00

I was reading Ruth Reichl's memoir, Tender at the Bone, when I got to this recipe. I mentioned brownies and all my roommates perked up. Luckily I live around the block from a 24-hr QFC, and good chocolate can be had at all hours of the night. Sometimes I wonder what the checkout people think of me, in my pajamas at 1am, buying two dozen eggs, heavy whipping cream, milk, 5 lbs of sugar, and 10 oz of the best unsweetened chocolate. (This, by the way, is what an ice-cream-making-kick and baking fetish does to your shopping lists.)

By the time the brownies came out of the oven, my roommates had gone to bed, and I decided to go to bed before the brownies had cooled enough to eat (sadly, brownies are better after they cool). The upshot of this: brownies for breakfast!

Artpark Brownies
from Tender at the Bone
makes 12 brownies

2/3 cup butter
5 ounces unsweetened, best-quality French chocolate (I used German. Don't tell the French.)
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup sifted flour (sift flour into 1-cup measure until heaping, then level with a flat object.)

Preheat oven to 400.

Butter and flour a 9" square baking pan (I used an 8" pan and added 7 minutes to the baking time.)

Melt butter and chocolate in double boiler, over boiling water. When melted, add vanilla and set aside.

Beat eggs and salt in mixer. Add sugar and beat at high speed for about ten minutes, or until mixture is quite white. (If you have a kitchenaid and use the middle speeds, this will not take ten minutes.)

Add chocolate and butter mixture and beat at low speed, just until mixed. Add flour and combine quickly, until there are no white streaks. (Do not overmix.)

Pour batter into pan and put into oven. Immediately turn oven down to 350 and bake for 40 minutes. The normal toothpick test will not work on these brownies, but if you want to try pricking them with a toothpick, it should not come out quite clean. Do not overbake; these brownies should be fudgy.

chocolate ice cream sandwich cookies

2009-09-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

If you ever want to make ice cream sandwiches, these are an excellent chocolate cookie. They're thin, so as not to overwhelm the ice cream, but they're chocolate enough to contribute flavor to a good pairing- I made sandwiches with the vietnamese coffee ice cream and it was mocha-licious. I've saved some of the cookies to try with the basil ice cream (coming soon) and with the mint. The advantage of ice cream sandwiches is that you can eat the ice cream without a spoon or bowl. No dishes!

I would advise freezing the cookies and letting the ice cream soften for a few minutes before assembling the sandwiches. If the ice cream is too hard it won't spread and if it is too soft it won't hold up thick enough to make a good sandwich. Once assembled, you want to freeze the whole contraption wrapped in plastic wrap for a while so that it becomes solid enough to eat. Otherwise, when you take a bite all the ice cream will squeeze out the far end like a bad jelly doughnut.

Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies
from A Perfect Scoop
makes 16 cookies for 8 sandwiches

1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons (50 g) unsweetened dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups (210 g) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats. (It is important to line the sheets so that you can remove the cookies as soon as you take the sheets out of the oven, otherwise the cookies continue to bake on the baking sheet and become overdone.)

Beat together the butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir the dry ingredients gradually into the creamed butter mixture until completely incorporated and there are no streaks of butter.

Form the dough into sixteen 1 1/2" (4 cm) rounds. On the baking sheets, flatten the rounds so they're 3 inches (8 cm) across, spacing them evenly. You can get 8 on a normal 11 x 17" baking sheet with three going lengthwise down the sides and two in the center in between.

Bake for 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheets midway during baking, then remove from the oven.

vietnamese coffee ice cream

2009-09-04T15:03:00.000-07:00

I adore coffee ice cream, and I especially love vietnamese coffee. I rarely drink it because I only have the opportunity when I'm going out for pho, and if I'm eating pho, I'm probably too broke to spend the extra three bucks on coffee. When I saw this recipe, I couldn't resist- now I have that coffee flavor in my freezer for whenever I want it! I made mine with cafe du monde coffee, as it is notoriously strong and I lack an espresso machine, but I'm sure anything you have around would work fine. I can't imagine that the pho restaurants are using anything fancier than cheap french roast brewed strong.

Now if only someone would gift me with a recipe for thai iced tea ice cream...

One advantage of this recipe is that it can be thrown together in the time it takes to brew the coffee- there is no custard, no stove. It's a one-bowl stir-to-combine convenience ice cream!

Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream
from The Perfect Scoop
makes about 1 quart

1 1/2 cups (600g) sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) brewed espresso or very strongly brewed coffee
1/2 cup (125 ml) half and half
big pinch of finely ground dark roast coffee

Whisk together all ingredients and chill thoroughly before freezing in your ice cream maker.

fresh fig ice cream

2009-09-03T23:33:00.000-07:00

My parents had a fig tree in their backyard when I was growing up (oh, the glories of southern californian weather) and every year we would have more figs than we could handle (and kumquats, and persimmons, and apricots... but i digress...) I was horrified to discover how much figs cost in the stores in the northwest. And they're not as good! Even the organic ones seemed less vibrant, less flavorful. Some day I will have my own fig tree, mark my words. The green ones with the white centers are delectable when chilled. Though, for this recipe, you want mission figs- the purple ones with the red insides.

I miss figs badly enough to approximate, so this recipe went onto the queue. This ice cream involves cooking the figs down into a jam, so it's okay if they're not the prettiest or the best figs you've ever seen. On the plus side, the color of this ice cream is phenomenal. After a half-dozen or more ice creams in varying shades of creamy pastels, I was ready for some boldness. And here it is.

The advantage of this recipe is that it does not require eggs, and therefore there is no fiddly egg-tempering custard-making step. Ease! It also does not freeze solid and is always easily scoopable.

Fresh Fig Ice Cream
from The Perfect Scoop

2 lbs (1kg) fresh figs (Lebovitz says about 20, I needed more like 30-35)
1/2 cup (125 ml) water
1 lemon
3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, or more to taste

Remove the hard stem ends from the figs, then cut each fig into eight pieces. (My figs were small and so I cut them into 4.) Put the figs in a medium, nonreactive saucepan with the water and zest the lemon directly into the pan. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the figs are tender, 8 to 10 minutes.

Remove the lid, add the sugar, and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the figs are a jamlike consistency. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Once cool, puree the fig paste in a blender or food processor with the cream and lemon juice. Taste, then add more lemon juice if desired.

Chill thoroughly, then freeze in your ice cream maker.

black pepper ice cream

2009-09-02T23:00:00.000-07:00

I was hesitant about this one. It sounded intriguing, but a tablespoon of cracked pepper for roughly a pint of ice cream seemed like a LOT. I can tell you now though, there there is no reason to be hesitant at all- the ice cream is light and creamy with just a hint of black pepper to make it interesting. I almost wish the flavor were stronger- although if your black pepper is stronger than mine, it might turn out to be more intense. Peppercorns (all spices, really) weaken with time and mine may have been fairly old.

Lebovitz suggests pairing this with summer berries or pears and honey, or melon and lime. Once you've tasted the ice cream, you'll understand entirely. This is a good ice cream to feed to people who may be afraid of savory or unusual ice creams, as the taste is really not what you'd expect.

Black Pepper Ice Cream
from The Perfect Scoop
makes one pint

1/2 cup (125 ml) whole milk
1/3 cup (65 g) sugar
1 tablespoon black peppercorns, coarsely cracked (use a mortar and pestle or a bag and hammer.)
pinch of salt
1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream
3 large egg yolks

Warm the milk, sugar, peppercorns, salt, and 1/2 cup (125 ml) of the cream in a medium saucepan. Cover, remove from the heat, and let steep at room temperature for one hour.

Rewarm the peppercorn-infused mixture. Pour the remaining 1/2 cup (125 ml) cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (this happens quickly, so watch carefully). Pour the custard through the strainer, pressing the peppercorns gently to extract as much flavor as possible. Discard the peppercorns and stir the custard into the cream. Stir until cool over an ice bath (or skip this part).

Chill in the refrigerator, then freeze in your ice cream maker.

cajeta / dulce de leche

2009-09-01T14:53:00.000-07:00

I've used a lot of dulce de leche before- dulce de leche brownies" and dulce de leche cheesecake squares but I never posted the recipe I used to make dulce de leche from scratch. Which is to say, from milk as opposed to condensed milk.

The reason I didn't give you my previous dulce recipe is that the process took 8-12 hours and required that I wake up throughout the night to stir it. In retrospect, this may have been because I used an electric stove (which does not maintain a constant temperature) and I made several quarts at once (extending the cooking time).

I am happy to say that *this* dulce de leche-- or cajeta, if your prefer, or my bastardized version-- takes much less time. Roughly an hour, or a bit more if you prefer a thicker final product. The flavor is fantastic and this is definitely well worth it. You can spoon it over ice cream, or make something baked, or eat it straight out of the jar, or spread it over toast with chocolate. Believe me, you'll find ways to use it.

Dulce de Leche
makes about 1 cup

1 quart milk - goat (for cajeta) or cow (dulce de leche). Use the best you can find.
1 cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean (for dulce de leche) or cinnamon stick (cajeta)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

In a saucepan (at least 3qt), combine the milk and sugar. Split the vanilla bean (if using) along its length and scrape the seeds into the pot, then throw in the pod. Bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

Remove from the heat after it reaches a simmer, and add the water/baking soda, stirring vigorously. The mixture will foam. When it settles, return it to the heat and keep an eye on it- it may still foam further. Bring it to a brisk simmer and keep it there for about an hour, or until it turns the shade of brown and consistency that you desire (this can range from maple syrup to jam). Once it simmers you can leave it be, checking in on it every so often, so long as you watch closely as it nears completion.

When you've got it where you want it (mine is like pourable caramel), take it off the heat, strain it, and cool it. This will keep up to a month in the fridge and ages in the freezer.

NOTE: Cajeta is goat's milk and cinnamon, and dulce de leche is cow's milk and vanilla. I used goat's milk and vanilla and have no idea what to call it. Next time I'll try it with cinnamon- it is important to use the cinnamon stick rather than the powder for this process.

saffron ice cream

2009-08-31T01:24:00.000-07:00

This is a gorgeous ice cream-- bright yellow with red saffron threads-- with a unique and highly addictive flavor. Sweet and saffron-savory, Lebovitz suggests pairing it with pine nuts, rosewater, oranges, cinnamon, and/or quince.

I find this preparation to be a touch too sweet, but others I've fed it to claim it's perfect as is. Your call.

Saffron Ice Cream
from The Perfect Scoop
makes one pint

1/2 cup (125 ml) whole milk
1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream
1/2 cup (100g) sugar
scant 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads (affordable at Trader Joe's)
3 large egg yolks

Warm the milk, cream, and sugar in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat and add the saffron. Pour in a small bowl (I used a 2-cup pyrex measuring cup) and steep in the refrigerator for 4 hours. (It was very, very late when I began this, so I let it steep overnight rather than stay up another four hours.)

Strain the saffron-infused mixture into a medium saucepan. Rescue the threads of saffron and put them in a medium bowl. Set the strainer over the top. (I did not strain my mixture. In fact I have no recollection of reading this step. It was early in the morning.)

Rewarm the saffron-infused mixture. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm saffron mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir to incorporate the saffron threads. Stir until cool over an ice bath (I did not do this.)

Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze in your ice cream maker. Make sure to get all the saffron threads off the dasher and mix them back into the ice cream when you remove it from the machine.

A NOTE on ice cream makers: do not try to use your machine more than once in a 24-hr period if it is the kind that has a frozen canister. No matter how cold you think that canister is, the second batch will not turn out as well as the first. My second batch (an olive oil ice cream) remained fairly soupy after churning and froze in the freezer to the density of gelato, but with ice crystals that marred the texture.

fresh mint ice cream

2009-08-30T00:42:00.000-07:00

This mint ice cream tastes like no other mint ice cream I've ever had. It tastes *exactly* like my mint plant. It's bright and fresh and tastes downright healthy in a way no ice cream ever has before. I could eat it forever. Find some delicious mint (or grow your own!)

Fresh Mint Ice Cream
from The Perfect Scoop

1 cup (250ml) whole milk
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
2 cups (500ml) heavy cream
pinch of salt
2 cups (80g) lightly packed mint leaves
5 large egg yolks

Warm the milk, sugar, one cup of cream, and salt in a small saucepan. Add the mint leaves and stir until immersed. Cover, remove from the heat, and let steep at room temperature for an hour.

Strain the mint-infused mixture through a mesh strainer into a medium saucepan. Press on the mint leaves to extract as much of the flavor as possible, then discard the mint leaves. Pour the remaining cup of cream into a large bowl and set the strainer on top.

Rewarm the mint-infused mixture. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mint liquid into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and into the cream.

Stir until cool over an ice bath and/or chill thoroughly in the refrigerator. Freeze in your ice cream maker.

toasted almond ice cream

2009-08-29T22:12:00.000-07:00

This ice cream has a fantastically strong almond flavor, and would go fabulously with fruit of all kinds. Suzanne Goin (Sunday Suppers again) pairs it with cherry-- I found this recipe because I desperately wanted to make the roasted cherry tart-- but as it turns out it was easier to get the ice cream done first. I'd also just made both the brown butter and the olive oil ice creams and I thought perhaps my roommates might like something more 'normal'.

When I do it again I may cut the amount of almond extract a bit, as the flavor is so strong some may think it borders on the artificial (do make sure you use pure almond extract!). This ice cream is full of toasted almonds, and is great for people that love chunky ice cream. You could add cherries or chocolate as well.

Almond Ice Cream
from Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin

2 1/2 cups raw whole almonds
2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
4 extra-large egg yolks (if you have large eggs, use 5 yolks)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp pure almond extract (or less- definitely not more)

Preheat the oven to 375.

Toast the almonds on a baking sheet in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until they darken slightly and smell nutty. When they've cooled, chop them coarsely.

Place 1 1/2 cups of the chopped almonds in a medium saucepan and pour in the milk and cream. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Turn off the heat, cover, and let the flavors infuse for at least thirty minutes.

Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, then turn off the heat.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl. Whisk a few tablespoons of the warm cream mixture into the yolks to temper them. Slowly, add another 1/4 cup or so of the warm cream, whisking to incorporate. At this point, you can add the rest of the cream mixture in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the pot and return to the stove.

Add the almond extract and cook the custard over medium heat for 6-8 minutes, stirring frequently with a rubber spatula, scraping the bottom and sides of the pan. When it coats the back of a spatula or spoon, it's done. Strain the mixture and chill at least two hours in the refrigerator. Process in the ice cream maker and stir in the remaining almonds when it's done.

This ice cream is best within a few days of when it's made.

brown butter ice cream

2009-08-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

Jeffery Steingarten wrote an entire article extolling the virtues of brown butter in Vogue magazine, and included a recipe for ice cream. I committed a gym-magazine faux pas and tore the article out (I hereby admit to reading all the trashy magazines at the gym while on the elliptical machine) but promptly forgot it in Scott's car.

So. To my glee, Chez Pim read the same article, and was inspired to post her own brown butter ice cream recipe shortly after I got my ice cream maker. Since it was easier to drag my laptop into the kitchen than it was to go to the car and grab the magazine pages, I made the Chez Pim version.

I wish that I had browned the butter further, as I didn't think that the nuttiness came through enough in the final product, but this recipe certainly yields a very rich, buttery ice cream. If you're a fan of butter you must give it a shot. I like to sprinkle a bit of salt over the top when serving.

Brown Butter Ice Cream, Glace au Beurre Noisette
via Chez Pim

225g/8oz/1cup butter
350ml/12oz/1.5 cup milk
350ml/12oz/1.5 cup cream
110g/1/2 cup sugar
6 yolks
1teaspoon salt

Cut butter into cubes and place in a medium pot over medium heat. Keep an eye on it and stir frequently so that the butter cooks evenly. I got mine to the color on Pim's website, but I wish I'd gone further-- use your judgment and taste. Wait at least long enough for the butter to take on a nutty aroma.

Set the butter aside and get the pot clean enough to re-use. Divide the sugar between the pot and the blender. I used a food processor and would not recommend it- it's not designed to hold as much liquid as you're going to have. Add the milk to the sugar in the pot and stir to dissolve over medium heat. Leave the pot on medium heat to bring the milk to a simmer.

Add the yolks to the sugar in the blender and turn it on. As the blender is running, slowly add the warm brown butter and blend until incorporated. When the milk/sugar mixture reaches a simmer, pour it into the running blender as well. Add the salt, pulse, and you're done.

Add the cold cream to the blender and blend, then chill the whole shebang until completely cool. Churn in your ice cream maker. Voila!

If you're a brown butter fan, you should also check out this hazelnut brown butter cake!

olive oil ice cream

2009-08-27T15:48:00.001-07:00

And now begins the onslaught of ice creams. I'd been talking about getting an ice cream maker for well over a year, but even though they're fairly cheap as far as kitchen gadgets go (you can easily find one for under $50) it just seemed so... impractical somehow. After all, I don't eat ice cream that often, and the ingredients (heavy cream, eggs, fresh fruit) can be prohibitively expensive on my paltry pseudo-salary.

Then I was gifted with a machine, and I've done nothing but make ice cream (okay, and olive oil cake) for the last couple of weeks. I'll put each ice cream in its own post, because otherwise this would be ridiculously long, but they won't all have pictures. For some reason all of my ice creams are in the same color family and you'd swear I was just shooting the same pint container over and over again.

So let's start! I adore olive oil (see cake below) and so this ice cream was the first one I attempted. Try to find a fruity olive oil with a bright flavor- I've used both an Italian one and a Californian one from Trader Joe's. Use the best you can afford, because the flavor will be pure.

Olive Oil Ice Cream
from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

1 1/3 c (330ml) whole milk
1/2 c (100g) sugar
pinch of salt
1 c (250 ml) heavy cream
6 large egg yolks
1/2 c (125 ml) olive oil

Warm the milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Pour the cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat, scraping the sides and bottom as you stir (this is important so that the bottom/sides don't cook themselves solid), until the mixture thickens and coats the bottom of a spoon. You should be able to drag your finger across the spoon and the track stays clean- the sides won't run back together. Pour the custard through the strainer (this removes all the cooked bits) and stir it into the cream. Whisk the olive oil into the custard vigorously until well blended, then chill thoroughly in the fridge. (Lebovitz suggests stirring over an ice bath first, but I just put the whole bowl into the fridge straightaway).

When completely chilled, freeze it in your ice cream maker.

olive oil cake

2009-08-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

This cake is from Sunday Suppers at Luques, one of the most consistently delicious and reliable books I have ever used. Quite literally everything that I've made from this book has been phenomenal, although some of the recipes require quite a bit of work. (Don't try to make a four-course meal for six people with two cooks and two hours.) This cake recipe is one that *isn't* a lot of work.

The only downsides are that it requires quite a bit of olive oil, which isn't cheap, and a LOT of eggs. 9. NINE EGGS. But the cake--oh, I could eat it every day. It's extraordinarily moist, not very sweet, with a distinct but not overwhelming olive oil flavor. It's mildly savory and thus can pair with anything-- olive oil ice cream, creme fraiche, fruit, you name it. I ate it for breakfast, for snack, and for dessert, and sent some to the staff at cafe piccolo. And I've been thinking about it ever since. I'll probably make it again this week.

And it really is that gorgeous golden color all on its own!

I just realized, as I was typing out this recipe, that I made the cake wrong when I made it. Upon revealing my mistake (I put the heavy cream into the batter with the olive oil) I was instructed to make it that way for all time, because the cake was that good. It's up to you-- make it as instructed below, or fold the cream and olive oil in together.

Olive Oil Cake, from Sunday Suppers at Luques
1 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing the pan
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup semolina
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup brandy (i omitted this because i didn't have any brandy)
3 extra-large eggs
6 extra-large egg yolks
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup heavy cream (this should be whipped and served with the cake, unless you're me. If you're me, include heavy cream with "wet ingredients".)

Preheat the oven to 375.

Brush a 9" round cake pan with olive oil.

Sift the flour and baking baking powder together and then stir in the semolina and salt. Combine 1 cup olive oil and the brandy in a small bowl.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs, yolks, and sugar at a high speed until full volume. (Pale and ribbons.) Remove the bowl from the mixer and alternate folding in the dry and wet ingredients, a third at a time. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Tap the pan a few times on the counter to remove any air bubbles.

Bake about 40 minutes or until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The cake should be golden brown and spring back when you touch the center. I used a 10" pan and the baking time was markedly less. Cool the cake on a rack for 15 minutes before turning out of the pan.

pastry school: now, with meats!

2009-08-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

These are just some assorted photos from the day I joined the second quarter students for meat production. Even though it was 8:30am, they were making bacon and duck confit and CARVING UP WILBUR and I just couldn't resist. I chose the program at Central over South in part because I would get to do these things- for a pastry program, it's very broad.

This is wilbur, carved open. Half of him was entirely delicious, but the other half wasn't done--the classroom wasn't dry enough. I can't wait to have a real charcuterie-hanging space after the remodel!

Duck confit-- 7lbs of duck fat poured over 8 duck thighs/legs and cooked sloooowly. When it was finished, it went into flaky pastries with some dried cherries. One of the best things I ever ate at school.

This spiced duck hung in the classroom for a while, but I have no clue what his fate was.

Sausages hanging in the classroom. Sad I didn't get to taste them.

I didn't get any pictures of the bacon because it was in the oven and then it was in the walk-in fridge, and neither location had great light for photos. Alas.

internship

2009-07-17T12:37:00.000-07:00

I scored an internship at a small italian restaurant that makes everything from scratch. I was to be their pasta-maker and prep girl and basically lend a hand to whatever I wouldn't ruin. On occasion I got to make dessert specials. With only three people (including me) in the kitchen, I got to learn and see a lot.

This is meat-grinding, which makes every horror-film noise you can imagine:

Sausage-making (or in this case, salami) is really impossible to teach with a straight face.

First, you soak the casing and slide it on the hose. Really stuff it on there. When done, it looks like this:

Then, you begin to feed the meat into the machine, shoving it through with a paddle when necessary. You need a steady rhythm. On the other end, you have to hold the casing so that it slides through your hands as it fills, in such a way that it's stuffed full enough. This means a firm grip- but too tight and the casing will explode. A careful touch is needed, and an understanding of what the casing can withstand. The jokes are so obvious I can't even bring myself to make them here. No one could get through this lesson without dissolving into laughter. Especially when all my casing exploded.

For Mother's Day, the crew got in an entire lamb, which was then butchered in-house and used for various dishes. And props.

Nick and Scott play rockband:

Scott is a little lamb:

life of a pastry student

2009-07-15T12:22:00.000-07:00

This is the pastry case at the entrance to SCCC where we hawk our wares. Usually two students man the case and others deliver their items whenever they're ready. Smart customers know to come after 1:30, when the breads start arriving. Stuff is cheap- about half the cost of store-bought goods. The coffee stand to the left has some of the most terrible espresso I've ever tasted. Ever. This is sad, because it's often the only coffee available and we get to school really, really early.

This is Student Lunch. Don't know what's in the tray? Neither does the lackey serving you! Oh, the horror and the mystery. An actual conversation:

Me: "This chicken tastes funny."
Student in lunchroom: "That's not chicken."
Me "??!?"
Student: "It's rabbit."

Also, once, a classmate of mine walked into the lunchroom with what the server said was tilapia, a kind of fish. As it turns out, it was thin slices of pork.

It should be noted that none of this stops anyone from eating.

Mixer porn: egg whites in the 20-quart mixer

This is what several pounds of butter looks like:

Second gear:

On:

Chef James (front) and Chef Don (back).

During the bakeshop party, my classmates (and I) piled into the soon-to-be-demolished rotary oven (this is angela):

This is a cake's-eye-view:

cake rotation

2009-07-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

SO MANY CAKES. These are roughly in the order in which they were made.

lemon-raspberry pound cake: easy to make. Very pink. A bit too sweet for me (especially with the glaze).

These cheesecakes cracked a bit, and so we got to decorate them with chocolate. Trying to do neat stripes failed me, so I went the Pollack route. One of the chefs overheard me talking about me pollack cheesecake and he called out, "you need a cigarette and a shot of whiskey, THEN you'll be doing it right!"

For a cake that gets no respect, Tiger cake is quite delicious. It's pretty easy (no one respects the easy things, eh?) -- just vanilla cake with lemon zest swirled with chocolate cake and then coated in chocolate ganache.

This next cake I tasted when someone else made it and then begged to do it during our rotation. It's a black forest cake-- a devil's food cake flavored with kirsch cherries (in the batter) and then layered and coated with kirsch buttercream. This process taught us to level cakes when slicing layers, to frost, and to make rosettes. And it tastes like heaven. I bought a whole cake.

The outside of the cake is coated in chocolate cake crumbs. This is a useful tactic if your frosting job isn't particularly spectacular. You can also use nuts.

The rosettes are topped with a kirsch cherry (we soaked the dried cherries in kirsch brandy). The frosting swirl in the middle of the cake is actually very hard to do-- you need a very steady hand.

We had made a swiss roll cake (often jellied or something and then rolled up into a log and sliced) but forgot about it in the fridge for a while. We also had some extra devil's food cake and kirsch syrup from the black forest cakes. We made some chocolate mousse and learned to layer. The white layer is the swiss cake, which we soaked with the kirsch syrup to soften it up, and the dark cake is the chocolate-cherry, and then the mousse. Getting mousse layers to be level is quite a challenge.

We decorated one cake to be sold whole (cocoa powder and bits on top) and sliced the rest for individual sale (in background).

The last project was petit-fours for the bakeshop party. This is an opera cake, but a bastardized version. It's a milk chocolate sponge, coffee buttercream, chocolate ganache, and shiny chocolate glaze. i think.

We spent an hour cutting the cake into wee pieces for party serving. It was an extremely rich cake, so the small pieces were for the best.

cookie rotation

2009-07-05T00:45:00.000-07:00

I found cookie rotation to the be the most boring of rotations. Generally, cookie baking is about assembling the right ingredients, not overmixing, and then not forgetting that your cookies are in the oven. It's also about knowing when they're ready to come out when you're not using a timer. Some cookies have complicated assembly procedures, but I found these to be generally more trouble than they're worth.

hehe: the 'broken' cookie broke when we tried to take it off the parchment paper.

These cookies are from the first week. From left to right, they are: chocolate decadence, hazelnut butter cookies, white chocolate walnut, and gingersnap.

Despite cookie rotation having a reputation as the 'easiest' rotation, we made a million stupid mistakes the first week- forgetting to double-pan the cookies when they went in the oven so the bottoms didn't burn, forgetting that the cookies were in the oven and overbaking them, etc. There were also failed cookies-- a marscapone/honey filling for a cardamom thumbprint cookie melted all over the pan-- and cookies that no one liked (except the chef, oddly), such as the trail mix cookies below, which contained many varieties of nuts along with golden raisins.

One of the assembly-required cookies was a shortbread and chocolate shortbread checkerboard cookie. I discovered that I like shortbread dough much more than actual shortbread cookies, and in this case, the chocolate dough is less good than the plain. These cookies required that we sheet the dough out thin, trim it evenly, cut precise strips with rulers, and glue them together with water to form a checkerboard log that we could then slice cookies from. Pretty, but extremely time-consuming.

You can also take the two kinds of dough, sort of layer them, and roll them up to slice cookies off. This results in a marbled version that tastes the same and takes about one-twentieth of the time.

For the last several days of the rotation, we made a 'cookie' that was really a cake petit-four, a chocolate-orange ganache layered confection. It involved a japonais, which is like a cross between a sponge cake and a cookie, and a sponge cake, and although our skills were not quite up to the task of these slightly difficult base recipes, we were happy to have moved on from cookies and we also discovered that ganache covers a variety of sins-- especially when spiked with liquor. This was a good transition into my next-- and final-- rotation: cakes!

bread rotation

2009-07-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

Bread rotation made me rethink my baker ambitions. I probably sound like a huge wuss, but bread rotation is rough. First quarter students do nothing but assist the second quarter students, who are responsible for doing much of the major production. There may be five products to have out by 1:30pm, and this means that often the second quarter students arrive very early. We lowly assistants were responsible for feeding the levain (the mother dough used for the quarter, or sometimes the whole year+), making starters and poolishes and levains for the next day's bread, mise-en-placing whatever ingredients were needed for the next day's bread, putting things into and taking things out of ovens, and sometimes, if we were lucky, shaping dough. Shaping dough could be a pyrrhic victory, though-- these bastards were a pain in my ass:

They are a multi-strand unusual braid where every strand is actually three. The ends are then tucked underneath to form this monkey's knot.

I didn't take many pictures during this rotation because I didn't feel responsible for anything we made, having been mostly a go-fer for the two weeks. (I did take a picture of my bread knot because I was proud of actually completing the forming process.) The pictures below are of two breads made by an advanced student. The one on the left contains coffee. While I was very excited to try this russian bread, I was not impressed with the flavor. Coffee does not belong in bread, I've decided. On the right is a sourdough.

blood orange tart

2009-07-03T13:49:00.000-07:00

This is a variation on a completely delicious lemon curd tart that I made for a dinner party. I love blood oranges and so I wanted to see if using orange would make the tart even *more* delicious.

You can see the blood orange vodka bottle in the background- I had bought an entire bag of blood oranges at the store and was on a bit of a bloody orange bender. While I followed the process for the lemon tart precisely, substituting blood orange juice for the lemon, the tart never set properly. It was always a bit too loose, even after 24 hours, and the color... well, let's just say that the color is probably the reason no one makes these. Eggs, butter and lemon make a vibrant, appealing yellow. Eggs, butter and blood orange made a... well, sort of a pepto-salmon pinky-orange blush hue. Words do not quite suffice.

I covered the top in chocolate shavings to rescue my eyes, but still. Back to lemons it is. For all that, the flavor is okay. Not spectacular. As it turns out, I prefer the contrast of a very tart lemon with the dark chocolate. I'd have a picture of that tart-- I've made it twice with lemon now-- but once sliced, it never lasted long enough to take a picture.

I will find a way to make a blood orange and chocolate tart. Just you wait.

Blood Orange Tart, adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques
1 recipe pate sucree (follows below; or use your favorite tart shell recipe)
2 oz bittersweet chocolate
4 extra large eggs
3 extra large egg yolks (I had only large eggs and so used 5 whole eggs and 3 yolks)
1 cup + 1 TBS granulated sugar (I used less; adjust to taste)
1 cup blood orange juice (or meyer lemon, or just plain lemon)
10 TBS cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
pinch of kosher salt
1 cup heavy cream (optional)

NOTE (from Susanne Goin):
This tart should be served cold, so make it at least a few hours before serving. When you make the lemon curd, you need to stir it the entire time. For an ultra-smooth curd, I use both a whisk and a rubber spatula, alternating between the two as I stir. Start with the whisk, and as the mixture begins to get frothy, switch to the spatula (which helps to get rid of the froth), scraping the bottom and sides continuously. Remove the curd from heat and let it cool slightly before pouring it over the hardened chocolate layer. Don't cool the curd completely before pouring or it will lose its nice sheen. You can also make this tart with regular lemon juice.

- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Line the tart pan with the pate sucree. Prick the bottom with a fork and line it with coffee filters or parchment paper. Fill the lined tart shell with beans or pie weights and bake 15 minutes, until set. Take the tart out of the oven and remove the weights or beans. Return the tart to the oven for another 10-15 minutes, or until crust is an even golden brown. Set aside on rack to cool completely.
- Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over medium low heat. Spread the chocolate evenly on the crust, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes, until the chocolate has solidified completely.
- While the crust is chilling, make the curd. Whisk the eggs, egg yolks, sugar, and lemon juice together in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, alternating between a whisk and a spatula (or just use a whisk), until the lemon curd has thickened to the consistency of pastry cream and coats the back of a spatula/spoon.
- Remove the lemon curd from heat. Add the butter a little at a time, stirring to incorporate completely. Season with the salt.
- Let the curd cool about 8 minutes, then strain it into the prepared tart shell. Chill the tart in the refrigerator.
-Whip the cream to soft peaks and serve with the tart. (optional)

Pate Sucree
(makes enough for two tarts)

This is an easy, excellent pate sucree recipe, but you can use whatever one you like, or a store-bought crust if you're pressed for time.

1/4 cup heavy cream
2 extra-large egg yolks (I use 3 large)
2 3/4 cup + 2 TBS all-purpose flour
1/4 cup + 3 TBS granulated sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 lb unsalted butter

- Whisk the cream and eggs together in a small bowl.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the flour, sugar, salt, and butter on medium speed until you have a coarse meal. Gradually add the cream and yolks and mix until just combined. Do not overwork the dough.
- Transfer the dough to a large work surface and bring it together with your hands to incorporate completely. Divide the dough in half, shape into 1" thick discs, and wrap one to freeze and use later. (You can also line a tart pan and freeze the whole thing that way to be even lazier later.)
- If the dough is too soft, put it in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to firm up. If it is manageable, place it on a lightly floured work surface, sprinkle a bit of flour over the top, and roll it into a 1/4" thick circle, flouring as necessary. Starting at one side, roll/wrap the dough around the rolling pin to pick it up and unroll over a 10" tart pan. Gently fit the dough loosely into the pan, lifting the edges and pressing the dough into the corners/flutes with your fingers. To remove the excess dough, roll the rolling pin over the top of the tart pan for a clean edge, or work your way around the pan, pinching off excess with your fingers.
- Chill for one hour.

blood orange vodka

2009-07-02T01:39:00.000-07:00

I think they're the prettiest fruit of all.

In the winter, in pastry school, we used a lot of blood oranges and a lot of passionfruit. I can't stand passionfruit anymore, but I still love me some blood orange. In my culinary rotation we once infused liquors and I realized that I was never going to pay for flavored liquor again.

Vodka is very fast to infuse, especially if you're doing a hot infusion. I sliced a blood orange very thin and crammed the slices into a bottle into which I'd poured 750ml of vikingfjord vodka. You want a clean-tasting vodka, but it doesn't need to be expensive. Something really cheap will continue to taste like the plastic it came in, but you can use flavor to make it better if you're in a pinch.

I put the bottle into a pot of simmering water until the liquor reached 165 degrees. Then it was cooled and allowed to sit for as long as I was able to keep my hands off it (4 days). The longer it sits, the more the color and flavor deepen. A cold infusion (no heating at all) takes much longer (weeks) and I haven't done it to compare flavor. As it was, this vodka tasted very strongly of orange at first, with a distinct vodka finish. It would be excellent in mixed cocktails or sipped over ice, and it renders a shot a million times more palatable than plain vodka tends to be.

I repeated this process with kumquats, but the high rind to pulp/juice ratio rendered the finished product overly bitter. While it was drinkable, it was best mixed with another juice. In the future I'd stick with larger citrus so as not to incorporate too much pith.

challah

2009-07-01T00:37:00.000-07:00

I found the recipe!

This is obscenely easy to make, delicious, and makes the best french toast the next day. Just go make it. Right now. You have no excuses. Your friends will be impressed that you can, you know, bake! Even if you've never made bread before, this is entirely possible.

Challah (recipe from my Israeli friends Yoav and Hadar, translated from Hebrew)
NOTE: quantities are in grams.

1 kg flour (2.2lb)
25g yeast (yes, that's a lot. short rise.)
170g sugar (6 oz)
2 eggs
1 3/4 to 2 cups water
118 ml oil (4 oz)
1 TBS salt
1 egg, to wash
poppy or sesame seeds, to sprinkle

-Mix flour and yeast together with a fork or whisk.
-Add everything else (except egg for egg wash and sesame/poppy seeds)
-Mix with dough hook for 7-10 minutes until dough is smooth, shiny, and sticks to the bottom of the bowl.
oil (lightly) the top of the dough and cover (I use a towel) for one hour or until doubled.
-Divide dough into two and divide each half into thirds.
-Roll thirds into ropes and braid them (dough should be a bit sticky).
-Put each loaf onto an oiled pyrex 9 x 13 pan and let rise for 1 hour. Loaf should double in size. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with seeds.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 min.

This is the just-braided dough.
You can roll/tuck the ends of the braid under for a more polished look.

note

2009-04-01T02:12:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry. I've been absent again, just after another good spree of posting. March was filled with double shifts of school and work and although I had a list of things to post I never did get around to it. I am currently editing photos for the next round of posts- some from home (various blood orange endeavors) and some from school (cookie and cake rotations, plus a ride in the rotary oven).

I re-read the last year of this blog (it's a year old now-- can anyone believe that? I sure can't) and I noticed that the biggest struggle (aside from posting consistently) has been finding a voice in which to post. Do i become the female version of the grocery guy (vulgar, brash, cocky) or remain nice and sweet and approachable? How much wit, how much sarcasm, how much profanity? How much description, how much advice? Do I use my speaking voice, my academic voice, a new voice? I still haven't figured it out, and the year of posts jumped around all over the place as I tried different things. A rough read, to be sure. I wouldn't show this to anyone as evidence of my writing abilities. I hope that in the next year, I will maintain the blog and find some consistency.

In other news, I am now fully in the restaurant world, working at cafe vios in ravenna as a server and about to begin an internship at an italian restaurant in maple leaf, where I will learn how to work with fresh pastas from various flours (the one subject my pastry program skirts entirely) along with desserts. I am excited for the kitchen experience and glad to continue working while on this hiatus from school. I hope to intern/stage at more places as my budget and contacts allow. It's a whole new world out there, and at the moment i'm relishing my places both in front and in back of the house.

pinche langosta

2009-02-09T14:18:00.001-08:00

His name is Pinche. Pronounced "pinchey". Nevermind that "pinche langosta" in spanish pretty much means...well... it's not very nice. Or PC. But it's not at all an uncommon kitchen phrase.

We got this crustacean at QFC where they were having a sale. He's from Maine, and considering that a bunch of the seafood there comes from the Dominican Republic or Vietnam or Taiwan (gotta love the new origin labeling laws) this lobster is practically local!

He's also alive. I tried to get the cat to play with him but the cat was having none of it. Weird cat.

To dismember a lobster, you stab it in the back at the first tail joint and then pull the tail off. Supposedly the bits that emerge are tasty, but also potentially toxic. I didn't eat them.

When you flay the upper portion open, it looks like a dissection or a dinner place. Technically, it's both. The creepy part? The heart KEEPS BEATING.

My favorite sous-chef friend broiled half the tail, and we ate that on its own, and then he made some stock. Sautee shells in olive oil until bright red, deglaze with brandy. Add enough water to cover, add a pinch of cayenne and a pinch of saffron. Steam the shells over this stock. Pull a cup and a half of stock out to add to pasta water to flavor the pasta, and then cook the rest of the stock down to form a sauce.

Pasta + lobster meat + sauce + grated ewephoria cheese + bread to soak up the sauciness:

viennoiserie

2009-02-09T10:48:00.000-08:00

I spent the last two weeks on dough rotation, which was basically viennoiserie-- breakfast pastry. Viennoiserie combines bread and pastry by making sweet yeast doughs. We made danishes, croissants, cinnamon rolls and fritters, using laminated doughs (alternating layers of dough and butter) and sweet dough (for cinnamon rolls). This rotation is tough because laminated doughs are a pain in the ass, and we were always the last ones out of the bakeshop at the end of the day.

This is nothing like baking at home (if you don't own a sheeter--and you don't-- don't bother trying laminated doughs. You will hate your life.)

On the left there is my partner. We work in pairs or in threes on each rotation. It's nice to have company, and she's probably my favorite person. Good to have on the hardest rotation.

This is danish dough rising for pinwheels before it's eggwashed and baked. Look how puffy it gets! That means we didn't fail.

When they're filled (in this case with vanilla pastry cream and orange jam) and baked, they look like this:

This is another shape, but the same idea, filled with lavender pastry cream and orange-lemon marmalade:

This is what I was most terrified of, because all the baking books I have talk about how hard it is: CROISSANTS. It's true that there's a lot to be careful of, and a dough sheeter makes your life better, but overall they weren't that bad. And they turned out lovely. The worst part was obsessive-compulsively watching the convection oven, because that thing sucks and will burn your food just to spite you.

My personal favorite, pain au chocolat:

Bear claws, with a delicious filling of walnut cake blended with hazelnut franigpane and pastry cream:

And the final haul last Friday:

These are a "garbage pastry" in that they use leftover scrap dough (from croissants, danishes, sweet rolls or all three) and just add apples and cinnamon sugar, (and butter. lots of butter.) but I think they might be the tastiest thing we made-- fritters:

cinnamon rolls (these are rather easy and we did them once with vodka apples):

it's motherfucking HOLLANDAISE

2009-02-08T12:24:00.000-08:00

I spent much of last summer drinking copiously with new friends, and was therefore in need of late-morning sustenance that was good for head pain and serious hunger and mild stomach unease. I discovered that Hattie's Hat in Ballard makes a great bloody mary, and I also discovered a dish I'd always feared due to my suspicion of egg yolks: eggs benedict.

Here's the thing: I have always hated hardboiled egg yolks. I assumed that this meant that the runny stuff was even worse and I wouldn't go anywhere near it. Poached eggs? Ecgh. Over easy? Yick. Get that goop away from me. Well, this summer, I was happily proved wrong and I spent a lot of time stuffing eggs sunny-side up and eggs benedict into my gaping maw. Eggs benedict is expensive, though, and I couldn't afford to out all the time. Moreover, some places make it from a powder and that's how it tastes-- and I certainly don't want to shell out $10 for a powdered version of my new favorite sauce.

Solution: make it at home! (requires one sous-chef who actually knows what the hell he's doing. then experiment at will.)

For a large batch (because you know you're inviting all your friends over for this) you will need:

3oz white wine
1 oz minced shallot
6 egg yolks
juice of one lemon
10 oz butter
cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper to taste.

for the rest of the benedict, you know the drill: english muffin, some form of protein, poached egg.

We did ours with ahi:

Process explanation to follow, including some tips on poaching eggs, which is a bigger pain in the ass than actually making the sauce.

oysters

2009-02-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

I'm terrified of shellfish. Not the consumption part- I adore clams and mussels and especially oysters, but buying shellfish strikes fear into my heart. I'm never sure how to choose them and I've got it in my head that one wrong move would mean gastronomical doom.

So, my friend scott bought them. I figure a sous chef should know how to choose shellfish.

Silly me, I thought I'd averted disaster. But no. Scott decided I should learn to shuck the little bastards, and handed me an implement that looked as though it would be used for prison escapes. Oh, and a towel. To protect my hand. As though a bar towel would prevent me from burying the short, brutish blade into my palm. It was a cute gesture.

Somehow I managed to get a couple of oysters open without too much damage to shell, meat, or my hand, and we had a place to put Scott's tangelo and shallot mignonette.

If you feel like tempting fate with an oyster knife, here's the mignonette:

juice of one tangelo
super fine diced 1/2 TB shallot
salt
pepper
lemon juice
extra virgin olive oil

(Note: Scott says, "it's not a true mignonette because it doesn't have vinegar, but..." yeah. I don't care either.)

challah

2009-02-01T16:16:00.000-08:00

I had a friend who made this bread all the time, and I finally convinced her to translate it from the hebrew for me. So I can promise that it's authentic. And tasty. When it goes stale, it makes the best french toast ever.

Unfortunately, I lost the recipe. Seriously.

So all I can offer you are these drool-inducing photos, and perhaps someday, I'll get that recipe back. Don't worry, I mourn its loss more than you do.

pastry school

2009-01-31T20:22:00.000-08:00

I got to school at 7:30 on the first day of my second week, and I felt like I'd been run over by a train. My body hadn't adjusted to the physical labor or the early hours yet, I was getting sick, and I was hungover. Awesome. I staggered in to class, seriously not ready for an hour and a half lecture on wheat.

Instead, we were told to stand up and file into the chocolate room.

My 7:30am class was a chocolate tasting.

Suffice to say my mood improved dramatically. Lecture me on cocoa mass and cocoa butter and varietals of beans any damn time you want, so long as I'm sampling the wares.

One of the best (and completely non-traditional) things about my program is that not only do we do pastry and artisan breads, but also charcuterie and cheeses. What this means on a practical level is that sometimes, when I wander into the walk-in to find oranges, I'm confronted with this:

glad I'm not a vegetarian anymore.

speaking of "not a vegetarian anymore," i ate this:

It's called head cheese. I wasn't told what it was until I was halfway through it. And by "told what it was," I mean "given a graphic and detailed description of how it was made." Oh, culinary school student lunch, how you entertain me.

this is our mascot, wilbur:

he's eight months old and becoming prosciutto.

tarts from pastry school

2009-01-30T20:09:00.000-08:00

So, I did it. I took a leave of absence from my PhD program and I registered for pastry school. I've spent the last two weeks on tart rotation and I thought I'd share with you some of the fruits of my labors.

Pear-almond frangipane tart:

This is a pate sucree dough, with frangipane piped and spread over it, then two poached, sliced and fanned pears on top with sprinkled almonds. I didn't get to taste it since we sold the tarts whole.

Orange and pistachio frangipane tart:

This is also pate sucree (we use pate brisee for quiches), with a frangipane that is made with half pistachios. On top are cocentric circles of oranges, alternating regular with cara cara (which are more like grapefruit).

Rome Apple Tart:

This tart is Rome applesauce (which is the color of raspberries) under thinly sliced Rome apples. The whole thing is glazed with apricot glaze (apricot because the flavor is neutral and it's high in pectin, for gloss).

Meyer lemon meringue:

It's meyer lemon curd with swiss meringue piped on top (sloppily; still learning!) and then torched. Yes, I get to play with a blow torch.

my next rotation is doughs (viennoiseries): croissants, danishes, etc. I will finally learn to make pastry cream!

maple cream pie

2009-01-29T19:57:00.000-08:00

I ate this cream pie at least six times last winter. I went through so much maple syrup (use grade B, it has more flavor) that I should've been importing from Canada. So when I had to make something seasonal for someone I was sort of trying to impress, I turned to this. I figured, I'd made it before, it wasn't a common pie, and it was delicious. And I was short on time and it didn't take forever.

So I then did something completely asinine and I decided to try a pie crust I'd never used before. Now, because I taught myself to bake by starting with pie, I've never been afraid of pie crust the way a lot of people are. I forget that it's even possible to buy pre-made ones in the store because I don't see why anyone would do that. So I make my pie, take over, and we all eat. The pie disappeared. Success!

Later, the person I'd been trying to impress tells me, "I must admit that it made me a bit nervous when you said that you were bringing pie because I knew that if your crust had been bad, I would see you a bit differently."

So. I'm damn glad that pie crust turned out well. It's the mark of a halfway decent baker, apparently. Phew.

Nutmeg-Maple Cream Pie
New York Times
borrowed from Smitten Kitchen

3/4 cup maple syrup
2 1/4 cups heavy cream
4 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 9-inch pie crust (use whatever recipe won't betray you; this time around I went with Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours).

1. Par-bake pie crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line pie refrigerated pie shell with foil or parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until beginning to set. Remove foil with weights and bake 15 to 18 minutes longer or until golden. If shell puffs during baking, press it down with back of spoon. Cool on wire rack. Lower temperature to 300 degrees.

2. Prepare filling: In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, reduce maple syrup by a quarter, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in cream and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks and egg. Whisking constantly, slowly add cream mixture to eggs. Strain mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a cup or bowl with pouring spout. Stir in salt, nutmeg and vanilla.

4. Pour filling into crust and transfer to a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until pie is firm to touch but jiggles slightly when moved, about 1 hour. Let cool to room temperature before serving.

Yield: One 9-inch pie, 8 servings

pumpkin brandy cheesecake

2009-01-28T19:45:00.000-08:00

I love pumpkin pie, but I get tired of it quickly. I wanted something else to make, and after having Smitten Kitchen's pumpkin bourbon bread pudding, I simply couldn't pass up the pumpkin bourbon cheesecake. Except I was out of bourbon (ooops). I substituted brandy (and roughly doubled the quantity) and the cheesecake was to die for. Confession: I don't even like cheesecake, and I ate this up.

The pecans in the crust make the whole cheesecake, I think. They turn all buttery and taste a bit of alcohol (perhaps that's all the brandy i poured in...) and are absolutely amazing. I'd eat the crust on its own. I suppose you could substitute other nuts it you so chose, but I really can't imagine why you would. These are the best.

Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake
Gourmet, November 2003
Smitten Kitchen

For crust
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (from five 4 3/4- by 2 1/4-inch crackers)
1/2 cup pecans (1 3/4 oz), finely chopped
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For filling
1 1/2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin
3 large eggs
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon liqueur or bourbon (optional) (I used brandy, and at least doubled it)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, at room temperature

For topping
2 cups sour cream (20 oz)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon bourbon liqueur or bourbon (optional)

Garnish: pecan halves

Make crust:
Invert bottom of a 9-inch springform pan (to create flat bottom, which will make it easier to remove cake from pan), then lock on side and butter pan. (This didn't work for me, so I used the springform as usual).

Stir together crumbs, pecans, sugars, and butter in a bowl until combined well. Press crumb mixture evenly onto bottom and 1/2 inch up side of pan, then chill crust, 1 hour.

Make filling and bake cheesecake:
Put oven rack in middle position and Preheat oven to 350Ã‚Â°F.

Whisk together pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar, cream, vanilla, and liqueur (if using) in a bowl until combined.

Stir together granulated sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt in large bowl.

Add cream cheese and beat with an electric mixer at high speed until creamy and smooth, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium, then add pumpkin mixture and beat until smooth.

Pour filling into crust, smoothing top, then put springform pan in a shallow baking pan (in case springform leaks). Bake until center is just set, 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool 5 minutes. (Leave oven on.)

Make topping:
Whisk together sour cream, sugar, and liqueur (if using) in a bowl, then spread on top of cheesecake and bake 5 minutes.

Cool cheesecake completely in pan on rack, about 3 hours.

Chill, covered, until cold, at least 4 hours. Remove side of pan and bring to room temperature before serving.

Epicurious’ note: Baked cheesecake can be chilled, covered, up to 2 days.

Makes 12 to 14 servings.

extra-tangy sourdough bread

2009-01-27T19:19:00.000-08:00

I love sourdough bread, and the tangier the better. I was given a sourdough starter (by King Arthur) as a gift, and after feeding it for a bit I decided to try this recipe of theirs.

Now, I thought I totally screwed this one up. My dough was SOUP. There was no "molding" or "shaping"; I had to pour the "dough" into bread pans and pray. Especially since I had promised bread to people at a party and there was no time to start over. (Worse: the party was for the person who had given me the starter and I didn't want to demonstrate that I had massacred her present...)

What came out of the oven was actually bread, albeit not the kind of loaf one would expect (my loaves were roughly two inches high...). It was certainly edible and definitely sourdough. Lesson: always bake it anyway. Sometimes the oven gods are kind.

Recipe by King Arthur

* 1 cup "fed" sourdough starter
* 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
* 5 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 2 1/4 teaspoons salt

by weight-- more accurate:

* 8 ounces "fed" sourdough starter
* 12 ounces lukewarm water
* 21 1/4 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
* 1/2 ounce sugar
* 2 1/4 teaspoons salt

Directions

1) Combine the starter, water, and 3 cups of the flour. Beat vigorously.

2) Cover, and let rest at room temperature for 4 hours. Refrigerate overnight, for about 12 hours.

3) Add the remaining ingredients, kneading to form a smooth dough.

4) Allow the dough to rise, in a covered bowl, until it's doubled in size, about 5 hours.

5) Gently divide the dough in half; it'll deflate somewhat.

6) Gently shape the dough into two oval loaves, and place them on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise until very puffy, about 2 to 3 hours. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425°F.

7) Spray the loaves with lukewarm water.

8) Make two fairly deep horizontal slashes in each; a serrated bread knife, wielded firmly, works well here.

9) Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes, until it's a very deep golden brown. Remove it form the oven, and cool on a rack.

pumpkin chocolate brownies

2009-01-25T00:58:00.000-08:00

I know, I'm so late with these updates that the season is all wrong. It's not fall anymore, the pumpkins are off the shelves, and it's about thirty degrees outside. with snow now and then.

But i figure, you can always get pumpkin at the store, and perhaps it's better to eat pumpkin foods out of season, when you're no longer inundated with squash and sick of even the color orange.

These brownies are extremely moist and a bit fudgey, and they keep well. Because they're so rich, it's best to cut them into small pieces. The bittersweet chocolate pairs well with the sweet pumpkin; you could even cut the sugar if you wanted.

Pumpkin-Swirl Brownies
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living
Stolen from Smitten Kitchen

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 to 3/4 cups sugar (the original recipe calls for the larger amount; I think it could be dialed down a bit)
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups solid-pack pumpkin
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts or other nuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan or dish (These can be hard to find, and if you use an 8-inch pan, bake longer.). Cut a length of parchment that will cover the bottom and two sides (makes it much easier to remove), and line the pan with it. Butter the lining as well.

2. Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.

3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, cayenne, and salt in a large bowl; set aside. Put sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat until fluffy and well combined, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in flour mixture.

4. Pour half of batter (about two cups) into a separate bowl and stir chocolate mixture into it.

5. In other bowl, stir in the pumpkin, oil, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Transfer half of chocolate batter to prepared pan smoothing top with a rubber spatula. Top with half of pumpkin batter. Repeat to make one more chocolate layer and one more pumpkin layer. Work quickly so batters don’t set.

6. With a small spatula or a table knife, gently swirl the two batters to create a marbled effect. Be sure to get your knife all the way to the bottom of the pan. Mine didn't marble so well, but no harm done.

7. Bake until set, 40 to 45 minutes (check early and often, know that brownies in an 8-inch pan will take longer). Let cool in pan on a wire rack. Cut into 16 squares.

chocolate peanut butter triple layer cake

2008-10-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

This is the biggest (tallest) cake I've ever made. The Tiramisu cake might have come close, now that I think of it, but trust me: this cake is massive. It's also extremely rich. And extremely delicious.

The cakes are not too sweet, but they are very, very soft. The cream cheese/peanut butter frosting/filling is rich and tastes, essentially, like reese's peanut butter cups.

And as if that weren't enough, you dump peanut-dark chocolate ganache over the whole thing. Seriously, we're gilding the lily here. Gild away.

I didn't say it was pretty, but once you have your fork in your mouth you won't care. I promise.

Recipe taken from Smitten Kitchen
Sour Cream-Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze
Sky High: Irresistable Triple-Layer Cakes

This cake is INTENSE. Serve it in the thinnest slices possible, and keep a glass of milk handy.

Makes an 8-inch triple-layer cake; serves 12 to 16 (the book says, I say a heck of a lot more)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup neutral vegetable oil, such as canola, soybean or vegetable blend
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

1/2 cup coarsely chopped peanut brittle (I skipped this)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8-inch round cakepans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

2. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk to combine them well. Add the oil and sour cream and whisk to blend. Gradually beat in the water. Blend in the vinegar and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs and beat until well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and be sure the batter is well mixed. Divide among the 3 prepared cake pans.

3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Let cool in the pans for about 20 minutes. Invert onto wire racks, carefully peel off the paper liners, and let cool completely. (Deb note: These cakes are very, very soft. I found them a lot easier to work with after firming them up in the freezer for 30 minutes. They’ll defrost quickly once assembled. You’ll be glad you did this, trust me.)

4. To frost the cake, place one layer, flat side up, on a cake stand or large serving plate. Spread 2/3 cup cup of the Peanut Butter Frosting evenly over the top. Repeat with the next layer. Place the last layer on top and frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. (Deb note 1: Making a crumb coat of frosting–a thin layer that binds the dark crumbs to the cake so they don’t show up in the final outer frosting layer–is a great idea for this cake, or any with a dark cake and lighter-colored frosting. Once you “mask” your cake, let it chill for 15 to 30 minutes until firm, then use the remainder of the frosting to create a smooth final coating. Deb note 2: Once the cake is fully frosting, it helps to chill it again and let it firm up. The cooler and more set the peanut butter frosting is, the better drip effect you’ll get from the Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze.)

5. To decorate with the Chocolate–Peanut Butter Glaze, put the cake plate on a large baking sheet to catch any drips. Simply pour the glaze over the top of the cake, and using an offset spatula, spread it evenly over the top just to the edges so that it runs down the sides of the cake in long drips. Refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 30 minutes to allow the glaze and frosting to set completely. Remove about 1 hour before serving. Decorate the top with chopped peanut brittle.

Peanut Butter Frosting
Makes about 5 cups

10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter, preferably a commercial brand (because oil doesn’t separate out)

1. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Add the peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze
Makes about 1 1/2 cups

8 ounces seimsweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup half-and-half

1. In the top of d double boiler or in a bowl set over simmering water, combine the chocolate, peanut butter, and corn syrup. Cook, whisking often, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

2. Remove from the heat and whisk in the half-and-half, beating until smooth. Use while still warm.

nyt chocolate chip cookie

2008-10-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

At least seven people mentioned this recipe to me before I got around to making it. The New York Times did an article on the best chocolate chip cookie, and this is their final recipe. What sold me on it? Sea salt.

I think what put a lot of people off making this is that the dough must sit for 12-36 hours. When people want cookies, they want them now. It's hard enough to wait the helf-hour to an hour it takes to make regular cookies. Who thinks of wanting cookies 36 hours ahead of time? I think that this is probably also one of the reasons that more people don't make bread: the rising time. When you realize that you want bread with dinner, you don't usually have five hours until then to put it together. But I digress.

I made these for a trip to a music festival at pemberton, in canada. An eight hour drive plus two days of camping seemed to me an excellent excuse for cookies, and as I was unemployed I had the time in advance to make them and let the dough sit for its 36 hour siesta. The cookies that this recipe makes are indeed huge and delicious. It's hard to finish a whole one on your own, but the variety of textures that the large cookie yields is worth the effort. Crisp on the outside and soft in the middle, it's every kind of cookie at once. And the salt on the top sets off the sweet flavors and prevents the whole thing from being overwhelming. It's the perfect complexity. Really, it's all about the salt.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Jacques Torres
Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
(I used all all-purpose flour, to no ill effect)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content
Sea salt.

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

raspberry simple syrup

2008-10-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

I know, I haven't updated this in ages. It's been a wild summer, and I didn't cook as much as I had anticipated I would. Instead, I traveled a lot, including a week in Hawaii. Hate me.

At the beginning of the summer, I bought a case of pellegrino and a flat of raspberries. One of my favorite things about summer is the excuse to drink a ton of italian sodas. My favorite simple syrup is raspberry, but you can make all kinds-- last summer I did cucumber, lemon, mint, and lime. They work excellently in mixed drinks.

Really, simple syrup is so simple that a recipe is sort of useless. You take sugar and water in whatever ratio suits your sweet tooth (I do 2 sugar to 1 water, but I've seen 3:1 and 1:1) and heat it over the stove until the sugar is dissolved. Then you turn the heat off, add the base for your flavor, and let it steep for a while. Strain the mixture, let it cool, and store it in an airtight container in the fridge. It will last at least a month, if you can keep your hands off it that long.

corn muffins

2008-07-09T17:55:00.000-07:00

I love cornbread, but the one time I tried to make it I failed. It was dry, the flavor was off, and I think I ended up tossing most of it out. I was worried that these muffins would be too cakey or too dry, but they turned out to be delicious. I used roasted corn (frozen, from Trader Joe's) and I added 1 TBS of rosemary to the batter. The muffins are actually good for a couple of days and they toast well. I will definitely make them again.

This was the first thing I made out of Dorie Greenspan's book, but I'm going to link to the Smitten Kitchen recipe because that's easier than typing it all out myself. So there.

Dorie Greenspan’s Corniest Corn Muffins
Baking from My Home to Yours
via Smitten Kitchen

Yield: 12 regular-sized muffins or 48 miniature ones

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons corn oil (I used olive oil since it was handy)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup corn kernels (add up to 1/3 cup more if you’d like) - fresh, frozen or canned (in which case they should be drained and patted dry)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg, if you’re using it. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, melted butter, oil, egg and yolk together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough - the batter will be lumpy, and that’s just the way it should be. Stir in the corn kernels. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes (12 minutes for minis), or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

fresh pasta, redux

2008-07-01T03:01:00.000-07:00

Because I'm a masochist, I decided to make fresh pasta again, using the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I did this on the same day that I made the debacle that was the hazelnut brown butter cake. Did I mention that I'm a masochist?

This recipe involves no bowl. No spoon. Nothing but a smooth countertop, the ingredients, and your hands. Oh, and lots of time. I had nothing better to do because I had a cake in the oven, so hey, why not throw together some pasta dough?

You make a ring of flour and crack the eggs into it, adding the few other ingredients as well. Then, with your fingers, you start to stir, incorporating flour slowly from the walls as you go, trying not to slosh egg over the sides and all over your counter and floor.

Eventually you work almost all of the flour in, and the dough becomes, well, dough, rather than goo. At this point you can start kneading, and go for as long as you can. Pretend it's exercise. Then the dough sits for a while, and then you put it through the machine.

first in sheets and then in ribbons.

Boil it for a few minutes (until it floats) and then finish it in whatever sauce you intend to use. Cooking it for the last minute or so in the sauce gives it a more rich flavor.

The sauce I used was very simple because I wanted to be able to taste the pasta. Tomatoes, butter, and an onion are all you need.

Making your own pasta is, as silly as this sounds, really rewarding. Like bread, it's not as hard as it looks and when you're done you can't believe you actually did it. It's also--like bread--so much more tasty than the store-bought kind.

I have one more recipe to try. This one was certainly the most labor-intensive of the bunch.
From Smitten Kitchen
Seven-Yolk Pasta Dough
Adapted from French Laundry Cookbook

1 3/4 cups (8 ounces) all-purpose flour
6 large egg yolks
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon milk

Mound flour on a board or other surface and create a well in the center, pushing the flour to all sides to make a ring with sides about 1-inch wide. Make sure that the well is wide enough to hold all the eggs without spilling.

Pour the egg yolks, egg, oil and milk into the well. Use your fingers to break the eggs up. Still using your fingers, begin turning the eggs in a circular motion, keeping them within the well and not allowing them to spill over the sides. This circular motion allows the eggs to gradually pull in flour from the sides of the well; it is important that the flour not be incorporated too rapidly, or dough will be lumpy. Keep moving the eggs while slowly incorporating the flour. Using a pastry scraper, occasionally push the flour toward the eggs; the flour should be moved only enough to maintain the gradual incorporation of the flour, and the eggs should continue to be contained within the well. The mixture will thicken and eventually get too tight to keep turning with your fingers.

When the dough begins thickening and starts lifting itself from the board, begin incorporating the remaining flour with the pastry scraper by lifting the flour up and over the dough that’s beginning to form and cutting it into the dough. When the remaining flour from the sides of the well has been cut into the dough, the dough will still look shaggy. Bring the dough together with the palms of your hands and form it into a ball. It will look flaky but will hold together.

Knead the dough by pressing it, bit by bit, in a forward motion with the heels of your hands rather than folding it over on itself as you would with a bread dough. Re-form the dough into a ball and repeat the process several times. The dough should feel moist but not sticky. Let the dough rest for a few minutes while you clean the work surface.

Dust the clean work surface with a little flour. Knead the dough by pushing against it in a forward motion with the heels of your hands. Form the dough into a ball again and knead it again. Keep kneading in this forward motion until the dough becomes silky smooth. The dough is ready when you can pull your finger through it and the dough wants to snap back into place. The kneading process can take from 10 to 15 minutes.

Even if you think you are finished kneading, knead it for an extra 10 minutes; you cannot overknead this dough. It is important to work the dough long enough to pass the pull test; otherwise, when it rests, it will collapse.

Double-wrap the dough in plastic wrap to ensure that it does not dry out. Let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour before rolling it through a pasta machine. The dough can be made a day ahead, wrapped and refrigerated; bring to room temperature before proceeding.

The sauce I took from another food blog (a Seattle-ite also). Next time, I think I will try a puttanesca.

Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
Adapted from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, by Marcella Hazan
Via Orangette

2 cups whole, peeled, canned plum tomatoes, chopped, with their juices (about one 28-oz. can)
5 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt, to taste

Combine the tomatoes, their juices, the butter, and the onion halves in a medium saucepan. Add a pinch or two of salt. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, at a very slow but steady simmer, adjusting the heat as necessary, for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free from the tomato. Stir occasionally, mashing any large pieces of tomato with the back of a wooden spoon. Taste and salt as needed.

Discard the onion before tossing the sauce with pasta.

Yield: Enough sauce for about 1 pound of pasta, or 4 servings

hazelnut brown butter cake

2008-06-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I've been so lax about posting. I have no excuses, other than that I've been eating instead of blogging. I have a backlog of about 3-5 things to get up here and I promise I'll get to it posthaste.

So, about this cake. I intended to make it ages ago, because the name has the words Hazelnut and Brown Butter in it, and that's all I really needed to know. Then I read the recipe and saw that I had to get the skins off the hazelnuts and I had whip egg whites to stiff peaks, and I balked. De-skinning hazelnuts is a pain in the ass and I have an irrational fear of whipping egg whites, because I'm certain that I can't do it properly.

WELL. This cake is proof that you can do EVERYTHING wrong and your cake will still taste like these:

I blanched the hazelnuts with baking powder and then scrubbed them and rubbed them in a towel to get the skins off. Fail. I roasted them in the oven and then rubbed them so vigorously that they started breaking. And the skins stayed on. In frustration I gave up and dumped the nuts in the food processor anyway, looking like this:

I ground them up with the other ingredients and then realized I probably didn't grind it fine enough. Oh well. Onward.

The brown butter got a bit over-brown. It didn't smell burnt, but it was more like Nearly Black Butter. Shit. Move on.

I have a new mixer. I was excited about this because I knew it could do the egg-white-whipping very quickly. Directions said on High, 8 minutes. I walked away and two or three minutes later I peeked into my mixer and all hell had broken loose. The eggs had become overbeaten IN 180 SECONDS. Speedy fucking Gonzales, that mixer is. After the nut debacle, I wanted to toss the whole mess in the garbage, but I figured fuck it, I'd gone this far. I won't regale you with the horror of blending the butter-nut-flour mixture into the eggs, but suffice to say that the contraption looked nothing like batter until the very last stage. I tossed it in the oven and hoped that the damn thing wouldn't explode.

In the end, what I had looked like a cake.

I frosted (well, ganache-d) the sucker and tasted it. And holy hell, it was good.

So, have no fear. Even if everything goes wrong, miracles occur in the oven.

Hazelnut Brown Butter Cake
Stolen from, as usual, Smitten Kitchen
Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques (I must have this cookbook.)

Chef Goin served this as her wedding cake. I have learned that anything served as a wedding cake by someone who cooks is AMAZING.

5 ounces (about one heaping cup) hazelnuts, blanched to remove dark skins*
1/2 pound unsalted butter (plus 1 tablespoon melted extra for greasing the pan)
1/2 vanilla bean
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar, plus extra for dusting the cake
1/3 cups all-purpose flour
5 extra-large egg whites (I used 6 since I was using
large eggs)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet, and toast 12 to 15 minutes, until they’re golden brown and smell nutty. Let them cool.

Cut out a circle of parchment paper to fit in the bottom of a 10-inch round cake pan. Brush the pan with a little melted butter and line the bottom with the paper.

Place the rest of the butter in a medium saucepan. Slice the vanilla bean lengthwise down the center, and using a paring knife to scrape the seeds and pulp onto the butter. To make sure not to lose any of the seeds, run your vanilla-coated knife through the butter. Add the vanilla pod to the pan, and cook the butter until the butter browns and smells nutty (about 6 to 8 minutes). It helps to frequently scrape the solids off the bottom of the pan in the last couple minutes to ensure even browning. Set aside to cool. Remove the vanilla pod and discard.

Grind the hazelnuts with the confectioners’ sugar in a food processor until they’re finely ground. Add the flour and pulse to combine. Transfer to a large bowl.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Add the granulated sugar and mix on high speed 4 to 5 minutes, until the mixture forms very stiff peaks. When you turn the whisk upside down, the peaks should hold. Transfer the whites to a large mixing bowl.

Alternate folding the dry ingredients and the brown butter into the egg whites, a third of a time. Remember to scrap the bottom of the brown butter pan with a rubber spatula to get all the little brown bits.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour**. Cool on a rack 30 minutes. Run a knife around the inside edge of the pan, and invert the cake onto a plate. Peel off the paper, and turn the cake back over onto a serving platter. Sprinkle it with powdered sugar or cover with ganache (below).

* Do not fear if your blanching-and-rubbing or your roasting-and-scrubbing doesn't yield perfectly naked nuts. It's okay. Keep going.

** Mine was done at 40 minutes so check yours even earlier, okay?

Draping Ganache for 10-inch Cake

4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips or finely-chopped chocolate
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee granules

Melt the chocolate, heavy cream, and coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Spread over the top of the cake.

Vegan Quinoa Paella

2008-06-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Right now this is one of my favorite things to make when I really want to impress parents or houseguests or celebrate a birthday or non-birthday or whatever. Nothing’s better than feeding people delicious food, and this one blows the mind. Mmmm, actually, talking about this will be difficult to do right now. I just finished eating the leftovers of a slightly quicker version I made last night, and I’m afraid I might just go sneak some more bites after this write-up…

Living in Buenos Aires, it’s impossible to eat completely vegetarian, much less vegan. Well, it’s possible, I guess, but ill-advised. The meat and dairy here are just too effin’ good. Still, I have a sensitive tummy, and too much meat makes Annette a very unhappy and tired girl. So I found a version of this recipe online when looking for something vegan and chock-full of veggies. It’s nothing like an actual Spanish paella dish (*drool*), but seriously yummy in its own regard. Don’t expect in this recipe any attempts at replacing the saffron-y or seafood-y goodness of a Spanish paella (if you haven’t had a Spanish paella, go to a Spanish restaurant with the million friends you have and order this for your table right now). This paella, however, totally does the trick for a super healthy meal. Quinoa is practically a miracle grain - a complete protein with a ton of nutrients and amino acids; it’s easy to digest and even gluten-free! Though fairly protein-heavy, this meal is at least balanced by a ton of energizing vegetables. And it’s vegan and unbelievably delicious.

The paella is pretty easy to prepare for the most part. Most of the time is spent chopping vegetables, and the tofu can be fried quickly. Just cut tofu into strips, lay them in a single layer in hot oil and flip over once a side has browned. Don’t forget to add soy sauce for flavor! I like my tofu pretty crispy, because it adds a nice texture to the softer quinoa. A recipe I follow loosely for a Twice-fried Tofu is below. As hastily and incompletely as I make this, it still ends up delicious. It's really very difficult to mess up Fried Tofu.

Really, what I love sooo much about this dish is the variety of textures. It’s most like a paella in this way, I guess, which I’m completely fine with. It’s like a texture rainbow party; I can’t get enough of it. OMG and the leftovers are even better, especially if you fry extra tofu with them. As for the veggies, you can pretty much add whatever you’d like. I’m sure this would be amazing with broccoli florets and other greens. The possibilities are endless when you are already pretty much raping all that a paella traditionally is. Yay!

The quicker version I made last night is basically just whatever vegetables I had at the time, parsley instead of cilantro (because cilantro is almost impossible to find in the city), and no tofu or chickpeas or artichoke hearts. It wasn’t the same, but still yummy. The version below probably takes about a half hour to 45 minutes prepping and blanching and frying, and about 20 minutes cooking.

Vegan Quinoa Paella
(Recipe adapted from What the hell_does_a vegan eat anyway?)

1 tb olive oil
1 small red onion (I’ve only used yellow, but it’s delicious either way)
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained

1 tb smoked paprika
salt and pepper

1.5 cups water

1 red bell pepper (you can roast them or just put them in, sliced in strips)
1 cup green beans, blanched for 2-3 minutes
3 or 4 artichoke hearts, drained and sliced
15 oz. can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
tofu, fried (Twice-fried tofu recipe below)
2 large or 3 small ears of corn
1 tbs cilantro, chopped (I use a lot more because I am obsessed with cilantro)
chopped almonds for garnish
4 or so lemon wedges

1. Chop veggies. (I like to put them in little size-appropriate bowls and organize them according to when I will add them, because this kind of stuff is fun to me.)

2. Bring water to boil in pot (for green beans).

3. Rinse and drain quinoa.

4. Blanche green beans.

5. Fry tofu, put aside.

6. In a large saute pan, on medium-low heat, add oil and sauté onions for 3-4 minutes, then add garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes more.

7. Add quinoa and sauté for 2-3 minutes (you want to toast the quinoa a little bit in this part).

8. Add paprika, salt and pepper and stir. Then add water, bring to a boil, reduce and then simmer for 10-12 minutes until quinoa is cooked.

9. Add bell pepper, green beans, chickpeas, artichoke hearts and fried tofu on top of quinoa, cook for another 2-3 minutes until heated through.

10. Garish with almonds and cilantro. Serve with lemons.

I’d say this serves about 4-5 people with a high chance of leftovers.

Twice-Fried Tofu
Recipe from What the hell_does_a vegan eat anyway?

16 oz. extra-firm tofu cut into eight rectangular cutlets
canola oil
pepper
tamari

Cut the tofu into eight individual cutlets.

If you're smoking the tofu, add the hickory chips to your smoker box and process for 20-30 minutes. Remove the tofu from smoker box.

Over med-high heat add the canola oil and pan-fry until golden brown on both sides (about 8 minutes). Remove from pan and let cool for at least 10 minutes. Or, you can refrigerate the tofu at this point, up to a day in advance.

Slice the tofu diagonally into strips about a 1/4" thick. Add about 1 tsp. of canola oil to the pan, and return to med-high heat, turning occasionally for 3-5 minutes. Lower the heat to low, add tamari to taste (about 1 tbs.) and continue to cook for an addition 1-2 minutes until the tofu begins to get crispy.

If you don't have a smoker, you can add 1 tsp. of smoked paprika right after the tamari.

garlic buttermilk biscuits, baked eggs

2008-06-16T17:04:00.000-07:00

I came home from Portland early on Sunday specifically to host the potluck, and I'm glad I did: Javier brought octopus! Boiled and then coated in olive oil, coarse salt, and hot paprika, it was delicious.

The process I described is really all there is to making the octopus, but the real skill lies in being able to tell when it's done. I can't help you there: Javier manned the stove for that one. I can tell you how to make the dish(es) I contributed: baked eggs and garlic biscuits.

I had garlic biscuits at a restaurant called the Screen Door in Portland, and they were very good. Because I was sharing with others, I got only the bottoms of the biscuits. I thought: a whole one must be even better! I had been planning to make chive biscuits for my potluck, but the chives had gone bad over the weekend and I was craving garlic. I just swapped minced garlic for the chives and off I went.

The baked eggs looked delicious, and when I made them, they were quite good (and they were all eaten) but I thought they were a bit bland. As it turns out, I'd forgotten the pepper and the parmesan. Lesson: don't forget the flavorings!

Both recipes from Smitten Kitchen
Baked Eggs with Spinach and Mushrooms
Gourmet, June 2004

10 oz baby spinach leaves
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 oz mushrooms, thinly sliced (2 cups)
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan (I forgot this, and I'm kicking myself. Cheese makes everything better.)

Put oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.

Bring 1/2 inch water to a boil in a 10- to 12-inch ovenproof heavy skillet or pot (not cast-iron), then add half of spinach and cook, turning with tongs, until wilted, about 30 seconds. Add remaining spinach and wilt in same manner, then cook, covered, over moderately high heat until spinach is tender, about 2 minutes. Drain in a colander and cool under cold running water. Gently squeeze handfuls of spinach to remove as much liquid as possible, then coarsely chop.

Wipe skillet dry, then cook onion and garlic in butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and increase heat to moderate, then cook, stirring, until mushrooms are softened and have exuded liquid, about 3 minutes. Stir in cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and chopped spinach and bring to a simmer. Remove skillet from heat and make 4 large indentations in spinach mixture. Break an egg into each indentation and bake, uncovered, until egg whites are set but yolks are still runny, 7 to 10 minutes. Lightly season eggs with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with cheese.

Buttermilk Garlic Biscuits (these originally called for chives)
Adapted from Dot’s Diner, Boulder, CO (adapted again from Smitten Kitchen)

Makes 12 servings.

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar (originally recipe calls for 2 tablespoons)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup (1 1/2sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/4 cup minced garlic
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425°F. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda in large bowl to blend. Using fingertips, rub 3/4 cup chilled butter into dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in chives. Add buttermilk and stir until evenly moistened. Using 1/4 cup dough for each biscuit, drop biscuits onto baking sheet, spacing 2 inches apart.* Bake until biscuits are golden brown on top, about 15 minutes. Cool slightly. Serve warm.

It says "12 servings" but I ended up with 17 biscuits and some extra powder in the mixing bowl... I think the recipe needs perhaps a bit more buttermilk (to make the powder into dough). You can either make larger biscuits (to end up with 12) or hope for 18-20 if you stick with 1/4 cup.

garlic spears

2008-06-13T17:47:00.000-07:00

I'd never had garlic spears before, but now that I have tried them, I want them every day. Garlic meets asparagus. Need I say more?

I chopped the ends off and washed the spears. Eaten raw, they are spicy like raw garlic. I sauteed the whole spears in butter and olive oil until the flavor mellowed a bit and they were bright green. I added pepper and lemon juice and devoured them. They're at the farmer's market now, which is awesome. I bet they would be great chopped up over a pasta. I cut one up into very thin slices and put it into a turkey burger, which was very good also. Have any of you had these before? What did you do with them?

fresh pasta saga

2008-06-12T16:11:00.001-07:00

I am totally intimidated by fresh pasta, despite the fact that it contains no yeast. I'd never made it, and I'd written it off as Something Other People Make, until I found this blog. The author is vulgar, snarky, hilarious, and a butcher. I was in lust. He makes pasta seem manageable somehow, in between all the swearing and drinking.

And that's pretty much what it's like.

I had three recipes to choose from: his, one at smitten kitchen, and the one that came with the pasta machine I bought at Ross that day. I opted for the one that came with the machine because it yielded enough pasta for six and I was throwing a potluck dinner party. Remember that rule about not trying new recipes out on guests? Right. There's a reason. A messy reason.

The process seems simple: 5 eggs and 3 cups of flour. Mix. Knead. Add more flour if it's a bit sticky. Let it rest for 30 minutes all wrapped in plastic and then roll it out and put it through the machine several times until it's thin and then again to cut it into fettuccine. Simple!

When the first guests arrived, including two people I hadn't met before, I was stirring the first bit of eggy floury dough. That shit was WET. Not just sticky, but cling-to-everything miserable. I added a handful more flour. It worked itself in, seemed okay, and then the mass got sticky again. Repeat. Repeat with what seemed like HALF A BAG OF FLOUR. Eventually, i gave up. My kitchen looked like a Columbian love-fest, since I had trailed flour everywhere I went. EVERYWHERE.

I had told my first guests that if the pasta experiment failed (as now seemed certain) then I would order pizza. At this point, my second guests arrived, bearing wine AND a homemade spicy chicken pizza. With cheese in the crust. Sometimes, god loves me. Only sometimes.

One of my guests, Josh, got really excited about the pasta machine and proceeded to attempt to screw it to every surface in the kitchen. This is when I realized that it's a very good thing that I didn't sell my dining table, since that's the only table that works for the pasta machine. I put the dough through a couple of times, but it was still too sticky and unworkable. I proclaimed defeat. Josh would not capitulate (makes sense, as he's not the one who spent an hour flouring the same mound of sticky hell). He put it through the machine, floured it, put it through again, floured it again, roll, flour, repeat. Fifteen minutes later THERE WAS PASTA DOUGH. We put it through the noodle-cutting bit, separated the strands, and boiled that shit until al dente.

In the end, it was a bit thick I think (we rolled until setting 4 or so, not a 9 like you're supposed to) and we didn't let it "rest" all sealed up like one should, and god knows how much flour was in there at the end... but what all this goes to say is that pasta is a lot harder to ruin than you might think. Everyone liked it! There was hardly any left over.

There was a pesto as well: after reading one of the comments to an earlier pesto pasta, I decided to make parsley-walnut pesto. At this point, I'd had a lot of wine, so measuring ingredients really wasn't going to happen. I threw some italian flat-leaf parsley, walnuts (toasted), olive oil, grated parmesean cheese, and pepper into the food processor until it tasted good, adjusting various quantities as needed. We also sauteed some crimini mushrooms to put over the top along with some shredded parmesean. The pesto was delicious and also tasted good days later on a baguette.

Sticky Buns in the morning.

2008-06-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

This recipe is most fun when made as a pre-work baking date with a friend. In my case, I chose Greg. We only decided about half way through to include this on the blog, so some of the initial directions are a bit fuzzy. I recommend only making this if you already have a pretty good idea about bread dough.

First steps (optional):
Make some coffee.
Take some cold medicine.
make sure to brush your teeth

Gather:

Pasta for breakfast
a lot brown sugar
a lot flour
a lot of butter/ earth balance
5 over-ripe bananas
2ish cups of walnuts
yeast
white sugar
cinnamon
water
hugs

To begin, make your dough.

Go to grocery to store to buy white flour after you realize you have rye flour, soy flour, whole wheat flour, corn meal and pancake mix where you thought the white flour would be.

Before you leave be sure to add four cups of 100 degree water to a 12 qt bowl with .5 cup of white sugar and 2 TBSP of yeast.

While you're at the store. The yeast will reconstruct their civilization from their cryogenically freeze dried remnants. This process is exothermic, which you would be able to feel if you weren't at the store.

By the time you return, the yeast will have evolved into an industrious society that produces gluten by-products through the respiration of sucrolose, (CITE THIS) and will be ready.

Add some heaping handfuls (I started with 4) of your recently acquired white flour to the yeast civilization. Stir the flour in with a spoon and keep thickening gradually. When you reach the point when you can no longer mix with a spoon, use your hands! The flour will be sticky, so be sure to "clean" your hands with more flour while you mix and eventually begin to form a ball. Transfer the dough to your countertop But FIRST STOP

Thoroughly cover the countertop with many handfuls of flour before setting your dough on it.

Kneed the dough like you're giving CPR until you press your finger into the dough and it does not press back (the finger indentation stays). Or you can also just kneed the dough until its almost not sticky anymore.

Coat a large bowl with canola oil

Make the dough into a ball that somewhat resembles a brain by pulling the top dough down and under and then forming a funnel "V" shape with the palms of your hands and rubbing them back and forth with the V shaped dough wedge in between them. Brain wrinkles are a sign of superior intelligence, but research has definitively demonstrated that there is an inverse correlation between intelligence and tastiness, at least in terms of sticky bun dough, so keep the top smooth. (See illustration on the pizza dough post, forthcoming)

Put your dough brain into the large oil coated bowl and leave it in a warm place.

Let the dough rise for a duration equivalent to the time it takes to look for clip art, give up and draw a Macintosh 128 K with a heart diskette using Adobe Illustrator.

Punch down the dough (be nice)

Let the dough rise again while you read about the assassination attempt against Hitler by Georg Elser as written by Derek Jensen (about 4 pages, with time allowed for a verbal summary of the book so far)

Break the nuts gently by hand and coat them with brown sugar and put them in a hot place (like the oven) for 20 minutes at 350. You may use pecans or walnuts or hazelnuts or ~~testicles~~.

Take your over-ripe bananas and whip them together with a handful of dark brown sugar. We added a cap-ful of Hazelnut liqueur.

Melt a half stick of butter in a pan on the stove over low-med heat. Add the whipped brown sugar and banana mix, and beat it constantly until its creamy and bubbly.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE NUTS!

When the nuts are done, chop them into spreadable pieces. Place them in a bowl and set aside. Mix cinnamon and sugar together, about 1:3, and also set it aside.

Re-flour your countertop surface and roll the dough into a sheet just slightly thinner than corrugated cardboard. Cover the dough thinly with banana. Then semi-thickly sugar. Then sparsely with nuts.

Roll the sheet up. Some of the dough will stick to the counter while you are rolling. It is useful to have your friend scrape that up as you go and keep it with the dough. We used a meat cleaver, but a metal spatula would be fine, I'm sure. When it's all done, squish in the sides of the cylinder so they are about flat.

Cut the dough log into 2-3 inch sections, and place on a buttered baking sheet, flat side down. They need about 17 minutes to cook, but check on them at 10-12 to make sure this seems right.

While the ~~fetus~~ buns are in the oven, mix a lot of brown sugar with a lot of butter. Like a cup of sugar, and third of a tub of earth balance. Over medium heat, bring this to a boil, stirring constantly. Then add some more butter if it's getting too thick. More sugar if it's too thin. If you need more, it's easy to make, and if there's too much, you will have extra-sticky sticky buns.

Play midwife/obstetrician to the buns, cover them with syrup and nuts.

Finally, bask in the deliciousness you have created.(Or in my case, rush off to work where they fire you. Fuckers.)

dutch baby

2008-06-03T18:56:00.000-07:00

I am not much of a breakfast person. I don't generally like eggs. I'm not a huge fan of sugar (despite my dessert-intensive blog, you may have noticed that the stuff I make is not that sweet, and I frequently cut the amount of sugar called for).

Yet this particular breakfast item is the reason I bought cast-iron pans. I have a cast-iron cookbook, and this is the only thing I make from that book.

It's called a "dutch baby," and it's eggs, flour, and milk, blended together and then baked in butter until it puffs like a sombrero. As it cools, it collapses, and then you slather it in more butter, lemon juice, and powdered sugar. I tend to go easy on the sugar and heavy on the butter. You must know by now: I <3 butter.

So, this isn't a pretty item (to say the least), but it is amazingly delicious, easy and cheap to make (if you don't have a cast-iron, get one), and each one feeds two people. It's rich and full of flavor, but the lemon keeps it from feeling overly heavy. It is the best breakfast food ever.

Dutch Baby
from The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook
Feeds 2

Baby:
2 TB butter
4 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk

Topping:
melted butter to pour over the top
lemon for juice (1 lemon per baby)
powdered sugar (1/2 cup recommended, just powder to taste)

Make it:
Preheat the oven to 425. Melt the butter in a 10" cast iron skillet over low heat. Mix the eggs, flour and milk in a blender until just blended. (Yes, you do need a blender for this--anything else leaves the flour chunky.) Pour the batter into the skillet with the melted butter.

Place the skillet in the oven and bake until the top puffs up and is LIGHTLY golden. Don't overbake it or you will be scraping it off the bottom of the pan. Check it at 15 minutes and 20 minutes, but it may take up to 25. Ovens vary.

Melt the butter for topping. The recipe says "clarify the butter" but I'm far too lazy for this early in the morning. People are lucky i'm in the kitchen messing with the oven at all.

Drizzle the butter over the top, squeeze a lemon (watch for seeds) over it, and sprinkle that powdered sugar. Eat.

spinach and orzo salad

2008-06-03T18:41:00.000-07:00

I chose to make this salad because I had everything on hand except the spinach and feta, and also because I'm on a green-foods kick. I think that after spending a week living on sausages while moving into the new apartment, I really needed the vitamins that my last few days of meals have provided. Hooray for craving the things you need! This salad gets better the longer it sits, as the flavors continue to meld. This makes it perfect for leftovers, or for a potluck or dinner party as you can make it the day before.

Picking a recipe, going to the store, cooking, taking pictures, doing the dishes, editing the photos, and writing the process up is actually a lot more work than one might think it is. So, I forgot to take pictures while cooking. In fact, I forgot about the photos until after I'd put the leftovers into tupperware and got it out again for lunch today. Forgive me.

Spinach and Orzo Salad
from Simply Recipes

Ingredients

* 8 ounces orzo pasta
* Salt
* 1/4 cup pine nuts
* 6 ounces feta cheese, roughly crumbled
* 2 ounces Kalamata Greek olives pitted, roughly chopped, about 1/2 cup (about 20 olives)
* 4 ounces baby spinach
* 1/2 cup chopped red onion (about half a red onion)
* 3 Tbsp olive oil
* 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
* 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar (can substitute white vinegar or lemon juice)
* 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
* Pinch dried basil
* Pinch dried tarragon
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

1 Cook the orzo pasta. Bring to a boil a pot with 2 quarts of water in it. Once the water is boiling, salt it with a couple teaspoons of salt. Once the water returns to a boil add the orzo to the pot. Leave uncovered, cook on high heat with a vigorous boil. Put the timer on for 8-10 minutes, or whatever your pasta package says is appropriate for al dente (cooked but still a little firm). Drain. Rinse with cold water to cool quickly.

2 Toast the pine nuts by heating a small skillet on medium heat. Add the pine nuts and stir occasionally until the pine nuts are lightly browned. Pay attention or you'll burn the pine nuts.

3 Take half of the spinach and purée it in a food processor or blender, adding one tablespoon of the olive oil. Roughly chop the other half of the spinach. In a large serving bowl mix the spinach purée olive oil mixture in with cooked orzo until the pasta is well coated with the purée. Then gently mix in the remaining spinach, the red onion, feta cheese, pine nuts, and the Kalamata olives.

3 In a small jar, combine the remaining olive oil (2 Tbsp), balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, mustard, dried basil, and dried tarragon. Put a lid on the jar and shake to combine. (You can also just whisk together these ingredients in a small bowl, but the jar method works great to get a good emulsion.) Pour over orzo spinach mixture and gently mix in until well incorporated.

4 Chill for at least an hour before serving (the longer the better).

Serves 4.

rigatoni with five lilies and ricotta salata

2008-06-03T16:50:00.000-07:00

Now that spring (summer?) is really here, I've been wanting more fresh things to eat. I also just moved and wanted to break in the new kitchen. And a friend from out of town visited and gave me a perfect excuse to make dinner. SO: I opened up the bookmarks and poked around.

Everything for this recipe is easy to find, minus the Ricotta Salata. I substituted goat cheese (crumbled) and it worked well, so do not despair if you can't find the right cheese. As a bonus, everything except the cheese is also cheap.

This recipe also tastes even better the next day, and it tastes good cold, which is bonus-good because a pound of pasta is enough for lots of leftovers. And it's easy to make. Do you need more reasons to try it? Fine: caramelized onions. LEEKS. Now go!

Rigatoni with Five Lilies and Ricotta Salata
Adapted from The Babbo Cookbook and the San Francisco Chronicle
Stolen from Orangette

3 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb. sweet onions, such as Walla Walla or Vidalia, cut in half from stem to root and then into ¼-inch slices
2 Tbs unsalted butter
5 medium garlic cloves, minced
½ lb. leeks, cut into 1/8-inch rings and washed
½ lb. red onions, quartered and sliced
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and cut into 2-inch lengths
½ cup water
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
1 lb. rigatoni

To serve:
4 oz. ricotta salata, coarsely grated (or whatever cheese you can find)
¼ cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 small handful chives, finely chopped
Flaky sea salt, such as Maldon
Lemon wedges, optional

In a large (12- to 14-inch) skillet, warm the olive oil over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add the sweet onions, and reduce the heat. Cook over medium-low, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent; then raise the heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until deeply golden and caramelized. Remove the pan from the heat, and transfer the onions to a bowl. Set aside.

In the same skillet, heat the butter over medium heat. When it has stopped foaming and is thoroughly melted, add the garlic, leeks, red onion, and scallions, and cook, stirring regularly, until very soft and golden. Add the water, and cook until the liquid evaporates. Season lightly with salt. Remove from the heat, and stir in the sweet onions.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and cook the rigatoni until tender but al dente. In the last minute of cooking, return the onion mixture to medium-high heat. Drain the pasta, add it to the onion mixture, and toss over medium-high heat for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and toss more, if necessary, to thoroughly disperse the onions amidst the pasta. Serve immediately, topped with plenty of ricotta salata and sprinklings of parsley and chives. Salt as needed, and finish with a quick squeeze of lemon, if you like.

Yield: 4 servings

tempeh mushroom fricassee with 40 CLOVES OF GARLIC OMG

2008-06-03T11:22:00.001-07:00

I have a reputation for being a garlic fiend, constantly tripling recipe quantities and interpreting "clove" in the most liberal possible way (obviously the smaller cloves only count as half, right?) So, when I excitedly sat down with my new cookbook and opened to a random page only to see the phrase "with 40 cloves of garlic," I knew what needed to happen, and I knew it needed to happen right away.

I made 1.5x this recipe and it was a lot of food, most of which was promptly devoured. If I made it again, I think I'd consider adding a green (kale? chard?) and/or some other fresh herbs to fill out the flavor a little more, although the rich nuttiness of the tempeh mixed with the smoky mushroom flavor and the SWEET SWEET GARLIC is pretty full already. All the bite cooks out of the garlic -- it tastes similar to roasted garlic, flavorful but not harsh.

Ingredients:

40 cloves of mutherfuckin' garlic, bitches!
1lb heap 'o mixed mushrooms (I used shiitake and portobello, would've loved to try others)
2 leeks (the white parts)
1 12oz package of tempeh
1.5 cups veggie broth/stock
a few springs of thyme
1/4 cup dry white wine (I used a cheap chardonnay)
2 tbsp soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
parsley for garnish

Instructions:

Chop the tempeh into bite-size pieces and sautée in olive oil over medium heat until it's golden brown on all sides (8-10min). Set it aside when done.
While the tempeh's cooking, chop the leeks and mushrooms. (There are a lot of mushrooms in here -- they make a really awesome and imposing pile!) In a different (semi-deep) pan start them sautéeing in olive oil on medium heat until they're cooked down and lightly caramelized. Then add the white wine and soy sauce, raise the heat a tad, and cook a bit longer until the liquid is pretty reduced/soaked up.
Add the veggie broth, garlic and tempeh to the mushrooms/leeks, along with the thyme, cover it, and let it simmer on low heat for like 20-30min. Uncover and raise the heat for a few minutes afterwards so the liquid thickens some more.
Fish out the thyme pieces. Gorge.

pizza bianca

2008-05-27T17:24:00.000-07:00

You might complain that this is called a pizza and yet there are no toppings. No cheese, no sauce, no cured meats or roasted vegetables. All I can say in my defense that I didn't name the thing, I just made and devoured it. And really, I don't care what you call it as long as you make it right away. Pizza or not, it's simply wonderful.

This recipe requires instant yeast and I thought that meant it would be a faster process, but it still rises twice. The flavor is strong and complex on account of this and it's well worth the time. Breads seem tricky but I'm realizing that they take time and patience (things I tend to lack) but they're not actually that difficult, and they are so rewarding-- it's amazing to take a handful of simple ingredients and magically transform them into something with so much flavor.

I will note that this bread (like most homemade breads) doesn't keep well, and the recipe makes far too much for one person, so I would recommend that you halve the recipe or share. It's so good that you may think you will eat the whole batch yourself, but I tried valiantly and failed. I wonder if it would make good breadcrumbs for another project?

Jim Lahey’s Pizza Bianca
From Smitten Kitchen

Makes two long pizzas

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 sprig fresh rosemary

1. Combine flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer, and slowly add 1 cup cold water. Mix on low speed until ingredients begin to combine, increase speed to medium-high, and continue to mix for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and cleanly pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl. I used the paddle attachment on a kitchenaid until the dough came together and then I switched to the dough hook.

2. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and allow to rest for 2 to 4 hours until it has doubled in size. Split the dough into halves, and form each into a log [or in my case, realize that I forgot to do this, and roll it out instead!]. Place each log on a generously floured surface, and allow it to rest until the formed dough doubles in size again, at least 1 hour.

3. Put dough on a lightly floured baker’s peel, or something flat covered in cormeal. You'll have to slide the dough off, so don't use anything with a lip or raised edge. Dimple dough by pressing it down with your fingertips. Work the dough outward toward the edges of the peel until you reach your desired size and thickness, about 1/4 inch. Drizzle with remaining olive oil, rosemary and sprinkle with remaining salt.

4. Place a baking stone, sometimes known as a pizza stone, in the oven. Set oven to broil, about 520 degrees. Slide pizza onto baking stone. Bake until the bubbles range from golden to deep brown in color, 10 to 12 minutes. If you don't have a stone baking it on a baking sheet is fine.

mexican chocolate cake

2008-05-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

I've had two recipes done and photographed and I haven't yet had time to actually write them up and post them. I'm moving into a new apartment on Thursday, and next week is the last week of classes, which means that this is crunch time at school as well. While that doesn't quite explain why I haven't yet written up recipes that I made two weeks ago... it's my story and I'm sticking to it.

So, belatedly, I offer you chocolate AND cake. Hopefully this will make up for the delay.

The cake is crosshatched because I let it cool upside down. Oops.

This isn't the cake I wanted to make. I went to the Pike's Place market one weekend and ate a piece of mexican chocolate cheesecake and knew immediately that I must make one. After an hour on the internet, however, I still lacked an appropriate recipe. I didn't want to improvise or experiment with expensive cheesecake ingredients, so I figured I would start smaller. (I may, in the end, go back to the cheesecake place and ask them how it's done.) I could have waited until finding an appropriate recipe but by this point I had a serious hankering for chocolate, cinnamon and cayenne cake in whatever form I could concoct.

I found several mexican chocolate cake recipes, and I chose this one because it also had a mexican chocolate sauce. I sure do like chocolate sauce. Additionally, I worried (rightly so, as it turned out) about the level of spice flavor in the cake, and I knew this could be compensated for by adjusting flavors in the sauce. As it turns out, the cinnamon and cayenne pepper flavors in the cake were much weaker than I would have liked (although other people claimed they were well pronounced- I should point out that I like spicy things and tend to spice high). I made the sauce much more spicy and the cake and sauce complemented each other very well in the end, and provided options for people with varying spice tolerances. Another great benefit of this recipe is that it's easily made with things I have on hand-- a recipe that doesn't require a trip to the store is truly a wonderful thing (especially considering that I tend to make things with expensive ingredients and ultimately, I am a pauper. I need more recipes like this.)

As a note, the cake is vegan, but the way I made the sauce is not.

I would like to make this again in cupcake form and turn the sauce into a frosting.

Mexican Chocolate Cake
Slightly adapted from Dozen Flours

1 1/2 cups flour, sifted (I used cake flour instead of all purpose. If you decide to use cake flour, add an additional 4 tablespoons of flour to the recipe.)
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (1/2 will be very spicy!)
1 teaspoon. vanilla extract
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup cold water

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 8 to 9-inch cake pan or spring form pan.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Stir in the cinnamon, cayenne, vanilla, vinegar, oil, and water. Mix until just combined.

Pour into the prepared cake pan and cook for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool.

Chocolate Sauce

2 ounces dark chocolate
1/4 cup water or soy milk (I used whole milk)
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons vegan margarine (I used butter)
1/2 tespoons vanilla
1 to 2 pinches cayenne pepper

Melt dark chocolate with water or milk in a saucepan over low heat. Stir constantly until the chocolate is melted. Stir in sugar and cook, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in margarine, vanilla, and cayenne pepper, to taste. The sauce is drippy rather than thick and should be poured over individual slices.

pasta with walnut pesto and arugula

2008-05-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

After leaving you with such sad photos for the last two recipes, I resolved to make up for it with this one.

Basil is finally reappearing in the stores, and what better way to make use of it than pesto? This pesto is delicious, and I'd make it again on its own to eat with bread. The bright green color of the arugula and pesto in the pasta makes me feel like spring is really almost here.

I thought making pesto would be hard, but really all you do is put a bunch of things into a blender and press a button. It's impossible to over-blend, so you can mix and taste and add and mix and taste.

Once you've got the pesto finished, you cook some mushrooms (I used crimini, but any will do) in butter (I couldn't resist, but olive oil is fine too). The recipe says to use as garnish, but I really liked the earthiness the mushrooms added to the overall flavor, so I made a bunch so that they were a more substantial part of the dish. The mushrooms may take a while to cook, so start them at the same time you set the water on the stove to boil.

Make sure to get the walnuts nice and toasted, or they'll taste a little bitter.

The only bitterness you want is from the arugula (or whatever bitter green you chose); the bite of the arugula is a nice contrast to the mushrooms and pesto and it keeps the pasta from feeling or tasting heavy. Trader Joe's has arugula for a really reasonable price.

Sometimes, I make important notes on my recipes:

Pasta with Walnut Pesto and Arugula
From Food and Wine

Ingredients

1 cup walnut halves (4 ounces)
2 cups lightly packed basil leaves
1 large garlic clove, thinly sliced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano- Reggiano cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound pasta-- something in small pieces, not long noodles
6 ounces watercress, arugula or other bitter greens, thick stems discarded and leaves coarsely chopped
Sautéed mushrooms, for serving

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast for 8 to 10 minutes, until they are fragrant and lightly browned. Let cool completely. Coarsely chop half of the walnuts and set the remaining toasted walnuts aside.
2. In a food processor, pulse the remaining walnuts with the basil and garlic until the walnuts are finely chopped. With the machine on, add the olive oil in a thin stream and process until the pesto is almost smooth. Add 1/2 cup of the cheese and pulse until just incorporated. Transfer the walnut pesto to a bowl and season it with salt and pepper.
3. Add the broken lasagna noodles to the boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water. Return the drained pasta to the pot. Add the watercress and walnut pesto and toss well. Add the reserved pasta water and toss again until well coated. Transfer the pasta to bowls, garnish with the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese, the chopped walnuts and sautéed mushrooms and serve.

pumpkin bread pudding

2008-05-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

I know this is the wrong season: technically it's spring, not fall. But in Seattle, it rains from November through May, so I figure my eating doesn't have to follow seasonal variation I don't actually get to experience.

I know, this dish isn't pretty either. Bread pudding is rarely, if ever, pretty. It doesn't even sound good, and for years the name itself put me off: what kind of sicko puts bread in pudding? Since my discovery of the tastiness that is bread pudding, I've seen recipes for bread soup. Bread salads, I actually kind of understand (I was always a lover of croutons), but soup? Really? Really.

This bread pudding is like pumpkin pie meets bread pudding, basically, with a healthy gut-warming splash of bourbon. If that's not enough to make you try it, I don't know what is. Oh, well, it's really easy, too-- one bowl, one baking dish, one spoon. I prefer it to pumpkin pie now because there's no crust to mess with and I still get all my favorite flavors without the fear of failure that crust-making always inspires. Feel free to up the spices if you like; I usually double them.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, October 2007
Adapted again by Smitten Kitchen

1 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch of ground cloves
2+ tablespoons bourbon (optional)
5 cups cubed (1-inch) day-old baguette or crusty bread
3/4 stick unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

While preheating oven to 350°F with rack in middle, melt butter in bottom of a 8-inch square baking dish. Once it is melted, take it out of the oven and toss bread cubes with butter, coating thoroughly.

In a separate bowl, whisk together all the remaining ingredients. Pour them over buttered bread cubes in baking dish, stirring to make sure all pieces are evenly coated. Bake until custard is set, 25 to 30 minutes. Eat warm.

flourless chocolate cupcakes

2008-05-13T11:30:00.001-07:00

Okay, I admit it: I've been delinquent here. I haven't posted in ages, and now I'm going to give you a picture of some very sad-looking cupcakes. But they taught me a lesson, I promise.

I've been learning, over the course of baking with my oven, that I need to shave a couple of minutes off whatever the suggested cooking time for something is-- despite the fact that my oven thermometer tells me that my oven is at the correct temperature. Clearly the thermometer and the oven are in cahoots and they've decided that I simply do not need any more chocolate.

My new favorite adjective in baking is "flourless," despite the trouble with the last cake and these cupcakes too. The reason is that when you get these things right, they're phenomenal. I made these cupcakes again, three times. You know, to make sure I had the cooking time right. And because I'd eat them so fast it felt there surely couldn't have been a dozen on the tray five minutes ago. My evidence that they're so good? Even though I made them three times beyond that pathetic photo above, I never had the presence of mind to take another picture.

Here's the trick: Check them at six minutes. If you want a molten center, pull them out while the middles are still very shiny and carefully ease them out of the pan after they've cooled for about ten minutes and eat them right then. They will ooze deliciousness all over you. Once the six-minute cupcakes have cooled entirely, the middles will solidify into a slightly fudgy deliciously moist mass.
At seven minutes, the centers of the warm cupcakes will be solid. At eight minutes, they're overdone, but still entirely edible.

Use good chocolate if you have it. It's not entirely necessary, but it's worth it.

You can also make a salted toffee sauce for these, with or without hazelnuts. I made it without hazelnuts and the first time it was too salty, and the second time, i lessened the salt and it was too sweet. I guess I just don't like this toffee. I thought the cupcakes were perfect on their own, but feel free to adorn them if you feel compelled to gild the lily.

Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes
from The Bizarre Kitchen Incident. She got them from, surprisingly, Nestle.
makes 12 cupcakes

3/4 cup unsalted butter
8oz Nestle Chocolatier bittersweet chocolate (either morsels, or chopped bar form)
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup plus 1 T sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1 T AP flour

Preheat oven to 425*. Grease a muffin tin liberally with Crisco.

Place eggs, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl. Beat on medium-high speed with the whisk attachment until fluffy and light yellow, about 8 minutes. The mixture will drizzle into the bowl in a slowly-dissolving ribbon when it's been mixed enough.

While the eggs are being mixed: In a large, heavy saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the chocolate and stir constantly, until chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat.

Switch to the paddle attachment (or, if not using a stand mixer, a sturdy spatula).
Slowly add 1/3 of the chocolate to the egg mixture, stirring slowly. Once the chocolate is incorporated, add the rest of the chocolate and the flour. Mix on low speed until a somewhat thin batter is formed.

Divide the batter among 12 muffin cups.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until set around the edges and slightly jiggly in the center. Place pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.
Gently run a knife around the edge of each muffin and turn out onto a rack to cool for about 5 minutes.

Salted Toffee Hazelnut Sauce

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts
1 t vanilla
1 t kosher salt

Place all ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Over medium heat, stir until the butter and sugar melt.

Continue stirring occasionally until the mixture comes to a full boil - 5-7 minutes. Once it reaches a boil, let it boil without stirring for 1 minute.

Remove sauce from the heat and let cool about 10 minutes.

Spoon over cupcakes.

chocolate idiot cake

2008-04-28T00:02:00.000-07:00

This cake was supposed to be so easy that an idiot could make it. However, this cake made me feel like an idiot instead.

First, it's made in a springform pan and baked in a water bath. If your pan isn't waterproof (and whose really is?) you're supposed to wrap it in foil. This sounds easy until you realize that the foil isn't really big enough and you have to improvise with many pieces until you end up with a frankenpan that is only marginally more waterproof than before.

Once that's done, making the batter is easy. Chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs. You're done. Pour it into the pan, put the pan into a roasting pan, fill the roasting pan with hot water, and into the oven for an hour and fifteen minutes. When it's just set and you can touch the top gently and come away with a clean finger, you're done.

Well, I checked mine at an hour and fifteen. Liquid. An hour and a half? Still liquid. I checked it every ten minutes and finally, after more than two hours (I lost track of the time) the cake was mostly set and I could touch parts of the top and come away with a clean fingertip, so I called it good and pulled it out. I let it cool, said a prayer, and hoped for the best.

It was worth it. The cake is like silk. It melts in your mouth. It's lighter than a truffle, but just as rich. It's everything I ever wanted in a dessert. The cake sweats butter. How could I not love it? I know an easier version of this cake-- which I will post, the next time I make it--but I confess, the texture of this one is better by far. Silk, I'm telling you. Make it, just once. You won't regret it. I took it to school to share, and I ended up with two pieces left over. Justin got up in the middle of the night and ate them both--sneaky bastard! I'm still plotting my revenge.

Chocolate Idiot Cake
courtesy of David Lebovitz
One 9-inch (23 cm) cake

This cake is extremely rich, and tastes like the most delicious, silkiest, most supremely-chocolate ganache you've ever had. As mentioned, it's equally good a few days later, and only an idiot could possibly mess it up. You don't need to use ScharffenBerger chocolate for this cake, but use a good one—you'll appreciate it when you taste your first melt-in-your-mouth bite.

10 ounces (290 gr) ScharffenBerger bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped. (I used Trader Joe's bittersweet chocolate, and it was fine.)
7 ounces (200 gr) butter, salted or unsalted, cut into pieces (Use the richest butter you can afford.)
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (200 gr) sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F (175 C).

1. Butter a 9-inch (23 cm) springform pan* and dust it with cocoa powder, tapping out any excess. If you suspect your springform pan isn't 100% water-tight, wrap the outside with aluminum foil, making sure it goes all the way up to the outer rim.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler (or microwave), stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove from heat.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar, then whisk in the melted chocolate mixture until smooth.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan and cover the top of the pan snugly with a sheet of foil. Put the springform pan into a larger baking pan, such as a roasting pan, and add enough hot water to the baking pan to come about halfway up to the outside of the cake pan.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. (Ha! If it takes two and a half hours, don't fret.)

You'll know the cake is done when it feels just set, like quivering chocolate pudding. If you gently touch the center, your finger should come away clean.

5. Lift the cake pan from the water bath and remove the foil. Let cake cool completely on a cooling rack.

Serve thin wedges of this very rich cake at room temperature, with creme anglaise, ice cream, or whipped cream. (I used creme fraiche, but really, it doesn't need a thing.)

bacon and asparagus frittata

2008-04-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

I am enrolled in a class that meets from 4:30-7:30 once a week. Due to the late hour, we agreed to each bring food for the class once during the term. Last week was my turn. Of course, I made a cake (that comes later) but the real challenge was to think of a savory item that could be made the night before and eaten cold by nine people.

If you have ideas, share them with me.

Eventually, I decided on a frittata. I could have made a quiche, yes, but I didn't want to bother with a crust. I poked around epicurious but settled on a Good Eats recipe. The show Good Eats, for those of you that haven't seen it, is a wonderful mix of food science and food-making. I am a geek, so I enjoy knowing what's going on with the protein bonds in my food.

Now, Alton's frittata included ham, and I'm not a fan, so I replaced it with an equal quantity of bacon. I made the recipe once as-is to test it, and then I doubled it for class. It is amazing just out of the oven, but it's still great cold, and it can be reheated also. This means that you can make a huge one and keep it around for a couple of days.

This is the 12-egg version: much thicker.

Frittata
Recipe courtesy Alton Brown
Show: Good Eats
Episode: Zen and the Art of Omelet Maintenance

6 eggs, beaten
1-ounce Parmesan, grated
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon butter
1/2 cup chopped roasted asparagus
1/2 cup chopped country ham
1 tablespoon chopped parsley leaves

Preheat oven to broil setting.

In medium size bowl, using a fork, blend together eggs, Parmesan, pepper, and salt. Heat 12-inch non-stick, oven safe saute pan over medium high heat. Add butter to pan and melt. Add asparagus and ham to pan and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour egg mixture into pan and stir with rubber spatula. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until the egg mixture has set on the bottom and begins to set up on top. Sprinkle with parsley.

Place pan into oven and broil for 3 to 4 minutes, until lightly browned and fluffy. Remove from pan and cut into 6 servings. Serve immediately.

caramelized shallots

2008-04-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

I tell you, Deb (smitten kitchen) is a woman after my own heart. Despite my general antipathy toward caramel, I adore all things caramelized.

Now, generally I would not call a plate of caramelized onions a side dish. But here is a recipe that I have no problem calling DINNER. I love it that much. I would eat it every day, were it not for the smelly side effects (sometimes, I must be considerate to my friends and lover).

I halved this recipe to one pound of shallots instead of two, because shallots were $3.99/lb. Next time I see them at the farmer's market I'm going to buy up as many as I can afford. Or carry. Anyway, once I'd scooped the finished shallots into a dish, I cooked some chicken in the cast iron pan, so that none of that flavor went to waste. Justin dipped the potatoes in the sauces left at the bottom of the onion dish, and I pretended to think that was gross. But really, I wish I'd been there to eat some too.

We all need more delicious recipes that are this easy.

Caramelized Shallots
Ina Garten

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
2 pounds fresh shallots, peeled, with roots intact
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons good red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a 12-inch ovenproof saute pan (hooray for cast iron!), add the shallots and sugar, and toss to coat. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, tossing occasionally, until the shallots start to brown. Add the vinegar, salt, and pepper and toss well.

Place the saute pan in the oven and roast for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the shallots, until they are tender. Season, to taste, sprinkle with parsley, and serve hot.

purple mashed potatoes

2008-04-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

I adore purple potatoes, and I admit that part of the reason is the color. Who can resist purple vegetables? I mashed these once in the traditional way, and they were delicious. Another time I tried to roast them, and that did not go well at all. They shriveled up and became extremely dry and tasteless.

Smitten kitchen then posted a recipe that promised to make the purple brighter. How could I resist?

I know that this is rapidly becoming a fanblog. I can't help it-- her taste in food is impeccable! And by that I mean, it matches mine. Why do all the weeding-out of recipes when someone's largely doing it for me? I promise I'll post some other stuff too. If she'd just stop posting things I have an urgent need to make.

I made this once with red potatoes instead of the purple, and I must say that it's much better with purple. With the red, the lemon and the shallot flavors were too strong and bright, but they melded perfectly with the purple potatoes. So find purple ones--it's worth it.

Michael Anthony’s Fork-Crushed Purple Majesty Potatoes
New York Magazine

Serves 4

1 lb. Purple Majesty Potatoes, washed
4 small shallots, minced
2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
6 tablespoons good extra-virgin olive oil (we used half, and it was plenty for us)
Fleur de sel to taste
White pepper to taste
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

In a large pot, cook potatoes with skins on in heavily salted boiling water until tender, approximately 15 minutes. Remove potatoes from pot, and peel them while still warm. Place potatoes in a large bowl and, using a fork, gently smash them, maintaining a fairly chunky consistency. Fold in minced shallots, lemon juice, olive oil, fleur de sel, and white pepper. Finish with parsley.

orange-chocolate cake

2008-04-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

I first made this cake months ago, thinking that it would make a good breakfast. It was good, I guess, but I wasn't that into it. My friends and boyfriend ate it up, but something aboout grapefruit (which I love) in a cake didn't do it for me. Then, smitten kitchen posted another version of the cake, with lemons and blueberries.

The cake itself is good-- light and tender, very moist thanks to the yogurt, but not too rich at all. In her post on the lemon version, she reminded me that you really can put anything you damn well please into the cake. And then she suggested one of my favorite combos ever: orange and chocolate.

I remember looking at a recipe for an orange-chocolate cake once that I wrote off as too much work. But tossing some zest and chips into this cake was, well, a piece of cake.

I could hardly wait for it to cool, (and in fact I didn't-- it was still a bit warm on first bite) I was so excited for orangey-chocolate goodness. Alas. Underwhelmed again. I don't know what it is-- I think the citrus in this cake just makes it feel sort of plasticy/waxy to me somehow. I may try the cake again without flavoring to see if it's the cake I'm reacting to or the citrus, but suffice to say I am sad.

My boyfriend isn't--he polished off the cake.

Orange-Chocolate Cake Adapted from Ina Garten

1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (if you’re skipping the fruit, you can also skip the last tablespoon of flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
3 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (i was out and used almond torani syrup)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, zest, vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold the chips very gently into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 (+) minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup orange juice and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before flipping out onto a cooling rack. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in (a pastry brush works great for this, as does using a toothpick to make tiny holes that draw the syrup in better). Cool.

rhubarb coffeecake

2008-04-07T21:01:00.000-07:00

I've had coffeecake before, and I liked it, but it was always too rich somehow. Or too sweet. Maybe both. I was always a little underwhelmed, although that never stopped me from eating it (just you try and stop me from eating something).

Then, I found this.

I was intrigued for two reasons: the rhubarb (I'd never had nor baked with it before) and the crumbs. THE CRUMBS. Anything that is 1/2 crumby goodness must be made. And devoured.

Luckily, rhubarb is in season, and the overpriced market down the street had some. This recipe called for 8 oz (1/2 lb) and for some odd reason every single piece of rhubarb I picked up at the store weighed exactly 6 oz. I started to wonder if they cut them all to size. It was disturbing. Undaunted, I weighed about 8 or 9 pieces until I spotted Gigantor at the bottom and lo! He weighed a bit over 8 oz.

Sadly, that lonely rhubarb stalk sat in my fridge for several days. After the debacle with the dulce de leche brownies (I scrubbed that pan for AGES, peeling bits of caramel-glued foil off under the hottest water that would come out of my tap) I just didn't want to tackle a recipe with three parts.

But I'm glad I did. After all the chocolate and cream and butter overload, this was perfect. THIS is coffecake. Light and crumby, buttery but not overwhelming, with fruit bits that allowed me to pretend it was healthy. It was light (okay, compared to my usual fare) and perfect for a sunny summer day. Except this is Seattle, and so I ate it in the rain.

‘Big Crumb’ Coffeecake with Rhubarb
Adapted from The New York Times 6/6/07
stolen, as usual, from smitten kitchen

Not rhubarb season? Don’t fret. I think this cake would be amazing with a blueberry, raspberry, sour cherry or any other tangy fruit filling you can think of. Simply adjust the sugar level accordingly–most of these will need far less than rhubarb does to make them palatable.

Time: 1 1/2 hours, plus cooling

Butter for greasing pan

For the rhubarb filling:
1/2 pound rhubarb, trimmed
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

For the crumbs:
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup melted butter
1 3/4 cups cake flour (I was out and used all-purpose and it worked great)

For the cake:
1/3 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour (ditto on the all-purpose flour–worked just fine)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons softened butter, cut into 8 pieces.

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-inch-square baking pan. For filling, slice rhubarb 1/2 inch thick and toss with sugar, cornstarch and ginger. Set aside.

2. To make crumbs, in a large bowl, whisk together sugars, spices, salt and butter until smooth. Stir in flour with a spatula. It will look like a solid dough.

3. To prepare cake, in a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add butter and a spoonful of sour cream mixture and mix on medium speed until flour is moistened. Increase speed and beat for 30 seconds. Add remaining sour cream mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition, and scraping down the sides of bowl with a spatula. Scoop out about 1/2 cup batter and set aside.

4. Scrape remaining batter into prepared pan. Spoon rhubarb over batter. Dollop set-aside batter over rhubarb; it does not have to be even.

5. Using your fingers, break topping mixture into big crumbs, about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch in size. They do not have to be uniform, but make sure most are around that size. Sprinkle over cake. Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean of batter (it might be moist from rhubarb), 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

dulce de leche brownies

2008-04-04T20:19:00.000-07:00

I had some dulce de leche left over, despite giving away a large jar and making two batches of cheesecake. Dulce de leche freezes just fine, but then I stumbled across this and I simply couldn't resist.

Dulce de leche + chocolate = heaven.

Best part? It took ten minutes to throw together. If you weigh your ingredients, it's even faster.

Unfortunately, in the end, they were somewhat uneven. Parts of the dulce de leche hardened too much and were sort of crunchy (not in a good way) and the dulce de leche leaked around the foil lining the pan, making the brownies impossible to remove cleanly. So, I have a plate of brownie chunks. That said, the brownie bits are amazingly moist and the perfect kind of chocolatey. Although I probably won't make these again (too much of a pain in the end--the fact that I will have to soak the foil-lined pan before I can clean it is the deal-breaker) I will probably eat all of the brownies (minus what Justin can lay his hands on) in the next 24 hours.

Dulce de Leche Brownies
from David Lebovitz
12 brownies

8 tablespoons (115 g) salted or unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 ounces (170 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 cup (25 g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
3 large eggs
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (140 g) flour
optional: 1 cup (100 g) toasted pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup Dulce de Leche

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (175 C).

Line a 8-inch (20 cm) square pan with a long sheet of aluminum foil that covers the bottom and reaches up the sides. If it doesn't reach all the way up and over all four sides, cross another sheet of foil over it, making a large cross with edges that overhang the sides. Grease the bottom and sides of the foil with a bit of butter or non-stick spray.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the chocolate pieces and stir constantly over very low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the sugar, vanilla, then the flour. Mix in the nuts, if using.

Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan. Here comes the fun part.
Drop one-third of the Dulce de Leche, evenly spaced, over the brownie batter, then drag a knife through to swirl it slightly. Spread the remaining brownie batter over, then drop spoonfuls of the remaining Dulce de Leche in dollops over the top of the brownie batter. Use a knife to swirl the Dulce de Leche slightly.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. The brownies are done when the center feels just-slightly firm. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Note: If you can manage to wait (yeah, right) these are even tastier the second day.

give ugly a chance

2008-04-02T21:23:00.000-07:00

I know it's not pretty. But it's easy, and it's delicious, and sometimes, that's all you need.

Just in case you were thinking of going into diabetic shock after all the desserts, here's some real food. Yeah, I needed it too. Don't worry, though-- there's more sugar to come. And butter. Possibly brownies.

Despite the total lack of cream or butter, this recipe turned out to be creamy, filling, and satisfying. Better is that the prep work takes ten minutes. If delicious made it pretty, this one would be a supermodel.

Rigatoni with Eggplant Puree
Giada DeLaurentis, Food Network
Adjustments by smitten kitchen (because, in case you hadn't noticed, her website is probably the best cookbook I own.)

1 small eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 pint cherry tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, whole
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1 pound rigatoni pasta
1/4 cup torn fresh mint leaves
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Glug of balsamic or red wine vinegar or freshly-squeezed lemon juice (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl combine the eggplant, cherry tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Spread the vegetables out in an even layer on the baking sheet. Roast in the oven until the vegetables are tender and the eggplant is golden, about 35 minutes.

While the vegetables are roasting, place the pine nuts in a small baking dish. Place in the oven on the rack below the vegetables. Roast until golden, about 4-8 minutes (check them every minute or two after 4 minutes--they go from golden to burnt fast). Remove from the oven and reserve.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta into a large bowl and reserve 2 cups of the cooking liquid (I never used more than 1/2-3/4 cup, but your taste may differ).

Transfer the roasted vegetables to a food processor. Add the torn mint leaves and extra-virgin olive oil. Puree the vegetables.

Transfer the pureed vegetables to the bowl with the pasta and add the Parmesan. Stir to combine, adding the pasta cooking liquid 1/2 cup at a time until the pasta is as saucy as you like it, and add a glug of vinegar (optional). Sprinkle the pine nuts over the top and serve.

dulce de leche cheesecake squares

2008-04-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

I confess that I am not much of a caramel fan. I remember when caramel frappuccinos were all the rage at starbucks, and honestly, i've never had one. I don't like caramel on my ice cream, and I'm not a huge fan of caramel desserts.

Then I discovered two things: good caramels (salted!) and dulce de leche. Good caramels, i've discovered, come wrapped singly and cost far more than anyone should ever have to pay for something that weighs under an ounce. And then you eat one, and you wonder which organ you should sell to buy another.

Dulce de leche is also delicious. It doesn't cost a fortune, but it takes ages to make. Literally. I made three different batches at once (I wanted to try all the varieties in a cross comparison! Don't look at me like that!) and no, I did not boil three different kinds of condensed milk. I did this the old-fashioned way. (And someday, I'll make my own butter too!)

I scoured the internet for dulce de leche recipes, and settled on two, one with whole cow milk (one batch with the best whole milk I could find, from a local dairy, and another with 'plain' whole milk) and a version with goat's milk (which I'd never had and sort of squicked me out.)

Then I realized that making the dulce de leche would take hours. In fact, when I finally got to it, it took over eight hours. I actually woke up once an hour through the night to go stir it, because I'm insane.

It was delicious, but I'll spare you. Below is the Smitten Kitchen version, safer than than of most of the world (which boils the milk inside the sealed can), but still a time-saver compared to my obsessive version.

Dulce de Leche (Milk Caramel)

Pour 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk into top of double-boiler pan; cover. Place over boiling water. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 40 to 50 minutes, or until thick and light caramel-colored.

I know 40-50 minutes seems long. But remember- my version took at least eight hours. It might have been twelve. I quit counting.

If you make this with the dulce-in-a-can, the dulce de leche flavor is subtle. If you make it with the longer version (ask for the recipe and I shall post) the flavor is much stronger. In fact, it's amazing. And addictive. And I wish I had more.

Also, use powdered gelatin for this. I used leaves of gelatin (thin sheets) the second time I made this and they did not melt as well. I think I need to learn gelatin-sheet handling techniques. As it was, I had to pick the unmelted bits out of the final batter.

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares
Adapted from Gourmet, December 2003

Time: 9 3/4 hr (includes chilling) (45 minutes active time)
Makes 64 (1-inch) petits fours

For crust
3 1/2 oz graham crackers, crumbled (1cup)
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For filling
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (from a 1/4-oz envelope, will just about half of envelope)
1/4 cup whole milk
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 large eggs
3/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup dulce de leche (12 1/2 oz) (recipe follows)

For glaze
3 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), coarsely chopped
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 teaspoons light corn syrup

Make crust: Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325°F. Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with 2 sheets of foil (crisscrossed), leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides.

Finely grind crackers with sugar and a pinch of salt in a food processor. With motor running, add butter, blending until combined. Press mixture evenly onto bottom of baking pan. Bake 10 minutes, then cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes.

Make filling: Sprinkle gelatin over milk in a small bowl and let stand 2 minutes to soften. Beat together cream cheese, eggs, salt, and gelatin mixture in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until well combined, about 2 minutes, then stir in dulce de leche gently but thoroughly. Pour filling over crust, smoothing top, then bake in a hot water bath (I was able to fit mine in a 9×13-inch baking pan) in oven until center is just set, about 45 minutes. Cool cheesecake completely in pan on rack, about 2 hours. Chill, covered, at least 6 hours.

Glaze cake within 2 hours of serving: Heat all glaze ingredients in a double boiler or a small metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring until smooth, then pour over cheesecake, tilting baking pan to coat top evenly. Chill, uncovered, 30 minutes.

Lift cheesecake from pan using foil overhang and cut into 1-inch squares with a thin knife, wiping off knife after each cut. (If you're OCD, don’t skip this step! A clean knife is essential for uber-neat squares.)

chocolate caramel cheesecake

2008-04-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

As though I hadn't gotten enough baking in when I made two desserts for Rebecca's potluck, I decided to host a potluck of my own. What can I say? I like to hear people praise my cheesecake. So for this potluck, I made two more.

I know they say that it's women that love chocolate, but I've seen a grown man whimper like a child at the phrase "chocolate caramel cheesecake". Try it sometime. I stole this recipe from smitten kitchen , but I topped it with a glaze from a different recipe (actually, the recipe that follows this). I can't bear to leave a cheesecake naked. They all look so much tastier dressed in chocolate.

The wonderful thing about cheesecake is that it looks labor-intensive, but really, you can throw one together in an hour. The hardest part is waiting the 6-9 hours it takes to chill. That is pure torment.

I will warn you: making the caramel takes forever. Have patience. And a strong arm. Or a boyfriend to take over the stirring when you need a nap.

Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake
Recipe from Epicurious.com

Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 9 3/4 hr

1 crumb-crust recipe (recipe below)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream
8 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
1/2 cup sour cream
3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Make crumb crust as directed in separate recipe, using chocolate wafer cookies instead of graham crackers.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cook sugar in a dry heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring slowly with a fork, until melted and pale golden. Cook caramel without stirring, swirling pan, until deep golden. Remove from heat and carefully add heavy cream (mixture will vigorously steam and caramel will harden). Cook over moderately low heat, stirring, until caramel is dissolved. Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate until smooth. Stir in sour cream.

Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until fluffy, then beat in chocolate mixture on low speed. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla, beating on low speed until each ingredient is incorporated and scraping down bowl between additions.

Put springform pan with crust in a shallow baking pan. Pour filling into crust and bake in baking pan (to catch drips) in middle of oven 55 minutes, or until cake is set 3 inches from edge but center is still slightly wobbly when pan is gently shaken.

Run a knife around top edge of cake to loosen and cool completely in springform pan on a rack. (Cake will continue to set as it cools.) Chill cake, loosely covered, at least 6 hours. Remove side of pan and transfer cake to a plate. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Cooks’ note:
Cheesecake keeps, covered and chilled, 1 week. (As though you could just let it sit that long.)

Makes 8 to 10 servings

Crumb Crust
Recipe adapted from Gourmet, 1999

10 oz finely ground cookies such as teddy grahams
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Stir together crust ingredients and press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of a buttered 24-centimeter springform pan. Fill right away or chill up to 2 hours.

Makes enough for a 24-centimeter cheesecake.

Glaze
adapted from Dulce De Leche Cheesecake Squares

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped coarsely
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 tsp light corn syrup

Cheesecake should be completely chilled before glazing.

Heat all ingredients in a double boiler or metal bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Stir until smooth, then pour over the cheesecake, tilting the pan until top is coated evenly. Chill, uncovered, at least 30 minutes.

black-bottom cupcakes

2008-03-31T16:59:00.000-07:00

I found both this recipe and the cheesecake recipe below at the same time, and I couldn't resist making them together-- they're like inverses of each other! I called them secret agent desserts because they'd infiltrated one another--cake (okay, brownie) hiding in the cheesecake, and cheesecake sneakily nestled in the middle of each cupcake.

When smitten kitchen made these, she (and several commenters) had a hard time keeping the filling in the middle. I used an ice-cream scoop that held about two tablespoons and put two scoops of cupcake batter, then two of filling, and then another one and a half of batter, making sure that no filling was peeking out of the top, and that seemed to work just fine.

I would suggest using liners for these, as I didn't and they were a bit tricky to get out of the tray. They didn't puff up too much, but they were moist and crumby and amazing.

Black-Bottom Cupcakes
The Great Book of Chocolate, David Lebovitz

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg (room temperature)
2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil (canola, not olive)
1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make the filling: Beat together the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in the chopped chocolate pieces. Set aside.

Assemble:

1. Adjust the rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter/spray a 12-cup muffin tin, or line the tin with paper muffin cups.

2. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, stirring until just smooth. Stir any longer and you will over mix the batter and end up with less-than-tender cupcakes.

4. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Spoon a few tablespoons (2-4) of the filling into the center of each cupcake, dividing the filling evenly. (If you do it this way, the cupcakes will have a marbled look on top, or be cheesecake-topped. If you want surprise filling, save some cupcake batter to put over the filling, making sure that no filling peeks out.

5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown (if they're cheesecake-topped) and the cupcakes feel springy when gently pressed. These keep well unrefrigerated for 2 to 3 days if stored in an airtight container. I thought about buying one of those cupcake-transporters (finally, a way to justify it!) but we, um, ate them all before I could get to the store.

brownie mosaic cheesecake

2008-03-29T15:02:00.001-07:00

I stole this adaptation from Smitten Kitchen, but I adapted it further, using a different (and easier) ganache than she did. I'm not a huge fan of very sweet things, but this cheesecake was devoured at the potluck.

This recipe has many parts: you make the brownies, the crust, the cheesecake and the ganache, but every part is easy on its own, and people will be so impressed that they'll tell you to open up a bakery, graduate school be damned.

Phase I: Brownies
Adapted from Baker’s One Bowl Brownies

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate (I <3 scharffen berger for, well, anything)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 3/4cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 13×9-inch baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Grease foil.

Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH in 30-second increments until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix well. Spread into prepared pan. The batter may look precariously thin over the 9x13 pan; don't worry.

Bake 30 to 35 minute or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. (Do not overbake.) Cool in pan on wire rack. Remove brownies from pan, using foil handles. When I did this, 30 minutes was overbaked. But no one noticed or cared. Check yours at 20 or 25 minutes.

Cool brownies, then cut them into 3/4- to 1-inch squares for use in the cheesecake. You need 2 cups of cubes for the cheesecake, and you will have at least twice that. Save some to pulse in the food processor for decorative topping; the rest make an excellent snack while you're waiting the interminable million hours for the cheesecake to chill to done-ness.

Phase II: Crust
Recipe adapted from Gourmet, 1999

I'm with smitten kitchen here-- I used the doubled amounts in parentheses. Who doesn't like extra crust? It also makes patting the sides and bottom of the pan easier, as you're not worried about running out of crust because you've made the sides too thick. That's, um, never happened to me.

1 1/2 cups or 5 ounces (3 cups or 10 ounces to double) finely ground cookies such as chocolate wafers. Or Chocolate Teddy Grahams. (I use the teddies. A bit cheaper.)
5 tablespoons (10 tablespoons to double) unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup (2/3 cup to double) sugar
1/8 (1/4 teaspoon to double) teaspoon salt

Stir together crust ingredients and press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of a buttered 24-centimeter (~9.5") springform pan. Fill right away or chill up to 2 hours.

Phase III: The Cheesecake
Part Three: Cheesecake
Three Cities of Spain Coffeehouse

3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sugar

Make crumb crust as directed above for 24-centimeter cheesecake. Preheat oven to 350°F.

Make filling and bake cake: Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until fluffy and add eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla and sugar, beating on low speed until each ingredient is incorporated and scraping down bowl between additions.

Fold brownie cubes in very gently and pour mixture into prepared pan. Put springform pan with crust in a shallow baking pan. Pour filling into crust and bake in baking pan (to catch drips) in middle of oven 45 minutes, or until cake is set 3 inches from edge but center is still slightly wobbly when pan is gently shaken. For me, 45 minutes was too many. 40 would have been also. Check yours at 35.

When completely cool, top with ganache. At this point, I stuck the (non-ganache-d) cheesecake in the fridge and went to bed. I put the ganache on in the morning.

As you can see, my slightly over-baked cheesecake isn't very pretty. A water bath would help, but I'm lazy. Ganache cures all top-of-cheesecake related errors, and it's delicious too. Smitten kitchen claims she's lazy, but her ganache recipe involved a food processor and 5 different ingredients. I'll spare you. Mine has two ingredients and requires a bowl and spoon.

Phase IV: Ganache
from Food & Wine, February 2006

4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup heavy cream

In a medium glass bowl, combine the chocolate with the heavy cream and microwave at high power in 20-second intervals until the cream is hot and the chocolate is melted. Stir the ganache until blended, then let cool until barely warm.

Spread the chocolate over the cheesecake and chill.

You can stop here, or do what I did, if you like things pretty:

Pulse some of your leftover brownies (unless you ate them all...I had to wrestle mine away from the mister...) in the food processor until crumby. After the ganache-topped cheesecake has chilled for 15 minutes, pull it out and sprinkle the brownie crumbs around the edge of the cheesecake in a band 1-2" wide. Cover and chill overnight.

busy day cake

2008-03-28T23:47:00.000-07:00

I hadn't been able to bake since finals started. Which means that the minute I got a chance, I went on a binge. I was invited to a potluck, and I saw this as the perfect reason to make not one, or two, but THREE desserts. Two for the potluck and one for us to start gnawing on immediately.

Because I wanted our dessert Right Now, I decided to make my quickest cake. It's easy, fast, and is good for breakfast, snack or dessert (I accidentally wrote "dinner" because sometimes, it's that too). I usually eat it plain but you can also have it with berries or some whipped cream or creme fraiche. I use as much nutmeg as I feel like grating.

This is my gift to you: the easiest, most versatile cake you'll ever make. And because the flavor is so mild, you never get sick of it. Trust me. I've made it almost once a week since I found the recipe. It keeps well and it's great to grab a slice on your way out the door when you're running late for the bus. Not that that ever happens to me.

Edna Lewis' Busy Day Cake. (stolen from Orangette.)

1 stick (8 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 ½ - 4 tsp. baking powder (see headnote, above)
¼ tsp. salt
1 good pinch freshly grated nutmeg, or more. LOTS more. and I promise, freshly grated is worth it.
½ cup whole milk, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 9” springform pan with butter or cooking spray.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, blend the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. One by one, add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract, and beat to blend.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.

Add about ¼ of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and beat on low speed to incorporate. Add 1/3 of the milk, and beat again. Add the remaining flour mixture in three more doses, alternating each time with a bit of milk, and beating to just combine. Do not overmix. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl and stir to incorporate any flour not yet absorbed.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly across the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. This cake has a tendency to brown quickly on top, so after about 20 minutes, you might want to peek into the oven and tent the cake with aluminum foil if necessary.

Serve warm. Or cool, for breakfast.

jacked-up banana bread

2008-03-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

By "jacked-up," I mean "full of Jack". Or, in my case, Jim. Beam.

I stole this recipe from Smitten Kitchen but that's okay because she stole it too. Sort of. And I can see why- it's great. Sometimes (like this time) I add a handful or two of chocolate chips, other times I add chopped pecans or walnuts. And once in a while I make it as is.

Elise’s Friend Heidi’s Friend Mrs. Hockmeyer’s Banana Bread, As Jacked Up by Deb (and then Stolen by lana)
Adapted from Simply Recipes

3 to 4 ripe bananas, smashed (hooray potato masher!)
1/3 cup melted salted butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar (or more, if you must)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cup of flour

No need for a mixer for this recipe! Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla and bourbon, then the spices. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix just enough to combine (don't overmix). Pour mixture into a buttered 4×8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

This makes a great breakfast, especially toasted a bit in the toaster oven. If you've put chocolate in it, that makes the chocolate bits all melty. I sure do love melty.

lazy chicken breast

2008-03-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

I make a version of this whenever I'm lazy but I want comfort food. When I was younger, my parents took me to Outback, where I loved a dish called Alice Springs Chicken. I stopped going to Outback when I got older and discovered non-chain restaurants, but I always had fond memories of that chicken. Once, I went back to find that they'd taken it off the menu.

This summer, I did a 'focus group study' and earned $100 in Amazon money. (Hooray for market research!) I spent it on cast iron pans. One lazy day I covered a chicken breast in kosher flake salt (thanks, Good Eats), pepper, and red pepper flakes and cooked it for 4-6 minutes on each side until it wasn't pink in the middle anymore. It was remarkably good for being so simple.

But of course, I can't leave well enough alone. One day, I craved Alice Springs Chicken. (It is really, truly bizarre how some foods stick with you.) So I made the simple chicken and sauteed some sliced mushrooms in butter and pepper in another pan. I covered the (cooked) chicken with the mushrooms, put a slice of sharp cheddar on top, and stuck the whole thing in the microwave for 30 seconds to melt the cheese. I always had the heeby-jeebies about using the microwave on my food, but I couldn't think of a better way to melt the cheese. Now I've learned the way of the broiler. If you use a cast iron pan you can stick the whole thing under the broiler for a minute and you're done!

You'll notice that there are no mushrooms in the picture I posted. Or cheddar cheese. I confess, today I cheated. I wanted the lazy chicken but I had neither mushrooms nor cheddar. So I cooked the chicken, sliced some cherry tomatoes and found some arugula. I put the chicken on top of the tomatoes, the arugula on top of the chicken, and shredded some gouda on top of that.

Yum.

arugula-citrus salad

2008-03-06T21:17:00.000-08:00

One day at the Metropolitan Market I spent too much money on a magazine called "Cuisine for Two". It had easy recipes in portions for two people instead of four or six or eight. We started cooking out of it, and after we'd make three or four things I realized it was worth every penny of the 9.95 plus tax. Even if I never make any of the pork or beef dishes.

This salad comes from that magazine. It is paired with a vegetable paella that's also good, but really, this salad just blows it away:

Arugula-citrus Salad:
total time: 10 minutes

1 T fresh lemon juice
2 t honey
2 t olive oil
1/2 t shallots, minced (we didn't have these on hand either time and didn't use them)
2 cups arugula leaves
1 orange, peeled and segmented
2 T slivered almonds, toasted (can get these at Trader Joe's)

Whisk together lemon juice, honey, oil, shallots, salt and pepper (to taste) in a bowl. Add arugula, almonds, and oranges. Toss to coat.

The arugula is peppery and the oranges and honey are sweet and the salt just sets everything off perfectly. The almond crunch is a good contrast to the orange segments. I eat the salad at the end of the meal because it feels like dessert. Come summer, I'm going to eat this every day. Justin's made it twice in the last week.

yay, pudding!

2008-03-05T19:48:00.001-08:00

I know that I confessed that I don't like milk chocolate. It's true. My heart belongs to dark chocolate. 62% and up. You know what they say-- once you go black...

Ahem. Anyway. I also love pudding. (And pastry cream, and mousse...) Smitten Kitchen posted an easy pudding recipe that I couldn't resist, especially after Justin gave me two bars of Scharffenberger baking chocolate for Valentine's (does he know me or what?). So I chopped up the chocolate and got to stirrin'.

I was rewarded with delicious pudding. Not too thick, perfectly chocolatey, and gone all too quickly. The only problem I'd had with the pudding was that it was a bit lumpy, because I was too lazy to waste time straining it before I let it chill. So I decided to make it again--and a vanilla version!--and try to eliminate the lumps.

That time, I used a tip from one of Smitten Kitchen's commenters, who said that you could mix the cornstarch up with some milk to make a slurry (put in small tupperware and shake) before adding it to the sugar/milk and that would prevent lumps. I did that, for both the chocolate and vanilla versions. Unfortunately, neither of these puddings ever thickened up properly. They thickened a little, but no one could ever call them pudding. Of course, we ate it anyway. Mmm, chocolate. Waste not want not and all that.

Tonight, I decided to give it a third go. I wanted pudding! I made it just like the first time. For the vanilla version, I scraped out a vanilla bean and added the bean and insides after I added the milk. At the end I pulled out the bean. Both versions are currently chilling, and I've got my fingers crossed.

Silky Chocolate Pudding
Adapted from John Scharffenberger, via Wednesday Chef, via Smitten Kitchen

Serves 6

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
6 ounces 62% semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I use whatever I have on hand)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Combine the cornstarch, sugar and salt in the top of a double boiler. Slowly whisk in the milk, scraping the bottom and sides with a heatproof spatula to incorporate the dry ingredients. Place over gently simmering water and stir occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides. Use a whisk as necessary should lumps begin to form. After 15 to 20 minutes, when the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of the spoon, add the chocolate. Continue stirring for about 2 to 4 minutes, or until the pudding is smooth and thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

2. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer (or not, if you don't mind lumps) into a serving bowl or into a large measuring cup with a spout and pour into individual serving dishes. (Or just keep it in its bowl.)

3. If you like pudding skin, pull plastic wrap over the top of the serving dish(es) before refrigerating. If you dislike pudding skin, place plastic wrap on top of the pudding and smooth it gently against the surface before refrigerating. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.

If something goes wrong and the pudding ends up runny, here are some reasons why.

update 3/6/08: My pudding went all soft and gooey. So I stuck it in the freezer and now I have the best bowl of popsicle *ever*. Yum. The vanilla one tastes just like ice cream.

Olive Bread Rolls from Cyprus

2008-03-04T19:25:00.000-08:00

I love these olive bread rolls from macrina bakery, but I can't justify spending .79 on a roll of bread. So, I figured I'd try to make them. I found a basic recipe at "My Mom's Recipes" and changed just a couple of things.

Cyprus Olive Rolls
2 1/2 t dry active yeast
300ml warm water
1t sugar
625g flour (I used all-purpose, you might want to use bread flour or part whole wheat)
2t dry oregano (can also use dry mint, but I didn't)
1 1/2 t sea salt (plus some to sprinkle on top)
3 T extra virgin olive oil (plus some)
175g olives, pitted and sliced (I used some spanish green and some kalamata)

slicing olives yourself takes *forever*-- just buy them sliced if you can

Mix yeast and sugar and warm water in a bowl; let sit somewhere warm for 10 minutes to foam.

Mix flour, herbs, and salt together, then add yeast mixture to make dough. If necessary, add warm water teaspoon by teaspoon (I ended up adding another 4 tsp).

Knead (I used my kitchenaid) for 8-10 minutes, finishing with a few minutes of kneading by hand if you want (I did).

Let rise in lightly oiled bowl in a warm place for one hour, until doubled in size.

Knead again, adding the sliced olives. Separate into eight rounds. Let them rise on the baking sheet (someplace warm!) for 35-60 min until they're puffy again.

Drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt, bake at 220C (425F) for 20-25 min, until golden. Let cool on
rack.

Devour.

These are best eaten the day they are made, but are good the next day too if you slice and toast them.

when I was little, I didn't like olives. I thought they were little bites of salty ick. As I've gotten older my sweet tooth has faded (I don't like milk chocolate) but I've developed a serious hankering for salt. I like anchovies. And olives.

When I was kneading the olives into this bread, they kept popping out and oozing juice. I just made sure to keep flouring my hands and the table (actually, I work on the top of the dishwasher...) and that kept the dough dry enough. Don't worry if the olives attempt escape. Just work 'em in and you can always poke the outliers into the individual rounds after you separate them.

These bake into soft rolls with a nice shell and they'd be great sliced in half and used for sandwiches. I don't have anything to put in them, but I have no problem eating them as they are. In fact, half of them are gone already. If I made them again, I might make 16 rolls half as big instead of the 8 like this, just to see if they last any longer, but there's a small-foods-illusion that kicks in at a certain point: "Oh, it's so little, I'll just have another...and another..." until the entire tray of minicupcakes is gone any you're wondering why there are so many crumbs under your chair. ...why are you all looking at me?