Cake makes everything better
I was so tired yesterday. I love working in the food industry, alot. It’s hard work, but so much more satisfying (to me) than sitting at a desk all day. But yesterday I just felt weeks of exhaustion pile up. And Pantea was throwing a dinner party last night (coq au vin!) and I was making dessert. Laying on the couch thinking “Could I just go in my boxer shorts and apron? Would it be weird or just mildy eccentric?”, whipping up a dessert seemed impossible. But John helped, and I had thankfully picked one of the easiest cakes in my recipe bank. Upside down cake is the ultimate comfort dessert, and tonight I made one with pears, ginger & molasses.
First I creamed some butter and brown sugar, the beginnings of a quick caramel sauce. I smashed it into the pan, so that as the cake baked it will melt into the top of the cake.
Then I sliced up some pears and layed them onto the sugar butter mixture.
I made a super easy cake batter with cinnamon, ginger & molasses and poured that on top of the pears.
And then I baked it while I layed on the couch some more…
Upside down cakes are so damn cool. They come out of the oven looking so unsuspecting.
And then you flip them over and all the fruit and gooey yumminess is right there.
Pantea’s Coq au Vin was gorgeous. The salad & veggies that other friends brought were perfect. And the cake made me feel like everything was gonna be ok. Well, once I slept, which after eating a second slice happened very soon.
Bread Pudding!
In my experience, bread pudding gets no love. It’s like the drunk uncle of the dessert world. And it makes me so sad. I think bread pudding is just fantastic. I mean, it’s bread and sweet custard. Really, what’s not to love? I think most people just haven’t had GOOD bread pudding. I make GOOD bread pudding. And this is how.
I always use a nice locally made egg bread. If I was being ambitious, I would make my own brioche. Today I am not being ambitious (at least not with dessert). I bought 2 loaves of Semifreddi’s challah, one with cinnamon and one with poppy seeds. I sliced the loaves and arranged them loosely in a baking pan. Then I toasted them in the oven, just long enough to dry them out a bit.
Then I made a custard by mixing up some eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla & salt. I poured that custard all over the toasty slices.
Then I spent a little time admiring the loveliness, while pressing all of the edges into the custard.
Then I wrapped it up and let it soak overnight.
When it was time* I pulled it out of the fridge and checked it out. All that soaking made room for me to pour in more of the custard, which I happily did. The important part (really the ONLY important part, it’s not exactly rocket science) is to get as much custard as possible into the pudding, without spilling of course. I let it soak in for a few minutes and then baked it until the custard was just set.
At this point you’re probably thinking “and why is this special?” So while it’s cooling, I make a caramel sauce. Now you’re probably thinking “Why don’t you just call this blog ‘I Made Caramel” since I make it so much. It’s true. I heart caramel. My choice of last dessert meal ever would be floating in a bowl of caramel sauce.
Anyways, I chopped up some apples and sautéed them in the caramel sauce. And then I poured them all over the bread pudding. Now do you see what I’m talking about?
It was GOOD. So so good.
Thank you Tartine, for showing us how it’s done.
*this is different for everyone, just go with your gut.
Candied Citrus Peels
I am mildly obsessed with food waste. The more I cook/bake (and the poorer I get), the more I try to use every scrap of food. The farm that I get my CSA box from offers amazing citrus every year, and this winter has been no different. I look forward to squeezing the juice for John once a week (mostly because I think it might be the only time he gets fruit, if it wasn’t for me I swear he would have scurvy), but I always look guiltily at the pile of peels leftover from all that squeezing. So yesterday when I squeezed all the citrus in the house – several oranges, lots of meyer lemons (gelato -hello?) and 2 GIGANTIC grapefruits – I saved the peels. Today I decided to candy them.
First I sliced up my peels into what looked like yummy, chewably sized strips.
Then I boiled them 3 times, each time starting with fresh cold water. That step supposedly helps to remove some of the bitterness as well as open the peels up to absorb the sugar.
Once rinsed of their bitter ways, I poached the peels in simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water) for an hour, until the pith turned from opaque to translucent.
I drained the peels and gave them a good toss in some sugar.
Then they spent the night on cooling racks, to dry out.
So tomorrow we snack! And probably the day after, and the day after.
Meyer Lemon Gelato
I really should be posting about the fabulous Valentine’s Day dessert that I slaved over last night. That would have shown all of you what a lovely girlfriend I am. Alas, I ended up working an 11 hour shift that started at 6am, so John showed me what a lovely boyfriend he is by letting me off the hook. Instead, I’m here to talk about ice cream.
I’ve been wanting to make some ice cream for months. I don’t even really like eating ice cream all that much. I’m just into the process of stirring air into cold custard until it’s something else entirely. I’ve picked up an ice cream machine with the intention of purchasing several times, but I always stop myself. It seems dangerous to have that kind of weapon at home. And spinning ice cream is easy, I could spin me and John straight into obesity without too much effort. So when my landlords offered to let me borrow their machine occasionally, it was the perfect plan. So begins my odyssey into ice creams, gelatos, sorbets & sherberts. In many ways, making ice cream is the perfect way to express the fruit seasons. It’s basically HEALTHY!
Since we’re dead in the middle of winter, I chose to kick things off with a Meyer Lemon Gelato (please do not ask me the difference between ice cream & gelato, because no matter how many times it’s explained to me, I just don’t get it).
I first whisked together some lemon juice, lemon zest, egg yolks & sugar.
Then I heated it up over simmering water to pasteurize the eggs, all the while whisking it into a frothy fluff.
Then I chilled it over some ice while heating up some milk, cream & (more – YAY!) sugar.
I poured the hot cream mixture into my lemon mixture (slowly, since I’m not trying to make scrambled eggs here). Then I chilled that for a bit before pouring it into the ice cream spinner. I let it spin for about 30 minutes, checking in on its progress every few minutes. Once it was “there” I spooned the gelato into some containers to finish chilling in the freezer. At that point is was just a matter of when we cracked. We TRIED, we really did, to make it 2 hours, the suggested time in the recipe.
We probably made it an hour. So it could have been a tad firmer. But still – not a bad late valentine.
RECIPE:
5 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup fresh meyer lemon juice (about 8 lemons)
1 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
– In a medium stainless steel bowl, beat the egg yolks, water and lemon juice. Gradually whisk in ½ cup of the sugar. Add lemon zest.
– Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk vigorously for 3-4 minutes, until you have a thick foam. Remove from heat and cool in an ice bath while continuing to whisk for another minute.
– Mix cream, milk, corn syrup and remaining ½ cup sugar in heavy pot and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Remove from heat and slowly whisk into egg mixture. Return to ice bath and add the vanilla and salt. Taste and adjust flavor if desired. Let chill in ice bath, stirring occasionally.
– Spin in an ice cream maker according to that maker’s instructions. Transfer to freezer and freeze for at least 2 hours to firm.
East African Fried Goodness
The lovely people at Party Corps are throwing a fundraiser party for International Pediatric Outreach Project & Heal Africa, to bring physical therapy practice and education to the Democratic Republic of Congo. They asked me to create a simple (and cheap) bite sized treat for the party, preferably an East African recipe. So I’m going with a sweetened up version of Mandazi, basically a spicy East African donut. Today I tested it out on some friends.
I started with a donut dough that I doctored up with some traditional mandazi spices: ginger, cardamom, allspice & cinnamon.
It’s been several hours since grinding it and my kitchen still smells like fresh ground cardamom, which is very much NOT a bad thing.
I let the dough rise and chilled it for a day (mostly because I ran out of time and needed to go to work). Then I rolled it out and stamped little discs.
I fried them up and tossed them with some sugar that was mixed with the spices.
And they were delicious! And so cutsey pie! And we ate all 50 of them! Which we weren’t supposed to do. John showed up and it was “oops” all around. But no worries, tomorrow I get to make 400 of them!
RECIPE:
60-80 doughnut holes (depending on size)
1 ¾ tsp instant yeast
¾ cup whole milk
3 cups + 2 tbsp AP flour
7 large egg yolks
½ cup sugar
¾ tsp salt
4 oz butter, melted
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp of each: ground ginger, ground cardamom, ground allspice, ground cinnamon
tossing sugar: 1 cup sugar mixed with 1/8 tsp of each: ground ginger, ground cardamom, ground allspice, ground cinnamon
– Mix yeast, 2 ¾ cup flour and spices.
– Mix in milk.
– In another bowl mix egg yolks, sugar, salt & vanilla extract.
– Add ½ cup flour.
– Add melted butter.
– Add egg mixture to flour/milk mixture.
– Mix on low with paddle for 1 minute.
– Add remaining 2 tbsp of flour and mix on high for 1 minute. The dough will be very sticky.
– Gather dough into a ball and place in oiled bowl.
– Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 ½ – 2 hours.
– Deflate dough and put in fridge for 1 hour to firm up.
– Roll dough on floured surface to 1/2″ thick.
– Cut out doughnut shapes.
– Let rise for 30 minutes while heating oil up to 370 degrees.
– Fry in batches of 6-10 doughnuts for 1 1/2 – 2 minutes, tossing constantly to make sure both sides fry evenly, until cooked through.
– Toss in tossing sugar.
Getting My Southern On
It was a night of deliciousness. I was at my friends’ house for our weekly night of (don’t judge) 90210. We’re usually so excited to relive a version of high school that doesn’t even closely resemble ours that we cook a feast to eat beforehand. I was feeling especially southern, and decided to dig through my old copy of “Louisiana Kitchen” for some ideas. In the end I decided to try out the red beans and rice recipe, since I’ve yet to make one that I think is worthwhile.
Probably the most shocking thing of the night was learning that most of my friends had never even HEARD of red beans and rice! When I told them that is what I would be cooking, they imagined some boring dinner of “beans” and “rice.” How little faith they have in Cajun cuisine.
It took a few hours to cook. It was spicy. REALLY spicy. It was not pretty to gaze upon. It was filled with smoked ham hocks, Andouille sausage & bell peppers. Basically it was perfect.
And of course there was dessert.
I had been thinking about apple cake for a few months, so I decided to try one out. Also a traditional Southern dish, it is a super moist cake filled with big chunks of apple, pecans, cinnamon & nutmeg. It has so many apples in it I was concerned that it might not even turn into a cake once baked.
But it turned out just fine. Better than fine.
And since Southerners are just never happy with something simple in the dessert department, it was smothered in a caramel sauce.
90210 never tasted so good.
Here is the recipe for the Red Beans & Rice, from Paul Prudhomme’s “Louisiana Kitchen”:
1 pound dried red kidney beans
6 large ham hocks (3 1/2 pounds)
2 1/2 cups finely chopped celery
2 cups finely chopped onions
2 cups finely chopped green bell peppers
5 whole bay leaves
2 teaspoons white pepper
2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon ground cayenne
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
1 pound Andouille smoked sausage, cut diagonally into 3/4-inch pieces
4 1/2 cups hot cooked rice
Cover the beans with water 2 inches above beans. Let stand overnight. Drain just before using.
Place the ham hocks, 10 cups of water, the celery, onions, bell peppers, bay leaves, and seasonings in a 5 1/2-quart saucepan or large Dutch oven; stir well. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until meat is fork tender, about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Remove ham hocks from pan and set aside.
Add the drained beans and 4 cups of the water to the pan; bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the remaining 2 cups water and simmer 30 minutes, stirring often. Stir in the andouille and continue simmering until the beans start breaking up, about 35 minutes, scraping pan bottom fairly often. Add the ham hocks (that you have been shredding this whole time) and cook and stir 10 minutes more. Serve immediately.
And here’s the recipe for the apple cake, from “The Gift of Southern Cooking” by Edna Lewis & Scott Peacock:
CAKE:
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 large eggs
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 fresh apples, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/4 cups not-too-finely chopped pecans
2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
GLAZE:
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
MAKE THE CAKE:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (160C).
Put the sugars and vegetable oil in a mixing bowl, and beat until very well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, and gradually add to the sugar and eggs, mixing just until well blended.
Stir in the apples, pecans, and vanilla, and pour into a buttered and 9-by-13-inch baking pan.
Bake in the preheated oven until a skewer or toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 1/4 hours (begin checking after 50 minutes). Remove from the oven, and allow to cool in the pan while you prepare the caramel glaze.
MAKE THE GLAZE:
Melt the butter in a saucepan, and add both the sugars and the salt. Stir until blended, and cook over medium-low heat for 2 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream, and boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Use a skewer or toothpick to poke holes all over the top of the cake, and pour the warm glaze over the surface. Serve warm or at room temperature.
The Crispy Date Bar – Who knew?
Today I decided to clean out my fridge. Deep in it’s recesses I found a bunch of Medjool dates leftover from my little muffin experiment a few weeks ago. I poked around on the web trying to find a good recipe to use them up and kept coming across “crispy date bars”. Apparently it’s a classic. I figured that nothing with THAT many versions could be too bad and settled on an Epicurious one that garnered nice reviews.
I started out by boiling up my chopped dates in water, and while they were cooling, went about making the crust. Lots of oats is always a good sign in my book.
I smashed the butter in to form the crust, which was basically the same type of crust used for a fruit crisp.
I pressed the crust mix into the pan, then poured on my cooked dates, and then topped it with the rest of the crust.
It’s like a double crusted crisp! I’m already excited for John, who I’ve caught on more than one occasion eating all of his crisp and leaving the fruit. I popped it into the oven to bake.
I baked it a bit longer than the directions called for, because I was determined to get it nice and caramelized and crispy. And I think it worked. We spent the next hour avoiding the kitchen to keep from ripping into them before they had cooled enough to be cut into cute little squares. I assure you, had I not a blog post in mind, we would have been spooning it straight out of the pan and into our mouths.
We held out as long as felt humanly possible. And then we devoured. And it was so good. I officially declare today International “Crispy Date Bar” Day. Feel free to swing by and grab one in celebration. And to keep John from eating them all while I’m at work.
Here’s a link to the Epicurious recipe:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Classic-Date-Bars-109179
Best Ever Browned Butter Pecan Pie
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’ve got pecans falling out of my freezer every time I open the door. Since I need some of that space back, it’s time to start making some pecan pie. I have a special place in my stomach for pecan pie. So overwhelmingly sweet, not really high up on the culinary ladder, but still…there’s just something about it that makes me so happy. Then again, not to toot my own horn, I make a mean pie crust.
I already had some dough left over from Thanksgiving in the freezer (it’s like a clearance sale in there!), which really simplified the whole pie making experience. I have kind of a laborious dough making process (I’ll share another time, though if you’re a friend I’m sure I’ve already forced you to listen to me explain in great detail) and just THAT part can take me all day. But back to here and now…
I roll it out and shape it into a fluted quiche tin (a Tartine move that I’m especially into right now). I send it on a gluten vacation in the freezer for a bit and then bake it for always seems like forever. And then I stare. And stare. I think pie dough is the only thing that I stare at longer than meringue.
I know what you’re thinking: “Brandi, where the f*ck is the pecan pie filling?”. In due time my little pie-lings. A soggy crust makes me weep, and the only way to avoid that is to crisp that dough beforehand. So while it cools I make my filling. I like a browned butter and maple filling, because…well, because that’s what I like. I fill it up and bake it until it’s set.
And then I stare some more.
Now I go to the beach to keep from tearing into it before it’s had time to cool and finish setting. To be continued around 3pm.
It’s 3pm.
It was so worth the wait. Thank you Jennifer, Kevin, Mindy & Nir for coming over and helping me eat it. I wouldn’t still be thin without you.
BROWNED BUTTER PECAN PIE RECIPE:
1 single crust pie pastry
4 oz unsalted butter
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 vanilla bean
3 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
– Roll out pastry into a 12-13 inch circle, transfer and center into 9 inch pie pan. Place in freezer for 20 minutes.
– Line with foil, fill with weights (dried beans) and then bake in 400 degrees oven for about 20 minutes, or until beginning to brown and look set. Lower temperature to 350 and cook for another 15 minutes. Remove foil and beans and continue baking for another 10-20 minutes, until fully baked. Set on wire rack to cool.
– Using a shiny skillet or saucepan to melt the butter over medium heat. Stir butter and keep an eye on it as you wait for it to brown. You want the butter to be a good dark brown, but you need to catch it before it burns. Use your nose as your guide, it well smell nutty as it begins to brown. Once browned, transfer butter to a bowl to let cool slightly.
– Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use fingers to rub seeds from vanilla bean into brown sugar, breaking up any clumps. Combine eggs, brown sugar, corn syrup, maple syrup, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Whisk well to blend. Add the browned butter and whisk again until evenly combined.
– Place the nuts in the cooled pie shell and pour in the filling.
– Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake until the filling, including the center, is set, 35 to 40 minutes. Rotate pie 180 degrees about halfway through. When done, the pie will have puffed slightly and developed cracks around the perimeter.
– Transfer pie to a wire rack and let cool thoroughly.
Blueberry Pancakes, Revisited.
Today is John’s birthday (Happy Birthday!). He turns 34(!) and to celebrate, we’re having friends over and partying like he’s turning 7. John likes his desserts sweet, so I went into the vault for this maple cake recipe.
In the past I’ve paired this cake with a simple glaze or a whipped cream. But I wanted to go further today, needed it to be sweet on John’s sweetometer. So I made a maple buttercream and layered in some blueberry jam. I think it worked. You really can’t go wrong with obscene amounts of maple syrup and butter.
I rarely make cakes, cupcakes are so much…simpler. For me, cake decorating is the closest thing (that I do) to performing surgery. Obviously no one dies (I hope) if things don’t go well, but still. If you don’t have everything in place, it becomes a complete mess. It’s right around here that I start to wonder if I’m gonna end up with a giant blob of smear:
But it pretty much came together, and I used every last drop of frosting.
In the baking world, we just call that “rustic”. I’m just thankful for nuts. Rule #2: “Decorate to hide mistakes (or down and dirty spatula skills)”.
My god I’m good. Seriously, that was some fine cake. And it REALLY did taste like blueberry pancakes! I think John will keep me for another year.
RECIPES:
Maple Cake (from Martha Stewart)
4 oz butter, room temperature
2 3/4 cups AP flour
2 cups maple syrup
3 eggs
1 TBSP baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz walnuts
– In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamy.
– Add maple syrup, and beat until combined.
– Add eggs, and beat until combined.
– In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and ginger.
– Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and beat to combine.
– Beat in the milk and vanilla extract until combined.
– Stir in 3/4 cup chopped walnuts.
– Divide batter between the two greased 8″ or 9″ pans.
– Bake until golden and a cake tester inserted into the centers comes out clean, about 40 minutes.
Maple Buttercream (from Martha Stewart)
6 egg yolks
2 cups maple syrup
1 pound butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
– In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg yolks on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
– Meanwhile, pour maple syrup into a medium saucepan. Place pan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.
– Cook syrup until 240 degrees, about 15 minutes.
– Remove the saucepan from the heat.
– While the electric mixer is running, pour the syrup in a slow, steady stream down the side of the mixing bowl into the egg-yolk mixture until the syrup has been completely incorporated, about 1 1/2 minutes.
– Beat until the bowl is just slightly warm to the touch, 5 to 6 minutes.
– Add butter, one piece at a time, until all of it has been completely incorporated and the frosting is fluffy, about 4 minutes more.
Day 2 as a girl scout.
It’s starting to wear on me. Maybe I don’t wanna be a girl scout. I probably would have been a better boy scout anyways.
Today I move on to the samoas, the more complex cookie in the girl scout arsenal.
I rolled out my dough and stamped out little donut shapes. I don’t think the originals have fluted edges, but for some reason that’s the only kind of cookie cutters I own.
I made me some caramel candy. Then I mixed that with some shredded coconut that I had toasted.
Then I tried to smear the caramel + coconut mixture (which was like a quick drying spackle) onto my cookies without crushing them. Probably the more torturous portion of the whole process.
I dipped their cute little bottoms in some melted chocolate and then drizzled some more on top and I’m done!
What I learned today was this: In life there are fun things. Things like kittens named Bean and rope swings and BBQs in Dolores Park. Making girl scout cookies is not on that list for me. Kind of tedious, and while they are certainly more healthy and “natural” than the boxed kind, in the end I spent 2 days making…cookies. And I don’t even really like making cookies.
But these ones are awfully pretty and shiny. In a short bus kinda way.
I made that! 
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