Archive for January, 2009

I am not a beginner DB-er. I am one month and one challenge older.
I have made tuiles before, for my daughter’s icecream, but I haven’t thought of them as part of a more complex project.
For January:
This month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

One blog I am in love with (there are sooo many), is Deb’s at http://smittenkitchen.com/. She has great recipes and moreover great stories for every post. But this time, she really saved me – as I still did not have any idea about the thingy to pair up with the tuiles, she posted a wonderful cake – pears& chocolate. That was like a strike in my head. That was the fruity thing that would pair with my pear shaped tuiles.
I will post the recipe (and hope Deb won’t mind) as I will write the metric measures.

For the cake

140 g all-purpose flour
11 g baking powder
1-2 g salt
3 eggs, at room-temperature
113g (unsalted) butter (*I am always using salted and skip the salt)
150g sugar (* I used 100g, brown)
3 pears, peeled, in a small dice (about 450 g)
135 g bittersweet chocolate chunks

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line the bottom of a 24 cm pan with parchment paper and butter the sides.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs on high speed until pale and very thick. (In a professional Kitchen Aid, it takes at least five minutes; on a home machine, it will take nine minutes to get sufficient volume)

While the eggs are whipping, brown the butter. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan (because it will foam a lot) and cook it 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. Remove from the flame but keep in a warm spot.

Add the sugar to the eggs and whip a few minutes more.

Just as the egg-sugar mixture is starting to loose volume, turn the mixture down to stir, and add the flour mixture and brown butter. Add one third of the flour mixture, then half of the butter, a third of the flour, the remaining butter, and the rest of flour. Whisk until just barely combined — no more than a minute from when the flour is first added — and then use a spatula to gently fold the batter until the ingredients are combined. It is very important not to over-whisk or fold the batter or it will lose volume.

Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle the pear and chocolate chunks over the top, and bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back to the touch, about 40 to 50 minutes, or a tester comes out clean.

For the cream cheese frosting

250g cream cheese (low fat works fine)
40-50 g powdered sugar (more or less depending on your taste)
vanilla extract
100 ml heavy cream

Mix the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and the heavy cream whipped to soft peaks.

Spread over the cooled cake.

For the tuiles

Yields: 20 small butterflies/6 large (butterflies are just an example)
Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams / 1/2 cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour
1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Oven: 180C / 350F

Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the bakingsheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.

Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from bakingsheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a bakingsheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.

If you don’t want to do stencil shapes, you might want to transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip. Pipe the desired shapes and bake. Shape immediately after baking using for instance a rolling pin, a broom handle, cups, cones….

For the icing

130 g powdered sugar
20-30 ml milk (you need to get a smooth paste)
orange food coloring
vanilla extract

Whisk everything together and paint the tuiles with the paste. Let it dry and use as desired.

For other great challenges, visit the other Daring Bakers to see their take on the challenge!

As I have worked on the tarts posted earlier, I entered the “french mood” and what can be more french than croissant, Pierre Herme’s croissant better to say.
They all say that making croissants is too much work, but I really do not feel like that and even if it would be, the results are sooooo damn worthy.

Just look at my little princess how much she enjoys it. She even said: “mom, did you know that my tummy is always laughing and happy after I eat what you are making for us?”. That for me is enough….

For the dough

510 g flour
35 g butter
salt (about 10-11 g)
60 g sugar (the original recipe required 75 g, I used less brown sugar)
3-4 g instant dry yeast
235 ml milk (the original asked for powdered milk and water)
tournage butter – 88+88 g

Assembly

Mix all ingredients, minus the tournage butter and knead for about 5 minutes until you have a satiny, elastic dough.
Roll the dough to fit an oven tray, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator, and roll it to be twice longer than wide. Spread 88 g of cold butter over 2/3 of the dough (cut the butter in small flakes). Bring the butter less 1/3 of dough over the center and then the buttery 1/3 still on the center (simple tour). Roll the dough again (have the opening on your left) to be again twice as long as its width. Now, fold the dough as you did before, but without adding extra butter. Roll the dough again on its length, place it in the tray, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, remove the dough from the refrigerator and repeat all the steps above with the remaining 88 g of butter.
Roll the dough and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before shaping it. I have kept mine overnight.

Shape and bake

When ready to shape and bake, remove dough from the fridge and divide it in 2 parts (return one to the fridge).
Roll the dough into a rectangle (mine was 25/ 40 cm). Cut into triangles: I wanted mine not very big, so I cut the dough once lengthwise, then in 4 on the width, resulting 8 rectangles. Then, I cut each rectangle diagonally. Roll the croissants (do not roll them too tight) and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let them proof for at least 2 hours.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Brush the croissants with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten). Bake them for about 10-15 minutes, rotate the tray, lower the temperature to 180 and bake for 10 more minutes (or more depending on their size). They must be golden.

They can be frozen after completely cooled.
They are great plain, with a cup of coffee or tea, or drizzled with chocolate sauce, honey or fruit sauce.

If you are wondering who is Tony and more what the heck is ATOM, check this and find out. If I should tel you, Tony is a great and inspiring blogger that I have followed a lot. ATOM (A taste of the Mediterranean) is his contest: “The premise of this culinary excursion is to virtually travel to the different regions of the Mediterranean through food and our blogs. Hold on, it gets better. Each month a traditional dish of the region we are visiting will be presented. The goal is to then blog about your own spin on that dish for a chance to win that month’s prize”.

So, January means tarts: I love tarts, but they are not on hubby’s top list – he still eats them with pleasure but it is not what he would choose if given the opportunity. When I saw tarts, I devilishly laughed and announced him that he is getting tarts, no matter what his opinion is.

But then, I had a problem: what to choose. It is not a dish I investigated too much as I told you why, so I had to think a bit. After a few days, I started to have the puzzle pieces come together. For the crust, I have chosen a graham one (I am on the whole side of foods lately). Then I went with a orange water flavored mascarpone topping, that can never go wrong, sugar syrup poached blackberries and orange caramel sauce.

For the crust

225 g butter (room temperature)

100 g brown sugar

80 g honey

280 g all purpose flour

70 g whole wheat flour

salt, ground cinnamon

With an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar to the butter and continue beating until the mixture is fluffy and light colored. Add the honey and beat until combined.

In another bowl, sift the flours and mix them with the salt and cinnamon. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in two batches scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions. Mix until the dough is well combined. Wrap the dough in plastic and form into a disk – the flatter the better (you will be able to work with it much better). Chill until firm, at least an hour and up to two days.

Preheat the oven to 265 degrees C.
Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the dough to be quite thick (3 mm). Use round cookie cutters, any size you please (make sure you cut out a circle bigger than your tart pan).

Press the dough gently into your tins, prick dough with a fork all over, and let chill for 5-10 minutes or until the dough is firm enough to trim off the excess easily.

The shells should be baked until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. You can store them in an airtight container for about a day or freeze them for up to 3 months.

For the Mascarpone topping

250 g mascarpone (or you could use part mascarpone/ part cream cheese)
40-45 g confectioner sugar
100 ml heavy cream
orange water extract

Mix the mascarpone and sugar until smooth. Add the orange water and the heavy cream whipped to soft peaks.

Pipe the cream on top of the baked shells.

For the fruit

200 g blackberries
sugar syrup made from boiling 90 ml water and 120 g brown sugar

Make the sugar syrup and let the blackberries stand in it for 1-2 hours.

For the orange caramel sauce

100 g sugar
240 ml orange juice (freshly squeezed if possible)

Caramelize the sugar in a clean pan. When it reaches a dark, amber color, add the juice (it will steam like hell). Put it on low heat and let it simmer until all caramel is dissolved and the sauce thickens a bit. Let it cool.

To assemble

Pipe the topping in the shells. Place a few blackberries on top and then add some sauce.
Note: the topping, blackberries and sauce are for about 6 tarts. The tart recipe however will give you much more (about 18 shells), so either cut it down or freeze remaining tarts for latter use.

I like bread: I like making bread and eating bread. Oh, you knew that already….
I made bagels a few times so far, they were good but not blog worthy. I had Peter Reinhart’s receipe from his wonderful book – The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, but every time I found an excuse to postpone it. It is long, and the fact that you start it today and have the bagels next day was even a better excuse for it.
But somehow I started working on one of the best breadish thing I have ever eaten.

Bagels (adapted* from Peter Reinhart)
* I used part whole wheat flour (I am glad I did)
For sponge
6 g instant yeast
400 g bread (I used all purpose) flour
160 g whole wheat flour
600 ml water, room temperature

Dough
3g instant yeast
435 bread (I used all purpose) flour
90 g whole wheat flour
13 g salt
20 g honey

To Finish
6.5 g baking soda for every 240 ml water

Cornmeal for dusting

Day one
The sponge
Stir the yeast into the flour in quite a big bowl. Add the water, whisking or stirring only until it forms a smooth, sticky batter (like pancake batter). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the mixture becomes very foamy and bubbly. It should swell to nearly double in size and collapse when the bowl is tapped on the counter top.

The dough
Add the additional yeast to the sponge and stir. Then add the rest of the flour, minus 100g, the salt and honey. Stir until the ingredients form a ball, slowly working in the remaining 100g flour to stiffen the dough.

Knead the dough on a counter, for a minimum of 10 minutes (it took almost 20 in may case – with small breathing breaks). We are aiming for a firm dough, but elastic and smooth. The final dough should pass te window pane test or register 77 to 81 F on an instant thermometer (sorry for not giving C degrees values, but I used to use the F value when the recipe states it). If the dough seems to dry and rips, add a few drops of water and continue kneading. If the dough seems tacky or sticky, add more flour to achieve the stiffness required. The kneaded dough should feel satiny and pliable but not be tacky.

Immediately divide the dough in pieces (I divided mine in 50 g pieces as this is the amount both I and my little C are comfortable with). Form the pieces into rolls. Cover them and let them rest for about 20 minutes.

Line a few pans with parchment paper, lightly brushed with oil. Shape the bagels by either poking a hole in the dough roll or by rolling the dough into a rope and pinching the ends together.
Place the bagels on the pans, brush with olive oil, cover with plastic wrap and let them sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes until ready to be retarded (hubby laughed like mad when I told him about this step).

To see if the bagels are ready to be retarded in the refrigerator use the “float test”: fill a small bowl with cool or room-temperature water. The bagels are ready to be retarded when they float within 10 seconds of being dropped into the water. Take one bagel and test it. If it floats, immediately return the tester bagel to the pan, pat it dry, cover the pan, and place it in the refrigerator overnight (it can stay in the refrigerator for up to 2 days). If the bagel does not float. Return it to the pan and continue to proof the dough at room temperature, checking back every 10 to 20 minutes or so until a tester floats.

The following day (or when you are ready to bake the bagels), preheat the oven to 250 degrees C. Bring a large pot of water to a boil (the wider the pot the better), and add the baking soda.

Remove the bagels from the refrigerator and gently drop them into the water, boiling only as many as comfortably fit (they should float within 10 seconds). After 30 seconds flip them over and boil for another 30 seconds. If you like very chewy bagels, you can extend the boiling time. While the bagels are boiling, sprinkle the same parchment-lined sheet pans with cornmeal or semolina flour.
I topped them with salt (kosher) and sesame seeds.

When all the bagels have been boiled, place the pan in the oven and bake for approximately 10 minutes.

They freeze well and can be reheated successfully in the microwave.

Am I sorry I waited that long to try them? Yes, but I am glad I did it now and I can say they are good, really good.

I do not know how I manage, but after making a bigger cake, I always have plenty of leftovers to play around with afterward.
After making the New Year’s Eve cake, I had some extra sponge that I have frozen for later use.

For the sponge
The recipe yields two 24 cm cakes (*)
53 g almonds
52 g raw pistachios
75 g powdered sugar
25 g flour
125 g eggs
93 g egg whites
38 g sugar
18 g butter, melted and cooled

Chop the almonds and pistachios. Add the powdered sugar and mix until you obtain a very fine meal. In another bowl, mix the above processed meal, the flour and the eggs for 5-8 minutes until a thick, ribbony mixture forms.
Whip the egg whites to soft peaks and slowly add the granulated sugar and whip to get a glossy meringue.
Add a part of the egg whites to the first batter and slowly incorporate the 2. Add the rest of the whites and then the melted butter.
Divide the batter between the 2 pans, lined with parchment paper on the bottom and bake at 180 degrees for about 12 minutes (when lightly pressed the cake should spring back).
* I have baked two 24cm cakes (2-3 cm high) and a half sheet pan (that I used for this cake)

For the cherry sauce

160 ml Port wine
100 g sugar
400 g cherries
20g cornstarch
cold water to soften the starch
Boil the first 3 ingredients. When sugar is melted, add the starch mixed with cold water. Turn the heat to low and simmer until the sauce becomes thick and shiny.
Let cool to room temperature before using.

For the syrup

Before adding the cornstarch to the sauce, I took about 100 ml of cherry syrup, to which I added 1 tbsp of cherry liqueur.

For the mousse

230 grams mascarpone
70 grams powdered sugar
vanilla extract
240 ml heavy cream
cinnamon
50-100 g chopped bittersweet chocolate

Beat the mascarpone, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon until very smooth. Separately whip the cream and then add it to the mascarpone mixture. Add the chopped chocolate.

To assemble

Cut out circles from the sponge to fit your molds.
Place a circle of sponge on the bottom of the mold (I used a 7.5 cm mold), brush lightly with syrup, top with as much cherry sauce as you like and then pipe mousse over. Place in the fridge to set (a few hours).
Decorate the cakes as you wish (I have sprinkled some cocoa on top or drizzled some sauce over).