Banana Pudding with Vanilla Wafer Crumble
November 1, 2009 at 1:49 am | Posted in book review, pudding/mousse, sweet things | 13 Comments
A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a publicist about a new cookbook called DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth New Orleans Style by David Guas and Raquel Pelzel. She showed me a couple of recipes…this book is chock full of classic New Orleans sweets (think beignets and pralines), with stories and gorgeous photos to boot. I was drawn to a recipe for Banana Pudding with Vanilla Wafer Crumble…odd, since I’m not usually that into bananas, but I am a “selective appreciator,” and the husband loves nursery desserts.
This is definitely a high-class version of the dessert I remember as kid– all the traditional bits are there, but they’ve been optimized. With five yolks, it is a rich and delicious pudding, and with a nice glug of booze, I made mine decidedly not-child-friendly. Frankly, I wouldn’t use anything but Nilla Wafers in banana pudding, and the crumble is an easy way to jazz them up and keep them crispy. Whether you live in New Orleans or in New York, I think you’ll like this recipe!
BTW, book author David Guas will be hosting a live chat every Sunday morning (starting today!), November 1- December 20, from 9:30-10:30 am. Chatters can log on and ask Chef Guas dessert questions or get advice. If you’re interested, go to his website and click on the Red Velvet Cake.
Banana Pudding– makes 6 servings
from DamGoodSweet by David Guas and Raquel Pelzel (Taunton Press, 2009)
For the pudding:
5 large egg yolks
1⁄2 cup sugar
1⁄4 cup cornstarch
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole milk
3 tablespoons banana liqueur (or 1 teaspoon banana flavoring)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 ripe bananasFor the crumble:
1 cup vanilla wafers (about 15 cookies)
2 teaspoons sugar
1⁄4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
–To make the pudding: Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside. Bring the milk to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from the heat and whisk a little at a time into the egg mixture. Once the bottom of the bowl is warm, slowly whisk in the remaining hot milk. Pour the mixture back into a clean medium saucepan (cleaning the saucepan prevents the pudding from scorching), add the banana liqueur, and whisk over medium-low heat until it thickens, about 2 minutes. Cook while constantly whisking until the pudding is glossy and quite thick, 11/2 to 2 minutes longer. Transfer the pudding to a clean bowl.
Add the vanilla and butter and gently whisk until the butter is completely melted and incorporated. Press a piece of plastic wrap onto the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate for 4 hours.
–To make the crumble: While the pudding sets, heat the oven to 325°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Place the wafers in a resealable plastic bag and seal (make sure there is no air in the bag prior to sealing). Using a rolling pin or a flat-bottomed saucepan or pot, crush the vanilla wafers until they’re coarsely ground. Transfer them to a small bowl and stir in the sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Use a spoon to evenly stir in the melted butter, transfer to the prepared baking sheet, and toast in the oven until brown and fragrant, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. (The crumbs can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days at room temperature or frozen for up to 2 months; re-crisp in a 325°F oven for 6 to 7 minutes if necessary.)
–To serve: Slice the bananas in half crosswise and then slice in half lengthwise so you have 4 quarters. Slice the banana quarters crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces and divide between 6 custard cups or martini glasses (sprinkle with a squeeze of lemon juice if you like—this helps prevent browning). Whisk the pudding until it is soft and smooth, about 30 seconds, and then divide it between the custard cups. Top with the vanilla wafer mixture and serve. (If not served immediately, the pudding will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, with plastic wrap intact. Sprinkle the crumbs on just before serving.)
Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting
October 30, 2009 at 11:52 am | Posted in cupcakes, sweet things | 14 Comments
In order to keep myself from unloading a bag of fun size KIT KATs straight into my mouth, it’s time I bake up my annual Halloween cupcakes…annually featuring these black and orange sprinkles. What?? I only get one chance a year to use them! I just hope they never go bad, because I’ve still barely made a dent in the jar (so expect to see them for years to come!).
This is a recipe that I came across in Everyday Food, so not only are they easy cupcakes to eat, they are also ridiculously easy to make! And the flavor’s just a simple vanilla on vanilla, so they’d be good anytime of year. The cakes had a good texture– they were nice and moist, even on day three (stored in the fridge, and brought to room temp before eating). I don’t often whip up this type of powdered sugar and butter frosting. While it may not have the refined, melt-in-your-mouthiness that my favorite Swiss meringue buttercreams have, it’s homey and familiar, and I like it a lot.
Vanilla Cupcakes– makes 12
from Everyday Food (October 2005)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard (12-cup) muffin tin with paper liners. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
-With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined. Beat in vanilla.
-With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in flour mixture and sour cream in alternating batches, beginning and ending with the flour. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups.
-Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean and the top is springy to the touch, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely before spreading with frosting.
Vanilla Frosting– makes 1 cup
from Everyday Food (October 2005)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
-In a small bowl, beat together butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt until light and fluffy. Use immediately, or cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate up to 3 days. Before using, bring to room temperature.
Daring Bakers in October: French Macarons
October 27, 2009 at 11:09 am | Posted in daring bakers, groups, petit fours, sweet things | 41 Comments
Having spent several years working in the restaurant biz, I’ve made a lot of macarons. These sweet little almond-meringue sandwiches are a standard confection on fine-dining petit fours plates, so if I spend long enough at any one place, I know they are bound to come up in the rotation at some point. (I worked for one pastry chef who used to have side-by-side piping races with me everyday…he usually won, but then again, he had years more experience and he would always try to slow me down by making me giggle.) Macarons are also quite en vogue right now, both in pastry shops and in the blogoshpere, but this is their first appearance here…in fact, I had never made them at home before Ami chose them as this month’s Daring Bakers’ challenge.
Macarons can be tricky little things, even when you have made countless batches. Sometimes you pipe them out and are convinced that they will be perfect, only to bake them and have them come out misshapen or with no feet. Other times you are convinced that something has gone wrong, and then they bake up spot-on. And you really never know how it will go when you make a recipe that is not the one you are used to. I will say that this is not my best batch ever, but…ummm…it’s not my worst either. I think I underbaked them a bit, but that is an easy enough problem to fix.
The recipe that follows makes very basic almond macarons. But think of it as just a starting point…you can experiment by combining different nut flours and flavorings or add coloring. Some good filling options include buttercream, ganache, caramel and jam. There are endless possibilities for experimentation here, and that, to me, is the cool thing about macarons.
I took inspiration from what I had in the house to come up with a strawberry cheesecake flavored macaron. I blitzed some freeze dried strawberries (bought at TJs) that I had in the cupboard to a fine dust in my spice grinder. I added a few grams of this powder, along with a tiny bit of powdered red food coloring to enhance the pink hue, in with my dry ingredients. To fill the macarons, since I didn’t feel like making a large batch of buttercream and I didn’t have any cream to make a ganache, I whipped a little cream cheese with some powdered sugar and vanilla bean paste. I piped a little blob of this “cheesecake” mixture onto one half of each macaron and smeared a little strawberry jam on the other half before sandwiching them together.
P.S.: The chocolates you see alongside my strawberry cheesecake macarons are from Bond Street Chocolate, a funky little shop here in the East Village.
French Macarons
adapted from The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern by Claudia Fleming
2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.) confectioners’ (icing) sugar
2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.) almond flour
2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.) granulated sugar
5 egg whites (room temperature; whites that are a few days old are best)
-Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery. (Steph’s note: Even when using purchased almond four, I like to grind it, along with the full amount of confectoiners’ sugar and any other dry flavorings or colorings, in the food processor to throughly incorporate the dry ingredients.)
-Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
-Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
-Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
-Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
-Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
-Cool on a rack before filling.
The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte
October 27, 2009 at 1:00 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 23 Comments
Let me begin this post with a PSA: Texting while baking can lead to accidents in the kitchen. For instance, if, while you are baking Dorie’s Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte for TWD, you are also texting one friend about meeting for lunch and another friend about meeting for drinks, it may not register that the recipe calls for cherry preserves and extra chopped chocolate to be stirred into the brownie base . Trust me, I know! Lucky for me it happened with a forgiving cake.
This is definitely a dense and super-rich dessert. The base is essentially a double-height brownie. It was a little too full-on for me, actually. But the mascarpone mousse topping…that is was really nice and light as a feather. While I probably won’t be making this complete dessert again, I think the mousse would make a fantastic cake filling and I’ll keep it in mind.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Short + Rose, as it was April’s choice this week. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
The Cake Slice: Cinnamon-Pecan Coffee Cake
October 20, 2009 at 4:34 pm | Posted in breakfast things, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, the cake slice | 30 Comments 
The Cake Slice Bakers have shifted gears, and we’re now baking from the book Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott. I’ve actually had this book for quite sometime, so it will be nice to do more than just admire its words and pictures. Although I’ll miss making a fancy layer cake each month just for the heck of it, this book has cakes of all types– like this here Cinnamon-Pecan Coffee Cake, for instance.
This was a nice cake to wake up to (it freezes well, so you really can make it ahead and save it for a weekend morning). It has a whopping amount of cinnamon and pecans, so you know right there that it’ll be tasty. I replaced the raisins in the recipe with dried wild blueberries (they came from TJ’s and I was surprised at how flavorful they were!), and subbed in a bit of whole wheat flour for some of the AP. Makes me feel better about eating cake in the morning if there’s a little whole wheat in there! And it didn’t seem to harm the nice texture of the buttery crumb at all. So that I wouldn’t be tempted to gobble up too much cake, I made a third of the recipe and baked it in a loaf pan.
Here’s a printable link to the recipe. Or get your hands on a copy of Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott. Cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our coffee cakes this month!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Allspice Crumb Muffins
October 13, 2009 at 1:20 am | Posted in breakfast things, groups, muffins/quick breads, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 41 Comments
I’m pretty slow-going in the morning, so don’t do that much breakfast baking. That being said, I was happy to have the lovely Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table chose Allspice Crumb Muffins for TWD this week. It’s good to have my routine switched up every once and awhile. And it’s hard to not like having a fresh, homemade muffin (especially one with streusel topping!) with my morning coffee.
Allspice isn’t a spice that I usually have on hand. In fact, before I made this recipe I had to pay a visit to my most favorite tea and spice shop, Two for the Pot in Brooklyn, to score some. Allspice in hand, I subbed just a bit of whole wheat flour for the AP in both the streusel and the muffin itself. I also added in the optional lemon zest…this muffin doesn’t have bits of fruit in it, so I think the zest went a long way towards amping up the flavor a bit. They baked up with kinda flat tops, but I can overlook that in favor of their ease and pleasant simplicity.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Grandma’s Kitchen Table. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
P.S.: I’m taking a quick trip out of town on my days off this week. I won’t be in front of the computer for a few days, so please forgive my lack of comments!
Pear Butterscotch Pie
October 6, 2009 at 9:49 pm | Posted in pies & tarts, sweet things | 29 Comments
I spent a good portion of today thumbing through some back issues of Gourmet. I’ve been an on-again, off-again subscriber to the magazine for years. I let it expire, I miss it and I come back to it. I took it for granted that I would be able to continue this pattern for years to come, but looks like I was wrong. And that’s such a shame, because even though there’s so much food-related content out there right now, I could always count on Gourmet to have interesting and topical articals, inspirational recipes and beautiful pictures.
I told you yesterday that I’d make you something from the pages of Gourmet, so I leave you with this recipe for a really tasty Pear Butterscotch Pie from the recent September issue. My husband, who also enjoys a good flip-through of each new issue (and bookmarks requests), pestered me to make it all last month. The flavors remind me more of apple pie than butterscotch, to tell the truth, but the dark brown sugar and the big chunks of pear are enough to make it a little more unusual. Spike your whipped cream with a little bourbon, and you’ll add to the butterscotch feel!
Pear Butterscotch Pie– makes a 9-inch pie
from a recipe in Gourmet (September 2009)
Notes: Pie is best the day it is made but can be baked 1 day ahead. The leaf cutouts described below are optional, as they are decorative only.
3 T AP flour
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t grated nutmeg
1/8 t salt
1/2 c packed dark brown sugar
2 1/2 pounds firm-ripe Bartlett or Anjou pears (about 5)
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 t pure vanilla extract
double recipe of flaky pastry dough (here’s one, or use your favorite)
1 T unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 large egg beaten with 1 T warm water
1 T turbinado or granulated sugar
– Put a baking sheet on middle rack of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.
– Whisk together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, then whisk in brown sugar, breaking up any lumps. Peel the pears, cut each into 6 wedges, and core. Gently toss pear chunks with brown sugar mixture, lemon juice, and vanilla and let stand 5 to 15 minutes to macerate fruit.
– Roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining disk chilled) on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 13-inch round. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Roll out remaining piece of dough into a 13-inch round. Reserve scraps.
– Transfer filling to shell. Dot with butter, then cover with pastry round. Trim edges, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang (reserve scraps). Press edges together to seal, then fold under. Lightly brush top crust with some of egg wash, then cut 3 (1-inch-long) vents.
– Roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining disk chilled) on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 13-inch round. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Roll out remaining piece of dough into a 13-inch round. Reserve scraps.
– Transfer filling to shell. Dot with butter, then cover with pastry round. Trim edges, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang (reserve scraps). Press edges together to seal, then fold under. Lightly brush top crust with some of egg wash, then cut 3 (1-inch-long) vents.
– Roll out dough scraps about 1/8 inch thick and cut out leaf shapes with small leaf cutters (or a knife). Arrange decoratively on top of pie, pressing gently to help them adhere. Lightly brush top crust and cutouts with some of egg wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar.
– Bake pie on hot baking sheet 20 minutes. Reduce oven to 375°F and bake until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, 40 to 45 minutes more. Cool to warm or room temperature, 2 to 3 hours.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Split Level Pudding
October 6, 2009 at 1:00 am | Posted in groups, pudding/mousse, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 33 Comments
Did you see the news about Gourmet? I am sad. I need something to make me smile. Something like pudding. Maybe coffee pudding. Some chocolate would be good, too.
Oh, ya know– I have just the thing in the fridge right now, since Garrett of Flavor of Vanilla picked Split Level Pudding for TWD this week. Pudding on top, bittersweet ganache on the bottom. This is just the thing to make me feel a little better. Excuse this short post, but now I’m off to make you something from the pages of Gourmet.
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart
September 29, 2009 at 1:24 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 55 Comments
Carla of Chocolate Moosey chose one sexy tart for TWD this week– Dorie’s Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart. Soft bittersweet ganache on top of caramel and peanuts…this is rich and decadent. Using a high percentage chocolate and taking your caramel to a deep amber keeps it from being overly sweet. It’s a special occasion tart that’s surprisingly easy to make, especially if you’ve had some chocolate shortbread dough hiding out in the freezer for a rather long while (I used it instead of making a new batch of sweet tart dough).
For the recipe, see Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read Chocolate Moosey. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll!
Daring Bakers in September: Vols-au-Vent with Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry Dough
September 27, 2009 at 12:05 am | Posted in daring bakers, groups, other savory, other sweet, savory things, sweet things | 97 Comments
After more than two years as a Daring Baker (it all started with a mirror cake…), I’m so excited that Liz and Ivonne have asked me to host a challenge! Woo-hoo! But oh no–what to pick?? Looking over past challenges, I realized that we’ve covered a lot of territory! One thing we haven’t made since I’ve been in the group, though, is our own puff pastry (aka pâte feuilletée). Puff is something most of us usually buy at the grocery store, but in order to be really daring, we should try to make our own at least once, right?
Puff pastry is in the “laminated dough” family, along with Danish dough and croissant dough. (In fact, if you participated in the Danish Braid challenge back in June 2008, then you already know the general procedure for working with laminated dough.) A laminated dough consists of a large block of butter (called the beurrage) that is enclosed in dough (called the détrempe). This dough/butter packet is called a paton, and is rolled and folded repeatedly (a process known as “turning”) to create the crisp, flaky, parallel layers you see when baked. Unlike Danish or croissant however, puff pastry dough contains no yeast in the détrempe, and relies solely aeration to achieve its high rise. The turning process creates hundreds of layers of butter and dough, with air trapped between each one. In the hot oven, water in the dough and the melting butter creates steam, which expands in the trapped air pockets, forcing the pastry to rise.
I picked a recipe for homemade puff pastry from Michel Richard, as it appears in the book Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan. In order to showcase off the hundreds of flaky, golden, buttery layers in the homemade puff, we formed a portion of it into vols-au-vent– little puff pastry cases designed to hold a filling. They can be made large enough for a full meal, or made small for little one-bite canapés. Vols-au-vent are typically served hot and filled with a creamy savory filling (often poultry or seafood-based), but cold fillings, such as chicken or tuna salad, work, too. Whipped cream or pastry cream with fresh or stewed fruit often goes into sweet versions.
Sizes of and fillings for the vols-au-vent were left up to the individual baker. I made three types: a smoked salmon mousse canapé, a larger main course-size filled with tuna salad and a sweet version with vanilla whipped cream and bright red tristar strawberries.
As it’s a little long, here’s a printable link to the recipe for puff pastry, as well as instructions for forming vol-au-vents and some extra tips. Also, there is a wonderful on-line video from the PBS show “Baking with Julia” that accompanies the book. In it, Michel Richard and Julia Child demonstrate making puff pastry dough (although they go on to use it in other applications). Dont’ be put off by the length of time it takes to make your own puff pastry (most of it is inactive, while waiting for the dough to chill between turns)…it really isn’t that hard to do! I encourage anyone who has never made puff before to take a look at the video, get some good butter, and give it a try!
Thanks so much to everyone who participated in this month’s challenge– I know it required a lot of time and a lot of butter, both of which are precious commodities. I appreciate your feedback and advice in the forums…not to mention your fabulous results!! Also, of course, great big hugs go to Liz and Ivonne, not only for starting this group, but for keeping it alive and fun and so well-organized! Check out the Daring Bakers’ Blogroll for more adventures in puff!
The September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.
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