Back to School: Celebration Cupcakes
September 17, 2007 at 10:07 am | Posted in around sydney, classes, cupcakes, sweet things | 25 Comments
I took another course at Planet Cake in Balmain this weekend. This time, the theme was “celebration cupcakes.” Obviously, these are for celebrating something very girly! They were a lot of fun to make…a little time-consuming, but really not very hard.
Breakfast Couscous
September 8, 2007 at 6:04 pm | Posted in breakfast things, cereals, out of town | 18 Comments
Sounds weird, right? Maybe even a little gross? No, bear with me…it’s good. Honest.
R and I were in Shanghai in August. It’s a crazy city– crowded, and with tons of new construction going up all over the place. In the middle of it all, I ran into someone I used to work with in New York years ago in my past life as an investment banker. But that’s a different story.
As a break from stuffing ourselves with crab xiao long bao , we headed over to a “western” cafe in Pudong called Slice for breakfast one morning. I wanted to go there because I had read that a Shanghai-based baker from New Zealand named Dean Brettschneider makes the breads. I am a big fan of his book Taste (and am searching secondhand bookstores for his previous and now out-of-print book Baker…if anyone has it, are you taking bids?), so I naturally wanted to try his stuff. I happily munched away on the best bagel and rye bread I’ve had since leaving NYC, while Rich ordered this couscous stuff off the menu. It had dried fruit and nuts, yogurt on top and just a touch of sweetness.
I was poking through the pantry the other day, and noticed that I had just enough couscous left for one person. Why not make breakfast couscous with it the next morning? I completely eyeballed everything, so I won’t give a hard and fast recipe, just a basic guideline.
Breakfast Couscous
this would also be good with some sweet spices, like a pinch of cinnamon or cardamom, mixed in
-Make as much couscous as you like (for one serving, I used 1/2 cup of dried couscous), according to package instructions, but add a touch of honey to the hot water so it can be absorbed into the couscous along with the liquid.
-Put as much dried fruit as you want to use (I used a handful of dried apricots, chopped, and some dried cherries) into a small bowl and cover with boiling water to plump while the couscous sits.
-When your couscous has absorbed the water and softened, fluff it up with a fork. Drain the dried fruit and mix into the couscous.
-Portion into serving bowls.
-Sprinkle with nuts (I used chopped almonds, but pistachios would be great, too) and top with a couple of spoonfuls of plain yogurt.
-Drizzle honey on top.
I love cake…
September 2, 2007 at 5:56 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, layer cakes, sweet things | 7 Comments
…so much that I decorated it with hearts!
Daring Bakers in August: Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart
August 29, 2007 at 4:56 pm | Posted in daring bakers, groups, pies & tarts, sweet things | 49 Comments
I was just a lil’ bit excited to see that for this month’s Daring Bakers’ challenge, our co-hosts Veronica and Patricia chose a milk chocolate and caramel tart from Eric Kayser’s book Sweet and Savory Tarts. Not only do I love chocolate and caramel (who doesn’t, really?), I love making tarts, especially when they have a few different components like this one. And, although we were warned from the get-go that the directions were sparse and we’d have to read between the lines, at least there would be no fiddling around with agar-agar like last time.
The first part of the recipe to tackle was the pastry dough. The recipe described it as a “chocolate shortbread pastry,” flavored with cocoa powder, ground hazelnuts and cinnamon. Some bakers who tried out the recipe early in the month found the cinnamon to be overwhelming, and it was later deemed optional by the Veronica and Patricia. I followed these bakers’ advice and opted out of the cinnamon in my batch. I chose to make my dough in the KitchenAid (with the paddle attachment), rather than in the food processor. It just seemed less messy, and came together easily in the mixer.
After my dough had an overnight rest in the fridge, I found it to be quite malleable and very easy to work with. The dough really didn’t resemble shortbread though, and neither the finished product, but it did bake up nice and crisp. I decided to go the mini route and used my 3.5″ fluted tartlette pans to form the shells. I docked them well and blind baked them with beans, thanks to the advice of those bakers who had made the recipe early on. Even though they were small, my shells did take several minutes longer to bake than the recipe stated. And I had to be more careful than I would have liked removing the parchment and beans from the baked shells, because the dough wanted badly to stick to the parchment. With a little patience though, everything was fine. I made eight little tartlettes and put the extra unbaked dough in the freezer for another time.
The next step was to make the caramel layer hidden in the middle of the tart. I must admit here that I only made a half-batch of caramel, since I didn’t make the big 10″ tart. R and I can’t finish a whole tart ourselves, but I promise I was true to the ingredients, techniques and proportions. Our co-hosts did give us a choice when it came to the caramel: while the recipe called for using the dry technique, we could switch that to a wet caramel if we were more confident with the wet method. I have actually made an unusual amount of caramel sauce in my time, and am comfortable with both ways, so I went ahead with the dry version before adding butter and cream. I took it to the edge of dark-but-not-burned, so it would be a bit more flavorful and wouldn’t cause a toothache in combination with the milk chocolate. (To make a dry caramel, I add the sugar in stages, starting with just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. When that melts and begins to color, I add a little more.) To the cooled caramel base, eggs and flour were added so it would set up into a soft but firm candy-like layer in the oven, rather than remain an oozy sauce.
Once again, the caramel in my little tarts had to spend about five minutes longer in the oven than the recipe stated to set up. I baked them until the caramel looked well set around the edges and was no longer jiggly in the center. After cooling down on the counter for about 30 minutes, I popped them in the fridge to thoroughly set for a few hours and charged on with the caramel decorations.
I was hoping to do sugar curls or something fun, but I made this recipe during a patch of rainy days here in Sydney. Humidity and sugarwork are archenemies, so my experiments were just a sticky mess. I resorted to the basic caramel fragments suggested in the recipe, but even they stuck together in little clumps after I broke them up. I liked them though…they looked like sparkly jewels.
For the last step before decoration (and eating!), I made the “chocolate mousse” layer. It was just melted milk chocolate folded together with whipped cream. I just had to be sure to let the chocolate cool to about body temperature before combining, so it wouldn’t melt the cream. I used Green & Black’s organic milk chocolate. They claim to use more cocoa solids than other brands, making it a “darker” milk chocolate. I had never tried it, but as a dark chocolate freak, I was interested in finding something a little less sweet. As luck would have it, it was also on sale!
Eight mini tarts equals four days of dessert for R and me, so I made scaled back amounts of the mousse as well…just enough to fill two each day. After piling on the mousse and letting the tarts chill for a bit, it was time to decorate and try. Boy, were they good…almost like a candy bar, but not too sweet. I tried to get fairly equal layers of caramel and chocolate, and was really surprised by how nicely the tarts cut. All in all, I’d say this one’s a keeper, and it wasn’t even too complicated– thanks Veronica and Patricia! I am interested in trying it with dark chocolate though…
You can find the recipe here or here. If you’re nosey like I am, check out the Daring Bakers’ Blogroll to see how everyone else attacked this month’s challenge!
HHDD#14: Potato Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables
August 18, 2007 at 4:25 pm | Posted in events, savory things | 16 Comments
Oh potato gnocchi, why do you torture me so? Homemade gnocchi has been a bit of sore spot for me. I’ve made the leadballs, and even worse, the disintegrators– the ones that fall apart in the simmering water, leaving you with a pot full of mess and no dinner. So why am I even bothering to try again? First, because I LOVE them (!), and second, because gnocchi is the theme for this month’s Hay Hay It’s Donna Day, hosted by Cafe Lynnylu. It doesn’t hurt that I finally had one of my restaurant buddies show me a good technique, either.
Bake the potatoes in a salt crust (this helps them really dry out) and rice them while they’re still hot. Then let them cool to room temperature before adding the other ingredients. Making the gnocchi dough is definitely a “by feel” kind of thing. Start with some flour and add more as you lightly knead the dough, until its no longer sticky and you can move it around easily. Going overboard on the flour, however, will give you dense gnocchi. Then let the dough rest before rolling and shaping. I’ve never seen this step in any books, but it my friend swears that this is crucial to avoiding those aforementioned “disintegrators.”
Although R would rather have a heavy Bolognese covering his gnocchi, I decided to slice and dice a few veggies to go with them. I quickly sautéed matchsticks of zucchini and carrot along with grape tomatoes, minced garlic, snap peas and corn in some butter and olive oil. Then I threw in a splash of chicken stock and cooked it down to make it a bit saucy. I tossed through the cooked gnocchi, and after a little s&p and grated Parmesan, my dish was done. And it was light and delicious.
P.S. I saw Donna Hay give a live demo in Sydney in June. R was convinced she didn’t exist, and thought it just a brand-name. She is in fact very real, is quite funny and cooked a lovely dinner party menu.
Potato Gnocchi – makes 4-6 servings
3 large baking potatoes
Kosher salt for crusting potatoes
1 1/2 egg yolks
4 oz all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
1 handful of Parmesan (grated)
salt and pepper to taste
-Scrub potatoes, dry with a tea towel and lightly crust with Kosher salt.
-Place on a baking sheet, and bake in a 400°F/200°C oven until baked though (about 45-60 minutes).
-Peel and rice potatoes while still hot. Spread riced potatoes over a sheet tray to cool to room temperature.
-Add egg yolks, Parmesan and salt and pepper to cooled potatoes.
-Add in initial amount of flour and combine mixture with your hands. Add in additional flour as needed until you have a cohesive dough that’s no longer sticky. (I probably needed another 2 ounces or so for my batch…depends on the potatoes.) Do not overwork. Form into a large log and let rest on a floured surface, covered with a tea towel for 15-20 minutes.
-Break off pieces of dough and roll them into ropes on a floured surface. (If the rope falls apart when you roll it, knead in a bit more flour.) Use a paring knife or a metal bench scraper to cut the rope into 3/4″ pieces. Toss in a little flour to keep from sticking together and move aside while you proceed with the rest of the dough.
-Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Salt it as you would pasta water. Cook gnocchi in batches to avoid overcrowding, and simmer until they float to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon.
**Extra uncooked gnocchi freezes well. Spread them on a sheet tray in a single layer and freeze for about an hour. Then put in a zip-top bag or airtight container for freezer storage.
browniebabe #3: Milk Chocolate Brownies with Wattleseed
August 16, 2007 at 4:22 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, events, sweet things | 6 Comments
Woo-hoo! It’s browniebabe time again over at Once Upon a Tart. Myriam continues to taunt us all with her super-cute apron! I’ve already declared my love for all things plain and simple when it comes to brownies, so I really tried hard to think of an uncomplicated brownie that was a little different.
The last time R went to the States was back in February. I gave him a shopping list to stuff to bring back…Crystal hot sauce, Diamond Kosher salt, Jif, Quaker oats, Cascade dishwasher tabs (how this guy made it through customs, I do not know). When he called from the airport while waiting for his flight back to Sydney, I tacked one more last-minute item to the list: a Gourmet magazine from the airport bookshop.
A recipe on the last page of that issue has stuck out in my mind since– milk chocolate brownies. I’m definitely a dark chocolate fan (and the higher the percentage, the better), but this sounded interesting. I went out and got myself a couple bars of Lindt Excellence, which in the same issue, Gourmet named as their preferred milk chocolate for general cooking purposes.
I bought some wattleseed awhile back, but still hadn’t used it. This is something that I’ve had in restaurant desserts here, and was excited to find at my spice shop. Wattleseed is from the Acacia plant, native to Australia, and is often described as tasting like a combination of chocolate, coffee and hazelnut. All good things for a brownie I think, so I eye-balled in a couple teaspoons to the recipe. I don’t think wattleseed is readily available outside Australia, but a little instant espresso powder will do the trick if you are looking to make the flavor a bit deeper (I always put it in my dark chocolate brownies anyway).
These brownies were surprisingly good, and I’d definitely make them again. They had a perfect texture–crackly tops and chewy, but not raw, centers. They were thankfully not as sweet as I’d imagined they would be. They had a nice caramely flavor from the chocolate with a hint of coffee from the wattleseed. The seeds and the extra milk chocolate that gets stirred in as chips at the end give the brownies a little crunch.
If you want the basic milk chocolate brownie recipe, you can find it in the February 2007 issue of Gourmet magazine, or here on Epicuious.
Red Velvet Cake (a.k.a. Red Silk)
August 14, 2007 at 5:38 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, layer cakes, sweet things | 15 Comments
*I Photoshopped that candle flame in– how fake does that look??
Every year around the start of August, I ask R to think about what kind of cake he’d like me to make for his birthday. I’ve done Boston Cream a couple of times, Black Forest, and once even a chocolate cream pie. This year he asked for a “red silk cake.” Hmmm…I wasn’t sure what that was, but I thought I should know, so I said no problem. I would figure it out.
I couldn’t figure it out. So the next day I broke down and asked for clarification. What he described was just a red velvet cake. Can’t blame the guy for confusing his fabrics, but now I can’t stop calling it “red silk,” and as it sounds sort of exotic, it must be said in a sultry whisper.
I’ve never actually had red silk…umm, velvet…cake myself. One time, years back, I saw Martha Stewart and a guest make it on her old show. I saw them put two bottles of McCormick red food coloring into the batter! Horrifying– I mean, remember when they thought red M&Ms would kill you?
I remembered seeing that the Daring Bakers had risen to the red velvet challenge back in March. That was before my time in the group, but I looked back over many of the posts to see their individual experiences and to know what to expect. Most thought a cream cheese frosting was traditional and that the chocolate flavor of the cake was very subtle.
There were a lot of different recipes out there, but I wound up going with one in a book I have at home. I’ve had the Chocolate Bar cookbook for sometime, without ever having baked from it. Now was as good a time as any to try it out. The book was written by Matt Lewis and Alison Nelson, and I chose this recipe because Mr. Lewis is now a co-owner of Baked in Red Hook, a favorite sweet spot when I lived in Brooklyn. The cake and frosting recipes below are for an 8-inch three layer cake, but I halved the recipes below to make a six-inch two layer one instead. Also, I only have gel food coloring, so I just used a little squirt (in case you wonder why it’s not super duper red) and added a spoonful of extra boiling water to make up for the missing liquid.
Although in the book, the authors recommend a vanilla buttercream (at Baked they use a cinnamon buttercream and decorate with red hots), I decided to go the cream cheese frosting route instead. I found this to be a tricky cake to ice– even with a crumb coat, there were little flecks of red all over the place. Oh well…one of the charms of homemade, I guess. R thought it looked and tasted great, and since it was his birthday, that’s all that matters to me.
Red Velvet Cake – makes three 8-inch rounds
adapted from Matt Lewis and Alison Nelson’s Chocolate Bar
4 T cocoa powder
1 oz red food coloring
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 t salt
1 cup buttermilk
6 T (3 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 t vanilla extract
1 T plus 1 1/2 t vegetable shortening, room temperature
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
2 T boiling water
1 T white vinegar
1 t baking soda
-Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Grease and flour three 8-inch round cake pans lined with parchment circles.
-In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, food coloring and 2 T boiling water. Set mixture aside to cool.
-In the bowl of standing mixer, cream together butter and shortening on high speed until light. Add sugar and continue beating until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each.
-Mix buttermilk and vanilla into cooled cocoa mixture.
-Sift together flour and salt. With the mixer on low, alternatley add flour and cocoa mixtures, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until just incorporated.
-In a cup, dissolve the baking soda in the vinegar (it will be fizzy). Add immediately to batter and mix until just combined.
-Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, about 30 minutes.
-Cool cakes on a rack in their pans for 10 minutes. Then turn out and let them finish cooling completely on the rack. When cool, frost with cream cheese frosting, below.
Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting – makes enough for a three-tier 8-inch cake
1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 t vanilla bean paste (can substitute 1 t extract)
1 pound powdered sugar, sifted
-In the bowl of an electric mixer, slowly paddle the cream cheese, butter and vanilla bean paste. Add the powdered sugar and mix until just smooth, scraping sides of bowl as necessary. If too soft to spread, add more powdered sugar until it reaches desired consistency.
Blogging by Mail– Thanks Rai!
August 13, 2007 at 4:43 pm | Posted in events | Leave a comment
Last month, I signed on to participate in Blogging by Mail, an event hosted by Happy Sorceress Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness fame. I packed up a few of my favorite things (some long time favorites and other “new” Aussie discoveries) and had them whisked away to a far-off address, supplied to me by Stephanie. Then I not-so-patiently waited for a box of someone else’s favorites to make its way to me. I can’t tell you how excited I was to go to the post office today and pick up my package!
When I got home, I tore open the box, and found it had been sent by Rai from Ugly Fruit. Even though she’s just moved home to Iowa after spending three years abroad, and she’s working on setting up a new business, she still had time to put together a really fun package, containing:
-a handwritten note from Rai, introducing herself and explaining what she’d sent
-a cookbook called Cooking USA (I’ll have to start with the recipe from Iowa–corn casserole!)
-a CD from Iowa musicians, the Barn Owl Band (this will be on while I make dinner tonight)
-corn muffin mix (in a hilariously cute ear of corn “outfit”)
-strawberry fruit leather (which I love, and ate immediately after snapping the photo)
-jars of cranberry honey and peach butter (I know what I will put on my toast tomorrow morning!)
-an “Iowa…more pigs than people” magnet
-a soy bar and ranch-flavored soy nuts
-an Iowa geode (which I promptly cracked open with a hammer to see the sparkly crystals inside)
-a form from Australia Post saying that it had quarantined some unpopped popcorn (drat–sorry, Rai)
I have never been to Iowa myself, so thanks so much, Rai, for sending Iowa to me!
And thanks very much to Stephanie, as well, for organizing the event. She clearly put a lot of thought into matching everyone up, and I truly appreciate the time and effort spent.
Who received the package I sent? Why, Mai and Kevin, authors of the lovely blog Feed Your Vegetarian. Check it out!
Graham Crackers
August 8, 2007 at 6:17 pm | Posted in cookies & bars, sweet things | 13 Comments
Yes, I am aware that it looks like I’ve taken a photo of a pile of damp sand, but a few crumbs are all that I have left to share of my experience with homemade graham crackers. I have plans for those leftover crumbs, though…you wait and see.
Waaay back when, I promised that if anyone was interested, I would give the recipe for homemade graham crackers that I used in making my Namaimo bars. I did get a request, and I’m sorry it has taken me so long to get this out.
This recipe is from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion, which calls them “the best graham crackers.” And I can attest to them being very tasty, since I did a quality control check before I whizzed the batch to bits. I imagine they’d be very good with a little peanut butter (one of my favorite snacks).
Graham Crackers – makes 32 crackers (3.5″ x 2.5″)
adapted from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion
1/2 c (2 oz) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c (7 7/8 oz) whole wheat flour
3/4 c (3 oz) powdered sugar
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon (optional)
1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter
2 T (1 1/2 oz) honey
2 T (1 oz) cold milk
– Preheat the oven to 325°F/165°C. Have ready two baking sheets, with parchment to match.
– Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until crumbly.
– In a separate bowl, stir the honey into the milk to dissolve. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry, tossing with a fork until it comes together. If it seems to require more liquid to come together (mine did), add a little extra milk.
-Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and fold it over gently 10-12 times until smooth (I found a metal bench scraper to be quite helpful here). Divide the dough in half, and form each half roughly into a rectangular shape. Work with one half at a time, keeping the other half covered.
-On the counter, lightly flour one of your parchment sheets and a rolling pin. Roll one piece of dough on the parchment, adding a little more flour as necessary, into a rectangle about 10″ X 14″ (almost the size of your parchment). The dough should be about 1/16″ thick. Trim the edges to make a clean rectangle and dock evenly with a fork.
-Using a pizza or pastry wheel, cut the dough into 16 rectangles. Lift the parchment onto your baking sheet. There is no need to separate the cookies– they will bake together, but will break apart easily along the pre-cut lines when slightly cooled.
-Repeat the last two steps for your other half of dough.
-Bake for 15 minutes, or until medium gold all over (mine took a little longer). Let the crackers cool on the pan until just barely warm. Carefully snap crackers apart and cool them completely on a rack, before wrapping them tightly for storage.
Daring Bakers in July: Strawberry Mirror Cake
July 30, 2007 at 3:43 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, daring bakers, groups, sweet things | 50 Comments
Sometimes when a challenge is thrown my way, I shake my Magic 8 Ball to predict the outcome. But here, I think I’ll take a cue from the Queen in Snow White: “Mirror, mirror on the wall. Will I skate through my first Daring Bakers challenge, or will I fall?”
Yes, that’s right. I’m now a whisk-wielding member of Daring Bakers. For months I’ve read about the escapades of this group, and I’m very pleased to be able to display the logo myself. Isn’t she cute?
Our hostess of the month, Peabody from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, had us tackle a strawberry mirror cake. I’ve actually made a similar cake once before (in culinary school…I think we called it “fruit mousse miroir”), so I was reasonably familiar with its components– sponge cake Bavarian cream and gelée. I knew that gelatin is what makes this cake possible, but I don’t eat red meat, so I also do my best to avoid gelatin. One of the hard and fast rules of DB membership is that you must make the recipe the way it is written, and resist the urge to tinker and tweak. An exception is allowed for food allergies or strong aversions, so the green-light was given to use agar-agar as a gelatin substitute.
Armed with my agar powder, a whole bunch of eggs and several baskets of surprisingly nice-looking winter strawberries, I set out to make the cake.
I started by making the sponge cake, which was easy and really delicious. I had a fair amount of scrap left over, so I stuck it in the freezer where it is waiting to be reincarnated, possibly as a trifle….mmm.
From there, however, things took a turn for the difficult. I had never actually used agar-agar before, and really had no idea how. I did some reading on the subject, but perhaps too much, because I wound up confused. You can substitute powdered agar-agar for powdered gelatin in equal amounts, but strawberries are acidic, so they might require more agar…you need to boil it, but it sets at room temperature, blah blah blah. What did I get myself into?
In terms of dissolving the agar-agar in boiling liquid, I did what I thought was best without altering the amount of liquid in the recipe (that was my real concern with using the stuff). Everything looked the way it was supposed to, which was a good sign. So I crossed my fingers and slid the cake tin in the fridge for a nice long rest. When I popped the cake out of the tin, I couldn’t believe how big it looked on the stand–with only two of us in the house, I’m used to just making little six-inchers. It was quite shiny and splendid in all its red and pink glory, and I could actually see a bit of my reflection on the surface!
It’s not all about looks here, though. What’s inside counts, too. I knew I had to bite the bullet and cut the cake, and I was nervous. The Bavarian cream was a bit softly set, but held up fine. Sadly though, it had a bit of a pasty texture that I wasn’t too fond of. I know that had nothing to do with the original recipe. It was the fault of the agar, or more likely, the fault of the person using the agar.
I’m not too keen to blindly experiment with agar-agar again anytime soon, but I have a packet in my pantry in case the urge surfaces. I am a Daring Baker now, after all.
To see how the other DB members tackled this assignment, visit the Daring Bakers’ Blogroll. And if you know of any worthwhile books with recipes designed specifically for agar-agar, or if you’ve had good luck with any of the Kosher gelatins available, please let me know!
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