Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte
August 26, 2008 at 4:36 am | Posted in groups, ice creams & frozen, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 54 Comments
I’m just going to admit that I almost pooped out on TWD this week. I’ve been feeling a little weighed down lately, ya know, and I wasn’t so sure that something called a “Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte” was really going to help. But then I felt guilty…I haven’t missed a week for no good reason yet, and thought it best not to go down that road. Besides, I didn’t want to let down Amy of Food, Family and Fun, who chose this week’s recipe. The deal I struck with myself was to make just two individual servings– one for R and one for me.
I knew that my solo portions wouldn’t need to be as tall as Dorie’s large torte, so I could get away with less of everything. I made just 1/8 of the ganache recipe (or enough for one Dorie-sized serving), and divvied it up between my two little molds, which were actually sturdy, straight sided muffin wrappers. (FYI: The truffle cream does use raw eggs, so if you are sensitive to that, then you may want to skip this recipe or seek out pasteurized eggs, or do whatever you would normally do in this case.) Dorie uses raspberry-flavored ice cream in her torte, but I can’t say that I’ve ever been a fan of fruit and chocolate combos. Instead, I bought two scoops of condensed milk ice cream from a Sydney shop called Passion Flower, which has lots of cool Asian-inspired flavors (I wasn’t sure how black sesame or taro would pair with chocolate, so I played it safe). Back at home, I ground up some hazelnut praline, leftover from this cake, and stirred that in to the ice cream.
The key to serving a frozen dessert like this is to it pull it out of the freezer and let it temper on the counter a few minutes beforehand. Obviously you don’t want it to start melting, but if the ice cream begins to soften just a tad, it’s much more pleasant to eat and will actually taste better, too.
I’m so glad I pulled my head out from you-know-where and got this one done! It was fantastic, and a bit more classy than the normal mid-week dessert around these parts. The chocolate ganache doesn’t freeze solid, but becomes almost chewy when cold. And I really loved it in combination with the hazelnut praline, which retained its sweet crunch in the ice cream.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Food, Family and Fun to find the recipe. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 250 other people had to say!
Hazelnut Praline Cake
August 22, 2008 at 7:04 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, events, layer cakes, sweet things | 18 Comments
If you asked me “cake or pie?” I’d yell “cake” every time! That’s why event-mistress-extraordinaire Laurie’s newest play-along, Layers of Cake, sounded right up my alley. In a happy coincidence this month, I knew I would be making a cake for R’s birthday anyway. R picks his own cake every year, and then I whip up his request. A couple weeks ago, when he chose a Hazelnut Praline Cake from a gorgeous book called Crave: A Passion for Chocolate by Australian Maureen McKeon, I momentarily thought I’d landed in Bizarro World– hadn’t I made something sort of like this but a little different last month? No matter, it was his choice after all, and I knew it would be good.
This is not what I would think of as an “American-style” layer cake. It’s a flourless chocolate cake, with ground hazelnuts providing the structure and whipped eggs providing the lift. It has the dense but creamy texture I was expecting and hoping for. The frosting is a milk chocolate whipped ganache (oh my gosh, is it ever good!), and it’s sprinkled with as much homemade hazelnut praline as your heart desires. It’s really rich, but fantastic– definitley fit for a special occasion, and not bad with a nice (giant, as you can see above!) glass of Cookoothama Botrytis Semillon, either.
Hazelnut Praline Cake– makes 10-12 servings
adapted from Maureen McKeon’s Crave: A Passion for Chocolate
Note: I halved this recipe and baked it in two 6-inch rounds. Rather than cutting each round into layers, as the author suggests, I left mine as a two-layer cake.
-Make the hazelnut nut praline (recipe follows) and allow to cool. Then break some into shards to decorate and crush the rest.
-Bake the cake (recipe follows) and allow to cool completely.
-While the cake is baking, make the milk chocolate cream (recipe follows) and chill.
-Slice both of the 9-inch cakes horizontally into two layers, or the 10-inch cake into three layers. (If you halve the recipe, or if your baked cakes are simply thin, use your judgement here to decide if you want to slice them or not.) Put one layer on a cake board and spread with some of the whipped chocolate cream. You may need to dip the your icing spatula into hot water to aid in spreading. Sprinkle with some of the crushed praline, and top with the next cake layer. Repeat until all layers are used.
-Spread the remaining cream on the outside of the cake. Sprinkle with as much crushed praline as you’d like and decorate with the shards.
-Cover lightly and refrigerate until service.
Hazelnut Praline
Note: This may make more than you want to use on the cake. You can adjust the quantities accordingly, but extras save nicely for a couple weeks and can be used crushed over ice cream, etc.
235 g granulated sugar
pinch of salt
250 g skinned hazelnuts, warmed
-Line a baking tray (with sides) with a Silpat or parchment.
-Put the sugar, pinch of salt and 50 ml water into a heavy pot. Stir to combine and clean down and sugar crystals on the sides of the pot with a little water. Bring the sugar to a boil and cook until a light caramel color (do not stir).
-Add the nuts and stir over low heat with a wooden spoon. You will notice the sugar go chalky white, and as you stir it will slowly begin to re-caramelize. Increase the heat at this point and continue to cook until the mixture turns a deep honey color.
-Turn the caramel and nut mixture out onto the lined tray. Pat into a single layer with the back of your wooden spoon. Allow to cool completely, and it will harden.
-Once hard, break into shards or put in plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin.
-Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.
Cake
6 large eggs, separated
115 g plus 1 T granulated sugar
pinch of salt
185 g chopped dark chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid
185 g ground hazelnuts
-Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch or one 10-inch round cake pans and line with parchment.
-Using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and 115 g sugar on medium-high speed until thick and pale.
-Using clean beaters and bowl, beat the whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks. Add the 1 T sugar and beat until glossy.
-Mix the tepid chocolate with 3 T hot water and add to the egg yolk mixture. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the ground hazelnuts. Then gently fold in the meringue in two stages.
-Divide the batter among the prepared pans. Bake in the middle of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes (maybe less if you halve the recipe), or until the top is firm to the touch.
-Allow to cool completely in the cake pans before turning out.
Milk Chocolate Cream
375 ml cream (35% fat)
pinch of salt
300 g chopped milk chocolate
60 g unsalted butter
-Bring the cream and pinch of salt to a boil in the saucepan and remove from the heat. Add the chocolate to the hot cream and allow it to stand for a minute or two. Stir until smooth; then stir in the butter. Cover and chill for two hours.
-Use a wooden spoon to beat the chilled ganache mixture until thickened and spreadable.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Granola Grabbers
August 19, 2008 at 5:46 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 46 Comments
Granola Grabbers– I feel so wholesome. Perhaps Michelle of Bad Girl Baking was going for that good, clean feeling when she chose these for TWD this week.
Whether you are trying to satisfy the after-school crowd, or are just trying to put aside those impure thoughts you’ve been having about Gael García Bernal ever since watching The Motorcycle Diaries a few days ago, these will do the trick. These chubby little cookies are loaded with granola (of course), wheat germ, nuts, coconut and raisins (or dried cranberries, in my case). I also added a pinch of cinnamon to mine. They are chewy, but the granola also makes them crunchy…a very pleasant combination of textures. I only made a third of a recipe, and I briefly thought about patting the dough into a loaf pan and making bars instead, but I have definitely not been getting my recommended daily dose of cookies lately.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or on Bad Girl Baking to find the recipe for Granola Grabbers. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 200 other people had to say!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Blueberry-Sour Cream Ice Cream
August 12, 2008 at 5:22 am | Posted in groups, ice creams & frozen, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 64 Comments
I’m back from Hawaii…a couple days in Oahu, a couple Kauai, but most of our time was spent on the Big Island, where my dad’s side of the family descended upon Kona for my uncle’s wedding. I’m sure the area is still recovering from the W family whirlwind. It was a lot of fun, and I have a face full of freckles and a mind full of good memories to show for it. One night, I even had a mai tai for each of you! Trust me when I say that I paid a stiff price for it the next day!
I’ve returned just in time to make blueberry sour-cream ice cream, this week’s TWD recipe, which comes to us courtesy of Dolores from Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity. I was pretty jazzed about this recipe, not only because I jump at any excuse to use my KA ice cream attachment, but also because one of my favorite homemade fruit ice cream recipes is a strawberry-sour cream ice cream I found in Sunset magazine many moons ago. I just love the tang that a whomp of sour cream gives!
This ice cream recipe was pretty simple…no eggs, no making custard, no straining. I used frozen blueberries to make the base. I thought the end product had pretty good flavor, but decided to amp it up a bit before serving with a simple sauce made from, you guessed it, frozen mixed berries.
Dorie notes that this this ice cream is firm in texture. On the day I made it, we ate some within a few hours, when it had that gorgeously soft, smooth feel to it. But on the second day, it was more rock hard than just firm, even after sitting out for awhile. I find that to be a bit unpleasant, and usually put a teeny pinch of xanthan gum, which I get at the health food store, into my homemade ice creams to keep it scoopable for a few days (just a pinch, so it’s never gummy like some store-bought stuff). I was a little PO’d with myself for forgetting it here. If I make this again, I’ll wait till fresh berries are in season and I’ll add a pinch of xanthan gum at the point where the berries are just cooked and still hot.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity to find the recipe. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 200 other people had to say!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Black-and-White Banana Loaf
August 5, 2008 at 5:32 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 54 Comments
I love a making loaf cakes (and Bundts, too…wink, wink, nudge, nudge), so I was glad to see that Ashlee of A Year In The Kitchen chose Dorie’s Black-and-White Banana Loaf for TWD this week. Loaf cakes are basically throw together no-brainers, although this one has the extra steps of melting chocolate, mashing a banana and marbling. Still no-brainers, but with a few more bowls to wash at the end.
I also love stuff baked with bananas. I do find this odd, since I don’t like raw bananas at all–ick! But they smell so good baking in the oven, and make for super-moist cakes, breads and muffins. You’ll hear no complaints from me on this cake (it tastes just like you’d expect), although perhaps I could work on my marbling skills…what I did just looks like blobs. Dorie said to make this more white than black, but I paid that no mind and went more black than white.
Did I tell you I found a half-size loaf pan a couple months ago? Really, I don’t even know why I have larger baking pans anymore…they rarely see the light of day. The little guy’s almost as deep as a normal loaf, though, so it doesn’t really shave anything off the baking time.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Ashlee’s post to find the recipe. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 200 other people had to say!
P.S.: I’m still out of town…back in a couple days!
Daring Bakers in July: Filbert Gâteau with Praline Buttercream
July 30, 2008 at 4:19 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, daring bakers, groups, layer cakes, sweet things | 49 Comments
When I saw that Chris of Mele Cotte would be taking charge of this month’s Daring Bakers challenge, I had my fingers crossed that she’d chose something sweet with an Italian twist to it. As if reading my mind, she chose Filbert Gâteau with Praline Buttercream–a cake featuring the quintessentially Italian combo of hazelnuts and chocolate (and two funny words, “filbert” and “gâteau”). Mmmm…wonderful.
I made a half recipe, fitting the cake batter into a six-inch pan with high sides. There’s a little bit of citrus in this recipe, but I decided to leave out the lemon zest in the cake batter and replace the Grand Marnier in the soaking syrup and buttercream with Kahlua, which suits my tastes better. As you can see, I kind of copped out and only cut the cake into two layers instead of three.
While I did not to make the praline to add to the buttercream frosting, I did make caramelized whole hazelnuts to use as decoration. I flavored my Swiss meringue buttercream instead with an unsweetened hazelnut butter that I had bought at the health food store awhile back. Buttercream is plenty sweet already, so this gave it a nice balance and a good hazelnut flavor. I realized that I’d have a few more of those caramelized nuts than I’d need to decorate the top of the cake, so I chopped up the extras roughly and sprinkled them over the buttercream before placing on the top layer of cake. That was a nice crunchy touch!
I am wondering if my glaze was a little on the thin side. The top was nice and smooth, but as it dripped down the side of cake, it seemed to get hung up on the little specks of hazelnut in the buttercream crumb coat (which I chose to use instead of apricot glaze). No matter…it was on to the decorating! Chris wanted us to use some of the buttercream in our decoration. Small cakes can easily look look overwhelmed by garnish, so I didn’t want to use too much. Little shells on the bottom border, a few rosettes on top, and that was enough for me. I finished it off with a little gold dust and the candied nuts.
After reading through all that, maybe you wonder what it tasted like. This cake was seriously delicious! We had it for three nights, and I savored every bite. There were a lot of steps to this cake, but the end result was totally worth it. I can hardly believe that I joined the Daring Bakers last July (I can also hardly believe that the group was still in the double digits back then)! I considered this to be my DB one-year anniversary cake!
Check out the DB blogroll! And visit Mele Cotte for the recipe (which was adapted from Great Cakes by Carol Walter).
P.S.: I’m still out of town, but back next week!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Summer Fruit Galette
July 29, 2008 at 5:19 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 39 Comments
This week, it’s more summer fruit action for TWD, as Michelle from Michelle in Colorado Springs has selected Dorie’s recipe for Summer Fruit Galette. I’m wondering if there are any Southern Hemisphere dwellers coming up in the rotation? Anyone to pick a heavy, wintertime bread pudding, or perhaps a little pumpkin somethin’ somethin’? 
Just kidding…actually, I have something up my sleeve, and it’s one of my absolute favorites. It’s no secret either, because I used it last week— rhubarb.
I so associate rhubarb with spring back in the States, but I mentioned last week that I see it at the farmers’ markets year-round here. Maybe it’s the mild climate or something, I dunno. And I’m talking about thin, red as anything, beautiful stalks, with healthy green leaves (although they’re not healthy to eat–call Mr. Yuck!) still attached. It’s really a veggie, by the way, so perhaps I should call this a “summer vegetable galette”?
A galette is a free-form tart. Less muss and fuss than one baked in a ring, it’s easy to make, and even easier when you have enough of Dorie’s pie dough (left over from my mini Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie) stashed in the freezer to do it. I made two individual-sized galettes. After cutting out the rolled dough into two circles, I smeared the centers with a little strawberry rhubarb jam and sprinkled on some almond cookie crumbs. Then I just piled on a heap of cut rhubarb. Because I really liked the bite of ginger in last week’s cobbler, I chopped up a couple of small hunks of baby stem ginger in syrup that I had in the fridge, and dotted it among the rhubarb pieces…it’s pretty potent stuff, so a little goes along way. I folded the edges of the dough up to form pleats, and the galettes looked oddly similar to a stop sign when viewed from above. I wouldn’t exactly say that rhubarb abounds in natural sweetness, so when I sprinkled the dough with raw sugar before putting the galettes in the oven, I also sprinkled some on the rhubarb.
A few minutes before the galette finishes baking, a “custard” of melted butter, egg, sugar and vanilla gets poured on top. I had initially thought about leaving it out, because the combination of ingredients sounded a little weird to me, frankly. Other TWDers said it really added something, though, so I went ahead with it. And I must say, while it had a strange color (some may say “snot-like”), it was quite tasty and it gave a nice sweetness that seeped all around the rhubarb to fill in the gaps.
To serve, I followed Dorie’s suggestion to simply dust some powdered sugar on top and call it day. We really enjoyed this. It’s a great simple dessert, and I’ll definitely have to try it with some stonefruit in another six months! And I have to say (even though I should not praise that which contains shortening), Dorie’s pie dough is super freakin’ flaky.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Michelle’s post to find the recipe. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 200 other people had to say!
P.S.: So sorry, but I may not be able to make the TWD rounds myself for the next couple weeks. I’ll be on vacation when you read this–twelve days in America’s paradise, and without our laptop. Aloha!
What do you think?
July 26, 2008 at 8:47 pm | Posted in other stuff | 24 Comments
Notice my new look? Big change, right? What do you think? I love it, but I can’t take the credit. Nope, that goes to Jess from Delicious Design Studio (although you may know her from All Things Cupcake or The Tattooed Mama). I don’t have a clue what CSS is, or even stands for, but luckily I had the good sense to find someone who does.
Since I’ve managed to keep at this blog thing for more than a year now, I felt it deserved a fancy new dress. Jess whipped up something that’s just my style. And as an unexpected plus, I think that having a great-looking template makes my photos look better. Maybe it will trick you into thinking my words are better, too! Thanks, Jess!!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler
July 22, 2008 at 5:55 am | Posted in cobbler/crisp/shorties, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 49 Comments
After a quick chocolate fix last week, TWD’s summer fruit theme picks right back up, with Amanda’s (from Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake) selection of Dorie’s Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler. Interestingly (and luckily), rhubarb doesn’t seem to have a season here, and I can find it all year-round at the growers’ markets. Fresh cherries, however, are out in force at Christmastime and pretty much non-existent right now…so this, my friends, is when I must turn to the glorious bounty of the frozen food aisle if I wanna keep up. Armed with a bunch of fresh rhubarb and a box of frozen sweet cherries, I thought I was all set to take this cobbler on.
Then d’oh! I did hit a snag when I saw that the cobbler topping includes whole wheat flour. Just before we moved into this new apartment, I used up the last of my whole wheat in a pizza crust. For reasons I’ll get into later when things become more definite, I’ve been hoping to avoid buying any new ingredients that I can’t easily use up in a few months time. I definitely wanted to include the whole wheat component, as it’s something unique from the other Dorie cobbler we’ve baked, so I decided to make a “homemade” version rather than buy another big bag. No, I didn’t go out back to the grist mill and grind my own (that thing’s been broken since the mid-1800’s– ha!)…I just subbed half AP flour and half wheat germ, which I did have already, for the amount of whole wheat.
There were a couple of things I really liked about this cobbler: the cute little rounds of wheaten topping (which I’ll use again, for sure), and the kick from the ground ginger in both the topping and the filling. There was something about the fruit itself that I wasn’t so crazy about, and it had to do with the cherries. Maybe I’m just used to sour cherries in cobblers and pies, and don’t care for baked sweet cherries. Or maybe it’s simply that fresh cherries would have been better than frozen. Who knows? I don’t, but maybe I can compare when fresh cherries are in season.
Look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Amanda’s post to find the recipe. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 200 other people had to say!
Back to School: Sugar Flowers
July 17, 2008 at 9:49 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, classes, sweet things | 25 Comments
Whenever I’m between jobs, as I am at the moment, I like to make a little investment in what I’ll call “professional development.” I love going back to school to learn something new about aspects of pastry that I don’t often get to dabble in.
Having worked in several restaurants, and with several different pastry chefs, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that most restaurant pastry chefs and cooks don’t know much about cake decorating. It’s not something that’s needed in that realm day-to-day, and it’s such an all-consuming, specialist craft that there would never be the time in between daily menu production and crazy service to really even begin to develop that talent.
That being said, I did work for a few years in a restaurant with a large function area that hosted its share wedding receptions, anniversary, birthday and other private parties throughout the year. Many people arranged to have cakes delivered by outside shops, but if they didn’t mind a simple cake covered in basic buttercream or fondant and just decorated with some fresh flowers, then my chef K and I were happy to take care of it in our kitchen. That planted in me an interest in cake making and decorating, and over the last couple of years I’ve taken several courses to play around in this area.
I’ve written about the classes I’ve taken at Planet Cake before (here, here and here), and that’s where I took this latest one as well. Greg Cleary, owner of a shop called Sweetums Designer Cakes in Brisbane, came down to Planet Cake to teach the class, and pass along his tips and expertise. We learned how to make gumpaste tulips, sweetpeas, lily of the valley and ivy.
I was really happy with the end result, and I had a great time in the class! Greg was a wonderful teacher, and he is really amazing at what he does–I’m so glad he was willing to share. This was actually my second sugar flower workshop (I took a fantastic week-long one at the CIA a couple years ago), and who knows if I’ll ever use it professionally, but I’d love to learn more. And despite the fact that it takes a lot of concentration to keep my self-diagnosed ADD tendencies under control for this kind of thing, I’d like to practise at home, too, because I think you really do forget this stuff if you don’t…you need quite a lot of equipment (cutters, wires, tools, all kinds of powdered colors), though, so I’ll probably have to accumulate that over time.
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