eggbeater

Sunday New York Times: July 20, 2008 {!}

This coming Sunday you may want to pick up the NY Times. Look for something written by the inimitable Amanda Hesser.
July 20, 2008.
It will be a special day indeed.
Well, for me, at any rate.

See you soon?

 

The Caramel Cake Has Made A Comeback

I have made some adjustments to the recipe based on the challenges of the current kitchen where it is being produced. We are using a still oven that is also the service oven for The Line in the restaurant, during service!

Caramel Cake.

Yes. Nearby, if you live in Northern California. I'm a gonna get me some today...

Coconut Cream Pie!

This was so delicious I might have to share the recipe with you. I'll give you a hint: First I used Food Blog Search. Then I wrote out my standard pastry cream recipe and compared it to Nicole's. I used the basic premise of Baking Bite's recipe,

and then, I finessed like crazy.

It is my belief that white sugar interrupts the subtle flavour of coconut. Now I know coconut is not a shy flavour, but it takes a bit of sweet nothings, patience, and much listening, to get to the root of coconut's true soul. There are few ingredients which do not compete to win when it comes to playing with coconut.

Instead of using all white sugar, I also used raw. I also substituted vanilla sugar for some of the white sugar. (I take dried vanilla beans and their empty brittle sheaths and I break them up in a spice grinder with raw or white sugar until all is pulverized and highly aromatic.)

I didn't have 1/2 & 1/2 so I "made my own" with Manufacturer's cream and whole milk. And although I liked the idea of using whole eggs for pastry cream, (the whites help the custard "set up" a little harder: which is what you need when you're not going to bake the pie again), but I also wanted to enrich the custard with a few extra egg yolks.

Also, I love infusing dairy for pastry cream with whatever flavour I am looking to achieve. So I toasted a bunch of sweetened shredded coconut and did a long infusion. But I passed the liquid through a fine meshed sieve (= chinois) because I didn't want those bits floating around in my smooth custard.

And because this coconut cream pie filling wasn't rich enough yet (ha!), I mounted in some butter at the end, throwing in a dash of browned butter for added kick/ boost.

And of course I seasoned with Kosher salt to taste.

Can you say goddamn?

I have never made coconut cream pie before. But in the last few days I feel I can now say,

I have done this fine American standard, a service.

xo

Cherry Pits: Poisonous? Edible? Usable Culinarily?

A rash of comments on today's post have brought to question whether it's a good idea to work with, smash & extract stone fruit kernels, eat, get near, think about eating or swallowing cherry pits.

Some of you say, no way, Stay Away. I say the issue isn't so simple and if you trust me, you might have a new and delicious educational lesson.

But I am going to present all the information as I know it. You decide.

"Apricots preserved by canning are better left unpitted because their flash absorbs a delicate hint of bitter almond flavor from the kernels inside, the noyaux, which also bestow their characteristic flavor on amaretti cookies, liqueurs, ice creams and custards. To extract the kernels, first roast the pits in a 350F. oven for 10 minutes: this makes them easier to crack open and also destroys an enzyme that generates poisonous prussic acid when noyaux mix are mixed with water... To be absolutely sure the noyaux are safe to eat, roast them again for a few minutes after they have been extracted."

    Chez Panisse Fruit by Alice Waters and the Cooks of Chez Panisse in collaboration with Alan Tangren and Fritz Striff {Harper Collins, c. 2002}

I myself have used noyaux to scent, infuse and flavor bavarian, pannacotta, eaux de vie, ice cream, frangipane, almond cream, sorbet, ice cream and fruit galettes. I have eaten all of these desserts more than a few times.

Apricot kernels is what almond extract is made of.

Some of the best apricot jam I know is made with its kernels. From their site: "APRICOT JAM
We insist on the old fashioned Royal Blenheim apricots. Happily, there are still several orchards in Northern California growing this rare variety. The kernels found in the jar are from the apricot's pit and add a wonderful flavor."

A local San Francisco bakery makes its signature almond paste cookies with apricot noyaux. They are really intense. You have to absolutely love the taste of marzipan.

There are some progressive/ radical ideas about using apricot kernels in AIDS and cancer drugs. In some States the kernels are illegal to sell. I have seen them being sold in bulk sections of various local health food stores in the homeopathy section. (Be sure to check out the comments on this article.)

Heroin will also give you some of the symptoms described in this warning about eating cherry and apple pits.

I was taught how to eat apples by my grandfather, who ate the entire core. By the time I was 12 I might could very well have eaten 500 Macintosh apple pips.

In traditional French cherry clafoutis, recipes call for unpitted cherries for the same reason Chez Panisse Fruit says to keep apricots intact for canning.

Homemade cherry spirits utilize noyaux.

P.S. I wrote an article in Edible San Francisco about cherries last summer. It's now online. Check it out here.

The choice is yours. Have all the facts, that's what I say.

Chocolate Baking Class: Saturday May 24, 2008

**If you are looking for my most current class calendar, click here.**

give me a     C !  c is for chocolate
give me an  H!  h is for helpful hints
give me an  O!  o is for oooooooohs! and O's! and oodles of olfactory sensations
give me a     C !  c is for cocoa and cocoa nibs and chocolate cake and chocolate caramel
give me an  O!  o is for oblectation and oestrogenic
give me an  L!  l is for love and lust and lick and lips
give me an  A!  a is for ambrosia, attract, and and, and and, and.
give me a     T ! t is for tickling taste buds to test tantric tarantism
give me an  E!  e is for exquisite. emulsify. effervescent. et extraordinaire!

This Saturday May 24, 2008
from 1 to 4 pm

Chocolate: Techniques and Desserts for Baking with Cocoa & Chocolates

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate will be eaten, melted, sifted, crushed, infused, emulsified, loved, played with, measured, asked questions of, delighted in and learned in my first class of May.

Please consider joining us in for an afternoon in the Paulding & Company Kitchen, Emeryville, a large and fabulously well stocked teaching kitchen.

Find all the details and information for signing up by clicking on this link.

~ come one, come all, come   h u n g r y   to learn!

French Macaron Recipe & Method

Every restaurant job is different. In one kitchen, with one pastry chef, you make chocolate mousse a hundred different ways, another person hates bananas and tropical fruit so you never use them. In one house you spend 3 hours of your prep time for service painting, baking and lifting tuiles off silpats until you have no more fingertips, and at your next job you will need to understand what and how gelatin works. There's no telling.

As pastry chefs we have books filled with recipes for components but there is no recipe for a plated dessert. Plated desserts are short stories, novellas, quizzical sentences and adventures. We take one or a few flavors, textures, perfumes, concepts and build a plate around those beginnings.

At The French Laundry we served many desserts. Even if you only ordered one, many were shuttled out to your table. We had tiny courses to whet, calm, excite, puzzle, surprise, intrigue, satisfy, warm, cool and generally delight the palate.

One such mignardise was the famous French macaron. A tiny white button of a sandwich cookie filled with a gnome sized hand-print schmear of chocolate ganache could be found in the middle.

I hated making those cookies.

I thought the flavor was almost nothing and I didn't understand why we had to make them.

The year was 1997.

To my knowledge, this was before Pierre Herme brilliantly hid foie gras, brandied cherries, olive oil ganache and rose scented buttercream within his explicit exquisite macaron. This was before some crazy American women at a local bakery slammed the brakes on tradition and ground whole almonds (most all are made with blanched almond meal) to make such revolutionary great tasting and, gasp, seasonal! macaron, such as grapefruit and rose geranium. Not only do Miette's macaron taste delicious, they are actually made with real flavors. (Much of those fantastically colored and flavored French macaron are made with food coloring and flavor "essences.")

I do remember when Eric came back from working for Gordon Ramsey and told us that he saw beet and other radical flavored and colored macaron there in London. Blech, was all I could think.

These cookies were not only not easy to make at TFL, they were finicky and maliciously inconsistent, not to mention downright stubborn and prissy. Volatile combinations for any dessert component, and, as you can well imagine, terrifying if combined with the hands of an exacting, organized and driven pastry chef manning the wheel.

It didn't help that none of us in the kitchen could figure out how to make them and we were working with an equally temperamental still oven. (Not convection, which is the standard for pastry departments, at least in the USA.)

Luckily for all of you who know how to use the Internet, there is a thorough step-by-step tutorial on this now very famous French sandwich cookie. Fellow pastry chef Tartelette wrote the article and it's source is an online magazine called, fittingly, Desserts Magazine.

Don't delay, go there today.

Because, hey, just because I don't see what all the fuss is about, doesn't mean I'm going to keep you from the sandwich cookie love of your life. Apple of your eye. You Golden Apple of Eternal Desire, to quote Milan Kundera.

Be kept from your passion no more!

Obviously I don't hate them anymore. But until I learn how to make them again with someone who wants cookies that taste like something, I will be glad to liquidate my bank account in Paris or The Ferry Building.

I figure it's a lot like high heels. I think they're very pretty shoes, but I'm glad other people are happy wearing them so I don't have to.

~ post script: Aran was lovely enough to make me some pink peppercorn macaron when I met her in Florida. Yes, this is a beautiful example of how to change a boring component into an exciting one.

How To Make Flaky, Buttery Pastry: Photos From The Class!

**Want to know what classes I'm teaching right now? Click here.**

Extremely lucky for me and you, Anita came to my class yesterday and took an entire series of photos the Pastry Class! Check them out as slideshow if you've the time-- this way you get the whole effect.

And maybe you can help thank her for me, not only are these photos stunning, they're informative & thorough!

How To Make Homemade Ice Cream. Class & Flavor Notes

*Looking for a current class calendar? Click here."

Today I taught 17 high schoolers how to make ice cream. It was the first time everyone in my class was under the age of 20. Which means very little, in a way, except that unless you teach or coach high school students, you would probably not be in a class with so many of them. And I can't imagine they would all spontaneously sign up and pay for a specific subject baking class.

They are having a week-long intensive on everything ice cream, and I was the hands-on How To part of the week. Yes, some learning facilities are better than others!

We ate 3 different ice creams today: Butterscotch, Malt and Strawberry. As is the case with cooking on TV, one must have everything ready because 3 hours is just not enough time to produce various ice cream bases and their frozen twins. I made and churned butterscotch ice cream last night. For the malt I made creme anglaise last night and brought it to class as is. We froze/ churned the malt right away because I wanted to show everyone how to make the best ever chocolate "chips." (Melt chocolate and drizzle into ice cream you've just pulled from the machine, then freeze a bit more, or eat it right away!)

Lastly, we made strawberry ice cream from start to finish, eating our results within an hour of cracking eggs and prepping strawberries. Very exciting indeed.

I thought I would share with you some of my notes because, as I am wont to do, I made a lot of changes as I went along, and came up with some great results. As you know I think most recipes are guides. Ice cream is especially amenable to making it up as you go along. 

Ice cream likes when more people come to the party than were invited. It's not a rave, like soup, but feel free to take ice cream's hand, pull her on the dance floor and do a spontaneous dance for no reason except that you love how she tastes... If you know what each ingredient is there for and what each ingredient does to the end result-- taste, mouthfeel, freezing capacities, texture-- you can play quite a bit with the ratios. This is the ratio I gave to my students, knowing that they'll be using home ice cream machines, which, by the way, are not big fans of liquids insanely high in fat.

ICE CREAM BASE

WHOLE MILK        2 1/2    CUPS
HEAVY CREAM*        1 1/2    CUPS
SUGAR**                          5 to 7    ounces
EGG YOLKS        8    EACH

*please do not use ultra-pasteurized cream       
**Always split sugar in two additions.       

Here are a few methods for making creme anglaise: one, two, three. As you can see, they are quite similar. This is because it takes a certain amount of egg yolks to marry cream and become liquid custard. Too few yolks and you'll never reach nappe, too many and you may curdle the mixture before the whole body has reached coagulation. Although, truth be told, there are ways to get 10 times the amount of egg yolks into cream to create insanely thick creme anglaise, creme brulee, and many other custards, but that lesson is for a commercial kitchen with big, heavy equipment.

Nappe (pronounced na-PAY) is when creme anglaise gets thick and coats the back of a wooden spoon so when you draw a finger through it it creates a line. You could use a thermometer (and take it to 180F) but if you get used to this I guarantee you will ruin more bases than succeed, or at least you'll never teach your body what nappe feels like. Unfortunately for the somewhat lazy there's no bread machine equivalent for ice cream....

There's nothing like the flavor and texture of homemade ice cream either! Nothing beats this body memory-- sweating profusely while hand cranking a metal canister embraced by salty ice in the middle of a NYC heatwave, on the floor of a tiny cramped lower east side apartment, getting to the last two-handed push and stopping, forcing off the lid and reaching a spoon into voluptuous chilled vanilla ice cream, white and billowy, chilling teeth and tongue and throat as it went down. Mmmmm, my first homemade ice cream experience. /Thanks Dad!

So, any questions so far?

Follow instructions for making creme anglaise with these recipes, except with batch #2 strawberry-- you'll see there are some slightly different instructions there.

BUTTERSCOTCH ICE CREAM

WHOLE MILK   3.75 CUPS

1/2 & 1/2   2.25 CUPS

VANILLA BEAN   .25

RAW SUGAR   3-4 ounces

YOLKS   12

------

BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE   5-8 OUNCES

For the vanilla infusion I took dry, brittle leftover beans and pulsed them in my little coffee/ spice grinder with 1/2 of the weighed sugar. You may also use this helpful method to get all that you can out of those expensive little black pods.

After making and chilling this anglaise for a spell I added about 5 ounces of butterscotch sauce. {Whisk a little custard into bowl of butterscotch to loosen it first. Otherwise it might be difficult to dissolve it (if butterscotch is cold.)} When base was completely cool I seasoned it a bit more, to taste, with Lima salt and vanilla extract. Goodness me oh my but this stuff should be available by prescription only...

So you don't think I have the corner on butterscotch ice cream making, here's another way of doing it.

MALT-CHOCOLATE "CHIP" ICE CREAM

WHOLE MILK   3 CUPS

HEAVY CREAM   3 CUPS

VANILLA BEAN   .25

RAW SUGAR   1 ounce

KOSHER SALT   a pinch or two

---

EGG YOLKS   13

BROWN SUGAR   2.5 ounces (light or dark is fine)

MALT POWDER*   3 ounces *You may use malt syrup instead-- it's easier to find.

---------------------

70% CHOCOLATE  @6 ounces

This: ---- indicates that brown sugar and malt powder are to be added to the yolks and should not be put in steeping dairy.

--------> Melt chocolate carefully, set aside to cool a little. When ice cream is done churning, scoop it into a cold bowl and with a slotted spoon, serving fork or whisk, sprinkle thin, quick streams of chocolate over ice cream, fold and repeat until either you have enough chocolate twigs or ice cream needs to be rushed into the freezer.

If your chief complaint with mint chocolate chip or chocolate chip ice cream is chocolate chips are too waxy, hard, big or just plain dreadful, you could say I've just solved your problem. And if you're feeling happy & generous because of it, feel free to buy me my favorite home ice cream maker... kidding. /Not.

As with the butterscotch ice cream, I prepared my vanilla sugar mixture the same way & also seasoned at the very end with a dash of salt and vanilla extract. If the malt flavor is not strong enough, you can always stir in more-- don't be shy-- have fun!

STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM

We made 2 very different bases to see what changes when you switch around the ingredients and change the method.

BASE #1:

MILK   3 CUPS

CREAM   3 CUPS

SUGAR*   12 ounces *If I were going to make this again, I would lower the amount of sugar to 9 or 10 ounces.

YOLKS   12

VANILLA BEAN   .5

BASE #2:

1/2 & 1/2   3 CUPS

EGG YOLKS   12

SUGAR*   12 ounces *If I were going to make this again, I would lower the amount of sugar to 9 or 10 ounces.

--------

HEAVY CREAM   3 CUPS

------

When base was cool we made a strawberry coulis in the blender of about 3 baskets of strawberries, a splash of water and some sugar, and added this to the custard, after it had been chilled. We made "strawberry custard," not by cooking the strawberries, but by adding our coulis to the creme anglaise to taste.

In another bowl we rough-chopped 3 more baskets of strawberries, tossed them with a splash of sugar, and after our strawberry ice cream was done churning, we married the two together.

-----> Hint: place metal bowl in freezer. When ice cream is ready to come out of machine, use a spatula to lift it into metal bowl and fold macerated strawberry chunky stuff into fresh ice cream. {at this point I will admit it's hard to get it into containers in the freezer. freshly churned ice cream is the best mouth feel!}

This is what I ate for lunch and I would do it again.

In base #2 we followed the method of making ice cream Chez Panisse employs. Instead of cooking all the dairy to have an end result of one cohesive creme anglaise, they want their diners to taste the pure taste of cream with a hint of flavor. For certain flavors I will use this method because the uncooked cream can be a delightful side flavor to a main flavor, especially when the main flavor is inherently bright, like with fruit or some herbs and spices.

If you are of the mind to think of some flavors as warm and some as cool, you know what I mean. It's true that when some of the dairy stays away from heat, you create a very different ice cream flavor profile.

Good To Know Ice cream Hints & Allegations:

High acid sugars:            
    Maple, brown sugars, raw sugar, Organic sugar, honey, malt, molasses, and/or fructose based sugars like stevia and agave…       

When using high acid sugars, never:            
    steep first hot mixture with them.

Instead:
    make your "liaison" with them. (add them into yolks, not steeping dairy.)   

Always steep until taste. Every aromatic is different.                

Remember that when ice cream is frozen it will taste 10% less strong.
Inversely, ice cream base will taste sweeter & saltier when hot. Season base "to taste" when fully chilled.               

If you make a milk anglaise and pass this into cream, you will also diminish the strength of the initial anglaise flavor, but also "brighten" the cream taste.
         
If you ever find that the ice cream base "curdles" somewhere along the way you can "save" it in the blender or with a stick-blender.         

Never cook high acid dairies like buttermilk, crème fraiche, yogurt, cultured cheeses.                

Always add high acid liquids to ice cream base after chilling it through and through.
    High acid liquids: citrus juice, the above dairies, molasses, fruit purees, vinegars, etc.               

An invert sugar is one that exists in nature as a liquid.               
    Examples: corn syrups, glucose, honey, simple syrup, agave syrup, malt syrup, maple syrup, molasses, Lyle's Golden syrup, Treacle, etc.            

Both Invert Sugars and alcohol will lower the freezing temperature of ice creams and sorbet. Meaning that ice cream and sorbet will not freeze as hard if these are present. For example, it's almost impossible to make smooth chocolate ice cream without at least one invert sugar.
   
Never seal closed an ice cream base in the fridge if it is still warm or hot. Always chill in ice bath, stirring frequently, until cold through and through to the touch before storing and covering.      
   
Creme Anglaise will keep 5 to 7 days if it has not been churned.               

To preserve aroma and flavor, sorbet should be churned the day it is made, but it will keep 3 to 5 days.    

Always whisk bases thoroughly before churning. Some flavors will settle, or sometimes bases will separate a bit in storage.

If you are going to season with vanilla extract, do so after the base has been chilled.    

And don't forget-- never throw out that used & spent looking vanilla bean sheath when you're done infusing! The whole pod is edible and you can dry it and zap it in a spice grinder when it's thoroughly dried out.       

So, nu? You think you might be making your own ice cream soon?

Enjoy!

    ~   come one, come all, come hungry to learn!  ~    

Pavlova & New Spring Strawberries!

Remember Pavlova?

Now that I'm creating simple, easy to plate, seasonal & straightforward desserts for a new place, I am calling upon those recipes who don't steer me wrong. Just a little finesse on the back-end means elegant, but not too complicated, delivery for the diner.

As soon as I heard strawberries were worth a try I knew Pavlova would be their first vehicle. New Spring strawberries are a little tart because the sun is not as strong. Rhubarb is coming out of greenhouses but is still a little watery because when the plants start and finish in soil they have to work a little harder for moisture.

My idea is this-- roast strawberries in a light sprinkling of vanilla bean sugar, and turn them into a vibrant, intense sauce. Poach rhubarb, making sure not to overcook it so as to keep it's super feminine hot pink liquid, and turn that into a transparent gelee. Sugar sear pieces of rhubarb, using the forces of osmotic reciprocity. Bake a thin layer of light vanilla cake (like Angel Food Cake but cheating by adding melted butter), and hide this under the Pavlova. Whip ever-so-slightly-sweetened, vanilla kissed chantilly.

Voila!

Hidden white fluffy cake, Pavlova, whipped cream, fuschia rhubarb gelee, hot pink pieces of tender rhubarb: intact but not too sweet, and a swirl of intensely flavored strawberry sauce to make the sweet-sour, red-pink, strawberry-rhubarb, pastel palette, crunch-soft (for the Pavlova must be crunchy meringue on the outside and pillowy cloud of soft marshmallowy deliciousness to be a true Pavlova), plate complete.

Simple. Delicious. Pretty in Pink.

See you soon?

Butterscotch Questions & Answers

Butterscotch is a much disputed substance. People say butterscotch is this and butterscotch is that, but butterscotch is just one thing:

Butterscotch.

god said it, i believe it, and that settles it

Over yonder ho at Simply Recipes on the How To Make Butterscotch piece there are some absolutely fantastic questions being asked. What I love about the hard questions is that they make me think really hard, do a little more research and then try as hard as I can to explain what I know. In an actual kitchen, with you standing by my side, I can explain by saying "Here, look, see that and hey-- take a spoon and taste. See?"

But on this here flat screen, with only these 26 letters below my fingertips... Well let's just say it's a challenge I love to meet.

Two of my favorites so far:

"I fear I must repeat a previously asked question, as I, too, want to know. What is the difference between butterscotch and caramel? Thanks.

Hello LesterK,
Thanks for your question. I fear the explanation will bring us into the sticky realm (pun intended) of the thick and murky nomenclature bog.

Plainly, for the sake of brevity, caramel is made with white sugar and butterscotch is made of brown sugar.

But caramel could also be seen as an umbrella term for a wide range of sugars that caramelize. See above comments-- butterfat can caramelize from a number of animals which give milk, and depending on the region you could be eating Yak caramel or coconut sugar caramel, neither of which fit neatly into these two binary caramels.

I fear your question has spurred in me a number of other questions, and possibly posts, to come. Thank you for your small but grand query! ~ Shuna "

and

"Can you explain the New England habit of adding a dash of vinegar to butterscotch?

Hello DtG,
This is a great question. Because butterscotch began its life in the form of a hard candy there are a few "hold-over" ingredients from that particular recipe that can still sometimes be found in butterscotch sauce recipes and methods.

I don't have a degree in science, so explaining exactly why acidic liquid is added to sugar while sugar cooks and melts and reaches high temperatures is difficult in this format. Sugar loves to re-crystallize while it melts and one way of "insuring" that it will not re-crystallize is to add acidic liquid or an invert sugar (the most popular one now being corn syrup.)

Although one source listed cider vinegar as a preservative in butterscotch hard candy making, I believe the addition of vinegar was first used to facilitate sugar's smooth transition from granulated to liquid, and secondly the presence of acid in sweet cookery is like salt in savoury cooking-- vinegar acts as a flavor enhancer.

It should be noted: butterscotch making as we know it today, whether it be for hard candy or sauce, looks very different than the way it did in 1817 and the decades following. ~ Shuna "

Might you have any questions weighing on your heart about the elusive creature that is butterscotch? Fire away!