Almond Tea Cake with Almond Toffee Topping

So it happened like this: I was offered a slice of Basque Cake. I like to never turn down a dessert I've not previously tried. It was at MFK, a delightful lunch spot (I'm sure it's wonderful for dinner but I've only been for lunch), and yes, it was awesome. It was a simple cake, tho unlike others - it had this gooey thing going on in the middle, a delicate crumb and a meringue-like crunch part on the top. And it wasn't too sweet, which is something I'm always yammering about. I like to taste flavor in a dessert, and appreciate texture, and often the two are lost in an emulsion of sugar.

I wanted to make one! I haven't done much baking this year, save a batch of sour cherry doughnuts on Christmas morning. Those were awesome, but I digress. I searched though all my cookbooks and trolled a variety of websites and learned a bit about the cake, but not enough to feel confident I was going to reproduce the marvel that was MFK's. Baking may be like riding a bike in that you won't forget how but it won't necessarily be pretty. As I was heading over to friends' home and didn't want to show up with a failed experiment, I decided to go with an old standard. I added the topping just for grins, and loved it so much I'm making it again for a party tonite.

For those of you whose interest is piqued by the Basque Cake, try this from Lottie + Doof but don't say I didn't say I didn't warn you: it's not for the impatient baker. Follow the link below for my Almond Tea Cake recipe. Almond paste is sold in the baking aisle in an 8oz can or small box.

Almond Tea Cake with Almond Toffee Topping
Print recipe only here

INGREDIENTS
8 oz almond paste
10 oz unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 cups AP flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt

Topping:
3 T unsalted butter
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1 T AP flour
1 T heavy cream

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit an 8-inch round cake pan. I use a 3-inch tall cake pan for this cake. You can also use a 9-inch by 2-inch tall pan. Spray the cake pan with baking spray or grease with butter, and fit the parchment round onto the base. Reserve.

Sift the dry ingredients together and reserve. Crack the eggs into a measuring cup (one with a spout for pouring) and add the vanilla extract.

In a stand mixer (or hand mixer) cream together the butter and almond paste for 1-2 minutes. Slowly add the sugar, creaming well over about 3-4 minutes.

Lower the mixer speed to medium and pour in one eggs at a time, mixing well between additions. Add the flour in 3 additions, mixing slowly and just barely between additions. Don't overmix! Transfer batter into prepared pan and bake for about 50-55 minutes.

After about 50 minutes of baking, prepare the topping - don't do it earlier than that because it will harden. In a small saucepan, melt the butter, add the sugar and stir to combine. Add remaining ingredients and reserve.

When the cake has about 5-10 minutes left of baking (like when the toothpick had a few tacky crumbs stuck on it), remove from the oven and carefully spoon topping over the entire surface, being careful not to disrupt the cake. Return to the oven and bake for 5-8 minutes, or until the cake is cooked thru.

Remove from oven and run a knife around edge of cake, as if you were going to release it. Let cool for about 15-20 minutes, then carefully invert onto a plate and then invert again so that the almond topping is on top. Serve and enjoy!

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Can Your Sweet Tooth be Retrained?

There were two big sugar events this week. First, a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough was produced. Our practice concerning cookies is ordered around the empirical truth that cookies are only good when fresh baked (further chronicled here). We make dough and roll it into logs. One log goes in the freezer and the other stays in the fridge. Individual cookies are baked off for treats on an as needed basis. That this practice also precludes overindulgence is not lost on the nutrition hawk in me.

The second event was that we took delivery on a 10-pound bag of glucose (a/k/a dextrose powder). Quick chemistry on glucose: glucose and its chubby cousin, fructose, are monosaccharides. Put together they form sucrose, yes, a disaccharide. Sucrose is what's in your sugar bowl. That batch of cookies called for 3/4 cup of white granulated sugar and another 3/4 cup of light brown sugar (1). Whether your sugar bowl contains sugar-in-the-raw, or those fancy La Perruche sugar cubes I like so much, or white granulated table sugar you assumed originated from sugar cane but is actually from beets, it's all sucrose. It's all the same chemistry.

Once ingested, enzymes break sucrose back down into fructose and glucose. Your body needs glucose, it is a source of energy needed by cells (2). Your body does not need dietary fructose - it heads straight to the liver where the excess (most of it) is turned into fat. (3) This is old news, tho it would have been helpful information for my college girlfriends and I to have understood in the mid-90s TCBY craze.

[Did we not learn anything from TCBY? Frozen yogurt is back and it's bigger than before - and now it's there's candy and you can fill your own massive bowl.]

Glucose is either used immediately for energy or stored in muscle cells or the liver (4). Unlike fructose, insulin is secreted in response to elevated concentrations of glucose. (5) If that sounds like there's a difference between what glucose and fructose do in your body, you're right: researchers at the University of California Davis reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation that high fructose consumption puts individuals at greater risk of developing heart disease and diabetes than ingesting a similar amount of glucose. (6)

Consumers and food producers limit sugar intake by using less, or by using natural or artificial sugar substitutes. It's important to note that your body doesn't differentiate between natural sugars. It doesn't matter if it's Lucky Charms or Fruit Juice Sweetened Corn Flakes. There's no difference between the sugars in a juicy grapefruit, the honey in your tea, the tomatoes in your marinara, or the cabernet in your glass - your body metabolizes it all the same way. What does matter is the amount, and - in my understanding - the glucose/fructose ratio. That ratio is the cause of the rage against high fructose corn syrup, and the science behind debunking the myth of agave which can contain 97% fructose (manufacturing processes differ and so do fructose levels). As for artificial sweeteners - which are neither carbohydrates nor nutritive - aside from the unknown unintended consequences, my main concern is that they hype our collective sweet tooth (7). Diet sodas have very specific amount of sweetener, and if that's the amount you're used to, your sweet tooth won't be satiated with less.

What we need to do is retrain our sweet tooth and get back to more reasonable sugar consumption levels. We can start doing this by drinking more water and less juice and soda. Reduce sugar every time you cook or bake (if a recipe calls for a cup, just use 2/3 - you won't ruin anything, trust me). Finally, look at nutrition labels carefully and try, with every choice, to consume less.

This morning I added a small teaspoon of glucose to my coffee. No cloying aftertaste, it just tasted like I cut back on my sugar. On the tongue glucose tastes just like table sugar - just a watered-down version - which is exactly what it should taste like, being half sugar. The texture is similar to superfine sugar.

I will report back on my baking-with-glucose experiments. In the meanwhile, should you want to try it, glucose (sold as dextrose powder) can be sourced on Amazon.

(1) Brown sugar being simply refined white sugar to which molasses (a byproduct of the refining process) has been added back in.
(2) Glucose -  Hyperphysics.com
(3) How Bad is Fructose? - American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
(4) What is the Difference Between Sucrose, Glucose & Fructose? - SF Gate
(5) and (6) All Sugars Aren't the Same: Glucose Is Better, Study Says - TIME
(7) Added Sugars - Harvard Medical School

More interesting reading on measuring sugar density:  What is Brix? from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

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Why Your Pie Crust Shrunk

Thanksgiving is nigh and pie making questions have begun trickling in. I've posted before on pie crusts, focusing on the baking. Most pie crusts are baked twice. The first time, with no filling, is called Blind Baking. There's no special word for the second time. I always blind bake, even if the recipe doesn't direct it, because the crust is flakier and drier. Especially for a pumpkin pie. I just follow the recipe on the back of the Libby's can, substituting half and half for whatever nasty canned dairy product (evaporated milk, prolly) it is they call for instead.

But when your pie crust doesn't come out right, baking is just one thing that went wrong. The questions I get are always related to shrinking, though not many bakers realize it  They just know that they spent a lot of time getting the pie crust to look just right, only to bake it and have its shape morph like a drunk's face.

A few easy steps will prevent this from happening. They're all pretty much equally important. Here they are:

1. Don't overmix the dough. When you mix it (adding the butter and ice water), stop immediately when it begins to come together in the bowl. Chunks of butter chunks should be visible in your rolled pie dough. That mottled appearance promises a flaky crust.

2. Don't overhandle the dough. Heat, generated by your hands, room temperature, and by kneading and handling the dough, is the enemy of many pastry doughs.

3. Use the exact right amount of flour while rolling. This sounds like an impossible order, but don't despair - it takes practice in knowing how much flour to add, and it all depends on the natural humidity in your flour - which can vary greatly - so there's no way for me to tell you how much you will need. The general idea is that too much stickiness will cause you to stretch and pull your dough too much, overworking it, and activating the gluten. On the other hand, too much will dry out the crust and make it tougher and less flaky. Add flour sparingly while rolling, and roll gently. And don't forget to rotate your crust while rolling, flipping it over to ensure it's not sticking to the counter.

4. Once you have a nice big round of pie dough rolled out, let it sit on the counter for 5-10 min before you transfer it to the pie tin. This step allows the gluten to relax before you force it into the pie tin.

5. Lower the dough into the pie tin and firmly press the dough into corners and side edges of pie tin. You don't want to press so firmly that you leave big dents, but enough to encourage the dough to stay put. I like fluted tart shells for this reason - you just press the dough into the fluted sides and it stays put.

6. Chill, baby, chill! You MUSTMUSTMUST chill the lined pie shell for at least an hour before baking. !MUST! Chilling helps for a few reasons: it resolidifies the butter, ensuring a flaky crust, and it allows the gluten to relax. If I run out of room in the fridge, I just use the freezer. No real difference there.

7. The Weight. If you follow 1-6 but not #7 your crust will probably still shrink a little. Why? Heat from the oven will naturally relax the gluten even more. There are two ways to combat this: one by using pie weights, the other with just tin foil. For the pie weight method you will need some parchment paper and something to fill it with - I use rice, dry beans, and have heard of people using pennies, or the ceramic pie weights they sell in specialty shops. Just make sure that your parchment will be able to lift whatever you fill it with (you don't want to end up with dry rice or pennies in your pie crust if the parchment breaks during removal). Bake for about 20-25 minutes at 350, then remove the pie weights, prick the bottom all over with a form, and bake the crust for another 10 minutes. It's done when you see a smidgen of color, and no raw looking parts.

My preferred method these days is referenced here and involves simply spraying the shiny side of a large piece of tin foil with baking spray and pressing it very firmly to the pie crust and wrapping it up and over the sides of the pie tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes and you should be good to go. This method cuts baking time down a bit since there's less interference between the crust and the heat.

There it is. It's likely not going to be my final words on the subject, but maybe a few more pies will be camera ready this Thanksgiving. Good luck!

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Scrumptious Homemade Caramel Apples

I am a big fan of caramel. As a kid I had a love-hate relationship with Wrapples, the discs of caramel that are meant to be wrapped around your apple. They're really hard to get right, and the caramel is not even all that good. I loved the idea but hated how it was impossible to produce a gorgeous caramel apple with them.

Many of you have made caramel apples with those Kraft caramels. My memory of those is the labor involved in unwrapping all those little squares. And Kraft caramel is not the tastiest - nothing like a Werther's or a Sugar Daddy. Mmmm. Sugar Daddies have sweetened many a road trip. They last for miles!

This year I decided to do things the right way and I made a potful of glossy caramel for my daughter's halloween party. Well, I made it twice to get it exactly right, but it was really pretty easy. Honestly, the hardest part was the sticks. I used wooden dowels leftover from my wedding cake making days (dowels support the layers). I cut them down to size and sharpened them. You need something longer and sturdier than your average popsicle stick. Maybe a craft store sells something suitable. Anyhoo, here's that recipe:

Caramel Apples
Print recipe only here

INGREDIENTS
10 Granny Smith apples
1 cup butter
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
14 ounces (1 can) sweetened condensed milk
2 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
decorative toppings

METHOD
Insert wooden sticks through the tops of the apples so that the stick is about 3/4 the way in the apple. Set on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Combine the butter, sugar, corn syrup and condensed milk in sauce pan over medium high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for about 25 minutes*. Keep close by after about 20 minutes so that it doesn't start to burn. When the caramel looks dark and thick, remove the pot from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Allow to cool slightly. (You can also do this part in advance and pick up the dipping later in the day. When you resume for dipping, just gently reheat the caramel, adding a tablespoon of water at a time if it's too thick.)

Dip the apples into the caramel at an angle, rotating them to coat the entire apple. Lift the apple to let the caramel drip off of the bottom, scraping excess off the bottom of the apple back into the pot.

Line the apples up on a greased wax paper. If desired, decorate the apples with sprinkles, nuts, or other toppings before they dry completely. If you want to put them in candy bags you will need to let them sit and air dry for about 30-45 minutes.


* UPDATE: If you have a candy thermometer, use it and let the caramel cool until it reaches 235 or so, then remove from heat.

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Hot Sauce! Demystifying Caramel

It's taken me awhile to do this, but I finally made caramel sauce with a candy thermometer. I've always cooked caramel by sight, having learned long ago what to look for in color, changes in bubbling, and smell. But this is hard to teach. Giving someone an exact number on a thermometer is a better way to ensure their caramel will come out right.

Caramel is the simple result of heating sugar to a specific temperature. Think broadly about sugar when considering caramel. You caramelize onions for French Onion Soup,  quiche, and salads just by cooking the sugars in the onions. Extended heating of goat milk will yield cajeta. In this process, it is the sugars in the goat milk that caramelize, lending cajeta it's distinctive flavor.

For a basic caramel sauce, you heat sugar until it reaches a fairly specific temperature: too low and your caramel lacks depth, too high and it's bitter. After the right temperature is achieved you add cream and vanilla.

My candy thermometer lists a caramel range between 360° F and 380° F.  Sugar (sucrose) begins to melt around 320° F and caramelize around 340° F. If you're going to the trouble to make caramel sauce with a candy thermometer, it's probably a good idea to test the thermometer first. Do this by measuring the temp of a cup of boiling water. At sea level, it should read 212° F. If it reads above or below this number, replace it or make necessary adjustments. Oh, and for my Telluride peeps, and those at higher altitude, please note: for every 1,000 feet you are above sea level, subtract 2 degrees F from the temperature you're aiming for.

I like caramel cooked to 360° F - that's the temp at which I find it has the flavor. For a point of reference, 355-360° F is considered medium caramel and 375-380° F is considered dark caramel. I wonder who made those distinctions in the first place. Another scientific tidbit, most caramel sauce recipes I've seen have a smidgen of corn syrup added. This addition adds a wee bit of glucose to the sauce (corn syrup is only about 20% glucose), probably not enough to change the cooking times, but does change the chemical structure and prevent the formation of crystals. Sucrose is a large crystal and it has a harder time bonding with other sucrose crystals when molecules of fructose and glucose are in the mix. I always add a smidgen of corn syrup to my berry sauces and sorbets, just to keep the sauces smooth and crystal-free.

Caramel Sauce
Print recipe only here

INGREDIENTS
2 cups sugar
1 T corn syrup
2 T water
1/2 vanilla bean
1 cup heavy cream
4 T unsalted butter

METHOD
Heat the water, sugar and corn syrup in a medium-large (but deep) stainless steel or heavy-bottomed saucepan, fitted with a  good candy thermometer. I use a deep 4-quart pot and have a flat-edged candy thermometer. 

Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise down the middle, only cutting thru one side. Open it up and scrape out the pods. Put the pod paste and the scraped bean into a small saucepan with the cream.

Heat the cream and vanilla bean over low-medium heat. You don't need to boil it (and don't, because it will make a mess if it boils). 

Cook the sugar until it turns a deep amber and approaches 360° F. Once it reaches that temp, immediately remove from the heat and carefully (and slowly!) pour the hot cream and vanilla bean into the amber sugar. It will get very excited and bubbly. Just pour slowly and you won't make a mess or hurt yourself.  Stir and allow to cool for several minutes, then add the butter and stir gently until melted and just combined. Now it's done. You can transfer it to a squeeze bottle or glass jar once it's cooled a bit more.

Warm, refrigerate leftover sauce, reheating as necessary. Keeps for awhile (a few months).

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High Fructose Sugar Cookies

Oreo Sugar Cookies, the confection produced by my young breed this weekend, are the turducken of the sweet kitchen. Full disclosure: the Oreos were crushed and added to the sugar cookie dough, whereas a real turducken cookie would have a whole Oreo encased in sugar cookie dough.

The fount of this recipe (reduced to two steps by my husband: 1. sugar; 2. cookies) is easily imagined - summer camp, where fun goes on a sugar-binge. Sidebar: I'll never stop chuckling at the U of Chicago's unofficial motto: where fun goes to die.

So, yeah, the children made Oreo Sugar Cookies and I had to steer clear of the kitchen all day. Cookies are my weakness. Years ago, I read a book called Cowboys are My Weakness, which was good but unconvincing. I find cowboys generally aloof and insufficiently cuddly (if memory serves, so did the author), hardly something to go weak for. I would brake for a cowboy, but that's out of general human kindness and wishing to avoid being charged with vehicular manslaughter.

Owing to my fondness for cookies, and a childhood wholly devoted to the Children's Television Workshop, I also have a weakness for Cookie Monster. I'm indebted to a certain adolescent who tipped me off to this masterpiece:>

Best line: Please someone call the girl scout.

This recipe is decidedly for the younger set, or those not thrown off kilter by glucose spikes.

Oreo Sugar Cookies

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups Oreo Cookies, crushed

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add Oreos to a large Ziploc bag and crush with a rolling pin or your hands. Reserve.

Using an electric mixer on medium-high, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 to 4 minutes. Add egg and vanilla; mix well to combine.

With mixer on low, add half the flour mixture, followed by sour cream, then remaining flour mixture, and mix just until smooth. Add Oreo crumbles and mix until just combined.

Drop mounds of dough 3 to 4 inches apart, onto two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until edges of cookies are just firm and tops are barely beginning to brown, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating sheets once halfway through. Cool and enjoy.

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Three Tricks All the Pastry Pros Know

In a recent post I mentioned tweaks I employed on Flag Cake and Gougères to send them over the top. Here's that info:

Cakes
Trick 1 - Soaking Solution
The easiest way to ruin a cake is by overbaking. But even if your cake isn't baked perfectly it can be brought back to life (within reason) with a soaking solution. This is a hot sugar syrup, flavored with a bit of liqueur, pure extracts, or citrus zest, brushed or squirted onto cake layers. It adds both flavor and moisture and really improves the whole of the dessert.



A soaking solution is made by boiling equal parts sugar and water and adding the liqueur or zest once the sugar is dissolved. For the average 8-inch cake I use about 1/2 cup each sugar and water and 2 tablespoons of liqueur. The solution needs to be hot when you brush it onto the cake, otherwise it won't saturate well. I use a pastry brush to soak my cake layers (just make sure your pastry brush doesn't smell like garlic or BBQ sauce) but you can even spoon it on, tho that method takes longer.

When I bake a round cake I routinely cut off the rounded top. The crumb that is revealed is much more porous than the cake top you've removed and snacked on. But if you are not brave enough to trim the top, just poke holes all over the cake with a toothpick and then saturate.

Oh, and you want to do this to a cake that is out of the pan already. Here's the order of operations:

1. Bake a cake
2. Let it cool 5-20 minutes
3. Remove from pan, transfer to a plate
*At this point, I always let my cakes cool completely, then chill in the fridge as trimming and frosting comes out way better on a chilled cake.*
4. Make soaking solution and brush on

Trick 2 - Crumb Coat
A crumb coat refers to a thin coating of frosting that is applied to a cake. After crumb coating, the cake is retired to the fridge to set. This process sets all the crumbs in place so that when you apply a nice thick coating of frosting you don't get any crumbs ruining the view. Here's photo of the crumb and final coat:




Gougères
This recipe from David Lebovitz was really great. When I learned to make gougères in cooking school they were the sort where you made a choux pate, piped out rounds onto a baking sheet, topped the rounds with grated Parmesan or Gruyère, baked them, and then, when cool, piped into them a ham and Gruyère béchamel. They're quite good, but the béchamel is a wee bit heavy and so 1980. Quiche, brie and béchamel probably did more to usher in the aerobics era than Jane Fonda.

The Lebovitz recipe redeems the hors d'oevre in two ways: it brings it up to date (and offers suggestions for using other hard French cheeses in addition to or in place of Gruyère) and it simplifies the process by adding the cheese to the choux pate. Once the puffs are baked, they are ready to serve.



The only thing I did differently was to use a little water to shape the puffs before baking. If you aren't an expert with a pastry bag, the choux rounds can be a bit misshapen. A simple fix is to dip your fingers into a small bowl of water and then gently smooth out the choux rounds before topping with cheese and baking. I'm pretty sure I learned this trick in cooking school, but maybe it was from restaurant work. Anyway, you can see the difference in the lower photo. The rounds in the front have been smoothed out a bit.

And there you have it - three tricks all the pros know.

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What to Eat for Dessert: Butterscotch Pudding

This is an oldie, but a goodie. The lovely Melinda, who taught me practically everything I know in the sweet kitchen, used to make this when she was the pastry chef at Wolfgang Puck's short-lived, Los Angeles, brewery/restaurant Eureka. The recipe was printed in Adventures in the Kitchen, which included recipes from several of Puck's LA restaurants.  Melinda taught me how to make it in the mid 1990s when I worked in her kitchen at Cafe Nola in Washington State. I made it over the weekend for a dinner party after having forgotten about it for several years.

This pudding is great served with a Butterscotch Lace Cookie on the side. That recipe originally comes from the Bakers Cafe in Katonah, NY. That's the unifying theme - all these great establishments are gone. But not because of bad butterscotch.

Butterscotch is a a wonderful flavor and less tricky than caramel to make. The flavor is essentially achieved by combining dark brown sugar and butter, tho a bit of heat is required to strengthen it. Dark brown sugar is requisite here - light brown doesn't bring enough color or, really, molasses to the equation. If you're a sugar geek, you might appreciate these facts: light brown sugar contains 3.5% molasses compared to 6.5% molasses for dark brown sugar. Sugar geeks already know that brown sugar is just white granulated sugar with molasses added. If you're a super sugar geek, you know that molasses itself is a by-product of the sugar making process (the steps between hacking sugar cane in the jungle (or uprooting a sugar beet) and the particular product you purchase to fill your sugar bowl - for me it's Sugar in the Raw or La Perruche raw cubes). And if you had the same wacky naturopath as I did in the late 1990s and were iron deficient and told to supplement your diet with blackstrap molasses you know that blackstrap molasses is the sludge left over after every last bit of sugar has been sucked out of the cane. Or beet.*

Anyway, this is a roundabout way of saying to use dark brown sugar when you make butterscotch because it's not as good if you don't.

Butterscotch Pudding
Print recipe only here

Makes 8-10 six-ounce servings

INGREDIENTS
6 ounces unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1 vanilla bean, split down the middle and scraped
3 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups half and half
1/2 cup cornstarch
6 egg yolks
2 t vanilla extract

METHOD
First, measure out everything. This is the kind of recipe where everything needs to be on hand because the steps must be executed in quick succession.  Measure the cornstarch into a small bowl, and separate the eggs and place the yolks in a mixing bowl. Whisk lightly.  Also, set a fine mesh strainer inside a mixing bowl or large pitcher. You will strain the pudding before transferring it to individual cups. Set out the cups/ramekins/glasses in which you intend to serve the pudding.

Now...begin!  Heat the butter in a medium-large saucepan over low heat until melted. Add brown sugar and vanilla bean and whisk until smooth. Cook over medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring every so often, to let the flavor develop and the color darken.

Heat milk and half and half in a medium saucepan, preferably one with a pour spout. Bring to a very low simmer.

Pour a little of the hot milk over the cornstarch and stir until smooth. Reserve.

Slowly add the remaining hot milk to the butter and sugar, whisking well to combine. If it separates, don't fret - just remove the pan from the heat and continue to whisk until it comes together.

Add the cornstarch to the saucepan, whisking in well.

Carefully ladle some of the hot pudding into the egg yolks, whisking well. Add another ladle of pudding and whisk. Then return that mixture to the pot and combine all together.

Add the vanilla extract and continue to cook for another minute. Strain thru the mesh strainer into a clean bowl or pitcher and immediately transfer the pudding to individual glasses.

* I can't comment on the difference between beet and cane sugar or molasses. For sugar I do always purchase C&H or Domino which are labeled Pure Cane. And for molasses, I only ever buy Grandmother's, which is also a pure cane product. 

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An Extra Step to Improve Apple Pie

An article on apple pie caught my eye a few weeks ago. You can read it yourself here. I'm not a huge fan of pie. I much prefer the more elegant tart. The few pies that do get made in the Pinch kitchen - Pecan, Pumpkin, Cranberry, Lemon Meringue - are made in tart pans.

An old fashioned apple pie has always been the one exception; it will always be made in a regular pie dish. Apple pie should be mile high. I don't make it often (and I don't eat it often because it's usually way too sweet for my tastes) but after reading this recipe and needing to help my daughters celebrate Pi Day at school, a pie making night was planned.

The extra step that this recipe proposed was cooking down the apples before baking. I never did this before. I was always a little less than thrilled with the texture of the apples in my pie and frankly, am surprised I didn't think of this myself. The result was a much improved pie that won rave reviews.

Oh, I should note that I tried a new apple, too. The pastry chef referenced in the article recommended Pink Ladies. I've seem them at the market but never tried them. I've always reached for the Golden Delicious when making apple desserts. But the Pink Ladies were great.

I tweaked the original recipe a bit to include fresh lemon juice, my own trustworthy pie dough recipe, and a lot less sugar. The rest of the instructions are mostly from the original recipe. Here is the recipe:

Apple Pie
Print recipe only here

Makes one 9-inch pie

INGREDIENTS
Pie dough (you will have some leftover) Prepare ahead of time.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 pounds Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp or Pink Lady apples, peeled and cored, then cut into thick slices
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup (heaping) sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Juice of 1 lemon

1 egg, lightly beaten with 2 T milk

METHOD
Make the pie dough first, giving it at least an hour to sit in the refrigerator.

Prep apples.

Melt butter in a large sauté pan set over medium-high heat and add apples to the pan. Stir to coat fruit with butter and cook, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, whisk together the spices, salt and sugar, and sprinkle this over the apples, stirring gently to combine. Lower heat and cook until apples have started to soften, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Sprinkle the flour and cornstarch over the apples and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, another 3 to 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat, add lemon juice and stir to combine. Scrape apples into a bowl and allow to cool completely.


Place a large baking sheet on the middle rack of oven and preheat to 425. Remove pie dough from the refrigerator and knead briefly on a floured surface to soften (be very brief - you want it to just come together). Use a rolling pin to roll it out (use flour sparingly, but as necessary) until it is roughly 12 inches in diameter. Fit this crust into a 9-inch pie plate, trimming it to leave a 1/2-inch overhang. Place this plate, with the dough, in the freezer.

Roll out the remaining dough on a lightly floured surface until it is roughly 10 or 11 inches in diameter.

Remove pie crust from freezer and put the cooled pie filling into it. Cover with remaining dough. Press the edges together, trim the excess, then crimp the edges with the tines of a fork. Using a sharp knife, cut three or four steam vents in the top of the crust. Lightly brush the top of the pie with egg wash (the egg/milk mixture) and sprinkle with a teaspoon or so of sugar.

Place pie in oven and bake on hot baking sheet for 20 minutes, then reduce temperature to 375. Continue to cook until the interior is bubbling and the crust is golden brown, about 30 to 40 minutes more. Remove and allow to cool on a windowsill or kitchen rack, about two hours.

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As the Bundt Breaks

The bundt cake is challenging the lemon pudding cake as my sworn enemy. Back when I worked at Campagne there was one cake that I never mastered. That's not to say I always got it wrong. But I never knew if I had gotten it right until it did its time in the oven. Had I mastered it I would have been able to recognize success or failure just on the appearance of the batter. The lemon pudding cake was a very delicate cake that required a very exact temperature and combining of ingredients. I got it wrong 60% of the time, and then I had to throw the all away (they were individuals) wash the forms myself (gasp!), and start all over.

In a sign that my pastry skills are suffering from underuse, I now find myself in the position of having lost mastery of the very simple bundt cake. I have a 12-cup heavy-weight, nonstick NordicWare bundt pan that has been reliable for years. And now, nearly every other time I make a pound cake it gets stuck in there the only way to get it out is to break it up. Drives me crazy that I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Luckily, should I ever really need to be in possession of a chocolate pound cake I can turn to my well trained grasshopper. My oldest makes this cake P-E-R-F-E-C-T-L-Y.

Anyhoo, I made one this morning and knew I had beat too much air in it when it quickly deflated after it was done baking. The writing was on the wall. I tried to remove it anyway, but it was solidly stuck. Very quickly we had a huge cake mess, with half the cake turned out on a plate and half still stubbornly clinging to the pan. My kids were off school today, so it was sort of perfect. The little one has been very eager to make cake balls ever since her babysitter told them what they were (she has since eaten them at Starbucks). I was not about to let all that Valrhona cocoa go to waste, so we mixed up some ganache, crumbled up the cake, and rolled up our sleeves.

It was fun (and useful as I needed to bring a dessert to my girls' school today) but I would definitely not make cake balls again. For one, it was a huge time sink - we easily spent an hour and half mixing, forming, coating and covering those stinkers. And two, the amount of chocolate that went into this things was sort of obscene. We made 50 cake balls (the whole bundt would have make another dozen but we ran out of ganache). We used about 10 ounces of chocolate to make both the ganache and chocolate glaze. The end result: for the serious chocoholic only. They were deemed too rich for my daughter's taste. Hope the teachers liked them, as that's where they went. It was report card pickup today and parents take turns providing treats for the teachers during the conferences. If I did do it again, I would make sure to first pick up lollipop sticks, sold at Jo-Ann Fabrics or a retailer with a good baking or candy-making section. If you do choose to make them, you really must have something to cover the chocolate coating because they look too rough otherwise. Nuts looked great, as did the coconut. Ice cream sprinkles looked fab, too.

That's all.

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Peppermint Bark: Easier Made than Purchased

Day 2 of candy making went well. The recipe, which I wrote up by combining elements that made sense from half a dozen internet recipes, makes for an essentially easy afternoon project.  My bittersweet chocolate did seize up a bit but I ressurected it with another tablespoon of cream and rolled it out with a rolling pin. The finished chocolate breaks wonderfully and has a good minty flavor. Peppermint Bark is a must try for those of you who are fans but have yet to make your own. Next holiday season be sure to buy some clear cello candy bags and some gorgeous ribbon - it makes a wonderful gift.

One more note: extracts, like a box of chocolates and unlike men, are not created equal. Make sure your extracts are pure and, in this case, pure peppermint. Generic "Mint Extract" is often a blend of spearmint and peppermint which is not what you want here. I recommend sourcing it at your local spice merchant. The Spice House in Chicago sells a wonderful one.

Make sure, also, to use the best quality white and bittersweet chocolate you can get your hands on.

Peppermint Bark
Print recipe only here

Makes 1 pound

INGREDIENTS
8 ounces white chocolate
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
6 candy canes, smashed (or 4-5 ounces peppermint candies)

METHOD
Turn over a large baking sheet. Cover securely with foil and tape in place.

Coarsely chop white chocolate and transfer to a medium stainless steel mixing bowl. Reserve.

Combine bittersweet chocolate, cream and peppermint extract in medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat and stir until just melted and smooth. Cool for 5 minutes. If the chocolate seizes up, just add a bit more cream and heat until soft again. Using a large offset spatula, spread bittersweet chocolate in even layer. It should be about 9x12. You can also just roll it out with a rolling pin if need be - just plop the chocolate onto the foil-covered baking sheet, cover with a large piece of plastic wrap and roll out. Refrigerate until very cold and firm, about 25 minutes.

Unwrap candy canes or peppermint candies and place in a heavy duty ziploc bag. Smash with a rolling pin or meat tenderizer until pulverized. Reserve.

Bring an inch or two of water to boil in a wide saucepan or saute pan. Turn off heat and set bowl of white chocolate on the hot water. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from water bath and let cool for 3-5 minutes. Pour onto bittersweet chocolate. Using icing spatula, spread to cover the bittersweet chocolate. Sprinkle candy cane dust and bits all over surface. Chill until set, about 30 minutes.

Lift foil with bark onto work surface; trim edges. Break into medium large shards. Let stand 15 minutes at room temperature before serving.

Can be made 2 weeks ahead. Store refrigerated in an airtight container.

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A Microwave for Pralines? Bah! Humbug!

Tomorrow I'm going to make peppermint bark. I vowed to do it this year and don't have many hours left. And speaking of things sneaking up on you, I thought we'd have to wait until November for a another one of those dates with all the same numbers. But I saw a sign for something happening on 1/1/11 today and realized both November and January will furnish two dates with lots of 1s. Would this be pleasing to the Count or not? One! One! One! One!

The bark should be less tricky than those microwave pralines everyone was talking about from the NY Times.  Our gracious hostess at a fabulous neighborhood dinner party followed that recipe and warned me of the its failings. (It should be mentioned that she was able to refashion them with incredible success using her own creative genius, a bit of salt, and cinnamon.) I decided to give pralines a whirl today but since I do not own a microwave went about it the old-fashioned way with a pot and candy thermometer. Truth to tell, after discovering the numbers on my candy thermometer had, like, washed off (?!?!?), I went about candy making the really old-fashioned way with a cup of cold water.

Anyway, pecan pralines will make a delightful addition to the dessert tray I'm planning to execute for New Year's Eve.

Pecan Pralines
Print recipe only here

Makes 2-3 dozen

INGREDIENTS
3 cups pecans
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream
2-3 T Meyer's Rum
1/3 cup butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350.

Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and bake for about 5-10 minutes.

Combine remaining ingredients except the pecans and vanilla  in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook until it reaches the soft ball stage, or between 235 and 240 degrees. In lieu of a candy thermometer, drizzle some of the hot candy into a glass of cold water. When ready, the candy ball should flatten between your fingers when you take it out of the water.

Turn off the flame and set the pot on a back burner to cool for about 15 minutes.

Line a baking sheet with parchment, foil or a silicone mat.

Add the pecans and vanilla to the candy and stir vigorously (not so vigorously as to munch the pecans) for about a minute, or until the mixture creams a bit and loses its glossiness.

Now work fast! Use two soup spoons and scoop the mixture into 2-inch-diameter mounds onto the lined baking sheet. If the mix becomes too hard to shape, or too sandy, reheat gently until it softens, adding scant spoonful of water if it looks too thick. Cool for 2-3 minutes, then resume spooning.

Let the pralines rest for 30 minutes before serving or storing. Store in an airtight container.

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Why Your Cream Cheese Frosting Was Lumpy

There is one way to avoid lumps in your frosting and hardly any cookbooks mention it. You must cream the butter very well in the first step. Almost every baker knows once you get lumps in your frosting no amount of mixing will smooth it out.

Most cookbooks instruct you to ensure the butter and cream cheese are at room temperature before mixing. If you did this to the best of your ability and still had lumpy frosting what happened is that your butter did not soften up enough first.  Since butter and cream cheese warm at different rates the best method is to cream the heck out of the butter before adding the cream cheese. Then it's foolproof. Creaming the butter for several minutes softens and warms it sufficiently so it combines smoothly with the remaining ingredients.

Cream cheese frosting is good on a variety of cakes and cupcakes, especially banana, carrot and coconut. This is a good time to address all the "cupcake hater" accusations I received over the weekend. I didn't explain myself well in the cupcake post. I only hate bad cupcakes. If someone is going to go through the trouble of opening a store and only sell cupcakes they ought to be well made. For a perfect seasonal cupcake bake up some Pumpkin Cupcakes and frost them with Cream Cheese Frosting. You will not be disappointed.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Print recipe only here

Makes 2 cups - or enough to frost a 9-inch, two-layer cake or 24 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
4 oz unsalted butter, softened a bit
1 # cream cheese (Philly's is always the best bet)
2 ¼ cups sifted powdered sugar
1-2 t vanilla extract

METHOD
Cream the butter well, using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer. You want to spin it for about 3-5 minutes, minimum. Plan to stop and scrape the bowl with a spatula a couple of times so that the butter creams throughly. When it's ready for the next step it will have lightened in color and look fluffy. Don't proceed until it matches that description.

Add the cream cheese and mix well for another few minutes.

Add the vanilla extract and mix. Then add the powdered sugar and mix on low speed until just combined.

It's now finished. Just don't frost anything that's still warm or you'll have a mess on your hands.

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On Cupcakes

Before the advent of the cupcake our diminutive ancestors roamed the planet with no shops to cater to their hunger for a 500-calorie snack. They would peer into the windows of bakeries like little match girls, regular cake being much too big for their tiny hands.

The present thriving cupcake culture is surprising for two reasons. First, we're getting serious about obesity for the first time and second, most cupcakes are yucky. I'm all for an occasional celebratory indulgence, but make it an excellent one. We took a trip to Chicago's Sprinkles shop last week and left underwhelmed. The cake part was bland and the frosting part too sweet. The Red Velvet cupcake was the best but would have improved tremendously had they used better quality cocoa powder in the cake and less sugar in the frosting.

Hate the cupcake not the baker
The biggest problem with the cupcake is its design. The most visually enticing cupcake boasts an generous mound of frosting. This skews the important cake-to-frosting ratio. Take a bite and you're going to end up with too much of one and not enough of the other. The best cupcake-eating technique demands breaking the cupcake in half cross-wise and sandwiching the frosting between the cake layers, destroying the visual beauty of the dessert but making it taste a lot better. This assumes the cupcake is well-made, which is not often the case. I live down the street from a purveyor whose goods are flavorless, dense and greasy. There's no good way to eat one of those.

A better indulgence is the classic layer cake:  liquor or espresso-soaked cake layered with mascarpone mousse or rum-spiked chocolate ganache, a little hazelnut praline for crunch and enrobed in bittersweet chocolate glaze. The delicate balance of flavor and texture will make you never settle for a boorish cupcake again. And you'll be supporting a real craftsman, not some yahoo with a muffin tin and a pastry bag.

Bottom line
Over the years we've supported a long line of sweet fads: Mrs. Fields, TCBY, Krispy Kreme. The cupcake's days are numbered. What's next?

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The Fruit of the Southwest Desert

Image via Wikipedia Food deserts, disconcerting to city dwellers who care about equal shopping opportunity for all, mean an entirely different thing in the high desert of southwest Colorado. The combination of hot summer days and cool nights makes for monkey-good peaches and corn. I don't recommend combining the two, unless you're in the mood to freak out your children.

The towns that produce my favorite summer fruits and veggies are in southwest Colorado. Palisade, just outside of Grand Junction, is famous for peaches. A bit further south towards Montrose you'll find Olathe (pronounced o-LAY-tha), which produces wonderful sweet corn. Both towns are located in the valley of the Grand Mesa, the largest flattop mountain in the world. Temperatures reach into the triple digits under the hot midday sun, and drop into the 60s after dark, locking in all the sweetness you find in a good peach or ear of sweet corn.

I've spent a glorious month revisiting this beautiful part of the country, enjoying plain peaches and steamed corn on the cob, but also peach cobbler and beautiful corn salads. When I retreat to the great metropolis of Chicago I'll find solace in the fabulous (and fabulously expensive) corn salad at Trotter's to Go. Until I slingshot myself back to the city I'll be enjoying lots more produce from the high desert.

I made a peach cobbler using my basic cobbler recipe.

Peach Cobbler
Serves 6

Combine in a mixing bowl:
6-8 ripe peaches, sliced
1 T flour
2 t cinnamon sugar (or 1/4 t cinnamon and 1 1/2 t sugar
juice of half a lemon


Cobbler topping:
1 cup flour
2 T sugar
½ t baking soda
1 t baking powder
½ t salt
2 T butter, melted
½ cup buttermilk

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350. Transfer the fruit mixture to an 8-inch square baking dish. Those Pyrex ones are great for cobbler.

Next prepare the cobbler topping. Combine dry ingredients and mix well. Add melted butter to buttermilk and stir to combine. Add to dry, mixing with a fork very gently until just combined. The dough will be sticky – don’t worry.

Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto the fruit – try to space it out somewhat evenly. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the crust is golden and the fruit is bubbling up all around. Serve hot or warm.

Summer Corn Salad
Print recipe only here

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS
3-4 ears of sweet corn, shucked and steamed 4-5 minutes
handful grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
3-4 leaves fresh basil, stacked, rolled together and thinly sliced
2 t cider vinegar
1 1/2 t good olive oil
pinch kosher salt
fresh ground pepper

METHOD
Boil water in a suitable pot to steam the corn. Shuck the ears while you wait. Combine remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl. Steam corn, then allow to cool to room temperature. I like to stop the cooking by submerging in icy water. Prepare yourself to make a bit of a mess as you trim off the kernels. Position an ear of corn upright on a cutting board and trim as close to the cob as you can. Add the kernels to the mixing bowl and toss well. Let sit about 10 minutes before serving, or reserve, covered, in the fridge.

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Fool-proof High Altitude Birthday Cake

If you've ever baked at altitude you are probably a little sick of tinkering with recipes, and just a bit afraid every time you bake that your cake will sink. When you need to make a perfect cake at altitude and nothing less will do, I suggest making an ice cream cake. It's guaranteed to not lose it's shape until it melts.

Here's what you need:
Plastic wrap
waxed paper (optional)
9-inch cake pan
1/2 gallon ice cream
spatula or large flat spoon
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup heavy cream

METHOD:
Set your ice cream out to soften, about 15-20 minutes. You can speed up the process a bit by mixing it in the bowl of a stand mixer, but still let it soften for a good ten minutes first.

Set out your cake pan and plastico. Roll out two 30-inch (apx) pieces of plastico and set one in the pan, pressing it into the bottom and sides and hanging off evenly. Set the other piece in the same fashion, only with the overlap hanging out perpendicular to the first piece (meaning, if the first piece is set longitudinally, set the second latitudinally). It should look like this:


When the ice cream is nice and soft, spoon it out and press it into the cake pan. Don't worry too much about pockets, just try to fill it evenly. When all the ice cream is in the pan, smooth off the top with an offset spatula or the best spready-tool you've got. Cover with waxed paper (or another piece of plastic wrap if you don't have waxed paper) and press down to pack in the ice cream and eliminate air pockets. If you have another cake pan you can use it to press down on the filled ice cream cake. Fold the overhanging plastic wrap up and over the top and stick the pan in the freezer to set, for at least 3 hours. I like to give it a full 24 hours.

Next, make the frosting.

I like ganache for ice cream cakes. Finely chop your chocolate and transfer it to a glass or stainless steel mixing bowl.

Heat the cream, watching it carefully as it makes a colossal mess if it boils over. You can add flavorings to the cream like vanilla extract (a teaspoon), or liquors (about a tablespoon).

Once the cream comes to a boil, pour it over the chocolate and stir gently until smooth. Cool for about 15-20 minutes.

Remove the ice cream cake from the freezer. Unwrap the plastic from the top. I often leave the waxed paper on as a base, but you run the risk of serving it, so it's maybe a smarter idea to remove that too. You want to work quickly, but don't get stressed - it's not going to melt all over the table on you. Invert the cake onto a serving plate or a work plate the plastic sticking out the sides. Wet a dishcloth or dishtowel with hot water and press it onto all sides of the cake. It should only take a moment before the ice cream cake releases itself from the pan. If not, keep the towel hot and pull gently on the plastic wrap. If the cake looks a little melty from the heat exposure, stick it back in the freezer for 30-45 minutes.

When ready to frost, scoop about three-quarters of the ganache onto the top of the cake and spread it evenly over the top of the cake, allowing it to flow down the sides. Use more ganache as needed to frost the sides. Using a thin coat of ganache will work better as it will set quickly and freeze onto the cake. When it's all covered and smooth (using an offset spatula for frosting will make spreading and smoothing much easier) return it to the freezer. Another trick for smoothing is to heat the spatula. Do this once the entire cake is frosted and it will give the cake a clean finish.

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Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler for Dessert

It was really, really good. On a whim I added some crystallized (candied) ginger to the biscuit topping. I think I always will do that - and add it to peach and nectarine cobblers this summer. You can find candied ginger at Trader Joe's and at spice merchants like The Spice House here in Chitown.

Cobblers are a fabulous family dessert. Blackberry Cobbler is a major family favorite. Compared to pie, cobblers are less labor intensive and healthier, as the biscuit topping requires very little butter to be good.

My biggest advice on desserts - especially fruit ones - is to really cut down on the sugar. You always need some, but a in a fruit dessert you really want to have a sense of the natural tartness of the fruit, not cover it with sugar. This recipe is written with that in mind.

Here it is:

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler
Print recipe only here

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS

Fruit
6-8 stalks rhubarb (just under 2 pounds), washed and cut in 1/2-inch slices
2 pts (16 oz carton) strawberries, rinsed, hulled and quartered
½ cup sugar
1 T corn starch
Juice of one-half lemon
Zest of one orange (optional)

Topping
1 cup flour
1-2 T crystallized ginger, finely chopped (optional - if using be sure to reduce the sugar in the next line down to 1 T)
1-2 T sugar
1 t baking powder
½ t baking soda
½ t salt
2 T butter, melted
½ cup buttermilk

METHOD
In a bowl, mix the rhubarb and the strawberries with the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and orange zest. Stir gently but well, and let sit for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°

Pour fruit into an 8-inch square baking pan. To prepare topping, combine dry ingredients (and ginger, if using) and mix well. Add melted butter to buttermilk and stir to combine. Add to dry, mixing with a fork very gently until just combined. It will be wet and sticky – don’t worry.

Drop the topping in even spoonfuls onto the fruit. Bake for about 45 minutes until cobbler crust is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling up all around. Ovens can differ - set the timer for 30 minutes and check on it every five minutes thereafter.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

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A Simple Country Breakfast and Seasonal Dessert

I have a new favorite bread from the Green City Market. Well, from Bennison's Bakery, which comes to the market from Evanston. Last summer we were totally committed to Bennison's ciabatta, which is the best in the city. I've grumbled before about the dearth of fabulous bread in Chicago. If it weren't for the good folks at Bennison's, I don't know what I'd do. The bread pictured here is their miche - kind of a French classic country bread that was popularized by Lionel Poilâne. Midwest bread lovers would find Zingerman's pain de montagne a comparable loaf.

What I love about miche/montagne is the deep flavor, dark crust, and caramel color, which is always visible because it's sold by the quarter. The whole loaves are large - Zingerman's boasts theirs weighs in at nearly four and a half pounds . Bennison's loaf is much less dense, but still, a quarter is all you'd want. Why don't they just bake it in a smaller size? The bread realizes its maximum potential when baked in a larger loaf.

This morning I brought home a dozen farm eggs and the miche and had a delightful breakfast of the two. I've been enjoying my granola so much lately that it's been awhile since I had an egg for breakfast.

Abounding at the market were strawberries and rhubarb. A cobbler is in the cards. That recipe will be forthcoming.

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Method: Perfect Pie Crust. Easier Than You'd Think

I've heard so much advice for perfecting pie crust. Freeze before baking. Visualize it coming out perfectly. Spend a year in culinary school. All three might help, but the best trick ever comes from the cooking side of the kitchen at Campagne in Seattle where I used to work.

On the pastry side of the kitchen we blind baked tarts all the time. We didn't usually use pie weights. Our in-house baker (a culinary student) sheeted sucree dough for the pastry team, and we kept them in the fridge, and they held up pretty well in the oven during blind baking (oops - did I lose you? Blind baking is cooking an empty pie crust.) At all other kitchens, my own included, I used pie weights - usually rice or old dry beans. I would line a tart shell, stick it in the freezer to firm up and then cover with a sheet of parchment paper and fill with the weights, pressing into the corners. I'd bake it for 20 minutes or so, then carefully remove the parchment, prick all over with a fork and bake another 10 minutes, or until it didn't look raw anywhere and was a little golden.

But today, after reading a post on Smitten Kitchen, I revisited the method from the other side of the Campagne kitchen. I removed my sucree-lined tart shell from the freezer, sprayed the shiny side of a piece of foil with baking spray and pressed it onto the crust. I baked it for about 20-25 minutes and voila! It. Came. Out. Perfectly. I'm so impressed. Looking forward to trying it out on other doughs, but don't anticipate problems. The Campagne cook used this technique exclusively on the crusts for quiche - deep dished, pie crusts. And they were always gorgeous. I am positively shocked that I've never tried this myself.

Here's the recipe for Pate Sucree, which I use for most tarts, and here's the recipe for pie dough. Happy Thanksgiving Prep!

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Ice cream, not just a summertime treat

I mentioned the horrible Chicago summer, right? Well, today, mid-Labor Day Weekend, it is going to rain. And I was going to paint my front stairs!

Instead, I will be installed in my kitchen. I'm making salsa verde (roasting tomatillos and various peppers harvested from my neighbor's CSA delivery) and cinnamon ice cream to bring to a rainy BBQ. Both are going to be supergood. I made David Lebovitz's wonderful Chocolate Sherbet the other day, and the mood strikes to make use of my ice cream freezer again. If you choose to make the chocolate sherbet I recommend only doing so with the finest cocoa and chocolate on hand. Oh, and I used nonfat milk since it was an option and was very pleased with the result.

But back to today...Cinnamon happens to be my daughters' favorite ice cream flavor and generally available only from the Pinch kitchen. And it's a lovely accompaniment on the fall dessert plate (thinking about fall fruits and tarts - apples, pears, still available stone fruits - all very cinnamon friendly). Ice cream, despite its frozen state, is not often refreshing enough on a hot summer day; sorbet is preferred for that purpose. As long as it's not too sweet.

Ice creams are so season-inspired. Summertime features Mint, Peach and Strawberry as my favorite flavors. In the fall I always think about Caramel, Espresso and Cinnamon. Mid-winter I'm thinking Coconut (alongside all those tropical fruits) and Prune Armagnac, if only because I once spent a dreary Seattle winter making loads of Prune Armagnac ice cream for a French restaurant.

To be sure, summer has left the building. Cinnamon it is.


Cinnamon Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup sugar
* 2 cups milk
* 2 strips orange peel (just take a veggie peeler to an orange and carefully peel JUST THE ORANGE part off the top - try not to get ANY of the white pith on the peel)
* 2 cinnamon sticks
* 1 t ground cinnamon
* 5 egg yolks
* 2 cups cream

METHOD
1. Whisk together egg yolks in a medium/large mixing bowl.

2. Set a heavy medium saucepan over moderately low heat and add milk, sugar, orange zest, cinnamon stick and ground spice. Heat until steaming but not boiling, lower heat and stir until sugar is dissolved (about 2-3 minutes). Remove from heat, cover, and let steep for 20-30 minutes.

3. Reheat the mixture to steaming. Ladle about 1/2 cup hot milk mixture into egg yolks, whisking constantly. This is called TEMPERING. Whisk a few more ladles into the eggs and keep whisking. Slowly pour the egg mixture back into the hot milk, still whisking away. Set over low heat, and cook, stirring constantly (I like to use a heat resistant spatula at this point, or an odor-free wooden spoon), until mixture thickens enough to coat back of spoon (finger drawn across spoon will leave clear path) - it should take about 5 to 6 minutes. Strain into large bowl and stir in heavy cream. Chill until cold, either in an ice bath or overnight in the refrigerator.

Note: If your heat was too high and the eggs curdled or cooked, just toss the whole thing and start over. There’s no way to save it.

4. When ready to freeze, strain the mixture once more. Process cold cream base in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. When it's done spinning, transfer to airtight container, cover well and freeze until hard, about 3 hours.


Got more time to kill?
For a detailed analysis of the myriad reasons the Summer of 2009 was worse than you might have previously perceived, read this from yesterday's WSJ:

The Summer of Our Discontent
Town-hall brawls. Tomato blight. Woodstock nostalgia. Rain. Not hiking the Appalachian Trail. Joe Queenan says good riddance to the summer of '09.

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