Yes You Can: Almond Croissants

Croissants are hard to make. You need loads of time, counter space, and expertise. And butter. No one really has any business trying them at home. That’s what great bakeries are for. Sadly, there’s a dearth of excellent pastry out there. And no item is more poorly done than the croissant.

I’ve discovered it’s possible to - in the immortal words of Kanye West - Make a Benz Outta that Datsun by turning a plain store bought croissant into a nearly homemade almond croissant. The croissants I used were from Costco. Surprisingly, these are better than most of what I’ve tasted at Chicago bakeries and cafés. They are sold by the dozen, natch, but this works well as the recipe calls for freezing them.

Make these the next time you’ve got lots of hungry people in your home in the morning. You will make them very happy. Here’s how:

Almond Croissants
Print recipe only here

YOU WILL NEED
For the filling:
• 1 dozen plain croissants, frozen
• 8 ounces almond paste
• 4 ounces butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 ounces almond meal (roughly ½ cup)
• 2 ounces flour (scant ½ cup)

Also:
• Simple syrup (½ cup water and ½ cup sugar, 2-3 strips of orange peel (just use a regular vegetable peeler) and a piece of vanilla bean if you have it. Bring to a boil and cook 4 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved.
• ½ cup sliced almonds, raw
• powdered sugar for dusting

METHOD
1. Prep almond cream:
• In a mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and almond paste together, 5 minutes.
• Add eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly between additions.
• Add almond meal and flour, and mix well, scraping the bottom of the bowl to ensure the butter is well incorporated.

2. Prep simple syrup, keeping warm.

3. Preheat oven to 300° convection or 350° standard.

4. Remove croissants from freezer and slice in half, crosswise.

5. Brush or squirt simple syrup on the inside of both halves.

6. Spread a layer of almond cream on the bottom of each croissant. Replace top half and spread a very thin layer of almond cream on the top half.

7. Sprinkle with sliced almonds and press on gently so they stick.

8. Transfer to a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until nicely golden, rotating pan halfway to ensure even color.

9. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Before serving, dust with powdered sugar (a mesh tea-immerser does this trick nicely).

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On Baking with Cocoa Powder

Two cocoas: Dutch-processed Valrhona at left and Guittard natural at right

My husband frequently points out that I make a lot of assumptions when telling someone how to make something. “It’s really easy…” is how I lead most lessons, only to lose my audience in a haze of terms like bain-marie, blind bake, and cartouche. Years spent in the commercial kitchen have caused me to make the mistake of assuming others cook with similar experience, equipment, ingredients and passion.

I began to appreciate his point this summer when I made a chocolate pound cake in someone else’s kitchen. What came out of the oven was not the same delicious cake I bake in the Pinch kitchen. It made me realize how my recipes could be received differently when prepared using different ingredients.

The critical difference between the Pinch Chocolate Pound Cake and its inferior impostor was the cocoa. I only use Valrhona cocoa. I’ve worked with several cocoas and have determined this one to have the best depth of flavor and the least bitterness of its peers. Valrhona cocoa is a Dutched powder with a rich color and excellent taste. I use it in everything - baked into cakes and dusted on brownies or truffles.

What does Dutched mean and does it matter?
Dutched cocoa is treated with alkaline which removes much of cocoa's natural acidity, rendering it nearly neutral. Some bakers believe that the Dutching process affects leavening. Recall the elementary school science fair volcano? Baking soda (a leavening agent) requires an acid to cause a reaction. The science is sound but I have yet to experience a loss of leavening when baking with Dutched powders.

What difference does quality make?
All the difference. Quality in chocolate is proportional to its percentage of cocoa butter. Grocery store cocoa powder contains 9-12% butterfat. Higher end products such as Scharffen Berger (a natural cocoa) and Valrhona contain 20-25% butterfat.

I made my chocolate pound cake three times with a three different qualities of cocoa: Valrhona, a mid-level Guittard natural cocoa (meaning not Dutched), and a low-end supermarket variety, also natural. The difference between the cakes was amazing. The cheapest cocoa made a chocolate colored cake that lacked flavor. The Guittard cake was quite good. The cake made with Valrhona cocoa knocked everyone’s socks off.

This is the classic problem for the home cook. As much as we try to emulate professionals and follow their recipes, much of the time we are not using the same quality ingredients.

What’s a home baker to do?
Cooking like a pro entails spending a lot more on your ingredients. Importers and specialty shops such as Sur la Table and Williams Sonoma are good sources, as is Amazon. If you'd like to up the ante a bit but don't need to have anyone's socks knocked off you need look no farther than your neighborhood grocery store. Droste cocoa (Dutch-processed) is widely available and gets universally good marks for flavor.

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On the Supremacy of Kettle Corn

The first time I ate kettle corn was in Telluride, Colorado. It was at one of the town park concerts, possibly Widespread Panic, the year a monsoon hit about three songs into the first set causing flooding, the ruin of many a Birkenstock, and the cancellation of the show (WP generously entertained everyone with three sets and an encore the following night).

Anyway, the popcorn was awesome - with a perfect sweet and salty crust. I've been tinkering with it at home ever since and have settled on a recipe replicated all over the internets.

We've always had a dedicated popcorn pot (we also have an electric popper but I don't care much for the popcorn it produces). I got our present one at Target, I think. It's just a stainless steel stock pot - about 10 quarts. It's way bigger than we need it to be (look for something around 6 quarts if you decide to become a popcorn fanatic like me) but we REALLY like popcorn. I make regular stove top popcorn with just canola oil and a lot of salt (cover the bottom of the pot with oil, add about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of popcorn kernels, pop over medium/medium-high heat, dump into a large serving bowl and douse generously with table salt). But for a better treat, try this:

Kettle Corn
Print recipe only here

INGREDIENTS
* 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
* 1/4 cup white sugar
* 1/4 cup canola oil
* 1 t salt

METHOD
Have ready a serving bowl and two oven mitts or potholders. Add the sugar, salt and oil to a large pot (mine is a stainless steel stockpot that is used only for popping corn) and place over medium heat. When the sugar is dissolved (after 2 minutes or so) add the popcorn. When the popcorn begins to pop, begin to shake the pot without stopping until the popping slows (this prevents the sugar from burning). Once the popping has slowed remove from the heat and transfer kettle corn into serving bowl. Enjoy!

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Now Recommending SplashShopper for iPhone

They did it! Now that Splash Data has launched an iPhone desktop version, making setting up and syncing the device possible AND adding great sorting capabilities I can wholeheartedly recommend the SplashShopper application for iPhone. And I can add another recycled Treo to the Treo graveyard in my desk drawer. Wahoo!

For all you iPhone users, SplashShopper can be had (assuming you've downloaded the new OS) from main screen App Store. You will need an iTunes account to purchase it. At $9.99 it really is a steal. It will totally streamline your grocery shopping. The Books, Wine, and Gifts lists are also quite helpful for jotting down wines you enjoy, books friends have recommended and gift ideas as they come to you.

I'm confident you'll get as much out of it as I do. □

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Blackberries della Nonna

We didn't hit a single Chicago-area U-Pick farm this summer. This would have been a great disappointment had we not had the opportunity to pick bowls and bowls of wild blackberries in the Pacific Northwest.

Blackberry season hits toward the middle of August. The berries pictured above are rooted in the sand on Puget Sound and in the backyard of our dear Nonnie. Were I there long enough to get sick of eating them straight off the thorny vine I would have done any of the following with them: Kristine's blackberry-macerated elk tenderloin (she marinates the meat all day in in smashed blackberries with tamari and garlic and grills it quickly over a high heat to lock in the juices), my favorite blackberry cobbler or a blackberry ice cream. Of course a simple sabayon topped with fresh berries would be great too.

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Intelligencia to Ix-Nay the Enti-Vay

Chicago's Intelligencia Coffee made news recently when they announced plans to phase out 20-ounce coffee and espresso drinks. Quoth Intelligentsia founder Doug Zell, "Drinking our coffee is not like drinking jug wine."

My first reaction to the news was the equivalent of a high-five to Zell. I'm down with moderation. Intelligentsia wants to stay classy and leave the Biggie Coffee to Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald’s.

I thought about Intelligentsia’s motive after reading an editorial in the Tribune which bemoaned the decision on grounds that, “You wouldn't like us when we're not caffeinated,” and called for a resurrection of the 20-ounce cup. (Note: Intelligentsia's Zell is of no relation to the Tribune's Zell.) I struggled to see how the news merited an editorial (because it doesn’t). There will always be a market for jug wine, Super Big Gulps, and super-sized, debt-riddled multimedia/entertainment corporations (maybe not the last one). With 7-Eleven and Starbucks both within shooting distance of the Tribune Tower, the editors will have no problem scoring their caffeine fix.

While I support Intelligentsia’s move isn’t Zell’s statement an admission that up until now they have been purveyors of jug wine? To distinguish themselves from their competitors they should have eschewed the venti from the start.

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Why Flour Type Matters

My children's babysitter had a hard time baking in my house when the kids wanted to make cookies. She had no idea which flour to use. I had four types of white flour in unmarked containers: all purpose (AP), pastry, cake and bread flour. I've since labeled them to reduce confusion.

It's not necessary for the average home baker to keep four white flours. In addition to kitchen standard flour - AP - I highly recommend keeping cake flour.

So, what's the difference? Cake flour has less protein than AP flour, in fact the lowest protein content of all four flours in my pantry. The reduced gluten (protein) yields a lighter, more tender crumb. On the opposite end of the spectrum is bread flour - a higher protein/gluten flour that gives bread and bagels their chewiness. Pastry flour and AP are in between. Pastry flour has a similarly low protein content as cake flour but it's not chlorinated. Chlorinating cake flour serves to further break down the gluten. It sounds horrid, I know. I know of no company who produces a more natural cake flour.

I had the opportunity to do some cooking in my sister's kitchen recently and rediscovered how a simple substitution can radically alter a recipe. We were making pancakes and she only had half the amount of cake flour needed. My recipe calls for 2 cups of cake flour; we used one cup of cake flour and one cup of AP. The resulting pancakes were disastrous, a far cry from the light and fluffy breakfast we enjoy so much.

Cake flour is available in the baking aisle of any grocery store. Look for it in a 2# box. I alternately see two brands: Swans Down and Pillsbury Softasilk. As for substitutions, 1 cup plus 2 T cake flour can substitute for 1 cup of AP flour in a pinch. Following our dense pancake fiasco, I don't recommend substituting AP for cake flour. Find another recipe (not all pancake recipes require cake flour) or add cake flour to your shopping list.

For more info on flour varieties check out: The Joy of Baking

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