Breads & Cakes

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

January 26, 2010 by mollygilbert520 13 Comments

I’ll give you cake guesses as to what I made in school this week. Umm I mean, eight guesses. Eight layer guesses.

Shoot.

Ahem. This week at school we made cake. Lots and lots of cake. And buttercreams and Bavarian creams and ganaches and fruit mousse and chocolate mousse and Marty Moose. It was delicious.

Cakes on parade:

Vanilla Genoise (Egg Foam Cake) with Vanilla Buttercream

Angel Food Cake

Chocolate Genoise Cake with Chocolate Ganache Glaze

Dacquoise Cake with Coffee Buttercream

Charlotte Russe, Pear Bavarian Cream

Marjolaine Cake

Lemon Loaf Cake

Charlotte Royale

Chocolate Cupcakes

…with chocolate fudge frosting

Fruit Miroir Cake

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Pecan Coffee Cake

Nice little lineup, huh? Maybe try this one:

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I was never big into carrot cake, but I think it’s mostly because of the walnuts. Being as I’m allergic, I always shied away from walnut-clad cakes and, since most carrot cakes are choc full of that tricky nut, I never had the pleasure of enjoying this delightful treat. My version uses pecans, and is both dense and flaky, faintly sweet from the carrots and sufficiently tangy from the cream cheese frosting. I suggest you try it. Especially if you’re finding yourself fading in your early January resolution to “eat healthier this year.” I mean, come on – this thing is bursting with bright, health-inducing carrots. It’s like eating a salad. Except it’s way better. Because it’s cake.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

125 grams cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
220 grams granulated sugar
170 grams vegetable oil
60 grams pecans, chopped
165 grams carrots, grated (about 1 large carrot)

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

450 grams cream cheese, room temperature
180 grams butter, room temperature
200 grams powdered sugar
zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour one 9-inch cake pan. Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Whip the eggs and the sugar in an electric mixer until foamy and doubled in size. When you lift the whisk from the bowl, the egg/sugar mixture should fall in a thick ribbon from the whisk and keep it’s ribbon shape for a few seconds after it falls into the bowl.

Very slowly drizzle the oil into the egg/sugar mixture. Once the oil is fully incorporated, add the sifted dry ingredients and mix just to combine. Gently stir in the nuts and grated carrots.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake the cake at 350ºF for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Immediately (and carefully! The cake will be fragile and crumbly) unmold the cake onto a cooling rack.

To make the frosting, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar until smooth and soft.

Add the lemon zest, sour cream, and vanilla extract.

Once the cake is cool, slice it carefully into two layers. Spread a small amount of frosting onto the bottom layer and cover with the top layer. Completely cover the layered cake with the frosting. This recipe makes a lot of frosting – you may have some left over. If you wish, pipe rosettes on the top of your cake using a star tip, and garnish with extra chopped pecans or marzipan carrots.

Note: This is a very delicate cake, so, if you have time, you might want to consider freezing it overnight before cutting and icing – the frozen cake will be easier to cut and assemble. The cake is best served the day it’s assembled/decorated.

Pains Au (Ohhhhhh) Chocolat

January 12, 2010 by mollygilbert520 3 Comments

There was a time, not too long ago, when, like many of today’s youth, I was in college. That time was four years ago. …Sigh. I’m still jealous of people who get to be college students – people who get to live in dorms and apartments surrounded by all of their friends, who get to spend gorgeous fall days reading novels (or, um, maybe just drinking grain alcohol) outside “on the quad,” get to take naps at 1:00 pm on a Tuesday… people who get to spend a semester studying abroad.

When I was in college (those four, long years ago), I took the opportunity to study abroad for a semester in Paris.

View from la Tour Montparnasse

Pyramide du Louvre

Place des Vosges

View from the Seine

Notre Dame

Sacre Coeur

La Moulin Rouge

The experience was, on the whole, awesome. I lived with a french family, the Fraisses, in the 15th arrondissement – Hughes, Brigitte, and their 20-year-old daughter, Solveig. They were perfectly lovely and did their best to try to make me, an awkward, semi-french-speaking college kid, feel comfortable in their spare bedroom. I lived with them for five months and ate dinner with them nearly three days a week, but, though we tried to connect, French to American and American to French, we were never really close, the Fraisses and me. I think it’s because of the food.

Three nights a week, I’d sit down to dinner with the Fraisse family and, three nights a week, it would be weird. Forget coq au vin or saumon en croute, heck, forget a simple wheel of brie – the Fraisse family liked to eat fish sticks from the freezer and sad, limp pains au chocolat that came out of a supermarket package. They once served me soup that contained spaghetti noodles, grapefruit slices, and mussels out of the shell. I’m not sure where they got the idea for that recipe, but let me tell you, it was a bad one.

I don’t mean to sound ungrateful or snobby – I like fish sticks just as much as the next person and I did, afterall, very politely choke down the entire bowl of grapefruit/mussel/noodle soup, but I mean come on – I was in Paris, for goodness sake! I had an entire world of culinary mastery at my fingertips – crusty breads and smelly cheeses and meltingly braised meats – and there I was, at la dinner table des Fraisses, eating a frozen fillet of cod.

You know what? I didn’t care about the cod. I could deal with those unfortunate mussels. What really got me were the pains au chocolat. Those poor, sad little pains au chocolat, dense and soggy in their packaging, looking like little chocolate-studded lumps of defeat.

In all fairness, the Fraisses made up for all of their culinary shortcomings by being an exceedingly nice family and always having a jar of Nutella in the cabinet, but to this day, the thought of those heavy, stale, storebought pains au chocolat makes me wince. So whenever I see a real, fresh, patisserie-style pain au chocolat, flaky, chewy and airy, butter-scented and filled with pockets of deep chocolate, I sigh a great, heaving breath of pains au chocolat relief.
And I gobble it right up.

Pains Au Chocolat

Chocolate-Filled Croissants

Ingredients:

500 grams bread flour
65 grams granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
40 grams butter, pounded with a rolling pin (between sheets of plastic wrap) until it is soft and has the consistency of hand cream.
25 grams fresh yeast (can substitute 13 grams active dry yeast)
125 grams water
125 grams milk
300 grams butter
1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water, for egg wash
chocolate bâtons

Directions:

Making the croissant dough:

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the 40 grams of softened butter, and mix until incorporated.

Dissolve the yeast in the water and milk, and then add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture, mixing just to combine. The dough should be very rough and shaggy. Gather it into a ball, and wrap the dough in plastic wrap, shaping it into a square as you do so. Let the dough chill and rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

When the dough is fully rested, roll it out into a rectangle approximately 3/8-inch thick.

Prepare to incorporate the 300 grams of butter – place the butter between sheets of plastic wrap and smash it with a rolling pin until it is as soft as the rest of the dough. Shape the butter into a square – this will be place on top of the rolled out rectangle of croissant dough and folded in, so you want to make sure that your square of butter is large enough to cover 2/3 of the croissant dough.

Place your large butter square over the bottom two-thirds of the rectangular croissant dough.

Now, for the folding – think of a business letter. Fold the top flap of croissant dough, which should be free of any butter, down, on top of the middle 1/3 of the buttered dough. Then, fold the bottom 1/3 of buttered dough up, so it rests on top of the other two sections of folded dough. It now looks like a business letter. Rotate the dough 90 degrees so that the fold is now on the left, and then gently press the dough together with the rolling pin, so that the package of dough compresses slightly. This is called a “letter turn,” and you’ve just completed one.

Wrap the croissant dough and chill it for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, unwrap the dough onto a floured board, and place it so that the seam of your “letter” is on the right. Again, roll out the dough into a rectangle approximately 3/8-inch thick. Do another letter turn – fold the top third of the dough down, and fold the bottom third up, making a package of dough that looks like a business letter. Re-wrap the dough and chill it for another 30 minutes.

The same rolling/folding/turning process will be repeated 1 more time, for a total of 3 letter turns, resulting in consistent, distinct layers of butter and dough – this kind of dough is called a laminated dough.

Important: be sure to wait at least 20 – 40 minutes between each “turn” of the dough – this helps the gluten to relax and prevents the butter from melting out, and ultimately results in a flakier, more tender croissant.

At this stage, the package of croissant dough may be frozen for future use.

Assembling the pains au chocolat:

Using a sharp knife and pressing straight down, cut the package of croissant dough in half. Roll the two halves of croissant dough into two rectangles, each approximately 24 by 8 inches and approximately 1/4-inch thick. Next, cut each rectangle of dough in half the long way, so you end up with 4 long rectangles of dough, each roughly 24 wide by 4 inches high.

Place two of the rectangles on a sheet pan and chill them in the refrigerator. Working with the two remaining pieces, brush the top edge of each rectangle with egg wash. Place a row of chocolate bâtons along the bottom edge of each piece of dough, opposite the side with the egg wash.

Fold the near edge over the bâtons and place a second row of bâtons on the dough. Fold the dough again to encase the second row of chocolate bâtons, and to meet the egg-washed edge.

You should now have a long roll of dough containing two rows of chocolate bâtons. Slice the log into individual pastries, about every 4-inches. Place the raw pains au chocolat onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, making sure to spread them out evenly, leaving them plenty of room to expand. Repeat the entire process with the two remaining rectangles of dough.

Cover the raw pastries with plastic wrap sprayed with nonstick cooking spray (such as PAM), and leave the baking sheet to sit in a warm place for about 30 minutes to allow the croissants to proof. Make sure that they’re not left to sit someplace too hot, or the butter in the dough will melt out. The ideal temperature for proofing pains au chocolat is about 75 degrees F.

After the croissants have proofed for about 30 minutes, or once they are nearly doubled in size, brush them with egg wash, completely covering the exposed surfaces but not allowing the egg wash to drip or pool.

Bake the pains au chocolat at 350 degrees Farenheit for 15 to 20 minutes, or until medium brown and flaky.

Once finished, remove from the oven and place the pastries on a cooling rack – this will prevent them from getting soggy.

This recipe makes about 20 pains au chocolat. You could probably halve the recipe, but as these are so labor-intensive, you may want to make a full recipe and either freeze the unshaped dough for later use, or freeze the assembled, un-proofed and un-eggwashed pastries. Then, when you want fresh pains au chocolat, you can remove a few, unbaked, from the freezer, place them on a sheet pan and bake them from frozen.

Important notes to remember about assembling pains au chocolat:

Do not roll the dough too thinly, or the layers in the dough will be destroyed.
Keep the dough chilled at all times while working with it.
Use only a little bit of flour on the bench when shaping the pastries.
When rolling the chocolate into the dough and assembling the pastry, try to make sure that the seam runs down the middle of the pastry – this will prevent the pain au chocolat from unraveling while it bakes.
Pains au chocolat do not keep well, and should be served the day they are baked.
If, however, you are wondering what to do with day-old pains au chocolat, use them to make bread pudding!

Caramel Frosting

October 25, 2009 by mollygilbert520 4 Comments

If you’re a fan of caramel (and I really think you ought to be), I think you’ll enjoy learning about Liddabit Sweets, the candy company where I currently intern. I’ve been spending a few days a week with the Liddabit girls, measuring out ingredients, stirring pots of boiling sugar, tempering chocolate (and then dipping things in it!),

molding lollipops, twisting caramels into wrappers,

coating fresh apples in soft, salted caramel,

and, on the weekends, selling the bundles of various deliciousness to people at the Brooklyn Flea and New Amsterdam Markets. Sweets for the sweet, and all that.

It’s pretty awesome. Not only is all of the candy handmade with local ingredients, it’s also cute and clever and, most importantly, downright delicious.

It’s so caramelly. And chocolately. And lollipopish.

Yum.

Caramel Frosting
Adapted from Bon Appetit

This isn’t a Liddabit recipe, but I recently used this rich caramel to frost cupcakes, and I think, given it’s thick, smooth consistency, it would be pretty delightful as a coating for fresh fall apples. Just stick a thick bamboo skewer in your favorite apple (Jonagold and Honeycrisp are good choices), make this caramel and dip away. The cream cheese in the recipe is pretty unorthodox, but it gives the caramel a slight, subtle tang, which, incidentally, is surprisingly lip smacking.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
6 ounces cream cheese, cut into small pieces, room temperature
2 1/4 cups sugar
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 Tbsp sea salt

Directions:

Whisk whipping cream and cream cheese in small bowl until smooth.

Combine sugar and water in heavy medium saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high; boil without stirring until syrup is deep amber color, occasionally swirling the pan, about 10 minutes. Once the sugar has turned a nice, caramelly amber, slowly and carefully whisk in cream cheese mixture (caramel mixture will bubble vigorously). Add butter; whisk until mixture is smooth, about 1 minute.

Remove from heat; cool caramel about 10 minutes, whisking occasionally. Stir in sea salt. Use for dipping caramel apples or frosting your favorite cake.

Makes about 4 cups caramel frosting.

Curried Squash Soup with Apples, Creme Fraiche and a Popover

October 14, 2009 by mollygilbert520 2 Comments

Well people, apparently it is almost the middle of October. How does that keep happening? I look away for one second, and all of a sudden it’s time to get another haircut and I can’t leave my apartment without a coat. A coat! Yesterday I was clamoring about the oppressive summer heat radiating from the city’s sidewalks, and today I need a coat. I bet tomorrow I’ll be asking for a warm hat and mittens.

You know what else? I’m already in level 5 at school. Level 5! Level 5 means that, when I go to class everyday, I’m not actually in “class” – I’m one of the students working the lunch shift in the school’s restaurant, L’Ecole. Kind of crazy, no? I cook lunch for people! REAL people, who will eat the REAL food that I cook for them. Almost like a real chef! …Almost.

We rotate stations in the kitchen, from garde manger (appetizers and cold salads) to entremetier (specials) to poissonier (fish) to saucier (meats and sauce) to patissier (pastry). I haven’t hit all of the stations yet, but here are a few highlights from my rotations in saucier and patissier:

Pork Osso Bucco with Risotto Milanese

A Dessert Special – Brown Butter Cake with Caramelized Bananas and Pumpkin Ice Cream

Doesn’t look half bad, huh? I’ve also been responsible for making buttermilk-poached chicken, a mango-yogurt terrine, mint-chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches and and braised rabbit, but alas – no pictures.

In addition to our everyday work in the kitchen, we level 5 students were assigned a menu project which was, incidentally, due today. The project consisted of designing a menu, including at least 4 courses, and writing a report on it, complete with pictures of your plated dishes, a wine pairing, and a food cost analysis. In short, a glorified blog post (minus the cost analysis business). Needless to say, I kind of enjoyed doing it (again, minus the cost analysis nonsense. Me and math are not the closest of friends.)

I chose to create a seasonal menu, complete with my favorite, toasty warm fall flavors (note the ample use of apples and butternut squash). Here is the menu I chose:

Course 1: amuse-bouche – ham and cheddar toast with pickled apple

Course 2: curried squash soup with apples, crème fraiche, and a popover

Course 3: herbed goat cheese and zucchini tart, served with baby greens, pumpkin seeds and apple cider vinaigrette

Course 4: chicken cassoulet with white beans, roasted Brussels sprouts and butternut squash (apologies – no photo).

Course 5: apple meringue “cupcake” with cinnamon-sugared doughnut holes

Sound like something you’d like to eat? Maybe? The squash soup, at least? Ok.

Curried Squash Soup with Apples, Crème Fraiche and a Popover

To me, squash soup is the epitome of fall – warm and smooth, with a hint of sweetness and spice. Eating it makes me want to own lots of cozy sweaters and watch football and drink hot cider. My recipes for the soup and popovers are adapted from Ina Garten and Gourmet magazine (rest in peace, old friend), respectively.

Ingredients:

For soup:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large yellow onions, chopped
2 tablespoons curry powder
5 pounds butternut squash (2 large), peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
1 1/2 pounds McIntosh apples, peeled, cored, and cut into chunks
1 sprig fresh thyme
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 cups chicken stock
crème fraiche, for garnish
pumpkin seed oil, for garnish

For popovers:

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
melted, unsalted butter for brushing the pan

Directions:

Warm the butter, olive oil, onions, and curry powder in a large stockpot, uncovered, over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until the onions are soft and translucent. Stir occasionally, scraping the bottom of the pot.

Add the squash, apples, salt, pepper, thyme and chicken stock to the pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook over low heat for 30 to 40 minutes, until the squash and apples are very soft.Remove the sprig of thyme.Puree the soup coarsely with an immersion blender, or in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade.

Adjust seasoning and serve hot, garnished with a dollop of crème fraiche and a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil.

To make the popovers, first preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Next, sift together the flour and the salt in a medium bowl.

In a small bowl whisk together the eggs and the milk. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture, stirring, and stir the batter until it is smooth.

In a preheated 450°F. oven heat one or two 6-cup muffin pan for 5 minutes, or until hot, and then brush the cups with the melted butter, and fill them half full with the batter (you should be able to fill about 8 muffin cups).

Bake the popovers in the middle of the 450°F oven for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375°F, and bake the popovers for 20 minutes more, or until they are golden brown and crisp.

Makes roughly 3 quarts of soup and 8 popovers.

Tarte Aux Pommes (Apple Tart)

September 2, 2009 by mollygilbert520 1 Comment

Well, it’s the first of September. Which, as you may or may not know, means two things. Number one: I am officially 25 years old. Number two: I survived the first real milestone of my culinary education – the midterm.

Whew! What a week. A quarter century followed by a quartered chicken. Or it would have been, if I’d been assigned the roast chicken for the midterm. I actually ended up getting the skate à la grenobloise (skate fillet with croutons, capers, lemon, and brown butter) and the apple tart. Which meant that, after a short written exam, I had three hours to: fillet a whole skate (if you’ve never done this, let me suggest right now that you don’t. Skate is pretty delicious – it tastes almost exactly like scallops, minus the awkward texture – but it’s covered in slime and spikes and, overall, not a fun fish to have to break down. Especially under a time crunch. I’m just saying); make a batch of buttery croutons; turn four potatoes into twelve perfect little cocottes and then boil them until tender; brown the skate fillets in clarified butter; throw together a quick brown butter sauce with lemon and capers; mix up a batch of pâte sucrée; roll it out; fill it with apple compote and perfectly sliced apples; bake and cool the apple tart; glaze it; slice it; whip up a batch of soft, pillowy chantilly (whipped cream); plate both dishes and have them out at 1:06 and 1:48, respectively. And breathe.

The good news is I think I passed. So I live to see the level 4 kitchens! And another day at 25. Yeesh. I suppose it’s a nice, solid, round number. I think I’ll stick with it for awhile… at least a year, anyway.

Tarte Aux Pommes (Apple Tart)

Here you go – a classic apple tart. Very french, and very delicious. The best part? I will not be timing you.

Ingredients: For the Dough:

1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
7 tablespoons butter, very cold, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1.5 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg mixed with 2 teaspoons water

For the Apple Compote:

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored, cut into medium-sized chunks
2 tablespoons sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons water

For the Apple Topping:

2-3 Golden Delicious apples
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons apricot jelly
2 tablespoons water

Directions:

First, make the dough. Sift together the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Mix the cold, cubed butter into the dry ingredients using two forks or clean fingertips, until the butter is incorporated and the mixture has a sandy texture. Form a well in the butter-flour mixture and add the egg/water mixture into the well.

Begin to combine the liquid into the flour-butter mixture, being careful not to overwork the dough (overworked dough leads to tough, heavy crust). If the dough seems too dry (if it’s too flaky and won’t stick together), add a few drops of ice-water (only a few small drops at a time!) until it comes together.

Gather the dough, form it into a flat disc, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the compote. Put the Granny Smiths, sugar, water, and lemon juice in a sauté pan over medium-low heat, and cook slowly under a parchment paper lid, until the apples are soft and have exuded their juices. Remove the parchment and cook the apples until most of the liquid has evaporated. Place compote in a bowl and chill immediately in the refrigerator or freezer.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. When the dough is thoroughly rested and chilled, roll it out on a floured surface and gently press it into an 8-inch tart pan. Spread the cold apple compote in an even layer on the bottom of the pastry shell.

Peel the Golden Delicious apples, cut them in half, and core them. Slice the apples in very thin slices horizontally, and arrange them decoratively on top of the apple compote, making sure to place the slices very close together (the apples will shrink in the oven, so be generous with the little slices and be sure to overlap them on top of each other).

Brush or pour the melted butter over the tart, and bake it in the 425º oven for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 350ºF and bake for an additional 50-60 minutes. When it’s ready, the apples should be soft and brown on the edges, and the pastry should be golden brown. Once the tart is finished, mix the apricot jelly and water together and heat on the stovetop until runny. Brush the apricot glaze over the warm tart, and let the tart cool before slicing.

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream or some cool vanilla ice cream.

Serves 8.

Celebration Cake with Chocolate Frosting

August 4, 2009 by mollygilbert520 5 Comments

Cheers, Aunt Marie!

My Aunt Marie, who you may already know about because she makes the most fantastic granola around, has a new book out today! Check out Ask Dr. Marie: Straight Talk and Reassuring Answers to Your Most Private Questions. It’s a comprehensive on women’s health and sexuality – it’s got chapters on everything from “How to Get the Health Care You Need at Every Age” to “Sex Smarts: The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Having Fun in Bed.” Intriguing, no?

I think every gal (or guy who loves a gal) should have a copy of Marie’s book. Then again, I suppose I’m sort of biased… she is my Aunt, afterall. Still, she is a rather remarkable Aunt. I mean, in her lifetime, the woman has gone from Nurse to Internist to women’s health expert to guest on Oprah to ABC News Medical Correspondant… all while raising a family and being a wonderful Aunt and inventing a damn fine recipe for granola. And if that’s not something to celebrate, I don’t know what is. Congrats, Aunt Mur!

Celebration Cake

Okay, so, don’t freak out. First, let me start out by saying that this cake is delicious. It’s light, moist, flavorful, and, um… from a box. (!) Damn my eyes. I do have a “real” recipe for yellow cake, and it’s actually quite good, but who wants to fuss around with measuring flour and sugar and blah blah blah and de whole freakin’ zoo when you’re at the beach on vacation and it’s your uncle’s birthday and it’s an insanely gorgeous day and come on! Give a girl a break. That’s right, I said it. It’s from a box! And it tastes good! Sue me.

Ahem. Anyway, at least the chocolate frosting is homemade. I adapted the recipe from Lynn Kearney at The Food Network Kitchens.

Ingredients:

For cake:

2 boxes yellow cake mix (and various accoutrement – eggs, oil, etc.)
3 9-inch round cake pans
store-bought sugar flowers or candy, for decorating

For frosting:

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 tablespoons butter
4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 to 8 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Bake the cakes according to the instructions on the (gasp!) box. Let cool completely before frosting.

Make the frosting: in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water, melt the chocolate with the butter. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. In the bowl of an electric mixer, add chocolate mixter and sifted confectioners’ sugar. Beat until well incorporated (despite the sifting, there may still be beads of sugar in the chocolate. This is fine). Add the vanilla and the milk, a tablespoon at a time, until the frosting is fluffy and has reached a nice, spreadable consistency.

Layer the cooled cakes, one on top of the other, with a thin layer of frosting in between. Ice the top and sides of cake, and decorate with flowers or candy.

Makes one 3-layer, 9-inch cake.

Choux a la Creme Chantilly (Cream Puffs)

July 22, 2009 by mollygilbert520 3 Comments

If I scream, and you scream, what are we all screaming for?

The answer, of course, is ice cream. Or maybe it’s cake. Or it could be tarts. Or caramel, or crêpes, or puff pastry, or custard, or mousse, or soufflé, or… holy bananas, make it stop.

I mean, not permanently. I love ice cream. And cakes and tarts and caramel and crêpes and all those other delicious treats. But I’ve been up to my elbows in pastry all week and I’m not sure how much more I can take before my teeth rebel and deteriorate and my body decides it’s had about enough, thank you, and forces me to collapse into a sugar-induced coma. So there.

It started last Monday with tart dough. There I was, happily mixing and rolling out pâte sucrée, making pastry cream, slicing apples and pears, warming up the apricot glaze. It all seemed so wonderful! So flaky, so sweet, so… innocent!

I should have known better. Next thing I know it’s a week later and I’m hurling caramel ice cream down my throat and wrestling my classmates for the last bite of chocolate mousse. Ahem. Don’t look at me, I’m too ashamed.

…Actually, it’s been sort of a great week. There was an incident involving the indecent hurling of caramel ice cream down my throat, but I’m happy to report zero incidents of chef knife dueling over the last lick of whipped cream. And, to be fair, that caramel ice cream was flipping delicious.

I want to tell you about everything we made at school this week – from buttercream to ladyfingers to italian meringues, but I’m afraid I can’t tell you as well as I can show you. So, here you go… just a taste.

Tarte aux pommes (Apple Tart)

Tarte aux poires à la frangipane (pear tart with almond cream)

Crème au beurre (buttercream)

La génoise (egg foam cake)

Crêpes au citron (crêpes with lemon syrup)

Beignets aux pommes (apple fritters)

Pâte à choux (pastry dough used to make cream puffs)

Choux à la crème chantilly (cream puffs)

Crème caramel (…crème caramel)

Bande de tarte aux fruits (puff pastry fruit tart)

Soufflé au chocolat (chocolate soufflé)

Clearly, I had my fair share of sugary fancies this week. I wish I could accurately describe the deep, slightly bitter, nutty smoothness of the caramel ice cream to you, or the airy, buttery flakiness of the puff pastry fruit tart. The rich smell of vanilla infused crème anglaise, and the delicate pear flavor beautifully enrobed in a soufflé. Sigh.

I have the recipes for all of these things, and I’ll give them to you if you want them, but, for this post, I decided to go with the choux à la crème chantilly. “Shoe a la crem shantee-ee.” …That’s cream puff, to you and me.

Choux À La Créme Chantilly
(Cream Puffs)

Caramel ice cream may be smooth and delicious, and chocolate soufflé may be rich and fancy, but the cream puff holds a special place in my heart. When I was a kid, we used to get them at the Wisconsin State Fair, along with grilled sweet corn and barbecued beef. My parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle and two little sisters would all squeeze around a dusty picnic table on the fairgrounds, right near the barns housing the prize-winning animals, the smell of cows and butter and fresh cream wafting around us. Someone would bring a big tray of freshly baked, Wisconsin cream puffs to the table, and we’d scoop them up and dig in, starting with the light, chewy pastry, quickly moving to the sweet, airy cream. Pretty soon we’d be sloshing whipped cream down our shirts and licking stray dollops from each other’s fingers. And then 2-year-old Casey would fall asleep and 4-year-old Emily would get upset that she spilled cream on her shirt and I, at age 6, would ask if I could please please have another cream puff. …Please?

Ingredients:

For the chouxdough:

1 cup water
110 grams butter (slightly less than 1/2 cup butter), cut in chunks
pinch salt
pinch sugar
1 1/4 cups flour
4 to 5 eggs
extra egg, for egg wash

For the crème chantilly:

1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
vanilla extract

Directions:

To make the choux dough, put the water, butter, salt and sugar into a pot and bring to a boil. As soon as the mixture reaches a boil and the butter is completely melted, take it off the heat and add all of the flour at once. Place the pot back on a medium flame and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon about 30 seconds, until the dough comes together and forms a mass that does not stick to the pan.

Dump the dough into a large, clean bowl. Crack 4 eggs into a separate bowl, and add them to the dough one at a time, making sure that each is fully incorporated before adding the next. You can do this step either by hand with a wooden spoon or in an electric mixer using the paddle attachment. The mixture should be firm but smooth. You’ll know it has absorbed enough eggs when a spoon or finger run through the batter leaves a channel that fills in slowly, and a dollop of batter lifted on a spatula curls over itself and forms a hook. If the dough still seems too firm (if the channel formed by a spoon through the batter takes a long time to fill in), crack the 5th egg, break it up with a whisk in a separate bowl, and add drops of egg until the batter is just right.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF convection (or 400º regular).

Fill a pastry bag with the choux batter, and pipe out small circles of dough onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. If you don’t have a pastry bag, you can make one by cutting off one of the bottom corners of a large, plastic ziptop bag. Just fill the bag and pipe the dough out of the little hole. You can make your cream puffs any size you like, just make sure they are all generally the same size.

Brush the circles lightly with egg wash, and bake until the dough has puffed up and is a deep, golden brown. Turn off the convection oven, or lower the regular oven to 300ºF, and leave the choux in for another 5 to 10 minutes to dry out. Remove the choux from the oven when they are dry and feel light and hollow (if you’re not sure they’re completely dry, take one out and split it open. The inside should be bone dry – any moisture will leave you with soggy creampuffs.) Allow the choux to cool before slicing off their tops and filling them with cream.

To make the crème chantilly, beat the heavy cream (either by hand or with an electric mixer) until it starts to thicken. Flavor it with the sugar and a drop of vanilla, and continue beating until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to overbeat the cream, or it will turn to butter. Pipe the cream into the cool, dry choux pastries, and serve immediately.

This recipe makes a lot of cream puffs (roughly 50) – feel free to halve or even quarter it for a more manageable batch of deliciousness.

Apple Tart with Strawberry Compote

July 14, 2009 by mollygilbert520 2 Comments

Just as it always does, summer is moving too fast. When did it become mid-July? Just yesterday it was the beginning of June and I was learning to flavor stocks and chop vegetables, and today I’m knee deep in organ meat. Organ. Meat. I’m talking about veal kidneys, sweetbreads (oh, they sound delicious, but don’t be fooled – sweetbreads have nothing to do with either sweets or bread; they are the thymus glands of veal, young beef, lamb or pork), calf’s liver, tripe (that’s the stomach lining of a cow, for those interested), and lamb’s tongue. The proper name for these tasty treats is offal, and it’s pronounced just like it sounds. And tastes.

I know it’s sort of hip to enjoy eating offal, and I’ll admit that liver does have its merits (mainly in the form of my Gramma Inez’s chopped chicken liver – more on that another time), but what can I say? Ingesting animal entrails just isn’t really my thing. But, as Chef S. likes to say, “tough luck on you.” So, on Friday I put on a clean chef’s coat, suppressed my upchuck reflexes, and started the day by boiling and peeling lamb tongues. Les langues d’agneau. Sounds much better in french, n’est pas?

It was nasty. The tongues were the worst. Any preparation that starts with: “eliminate the larynx and disgorge the tongue under cold running water” is bound to be sort of gross, but I’m not sure I can accurately describe the extent of the grossness. Suffice it to say, of all of the wretchedly gross things in the world, the act of peeling off the outer skin of a poached lamb’s tongue has got to be up there. And I mean up there. Yech.

The sweetbreads weren’t much better. One of the prep instructions is: “using a finger, eliminate any nerves or cartilage.” Uh huh, yeah, I’d love to stick my fingers into a smelly lump of thymus nerves. I thought you’d uh, never ask. And yes, we did make a heaping plate full of veal kidneys (a.k.a mushrooms in mustard sauce),

but if anyone brought them over to the Level 1 kitchen, I don’t know. I’m not trying to make any Level 1 vegans cry.

So, like the first half of summer, offal day at school came and went, and I’m happy to say that I did try every dish we made on Friday: sautéed kidneys with mustard sauce, grilled and pan-fried sweetbreads (actually, the pan fried ones taste sort of like chicken nuggets… not bad for thymus glands), sautéed calf’s liver with caramelized onions, and lamb tongue with spicy sauce. I may have whimpered and gagged a little bit, but I did it, and it’s over. In the words of Chef S., “and blah blah bah, blah bah, and dat’s the end of dat stoh-ry. Now make me a clean-up, get reed of dis zoo.” Gladly.

This week begins a seven-day stretch of pastry at school – everything from pâte brisée to sorbet to soufflé – and I couldn’t be happier. To celebrate this sweet turn of events, I thought you might like to make an apple tart with strawberry compote. I promise, there’s nothing awful about it.

Apple Tart with Strawberry Compote

Ingredients: For the Dough:

1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
7 tablespoons butter, very cold, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg mixed with 2 teaspoons water

For the Strawberry Compote:

1 large container of strawberries (about 16 ounces), hulled and chopped
2 tablespoons sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons water

For the Apple Filling:

2-3 apples (I used Granny Smith)
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons melted butter

Directions:

Gather the dough, form it into a flat disc, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the compote. Put the strawberries, sugar, water, and lemon juice in a sauté pan over medium-low heat, and cook slowly under a parchment paper lid, until the strawberries are very soft and have exuded their juices.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. When the dough is thoroughly rested and chilled, roll it out on a floured surface and gently press it into an 8-inch tart pan. Spread the strawberry compote in an even layer on the bottom of the pastry shell.

Cut the apples in half, and core them. (Some people like to peel them first – one step too many for me, but if you prefer peeled apples, by all means, go for it). Slice the apples in very thin slices horizontally, and arrange them decoratively on top of the strawberry compote, making sure to place the slices very close together (the apples will shrink in the oven, so be generous with the little slices).

Pour the melted butter over the tart, and bake it in the 425º oven for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 350ºF and bake for an additional 50-60 minutes. When it’s ready, the apples should be soft and brown on the edges, and the pastry should be golden brown.

Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or room temperature with a dollop of cold whipped cream.

Makes one 8-inch tart.

Chocolate & Banana Yogurt Muffins

March 5, 2009 by mollygilbert520 4 Comments

Okay people, pop quiz! Don’t panic, this one’s easy. What do you do when you see a big bunch of overripe bananas on your kitchen counter?

Anyone fancy a guess? Hmm? What’s that I hear? Make banana cake? YES! You are the smartest.

Now for the bonus question: What do you NOT do when you see a big bunch of overripe bananas on your kitchen counter?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Okay, I’ll tell you. You do NOT, under any circumstance, no matter what, underbake your banana cake. Just don’t do it. Because I did, and let me tell you, it’s awful. Awful! Just… so sad.

There I was on a Wednesday night, happily baking away in my little apartment kitchen, my ipod set to a playlist full of Marvin Gaye, Etta James and Alicia Keys, my mind thoroughly focused on the new banana cake recipe my coworker, Karthi, had recently shared with me. After a little spooning, measuring and mixing, plus a homemade rendition of “I heard it through the grapevine,” my kitchen began to smell sweet with banana and cinnamon – just how a kitchen ought to smell on a chilly evening in March, if you want to know the truth.

That’s when everything went wrong. I peeked in the oven and saw that it was good and brown, so I took out my cake and let it cool before inverting the thing onto a plate. It looked light and springy, and slipped easily out of the pan. Success! Ahem…false.

Apparently I was working with some pretty crafty banana cake, because despite its deliciously brown, moist and springy disguise, one slice revealed the shattering truth: light and springy this cake was not. It was… (gasp)… raw! Full of wet, gooey, raw batter. Yuck.

I should have seen this coming. I should have done the toothpick test. How could I have skipped the toothpick test?! I spooned, I measured, I mixed! And all it got me was a soggy, messy excuse for a banana cake. I ate a piece, because, what a waste! But I was so disheartened I just threw the whole thing out. Somewhere, Al Gore is frowning at me. I’m sorry, Al! Blame it on the toothpick (or lack thereof).

So, as it stands, the score is currently:

Banana Cake: 1 Molly: 0

Whatever, banana cake. I call a rematch. And this time, I will eat you for breakfast.

Crafty Banana Cake Slash Muffins
Adapted from Karthi’s recipe

To be fair, Karthi’s recipe involved muffins. Fully baked ones. Karthi is a smart person, and I suggest you stick with her and leave the bundt pan at home. The batter from this recipe is quite delicate, as it contains no oil or butter, and it’s decidedly better suited for small, light muffins instead of a large cake. Properly baked, this batter becomes light and springy, with pockets of soft banana and chocolaty chips.

Ingredients:

6 medium, overripe bananas
½ cup sugar
½ cup plain yogurt (whole milk yogurt is best, but use whatever you have)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 3 x 4 muffin pans (or use muffin liners).

Mash up the bananas in a bowl with a fork, and add the egg, yogurt, vanilla and sugar, mixing to combine.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing to combine. Add the chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into muffin tins, and place the tins in the oven. Bake for 15-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean. Try not to forget this last step, if you can help it.

Makes 24 muffins.

Note: Though these are wonderful as-is, if you’re looking to doll the little guys up, add some pecans to the batter, and top them with cream cheese frosting, a plain sugar glaze, or a simple dusting of confectioner’s sugar.

Lemon Yogurt Cake

February 22, 2009 by mollygilbert520 1 Comment

I was feeling sort of blue this week. Maybe it was the end of my food-and-family-filled Midwest extravaganza, or the fact that it snowed all over Boston. Again. Or maybe it was because of the 4-inch long rip that appeared down the back pocket seam of my dark skinny jeans on Friday – while I was still in them. At work. That definitely could have been it. Then again, maybe I was feeling blue because I subconsciously wanted to match my emotional state to the color of my lips and fingertips – after the heat in my apartment decided to stop working. At any rate, one thing was clear when Friday afternoon finally rolled around: I needed bacon, Ryan Adams, and lemon cake.

First, the bacon. Kath and I went to the BusyBee for breakfast on Saturday, and after squeezing into the small, crowded box lined with teal-blue booths, I was already starting to feel better. At least, I was starting to regain some feeling in my fingertips. The way I think of it, the BusyBee is to restaurants what Merrells are to shoes: sturdy, no-nonsense, and full of older people. And they do a great breakfast. We each had two eggs over-easy, with bacon, homefries and wheat toast. Nothing fancy, just good, old-fashioned breakfast. Yum.

Saturday night brought the second ingredient in my anti-blues cocktail: Ryan Adams. Mr. Adams and his band were set to play at the Orpheum Theater in Boston and, after much hand-wringing and Craigslisting, Katherine managed to get tickets. Our friends Lexi and Josh came down from New Hampshire and we all ate macaroni and cheese and drank beer before heading over to the concert, where we drank more beer and swayed to the folksy rock beats of Ryan Adams and the Cardinals. It was fabulous. They played a bunch of songs I recognized, and many which I did not. For me, the highlights were Two, Oh My Sweet Carolina, a cover of Wonderwall, and my favorite, Come Pick Me Up. Everytime I heard the “I wish you would…” part of the song, I felt slightly squeezy in my chest. I think because I love those lyrics. So sad and vivid and sort of funny. And they come with harmonica riffs. Chest squeezy ones. …Whatever, just listen to the song.

Today is Sunday, and it’s rainy, so I decided to make lemon yogurt cake. Not that I mind rain on Sundays – Sunday rain happens to be the coziest kind of rain. I just thought that lemon yogurt cake would be the perfect way to frost the cheerful cookie of a weekend I’ve been having.

I was right. This cake is wonderfully light and delicious, with an airy, moist crumb and a subtly bright, fresh lemon flavor. It made the whole apartment smell eggy and lemony, like summer. Almost made me forget it’s February. …Almost. Anyway, this cake definitely lends itself to rainy Sundays – make it while you wait for your laundry to dry and listen to Easy Tiger, and then eat it while you watch the Oscars Red Carpet, and be thankful that you get to eat lemon yogurt cake while Kate Beckinsale (who I bet has never eaten lemon yogurt cake) has to waltz her tiny self down a long carpet in a corset and 5-inch heels only to sit through a 5-hour ceremony to not get an award. Yeah… I choose cake.

Lemon Yogurt Cake
Adapted from Ina Garten’s recipe in Barefoot Contessa At Home

Ingredients

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1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
3 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Confectioner’s sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it’s all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully invert the cake onto a baking rack over a sheet pan or platter. While the cake is still warm, poke a few holes in the top of the cake with a fork, then pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool. Sift confectioner’s sugar over the cake, to decorate.

Enjoy with homemade blueberry sauce or a cup of hot tea.