Apple Cream Tart

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Late at night I have a habit of wondering into the kitchen “just to see what’s there”. I’ve already eaten dinner, and usually frozen yogurt, so I have no real reason to be browsing the fridge.  But then out of the corner of my eye I see un-used pastry cream in my fridge and cringe at the thought of throwing out my hard work. The original use of the cream was the pain aux raisin, and they barely put a dent in the batch of this yummy pudding like vanilla custard. I wanted to take a spoon to it, but something told me I would regret that in the morning. So I baked.

Pastry cream has so many uses, mostly as fillings in things like eclairs, cream pies, fresh berry tarts and the like. All of these just sounded (1) too rich and (2) like too many steps late at night. So I scoured my arsenal and came across a disk of pie dough and some apples. Perfect! All the makings of an impressive dessert without too much effort and barely any down time since the pie dough was already chilled and the pastry cream was made too.

This was pretty delicious. You could easily use a pre-made crust or tart shell, or even a puff pastry sheet. For my pie recipe, check out the apple pie I made a few weeks ago.

Recipe

1 pie crust

Pastry cream

2 cups whole milk

1/2 vanilla bean, cut open down the middle, seeded

1/4 tsp of salt

4 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

4 Tablespoons butter, cut in small cubes

3 large apples

Juice on one lemon

1/4 cup apricot/fig jam or honey (anything neutral and sweet)

Directions

  • Make pastry cream:
    • Heat the milk, vanilla seeds and salt in a pan and put over medium heat, and bring to a boil.
    • In a large mixing bowl, whisk the sugar, cornstarch and eggs until smooth.
    •  Slowly add 1/2 of the milk mixture into the egg and whisk constantly to temper them.
    • Add the remaining milk and return the whole thing to the saucepan.
    • Cook until you get a thick consistency, whisking non-stop.
    • Remove from heat and pour into a bowl through a thin sieve, let cool for 10 minutes and then incorporate the butter, one tablespoon at a time, until smooth.
    • If the cream is grainy now is the time to use the blender
    • Cover the surface with plastic wrap, directly touching the cream, let cool completely in the refrigerator.
  • Pre-heat the oven to 375° F
  • Roll out pie crust and place into a 10 inch tart pan. Keep in fridge until ready to use.
  • Slice apples. You can use an apple slicer and cut each wedge in half (like I did) or cut them by hand. Place in a bowl and toss with lemon juice so they do not turn brown.
  • Take crust out of the fridge. Fill with pastry cream.
  • start placing apples in a ring on top of the pastry cream
  • Complete the apple topping and brush with a tablespoon or two of melted butter.
  • Place the tart on a cookie sheet and bake for about 40 minutes or until golden on top
  • place the jam or honey in a sauce pan or microwave and heat with a tablespoon of water until it is a spreadable consistency. Glaze the top of the tart.
  • Let tart cool and set up before slicing. Also, unlike most things I make this should be kept in the fridge, not the counter top so it doesn’t go bad.

Pain aux Raisin

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I love a challenge. I love nothing more than someone (usually my dad) being blown out of the water by a professional pastry, and then trying to recreate it on my own. I know I’m at a disadvantage with non-professional ovens and a lack of training, but I love it. Sometimes truly amazing things are created, other are… well… learning experiences.

About a month ago I was fortunate enough to visit Bouchon Bakery in Yountville. It was 7:30 on a Sunday morning and there was a line out the door already! after staring at the bakery case for 15 minutes it was our turn to order and WOW, it was worth every penny. The star of the show was a pain aux raisin. This spiral danish had raisins and currants and had the perfect flakiness and flavor. I have been determined to make them ever since. I Finally had a chance to attempt recreating this beautiful pastry this weekend. I spent a lot of time looking for a recipe. I was really hoping to find a Thomas Keller recipe, but had no such luck, so I started browsed cook books and the internet looking for anything I could find And surprisingly there was not a lot on yeastpotting (so I guess I should add mine). Every pain aux raisin recipe I found used brioche dough, and this just didn’t seem right to me. I knew from the way the pastry tasted and looked that it was a croissant/danish-like laminated dough. But all the recipes had one other thing in common, pastry cream! I never would have thought there was a custard in there, but all recipes said so, as well as raisins soaked in rum or hot water. So I made croissant dough, along with some homemade pastry cream and rum soaked raisins and currants.

It was somewhat time-consuming, but when it’s broken down into elements it wasn’t too tough. I made the croissant dough using 1/2 the tartine recipe I used when I made croissants a few months ago. I also turned to tartine for the pastry cream recipe, it used fewer eggs than most and resulted in a not overwhelming rich and heavy cream. It also had an amazing pearl of wisdom in the recipe, if you see that your pastry cream is grainy you can use an immersion or counter top blender to smooth out the overly cooked egg. This really beats having to throw out a batch and start all over!

Anyways, this was definitely a learning experience for me. By no means did my danishes turn out bad, they just weren’t what I wanted. They looked like what comes in any continental breakfast basket at a Marriott, not something straight out of a pastry shop. I think this was because of a few things – I think I rolled the croissant dough too thin, I think i should have rolled the buns (forgive me for the kindergarten analogy) hamburger and not hot dog way, and I should have cut the danishes thicker. All things I now know for the next attempt. Also, while I’m sure the classic pain aux raisin has pastry cream in it, I’m not sure if the Bouchon roll did. Looking back at the photo from the shop, the layers of dough do not look like they are separated by anything but raisins and currants.

Also, there was so much pastry cream left over there’s a bonus recipe – apple tart!

Recipe

Pain aux Raisin

Half batch of Croissant dough

pastry cream (below)

1 cup mix of raisins and currants

1 cup boiling water

1/2 teaspoon rum extract

1 egg or milk ( for a wash before baking)

1/2 cup of apricot or fig preserves

Directions

  • Make the croissant dough and start the turning process. I did this starting at night, letting the dough rise and incorporating the butter in the morning. I then did the first and second turn.
  • Make the pastry cream and let cool.
  • In a small bowl pour the boiling water over the raisins and currants and add the rum extract (you could also use rum instead of water and extract). Let the fruit soak for at least an hour before draining and blotting dry with a paper towel.
  • finish the croissant dough with the last turn and roll the dough out into a large rectangle, probably about 12′ x 18″. I like to do this on a layer of plastic wrap, it makes rolling the dough into a log much easier later. 
  • using an offset spatula, spread a thin layer of pastry cream over the dough.
  • sprinkle the raisins and currants over the pastry cream.
  • starting with the edge closest to you, roll the dough into a log (like rolling cinnamon rolls). I like to use the plastic wrap and pull it in the direction away from me to create a nice tight roll. As I mentioned before, next time I will start rolling with one of the shorter sides.
  • let the dough sit in the fridge until firm. several hours or over night. The longer the dough is refrigerated the easier the danishes will be to cut.
  • cut the log into slices about 1/4 inch think and place onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silpat. Next time I will be cutting them thinker, probably about an inch. 
  • Preheat the oven to 425° F and let the rolls proof.
  • create either a milk or egg wash and brush over the top. I tried both and you can see how it affects them. (left is milk, right is egg wash)
  • Bake the pastries for about 15-20 minutes until nice and golden brown.
  • While the pastries are baking heat the apricot/ fig preserves in a small pan with 1/4 cup of water. 
  • Let the pastries cool for a few minutes, and then coat with the thinned out fruit preserves. 

Pastry cream

2 cups whole milk

1/2 vanilla bean, cut open down the middle, seeded

1/4 tsp of salt

4 Tbls cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

4 Tbls butter, cut in small cubes

Directions

  • Heat the milk, vanilla seeds and salt in a pan and put over medium heat, and bring to a boil.
  • In a large mixing bowl, whisk the sugar, cornstarch and eggs until smooth.
  •  Slowly add 1/2 of the milk mixture into the egg and whisk constantly to temper them.
  • Add the remaining milk and return the whole thing to the saucepan.
  • Cook until you get a thick consistency, whisking non-stop.
  • Remove from heat and pour into a bowl through a thin sieve, let cool for 10 minutes and then incorporate the butter, one tablespoon at a time, until smooth.
  • If the cream is grainy now is the time to use the blender
  • Cover the surface with plastic wrap, directly touching the cream, let cool completely in the refrigerator.
So I tried again. When I baked off the first batch I didn’t use all on my dough and I made some tweaks. I cut the rolls about an inch thick, I then let them proof for about an hour until they got much larger. I also read on the Bouchon bakery menu that they coat theirs with honey so I tried that as well.
What a difference these changes made!

Sweet potato quick bread

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All week there were beautiful clear skies and 100 degree temperatures as I marched off to work. I was excited to spend the weekend at the beach,  go to the USC game, or just walk my dog, really anything that involved being outside would do. Saturday morning I got woken up by thunderstorms.

Living in southern California, I have become accustom to a late Indian Summer and welcoming fall around Halloween so this 20° temperature drop (not to mention the house shaking thunder) really caught me off guard. I was determined to not let the weather ruin my 2 days off so I braved the storm at the farmers market and on a coffee run.  I returned home damp and cold.

Admitting defeat to the weather, I decided to bake my disappointment away and watch the game on TV. I was machine on Saturday. I feel like I’m cheating on my blog because I made so many things, and there’s no way I could blog every one of them! There was minestrone soup and grilled cheeses for lunch, zucchini bread, another olive batard, spaghetti with pork and veal meatballs for dinner and a sweet potato quick bread.

Oh this sweet potato bread… it was good. I don’t do too many quick breads (mostly because besides banana bread, I didn’t grow up with these) but this successful experiment has given me other ideas. After looking up a few different recipes I noticed similarities throughout the bunch and figured it was a pretty basic formula – 1 cup fat (butter or oil), 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour and 3 eggs, 2 cups of vegetables plus leavening, flavorings and what ever else you want to throw in the pot. This is almost like the 1,2,3,4 cake I use for cupcakes and the like – 1 cup fat, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour 4 eggs.

I do put more thought into it than just throwing in though, for example, since I was planning on using heavy sweet potatoes I decided to only use 2 ½ cups of flour. This is the type of forethought that can make all the difference in the finished baked good. And since sweet potatoes conjure up thoughts of rust colored leaves and pilgrims I went with some holiday spices and added a diced up apple and pecans to the mix.

This bread tastes like fall. It hits all those notes that Starbucks paid researchers millions of dollars to hit with their pumpkin spice and gingerbread lattes. If you’re looking to make something on a cold rainy day, I highly recommend this bread. My co-workers all agreed as well.

Sweet Potato Apple Quick Bread

Recipe

 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes (about 2 medium potatoes)

2½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground ginger

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup canola oil

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 medium gala apple small diced

½ cup pecans

½ cup sugar

1½ tablespoons cinnamon

Directions

  • bake 2 medium sweet potatoes (or microwave) until soft. Let cool, peel and mash.
  • preheat the oven to 375° and grease a 9×5 loaf pan
  • Mix flour, leavening, spices and salt together in a small bowl.
  • In a large bowl whisk sugars and oil until smooth.
  • Add eggs one at a time to the wet mixture, follow with the vanilla.
  • add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix, it does not need to be fully incorporated
  • add the mashed sweet potatoes and mix until everything is homogenous.
  • Add the apples and pecans
  • pour the batter into the prepared pan
  • mix the ½ cup sugar and remaining cinnamon in a small bowl, and sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of the mixture on top of the loaf
  • bake for about an hour; until the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan or a toothpick tester comes out clean.

Plum Cake

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 I wait all year for Italian Prune Plums season.  I try my best to be patient, but I get antsy. I try to use other stone fruits in an old family cake recipe, and while the cakes are great, they just aren’t plum cake.

This recipe is family treasure. I have talked about it before. It’s one of the few things I hope my future children will learn and keep passing down the way my dad’s mom taught my mom and she taught me. I feel like I’m part of a bigger picture when I make this cake. I know where it comes from, and it came a long way. The original recipe was written down in Hebrew with measurements in handfuls and made with what was available. My grandma translated and standardized the recipe in terms of cups and ingredients when she moved to America.

Theres a special tang to this cake. The mixture of lemon, butter, sugar and plums is not quite sour, but creates a little pucker. The dough underneath is sweet and yeasty. The fragrance of the sweet yeast, and tart plums overwhelms you as you take it out of the oven.  It’s always a game to see how long it takes for my dad to find his way to the kitchen when one of these are baking – usually somewhere in the range of the oven door opening and the cake being placed on the counter.

My dad refer’s to this as “the holy grail”. His mom used to make one in late summer and freeze it until his birthday on Christmas. Legend has it, my grandfather would keep a knife close by the cake and cut sliver by sliver to eat, until half was gone in a day. My dad has continued the tradition. He eats it for breakfast, after lunch, for mid-afternoon snacks and dessert…how he is not overweight is beyond me.

While my dad has never baked a single thing in his life, he loves to supervise the plum cake process. “Make the dough sweeter”… “you need more lemon” and my personal favorite, “Make a nice DRY dough” are some of his usual contributions as he steals my halved and pitted plums out of the bowl they sit in with lemon juice. (I threaten to take fingers off when he does this, but I’ve started to realize it’s a battle not worth fighting).

He really loves this cake. I make several of them during the 2 or 3 week window around late August to September when they are available. I really should freeze one this year for his birthday, or maybe freeze the plums. But I have a feeling he would find it and eat it before then.

I’m scared generations of German grandmas are rolling over in their graves as I share this recipe that has never been shared with non-family members, but how could I not share my favorite thing ever. This one is going to yeastspotting too!

Recipe 

Cake dough:

3 cups all-purpose flour

½  cup sugar

½ cup warm water

½ cup milk

3 Tablespoons butter melted

1 package yeast

1 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Plums

2 lbs italian prune plums, or as many as fit in your pan

½ cup sugar

juice of 1½ a lemon

6 Tablespoons melted butter

Directions:

To make cake:

    • Mix flour and sugar together on a large mixing bowl
    • Place warm water, warm milk and yeast in a small bowl and let proof 
    • Pour yeast mixture into the flour and add the extract and butter. Mix together. I prefer to use my hands (t’s the way I learned to make it), but you can do this in a stand mixer with a dough hook
    • Add more flour if needed to create a dough. You want it to spring back and not be too sticky
    • If mixing by hand knead a few times on a floured surface (this is my favorite part) when you poke the dough it will spring back at you if it is ready. 
    • Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl in a warm, draft-free place to rise for about an hour, or until doubled in size
Plums:
    • Cut plums in half, remove pits and place in a bowl with lemon juice 
Assembly:
    • Grease a 13 x 9 glass baking dish
    • Take the dough out of the proofing bowl and roll out into a rectangle and press into the baking dish 
    • arrange the plums on top of the dough pressing them down firmly 
    • pour the lemon juice over the plums along with the butter
    • Sprinkle with sugar
    • Cover with plastic wrap; let proof for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350° F
    • After it has risen for a second time bake for 35 – 45 minutes or until the top is golden, the juices are bubbling and the dough the glass is nicely browned
    • Serve warm, or have it room temperature for breakfast the next morning, or really anytime

Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookies

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I have tried and failed enough times over the years to say I know what I’m doing when it comes to the cookie. A few years back I stumbled across a recipe for chocolate chip, I don’t remember where, but it was perfect. It was chewy in the center, a crunchy edge and a nice buttery flavor.  I stopped looking for a better recipe once I found this one. I have tinkered with the types of chocolate, method and cooking time to fit my preferences, but never strayed far from the foundation of the recipe.

I love this recipe because I know I can whip out a batch of scratch made, love filled cookies in under an hour. The secret is getting your ingredients room temperature without sacrificing the integrity of them. #1 butter – when it is in the wrapper, you can microwave it for about 7 seconds at a time flipping it to get it soft without completely melting one side. #2 eggs – to get them luke warm right out of the fridge, put them in a bowl with hot water for about 5 minutes. Works like a charm every time. I use the tricks all the time with cookies, cakes, anything I’m making without the forethought to take things out of the fridge hours before.

Anyways, my mom really wanted cookies. But lately I’ve wanted to make things that I can work on making better. So I stepped out of the chocolate chip box and went for oatmeal – Oatmeal dark chocolate currant to be exact. I used my basic chocolate chip recipe with some tweaks. The results were pretty good, but I feel like there is room for improvement. Next time, I will use another egg – the dough seemed to dry, and I feel like the finished product could have been fluffier with the addition of an extra egg.

Recipe (my own)

½ cup (1 stick) butter

½ cup sugar

½ cup molasses

1 egg

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1 cup oats

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

6 oz (1 cup) dark chocolate chunks

1 cup currants (or raisins)

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350° F, line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or silpats and take all cold ingredients out of the fridge to bring to room temperature.
  • In a small bowl mix flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside
  • Beat butter sugar and molasses together with a hand mixer until light and very fluffy (about 5 minutes) 
  • Add egg and vanilla extract and beat for another 5 minutes. You want the mixture to look like a butter cream.
  • Add the dry ingredients, and mix until almost everything is incorporated
  • add the chocolate and dried fruit
  • beat until everything comes together, but do not over mix (makes for a tough cookie)
  • using an ice cream scoop that is between 1½ and 2 inches large, scoop cookies into the prepared baking sheets.  The cookies will come out of the scoop easiest, if you wet the scoop first. 
  • gently flatten the cookies with wet hands (once again, this prevents the dough from sticking)
  • Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes (depending on your oven) rotating about halfway through
  • When taking the cookies out of the oven slide the parchment or silpat off the sheet right away, this will help the cookies stop cooking.
  • Let cool… or not

Olive Batard

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Let’s all just say it together to get it out of our system… Batard. Now what is a batard? Contrary to my brother’s belief, It is not a derogatory term, but a certain shape of bread. I found a blog that quite nicely explained the origin of the term in reference to an oval loaf. Basically, the etymology behind this oval-shaped bread comes from the french version of the word “bastard” referring to inferiority. The batard’s oval shape – shorter and fatter than a traditional baguette – is believed to be inferior to french bakers.

Back to the loaf now… It was another sunny weekend in Southern California.  Most twenty-somethings were enjoying the weather outside at the beach, but no not me. I equate the warm, dry weather with perfect bread baking conditions.

I had every intention of making another loaf of sourdough, until I came across a recipe for an olive loaf. It reminded me of the type of bread my dad used to keep stocked in our apartment in New York City when I was growing up (he ran a bi-coastal company and we visited him in NYC as often as we could on school breaks). It’s the type of bread that is great with a smear of butter, but really doesn’t need anything at all.

I was concerned my bread wouldn’t live up to the one’s in my memory, or it wouldn’t be as pretty as the pictures in the Tartine Bread book. I was concerned with shaping an oval, and getting it into my oblong dutch oven without burning myself. I had very low expectations to be honest. But There was a level of comfort to the process since it starts with the standard sourdough/ country loaf recipe from the Tartine and the olives along with lemon zest and herbs are folded in.

As the bread starting coming together I could just tell by the way the dough felt that something was going really right. There was a good spring to the dough and I was working with a 72% hydration (the ration of the weight of the water to flour on the dough), instead of the high 75% which made the process much more manageable. Also, during the last part of the bulk rise, I refrigerated the dough. This made a huge difference in the shaping process.

My brother watched the shaping process as entertainment (and was recruited as photographer). He loves seeing me frustrated and was waiting for me to have a mini-crisis, but even more loves the opportunity to have what I’m making customized to his liking. So we start talking…

Me: “I think I’m going to make a batard”

Him: “what did you just call me?”

Me: “a batard…. it’s a shape”

Him: “ya uh huh.. stop being such a batard”

I shaped the loaf, left it proof pre-heated the oven and bake the loaf. Half way through when I took the lid off the dutch oven I was taken aback by how much the bread rose. It almost touched the lid! 25 minutes later, I took it out of the oven and let it cool over night.  I have to say, I was very amazed by how much my loaf resembled the Tartine Bread book photo:

The next morning my boyfriend was eager to eat the bread. We cut it open and he immediately declared it his favorite thing I’ve ever made. That’s a pretty grandiose statement to make when you date someone who bakes almost everyday! He ate two slices right there. And took 3 more slices to supposedly “share” with his sisters and mom. Later he came over for dinner, that he ate with another slice of bread. And as he left he snuck out with the rest of the loaf. In the words of my brother… What a batard.

I’m submitting this to yeastspotting.

Recipe

Country Loaf:

500 g flour:

450 g White Bread Flour

50 g White Whole Wheat Flour

360 g Water, room temperature

100 g Leaven*

10 g Salt

Olive loaf Mix-ins:

1 1/2 cups kalamata Olives

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon herbs de provence

Directions:

  • Make Leaven at least 4 hours before starting bread by taking 100g bread flour and 100g whole wheat flour and mixing with 200g water and 1 Tablespoon of your starter.
    • Check Leaven to see if it ready by dropping a small amount in a bowl of room temperature water. If the leaven floats, it is ready to be used.
  • Mix bread: Start with 350g of the water (reserve the rest along with the salt) and add the 100g of the leaven in a very large bowl. Mix together with your hands until it is homogenous and there are no lumps.
  • Add all the flour. Mix together with your hands. It will look somewhat shaggy, and will stick to your fingers so make sure to not be wearing any jewelry, especially rings.
  • Once the mixture has come together, cover with plastic wrap and let sit for at least 30 minutes. This step helps the gluten begin to develop.
  • After the first rest, mix the salt and remaining water together, then add to the dough. Once again use your hands to mix. It is best to squeeze the dough between your fingers to incorporate this addition. At first it will look like the dough is breaking apart, but keep going and it will turn back into a nice consistency.
  • Transfer the dough into a very large clear container, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place (around 80 degrees).
  • After an hour of rising the dough should have increased more than double in size. Add the olives, lemon zest and herbs. Wet your hands with warm water and reach into the container to pull the bottom of the dough up and over top 4 or 5 times. Doing this replaces the kneading that usually goes into bread making. 
  • repeat this ever half hour or so for 4 hours, making less folds towards the end (you do not want to deflate all the air). At this point you can successfully refrigerate the dough over night (the process is called “retarding” – and is highly suggested for flavor developments and makes the dough easier to shape), or continue to the next step.
  • Generously flour a work surface with All-purpose flour and dump the dough out onto the flour. The dough will be very loose, let it rest on the surface (uncovered) for 30 minutes to an hour. Prepare kitchen towel by sprinkling a mixture of rice flour and all-purpose flour on it. Keep this close to the shaping site.
  • After the dough has rested, flour your hands and get to work shaping. The best way to do this is to gently flatten the dough, and then fold the top third of the dough down towards yourself, followed by folding the left and right sides in towards the center, and then the last bottom piece up and over. Think of it like you’re making a burrito.
  • Next cup the dough ball’s sides gently with palms up and pinkie fingers closest together, and the majority of the surface of the dough still on the work surface, pull the dough towards you gently to create a skin on the outside of the dough. You want there to be tension in the skin, but you do not want to pull it hard enough to rip this outer layer.
  • next, take this ball and place it in the proofing container that is lined and floured seem side up.
  • let this rise in a warm area for about an hour.
  • Preheat the oven to 500° F with a dutch oven inside for at least 30 minutes before baking.
  • When you are ready to bake, take the bottom part of the dutch oven out of the oven and carefully place one of the loaves in the pot seam side down.
  • make very shallow slits in the top of the dough (I prefer to make a square pattern) and cover with the top of the dutch oven.
  • Place the sealed dutch oven in the oven and lower the temperature to 450° F
  • Bake the loaf for 25 minutes, remove the lid of the dutch oven (be careful! it’s very hot!!) and continue baking for about another 30 minutes. 
  • Last, carefully remove from the oven and let cool for about 30 minutes. I have found cutting into it too soon can sometimes mean that the center is still a little doughy, and the residual heat after removing the loaf will help make sure it is cooked. 

Apple Pie

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My dad got home from a trip this afternoon. He was only gone for the night, but long enough to think of me. After all, he brought me a present….a magazine with a feature on pies. In my family, this is what we call a boomerang gift – something you give knowing it will come back to benefit you.

He knows me too well. Three hours later there was a warm apple pie cooling on the kitchen counter. Dad specifically pointed out how the filling of the pictured apple pie looked gelatinous and firm (not the soggy, spill-out-all-over-the-plate filling I have admittedly have created once or twice). I went to work, using the picture and recipe as inspiration, but strayed quite a bit.  I didn’t have the recommended apples (macintosh),  the brown sugar (don’t know how I didn’t notice we ran out) or the shortening. So I improvised and I have to say… it made the house smell like a million bucks, and it didn’t look to shabby either.

I think this pie worked for two reasons: I’ve been reading up on pie crust recipes and I didn’t pour all the syrupy goodness from the bowl with the apples into the pie. Once again, I was reading words of wisdom for one of the Tartine books and the way they talked about pie crust just makes sense. Basically, a good pie crust uses the ratio of 3:2:1 of flour: butter: water (in weight). from there you can make it your own. For this apple pie I added a pinch of cinnamon, vanilla bean paste and almond extract to make it extra yummy.  And since I really wanted the filling to not be a soppy mess, I decided to pour the liquid that was created from the apples and sugar down the drain.  In retrospect, I probably should have poured it over ice cream…

Recipe

Pie Crust:

300 grams flour

200 grams cold butter, cut into very small cubes

100 grams water

1 teaspoon vanilla paste

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Apple Filling

3 cups sliced, peeled and cored apples (I used envy)

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 molasses

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

Crust

  • Mix flour, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. 
  • Add butter and with a fork (or fingers) break the butter up until you have a coarse meal of the mixture
  • Next add the water, vanilla and almond. Mix everything together until you can form a ball when squeezing the dough together. 
  • Split the dough into two equal pieces, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. 
Filling
  • Mix apples, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice and corn starch together
  • reserve butter
Assembly:
  • preheat the oven to 400° F
  • roll pie crust out into a disk large enough to line the pie pan and be about 1/4 inch thick
  • carefully transfer dough to the pan using a rolling-pin
  • add the apples from the filling, but do not pour the juices in the pie crust
  • place the small pieces of butter throughout the apples
  • roll out the second disk of pie dough and place on top of the pie
  • trim any excess dough away from the two crusts. Tuck the top crust under the bottom crust’s edges and crimp to seal the two pieces together
  • Brush the top of the pie with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Make 4 slits in the pie at the 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions.
  • Bake the pie at 400° F for 30 minutes on a cookie sheet. Turn the oven down to 375° F and bake for another 25 – 30 minutes. The pie will be golden brown and the juices from the inside should be boiling
  • Let pie cool before slicing

 

 

 

 

Sourdough Bread

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Oh bread. Our relationship hasn’t always been perfect. I used to consume whole bread baskets at restaurants before my meal would arrive. I used to order soup as a reason to eat more bread. And in recent years I have tried to banish it from my life like a dead beat boyfriend, but I keep coming back. It’s my first love, and while I’ve tried, I really cannot live without it.

I no longer daydream about bread the way I did when I was younger. My thoughts of bread are not about consuming tangy sourdough slathered with butter, or a grilled cheese sandwich anymore. Now I’m constantly thinking of ways to improve bread I’m baking. Constantly reading about other bread bakers techniques and hydration ratios. And constantly thinking about my sourdough starter.

Around thanksgiving-time last year I bought the Tartine Bread book with the goal of mastering bread. I read page after page about their process and ingredient choices and then I got to the nitty gritty recipe part. It required a starter, and all I had were packs of yeast in the cupboard. disappointed that I could not fake a sourdough loaf with what was on hand, I did what I had to do – grow my own starter. It was a very simple process, almost to simple. mix together equal weights of flour and water, cover, and let sit at room temperature until it bubbles start to appear (several days).

This all seemed somewhat disgusting yet intriguing to me. This paste I made was basically going to pick up the natural yeast/bacteria in the air and magically become a bubbly, foamy sourdough starter.  I went to check on it several times a day making sure it was staying a beige color; any pink or green tint is a sign that it has been contaminated with a bad bacteria and the starter needs to be discarded. It finally started to grow – literally – by day three, and it was time to “feed” it for the first time.

To feed your starter, you basically pour half of your patience and hard work down the drain and add back to it equal parts (in weight, not volume) of flour and water. Tartine recommends that you feed your starter with a 50% 50% mix of white and whole wheat flour. I try to do this as often as possible, but you can use all white or all whole wheat if that’s all you have on hand. You should do this every day or two.  As you grow a starter you will notice that it falls after it rises, and as soon as it falls you should try to feed it.

This is what a starter looks like about 8 – 10 hours after feeding:

It have been feeding the same starter for 10 months now. People have suggested I name it, since I brag about it like its my first-born child. I must say, I feel very accomplished that I have kept it alive this long! I attribute this to keeping it in the fridge between feedings. If you keep it in a cool environment, you can go longer between feedings (and as a bonus, the cold improves it’s flavor) even up to a week or so.

I use my starter for many things now. Not only does it make an awesome loaf of sourdough bread; but pizza crusts, focaccia, and even cinnamon rolls have an amazingly deep, complex flavor if you add just a tablespoon to a recipe that uses instant yeast as well. But let’s be real, you grow your own starter to make bread – so here is a fabulous recipe I have adapted from the Tartine Bread book. This recipe has about 5% less water than the Tartine recipe, and it makes it much easier to work with and shape.

If you have any questions about this recipe, bread, or starting your starter feel free to ask me. There is a lot of theory I have read about bread baking, hydration of recipes and methods that I’d be happy to share. Also, I’m submitting this to yeastspotting.

Recipe

Country Loaf:

1000 g flour:

 850 g White Bread Flour

150 g White Whole Wheat Flour

700 g Water, room temperature

200 g Leaven*

25 g Salt

Directions:

  • Make Leaven at least 4 hours before starting bread by taking 100g bread flour and 100g whole wheat flour and mixing with 200g water and 1 Tablespoon of your starter.
    • Check Leaven to see if it ready by dropping a small amount in a bowl of room temperature water. If the leaven floats, it is ready to be used.
  • Mix bread: Start with 650g of the water (reserve the rest along with the salt) and add the 200g of the leaven in a very large bowl. Mix together with your hands until it is homogenous and there are no lumps.
  • Add all the flour. Mix together with your hands. It will look somewhat shaggy, and will stick to your fingers so make sure to not be wearing any jewelry, especially rings.
  • Once the mixture has come together, cover with plastic wrap and let sit for at least 30 minutes. This step helps the gluten begin to develop.
  • After the first rest, mix the salt and remaining water together, then add to the dough. Once again use your hands to mix. It is best to squeeze the dough between your fingers to incorporate this addition. At first it will look like the dough is breaking apart, but keep going and it will turn back into a nice consistency.
  • Transfer the dough into a very large clear container, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place (around 80 degrees).
  • After an hour of rising the dough should have increased more than double in size. Wet your hands with warm water and reach into the container to pull the bottom of the dough up and over top 4 or 5 times. Doing this replaces the kneading that usually goes into bread making. (This is also the same technique I use for croissants)
  • repeat this ever half hour or so for 4 hours, making less folds towards the end (you do not want to deflate all the air). At this point you can successfully refrigerate the dough over night (the process is called “retarding” – not a joke), or continue to the next step.
  • Generously flour a work surface with All-purpose flour and dump the dough out onto the flour. The dough will be very loose. Cut the dough into two pieces and let rest for 30 minutes to an hour. Prepare a proofing basket (or bowl) by lining it with a clean kitchen towel and sprinkling a mixture of rice flour and all-purpose flour on it.
  • After the dough has rested, flour your hands and get to work shaping your loaves! The best way to do this is to gently flatten the dough, and then fold the top third of the dough down towards yourself, followed by folding the left and right sides in towards the center, and then the last bottom piece up and over. Think of it like you’re making a burrito.
  • Next cup the dough ball’s sides gently with palms up and pinkie fingers closest together, and the majority of the surface of the dough still on the work surface, pull the dough towards you gently to create a skin on the outside of the dough. You want there to be tension in the skin, but you do not want to pull it hard enough to rip this outer layer.
  • next, take this ball and place it in the proofing container that is lined and floured seem side up.
  • repeat with second half of dough.
  • let this rise in a warm area for about an hour.
  • Preheat the oven to 500° F with a dutch oven inside for at least 30 minutes before baking.
  • When you are ready to bake, take the bottom part of the dutch oven out of the oven and carefully place one of the loaves in the pot seam side down.
  • make very shallow slits in the top of the dough (I prefer to make a square pattern) and cover with the top of the dutch oven.
  • Place the sealed dutch oven in the oven and lower the temperature to 450° F
  • Bake the loaf for 25 minutes, remove the lid of the dutch oven (be careful! it’s very hot!!) and continue baking for about another 30 minutes.
  • You can test the readiness of the bread by “knocking” on it for a hollow sound.
  • Last, carefully remove from the oven and let cool for about 30 minutes. I have found cutting into it too soon can sometimes mean that the center is still a little doughy.

Banana Bread

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There’s nothing I appreciate more than getting distracting text from my brother while at work:

“we have 14 bananas… what are u suppose to do with 14 bananas?”

Me: “Cereal, granola, ice cream, smoothies, bread, sandwiches. It’s pretty limitless”.

Brother: “Don’t try to make urself sound worldly, cereal and granola are practically the same thing. btw your banana bread has sucked lately. Can you go back to making the one that was good?”

He really has a way with words, doesn’t he? My brother will be the first to admit he is a bit of a banana bread snob. Growing up we both became accustom to one from our favorite breakfast spot in Hawaii. It really is a flavor that is ingrained in both of our memories. The banana flavor comes through just enough, the interior is pale with specks and fluffy, but crust is dense and moist and a deep almost chocolate color. It’s pretty close to perfect, and I have worked to try to recreate it more times than I can count (sometimes I come pretty close too!).

But, I can admit that lately my banana bread has been sub-par. I have attempted to make it healthier (as requested by said brother). I’ve tried everything from replacing all the fat with applesauce, using egg whites only, splenda (ew), and a slew of different ratios of bran, whole wheat, white whole wheat and all-purpose flours. I have tried to make this only in my dreams delicious, perfect textured, healthy banana bread for so long that I forgot the “good” recipe I had used that was liked.

I was determined to prove to I still had banana bread making skills and knew I had to commit to fat, sugar and all the other things that make baked goods so tasty. I turned to my new go-to everything I’ve tried out of this book is awesome standby, Tartine. I had remembered seeing a banana date “tea cake” in the book and thinking to myself that the ingredients were almost identical to a standard banana bread. But a little voice in my head said if it is good enough for Tartine, something must be special about it.

So I made the “tea cake” – without the dates – and it was good. It was really good. It was moist, flavorful and gone in a day. The brother approved, and felt accomplished since I left him with the task of taking it out of the oven when the timer went off. By the time I got back from my failed jogging attempt 1/4 of the loaf was gone.

This is going to be my new go to BB recipe, next time I’m adding the dates. And next time, I’m going to read/ follow the directions. I basically scanned the text for the oven temperature and added wet to dry like all other BB and threw it in the oven. Only then did I take a closer look and see that it used a more cake-like method of creaming the butter and sugar first and adding the rest in steps. Opps. I’d love to say I made a mistake, but mistakes don’t taste this good.

Recipe

Banana-Date Tea Cake (Tartine)

1 cup + 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 medium bananas, very ripe, mashed

2 large eggs

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon salt

6 Tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, very soft

¾ cup + 2 Tablespoons sugar

Optional mix-ins:

1 cup walnuts, lightly toasted and coarsely chopped

1¾ cups (about 8 oz.) dates, pitted and coarsely chopped

Topping

1 medium banana

2 Tablespoons sugar

Directions (my way)

  • Preheat the oven to 325º F.  Lightly butter the bottom and sides of a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.
  • Mix flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, corn starch, cinnamon and sugar in a large bowl
  • Add butter, eggs, and vanilla extract and mix until almost all the dry ingredients are incorporated.
  • Add mashed bananas and mix until everything is homogenous.
  • Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula to level it.
  • Slice the banana for the topping very thinly on a bias and place on top the batter in an appealing pattern. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar.
  • Bake at 325º F for about an hour, or until the bread starts to pull away from the pan on the sides or a tooth pick test comes out clean.
  • Eat warm.

Chocolate Class at the Culinary Institute in Napa

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I don’t have a great cake or pastry recipe to write about today. I would usually be disappointed that I did not have something new and interesting to share, but I today I have something rather unique. This past weekend I took a class at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena (in the Napa Valley) all about chocolate and confections at home.

I have been going to cooking classes my whole life. When I was 9 or so on a trip to Paris with my family I took a pastry class at the Ritz hotel and it made a lasting impression on me. I still remember exactly what we made that day – fruit tarts with pastry cream brushed with apricot jelly and flourless chocolate cake (that ended up all over my little brother’s face). In retrospect, that day may single-handedly be responsible for my fearless approach to trying new complex recipes.

Since that day in the belly of the Ritz kitchen I have been hooked on cooking classes. I’ve found myself anywhere from L’Academia Barilla in Parma, Italy to the local Sur La Tables and other stops in between. These experiences have been some of the most memorable days of my life, and this past weekend is no exception.

I picked this chocolate and confections class because I don’t know as much as I’d like to when it comes to chocolate. I knew what tempering was, but was not versed in the techniques and science behind it.   And no matter how much you read, sometimes it really helps to see a professional chef do things the right way.

The class consisted of 6 recipes – 3 confections prepared by the Chef (Peanut brittle, English toffee and almond dragees) and 3 different chocolate truffles (recipes below) prepared by the students that were broken up into teams of 2.  The chef also demonstrated techniques in tempering, sculpting and air brushing. All in all, it was an amazing day. If you have ever considered taking a class like this, I highly recommend it. Right now I’m looking into the week-long pastry bootcamp. Anyone want to join me?

Below are as many pictures as I was able to take when my hands weren’t covered in chocolate.

Below the chef is tempering chocolate

This technique is called tabling. The goal is to cool about 1/3 the total melted chocolate by pouring it out onto cold marble and moving it around (the marble absorbs the chocolate’s heat)  until it is “fudgy”.

You then add the cooled chocolate back into the non-tabled melted chocolate and mix it together. And you mix a lot, or “agitate” to create the proper structure necessary in chocolate to create the sheen you see on expensive truffles, chocolate bars and sculptures.

Don’t you just want to stick your finger in it? You should! To “test the temperature” of course – it has to be between 89° – 91° F to properly set. (A thermometer should be used, but it just doesn’t seem as fun)

This tempered chocolate was used throughout the class in various ways: to coat the english toffee and truffles, to make chocolate curls, and the day before the instructor made an amazing chocolate sculpture.

This sculpture is solid chocolate, with small accents made of modeling chocolate. It’s possible because when you temper chocolate properly it becomes extremely strong. The chef finished the piece during the class by spraying it with more tempered chocolate to give it texture and sheen.

This class really was amazing. I was skeptical of how much I would learn or get out of the instruction, but the teacher and his TA were both very helpful and more than willing to answer all types of questions. (He even gave me advice about shaping my bread). And we got a goodie box to take home – deadly in an 8 hour drive back to so Cal.

And of course as we left the Napa Valley I had to visit any aspiring baker’s mecca – Bouchon Bakery. At 730 in the morning, with an 8 hour drive ahead of us, the 20 minute line seemed daunting, but it was so worth it! The macarons were the size of the palm of my fist! and the croissants were a beautiful golden color. And then donuts; a true example of deliciously edible art.

We loaded up on caffeine a few muffins and pastries. Each time someone would take a bite it was followed by “this is the best ______ I’ve ever ate”. And I now have a new goal: conquering the pain aux raisin.

For all of you out there that cannot make it to the CIA (in Napa or New York) I have included the recipe for peanut brittle. It’s amazing. Dare I say better than See’s.

Enjoy!

Recipe (Peter P. Greweling)

Peanut Brittle

1 lb Sugar

4 oz Water

12 oz Light corn syrup

1 lb Unsalted blanched raw whole peanuts

1 tsp Salt

1 oz Butter, unsalted, soft

1 ½ tsp Vanilla extract

1 ½ tsp Baking Soda

Directions

Lightly oil a 10 x 15 inch sheet pan and an offset palette knife

Combine the sugar, water, and corn syrup in a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil and stir constantly. Cover and boil for 4 minutes.

Remove the cover, insert thermometer, and cook without stirring till it reached 240° F.

Add the Peanuts and cook while stirring till 320° F, or until the batch is light brown.

 

 

 

Remove from the heat, mix in the salt, butter, vanilla and baking soda thoroughly.

Pour onto the prepared pan and spread to the edges using the oiled palette knife.

 

 

 

Allow to cool to room temperature. Break into the desired size pieces and store in an airtight container.