Sicilian Sardine Pasta

I really enjoyed this dish for many reasons; it is: delicious, easy, healthy, unique. I was very excited to try it after having a sardine pasta at La Medusa in Seattle - an excellent Sicilian restaurant. Theirs uses tomatoes and olives as well, and while I really liked this version, I think just a bit of acidity would have helped such as from tomatoes, or olives, or as another person suggested, lemon. (Perhaps my wine was just a bit too sweet.) Otherwise, even with using a cheap piece of grocery store sliced bread for bread crumbs, this is a really great recipe!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/reviews/Sicilian-Style-Pasta-with-Sardines-106272#ixzz2HGP09Kv7

Baby Shower Cake

I made this cake for a baby shower, where I had completely convinced myself that the mama was having a girl, hence the pink frosting and decorations. After I took the above photo, I texted the hostess to confirm and she reminded me that actually the baby will be a boy! As the frosting is tinted with blackberry, it really was more purple than pink, and the multi-colored sprinkles helped the cake be simply festive instead of gender-conforming.

Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake

Note, this is 1 ½ times the published recipe, which fills for 2 10” pans and serves 20.

3.375 cups cake flour

1.5 tablespoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt
1.875 cups whole milk or buttermilk
6 large egg whites
2.25 cups sugar
3 teaspoons grated lemon zest
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp
¾ teaspoon pure lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350. Butter/parchment pans.

Sift together flour, powder, salt. Separately, whisk together milk and eggs. Put sugar and zest in mixer; blend with fingers. Add butter, beat 3 full minutes on medium. Beat in extract.

Add one third flour then half milk and repeat, beat well until all ingredients are incorporated.

Bake for 30-33 minutes.

The white cake always tastes a bit dry to me, but no one else ever agrees with me. And with enough fruit filling and silky buttercream, even my criticisms become unnoticable. The cake is worth it because of how sturdy yet light it is, and what great slices it makes.

I was really pleased with the blackberry curd, made from berries picked from my in-laws' backyard. Blackberries are too seedy for me to get much enjoyment from eating them fresh, so I cooked them down with a bit of sugar and balsamic vineagar which I then pureed and strained into a thin sauce. It served as a perfect substitute in Rose Levy Berenbaum's Lemon Curd.

Blackberry Curd

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup + 2 T sugar

3 ounces blackberry-balsamic puree

4 T unsalted butter

pinch of salt

Beat yolks and sugar until blended. Stir in remaining ingredients and heat over medium-low, whisking continuously, until mixture reaches 160 degrees. Do not allow to boil or it will curdle. It is messier and more wasteful, but faster and easier to go ahead and cook the mixture quickly, then just strain out any cooked bits of egg. It will thicken as it cools. Chill completely.

Note: both the puree/sauce and the curd keep very well in the fridge and in the freezer.

This buttercream is the best all-purpose recipe I've found, and it is gaining quite a position of prominence on this blog. To assemble the cake, I spread plain curd on one layer, and mixed part of the curd with some of the frosting, leaving the rest of the frosting plain. The tinted frosting atop the glaze of curd makes a delicious filling. Use the remaining tinted frosting to decorate.

Amazingly Simple Buttercream
from Laura Temple

1 1/2 cups of sugar

6 large egg whites 4 cubes of unsalted butter (1 pound) softened to room temperature

3/4 teaspoon real vanilla

Directions:

Put egg whites and sugar in top of double boiler over simmering water. Whisk until temperature reaches 160 degrees. Remove from heat and move to a stand mixer bowl. Whip on medium high until they are room temperature. (Wrap ice packs or bags of frozen vegetables around the base of the bowl to speed cooling).

Once the whites/sugar mixture is at room temperature, keep mixing, and add the butter a couple of tablespoons at a time until all is incorporated. It might looked curdled part-way through, but just keep going and it will come together. Add the vanilla and mix just enough to incorporate it fully. Stir in any optional food coloring. This makes a great stark-white buttercream on its own.

Use immediately, or keep at room temperature and re-beat for a minute before using. If you want to freeze the leftovers, make sure to bring it completely to room temperature before you re-beat or it will curdle.

Mocha Almond Dacquoise

I am on the email distribution list for Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen, and near the end of the year, their newsletter included this recipe for a special NYE dessert.  I highly recommend watching the video they've posted, because that is what makes it look so easy. Even though I had other preparation to do for dinner, I was inspired try it. It is a great recipe for make ahead, and not only does it require a minimum of a few hours to rest in the fridge, and gets better after 24 hours, it also retains flavor and texture for over three days.

I started making each component on Sunday morning and was planning to assemble it Sunday evening so it could rest overnight. Sunday afternoon, as my dacquoise was cooling and my buttercream was chilling, one of my guests emailed and asked to bring dessert. Buttercream and ganache keep just fine, and meringue should be okay sealed in an airtight container as long as it isn't exposed to moisture. So I didn't end up assembling the full cake until Wednesday evening, and we were still eating it like it was fresh-made on Saturday night.

Though Cooks Illustrated names this cake "Dacquoise," the word actually refers only to the layers. Dacquoise is meringue made with the addition of ground nuts. Both The Joy of Cooking and The Cake Bible has a different ratio of ingredients, and I will try another recipe next time; though I really enjoy very sweet desserts, I find that most people do not, and I think this is bordering on "too sweet."

As you can see from my photos, I didn't bother to spend a lot of time decorating it because it was just for Will and me, and not for company... though I rarely make a dessert as a "test run," in this case it was kind of fun to have it just eat and I will definitely make it again for a special occasion. 

The recipes below are for my future reference. The link above has very easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions if you are making it for the first time, but the versions below scale back the sweetness. Also, in my version, I used all almonds instead of part hazelnuts.

Dacquoise
from The Joy of Cooking
3/4 cup toasted almonds, finely ground
1 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 + 1/2 cup superfine sugar
4 large egg whites (1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 200. Outline 13" x 10 1/2" rectangle on sheet of parchment, and lay outline-side down on cookie sheet.
Pulse nuts, cornstarch, and 1/3 cup sugar in food processor until finely ground.
Beat whites until frothy, add cream of tartar, and beat at medium until soft peaks form. Slowly add remaining 1/2 sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.
Carefully fold in nut mixture and spread immediately on parchment in desired shape.
Bake for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, then turn off oven and leave with oven door closed for another 1 1/2 -2 hours.

While meringue is baking, make buttercream,

Coffee Buttercream3/4 cup whole milk
4 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons amaretto (I used Frangelico because that is what I had; it is hazelnut liquer)

1 1/2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
16 (2 sticks) tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Heat milk in small saucepan over medium heat until just simmering. In separate bowl, whisk yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in bowl until smooth. Remove milk from heat and, whisking constantly, slowly whisk a couple tablespoons of milk into yolk mixture. Whisking constantly, return tempered yolk mixture to remaining milk in saucepan.
Return saucepan to medium heat and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is bubbling and thickens to consistency of warm pudding, 3 to 5 minutes. Cover and refrigerate until set, at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.

Stir together liqueur and espresso powder. Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat butter at medium speed until smooth and light, 3 to 4 minutes. Add pastry cream in 3 batches, beating for 30 seconds after each addition. Add amaretto mixture and continue to beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes longer, scraping down bowl thoroughly halfway through mixing.

When dacquoise is completely cool, peel off parchment, and trim edges flat using a bread/serrated knife. Measure and score 3" wide rectangles (by 10" long) and gently score through sheet of meringue with long sweeping cuts. These sheets are delicate so proceed carefully and with very light pressure.

Ganache
6ounces bittersweet chocolate (Lindt 70% or 85%), chopped fine
3/4cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons corn syrup
Heat cream to simmer. Pour over chopped chocolate and let rest one minute. Stir until smooth and stir in corn syrup. Set aside to cool, stirring periodically, until spreadable consistency.

Spread a thin layer of ganache on the flat side of each of 3 dacquoise layers. Place in single layer in fridge 15 minutes until firm. Spreak top of 4th layer with buttercream, and use as base of cake on platter.

Place chilled, ganache coated layer atop buttercream layer, chocolate-side down. Frost top of layer with buttercream, and repeat with remaining layers.  Frost entirely with buttercream, and chill until set.

Spread ganache over buttercream. Garnish with slivered or chopped almonds, hazelnuts, or chocolate curls and piped buttercream if desired. Refridgerate at least 3 hours before serving. Slice with a wet (! - yes, it works perfectly!) knife into 12 slices. Keeps well for 3-4 days.

The recipes I've shown above are for a reduced amount of sugar that I think will better highlight the flavor and amazing textures of this dessert. But it would be amazing with any number of combinations of filling and frosting flavors, so I plan to make this again and get creative with the layers.

Black-Eyed Pea Cakes Bring Good Luck

Black Eyed peas are a traditional Southern dish to eat on New Year's Day, as they are supposed to bring good luck. I have sought out recipes for the occasion in the past, but wasn't going to bother this year as I was busy with more important cake baking. However, this recipe popped up in my feed and it looked so simple and I already had most of the ingredients that I decided I had to try it.

I highly recommend that you look at Rashmi's page because she has great photos and instructions. I used slightly less than one cup of beans but the same amount of other spices, plus extra parsley along with the cilantro. I made mine into patties instead of balls, and the recipe yeilded seven 2-3" patties. The flavor and texture were both excellent. I am certain that the secret to these guys staying together while frying was that the beans were not pre-cooked, just soaked. Whenever I have tried to fry bean patties before, it is has been with cooked (or canned! which I know doesn't work) beans, and they just fall apart. I'm so glad to see that the trick is in soaking the beans and then just pureeing them without cooking.

For dipping, I made a quick sauce of plain greek yogurt, a bit of curry powder, and a couple dashes of hot sauce.

May these bring us lots of good luck and great fortune!

Pear Flake Cake for New Year's Day

I made this cake for a New Year's Day afternoon gathering of friends with little kids. The snowflake shape of the cake was both fun and seasonal. Because of the attractive shape, it doesn't need frosting so it's easier, less chance of 2 year olds smearing buttercream on the furniture, and light enough for an afternoon treat without necessarily feeling like dessert. 

 

I used the applesauce cake recipe that I've made previously, but substituted homemade pear sauce that I'd made with bartlett pears. I baked the full recipe in my snowflake shaped pan, which was a little risky for a couple of reasons: it is often difficult to get cakes out of the shaped pans in one piece! And because this recipe was intended to be baked in two round pans, baking all the batter together might result in the inside not cooking through or the outside getting dry. That is a bit what happened, as one friend who ate from the middle told me it was a little underdone, though she claimed that was a positive "feature."

I drizzled it with white chocolate glaze and sprinkled with some Swedish pearl sugar. I like the flavor of the cake a lot, though if I try to bake it in this pan again, I will only fill it half-full so that it can bake through completely without getting overdone.

 

Pear Sauce

makes 2 cups

2 large, ripe Bartlett pears (about 1 pound)

3 tablespoons water

3 tablespoons sugar

1 cinnamon stick

4 allspice berries

1/2 chunk fresh ginger

Peel, core and chop fruit into 1/2 pieces or smaller. Mix with remaining ingredients in heavy saucepan, cover, and simmer until fruit is very soft, 20-25 minutes. Remove spices and puree fruit with an immersion blender until very smooth. Continue to heat uncovered at a simmer, stirring regularly to prevent burning, until consistency is thick.

Pear Sauce Cake
adapted from Warren Brown
5 ounces unsalted butter, softened
15 ounces sugar
3 eggs
12 ounces all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 cup milk
1 cup pearsauce (see recipe above)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans, preferably with removable bottoms (or line pans with parchment).

Combine butter and sugar in stand mixer and beat until well creamed. Beat in eggs one at a time.

Mix together milk, vanilla, and apple butter in one small bowl, and dry ingredients separately in another bowl. Add to butter mixture alternately in 3 additions. Divide evenly between prepared pans and bake 30-35 minutes, until tops are golden and start to pull away from sides of pan. Cool in pan 15 minutes, then invert to racks and cool completely.

White Chocolate Glaze
3 ounces white chocolate
1/2 cup cream

Heat cream to simmer. Chop chocolate. Pour cream over chocolate and allow to rest one minute, then stir until smooth. Cool slightly, then use as a drizzle, or chill and spread over cake. Keeps in the fridge for 2 weeks or in the freezer. Delicious eaten cold with a spoon!

Black Walnut Cookies

I had purchased two packages of black walnuts in preparation for my father-in-law's birthday last August (to make ice cream), and used less than one package. Christmas seemed like a good time to dip into the nut reserve and prepare another gift for him. I looked for cookies using black walnuts and found two recipes that I thougth would make a good holiday gift: one is a drop cookie that sounds good but is probably just a bit more rustic, and the slice-and-bake version that I decided to make was just what I had in mind both for a tasty treat and an attractive accompaniment to a cookie platter. I'm really pleased with my selection, as was Will. These guys are pretty with their flecks of nuts and golden brown color, and are a perfect Christmas cookie with a crispy snap and buttery texture. I said to Will "they would be great if it weren't for that black-walnut taste" because I do find the metallic-y bitterness of American walnuts to be off-putting. But I found it significantly tempered in these cookies as compared to in the ice cream, and didn't seem to have any trouble consuming a fair stack. And since Will and his dad especially enjoy black walnuts, these really were an excellent recipe. They were great on my cookie platter.

Black Walnut Cookiesfrom Taste of Home
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups chopped black walnuts

In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in walnuts.
Shape dough into two 15-inch rolls. Wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. (After chilling, dough can be frozen, and sliced/baked without defrosting.)
Unwrap dough; cut into 1/4-in. slices. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 300° for 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks. Yield: 10 dozen

Buche de Noel

Ever since I received The Cake Bible for my 30th birthday, I have wanted to make a Buche de Noel ("yule log"). I had seen the cakes every holiday season in bakeries, including in our neighborhood Danish bakery (though a buche is a traditional French cake), but it wasn't until the recipe was before me that I became rather fascinated with it. I haven't made any type of cake roll, which should be a fairly straightforward experience albeit for the final decorating to transform the roll into a felled woodland tree.

What finally brought me around to the cake this year was my inital plan to make a chestnut and chocolate cake from chestnut genoise and chocolate ganache. That recipe required chestnut flour. The first online retailed for all-things-chestnut is actually in Washington state, but shipping costs still add up, and the products, while "local" don't seem to be available in stores. The only place I could find chestnut flour without having to pay and wait for shipping was the Italian specialty market which imported the flour from Italy!

With that recipe in mind, but needing some adjustments, I decided to swap the cake and filling flavors and make a chocolate genoise with a chesnut filling. Fresh and canned chesnuts, while still a bit more expensive than other more common ingredients, are pretty readily available in December. Trader Joe's had vacuum-packed chesnuts and canned chesnuts are at the grocery store. Chocolate genoise with chesnut creme are the two primary components to a yule log, so rather than stacking them atop each other in rounds for a more traditional cake, I just needed to spiral them up with each other and decorate like a forest.
My only other experience with preparing chestnuts had been when a few years back when I roasted a goose and made chestnut stuffing as an accompaniment. Because I had started with fresh chestnuts, and recalled the arduous process of cutting through their tough outer shells and painstakingly picking away their inner skins, this year when I saw a package of peeled, vacuum-sealed chesnuts at Trader Joe's, I bought it without even knowing how I would use them. Once I landed on this dessert recipe, I went back for more but alas they had already sold out. They did have fresh chestnuts though, and like a mama who wants another baby but held off due to the pain of labor, I thought to myself, "c'mon, how bad can it be?"

Don't be scared away from this process, or by the ultra-glamourous final cake! It is not difficult and it is completely worth the effort!

I was worried that cutting through the shell would be the hardest part, followed by concern that some would burn before they popped open. In fact, they all opened beautifully, but they must have been old or travel-weary because they came swiftly out of their shells but held firm and enmeshed with their skins. I ended up wasting almost half the batch because I had to cut off the skin rather than peel it away. And chestnuts are shaped like little brains, all twisted on themselves and convoluted around the skins so you can't just shave off the outer layer, you have to dig and gouge to remove the bitter exterior. SUCH A PAIN. So, 2 1/2 hours later, I am documenting how unfortunate a process I find peeling chestnuts to be, so as to remind myself to not attempt it again. I've given it two chances, and now feel safe in justifying to myself the expense of whatever variety I can find that are already past this stage in their processing.

The first thing to do with the raw chestnuts is make them into a puree. The recipe said either canned or fresh would work, and gave separate instructions for each. It also cautioned against using canned puree which would be too moist and perhaps also too sweet, though I am interested in trying that as well - maybe after cooking it down a bit to thicken. In any case, Rose says to cook fresh roasted chestnuts in milk until "easily pierced with a fork." Since the vacuum-packed chesnuts were not that tender, I cooked them together with the roasted ones.

Once they are cooked, drain them and puree in the food processor. It was hard to know what consistency to make the puree. The recipe said to add the cooking milk if the mixture was too dry, but what was too dry? After extensive processing, the mixture still seemed pretty "dry" and crumbly, so I ended up using at least a 1/2 cup of the simmering milk - maybe more - and went for a texture about like peanut butter (though not as sticky!)

All of this I did on Saturday, for Christmas on a Tuesday.

On Sunday, Will helped me make marzipan mushrooms to decorate the finished cake. His were larger and more elaborate than mine, which I technically considered "better," but in the end it was nice to have two different "varieties" in our woodland forest. We watched a video online for how to sculpt them, but that was unnecessary as it is pretty straightforward: roll a small piece of marzipan (purchased from Larson's Bakery!) into a ball, use your little finger to hollow out a depression for the stem, spread the crown into whatever shape you desire, use the back of a knife to impress gills into the underside of the top, roll another little piece of maripan into a cylinder for the stem, and press into the top of the mushroom, then dust/smudge cocoa powder.

Monday afternoon, I baked the genoise. It is not actually a genoise, as it has no flour; it's basically just eggs and chocolate! The recipe says that its texture is perfect for rolling, as it is crack-resistent. Since I have not made a jelly roll before, I don't have a basis for comparison, but I did find this pretty easy to work with (discounting my anxiety level of course!) The instructions also call for covering the baked roll with a damp dish towel immediately after removing from the oven, and until it is completely cool. I left it that way untouched until Tuesday morning with no apparent ill effects or deterioration of quality.

Tuesday, Christmas morning, I made the chesnut filling. It was as simple as whipping creme and stirring in my already-prepared sweetened chestnut puree. I used two cups of heavy cream and 1 cup of puree, which made at least double what I needed to generously fill the roll. I ended up using it to frost as well, which had not been my original plan, and still had over a cup leftover. But it was a tremendously delicious ratio of light airy cream, sweetness, and roasted nuttiness. 



Finally came assembly. This whole process (minus the fresh chestnuts) was actually pretty smooth. I thought a lot about my decorations, which was time consuming, and I was very worried about how the rolling of the cake layer and the stacking of the trimmed log would go, but it all went quite well. Once the cake was rolled, I wrapped the parchment firmly around it, and refrigerated for another hour. My intention had been to frost it with dark ganache, and decided to crumb coat with the chestnut cream. Because of the texture of the chestnuts in the cream, it made what I thought was a lovely, woody-barky look and didn't want to cover it up with ganache which just would have ended up looking lumpy.



I had made chocolate bark that I was going to apply on the ganache, but with my "birch" tree, the bark served its role better when we tore it into thin pieces.  Some washed greenery and pinecones from our yard, along with our marzipan mushrooms and a dusting of powdered sugar snow completed our buche de noel.

I was SO pleased with how it looked! It came out much more lovely than I was hoping; even prettier than some of Martha's (and much more than Rose's). But, more importantly, it was so So SO delicious. It was the perfect ending for a Christmas dinner, because it was unfathomably light, and yet super-chocolately. The chestnuts impart the most wonderful earthy, wintery flavor but it is sweet and nutty and rum-y especially next to the chocolate. I cut thin slices, just about 1" thick, and most people had two servings, but it was completely satisfying, and there was enough for four of us to have leftovers the next day; I am happy to report that this cake tasted exactly as good on day 2... it did not get soggy or dry. The "cloud roll" is aptly named, because it does taste ethereal.

I am looking forward to making another buche de noel next year, now that I have some confidence about the process. And while these recipe components absolutely deserve to be repeated, I am curious to try different flavors next time - either a chesnut cake with chocolate frosting, or other combinations. If you have any comments about buches that you've made or eaten in the past, I'd love for you to post them, or let me know if you have questions or fears about making your own, because this should not be a daunting recipe and the results are truly spectacular.

Chocolate Cloud Roll

from The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar (78 grams)

6 large eggs, separated (112 grams yolks, 180 grams whites)

113 grams bittersweet chocolate, melted - I used lindt 70% dark

3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa for dusting

Prepare a 17x12" jelly roll pan with parchment. Grease and flour. Preheat oven to 350.

Beat together 1/4 cup sugar and yolks until fluffy. Add chocolated.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until foamy, add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Fold whites into chocolate mixture until incorporated, careful not to deflate the batter.

Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake 16 minutes. As soon as you remove the cake from the oven, dust evenly with cocoa, and cover with a clean, wet dish towel. Aloow to cool completely.

To roll, use parchment as handles to pull cake from pan onto hard flat surface. Spread with filling then use parchment to roll up the long edge.

Chestnut Mousse Cream
from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum
makes 5 cups, which is more than enough to fill and frost a jelly roll

1 cup unsweetened chestnut puree (it is possible to make your own, but I think that is by far the hardest part of the recipe - though it can also be completed well in advance. I suggest looking for canned puree, or at least use canned or vacuum-sealed chestnuts.)
2/3 cup powdered sugar, lightly spooned into measuring cup
2 tablespoons dark rum
2 cups heavy cream

Process puree with sugar and rum.
Beat cream until soft peaks form. Add puree (I spooned it into about 7 chunks) and continue beating until stiff peaks form. Spread on cake and roll into spiral. Chill until firm.

To assemble Buche de Noel
The finished roll should be the long-edge of the cake pan, about 17". Slide roll on a diagonal into two pieces, about 12" and 5". Slice 5" piece in two, again on a diagonal to make the "branches." Because the cake is so soft and light, the branches should affix to the main trunk fairly securely using just the cream filling or some chocolate ganache frosting. Decorate as desired using chocolate bark, holly, cedar or pine springs, pine cones, marzipan or meringue mushrooms and other forest critters, a santa, bows, candies, and for sure some powdered sugar snow!

Keep refrigerated until about an hour before serving. We found this to keep very well for over 24 hours.