“Chocolate arouses as much passion among pastry chefs as it does fondness among chocolate lovers.”
Patrick Martin, Chocolate Bible
If there is one Bible you need this holiday season, it’s got to be the Le Cordon Bleu Chocolate Bible. A book that I first saw when I went to attend the LCB pastry workshop last month, amongst their other 2 publications – The LCB Cook’s Bible, and LCB Desserts. I have had the LCB Cook’s Bible for a while now, a book which is in effect a culinary bible of how to cook. It is my ready reckoner from basics like eggs, milk, cream, dairy, to more involved stuff like spatchcocking a chicken, to making the perfect omelet etc. It includes also garnishes, presentation, serving suggestions … if there is a culinary question, the answers most likely in there!
Calling all chocoholics!
Le Cordon Bleu’s Chocolate Bible has arrived, showcasing over 160 recipes of chocolate heaven. Released October 2010, the Chocolate Bible is an English translation of the highly successful Petit Larousse du Chocolat, now offering Anglophones the chance to try their hand at Le Cordon Bleu’s decadent delights. From tarts to truffles, cakes to creams, this step by step guide is a must-have for chocolate lovers.
When I saw the Chocolate Bible at the Le Cordon Blue Pastry Workshop I was invited to attend, I was enamored by it, and am delighted to review it. It’s a book that every chocolate lover must have. The English edition is published by Carroll and Brown.
A lot of my readers write in to me asking for cookbook suggestions, especially here in India, as home baking is breaking new ground. This one book is a chocolate lovers dream, a book with recipes you can recreate, and easily so. The instructions are clear and simple. It’s not an overwhelmingly overdose of chocolate in any way. It is a sweet reaffirmation of the quote “9 out of 10 people like chocolate. The 10th person always lies“. I have seen self proclaimed chocolate haters, cross over and enjoy a good chocolate dessert, testimony to the charm and temptation this quintessential ingredient holds.The Le Cordon Bleu Chocolate Bible is a simple book without complicated techniques and exotic ingredients. It works on a basic premise that good quality basic ingredients, using basic equipment can turn out a delicious and creative recipe. In the book, the LCB chefs share their knowledge and techniques through a variety of recipes which are easy to reproduce by anyone, no matter what her or his level of skill might be. It allows you to experience the charm of chocolate in all possible ways, offering something suitable for every occasion.
The book is divided into mouthwatering sections beginning with Temptingly Rich cakes, Tarts to Die For, Mouth-Watering Mousses & Creams, Iced Desserts & Sweet Drinks, Teatime Treats to Share…and ends with Delightful Mouthfuls! Each section begins with ‘The best way to – make a basic ganaché…, prepare pastry dough…, prepare a chocolate meringue…,fill éclairs…, temper chocolate etc. It’s a book worth owning and diving in to! All along, it offers valuable tips and suggestions, picture tutorials for pastry making, working with chocolate, making garnishes, chocolate shavings, praline paste …. I could go on and on.I chose to try 3 recipes from the book on Boxing Day and I managed all 3 that afternoon. Was as simple as that. It might have taken even lesser time had i not stopped to run back & forth taking pictures. Ah well…that’s part of my culinary adventures, and another reason why I love the book so. The pictures are amazing, each say a 1000 words. The recipes I tried … first the Chocolate Creme Brulee because I needed a really quick and simple dessert that night. This was just the thing, and was soon in the oven. I began to ponder about ways to use up the egg whites I had on hand. The brulee needed 4 egg yolks, and I knew the whites would find their way home one way or the other.A quick look at the index and I knew Chocolate Meringues {with a chocolate Chantilly cream & strawberries}were a great choice. We had folk coming over for dinner in a few days, and these beauties could be made and stored in an air tight box for weeks in advance! Luxury for someone like me who loves advance planning. Brulee done and cooling, in went my little nests, to be baked for an hour. I still had time on hand, so was egged on to turn more pages. Teatime was here and there was something charming about these Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Biscuits. Going by the picture, they were like cookies I had never baked before. The dough needed to be rolled and chilled for an hour, the perfect time frame for me, while the meringues baked in a low oven. Such fun juggling time slots! I was out of powdered sugar, so I took the Bibles suggestion and rolled the cookie dough cylinders in cocoa. Am glad I did because it provided great contrast and visual appeal. For me, food which looks good is very pleasing to the eye and palette; a pleasure to serve.A little note: I found that the suggested baking times for all 3 recipes fell slightly short of the actual time taken. The creme brulee was nowhere set in 20 minutes, and a quick reference to the brulee recipe in ‘INDULGE – 100 Perfect Desserts’ by Claire Clark had me cranking the oven temperature to 150C and baking the brulees for a further 15 minutes. The meringues also baked for 30 minutes longer to get them crisp dry. The cookies took 17 minutes as against the suggested 10 minutes.
I would probably put this discrepancy down to calibrated vs non calibrated ovens. Professional ovens in test kitchens and the resultant timings are often different from home ovens. Also, the oven I recently bought is one imported from the UK and its baking function works just on the lower element. As with most baking books, I always take the suggested time as a rough guideline, so all was well.On the whole, the results were delicious. The brulee was rich, chocolaty and creamy … indulgent in every way. The meringues were crisp and delicious, chocolate flavours flooding the mouth with every bite, Chantilly cream & all. My teen tester was won over. She got to taste a few little meringues that were baked independently … just perfect she said. Maybe they’ll make wonderful kisses I thought. The cookies too were wonderful, and ‘The best I’ve had in a while’ declared the lad who was soon queuing up to play tester.I liked that the cookies were different from the regular chocolate chip cookies we make all the time; a great addition to the teatime cookie platter.I’m going to share the Chocolate Creme Brulee recipe with you today.Other temptations that I have bookmarked to try in the future are Chocolate Hazelnut Square, Chocolate Cherry Cake, Darjeeling Infused Chocolate Mousse & Columbian Coffee Cream, Iced Chocolate Parfait with Orange-Basil Cream, Old Fashioned Cream Souffle, Chocolate Coffee Dessert … to name just a few!
Thank you Surit Mitra for sending me the book. The distributor for CHOCOLATE BIBLE in India is Book World Enterprises of Mumbai. The book is available for Rs 1495.
Ctc 09820034530 (Mr Satish Shah)
Chocolate Creme Brulee
From Le Cordon Bleu Chocolate Bible, pg 138{Printed with permission}
Serves 4
4 egg yolks
50g castor sugar
100ml milk {original recipe said 125ml}
150ml low fat cream {original recipe said 125ml whipping cream}
100g dark chocolate, chopped
Decoration
Caster Sugar
Method:
Preheat the oven to 95C/205F. Prepare 4 small baking dishes or low sided ramekins.
Combine the egg yolks and 40g of the sugar in a large bowl, beat until the mixture is cream and pale.
Heat the milk, cream and remaining castor sugar { I added a scraped vanilla bean too} until simmering. Add the chopped chocolate and stir until well cobined and smooth. Slowly stir the chocolate mixture into the egg yolks and sugar mixture. Pour the chocolate mixture into the dishes to come 3/4 up the sides.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until firm. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven grill to its maximum temperature. Sprinkle the creams evenly with the castor sugar and place under the grill until the sugar has become a dark brown topping. Let cool and serve once the topping had hardened.
Chefs Tip: To correctly caramelise or gratinee the creams, put the oven rack as close to the heat source as possible.
My Notes: I decreased the milk and increased the cream as we do not get whipping cream locally in India. Also, whenever I do egg based desserts, I like to add a scraped vanilla bean. Feel free to omit this as it is not part of the original recipe. My creams took about 40 minutes to appear firm. I served mine with some preserved burgundy cherries.
“The Sky is the daily bread of the imagination.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Hello there. It’s time for the Daring Bakers to strut their bakes! {Before you panic that I’m posting the challenge early, because of the holidays you can post any time between December 23 through December 27, 2010}. This is the most exciting Daring Bakers month of the year, amonth where I eagerly await a Christmas bake. My first year with the DB’s had a Yule Log hosted by the talented duo – Hilda of Saffron & BlueBerry and Marion of Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. That was quite the mother of all challenges. I still have a picture in my mind of the beautiful logHilda presented that year. Gorgeous! Last year was Gingerbread Houses … and I loved it so. Such a canvas for creativity and so many special houses. This year has been wonderful too …
The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book………and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.
I stole the stollen and made pudding! This time around, we were enticed by the sweet Penny from Sweet Sadie’s Baking to make Christmas Stollen. Stollen is a bread-like fruitcake made with yeast, water and flour, and usually with zest added to the dough. Candied orange peel and candied citrus is often also added. Over the centuries, the cake changed from being a simple, fairly tasteless “bread” to a sweeter cake with richer ingredients.The recipe is a combination of recipes put together by Penny, and includes a bit of a recipe from her German friend who bakes Stollen every year, from a Peter Reinhart recipe, and the wreath concept from Martha Stewart. I was tempted to bake my Christmas Stollen {Dresden Stollen} that I made last year. It had quark as an ingredient, and was certainly the best Christmas bread we’ve had to date. I hope to make it once again this winter, hopefully in January. In a last minute daring change of mind and spirit, I decided to go with Daring Bakers recipe. Am I glad I did! It’s always a challenge and an adventure to try a new recipe, something that holds intrigue and a surprise in the end. That said, once baked, the stollen was H U G E. It was like a football field … don’t know why I said that, but that was precisely the thought racing through my head. Whatever would I do with so much stollen? Should have listened to my head, not my heart, and made half the recipe! Then again, we had a few slices of warm stollen each.Mmmm…wonderful warm straight from the oven.The crumb was soft and well risen, quite delicious. Next morning, I sliced up some more. Toasted it for breakfast. Slathered with slightly salted butter, it was luxury in every bite. For once too much was too good, and the morning seemed very delicious. I still had a lot to mull over though. Still so much stollen left… after all 770gms makes a lot. I had to put it to more creative use. Contemplated freezing some, but then had a better idea. Bread pudding! STOLLEN PUDDING! Yes, that was a good idea. If brioche could make a fab bread pudding, then stollen couldn’t be far behind. I began with adding a scraped vanilla bean to 2 cups of milk, simmered it, and then thought some low fat cream might make it better. So in went cream, simmered again. Left it awhile for the vanilla flavours to mingle…mmm … this was beginning to feel like fun.Pastry creams, custards, pot de cremes … all need eggs to set, and my pud was going to be no different. Milk, cream, sugar, eggs…and of course, vanilla bean! The sugar and the eggs, yolks & are all whisked immediately; if you don’t then the yolk gets stringy and lumpy…beware! The recipe is much like a pastry cream. Warm simmered vanilla milk poured over the yolk mixture, whisked and then strained over the sliced bread, dressed with dried tart cherries {I do love those}, and slivered almonds. Into the oven it went, in a bain marie. The aromas were enticing. I was like an expectant father, pacing the ground outside my oven to see if it would work, and my pud would set!Get set it did! YAY! If you daring kinda folk, like me, made a HUGE stollen, then you MUST try this pudding. WE LOVED IT!! The dried tart cherries, the now roasted slivered almonds, the wonderful vanilla flavours … a sifting of sugar later. It was ever so good, just perfect for a cold winter day. Another great satisfying dessert, another favourite added to my list. I still have a hunk of stollen saved up, and I have an idea for that too. Though I still do prefer the stollen I had made last year with quark as a slice and eat Christmas bread, I do love the versatility of this one. Will make this again, even if it’s just for a bread pudding, well half of it anyway!
Stollen Wreath Makes one large wreath or two traditional shaped Stollen loaves. Serves 10-12 people
¼ cup lukewarm water
28gms fresh yeast {or 14 grams active dry yeast}
1 cup milk
140gm unsalted butter
5½ cups {770 grams} all-purpose flour , plus extra for dusting
½ cup{130gm} vanilla sugar {I added an extra 15gm in error}
¾ teaspoon salt {if using salted butter there is no need to alter this salt measurement}
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 2 oranges
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, scraped
1 teaspoon orange extract
1/2 cup currants
1 cup firmly packed raisins
3 tablespoons rum
12 red glacé cherries {roughly chopped} for the color and the taste.
1 cup almonds, chopped
Melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath
Powdered sugar for dusting wreath Note:If you don’t want to use alcohol, double the lemon or orange extract or you could use the juice from the zested orange. Method:
In a small bowl, soak the raisins and currants in the rum {or in the orange juice from the zested orange} and set aside.
Whisk together the eggs, vanilla and orange extract, and scraped vanilla bean. Reserve.
Melt the milk and butter gently in a pan. Stand until lukewarm. {I warmed the milk and poured it over the butter, and gently stirred it over low heat to hasten the process}
Pour ¼ cup warm water into a small bowl, add fresh yeast and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast completely.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, orange zest.
Then stir in {or mix on low speed with the dough hooks} the yeast/water mixture, eggs and the lukewarm milk/butter mixture. This should take about 2 minutes. It should be a soft, but not sticky ball. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl with either plastic or a tea cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.
Add in the soaked fruit and almonds and mix with your hands or on low speed to incorporate. Here is where you can add the cherries if you would like. Be delicate with the cherries or all your dough will turn red!
Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading {or mixing with the dough hook} to distribute the fruit evenly, adding additional flour if needed. The dough should be soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for approximately 8 minutes. The full six minutes of kneading is needed to distribute the dried fruit and other ingredients and to make the dough have a reasonable bread-dough consistency. You can tell when the dough is kneaded enough – a few raisins will start to fall off the dough onto the counter because at the beginning of the kneading process the dough is very sticky and the raisins will be held into the dough but when the dough is done it is tacky which isn’t enough to bind the outside raisins onto the dough ball.
Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Put it in the fridge overnight. The dough becomes very firm in the fridge {since the butter goes firm} but it does rise slowly… the raw dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week and then baked on the day you want.Shaping the Dough
Let the dough rest for 2 hours after taking out of the fridge in order to warm slightly.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Preheat oven to moderate 180°C with the oven rack on the middle shelf.
Punch dough down, roll into a rectangle about 16 x 24 inches (40 x 61 cms) and ¼ inch (6 mm) thick. Forming and Baking the Wreath
Starting with a long side, roll up tightly, forming a long, thin cylinder.
Transfer the cylinder roll to the sheet pan. Join the ends together, trying to overlap the layers to make the seam stronger and pinch with your fingers to make it stick, forming a large circle. You can form it around a bowl to keep the shape.
Using kitchen scissors, make cuts along outside of circle, in 2-inch (5 cm) intervals, cutting 2/3 of the way through the dough.
Twist each segment outward, forming a wreath shape. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Proof for approximately 2 hours at room temperature, or until about 1½ times its original size.
Bake the stollen for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes. The bread will bake to a dark mahogany color, should register 190°F/88°C in the center of the loaf, and should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.
Transfer to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter while still hot.
Immediately tap a layer of powdered sugar over the top through a sieve or sifter.
Wait for 1 minute, then tap another layer over the first.
The bread should be coated generously with the powdered sugar.
Let cool at least an hour before serving. Coat the stollen in butter and icing sugar three times, since this many coatings helps keeps the stollen fresh – especially if you intend on sending it in the mail as Christmas presents! When completely cool, store in a plastic bag. Or leave it out uncovered overnight to dry out slightly, German style.
Stollen Pudding
350gms Stollen, sliced
200ml milk
200ml low fat cream
1 vanilla bean, scraped
2 yolks
1 egg
1/2 cup vanilla sugar {or plain sugar}
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup dried tart cherries, snipped
Powdered sugar for sifting Method:
Preheat oven to 180C.
Place sliced bread in 9″ baking dish, slightly overlapping each slice as in pictures.
Put milk, cream and scraped vanilla bean in a saucepan and simmer till bubbles appear around edges. Take off heat and let the flavours seep for 20-30 minutes.
Place egg, yolks and vanilla sugar in a largish bowl, and whisk immediately to mix.
Bring the milk mixture back to a simmering boil, take off heat, and slowly pour over egg mixture whisking all the time to prevent lumps getting formed.
Strain this over the bread slices in baking dish, sprinkle over dried cherries and almonds. Bake in a bain marie for 30-40 minutes/ until the edges of the custard appear to be firm and set If the top browns too soon, loosely place a sheet of foil over it.
Remove from oven, and then from bain marie as soon as it’s warm enough to handle. Sift with powdered sugar. Allow to stand for 20-30 minutes. Serve hot or warm.
♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥
“I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.”
Harlan Miller
I love this season, and agree with the quote above. Christmas is not our main festival, but certainly is an adopted one, one we have learnt to love. Christmas & New Year also mean FRUIT-CAKE season to us. My mother set the trend years ago, when she baked a fruit cake every winter without fail. Would you believe I never imagined that there could be people who dislike fruit cake? Crawled out from under a rock last year when I saw tweets being exchanged, and I discovered that there were 2 very definite sides to the fruit cake coin – LIKE vs HATE … no in betweens.Thankfully, we are a family who LOVE our fruit cake to bits. I have to hide the loaves from the daughter who loves a good fruit cake nibble.I heard her rummaging through the fridge and cupboards yesterday and I knew just what she was looking for! My precious cake has been wrapped and is maturing {in hiding}. We’ve had the ‘tasting ceremony‘ a few days ago, and the cake is darned good. Now to wait a few more days, and we shall savour it bit by bit. I am pretty miserly about it because I make it from scratch. Peels, chopping, caramel syrup, butter, weighing, zesting … I heave a sigh of relief when the fruit is finally soaked because the rest of the cake-making seems a cakewalk.
The fruit cake season was kicked off a couple of months ago with this traditional cake mixing ceremony at the Hilton Garden Inn. That was a fabulous experience, and I still hold those huge bowls of peels and dried fruit in my eyes! At the time, I was hit by infectious enthusiasm and the drive back home saw me mixing my fruit the next day… well, in my thoughts!How very ambitious! Back home and life returned to the fast track in the week to follow … mundanities like laundry, driving the hapless kids in circles, laying out winter flower beds, baking, pulling out winter clothes & putting away light summer mulmuls happened. The ‘traditional fruit mixing left on the back burner’, yet not forgotten.Each time I reached out for a baking ingredient I would see the fruit and promise myself, tomorrow! Tomorrow never comes! That ‘tomorrow’ came last week. I knew I was desperately late, and it was a now or never. Twitter was buzzing with fruit cake activity, Meeta had posted her gorgeous cake, and frugal Monsieur Lebovitz had his list of fave Holiday Recipes out. Shameful that my fruit was still sitting pretty in bags!I eventually emptied the fridge and larder out. It was like an end of year clearance, literally. I used all the left-over nuts and peels, making up the remaining weight with candied cherries and almonds. In went the bag of raisins from Madhulika in Nasik, currants and black raisins from Old Delhi, dried apricots which had seen better days {but were in for a sweet soaking}, leftover crystallized ginger and orange peels from a Lebovitz recipe … an entertaining connect of people, places, feelings as I mixed fruit! Instead of Christmas spice in the cake, I took my favoured route of garam masala.Have you ever added garam masala to your fruit cake? You really should try it. It doesn’t add curry flavours to your cake, I promise. It adds deep warm winter flavours that mingle with the fruit ever so deliciously, you’ll wonder what kept you away so long. Besides, making your own garam masala fills the house with wonderful warm aromas. I make a largish portion now and freeze it.The fruit was soaked for 3 days, but overnight is good too. If you want to go the non alcohol way, just substitute the alcohol with fresh orange juice, but then store the soaked fruit in the fridge for a day or so. Alcohol preserves the fruit so they keep out in a cool place for long. I also added zest from the oranges, and on day 3 I had this fabulous plump shiny sweet smelling mincemeat of sorts. Not the traditional kind as that has suet and grated apple maybe, but my own sweet kind. I was delighted to find a similar link on David Lebovitz for a Quick Mincemeat.Once the fruit is mature, the rest of the cake is a virtual breeze. I follow a basic recipe that my mother learnt from a baking course almost 40years ago. The soaked fruit are tossed in the flour mix, coating each fruit well. This way the fruit doesn’t sink to the bottom. The cake gets a rich dark colour thanks to a caramel to which coffee is added. The rest is normal cake procedure. Butter & sugar beaten, eggs added, floured fruit folded in … and off it goes to bake.
Twitter got me great ideas from Barbara the Vino Luci gal {oh, she is sweet}, and Colleen aka Colly Wolly, the adorable Brown-Eyed Baker from South Africa. Barbaras Last Minute Fruit Cake, and CW was sweet enough to send me hers. I eventually made my own, but have to thank these 2 great gals for the inspiration. The world is certainly better with folk like you, and I can thank twitter for making 2010 such a wonderful year!
Mincemeat or fruit mix, sans suet
{made from 1 kg of fruit/nut/peel combination}
300gms raisins, chopped if desired
200 currants
200gms black grapes, chopped
100gms crystallized ginger & orange peel {David Lebovitz recipe}, chopped
100gms almonds, chopped
50gm dried apricots, chopped
50gms candied cherries, chopped
1/4 cup Cherry liquor/brandy
1/2 cup rum {or brandy}
3/4 cup fresh orange juice {from 3 keenus/oranges}
Juice of 1/2 lemon {or 4 limes}
Zest of 2 keenus/oranges
4 tbsp garam masala Method:
Mix all of the above nicely and soak overnight in a cool place, or for 3-4 days. The longer you soak the fruit, the more mature the flavour. I soaked mine for 4 days as I didn’t have time to bake. {You can substitute the alcohol with an equal amount of orange juice too}
Garam Masala Fruit Cake
1 kg mixed fruit,nuts,peel mincemeat {mincemeat recipe above}
3 cups plain flour
300gms unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup sugar
5 eggs
3/4 cup caramel syrup {Made with 1 cup of sugar caramelised. Add some water and heat gently to liquefy. Measure and top up with water to make 3/4 cup liquid. Cool}
1 1/2 tbsp instant coffee
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt {skip if using salted butter}
2 tsp pure vanilla extract Method:
Toss the soaked mixed fruit in the 3 cups flour well in a large bowl {I used a huge wok} so that the fruit is completely coated. Reserve.
Stir coffee into caramel syrup. Reserve.
Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy, 2 minutes, add the eggs and beat well again.
Now add the caramel syrup and vanilla extract and beat again for a minute till well incorporated. The mixture may appear curdled but that’s fine. Add baking powder and whisk again.
Turn this batter out over the mincemeat and stir well with spatula to blend uniformly.
Turn into lined loaf pans/baking tins and bake at 140C until the top appears done when you touch it, about 1 hour for the loaf pans, and almost 2-2 1/4 hours for my 15 X 11 tin. {Do keep an eye on the top of the cake. My ovens ‘bake’ setting is just the lower level so the top doesn’t brown too quick. If you find the top browning too soon, please slip a foil loosely over the top about an hour and a half into baking.}
Cool in tin, turn out and wrap in cling-film when cold. Allow to stand and mature in a cool dark place for a day or two, at least overnight. The longer it stands the better the flavours, but we never get that far in my fruit-cake loving household.
Note: You can poke holes on top and pour over some more rum/brandy if you like. In this case, first wrap it in cheesecloth, and then in clingwrap and store in a cool pace.
“Life is a great big canvas,
and you should throw all the paint on it you can.” Danny Kaye
When we were very young, we received a Danny Kaye for Children LP as a gift. We spent HOURS listening to “I Taut I Taw a Puddy Tat”, “Tubby the Tuba Song”, “Popo the Puppet”, “Laugh it Off Upsey Daisy” … and so many more. Can’t not mention “I’m Late” from Alice in Wonderland. Did you listen to Danny Kaye when you were little {alright, I’m like talking the 70’s!}? Life was carefree, full of hide & seek moments, climbing trees – a laugh-riot all the time with simple and fun comfort zones everywhere!
I often miss those ‘no TV, no computer, no i-this, that and the other‘ days. Days when you could count the minutes pass, catch butterflies and grasshoppers, and languish mindlessly in the mid day sun. Can still feel my shaky little hands gently lifting the needle of the record player to place it on the LP … blissful! I often feel bad that my kids will never know simple joys of playing and listening to an LP … their comfort zone existing in plug-ins and downloads!
This dessert was a result of one of my recent carefree adventures, one of those things that happened. I seldom follow a plan for desserts I serve at home as this is my playing ground; my experimental comfort zone. I know that if my culinary escapades turn out good or even just OK, my sweet guinea pigs will lap them up. They’ll let me know whether it’s a ‘HIGH FIVE’ or just ‘Hmmmm OK‘, but they won’t let it go waste! I count my blessings…
These verrines were lapped up joyfully. I had a vanilla bean genoise sponge ready, one that I wanted to make into a strawberry kiwi cake for someone, but that day strawberries played truant in the market. {Yes, the strawberry season in North India has just begun again}. I came back rather disappointed, and baked a coffee genoise instead, but had this basic sponge on hand. The daughter declared that she wanted to frost it on Sunday…but as I knew would happen. With her exams on, and rather lost as always, she forgot about it! It still played on my mind …All of a sudden, another frosted cake seemed a boring proposition. I looked around and saw a sachet of lebkuchen spice that spicy Meeta had got for me a while ago. YES… that was definitely part of my dessert, maybe in cream. The mind began wandering. What next? I saw these coffee mugs, and thought ‘layered dessert’. One thing led to another, and soon I was whizzing chunks of the cake in the food processor to get a breadcrumb like mix. What followed was layers of vanilla genoise crumbs, lebkuchen cream, and more crumbs. Scrabbled through the larder. What would go with warm, spicy Christmas flavours that the lebkuchen spice threw up so enticingly? It’s a seductive spice blend, one which calls your name! Apple compote sounded like an idea, maybe with craisins or raisins. Some orange zest too? I was on the track.Make sure you leave the cream whipped to soft peaks so it mingles gently with the cake crumbs, moistening it as you allow it to stand in the fridge for a couple of hours. It permeates the layers and infuses the lebkuchen spice aroma right through. This is a light dessert, yet quite satisfying. I do love verrines for their appealing looks. Play around with layers if you like. The space within is your canvas. I think verrines are a wonderful playground of colours and textures.Make the holiday season fun. Grab any transparent glasses, coffee mugs, goblets, shot glasses, ice cream bowls you have, doesn’t matter if they are mismatched. Begin the layering. Add a red cranberry compote layer to tie the colours in nicely, and top the glasses with a sprig of mint. Red and green ribbons swathed around tie it all together nicely. I love dressing up my food, and I’m having fun as you can see. {Thank you Mia for the vanilla beans that I spiced my genoise up with, and the ribbons! Love them!!}
Lebkuchen Cream & Genoise Verrines with Apple Craisin Compote 6-8 servings { depending on size of glass} Prep: 30 mins | Cooking: 25 mins | Assembling: 10 minutes
2/3 of a 3 egg vanilla genoise sponge 300ml low fat cream {25% Amul, chilled}
3-4 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp lebkuchen spice Method:
Whip all ingredients till the cream holds soft peaks. Apple Craisin Compote
3 medium apples, peeled, cored, chopped
1/2 tsp lebkuchen spice
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/8 cup water
juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup craisins/raisins
Zest of 1 orange
Method:
Place all ingredients in heavy bottom pan. Simmer, covered till apples are soft and liquid almost evaporated. Stir from time time. Taste and adjust lime and sugar {and lebkuchen} if required. Genoise cake cubes for topping:
18-24 tiny cake cubes, like croutons
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp sugar
Place sugar and butter in a frying pan on simmer. Once the butter and sugar melt, before the sugar turns brown, add the cake cubes, and toss them around to coat all sides.
Keep an eye on them, and take off once the sides begin to get caramelised. Cool and store in an airtight container until use Assembling the verrines:
Run genoise slices in food processor for a minute or two till you get a fine breadcrumb like mixture. Spoon 2-3 tbsp per glass.
Add 2 tbsp of lebkuchen spice cream over the crumb layer, and add some more cake crumbs. Divide any remaining cream over the second layers. Poke a thin cake tester through the centre to gently ease some cream through to the bottom layer.
Spoon the warm apple-craisin compote over the second layer of cream, and chill until time to serve. Top with crisp sautéed genoise cake cubes!
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
Martin Luther
Day before yesterday did not begin in a good way. I woke up to find the fridge wasn’t as cold as it was supposed to be. Big S I G H … what an arduous task when I had my hands full with so much already. Transfer, spring clean, clear … and stuff the other fridge to the gills. The upside of course was the urgency to use up my frozen puff pastry which was saved up for a rainy day! Another positive was that the fridge repair man showed up within 6 hours, was a gem, fixed the fault in 10 minutes …Woot!!
I had made the puff pastry from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook a couple of weeks ago, and it was time I used it up, so I was back to Google for ideas. Saw turnovers, pop tarts, pies … and so much sweet and savoury ‘puff pastry deliciousness’ online. Also found Tarte Tatins that the boy has been on my case to make ever since he saw Meryl Streep making it in Julie & Julia! But then I saw a Dorie Greenspan ‘Flaky Apple Turnovers‘ recipe on Cream Puffs in Venice, and I knew this is just what I wanted to make…
… Dorie Greenspans adapted apple filling would happily be parceled into the Ottolenghispuff pastry. What a great meeting of 2 great cookbooks, and authors I admire. If you have the pastry ready, the rest is done in a matter of minutes. The filling is simply tossed together so that the apples are nicely coated with the flour mix. There was some butter in Dories recipe, which I completely forgot about, but we didn’t miss it in these classic and quintessential parcels. This is a simple, yet delicious sweet vegetarian pastry, good for breakfast, good for a snack … and also great for dessert. I gave it a low fat cream glaze… you can give it an egg white or yolk glaze, or maybe a milk glaze.Puff pastry is a very versatile pastry to have on hand. A quick search online throws up infinite ways in which to use this delightful pastry. making it at home is a breeze. Do bear in mind the weather has to be cool, or cold. Summer heat and the butter will ooze out leaving you in a puddle of despair, crying copious tears. I’ve been there, so I know. For me here in North India, this is a winter pastry, indulgent and full of promise.
I did some puff pastry savoury swirls for someone yesterday, and they were winners. That post will be here soon too. Am already missing the luxury of puff pastry sitting in the fridge/freezer, and can see myself making another batch pretty soon. Yay winter, and yay Ottolenghi!Do you make your own puff pastry, or do you buy ready-made? Just curious. I have no choice but to make it; yet it isn’t as daunting as I thought it was!
More ‘Fruit in Baking‘, a passion for me as you might know, so this is also headed for this months Monthly Mingle that I am guest hosting for my spicy-sweet friend Meeta. If you are BAKING WITH FRUIT this month, do send it in to Monthly Mingle posted HERE.
Apple Cinnamon Walnut Parcels
1/2 quantity puff pastry {recipe follows}
Apple Filling {recipe follows}
Milk/Cream for glazing Rough Puff Pastry fromOttolenghi: The Cookbook, pg 281
{I used half portion of pastry for this recipe. I’ve used it previously in peach galettes this past summer}
300gm plain flour
1 tsp salt
180g unsalted butter, frozen
140ml ice cold water Method for pastry:
Sift the flour and salt. Grate 80g of the frozen butter into this and mix lightly.Add the cold water, using a knife, stir the flour and water together until a dough begins to form. Now use your hands to bring it into a ball {You might need a little more water}. Press into a neat square, wrap it in cling film, and chill for 30 minutes.
Roll out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle with a long edge 3 times its width. Grate the remaining butter and spread it evenly over 2/3rds of the rectangle.Take the third which is not sprinkled, and fold it over the middle of the buttered part, then fold the two layers over the remaining single layer. You will be left with 3 layers of pastry and 2 layers of butter separating them.
Turn the pastry by 90 degrees. Dust with flour and roll out into same proportions as first rectangle.Take one of the short sides and fold it over to reach the middle of the remaining part of the pastry. Fold the remaining third on top of the first one to get 3 layers on top of each other. Wrap pastry in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
Repeat again 2 more times, and chill for at least an hour. The pastry will keep in the fridge for 4 days, and in the freezer for a month. Filling: Adapted fromBaking:From My Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan.
2 apples, chopped apples
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries/raisins
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp flour Method:
Toss all the ingredients together and make sure the apples pieces are well coated with the flour. Making the parcels:
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Roll out the puff pastry thin, trim the edges, and cut into 6 equal squares.
Place about 1-2 tbsp of the apple filling in the centre of each. Draw the four edges up to the centre, using a drop of cream to seal the corners when they meet. Place the trimmings on top of each other, gently press together, and cut out small hearts if you like. Stick the heart to the top with a drop of cream. {Don’t over stuff the parcels or they might pop open while baking}
Brush the tops of th pastry with milk/light cream, sprinkle with vanilla sugar, and bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and puffy. Transfer onto a cooling rack. Serve warm maybe with a drizzle of unsweetened light cream.
“Be sweet and honest always, but for God’s sake don’t eat my doughnuts!”
Emma Bunton
The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.
It’s the 27th again, and the much awaited Daring Bakers time of the month again! I’m still not sure if I got it right. Maybe I missed the fine print that states somewhere that we have to bake a batch too, but here I am with the challenge for October 2010. Going nuts about dougnuts is the call, and I think it’s something we love to love universally! What’s not to love about this tasty fried dough, an end result that can be seen across various cultures. Call a doughnut by another name – beignets, crullers, fritters, Sufganiot, and krapfen; tasty little bites they are!
But hello? No baking here, and 650gms of flour…what was I thinking?Was bitten by a bug from la-la land; I really should have halved the recipe. I chose the yeasted doughnuts version, and there was dough popping right out of the bowl, threatening to explode. It was everywhere and I had to fry some in a hurry as it looked like the very active yeast was set to explode. Within the hour of the yeastly rise {in the fridge that too} I quickly set the wok on fire and got frying!
They say ‘hurry makes curry‘. Tch tch … the first doughnut went into the oil in haste, and I was miserably rewarded with a splattering of hot oil! OUCH!! Got branded a confirmed Daring Baker with 2 burns across my forehead. Some stamp eh? Never heard the end of it for 5 days, “OMG, what happened?“… blah blah blah! Could have kicked myself! Please always be CAREFUL when deep frying! Another tip: Do keep a plant of aloe vera handy in your yard/garden. It is soothing and healing, and you can barely see any marks on my face now. Just break off a bit of the cactus stem, squeeze out the clear gel, and apply… works wonders!Completed a quick batch that day after being rudely interrupted by the incident, and the remaining dough went back into the fridge. It stayed there for 2 days because by then I had so much more to do, and it just felt safe sitting there. Day 3 had me running again because it wasn’t safe to let it be anymore. I wish I had made half the quantity of dough because doughnuts are best eaten fresh. IMHO, they just seem to lose their charm as they cool off, losing their characteristic fluffiness and charm.
I made a batch in the oven too, just in case I had missed out on a DB rule for the challenge. They were OK. To make up for their lack of apparent lightness, I dressed them with a low fat cream and vanilla sugar glaze. Had to be PINK in support of Breast Cancer Awareness for Pinktober. {I’ve been going quite PINK this month – Pinkarons {pink macarons}, Quark Mousse with Roasted Balsamic Strawberries, A Strawberry and Vanilla Bean Mascarpone Cake}. The kids enjoyed the pink ones because of the glazing. I had many plans for the fried ones – pumpkin topping, pastry cream within, dessert donuts etc. But the number that had been eaten already didn’t warrant any more calories, so I let them be. They were absolutely light and delicious served fresh. This is one recipe I will use in the future, for it’s ease of making, and taste! YUM!!
The Alton Brownyeast doughnut recipe is great one, except that 4.5 tsps of yeast sounded like too much. I used fresh yeast from my block in the freezer, and despite cutting 10g {10g = about 1 tsp dry}, and placing the dough in the fridge after kneading, an hour later it had more than doubled. The results were very good. After refrigeration, the dough was very easy to work with, and the fresh doughnuts were very, very good. I dusted them with a cinnamon/vanilla sugar mix …
Thank you Lori of Butter Me Up for this fun challenge. It’s been a while since I made donuts, and I have to say it was wonderful making them! Got to use my new donut cutter too that I got from my little shop in Old Delhi. As always, a HUGE THANK YOU to Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice for keeping this fab kitchen together … and growing!!
Yeast Doughnuts Minimally adapted from recipe by Alton Brown Yield: 30-35 doughnuts & 30 to 35 doughnut holes, depending on size {Mine were regular sized} Ingredients
1.5 cup milk, lukewarm
70g unsalted butter,melted
30gms fresh yeast
1/3 cup warm water {35°C}
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup granulated vanilla sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp grated nutmeg
4 2/3 cup (650g} all purpose flour {plus extra for dusting}
Vegetable oil for frying { at least 3 inches of oil} Method:
Mix the warm milk and butter. Set aside.
In a small bowl, pour the warm water over the fresh yeast and let dissolve for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm.
Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined.
Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well.
Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. If you do not have a dough hook/stand mixer – knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size. {I left it cling wrapped in the fridge, and it rose in 30 minutes}
On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch thick. {Make sure the surface really is well-floured otherwise your doughnuts will stick to the counter}.
Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch doughnut cutter or pastry ring or drinking glass and using a 7/8-inch ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oil in a heavy bottom wok to 185°C. {Test the oil to see if it’s ready with a doughnut hole. It should immediately bob to the top of the oil, and begin to brown. If it comes up slowly, the oil needs to get hotter. If it becomes dark brown immediately, the oil is too hot…beware!}
Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side or until golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Sift a mix of powdered vanilla sugar and cinnamon over both sides immediately. Alternatively, allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing.
♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥
Do stop by HERE and check out how the rest of our talented bakers have gone nuts over doughnuts this October!
Don’t miss a post
{You might need to resubscribe since my feed might have changed as I have recently shifted to WP}
Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India
Cut down your exam stress by using our latest 70-293 and 70-561. We provide updated 70-662 with 100% pass guarantee along with 70-643 and pass4sure mcts.
