A Very Special Episode of Tuesdays with Dorie: Peppermint Cream Puff Ring

Hang the code, and hang the rules! They’re more like guidelines anyway. - Elizabeth, Pirates of the Caribbean

This week’s recipe is Peppermint Cream Puff Ring chosen by Caroline from A Consuming Passion. You can find Dorie’s recipe on Caroline’s post.

There are some guest stars joining Dorie this week. Let’s have a great big Tuesday with Dorie welcome for Mr Alton Brown and Mr. David Lebovitz.

OK, I’ll admit it. I strayed this week. I used Dorie’s recipe as more of a guideline, a suggestion if you will. We’d had a lot of whipped cream with our strawberry tart last week, so as much as I like whipped cream, I was actually kind of . . . sick of it. Ice cream sounded good. Profiteroles sounded even better . . . with hot fudge sauce.

The farmer’s market in our town opened this weekend and, while there isn’t much produce available yet, they did have some fresh mint. Since I didn’t have enough mint in my garden yet, I bought a big batch and made mint ice cream from David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop.” If you’ve never checked out his blog, it’s a hoot. Here you can see the mint steeping in warmed milk. How could this not be fabulous? I also drizzled in bittersweet chocolate towards the end of freezing so that we would have mint chocolate chip ice cream. Did I mention the hot fudge sauce?

I had my ice cream made, but I still couldn’t work up any enthusiasm for making the pate a choux. I was really tired this weekend. I’ve made cream puffs before so I knew it wasn’t a big deal. Granted, that was 25 years ago, but I’d still had success. But I became leery when I read the problems people were having with Dorie’s recipe. I didn’t have enough energy this weekend to contemplate failure.

I visited my go-to source for food science, The Good Eats Fan Page, where I can find the transcripts to most, if not all, of the episodes of Good Eats. For a recipe like pate a choux, sometimes I like to know why I’m doing something in addition to how to do it. I found just what I needed from the episode Choux Shine. Catchy title, eh? I used the transcript for all those hints he adds to his narration, plus, the recipe is also in Alton’s cookbook.

Even with Alton’s guidance my first batch collapsed a bit straight out of the oven. So I also referred to the cream puff recipe in David Lebovitz’s book. His recipe bakes the puffs at 425 for 30 minutes. He also says you can portion the batter with a disher instead of a pastry bag.  So I kind of split the difference. The next batch went in at 425 for 15 minutes, and then 10 minutes at 350. That did the trick. I think they turned out almost perfect, if I do say so myself. Which I do.

Finally . . . on to the hot fudge sauce, which I also took from David’s cookbook. I was able to stop eating hot fudge with a spoon long enough to drizzle some over a mint ice cream filled cream puff. The cream puffs and the ice cream were just an excuse for creaeaeaemy, waaaaaaaaaaarm, rich hot fudge sauce.

Imagine my surprise however, when we didn’t really like the mint ice cream. It was just a little too grassy tasting. I was so looking forward to this, but it just tasted kind of pasture-like and weird. Fortunately we also had vanilla waiting in the wings.

Anyway, after a 25 year hiatus, I’m back on the cream puff bandwagon and will not shy away from making them again. Right now, I’ve got to go eat some hot fudge.

Stay tuned for next week’s recipe:  Mixed Berry Cobbler chosen by Beth from Our Sweet Life.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Crust + Jam + Berries = The Amazing La Palette’s Strawberry Tart

Happy Happy Joy Joy - Ren & Stimpy

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is La Palette’s Strawberry Tart chosen by Marie from A Year at Oak Cottage.  I read the recipe over and thought “hmmm.  Sounds good.” But I  wasn’t terribly excited about making it.  I had just had, what I felt to be, the best strawberry pie I’d ever had, at the Curtis Cafe in Stafford, KS.  I will have to admit that I was wrong about this recipe . . . boy was I wrong!  A few simple ingredients.  While good on their own they become something amazing when the various textures and flavors come together.

I used the same crust I had made for the French Lemon Tart a few weeks ago.  I like the sweet tart dough with nuts.  I used ground almonds.

On to the berries.  I didn’t have a chance to go to the farmer’s market this weekend, so settled for some pretty good looking Drisoll’s strawberries from the grocery store.  I sliced them and added a spoonful of sugar and spoonful of cassis.  I was worried that the berries would have a raw alcohol flavor to them but I was pleasantly surprised by the way the cassis complemented the berries.

And that’s it.  Now on to the assembly.  I cut some wedges out of the crust.  I worried about it crumbling or breaking.  I used a very sharp knife and cut straight down.  It didn’t break or crumble.  I was able to make very clean cuts.  I spread Bonne Maman strawberry preserves on each slice, spooned on some berries, and plopped on some freshly whipped lightly sweetened cream.  I decided not to use the black pepper.

Happy Happy Joy Joy! A crisp shortbread-like crust, sweet jam, slightly tart and boozy berries, and creamy whipped cream.  I will take this over strawberry shortcake any day.  This summer I may work my way through the summer fruits using this recipe.  Very simple yet very elegant. And the beauty is that it doesn’t get all soggy since you can assemble it one piece at a time if you wish.

If you’re wondering where the recipe is, it’s been decided that since the group has grown so large it’s not fair to Dorie for us to put the recipes online.  So, if you don’t have the book, I can highly recommend it.

Next week’s recipe: Peppermint Cream Puff Ring chosen by Caroline from A Consuming Passion.

Back in the Kitchen: French Chocolate Brownies . . . Raisins Not Invited!

That’s what I’m talkin’ about! - Kip, Napoleon Dynamite

Last week we were in Kansas birdwatching at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. If you love to birdwatch, this is the Disney World of birdwatching. We saw about 85 different species of birds plus a lot of other wildlife. We stayed in a 105-year-old house which is a part of the Henderson House bed and breakfast complex, in the lovely little small town of Stafford, KS. If you ever find yourself in Stafford, be sure to eat at the Curtis Cafe and have some pie. We tried their cinnamon cream, fresh strawberry, and pecan pies. Evidently, cinnamon cream pie is a Stafford specialty. It was a vanilla cream pie topped with a thick layer of cinnamon. Eating it in tandem with the fresh strawberry pie, which was one of the best I’d ever had, was a true treat! The pecan pie was made with maple syrup. Yum!

My real prize from the trip was a new lunch pail I bought from two sweet Amish girls sitting in a buggy selling baskets by the side of the road in Missouri. Isn’t it beautiful? I also bought a fabulous pie carrier with a little wooden table that fits inside it to make it two levels.

Once home, I could tell I’d been away from my kitchen for a week and had some cooking and baking to get out of my system. On Sunday morning I made biscuits for breakfast with some of Hudson Cream Flour I had brought home, milled in Stafford County, KS. I then made bread for lunch, and, of course, French chocolate brownies for dessert.

This week Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook chose French chocolate brownies. Thank you Di! If I had to come home from vacation, at least I could console myself with chocolate.

These are my favorite kind of brownies, with a texture almost like a flourless cake. But, Dorie, I’m begging you. Raisins do not belong in brownies (IMHO of course)! I substituted mini chocolate chips for the raisins, added a teaspoon of rum extract, and called it a day. This recipe reminds me of a fudge cake recipe I have. You want the batter to puff up and then collapse. This is caused by the air whipped into the eggs when you make the batter.

These brownies are out of this world

But they’re out of this universe with butter pecan ice cream. Now that’s what I’M talking about. I just wish I could take better food photos.

Next week is La Palette’s Strawberry Tart, chosen by Marie of A Year in Oak Cottage. I hope I can fine good strawberries. Spring is a little late here in Minnesota.

French Chocolate Brownies
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours.

Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/3 cup raisins, dark or golden
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you’re using it.

Put the raisins in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the raisins aside until needed. (I left the raisins out and added a tsp. of rum extract).

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It’s important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you’ve got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it’s better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.

Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you’ll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won’t be completely incorporated and that’s fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the raisins along with any liquid remaining in the pan.

Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.

Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.

Serving: The brownies are good just warm or at room temperature; they’re even fine cold. I like these with a little something on top or alongside—good go-alongs are whipped crème fraiche or whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce or even all three!

Storing: Wrapped well, these can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

- makes 16 brownies -

Friday Night Fights: Madelines vs. Snickery Squares

Thank you for those who were concerned about my late post and bad weekend.  A series of stressful things, including my friend’s funeral, made this a bad weekend.  There WERE some good things too.  My son’s commencement on Friday night.  My husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary last week.  But I think my stress circuit breaker flipped on Monday and I’m kind of out-of-energy this week.  Next week we’re going out for a few days of bird watching.  Hopefully I will lose some of this residual anxiety.

This week’s recipe, for Madelines, was chosen by Tara of Smells Like Home.  An alternative was also offered for people who didn’t have a Madeline pan.  They could make a recipe that had already been made for Tuesday’s with Dorie.

I set out to make Madeline’s.  I bought a non-stick pan at Williams-Sonoma on Thursday and was going to make the cookies on Friday and take them to my friend’s funeral on Saturday.  Once I sat down with the recipe, however, I saw there were some problems with my plan.  The recipe only made 12 cookies and they’re best eaten on the day they’re made.  Once I saw the batter needed to be chilled I knew I could make the batter and bake the cookies late Saturday morning.  But it still only made 12 and I wasn’t in the mood to double the recipe, which doesn’t always work in baking.  So I started paging through the bars and cookies to see if I could make something else to bring that would be easy and good.  I have wanted to make the snickery squares since I bought the cookbook, and they looked easy, so I made those too.  One recipe used my mixer and one used my food processor, so that worked too.

First I made my Madeline batter and put that in the fridge to chill.  Then I made the shortbread base for the snickery squares.  Then a trip back to the store for dulce de leche.   Then off to commencement.  Then back home to make the peanuts.  I carmelized the peanuts just until the sugar started to give off some smoke, then quickly moved them to the Silpat.  Once they cooled, I finished assembling the bars. Then off to bed.

I baked the Madeline’s late Saturday morning.  I think I baked them too long because they tasted dry to me.  Another baker brought up the point that the non-stick pan is dark and maybe the temp should have been lowered.  If I make these again, I may try that.  I’m on a raspberry kick, so I made some raspberry glaze for the Madelines.

I didn’t get a very good photo of the snickery squares but they won hands down as our favorite for the weekend.

I won’t be blogging next week.  So see you in two weeks.

Traditional Madeleines

Source: Dorie Greenspan, Baking: From My Home to Yours

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
½ cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¾ stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Working in a mixer bowl, or in a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the eggs to the bowl. Working with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed until pale, thick and light, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla. With a rubber spatula, very gently fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the melted butter. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours, or for up to 2 days. This long chill period will help the batter form the hump that is characteristic of madeleines. (For convenience, you can spoon the batter into the madeleine molds, cover and refrigerate, then bake the cookies directly from the fridge; see below for instructions on prepping the pans.)

GETTING READY TO BAKE:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter 12 full-size madeleine molds, or up to 36 mini madeleine molds, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Or, if you have a nonstick pan (or pans), give it a light coating of vegetable cooking spray. If you have a silicone pan, no prep is needed. Place the pan(s) on a baking sheet.

Spoon the batter into the molds, filling each one almost to the top. Don’t worry about spreading the batter evenly, the oven’s heat will take care of that. Bake large madeleines for 11 to 13 minutes, and minis for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are golden and the tops spring back when touched. Remove the pan(s) from the oven and release the madeleines from the molds by rapping the edge of the pan against the counter. Gently pry any recalcitrant madeleines from the pan using your fingers or a butter knife. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

If you are making minis and have more batter, bake the next batch(es), making certain that you cool, then properly prepare the pan(s) before baking.

Just before serving, dust the madeleines with confectioners’ sugar.

Makes 12 large or 36 mini cookies

Serving: Serve the cookies when they are only slightly warm or when they reach room temperature, with tea or espresso.

Storing: Although the batter can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, the madeleines should be eaten soon after they are made. You can keep them overnight in a sealed container, but they really are better on day 1. If you must store them, wrap them airtight and freeze them; they’ll keep for up to 2 months.

Snickery Squares

Source: Dorie Greenspan, Baking: From My Home to Yours

For the Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
2 tbsp powdered sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 stick (113 gr) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

For the Filling:
½ cup sugar
3 tbsp water
1 ½ cups salted peanuts
About 1 ½ cups store-bought dulce de leche

For the Topping:
7 ounces (200 gr) bittersweet, coarsely chopped
½ stick (57 gr) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature

Getting Ready:
Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 8 inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet.

To Make the Crust:
Toss the flour, sugar, powdered sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Toss in the pieces of cold butter and pulse about 12 times, until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Pour the yolk over the ingredients and pulse until the dough forms clumps and curds-stop before the dough comes together in a ball.

Turn the dough into the buttered pan and gently press it evenly across the bottom of the pan. Prick the dough with a fork and slide the sheet into the oven.

Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes, or until it takes on just a little color around the edges. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature before filling.

To Make the Filling:
Have a parchment or silicone mat-lined baking sheet at the ready, as well as a long-handled wooden spoon and a medium heavy bottomed saucepan.

Put the sugar and water in the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Keeping the heat fairly high, continue to cook the sugar, without stirring, until it just starts to color. Toss the peanuts and immediately start stirring. Keep stirring, to coat the peanuts with sugar. Within a few minutes, they will be covered with sugar and turn white—keep stirring until the sugar turns back into caramel. When the peanuts are coated with a nice deep amber caramel, remove the pan from the heat and turn the nuts out onto the baking sheet, using the wooden spoon to spread them out as best you can. Cool the nuts to room temperature.

When they are cool enough to handle, separate the nuts or break them into small pieces. Divide the nuts in half. Keep half of the nuts whole or in biggish pieces for the filling, and finely chop the other half for the topping.

Spread the dulce de leche over the shortbread base and sprinkle over the whole candied nuts.

To Make the Topping:
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Remove chocolate from the heat and gently stir in the butter, stirring until it is fully blended into the chocolate.

Pour the chocolate over the dulce de leche, smoothing it with a long metal icing spatula, then sprinkle over the rest of the peanuts. Slide the pan into the fridge to set the topping, about 20 minutes; if you’d like to serve the squares cold, keep them refrigerated for at least 3 hours before cutting.

Cut into 16-24 bars.

Kitchen Chemistry: Florida Pie

Baking something is like doing a chemistry project, which is why baking needs to be more of an exercise in precision than cooking usually has to be. This week’s recipe for Florida Pie, chosen by Dianne of Dianne’s Dishes, included very little baking but it was still a great example of kitchen chemistry in action. And really, what could be better than a chemistry project that you can eat?

I was excited for this weeks recipe. I have been a key lime pie eater since my first trips to Florida in the 60’s, and the only time I could have it would be on family vacation’s to Florida. Key lime juice was a precious commodity to be carried back from vacation and hoarded. Oh, the joy when key lime pie became Baker’s Square’s July pie-of-the-month (they make a pretty decent one too) and when the local grocery stores started carrying the juice here up North. Baker’s Square also used to make a pie called key lime rickey which had a layer of raspberry puree in it. I thought it was even better than plain key lime pie. So I decided to add raspberries to this pie. Dorie’s recipe added coconut to the mix, which I welcome wholeheartedly to the party. I will admit to being a key lime snob and NEVER substitute lime juice for key lime juice. Sorry, but it’s not the same.

There were a lot of, ahem, “elements” to this pie.

First came the crust. I was a little shocked that Dorie said she always uses a store-bought graham cracker crust. After reading the ingredient list of the premade crust, I decided to make one using Newman’s cinnamon graham alphabet cookies. Once again this week my Escali Pana Volume and Weight Digital Scale with the pre-programmed ingredients codes came in handy (I sound like Ralphie in “A Christmas Story” . . . “A Red Ryder BB gun with a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time”). How many little Newman’s cinnamon graham cookies would make 1 1/2 cups of crumbs. I entered the code for graham cracker crumbs and added cookies until the scale said 1 1/2 cups. On to the food processor.

This is my easy way to make a graham cracker piecrust. First pulverize the cookies. Add the melted butter, sugar and salt, pulse and few more times and pour them straight into the pie plate. Evenly distribute the crumbs, cover with plastic wrap, and press another pie plate on top of the crumbs. No muss, no fuss.

Now, if there’s one word in a recipe that strikes fear into my heart, it’s “reduce.” While I suppose a reduction couldn’t be called a chemical reaction, it’s still pretty cool, it you’re patient . . . which I’m not. But I was determined, and I was rewarded. If you’re patient, and keep the heat high enough that it bubbles and evaporates, but not so high that it scorches, you will be rewarded with creamy, thick, butter-colored goodness. Take a small bite, and then before you eat it all, set it aside.

Before

After. See what I mean?

On to the good part, and what makes this a Florida Pie. Key lime filling. As I beat the egg yolks I didn’t think the they would ever get light and thick. But they finally did and then I could get to the fun part. I added the condensed milk and then started mixing in the key lime juice. During mixing, a chemical reaction, called souring, occurs between the condensed milk and the acidic juice which causes the filling to thicken on its own. The filling didn’t come anywhere near the stove and yet it still thickened.

Back in the “old days” you were done now except for the chilling. The new-fangled recipes give the filling a few minutes in the oven, in case the eggs have some salmonella lurking in them. But first, you have to assemble the pie. This is where I added my raspberries, and they were a very good addition indeed. See how pretty they look? Next time I will add even more raspberries. And do I have future plans for this coconut cream! Spread over brownies and topped with some almonds and milk chocolate ganache!

As for my meringue, I think my egg whites were on the edge of going over to the dark side of destabilization. If I do meringue again, I will add some cream of tartar for some insurance. See the transcript of the Good Eats episode “Let Them Eat Foam.” to learn more about egg whites. Alton Brown can say it better than I ever could. But for me, I much prefer whipping cream on my key lime pie and I’m not a fan of meringues.  I used my kitchen torch to brown the meringue.  I think running it under the broiler would have given the meringue a softer browning.

I really wasn’t sure what the trips to the freezer were all about. Maybe to cool it faster? Next time I would just chill in the fridge overnight.  If I had chilled it overnight I might have been able to cut a neater slice than shown at the top of this article.  I just couldn’t wait to dig in.  And sometimes the best piece of pie is the homiest looking. This is one of my favorite desserts, which I will choose over chocolate almost any day.  And except for the meringue, it lived up to my expectations. What can I say.  I’m a whipped cream girl. After it had chilled, the coconut cream took on a toothsome texture that was very satisfying.  I love the cool, tart, creaminess of the key lime filling.  Oh, my mouth is watering again, but at our house, this pie is already gone.

So that, my friends, are the keys to this sublime pie. Get it? Keys . . . sublime? Never mind.

Next week’s recipe is Traditional Madelines, chosen by Tara of “Smells Like Home.” I’ve been asked to bring some cookies to the memorial service for my friend this Saturday. I think Kari would have liked madelines. They’re simple and sophisticated, but still a fun cookie, like she was.  I miss her very much.

Florida Pie

Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1 9-inch graham cracker crust (page 235), fully baked and cooled, or a store-bought crust
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut
4 large eggs, seperated
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh Key (or regular) lime juice (from about 5 regular limes)
1/4 cup of sugar

Getting Ready:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Put the pie plate on a baking sheet lined with parchment of a silicone mat.

Put the cream and 1 cup of the coconut in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring almost constantly. Continue to cook and stir until the cream is reduced by half and the mixture is slightly thickened. Scrape the coconut cream into a bowl and set it aside while you prepare the lime filling.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl beat the egg yolks at high speed until thick and pale. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the condensed milk. Still on low, add half of the lime juice. When it is incorporated, add the reaming juice, again mixing until it is blended. Spread the coconut cream in the bottom of the graham cracker crust, and pour over the lime filling.

Bake the pie for 12 minutes. Transfer the pie to a cooling rack and cool for 15 minutes, then freeze the pie for at least 1 hour.

To Finish the Pie with Meringue:

Put the 4 egg whites and the sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, whisking all the while, until the whites are hot to the touch. Transfer the whites to a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, or use a hand mixer in a large bowl, and beat the whites at high speed until they reach room temperature and hold firm peaks. Using a rubber spatula, fold the remaining 1/2 cup coconut into the meringue.

Spread the meringue over the top of the pie, and run the pie under the broiler until the top of the meringue is golden brown. (Or, if you’ve got a blowtorch, you can use it to brown the meringue.) (I think broiling might have given a softer browned affect, but I used my torch and it worked pretty slick.) Return the pie to the freezer for another 30 minutes or for up to 3 hours before serving.