Kitchen Experiment: Simple Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: November 4, 2009
One thing that I’m able to do really well since culinary school is make a kick-ass pot of soup. I was able to make soups before, but they didn’t have the depth of flavor and rich texture that my soups have now. And, I’m able to adapt many soup recipes to a variety of different dietary needs. For example, if you want this soup to be vegetarian use water or vegetable stock instead of chicken stock or broth. If you want to make it vegan, substitute the butter for olive oil, taking care to ensure your oil doesn’t reach its smoke point. With the nip in the air today, I thought this soup would be perfect to warm me up and would still incorporate great autumn flavors.
Roasted Butternut Squash Yield: 6 to 8 (8 ounce) servings
Ingredients:
- 2 large butternut squash, peeled and chopped roughly, seeds removed
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 large onion, diced
- 1 carrot, peeled and diced
- 1 celery stalk, diced
- 2 ounces flour
- 40 ounces low-sodium chicken broth (you can substitute water or vegetable stock)
- 1 bay leaf
- salt and freshly ground white pepper
- 6 slices whole grain bread, cut into cubes
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4 fresh sage leaves, minced
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the butternut squash on a sheet pan and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in oven for 45 minutes to one hour, until tender. Remove from oven and reserve.
- In a large, deep pot, over medium-high heat, add butter onion, carrot and celery and cook until softened, about 5 or 6 minutes.
- Whisk in flour and cook 2 minutes more.
- Slowly whisk in stock or water.
- Add roasted squash, bay leaf, salt and white pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer. Stir occasionally to make sure nothing sticks. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the croutons. In a large pan over medium-high heat, melt the rest of the butter. Toss in the bread and the sage leaves until toasted. Season with salt and pepper and reserve.
- Once the squash has broken down, remove the pot from the stove and purée the soup in batches either in the food processor or blender. (You can also use a food mill with the medium plate.)
- Return the soup to a simmer and adjust seasoning, if necessary. To serve, ladle into a warmed bowl and top with 5-6 toasted croutons.
Vegetarian Cravings
Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: October 29, 2009
For some strange reason, this past week, I have had absolutely NO desire to eat any meat at all. As a matter of fact, I’ve only wanted vegetables, cheeses, good crusty breads, and some pastas. This is very strange, but I’ll go with it. I wonder if it’s the colder weather making me crave hearty vegetables. Or if I’m finally feeling the need to detox from culinary school and all the rich and delicious food I had while I was there. Or maybe, I just want my pants to fit a bit better, since I have unfortunately, put on about 12 pounds during culinary school. Eep!
Those who know me know I love food. I think that swine, in all its forms is divine and freshly made pastas and pastries are like manna from heaven. But maybe, it’s time for a break and my new veggie cravings are my body’s way of telling me to just chill out for a bit! So in the spirit of veggie cravings, I bring you two recipes I’ve had that satisfied my new craving very much! I’m sure I’ll be having some meat again soon enough — my freezer is still well-stocked with some home made sausage I made as a part of my externship! But, until then, I’ll enjoy the beautiful vegetables in a hearty Ratatouille and Vegetarian Lasagna!
Autumn Ratatouille
This ratatouille is a hearty blend of eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes. It’s quick, so it’s great for a weeknight and it’s sure to warm you up on a cold night! Serve this with some warmed crusty bread and you’ve got a delicious and healthy meal! If you want to make it vegan, omit the cheese and instead top it with some chopped toasted pine nuts.
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 cup white mushrooms, sliced (You can also use cremini.)
- 1/2 large or one whole small eggplant, chopped
- 1 zucchini, quartered and chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, grated or minced
- 2 tsp dried rosemary or 1 sprig fresh
- salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes
- 1/2 cup red lentils
- grated parmesan or romano cheese (optional
- 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted and chopped
- hearty, crusty bread, sliced and toasted
- In a heavy-bottomed pot, over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil until it ripples.
- Add the onion and mushrooms and sweat for 5 to 6 minutes.
- Add the eggplant, zucchini, and bell pepper and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
- If you have a microplane, grate the garlic right into the pot. If not, add the garlic, minced. Cook 1 minute more.
- Add the rosemary, salt and pepper and tomato paste. Cook for 2 minutes, until the tomato paste begins to caramelize.
- Add the whole tomatoes and break up with a wooden spoon. Cover and cook for 30 to 40 minutes until thick and reduced.
- In the meantime, toast the bread. If using the pine nuts, toast in the oven at 350 degrees for about 5-7 minutes. Cool and then roughly chop.
- Add the lentils and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.
- To serve, ladle into a heated bowl and top with cheese or pine nuts. Serve with toasted bread.
Veggie Lasagna
The key to making sure this is delicious and rich is using fresh mozzarella. Although my batch came out a bit on the watery side, it was flavorful, rich and delicious. And since I used oven-ready lasagna noodles, this was quick enough for a weeknight meal.
Ingredients:
For the vegetables:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 yellow onion, diced
- 1 cup sliced mushrooms
- 1 zucchini, diced
- 1 yellow squash, diced
- 1/2 large eggplant, diced
- 1 carrot, peeled and diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon fennel seed
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary, chopped
- salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- 1 box oven ready lasagna noodles
- In a large skillet, over medium heat, heat the olive oil.
- Add the onions and mushrooms and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Add the zucchini, squash, eggplant, and carrot and cook until softened and the carrots are browned.
- Add the garlic, fennel seed, red pepper and rosemary and cook 2 minutes more. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Once the vegetables are softened, about 10 minutes, reserve.
For the sauce:
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1 (28 ounce) can San Marzano tomatoes
- In a large pot, over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil.
- Add the garlic and cook 2 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and the wine. Cook until thick and reduced by about 1/3, breaking up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon.
For the cheese:
- 15 ounces ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 bunches of spinach, washed and torn
- 1 ball of fresh mozzarella, diced
- In a deep bowl, place the ricotta cheese, egg, red pepper flakes and spinach.
- Mix thoroughly to combine and reserve.
To assemble:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a rectangular baking dish, add a spoonful of the sauce and spread it evenly.
- Add a layer of noodles, placing them close together.
- Add a layer of vegetables, spreading the vegetables evenly.
- Add a layer of sauce.
- Dollop half of the ricotta cheese mixture on top of the sauce and one third of the mozzarella. Add another layer of noodles.
- Add a layer of vegetables on top of the noodles.
- Add a layer of sauce.
- Dollop the remaining half of the ricotta cheese mixture on top of the sauce and one third of the mozzarella. Add another layer of noodles.
- Top with another layer of sauce and the rest of the mozzarella.
- Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. The cheese should be melted and the noodles cooked through. To serve, let the lasagna rest for 10 minutes after removing from the oven and slice.
Sorry for the lack of pictures but I was really hungry!
Class at The Brooklyn Kitchen
Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: October 29, 2009
In an effort to maintain some skills in a kitchen, I’ve been taking some classes at the culinary school as well as other local venues. I recently took a cake decorating class at The Brooklyn Kitchen. This is a small-ish kitchen supply store with great kitchen gadgets, cookware, books, and classes. I do love going there, since there’s almost always some cool new gadget or book and the staff is very helpful.
As part of the class, we received a small vanilla cake to decorate that was filled with chocolate chips. We also received buttercream, a kit of disposable pastry bags and tips, a palate knife, bowl scraper and a handout detailing all the fundamentals of decorating. All this for the $50 tuition! The class was held in the back of the store, by their on-staff pastry chef who was delightful and patient. While I didn’t learn anything new exactly, (we did all of this in culinary school) I did get a lot of good practice and of course, a pretty and yummy cake!
Daring Baker’s October Challenge: French Maracons
Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: October 26, 2009
- In: Baking| Cookies| Personal
- 4 Comments
The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.
THE DARING COOKS OCTOBER 2009 CHALLENGE: MACAROONS
These were my first batch I made with the recipe that was given. For these I used almond flour I made by blanching almonds and grinding them with sugar. I filled them with green butter cream and added orange zest for flavor. They were sweet and citrusey!
My next batch were made using some almond meal I bought at my local Trader Joe’s. I didn’t know if there was a difference between almond meal and almond flour and in terms of taste, there didn’t seem to be. However, they didn’t look very appealing. I flavored these with vanilla bean and filled these with buttercream.
Since I was disappointed about my results, I tried again with almond flour. This time, I tried for chocolate mararons by adding 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder while sifting. I filled these with an espresso buttercream. Even though I had to try this recipe twice, each time was an adventure, resulting in different products. My first batch, while not very pretty, were still tasty. However, the chocolate macarons were much better. If I were to do this again, I would DEFINITELY use almond flour and not the almond meal I had tried. Although, I don’t know if I’d use this exact recipe. I may try one of the others in one of the suggested links. This was a fun challenge and I’m looking forward to November’s challenge!
In the United States, the term “macaroon” generally refers to a cookie made primarily of coconut. But European macaroons are based on either ground almonds or almond paste, combined with sugar and egg whites. The texture can run from chewy, crunchy or a combination of the two. Frequently, two macaroons are sandwiched together with ganache, buttercream or jam, which can cause the cookies to become more chewy. The flavor possibilities and combinations are nigh endless, allowing infinitely customizable permutations.
Famed purveyors of the French macaroon include the legendary Ladurée (http://www.laduree.fr/index_en.htm) and Pierre Hermé (http://www.pierreherme.com/index.cgi?cwsid=7450phAC194316ph5211130) in Paris, Paulette Macarons (http://www.paulettemacarons.com/) and Jin Patisserie (http://www.jinpatisserie.com/) in Los Angeles, and La Maison du Chocolat worldwide (http://www.lamaisonduchocolat.com/en/index.php#/home/undefined/1). This is by no means a complete listing of patisseries and bakeries that sell macaroons. If you want to check if any bakeries near you sell French macaroons, here’s a good place to start: http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/10/where-to-find-macarons-new-york-city-….
French macaroons are notorious for being difficult to master. Type in “macaroon,” “French macaroon” or “macaron” in your search engine of choice, and you will be inundated not only with bakeries offering these tasty little cookies, but scores and even hundreds of blogs all attempting to find the perfect recipe, the perfect technique. Which one is right? Which captures the perfect essence of macaroons? The answer is all of them and none of them. Macaroons are highly subjective, the subject of passionate, almost Talmudic study and debate. Chewy? Crisp? Age your egg whites? Ground the nuts or use nut meal or nut flour? Cooked sugar syrup, or confectioners’ sugar? In the words of a therapist, what do you think is the ideal macaroon? The answer lies within you.
Will French macaroon supplant the cupcake as the next sweet trend? There’s no way to know. I couldn’t have predicted the resurgence of leggings, yet here they are.
Recipe Source: I’ve tried many, many recipes, and have discovered that my favorite macaroon recipe comes from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern. They have given me the most consistent results and so, for everyone’s delectation, I present to you an adaptation of Ms. Fleming’s recipe.
Posting Date: Posting date is October 27, 2009.
Note: Macaroon making is somewhat labor intensive, yet simultaneously less difficult than you think it will be. One thing you must do is have your egg whites at room temperature. This ensures they beat up properly, as texture is an integral component to macaroons. You will be piping the batter onto parchment paper or nonstick liners, and some home bakers use stencils to make sure their macaroons are uniform in size. It’s your choice.
Be aware that you are beating your egg whites first to soft peaks. Soft peaks means that the peaks of the meringue curl over when you lift up the beaters. After you add the granulated sugar to the soft peak meringue, you will beat the mixture to stiff peaks, which, true to their name, stand straight up. Be careful not to overbeat your eggs.
You will also be folding the nut flour into the meringue. As with most recipes when you combine something with beaten egg whites, be gentle in your mixing to keep the egg whites light.
Some recipes call for drying the piped macaroons on the counter prior to baking for 30 minutes to an hour. This recipe stipulates that you bake the macaroons at a low temperature for 5 minutes, then take them out of the oven, raising the temperature, and baking them for an additional 7 to 8 minutes. Drying is necessary to get the trademark “feet” on your macaroons. Experiment to find the best technique for you.
If you plan on using parchment paper rather than nonstick pan liners, be careful when removing the macaroons from the paper, as they can stick and are very delicate. Some recipes suggest lifting up a corner of the paper and letting a drop of water fall onto the hot baking sheet, thus producing steam, which helps the macaroons release.
Variations allowed: Fleming’s recipe calls for almond flour, but you can grind the nuts yourself if you are feeling ambitious or can’t get a hold of almond flour. (It is available at many online sources, however.) If you do grind the nuts yourself, be sure to add at least a cup of the powdered sugar with the nuts before grinding. This keeps them from turning into almond butter. Grind the nuts as fine as possible in your food processor. Maida Heatter suggests grinding nuts for at least 60 seconds, or longer than you think you need. They need to be extremely fine—powdery, in fact, like flour. If using almonds, try and hunt down blanched or skinned almonds. This helps with the texture and color. You might also consider toasting your nuts ahead of time and rubbing off the skins in some clean toweling.
If you’d like to use a different nut besides almonds, you are welcome to substitute them. Hazelnuts or pecans are good substitutes, but feel free to experiment with others. Our own Helen, of Tartlette fame, suggests that if you do want to use a different nut other than almonds, to have half almond, half other nut, as almonds are drier than other nuts and help again with that all-important texture. If you have a nut allergy, you can make nutless meringue cookies sandwiched with a filling, but it would be great if you could attempt to obtain the size and shape of standard macaroons.
Flavor variations are, as I said, infinite. In Fleming’s original recipe, she calls for adding vanilla bean seeds to the granulated sugar, and folds in the zest of a lemon to make lemon macaroons. You can add cocoa powder, instant coffee or espresso powder, green tea powder, fruit zests. You can tint the batter (Helen again suggests using powdered food coloring to keep from adding too much moisture to the batter). The same goes for fillings—anything goes. Ganache, buttercream, jam, caramel, custard. Here in L.A., there is place called Milk (http://www.themilkshop.com/) that bakes extra large macaroons and makes them into delicious ice cream sandwiches. You must make at least one filling, preferably from scratch, but what that filling will be is entirely up to you.
An important note about coloring and flavoring: liquid food coloring can be used, but be cautious! Use 1-3 drops maximum, otherwise, according to Helen, it increases the moisture in the batter, and that can ruin the macaroons. She suggests one trick: mix the liquid color with the almonds and powdered sugar and to let that air dry for a couple of hours. This reduced the moisture a little bit. If you use more than 3 drops of food coloring, you’re going to have a disaster. That means using fruit puree is out. One way to flavor the macaroons is to use 1-2 teaspoons of citrus zest, 1-2 teaspoons of matcha (green tea powder), or 1-2 teaspoons of herbs or freeze-dried fruit powders. If you want savory macaroons, you can try 1 teaspoon of saffron or other savory dry flavorings. If you want to use powdered color, Helen says that up to 1 tablespoon is a safe amount.
To summarize:
Mandatory:
-Make Claudia Fleming’s recipe for macaroons
-Fill and sandwich the macaroons
Optional:
-Flavor variations and decoration
-If you have a nut allergy, find a good nutless meringue cookie recipe but you must make them into cookie sandwiches with some kind of filling
If you are vegan, I don’t know what you can use as an egg substitute. Suggestions are welcome.
Preparation time: Not taking into account the amount of time it takes for you to bring your egg whites to room temperature, the whole baking process, including making the batter, piping and baking will probably take you about an hour to an hour and a half. How long it takes to make your filling is dependent on what you choose to make.
Actual baking time: 12 minutes total, plus a few minutes to get your oven from 200°F to 375°F.
Equipment required:
• Electric mixer, preferably a stand mixer with a whisk attachment
• Rubber spatula
• Baking sheets
• Parchment paper or nonstick liners
• Pastry bag (can be disposable)
• Plain half-inch pastry bag tip
• Sifter or sieve
• If you don’t have a pastry bag and/or tips, you can use a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off
• Oven
• Cooling rack
• Thin-bladed spatula for removing the macaroons from the baking sheets
• Food processor or nut grinder, if grinding your own nuts (ouch!)
Ingredients
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.
Yield: 10 dozen. Ami’s note: My yield was much smaller than this. I produced about two dozen filled macaroons.
Kitchen Experiment: Shepherd’s Pie
Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: October 23, 2009
With the nip in the air and all the rain we’ve been having lately, I’ve been craving a hearty meal. You know, the kind of meal where you feel filled, warmed and satisfied after eating it. The kind of meal where you’re not slaving away for hours, but your kitchen is definitely warm for a few hours after. So, I decided to make and easy, and fairly traditional, Shepherd’s Pie. Here’s my take on it.
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 large onion, diced
- 1 cup sliced mushrooms (button or cremini or both)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 sprigs rosemary, chopped finely
- 1 lb ground lamb
- 1 (14 ounce) can whole tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup frozen peas and carrots
- salt and pepper to taste
- 3 potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/4 cup milk
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup plain bread crumbs (optional)
- 2 tablespoons butter (optional)
- Pre-heat the oven to 350F and butter a rectangular baking dish.
- In a large skillet, over medium heat, add butter and heat until it melts.
- Add onion and mushrooms and cook until soft and mushrooms have released most of their liquid, about 10-12 minutes.
- Add garlic and rosemary, and cook 1 minute more.
- Add lamb, breaking up as you cook it. Cook until it is brown.
- Add tomatoes and bay leaf and bring to a simmer. Cook until thick and reduced.
- Meanwhile, in a deep pot add potatoes and cover with cold water. Add salt and bring to a boil. Cook potatoes until tender, about 20 minutes, and drain.
- Transfer potatoes to a bowl and add milk and butter. With a masher or fork, smash potatoes, mixing in the butter and milk. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Reserve.
- Add peas and carrots to lamb mixture and cook 2 minutes more.
- Transfer lamb mixture to baking dish, spreading it out into an even layer.
- Top lamb with mashed potatoes mixture, spreading evenly.
- Sprinkle top with bread crumbs and dot with butter, if desired.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until top is browned.
Shepherd's Pie
Layers
Semi Devoured Shepherd's Pie
Getting Slap Happy with Strudel!
Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: October 16, 2009
I can’t tell you exactly when I had my first strudel. I suspect it was about ten years ago, when I was recently out of college and I frequented this little Vienesse bakery in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Everything I tried there was heavenly, but their strudel was extraordinary. I remember flaky dough, sweet fruit and flavors of nuts and cinnamon throughout the pastry. The last time I had this delectable treat was at a fabulous German restaurant in Queens called Zum Stammtisch. This restaurant captured the feel of a Bavarian beer house with its wood decor and interesting accents of animal heads and steins. But, more importantly, it has some of the best German sausages I’ve ever had and truly, the best strudel.
OK, so what is strudel really? Basically, strudel is a dessert consisting of layers of flaky pastry encasing a deliciously sweet or savory filling. Traditional fillings include apples with raisins and nuts seasoned with cinnamon and sugar. This is also traditionally served with a sauce, usually creme anglaise, or ice cream or whipped cream. However, if you prefer a less sweet variety, the strudel can be filled with cheese to create an almost cheesecake like textured filling surrounded by flaky pastry. Here’s a shot of the delicious strudel at Zum Stammtisch which comes with two generous scoops of ice cream!
After thinking about strudel a lot, I finally enrolled in a class all about strudel and got to make some tonight! Was our strudel as good as Zum Stammtisch? I do think it was close, but for a first try at making strudel, it definitely wasn’t bad! Of course, I had no idea how much work went into making this delicious treat. The biggest challenge was making the dough. Ok, not really making the dough, but more the preparation of the dough for the filling. To make the dough, we basically just mixed the ingredients (all the usual suspects, eggs, flour, oil, water, salt) until they came together as a dough. Seems easy enough right?
Wrong! The key to making good strudel is developing the gluten for the pastry. So once the dough has come together it is slapped on the table, hard, 100 times. The classroom was noisy, but it was a great way to get out any aggressions! Once that is done, you notice a marked change in the dough–it’s more pliant and less sticky. You can literally hold one end of this dough and watch the rest of it stretch in the air, watching the gluten at work. Then, the dough is set aside to rest for at least one hour.
During that hour, we prepared our fillings. These were all fairly simple fillings from the traditional apple-walnut-raisin to a sweet frangipane with sour cherries to a grape-walnut filling. We also made one with dried fruit and pastry cream. Once the fillings were finished, we were ready to start preparing our dough to be filled.
This is now the really tricky part to making strudel dough. This procedure is very similar to making phyllo dough and the two are often used interchangeably. The table was draped with a table cloth and the cloth was lightly dusted with flour. We then removed the dough from the bowl, in one piece, and then gently rolled it out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Then the top of the dough was brushed with oil and we placed flour on the backs of our hands. Now is the tricky part, pulling the dough. Using the back of our hands, making a claw-like gesture, we go under the dough and gently pull it in different directions. As the dough is gently pulled, it becomes thinner and thinner, almost transparent. Inevitably, there will be some holes, but as long as they’re along the edges, then no one will be able to notice. Eventually our little piece of dough grew to become a thin sheet of dough that covered most of the table! The dough is then brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with breadcrumbs. The dough is now ready to be filled.
Prepared Strudel Dough
Here is one strudel being filled with Frangipane. It will then be topped with cherries before being baked.
Strudel with Frangipane
Here is the strudel being filled with apples & raisins.
Strudel with Fruit Filling
Now that the strudel is filled, it’s time to roll it. Since the dough was placed on a tablecloth, it will be much easier to roll. I grabbed the end of the table cloth and pulled it toward me, rolling the strudel onto itself. Then, it was put on a parchment-lined sheet pan, sprinkled with butter and baked in a convection oven for about 30 minutes. Here is a finished strudel!
Finished Strudel
And a close-up shot….
And now it’s time to eat!
Cheese Strudel
Dried Fruit Strudel
Overall, I really enjoyed this class! The Chef Instructor, Jeffrey Yoskowitz, was patient and extremely knowledgable. I always enjoy taking classes with him! And the best part was taking home tons of strudel to enjoy for the next few days!
Note: Please excuse the even more terrible quality of my photos. I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone instead.
Kitchen Experiment: Apple Crumb Pie & Apple Crumb Tart
Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: October 10, 2009
- In: Pie| Tart| Uncategorized
- Leave a Comment
I’ve been slow to make this post this week because I’ve been working hard on different projects from my externship. I’ve also been trying to get old issues of Gourmet. I’m sad to see that it’s being shut down and since I didn’t read it for very long, I’ve been trying to see if anyone had issues they would pass on. I’ve been very successful! So successful, in fact, that I managed to find someone willing to give me a collection dating back to January 1967! I’m excited to be able to see food trends, issues and debates shift throughout the past few decades thanks to the generosity of a woman who saved and clearly, read so many of the issues. I don’t know if you’re reading, but thanks for your generous gift!
That being said, I did manage to squeeze in one kitchen experiment this week. I first made an apple crumb pie. It’s the first pie I’ve made with a Streusel (crumb) topping. That pie however, wasn’t as good as it could have been. If you like your pies, not to sweet, then this is the pie for you. I felt it needed an accompaniment like some ice cream or whipped cream so that it really had nice sweetness and the flavors all would come through. The tart was a much better attempt at making a nice dessert with a streusel topping. Both used the same crust, a basic pate brisée and a combination of apples, spices and sugar.
Here’s my basic pate brisée recipe. It makes enough fora pie that has both a crust on the bottom as well as a crust on top. There will be some extra so you can also use that to make mini-tarts, mini-pies or whatever you like.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb all-purpose flour
- 1/2 lb cake flour
- 1 lb butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 6 oz cold water
In a large bowl, whisk together the flours and salt. Cut your butter into pieces and add to your flour. Then using your hands, move from the bottom of the bowl and break the pieces of butter. (It’s kind of like you’re a miner and you’re digging for nuggets, only you’re breaking up your butter. At least that’s how my pastry instructor explained it.) Once you have cranberry size pieces of butter throughout, add the cold water. Combine with your hands until it has come together. Then, turn out the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead until it has completely come together. Shape into a disk, wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. If at any point while making this dough, you notice the butter is melting, put it in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to firm it back up. You want to be able to see chunks of butter throughout the dough.
The dough was the hardest part of making either of these desserts and that wasn’t even very hard! So, here’s the recipe for the Apple Crumb Pie.
Ingredients for the Streusel topping:
- 1 cup flour
- 6 T butter
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- pinch nutmeg
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and work with your hands until clumps form and everything is combined. Place in refrigerator while working on the rest of the pie.
Ingredients for the pie filling
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 6 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp all spice
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 T cornstarch
In a large bowl, add the lemon juice and apples. Then add the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, all spice, nutmeg and cornstarch. Combine thoroughly. Let the fruit sit and develop flavor while you roll out the dough.
Pre-heat your oven to 350. On a lightly floured surface, unwrap your dough. Use a bench scraper to cut the disk in half and shape each half into smaller disks. Wrap and refrigerate one of the smaller disks. Roll out the remaining disk to about 1/4 inch thick. Line a 9 inch pie pan with the dough and trim any excess. Add the fruit to the pie pan. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove pie from oven and uncover. Break the streusel topping into crumbs and use it to top the pie. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Cool for at least 3 hours. To serve, slice the pie and serve with vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream or both!
Here’s a shot of my pie.
Apple Crumb Pie
Since I thought my pie could have used some improvement, I decided to try something similar. I then made an Apple Crumb Tart. I used the other half of the pate briseé to make this tart, so I didn’t have to make more dough. Here’s my recipe.
Ingredients for the Streusel topping:
- 1 cup flour
- 4 oz butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 T cinnamon
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and work with your hands until clumps form and everything is combined. Place in refrigerator while working on the rest of the tart.
Ingredients for the tart filling
- 4 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp all spice
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 T cornstarch
- 1/4 cup raisins (or slivered almonds)
In a large bowl, add the lemon juice and apples. Then add the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, all spice, nutmeg, cornstarch, and raisins or almonds. (I added the raisins since I thought a nice chewy texture would be a nice contrast to the crunch of streusel. If you want more crunch, I think slivered almonds would work nicely.) Combine thoroughly. Let the fruit sit and develop flavor while you roll out the dough.
Pre-heat your oven to 350. On a lightly floured surface, unwrap your dough. Roll out the disk to about 1/4 inch thick. Line a 9 inch tart pan with the dough and use your rolling pin to trim any excess. Place your tart pan on a half sheet pan. Add the fruit to the tart pan. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove tart from oven and uncover. Break the streusel topping into crumbs and use it to top the tart. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Cool for at least 3 hours. Slice to serve. You can accompany the tart with ice cream or whipped cream, but I thought this tart was great on its own!
Apple Crumb Tart
Sliced Tart
Daring Bakers September Challenge: Vols-au-Vent
Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: September 26, 2009
This is it!! My VERY FIRST Daring Bakers Challenge! I was actually really excited to see this challenge since I hadn’t made puff pastry really since culinary school. And this was my first excuse to make it at home! I know I posted about making some for the apple turnovers, but that puff pastry was just one of the batches I had made while participating in this challenge. The September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.
I think I was the only person in my class that enjoyed making this when I was in school. And honestly, I want to do this again to make chocolate puff pastry. I’m sure that’s even better! I also didn’t get to make vols-au-vents in class so this was a great learning opportunity.
After I made the dough and let it rest overnight, I cut out the vols-au-vents and got them ready for baking.
Here they are ready and waiting to be filled!
My first filling consisted of mushrooms in cream sauce topped with chopped parsley. It was simple and but still very rich and savory.
I also filled some with goat cheese & artichokes. This was a light and salty contrast to the rich puff pastry.
For a sweet treat, I filled the vols-au-vents with mascapone cheese and topped them with fresh raspberries.
With all the puff pastry scraps, I made raisin monkey bread. I basically tossed the puff pastry with a beaten egg and enough cinnamon and sugar to coat it all. I also added a dash of vanilla extract and I mixed in some raisins. This was gone faster than anything else I made!
Anyone know why this is called monkey bread? I think it’s more traditionally made with croissant dough, but the puff pastry worked great! I loved participating in this challenge and I’m looking forward to more!
Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry Dough
From: Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan
Yield: 2-1/2 pounds dough
Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups (12.2 oz/ 354 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups (5.0 oz/ 142 g) cake flour
1 tbsp. salt (you can cut this by half for a less salty dough or for sweet preparations)
1-1/4 cups (10 fl oz/ 300 ml) ice water
1 pound (16 oz/ 454 g) very cold unsalted butter
plus extra flour for dusting work surface
Equipment:
-food processor (will make mixing dough easy, but I imagine this can be done by hand as well)
-rolling pin
-pastry brush
-metal bench scraper (optional, but recommended)
-plastic wrap
-baking sheet
-parchment paper
-silicone baking mat (optional, but recommended)
-set of round cutters (optional, but recommended)
-sharp chef’s knife
-fork
-oven
-cooling rack
Prep Times:
-about 4-5 hours to prepare the puff pastry dough (much of this time is inactive, while you wait for the dough to chill between turns…it can be stretched out over an even longer period of time if that better suits your schedule)
-about 1.5 hours to shape, chill and bake the vols-au-vent after your puff pastry dough is complete
Mixing the Dough:
Check the capacity of your food processor before you start. If it cannot hold the full quantity of ingredients, make the dough into two batches and combine them.
Put the all-purpose flour, cake flour, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse a couple of times just to mix. Add the water all at once, pulsing until the dough forms a ball on the blade. The dough will be very moist and pliable and will hold together when squeezed between your fingers. (Actually, it will feel like Play-Doh.)
Remove the dough from the machine, form it into a ball, with a small sharp knife, slash the top in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Wrap the dough in a damp towel and refrigerate for about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, place the butter between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and beat it with a rolling pin until it flattens into a square that’s about 1″ thick. Take care that the butter remains cool and firm: if it has softened or become oily, chill it before continuing.
Incorporating the Butter:
Unwrap the dough and place it on a work surface dusted with all-purpose flour (A cool piece of marble is the ideal surface for puff pastry) with your rolling pin (preferably a French rolling pin without handles), press on the dough to flatten it and then roll it into a 10″ square. Keep the top and bottom of the dough well floured to prevent sticking and lift the dough and move it around frequently. Starting from the center of the square, roll out over each corner to create a thick center pad with “ears,” or flaps.
Place the cold butter in the middle of the dough and fold the ears over the butter, stretching them as needed so that they overlap slightly and encase the butter completely. (If you have to stretch the dough, stretch it from all over; don’t just pull the ends) you should now have a package that is 8″ square.
To make great puff pastry, it is important to keep the dough cold at all times. There are specified times for chilling the dough, but if your room is warm, or you work slowly, or you find that for no particular reason the butter starts to ooze out of the pastry, cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it . You can stop at any point in the process and continue at your convenience or when the dough is properly chilled.
Making the Turns:
Gently but firmly press the rolling pin against the top and bottom edges of the square (this will help keep it square). Then, keeping the work surface and the top of the dough well floured to prevent sticking, roll the dough into a rectangle that is three times as long as the square you started with, about 24″ (don’t worry about the width of the rectangle: if you get the 24″, everything else will work itself out.) With this first roll, it is particularly important that the butter be rolled evenly along the length and width of the rectangle; check when you start rolling that the butter is moving along well, and roll a bit harder or more evenly, if necessary, to get a smooth, even dough-butter sandwich (use your arm-strength!).
With a pastry brush, brush off the excess flour from the top of the dough, and fold the rectangle up from the bottom and down from the top in thirds, like a business letter, brushing off the excess flour. You have completed one turn.
Rotate the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Repeat the rolling and folding process, rolling the dough to a length of 24″ and then folding it in thirds. This is the second turn.
Chilling the Dough:
If the dough is still cool and no butter is oozing out, you can give the dough another two turns now. If the condition of the dough is iffy, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Each time you refrigerate the dough, mark the number of turns you’ve completed by indenting the dough with your fingertips. It is best to refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns.
The total number of turns needed is six. If you prefer, you can give the dough just four turns now, chill it overnight, and do the last two turns the next day. Puff pastry is extremely flexible in this regard. However, no matter how you arrange your schedule, you should plan to chill the dough for at least an hour before cutting or shaping it.
Yield: 1/3 of the puff pastry recipe below will yield about 8-10 1.5” vols-au-vent or 4 4” vols-au-vent
In addition to the equipment listed above, you will need:
-well-chilled puff pastry dough (recipe below)
-egg wash (1 egg or yolk beaten with a small amount of water)
-your filling of choice
Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
Using a knife or metal bench scraper, divided your chilled puff pastry dough into three equal pieces. Work with one piece of the dough, and leave the rest wrapped and chilled. (If you are looking to make more vols-au-vent than the yield stated above, you can roll and cut the remaining two pieces of dough as well…if not, then leave refrigerated for the time being or prepare it for longer-term freezer storage. See the “Tips” section below for more storage info.)
On a lightly floured surface, roll the piece of dough into a rectangle about 1/8 to 1/4-inch (3-6 mm) thick. Transfer it to the baking sheet and refrigerate for about 10 minutes before proceeding with the cutting.
(This assumes you will be using round cutters, but if you do not have them, it is possible to cut square vols-au-vents using a sharp chef’s knife.) For smaller, hors d’oeuvre sized vols-au-vent, use a 1.5” round cutter to cut out 8-10 circles. For larger sized vols-au-vent, fit for a main course or dessert, use a 4” cutter to cut out about 4 circles. Make clean, sharp cuts and try not to twist your cutters back and forth or drag your knife through the dough. Half of these rounds will be for the bases, and the other half will be for the sides. (Save any scrap by stacking—not wadding up—the pieces…they can be re-rolled and used if you need extra dough. If you do need to re-roll scrap to get enough disks, be sure to use any rounds cut from it for the bases, not the ring-shaped sides.)
Using a ¾-inch cutter for small vols-au-vent, or a 2- to 2.5-inch round cutter for large, cut centers from half of the rounds to make rings. These rings will become the sides of the vols-au-vent, while the solid disks will be the bottoms. You can either save the center cut-outs to bake off as little “caps” for you vols-au-vent, or put them in the scrap pile.
Kitchen Experiments: Apple Turnovers & Sausage Chili
Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: September 26, 2009
I recently made some fresh puff pastry. The last time I made this was during the pastry module while I was in culinary school. I was fascinated with how the layers would form just from folding some dough and wrapping it around butter. Seriously, whoever thought of this procedure is a pure genius and for me, he/she is right up there with Albert Einstein! Since I made the dough, I stored it in the freezer for another day. Yesterday happened to be the day when I decided to take it out and make something wonderful with that puff pastry: apple turnovers! Who doesn’t love warm, sweet apples nestled in layers of flaky dough? With a cup of coffee, this simple treat is a great way to start my morning!
Apple Turnovers Yield, 10 to 12 turnovers
Ingredients:
- 1 large sheet of puff pastry (Of course you can use your preferred brand of store bought puff pastry!)
- 3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced
- 1 lemon, juiced and zested
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (freshly ground is best)
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves (optional, but if using freshly ground is best)
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 T milk
-
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, add the apples, lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, cinnamon salt, nutmeg, and cloves, if using. Set aside.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out your puff pastry into a large sheet.
Puff pastry before rolling
Rolled out puff pastry
- Using a pizza cutter or very sharp knife, cut your puff pastry in half. Set one half aside. Cut the remaining half into 6 even rectangles.
- Fill each rectangle with about a tablespoon of the apple mixture, draining it of any juices that may have developed in the bowl.
- Brush the edges of the rectangle with beaten egg and fold the rectangle over, pressing lightly to remove any air. Use a fork to crimp together the edges.
- Place each turnover on a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush each with the beaten egg.
- Using a sharp knife, cut 2 or 3 slits in the top of each turnover, to create slits. These slits will serve as vents and will keep your pastries from exploding!
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.
While your turnovers are cooling, you can make the icing!
- In the bowl of a mixer, combine confectioner’s sugar, vanilla extract and milk.
- Mix until it reaches a thick consistency, resembling icing. If you need to thin it out a bit, add a few drops of more milk.
- Using a spoon, drizzle the icing on top of your turnovers.
After spending the day surrounded by sweets, I decided I wanted something spicy for dinner, so I made some sausage chili.
Sausage Chili, Yield 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients:
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 links of hot italian sausage, casings removed
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 jalapeños, seeds and stems removed and diced
- 1/2 dried habañero, stems and seeds removed and minced
- 3/4 cup red wine or 1 bottle beer
- 2 T of cajun seasoning
- 2 T of chili powder
- 2 T of cumin
- 1 (1lb, 13 oz) can of pink beans
- 1 (28 oz) can of tomatoes
- Top with crumbled cotija cheese or cheddar
- Warm a stock pot or dutch oven to medium heat.
- Add olive oil.
- Once olive oil is heated, add onion and cook until soft and edges are brown, about 5 – 6 minutes.
- Add sausage. Crumble the sausage while cooking. Cook until browned through about 10 minutes.
- Add garlic, jalapeños and habañero and cook 2 minutes more.
- Add wine or beer and scrape the bottom of the pot to remove any bits that are stuck. Cook another 2 minutes until liquid is reduced.
- Add cajun seasoning, chili powder and cumin, stirring to incorporate. Cook another minute.
- Add beans and tomatoes.
- Simmer, covered, for about 20-30 minutes until thick.
- To serve, ladle into bowl and top with crumbled cotija or cheddar cheese
My Amazon Wish List
GoodReads
