Savoriesnsweets’ Blog

Kitchen Experiment: Apple-Cranberry Galette

Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: November 23, 2009

While using up all my apples from apple picking, I also made an apple cranberry galette.  I’ve made cakes, pies and puff pastries, but never a galette.  I also never realized just how easy it was to make! Basically, a galette is a free-form open-faced rustic tart, according to the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. So if you’re not into making pies or tarts you can just make the dough and wrap your filling in it, free-form. I made mine using a basic pate brisee and using it to wrap my apple-cranberry filling.  I love the flavors of apple & cranberry together, so I’ve been using them a lot! Plus, I think pies are a much better vehicle for the lovely cranberry instead of that weird jelly cranberry sauce that’s always present a the Thanksgiving dinner table.

Apple-Cranberry Galette

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound unsalted butter
  • 1 pound all purpose flour
  • 1/2 pound cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (optional)
  • 6 ounces cold water
  • 6 granny smith apples
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 6 ounces of dried cranberries
  • 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon clove
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • pinch salt
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup  brown sugar
  • 1/4 coarse brown sugar such as demarara sugar

Make the pate brisee:

  1. Cut the butter into 1 inch pieces and reserve in the refrigerator to keep it cold.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the flours, salt and baking powder, if using.
  3. Rub butter in by hand, until you have cranberry size pieces of butter in the flour.
  4. Stir in cold water, until dough comes together.
  5. Scrape dough out of bowl, split in half and shape into two, 3 inch thick cylinders.  Wrap in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at leas 30 minutes.

Make the Apple-Cranberry filling:

  1. In a medium bowl, combine the apples, lemon juice, cranberries, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, vanilla, salt and sugar.  Toss to combine all the spices with the apples. Allow to sit for 30 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, roll out pate brisee until it is about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.  Place the dough onto a flat cookie sheet. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
  3. Toss all of the apple mixture into the center of the dough.  Wrap the dough around the apples, making sure the apples are mostly covered, but there is still an opening in the center.  Don’t worry about making it super pretty–it’s supposed to be rustic!
  4. Brush with heavy cream. Sprinkle with demarara sugar.
  5. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

To serve, slice as you would a pie and top with ice cream or whipped cream if desired.

My First Ever Apple Cake!

Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: November 22, 2009

A few weeks ago, I went apple picking with my boyfriend.  Of course, I decided to try a bunch of apple recipes so that I can find a way to use all 18 pounds of apples I had!  (I also had apples as snacks a LOT!)  I made apple-cranberry butter, I made an apple-cranberry galette, and I made apple cake!  I know apple cake is a popular thing, but I have to admit, I’ve never heard of it or even made it until recently.  I really thought cooked apples were only common components in pies or in turnovers.  I was glad to see I could try something new with the apples and that it was easy to make!

Apple Cake, Adapted from the 1975 edition of The Joy of Cooking

Ingredients:

  • 5 to 6 cups pared, cored and sliced tart apples (I used 8 medium sized apples.)
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • zest and juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 8 beaten egg yolks
  • 8 egg whites
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
  • 3/4 cup shredded, blanched almonds, divided
  • 1 standard angel food cake pan
  1. In a large pan over medium high heat, add butter and melt.  Add apples and cook until tender.  Do not allow apples to brown. Turn heat down to low.
  2. In a large bowl, combine sour cream, lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, flour, egg yolks and 1/3 cup almonds.   Pour the contents of the bowl over the cooked apples and stir over low heat, until mixture has thickened.  Cool mixture.
  3. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease the angel food cake pan and line with flour.
  4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or another large bowl if using a hand-held mixer, add egg whites and beat until stiff peaks form.
  5. Fold egg whites into the apple mixture. In small bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon, bread crumbs, and remaining almonds.
  6. Pour apple mixture into cake pan. Sprinkle with sugar mixture.
  7. Bake 45 minutes or until firm.  Serve cold with whipped cream of vanilla ice cream.

The cake was pretty & not too sweet! I loved the cinnamon on top and the almonds added great texture.  I thought the recipe was a bit odd, but I’m glad it worked.  Unfortunately, it seemed to deflate a bit when I took it out.  I know the leavening depended on the meringue, but it was sad to see it lose its height.  Anyone know how I can fix this?  Either way, I think this one is definitely a keeper!

Apple cake fresh out of the oven!

Apple cake unmolded

Kitchen Experiments: Apple Butter & Spiked Pumpkin Butter

Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: November 13, 2009

Last weekend, I managed to find one farm in Upstate New York where they were still open for apple picking!  It was the first time I ever went and it was great!  It was a nice day–sunny and not too chilly.  My boyfriend & I came home with a huge bag each of a variety of apples.  We brought back golden delicious, granny smith macintosh, red delicious and some other varieties I had only seen in the farmer’s markets.  Of course I also had to get some sugar pumpkins so that I could try my hand at some new pumpkin recipes.

Of course, my first thoughts of things to do with the apples were apple pie and apple turnovers.  But I thought I’d try something different so I decided to make some apple butter.  If you’ve never had apple butter, I highly recommend it!  It’s sweet & tart and delicious.  It’s like an apple jam that’s a great accompaniment to toast, a bagel or even on the side of some pancakes.  My recipe is a bit different though since I also added dried cranberries for some extra tartness. I also cooked this in my slow cooker so it was really easy.  If any of you try this, let me know what you think!

Apple-Cranberry Butter Yield: 64 ounces

Ingredients:

  • 5 1/2 to 6 pounds apples, peeled, cored and chopped (I used a variety of macintosh, granny smith and red delicious.)
  • 6 ounces dried cranberries
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon clove
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon allspice
  1. In the bowl of your slow cooker or crock pot, (mine was 5 quart, but a bigger one would probably be better) add apples, cranberries, cinnamon, clover, salt, syrup, sugar, nutmeg, and allspice.  (If all the apples don’t fit, just add as many as you can with the seasonings then add more as they cook down.)
  2. Stir to combine.
  3. Place slow cooker on low for 8-10 hours, until all the apples are cooked down and thickened.
  4. Use an immersion blender to remove any remaining lumps.  Or you can also do process it in your food processor or blender, in batches.
  5. You can preserve these in cans so you can have apple butter throughout the winter or you can also freeze it to store it.

Apple Cranberry Butter

 

Jars of Apple Cranberry Butter

Pumpkin Butter Yield: about 20 ounces

Pumpkin butter, like apple butter is sweet and delicious!  It’s a great way to use up any pumpkin puree you may have or even some sugar pumpkins you just got from the pumpkin patch!  I used the pumpkins I bought from the farm’s shop when I went apple picking.

  • 1 medium-sized sugar pumpkin, seeds removed or  about 4 cups of pumpkin puree
  • 1 inch fresh ginger, grated
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
  • 1/4 cup bourbon (optional)
  • 1/2 cup apple cider
  • pinch salt
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Slice pumpkin in half.  Remove seeds and membranes from  pumpkin.  (Reserve seeds for roasting, if desired.)
  3. Place pumpkin halves in oven, flesh side down.  Roast for 45 minutes or until fork tender. Cool.
  4. Scoop out pumpkin flesh and place in bowl of slow cooker.
  5. Add ginger, brown sugar, maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, apple cider, salt and bourbon.
  6. Stir all ingredients together to combine.
  7. Cook on low for 2 hours until thickened and reduced. The best way to store this would be to freeze it as pumpkin does not can well.

Pumpkin Butter

And what did I do with the rest of my pumpkin?  Well I made a pumpkin cheesecake of course! I used a recipe from Pick-Your-Own and it turned out delicious!  I will note however that I ended up with enough batter for two cheesecakes, which really isn’t too much of a problem once you taste this stuff!  Also, be sure to bake it in a water bath.  Please!  And at a lower temperature–say about 300 degrees.  I baked it without a water bath, at 350 degrees, and the tops cracked and the texture was a bit gritty.  I think with gentler cooking both of these minor issues can be averted.  I will definitely be trying this again soon, once the cakes are both gone.  So far, I made this last night and as of today, one is already gone!  It really is a great recipe!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Kitchen Experiment: Acorn Squash Ravioli

Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: November 12, 2009

I love the fall!  Autumn has so many great foods that are so versatile and delicious.  Of course summer fruits and vegetables are great too, but I just love the unique tastes that come from the different autumn foods.  One of my favorites is the pumpkin which is delicious savory or sweet.  I also love squash!  I know, I know it’s weird.  But squash is easy to make, delicious and versatile.  The other day I came home with a shopping bag full of squash that I used to make soup.  I also had the acorn squash as a simple side, roasted with butter, maple syrup and brown sugar.  I then filled the squash with some cooked onions and pecans for texture.  Of course with my different kitchen experiments, I tend to have to plan and shop for ingredients, but this time I wanted to re-use that delicious acorn squash to make ravioli.  These ravioli were not easy to make, but they were delicious and hearty!  I recommend taking some time one day to make some fresh ravioli–it will really change your world!

Yield about 28, 2 1/2 inch ravioli

To Make the Ravioli you need to start with 11 ounces of flour and 3 eggs. Make a well with the flour and beat the eggs into the well.  Using a fork slowly incorporate the eggs into the flour until you’ve incorporated most of the eggs.  Use a bench scraper to start kneading the dough.  Once the dough has come together, wrap in plastic wrap and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.   After the dough has rested, cut it into four pieces using a bench scraper.  Roll one piece of the dough until thin enough to pass through a pasta roller.  Follow directions for your pasta machine to roll out the dough and use either a ravioli mold, a ravioli stamp to shape the ravioli.  You can also cut them by hand.

Acorn squash ravioli filling Ingredients:

  • 1 roasted acorn squash
  • 1 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1/2 sliced onion
  • 1/3-1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 8 ounces ricotta cheese, strained
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2 stick butter (2 ounces)
  • 2 tablespoons fresh sage leaves, chopped
  • 1/4 cup pecans, chopped
  1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Slice the acorn squash in half and remove the seeds and membranes.
  2. Rub the butter along the inside of the squash and sprinkle the brown sugar inside.  Add the maple syrup.  Roast for 45 minutes to an hour, until fork tender.  Allow to cool.
  3. Meanwhile, place ricotta cheese into a sieve, lined with cheese cloth and allow to strain. Squeeze to remove as much water as possible. Note, if your ricotta cheese is already very thick and creamy, you can probably skip this step.
  4. In a large pan, over medium heat, add liquid from squash and add onion and pecans.  Cook until reduced and onions have softened, about 6 to 8 minutes.
  5. In the bowl of a food processor, scrape the acorn squash and add the onion and pecans.  Add the strained ricotta cheese and pulse until combined.
  6. Fold in nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.
  7. Place filling into a pastry bag to fill ravioli.
  8. Meanwhile, place a large pot of water to boil with salt.
  9. In a large pan, over medium heat melt butter.  Once water is boiling add ravioli, working in batches of 8.
  10. With a spider or slotted spoon, remove ravioli and add to melted butter.  Add sage leaves and pecans, and cook for 3-4 minutes more, until all ravioli are coated and sage is fragrant.

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
  1. 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.
  2. In a large, deep pot, over medium-high heat, add butter onion, carrot and celery and cook until softened, about 5 or 6 minutes.
  3. Whisk in flour and cook 2 minutes more.
  4. Slowly whisk in stock or water.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.)
  8. 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
  1. In a heavy-bottomed pot, over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil until it ripples.
  2. Add the onion and mushrooms and sweat for 5 to 6 minutes.
  3. Add the eggplant, zucchini, and bell pepper and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
  4. If you have a microplane, grate the garlic right into the pot.  If not, add the garlic, minced.  Cook 1 minute more.
  5. Add the rosemary, salt and pepper and tomato paste.  Cook for 2 minutes, until the tomato paste begins to caramelize.
  6. Add the whole tomatoes and break up with a wooden spoon. Cover and cook for 30 to 40 minutes until thick and reduced.
  7. 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.
  8. Add the lentils and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.
  9. 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
  1. In a large skillet, over medium heat, heat the olive oil.
  2. Add the onions and mushrooms and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
  3. Add the zucchini, squash, eggplant, and carrot and cook until softened and the carrots are browned.
  4. Add the garlic, fennel seed, red pepper and rosemary and cook 2 minutes more.  Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
  5. 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
  1. In a large pot, over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil.
  2. Add the garlic and cook 2 minutes.
  3. 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
  1. In a deep bowl, place the ricotta cheese, egg, red pepper flakes and spinach.
  2. Mix thoroughly to combine and reserve.

To assemble:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a rectangular baking dish, add a spoonful of the sauce and spread it evenly.
  2. Add a layer of noodles, placing them close together.
  3. Add a layer of vegetables, spreading the vegetables evenly.
  4. Add a layer of sauce.
  5. Dollop half of the ricotta cheese mixture on top of the sauce and one third of the mozzarella. Add another layer of noodles.
  6. Add a layer of vegetables on top of the noodles.
  7. Add a layer of sauce.
  8. 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.
  9. Top with another layer of sauce and the rest of the mozzarella.
  10. 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!

PA200825

PA200826

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Daring Baker’s October Challenge: French Maracons

Posted by: savoriesnsweets on: October 26, 2009

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!

Orange Flavored Macarons

PA110802

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.

Vanilla Macarons

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!

Chocolate Macarons with Espresso Buttercream

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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)
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F and butter a rectangular baking dish.
  2. In a large skillet, over medium heat, add butter and heat until it melts.
  3. Add onion and mushrooms and cook until soft and mushrooms have released most of their liquid, about 10-12 minutes.
  4. Add garlic and rosemary, and cook 1 minute more.
  5. Add lamb, breaking up as you cook it.  Cook until it is brown.
  6. Add tomatoes and bay leaf and bring to a simmer.  Cook until thick and reduced.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. Add peas and carrots to lamb mixture and cook 2 minutes more.
  10. Transfer lamb mixture to baking dish, spreading it out into an even layer.
  11. Top lamb with mashed potatoes mixture, spreading evenly.
  12. Sprinkle top with bread crumbs and dot with butter, if desired.
  13. Bake for 30 minutes or until top is browned.
Sheperd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie

Layers

Layers

Semi Devoured Shepherd's Pie

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!

P6270190

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

Prepared Strudel Dough

Here is one strudel being filled with Frangipane.  It will then be topped with cherries before being baked.

Strudel with Frangipane

Strudel with Frangipane

Here is the strudel being filled with apples & raisins.

Strudel with Fruit Filling

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

Finished Strudel

And a close-up shot….

StrudFin

And now it’s time to eat!

Cheese Strudel

Cheese Strudel

Dried Fruit 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.