Carrot Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Since Kurt’s birthday is just a few days before Valentine’s Day, there have been years when there was an overload of sweet treats during that second week of February. This year, it was a little different since Kurt was traveling for work on his birthday. We waited and celebrated both occasions on the 14th. Of course, I questioned him in advance regarding what kind of cake he wanted this year. In early December, I read Alice Medrich’s latest book, Flavor Flours, in which she suggested the New Classic Boston Cream Pie made with corn flour chiffon layers with a rice flour-thickened pastry cream is better than the original wheat flour version. I was sure this was going to be Kurt’s birthday cake because he lives for Boston Cream Pie. Instead, he shocked me by requesting a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I was surprised but delighted to make a carrot cake. My go-to carrot cake recipe has always been the one from The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. It includes walnuts, shredded coconut, and crushed pineapple, and the cream cheese frosting has a little lemon juice in it which I love. I’ve been making that recipe for years and never felt I needed a different approach to carrot cake. But, I decided to try something new this time. Also in Flavor Flours, there’s a Carrot Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting made with rice flour and oat flour that’s touted as being a better-than-ever and gluten-free take on a classic. Now, let me explain, neither of us has any sort of gluten sensitivity, but I do love experimenting with different types of flour to discover new tastes and textures. This carrot cake is completely gluten-free, but, more importantly for me, it’s completely delicious with a delicate crumb. It seems impossible since carrot cake is usually somewhat dense, but even with the walnuts this was a light and crumbly cake. 

It’s very similar to my standard carrot cake recipe in that it’s made with vegetable oil rather than butter, and that’s mixed with sugar and eggs. Rice flour and oat flour were combined with baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt. The dry ingredients were mixed into the wet, and then grated carrots and toasted, chopped walnuts were added. Thanks to perfect timing, I had just received a bunch of fresh carrots from our CSA that I shredded for the cake. I baked the cakes in eight-inch round pans and let them cool. For a layer cake, one and a half times the recipe for frosting is needed. The frosting recipe here includes cream cheese, butter, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla, and I added lemon juice because I can’t give up that detail of my usual carrot cake approach. One thing to keep in mind with this cake is that because it is especially crumbly, it definitely requires a crumb coat of frosting. I scooped some of the frosting from the big bowl in which it was mixed into a smaller bowl to use for the crumb coat. That way, any crumbs from the spatula will only get mixed into the crumb coat frosting and not into the entire batch. Chilling the cake after applying the crumb coat is a good idea since the frosting will set more firmly. Then, the pretty final coat of frosting can be applied.

This version didn’t have the shredded coconut or crushed pineapple that I’ve become used to in a carrot cake, but I liked that leaving them out eliminated some sweetness. Mostly, I really liked the tender, crumbly texture and the flavor from the spices and nutty oat flour. It really was amazingly the opposite of dense given that it was a carrot cake. Kurt was very pleased with his choice as well, and I now have two favorite carrot cake recipes. 

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Milk Chocolate Ice Cream

I wasn’t kidding when I said that I want ice cream for every meal during the summer. And, this Milk Chocolate Ice Cream is simple enough to make that I really could have it for every meal. It’s from The Real Food Cookbook by Nina Planck, and I received a review copy. This is a book of uncomplicated, traditional dishes made with fresh, seasonal ingredients. Plank writes: “The ingredients are timeless, not trendy; the methods are classic rather than rule-breaking.” The recipes are personal. For instance, she tells us the story of how she has come to make Chicken Soup and how it’s never going to be the same as the chicken soup her husband remembers from childhood. The dishes also reflect her upbringing on a farm, her experience having created London’s first modern farmers’ market, and her focus on healthful, whole foods. The recipe for Deviled Eggs is more about using really good, farm-raised eggs than it is about particular seasonings or technique. There are drinks, salads, soups, main dishes, sides, breads, and sweets. I want to try the Ricotta Pesto while my basil plants are still going strong. And, the Griddled Red Peppers could be used in so many ways, it would be ideal to have a constant supply of them in the refrigerator. I’ve marked the page for the not-too-sweet Coeur a la Creme with Raspberry Sauce. With all the recipes in the Sweets chapter, you’ll find a preference for a little less sugar than usual and a nice simplicity to the approach. I was taken in by the Milk Chocolate Ice Cream because it’s intended to be like cold chocolate milk. This isn’t a turbo, intense chocolate experience. Instead, it’s an easy-going, milky chocolate ice cream. It’s perfect, summer comfort food. 

There are no eggs in this ice cream. Making it is simply a matter of heating cream and milk and dissolving a very small amount of sugar in it. I actually used honey rather than sugar. Once the milk and cream mixture was hot, a broken chocolate bar was added and stirred in until melted and smooth. I used a locally-made chocolate from artisanal, bean-to-bar Kiskadee Chocolates. Only three and a half ounces of chocolate is needed, and I used about half of an 85% cacao bar and half of a 60% cacao bar. The cream and milk mixture with the melted chocolate was cooled and then churned in an ice cream maker. To serve, this ice cream is best when allowed to soften. It could be served directly from the machine after churning, or if it’s been placed in the freezer, let it sit in the refrigerator for a bit before scooping. 

The title of this book gets it exactly right. This isn’t fancy food or unusual food or food for any particular trend. It is simply real food from a personal point of view. Whether you follow the recipes exactly or take inspiration to make them your own, there are a lot of great ideas here to add to your own cooking repertoire. 

Milk Chocolate Ice Cream 
Recipe reprinted with publisher's permission from The Real Food Cookbook.

In chocolate bars, I like austerity, and in chocolate mousse, intensity, but with ice cream the effect I want is akin to cold chocolate milk: in a word, milky. There may be more decadent chocolate ice creams, and there are certainly more complicated ones, but this is exactly what I’m looking for: it calls for simple ingredients I always have on hand, and it’s terribly simple. 

2 c cream 
1 c milk 
1 T organic whole cane sugar 
1 bar (100 g or 3.5 oz) 70% chocolate 

1. Put the cream, milk, and sugar in a pan. Mix well and heat gently. 

2. Break up the chocolate, drop it in the milk, and melt it completely, mixing well. 

3. Chill thoroughly. Mix it once more before you churn it; the chocolate sometimes settles. 

4. Churn it in your machine as instructed. 

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Saffron Pavlovas with Mango Curd and Mascarpone Whipped Cream + Giveaway

UPDATE: A winner was selected via a random number generator. Congratulations to Grace from A Southern Grace who won the cookbook!

When I was asked to submit a mango recipe for a cookbook being created by the National Mango Board, I was delighted to do so. Now, you could win a copy of that cookbook! Just leave a comment on this post, and I’ll randomly pick a winner at noon Austin time on Monday June 23rd. (You must provide a US mailing address where the book will be shipped.) In case you don’t win, the recipes from the book are also available online. As I started thinking about what type of recipe to submit for the cookbook, I realized I use mangoes in a lot of different kinds of dishes. I make a Mango Dressing for salad with grilled chicken, there was a Peach and Mango Chutney that was so good with chevre, and I’ve made Flax Coconut Pancakes topped with chunks of mango. But, this time, I wanted to make a dessert. I had visions of a pretty, crunchy meringue filled with sunny, yellow mango curd with slices of mango on top. As usual, I turned to my cookbook collection for inspiration. I remembered a Saffron Pavolova from Demolition Desserts by Elizabeth Falkner, and there’s a Fig Pavlova with Lemon Mascarpone Whipped Cream in Malouf by Greg and Lucy Malouf. I mixed and matched ideas, added my own spin here and there, and the result is what you see here. The saffron turns the egg whites for the meringues a barely golden color. Although, after baking, they look brighter-white. The mango curd looks like lemon curd, but the flavor is softer with less acidity. And, adding mascarpone to whipped cream just makes it even richer tasting. All of those parts were given a fresh pop of fruitiness with the added sliced mango. 

The meringues and mango curd can be made a day in advance, the whipped cream can be made a few hours early, and the dessert can be assembled when ready. For meringues, when I’m using organic granulated sugar, I’ve learned that it needs to be pulverized in a blender or food processor to make the grains finer. Otherwise, the meringues will have a grainy look. So, step one for me is to process the sugar to give it a finer texture. For these meringues, saffron threads were placed in some Champagne vinegar while the rest of the ingredients were assembled. Egg whites were whisked in a stand mixer, sugars were sifted and added slowly, cornstarch was sprinkled over the mixture and mixed in, and last, the saffron-vinegar was carefully folded into the meringue. I transferred the mixture to a piping bag to make circles, but the meringues could also be spooned into pillow shapes. The meringues were baked and left to cool. Next, the mango curd was an easy puree of peeled and chopped mango, sugar, salt, and lemon juice. Egg yolks were added and pureed, and the mixture was strained into a heat-proof bowl. The bowl was set over a saucepan of simmering water, and the puree was whisked while cooking for about 12 to 15 minutes until thickened. Off the heat, butter was added one piece at a time while whisking. The curd was chilled overnight. For the whipped cream, some mascarpone and lemon zest were added to heavy cream before whipping. And, last but not least, more mango was sliced for the topping. 

The saffron adds a lovely layer of flavor that to me is like wildflower honey only slightly different, and it’s a nice pairing with the mango curd nestled in the meringue circles. But, this is just dessert, and there are so many other great uses for mangoes too. Leave a comment for a chance to win the book that’s full of mango dishes for every meal of the day. 

Saffron Pavlovas with Mango Curd and Mascarpone Whipped Cream

Serves 6 

For Meringues: 
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads 
1 teaspoon Champagne vinegar 
1/4 cup granulated sugar *see note if using organic sugar 
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar 
4 large egg whites 
Pinch of salt 
1 tablespoon cornstarch 

For Mango Curd: 
1 large mango, peeled and cut from pit into cubes 
1/4 cup sugar 
Pinch of salt 
3 tablespoons lemon juice 
4 egg yolks 
4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces 

For Mascarpone Whipped Cream: 
1 cup cream 
1/4 cup mascarpone 
Zest of one lemon 
2 tablespoons granulated sugar or to taste
Extra sliced mango for garnish 

TO MAKE MERINGUES Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and draw six four-inch circles on the parchment. Turn the parchment over so the pencil marks are on the back. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees F. 

Place the saffron threads in a small bowl or ramekin, and add the vinegar. Press the threads with a spoon and swirl them into the vinegar, and then set aside. Sift together the granulated sugar and powdered sugar in a separate bowl. In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add egg whites and salt. Beat egg whites on medium speed with a whisk attachment for about three minutes. Soft peaks should just begin to form. Slowly sprinkle the combined sugars over the egg whites while continuing to mix. Turn the mixing speed to high and whip for three to five minutes. The egg whites will form stiff peaks and become glossy. Sprinkle the cornstarch over the egg whites and mix just to combine. Using a large rubber or silicone spatula, fold in the saffron-vinegar mixture. 

Transfer the meringue mixture to a large piping bag fitted with a wide tip or place meringue mixture in a large plastic storage bag and snip off one corner. Pipe circular meringue shapes in the circles drawn on the parchment paper. If you’d rather not use a piping bag, the meringue can be spooned into pillow shapes on the parchment-lined baking sheet. If using a spoon, make an indentation in each meringue pillow. 

Bake the meringues for two hours. Then, turn off the oven without opening it, and leave the meringues in the oven for an additional four hours or overnight. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and leave meringues until completely dry. Meringues can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for a few days, but humidity can cause them to become sticky. 

*Organic, granulated sugar tends to be of a larger grain than conventional granulated sugar, and this produces meringues with a grainy texture. You can reduce the grain size of the sugar by processing it in a blender or food processor. The sugar doesn’t need to be processed to the point of becoming powdered sugar, it just needs to be processed until the grain feels more fine in texture. 

TO MAKE MANGO CURD: Place mango chunks, sugar, salt, and lemon juice in a blender and process until smooth, scraping down sides of blender pitcher as needed. Add egg yolks to blender and puree for another 15 seconds. Pour puree through a sieve to strain. Place strained puree in a heat-proof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, and whisk constantly until thickened, about 12-15 minutes. Remove the bowl from the saucepan, and add butter one piece at a time while continuing to whisk. Incorporate each piece of butter before adding the next piece. Cover bowl with plastic wrap pressed directly on the surface of the mango curd, and chill the curd before using. The mango curd can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week. 

TO MAKE MASCARPONE WHIPPED CREAM: Place all ingredients for the mascarpone whipped cream in a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with a whisk or whisk attachment until thickened. 

TO ASSEMBLE: Place meringues on dessert plates. Spoon mango curd into center of each meringue and top with mascarpone whipped cream. Garnish each plate with sliced mango. 

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Red Wine Tart

I previously knew a little about Anne Willan. I knew that she is originally from England, founded the La Varenne Cooking School, and has written some very well-received cookbooks. But, after reading a review copy of her memoir, One Souffle at a Time, I learned so much more about her life, her work, and her travels. After attending Cambridge, she wasn’t interested in following the current trend of young women who “were out pecking for a husband, (when) business careers, even for women graduates of Cambridge or Oxford, were a rarity.” She took a position as a cooking teacher at Winkfield, a cooking and finishing school she had attended one summer, and so began her career in food. Next, she completed the advanced course at the Cordon Bleu Cooking School in London and then began teaching there. Then, she was off to France to attend the Paris Cordon Bleu after which she taught French cooking to the staff at Versailles for fundraising dinners. It wasn’t long before her move to the US to live in New York where she quickly enough landed a job with Gourmet magazine. She married her husband in Costa Rica, moved to Washington DC, and became the food editor of The Washington Star. She traveled with her husband for business and pleasure with one trip including stops in Japan, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Delhi, Tehran, Isfahan, Persepolis, Jerusalem, Jordan, and Cairo. She wrote the Grand Diplome Cooking Course for an American audience while seven months pregnant. And, after her second child was born, she was working on her book Entertaining Menus. It wasn’t long before she, her husband, and children moved to Paris where she started planning for La Varenne, and many more books came later as well. Her life sounds like a never-dull whirlwind of cooking, writing, entertaining, teaching, and traveling. I’ve breezed through some moments of her past, but it’s all so much better described in the book. And, each section is accompanied by a recipe that corresponds to an anecdote like the Shrimp and Cheese Souffles that she prepared for Craig Claiborne in Manhattan, the Gourgeres from a reception attended by Julia Child and James Beard, and a Red Wine Tart served at a summer party at her chateau. 

I was fascinated by the idea of a tart with a red wine filling. The chef instructor from La Varenne had discovered the recipe in an old cookbook from Burgundy. In the headnote, Willan mentions that she prefers a particular French pinot noir for this because it pairs well with the cinnamon in the recipe. I brought home a bottle of French burgundy and got baking. The crust is a sweet pate sucree made with egg yolks, butter, flour, sugar, and a pinch of salt. After resting, the dough was rolled and fitted into a nine-inch tart shell. It was blind-baked until golden. The filling was just a mix of two eggs, a half cup of sugar, two teaspoons of cornstarch, and two teaspoons of cinnamon that was whisked together. A cup of pinot noir was stirred in last. It’s noted in the recipe that any froth is to be avoided, and careful stirring is advised. The filling was poured into the tart shell, and it went back into a 375 degree F oven for about 20 minutes until the center was set. It was served with whipped cream. 

The flavor is fruity but vaguely so, and the cinnamon is front and center. I think I was expecting a redder looking tart, but the color is almost like chocolate which is not a bad trade-off. It’s a great dessert for a dinner party, and it’s an easy one to prepare. I was as delighted to learn about this red wine tart as I was to read this memoir. 

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Blackberry Bread Pudding

I have a freezer confession. I don’t use it very well most of the time. The ice-maker comes in handy, of course, and I couldn’t live without the freezer for the short time ice cream spends in it until it’s gone. But, when I actually store things away for a later date, I always leave them to frost over in the dark, forgotten depths. At some point, I’ll reorganize the contents only to find parts and pieces of things I thought I’d use and never did. Those quail wings intended for a stock, the extra pasta dough that I might have rolled into ravioli, and the lima beans I didn’t have time to cook last fall but was sure I’d turn into a gratin some day, were never used. I may have finally turned a corner though. During our far too short blackberry season, I popped some berries in the freezer knowing I couldn’t possibly forget those little gems. Then, when I baked those brioche pastries and used the extra dough for a brioche loaf, the bread when into the freezer. I had a vision of blackberry bread pudding happening when the time was right, and I really did it this time. There’s an Apple-Apple Bread Pudding in Baking: From My Home to Yours made with caramelized apples and apple butter. In the side-note, Dorie suggests trying the same technique with other fruits and jam. My frozen blackberries were thawed and macerated with sugar, and my brioche loaf was sliced and spread with Confituras blackberry jam for this summery bread pudding version. 

At a cooking class I attended a few years ago, I learned something about bread pudding that completely changed my thinking about it. In that class, the bread pudding was made with corners of the bread intentionally sticking up out of the custard. That way, lots of edges became crispy while the lower parts of the bread absorbed the custard. It was the good mix of textures that I really liked, and now I always keep that in mind in making bread pudding. Here, the brioche loaf was sliced and the pieces were slightly toasted in the oven to dry them. Each piece was cut in half and then spread with blackberry jam. One layer of jam-coated bread slices was placed in the baking dish, and the sugar-macerated blackberries and juice were poured over the bread. The remaining bread was arranged on top, and a rich custard made with milk, cream, eggs, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla was poured over all the bread. It was left to sit so the bread could soak in the custard for about half an hour before it was baked. For baking, the dish was placed in a roasting pan and both went into a 325 degree F oven. Boiling water was poured into the roasting pan to come half-way up the side of the baking dish, and the bread pudding baked for an hour and 25 minutes. 

After it cooled for a bit, the pudding was easy to cut into wedges of custard-filled bread layered with jam and fruit. I served it with bourbon whipped cream and sliced peaches, and the crunchy tops and tender lower layers were delightful. Maybe I should start leaving notes for myself about what’s been shoved into the freezer. Or, maybe I just always need a really good plan like this one for what gets stored, and then I’ll surely make good on it. 

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Mini Chocolate-Rum Canneles

I have no aspirations of becoming a professional pastry chef, but I am fascinated with what the pros learn in their training. I received a review copy of The Elements of Dessert by Certified Master Baker Francisco Migoya and The Culinary Institute of America. This is a pastry textbook covering every technique needed for creating stunning treats. It’s also a beautiful book full of photos of show-stopping plated dessert courses. In The Basic Elements section of the book, methods are carefully explained for everything from blending ingredients, making custards, creating different types of meringue, and mixing doughs, to making your own chocolate from the point of selecting the beans. There’s even a chart showing ingredients, their flavor characteristics, and compatible flavors for them. Then, there are the recipes. Each one is a work of art. There are Pre-Desserts with things like a Goat Cheese Bavarian Cream with Beet Jelly and Date Pound Cake Crumbs which is a perfect, little cylinder of Bavarian cream that’s been wrapped in a sheet of beet jelly and placed on a plate with cake crumbs. The Plated Desserts are no less complex. There’s the Butternut Squash and Cinnamon Ice Cream with True Red Velvet Cake, Black Currant “Paper,” Indonesian Cinnamon Bubbles, and Silver Honey Sauce. That’s all one dessert with recipes for each of the components which are neatly stacked with a swirl of the sauce surrounding them on the plate. There are ideas for Dessert Buffets and Passed-Around Desserts as well as Cakes and Petits Fours. It’s so interesting to learn how these creations are built and to see the final presentation for every dessert. It’s also a bit intimidating, but there are several parts and pieces I’d love to try even if I don’t combine them into the completed masterpieces shown here. 

Something I’d wanted to attempt at home was canneles. I’ve wanted the molds for years but never bought them. When I saw the Chocolate-Rum Canneles recipe in the book, I had to try it. Since those pretty, copper molds cost about $25 each, and this recipe would make 20 little cakes, I opted for a silicon mold for my first experiment. I thought I should find out if I really enjoy baking and eating canneles before investing in the top-of-line bakeware. The mold I ordered online has even smaller cups than I expected. It made cute, little, mini canneles. Even though it is silicone, I had read that batter can stick in the cups. So, I brushed the cups well with melted butter and placed the mold in the refrigerator while making the batter. Sometimes, cannele molds are brushed with a beeswax and butter mixture to give the pastries a glossy outer surface, but beeswax wasn’t mentioned in this recipe. The recipe, included below, is, however, very precise. All ingredients are listed by weight both metric and imperial and by percentage. For instance, 3.53 ounces or 100 grams of eggs are needed. That amounted to two of the eggs I had on the day I baked these. And, the 40 grams of egg yolks was two yolks. Although it’s precise, the recipe is also very easy. It results in a very thin batter that bakes for a long time to produce canneles with crisp edges and a custardy center. 

The long baking time causes the edges of the canneles to caramelize, and that adds to the rich chocolaty, buttery flavors running through them. I know the copper molds would have given them each sharper lines and a nicer shape, but the silicon mold worked well enough. Next, I want to try the baguette ice cream or maybe the pate a choux puffs with espresso pastry cream and chocolate disks. And, I want to learn a few more secrets of the pros from these lovely desserts. 

Mini Chocolate-Rum Canneles
Recipe reprinted with publisher’s permission from The Elements of Dessert . 

YIELD: 1.15 KG/2 LB 8.64 OZ 
INGREDIENT                         METRIC or  U.S. or % 
Confectioners’ sugar             225 g or 7.94 oz or 19.51% 
All-purpose flour                   85 g or 3 oz or 7.37% 
Cocoa powder                       8 g or  .28 oz or .69% 
Milk                                     500 g or  1 lb 1.64 oz or 43.37% 
Butter                                 75 g or 2.65 oz or 6.5% 
Dark chocolate coins (64%)   100 g or 3.53 oz or 8.67% 
Eggs                                   100 g or 3.53 oz or 8.67% 
Egg yolks                            40 g or 1.41 oz or 3.47% 
Dark rum                            20 g or .71 oz or 1.73% 

1. Lightly grease the cannele molds with nonstick oil spray.
2. Preheat a convection oven to 180ºC/350ºF. 
3. Sift the confectioners’ sugar, flour, and cocoa powder together. 
4. Bring the milk to a boil and then pour it on top of the butter and chocolate in a bowl. Stir until both the butter and chocolate are melted and combined. 
5. Combine the eggs and the yolks and then whisk them into the sifted sugar-flour mixture to form a paste. 
6. Combine this mixture well with the milk mixture and then stir in the rum. 
7. Fill the molds to within .5 cm/.2 in from the tops. 
8. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. The crown of the cannelés should feel firm when you press down with a fingertip. Remove the canneles from the mold before they cool. 
9. Reserve uncovered at room temperature. 

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Espresso and Chocolate-Hazelnut Swirl Ice Cream with Coffee Tuiles

I was torn between two ice cream flavors. So, rather than choose one over the other, of course, I went with both by combining them. I’d been inspired by the collection of coffee desserts in The Modern Vegetarian. I had my eye on the Cafe Latte Ice Cream and Coffee Tuiles. In the book, this is shown with long, pointy shards of espresso-flavored tuiles jutting up from the top of a scoop of ice cream. It’s dramatic and delicious-looking and was something I had to try. But, there was another ice cream on my mind as well. A Chocolate-Hazelnut Swirl number from the LA Times had taken up residence in my food thoughts, and it couldn’t be ignored. I decided: why not add the chocolate-hazelnut spread to an espresso ice cream rather than to vanilla? And, that’s how this flavor combination was born. When your ice cream is almost finished churning, you just spoon in some Nutella or homemade gianduia. It swirls its way through the ice cream and turns into cold, fudgy bites here and there. While the ice cream firms up in the freezer, the tuiles are easy to make since the batter is baked in one, big thin piece and then broken after it cools. 

To start the ice cream, I actually didn’t follow the exact recipe in The Modern Vegetarian. I have a favorite vanilla gelato that I always make that has more milk than cream and is a little lighter. I followed the usual procedure for making that vanilla base, but I steeped some instant espresso granules in the milk as it heated before straining it and proceeding with tempering eggs and making the custard. I used two tablespoons of instant espresso, but you could also use a quarter cup of roasted coffee beans. I let the milk sit and steep for 20 minutes or so, but with whole beans, you’ll want to give it an hour. While the custard chilled before churning, I made homemade gianduia with roasted hazelnuts, semi-sweet chocolate, cream, and butter. When the ice cream was churned, I added about three-quarters cup of the chocolate-hazelnut spread just before it was finished. The ice cream went into the freezer for a few hours before serving. The coffee tuiles were made from an easy batter started with three tablespoons of melted butter and two teaspoons of instant espresso granules. That was stirred until the espresso dissolved. Four and a half tablespoons of flour and a quarter cup plus one tablespoon of confectioners’ sugar were sifted together, and an egg white and the melted butter mixture were stirred into the flour with a wooden spoon. The batter should be beaten with the spoon until it forms a smooth paste. The batter was chilled in the refrigerator for ten minutes or so, and then it was spread very thinly on a silpat-lined baking sheet. It was baked at 350 degrees F for ten minutes. Check it after five minutes to see if it's set and browning at the edges yet. The baking time will depend on how thinly the batter was spread. Once cool, the big, thin cookie can be broken into shards. 

Those crunchy, coffee tuiles work perfectly as ice cream delivery devices. No spoons or gelato shovels are required when those are on hand. And, coffee and chocolate-hazelnut belong together. Why settle for one or the other when you can have both? My lack of decision-making skill worked to my advantage this time. 

Champagne Sabayon with Strawberries and Cherry Tomatoes

I should stop complaining about my kitchen being too cramped. In The Little Paris Kitchen, Rachel Khoo explains how she turns out all kinds of French classic dishes from her apartment kitchen with a mini oven and a stove top with only two burners. I recently received a review copy of the book, and it’s full of all the sorts of things you’d expect to find in a cookbook of classic French dishes. But here, the recipes have been given some updates and a little streamlining in places making them simple enough to tackle in a tiny Paris kitchen or anywhere else. There’s Soupe au Pistou, Gratin Dauphinois, and Quiche Lorraine of course. And, there’s also Croque Madame Muffins which are cute, individual servings and Salade Nicoise reinterpreted as lettuce wraps. The Bouillabaisse, Poisson Meuniere, and Poulet au Citron et Lavande are a few dishes that look perfect for company, and the desserts are all dinner-party worthy too. The Chocolate Mousse is made with cocoa nibs and the classic Creme Brulee recipe includes several suggestions for mixing up the flavors with using things like saffron or cinnamon and ginger. Then, I noticed the Champagne Sabayone with Strawberries and Cherry Tomatoes. I mentioned some of the classic recipes have a twist, right? Rachel points out that, scientifically speaking, strawberries and tomatoes have the same flavor components and therefore should go together. I decided to give it a try.

The sabayon was made in the typical way in a heat-proof bowl over simmering water. Four egg yolks and two tablespoons of sugar were whisked while being gently heated in the double-boiler. When the yolks became pale and thick, six and half tablespoons of Champagne was added. In this kind of situation, I go for convenience. Since I was making the sabayon in advance and planned to chill it for a bit before serving, I didn’t really want to open a whole bottle of Champagne. Instead, I popped open a convenient, little can of California sparkling wine for the six and a half tablespoons I needed for this. After adding the sparkling wine, the mixture was whisked for another ten minutes while continuing to gently cook. When thickened, the sabayon was divided among serving bowls and topped with strawberries and quartered and seeded cherry tomatoes. I added a pinch of freshly-ground black pepper because I like it with both strawberries and cherry tomatoes. 

I wasn’t entirely sure the cherry tomatoes wouldn’t seem odd with the sweet sabayon and strawberries, but happily, I was wrong. With the seeds removed from the cherry tomatoes, the flavor of the two fruits is surprisingly similar when eaten together. You can make this a couple of hours in advance and chill it, or it’s so quick to make, you can whisk it together just before serving. It’s a modernized, classic dessert that easy to create in any size of kitchen. 

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Mini Strawberry Tarte Tatins

No sooner had I typed the words “there will be much, much more Simple Puff Pastry in my future” than I was already making it again. Store-bought puff pastry really might be a thing of the past in my kitchen. I had spotted this recipe for Mini Strawberry Tarte Tatins in an issue of Donna Hay Magazine last year, and the recipe is available online. I left it filed away until strawberry season rolled around, and by then I had discovered a way of making a quick puff pastry that works really well. I ignored the suggestion for frozen puff pastry and went with homemade. I also made the tarte tatins in ramekins rather than in a muffin tin as instructed since it seemed like it would be easier to plop them onto plates one at a time rather than turning them out all at once. And, I had so many lovely, red, ripe berries on hand, I overstuffed the ramekins just a bit. The hulled strawberries go into the ramekins first, and then a quickly-made vanilla caramel is poured over them before rounds of pastry are added. The vanilla caramel and juices from the strawberries meld into a fabulous syrup in the oven. Not that these need any gilding, but I topped each serving with a spoonful of creme fraiche anyway. 

Making the Simple Puff Pastry was so delightfully easy the first time, I was happy to do it again. I made the pastry a day in advance and rolled it out and cut circles for the ramekins. I increased the quantities for the caramel sauce and made enough for six desserts baked in six-ounce ramekins. The original recipe makes four desserts in a muffin tin. Still, I had some leftover puff pastry for a few turnovers. The ramekins were buttered, and hulled strawberries were added to each. The caramel was made in a skillet with butter, sugar, water and a scraped vanilla bean and its seeds. It cooked for a few minutes before being spooned over the strawberries in the ramekins. Puff pastry circles were set on top, and the dishes went into the oven for about 25 minutes. 

The strawberries slump into the caramel as they bake, and the pastry attaches itself to the fruit and syrup. A little heat from the oven, and these simple parts turn into an amazingly tasty dessert. This may or may not make a good dinner party dessert since you’ll want to lick every drop of the syrup off the plate, but it just depends on the kind of dinner party you're hosting, I suppose. 

Walnut Spice Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting

The birthday cake conversation has changed over the years. There was a time when I would ask Kurt what kind of cake he’d like for his birthday, and the answer was chocolate. No pondering, no pause, no prompts for suggestions. Just chocolate. In recent years, the answer hasn’t come quite so quickly. He still likes chocolate but wants to hear other ideas too. This year, I presented three options that I thought he’d like, and he chose this lovely, layered creation with white cake and spice cake topped with chocolate fudge frosting and chopped walnuts. It’s from Saveur, and the recipe is online. It’s simpler to make than it appears because you only mix one cake batter rather than two. After making the white batter and pouring half of it into a pan, you add spices to the remaining half before pouring that into a second cake pan. I liked that approach. And, the frosting was something new and different to me. It’s cooked on the stove and brought up to just below soft ball stage before being mixed briefly to fluff it up a bit. Then, you have to work quickly to top each layer and cover the cake before the frosting sets. Next time I make it I’ll know just how quickly it sets up and once it does, there’s no moving it. My only regret with this cake was that I didn’t really get the walnuts pressed into the sides of the cake because the frosting set so quickly. The fine powder of the walnuts stuck to the frosting on the cake sides but not the bigger pieces of nuts. In the end, I placed the nuts around the edge on top of the cake and around the bottom edge which was good enough. Kurt was happy with his choice, and I was thrilled with the spice cake flavors mingling with the chocolate fudge frosting. 

Although the recipe suggests using vegetable shortening, I never use it. I used butter instead which worked perfectly well and gave the cakes better flavor. Before mixing the cake batter, dry ingredients were combined, and wet ingredients were combined separately. Also, the spices including cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and I added nutmeg were mixed in a small bowl and set aside. In a stand mixer, butter and sugar were creamed before egg whites were added. I had a laugh at the recipe which states “add egg whites one at a time.” Of course, I had already separated all six egg whites into one bowl. I just slowly added them a little at a time while mixing. Have you ever separated egg whites into separate bowls? The dry ingredients were then added in three batches with the wet ingredients being added alternately in two batches. Half the batter was poured into a nine-inch prepared pan, and the spice mix was stirred into the remaining batter before it was poured into a second cake pan. After the cakes baked and cooled, each layer was cut in half horizontally. You’ll want to have the layers sliced and ready for the frosting. To make the frosting, sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa powder were brought to a boil and cooked while stirring until the temperature reached 232 degrees F which took about 30 minutes. Then, off the heat, vanilla and baking soda were added. With a hand mixer, the frosting was mixed for only about one minute. And, then you have to work very quickly. A spice cake layer was placed on a cake stand, and it was topped with frosting. A white cake layer was added followed by more frosting. You’ll feel as you spread the frosting that as soon as it’s spread thinly, it cools and sets. Quickly, quickly, the next two cake layers were added, and the top and sides were frosted. I spent too much time making swirls on top of the cake and didn’t realize the frosting on the sides was meanwhile setting up too much for the walnuts to stick. Lesson learned. 

Who knows where the birthday cake conversation will lead next year. Maybe we’ll circle back to plain chocolate. I do know that Kurt will pick his cake more quickly than I ever pick my own birthday cake. I can never easily decide what kind of cake I want, and my birthday is only a little over a month away. I should probably start thinking about this now. 

Sticky Toffee Pudding

I always assumed there was a complicated secret to making sticky toffee pudding. I had never attempted it and was sure it would be messy and annoying to prepare. But, this is exactly the kind of dessert I love: a tender cake with chewy dates, a buttery toffee caramel sauce, and some whipped cream for serving. It also happens to be a classic dessert for colder weather since the cake and sauce are served warm. I decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a try for Christmas dinner, and now I’m wondering why I thought this was going to be so difficult. The cakes are easy to make in ramekins. The sauce was a simple mix of ingredients that simmered on top of the stove. And, whipping cream and toasting walnuts for garnish isn’t too hard to do. The recipe I used is from Lost Desserts by Gail Monaghan. Some of the desserts in the book are less lost than others. There are things I’d never encountered before like Siedel Torte, Pruneaux au Pichet, and Crepes Verlaine. Then, there are more familiar although somewhat old fashioned things like Carrot Cake, Baked Alaska, and Schrafft’s Famous Butterscotch Sundae. I’m certain that sticky toffee pudding isn’t one that’s lost because I ordered a delicious version of it at King’s Highway at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs last May. I guess that was also proof that it doesn’t have to be served in cold weather. At any rate, it does make an excellent dessert for Christmas or any other special wintertime meal.

To start the cakes, or puddings, you chop the dates and remove the pits as you go. They were then covered with boiling water, and vanilla, instant espresso powder, and baking soda were added. Eight ramekins were buttered and the oven was preheated. In a stand mixer, softened butter and granulated sugar were creamed, and eggs were added. Flour and baking powder were sifted together and slowly added to the egg mixture while mixing. Last, the date mixture was folded into the batter, the batter was divided among the ramekins, and the puddings baked for 20 minutes. The cooled puddings were removed from the ramekins and stored on parchment in an airtight container. They can be made in advance and refrigerated or even frozen. For the sauce, brown sugar, butter, salt, and cream were combined in a saucepan and brought to a simmer. Once the sugar was dissolved and the sauce thickened a bit, it was ready. This step could also be done in advance, and the sauce can be refrigerated and reheated just before serving. When it was time for dessert, the broiler was set to high. The puddings were placed on a baking sheet and topped with some of the sauce. The sheet pan was placed several inches under the broiler, and the puddings were warmed until the sauce was bubbly. The puddings were transferred to serving plates, topped with more sauce, and garnished with whipped cream and toasted walnuts. 

Obviously, I was delighted with this dessert and could have eaten the sauce by itself with a spoon, but still, there seemed to be not quite enough sauce since I ended up making a second batch to serve with the leftover puddings the next day. This is no place to skimp on buttery, caramel sauce. And, I’m delighted to find out how wrong I was about making them. They’re easy enough to whip up again whenever I want. 

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Profiteroles with Cranberry Caramel Sauce and Maple Spiced Pecans

After holding tryouts for Thanksgiving dessert, I of course ended up going in a completely different direction than any of the contestants. Let me explain how this happened. Kurt claims to not have much of a sweet tooth, but there are three similar sweets that he really likes. Those are Boston cream pie, eclairs, and profiteroles. I’d made the first two at different times in the past, but I’d never made profiteroles even though we always order it when we see it on a restaurant dessert menu. I had various ideas about how to change up the classic components of a profiterole to make it a more seasonal, Thanksgiving kind of dessert, and Kurt voted down almost all of them. He insisted plain, vanilla ice cream and standard chocolate sauce was the only way to go. There would be no pumpkin or cinnamon ice cream or spiced pate a choux or nutmeg dusting on top or any such thing. But, there was a Cranberry Caramel Sauce that I absolutely had to try. It’s from the October/November issue of Garden and Gun, and it belongs with a Pumpkin Bread Pudding recipe from Austin’s own Jodi Elliott of Foreign and Domestic. So long as the ice cream remained nothing but vanilla and the pastry puffs weren’t messed up with any spices, Kurt was willing to try a sauce other than chocolate. Then, I went ahead and made the Maple Spiced Nuts from the bread pudding recipe as well. One last, little change from the classic preparation wouldn't hurt.

This dessert was made up of four parts, so I started by making the vanilla ice cream in advance to have one part completed and ready. I used the vanilla ice cream recipe from Eggs by Michel Roux which is nicely rich with six egg yolks and perfumed with seeds from a vanilla pod. Next, I made the puffs according to Ina Garten’s recipe in Barefoot in Paris. I like that she suggests pulsing the eggs into the pastry dough in a food processor rather than stirring and stirring by hand. That recipe is also available online. The great thing about choux pastry puffs is that you can refrigerate them or even freeze them, and then just re-warm them for a few minutes in the oven before serving. The tops will re-crisp and the airy insides will be as puffy as when they first came out of the oven. The third part of the dessert was the cranberry caramel sauce which was a simple matter of cooking sugar, water, and corn syrup until amber and then adding cranberries and pure cranberry juice. The berries and juice were stirred into the caramel and the mixture was brought back to a boil until the cranberries had all popped. Off the heat, salt and vanilla were added. After letting the sauce cool a bit, it was pureed in a blender, and then I strained it before letting it completely cool. Last but not least, the pecans were tossed with maple syrup, corn syrup, sugar, salt, and a mix of cumin, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cayenne. The nuts were baked until toasted through and allowed to cool before I chopped them.

The hint of spiciness and bit of salt in the nuts was perfect with the tart and sweet sauce. And, I think plain vanilla ice cream was the way to go here since it allowed the flavors in the toppings to shine. In the end, we were both completely happy with these changes to the traditional profiterole for Thanksgiving dessert, but I don’t think I’d get away with messing with the classic eclair.

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