Ice Cream

I'm holding onto the thought that it is still summer (despite watching the trees beginning to turn all shades of red) and so I've proceeded to make a bunch of ice cream of late. I made a peach honey ice cream from Dorie Greenspan 'Baking From My Home to Yours - result = so so. A little hard when frozen, not enough peach taste despite having both fresh and cooked peaches in it. I made a fabulous greek yogurt ice cream - the flavors are cream and butter... Really amazing and texturally good (for the recipe see: http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/09/greek_yogurt_ice_cream).

Yesterday I made a rum and roasted walnut ice cream. All signs are positive on this one - smooth texture, a serious punch of rum and the crunch of walnuts (from chez panisse dessert book). Finally I made a clove ice cream to go with a rhubarb strawberry tart that I'm making (once again from chez panisse desserts).

I wonder about the difference in recipes though. Some use half and half, other use whole milk, some like the liquor raw (no burning/heating/cooking) others like to have it cook off. Mostly I'm curious about the milk part mostly - about how the fat content effects the texture. The greek yogurt one was lovely and smooth (and it lasted a while being that way) and I imagine this is in part the result of having not only milk and cream but also the yogurt. So why not always up the fat content? Why not always use half and half instead of milk?

Blueberry Shortcakes

I haven't tried making the American 'Biscuit' before. But I thought that I would give it a go this week, and an attempt to make blueberry shortcakes. The biscuit recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking from my home to yours' and mostly involves a ton of butter and a light touch. They did turn out well though, buttery, tender and flaky.

For the blueberries I simply heated them in a small saucepan, added some sugar and some blueberry liquor and then reduced them so that they were pretty congealed.

The cream is whipped with sugar and a bit of marzipan liquor.

Overall a good tasting dessert, very simple, very clean and a little boozy. Pretty god by my books!

Le Success

I've been petrified of making a cake. I'm scared of layers, and the hours of labor that goes into making one. So I've been putting it off and off and off.

I thought I'd give it a go as I have the time, and I really need to get some practice in before school starts again.

This is made with a nut marangue (hazelnut and almond), two types of butter cream (vanilla and a praline) and a ganache layer. It wasn't too hard to assemble, although the cream made it difficult to cut, but I froze it and that allowed me to trim the sides.

I attempted to make some caramel hazelnuts to go on top. However, the caramel thickened too fast, so they weren't brilliantly successful. But they look alright.

Reject Macaroons with Strawberries

I've been on a fix lately to try and make macaroons like Thomas Keller makes in his at Boucheron

I had some cream, some strawberries and some marzipan liquor so I decided to make strawberry shortcakes with macaroons instead. I simply infused the cream with the marzipan liquor, let the strawberries macerate in some sugar and then assembled everything.

A delectable dessert, especially with gorgeously fresh strawberries. Bakery, but I failed miserably. The thing was they were really tasty, but they were just well, seriously flat.

Pavola

This is an Australian treat (or New Zealand treat depending on who you beleive although of course I always was brought up to believe it was Aussie) named after the ballerina Anna Pavlova.

A Pavlova is basically a giant merangue (although you can make small versions that won't take as long to bake) that has a firm outside and a almost soufflee like interiour. I don't know what makes it this way - I've had merangues that are firm all the way through with very little differentiation in the texture (read firm, hard, often on the verge of being brittle), but the good ol' pav (pavlova) has this incredably supple texture.

The idea is that you have this egg white base, and then you pile in freshly whipped cream and fruit. The pav's that I grew up looking at I never really like. They were filled with strawberries, maybe raspberries and passionfruit all pilled on top to resemble something that one regurgitates rather then ingests.

For the pav here, I simple used whipped cream with a touch of vanilla and sugar, a raspberry coulis (simply frozen raspberries from summer simmered with sugar and a smidge of lemon juice and strained through a sieve) with some kiwi fruit and persimmons on the side. It worked out pretty well - I'm looking forward to trying this one in Summer with beautiful fresh berries.

For the recipe I used see Smittenkitchens blog: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/04/a-ballet-of-sorts/

Cecilia's Orange Cream Tarts

This is a reworking of the lemon cream tart, using orange instead.

Ingredients: Filling
1 cup sugar
Grated zest of 3 oranges
Grated zest of 1 lemon
4 large eggs
3/4 cup freshly squeezed Valencia orange juice
3 Tbs. lemon juice

1.25 tsp. unflavored gelatin

1 Tbs. cold water

2.75 sticks of butter, at room temp, cut into 1 Tbs pieces.

Ingredients: Tart Base(s)
1.25 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter

Method: Tart Base

1. Preheat oven to 375F or 190C.
2. In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, salt, and butter, and process until large moist crumbs form.
3. Transfer the dough to a round tart pan (9inch or 13cm in diameter or like I did in small tart pans).
4. With floured fingers press the dough into the pan.
5. Freeze until firm (around 15min, can also be left overnight)
6. Take out the freezer, and prick all over with a fork.
7. Cover with aluminum foil (butter the shiny side and place the buttered side down over the crust.
8. Bake for 25 min (or if making smaller tarts, bake for 15 min and then check).
9. Slowly remove foil, and gently press down any bubbles with the back of a spoon. Let cool down to room temp (keep in the tart pan).

Method: Filling
Have an instant read thermometer, a strainer and a blender at hand.
1.Bring a few inches of water to boil in a saucepan.
2. Put the sugar and zest in a large heatproof bowl (that will fit inside your saucepan of simmering water). Off the heat, rub the sugar and zest together between your fingers until the sugar is moist, and very aromatic.
3. Whisk in the eggs, and then add the lemon juice and orange juice.
4. Set the bowl over the pan and start stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid.
5. Cook the lemon cream until it reaches 180F(around 82C) whisk the lemon cream the whole time.
6. Once it has reached 180F, remove it from the saucepan of simmering water and strain it into the blender. Throw away the lemon and orange zest.

7. Put the gelatin in a small bowl and add the cold water to it.

8. Microwave for 15seconds, and pour into the filling. Pulse the blender once to mix.
9. Wait until the temperature of the orange cream is 140F before turning the blender on.
10. Once it is 140F, turn on the blender, and proceed to feed the butter into the lemon cream 5 Tbs at a time. Make sure you periodically scrape down the sides of the blender.
11. Blend for 3 min. on the highest setting - this makes the cream lighter and airier.
12. Refrigerate for at least 4hours.

Assembly

1. Remove the orange cream from fridge, and whisk briskly until smooth and mailable.

2. Pour into tart bases.

3. Cut fresh orange into thin slices and place on top of tartletts.

4. Serve
Taken from Dorie Greenspans book "Baking: From My Home to Yours" pp. 331-33.

Black Forest Cake

This is a very special cake to me. My nana and opa would make this for special occasions, I loved the cream, and chocolate outside combined with the slightly sour cherries in the middle. This is a simple cake with only one layer. You easily can up the snobbery by adding more layers, you may have to make more of the cherry filling, or you can simply fill those layers with cream.

Ingredients: Sponge
3/4 cup cake flour
1/3 cup dutch-process cocoa
1/8 tsp. baking soda
5 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
3/4 cup + 2 Tbs. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup warm (100-110F) clarified butter

Ingredients: Brandy Syrup
1/4 cup brandy
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup sugar

Ingredients: Cherry Filling
1 jar (24 fluid oz) of sour cherries (I use http://www.bende.com/ecommerce/shopdetails.cfm?p=88&cat=27)
2 Tbs. corn starch
1 Tbs. Brandy
1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Ingredients: Cream and fixin's
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 tsp. sugar
Grated semi-sweet Chocolate (optional)
8 maraschino cherries (optional)

Method: Sponge
1. Preheat oven to 350F (put a rack on the lower 1/3 of the oven).
2. Generously grease and flour a 9-inch springform pan.
3. Sift the flour , cocoa, and baking soda together 4 times.
4. Place a bowl over slightly simmering water, put in the eggs (including the two yolks) and the sugar and mix to just combine - but do not whisk together.
5. Stir for 3-5 min until the colour darkens, the mixture is slightly runny, and the temperature of the eggs is between 110-120F.
6. Remove the bowl from the simmering water and place the egg mixture in a large bowl.
7. Using a whisk, whisk the eggs on high speed until they are cool. This should take between 4-5min. The mixture should be light, and thick (when you run a finger through the eggs, you should see a dent).
8. Reduce the mixer to med. and add the vanilla extract. Whip for 2-3 min more.
9. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
10. Using a rubber spatula, fold in 2-3 Tbs. worth of the flour mixture at a time (this should take around 10-12 folds for each addition).
11. Before the last addition of the flour, pour in the butter over the mixture, then immediately add the last batch of the flour mixture. Fold into the batter, using around 12-15 turns.
12. Place the batter in the prepared springform pan. Tap the pan on the bench a couple of times, and then place on a baking sheet. Finally place in the preheated oven.
13. Bake for between 30-40 min. The cake is done when it is springy to the touch, and has come away from the sides of the pan.
14. Remove the cake from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Wait 10 min before removing the springform pan.
15. Allow to cool to room temp.
16. Cut in half (or thirds etc).

Method: Cherry Filling
1. Drain the cherries, and keep the drained juice.
2. In a saucepan, dissolve the cornstarch with a small amount of the juice (2-3Tbs.)
3. Add 3/4 cup of the reserved cherry juice, and stir till combined.
4. Place over med/low heat until the mixture thickens and reaches a slow boil.
5. Remove from heat, and add the brandy and lemon juice. Then gently add the cherries.
6. Set aside to cool.

Method: Brandy Syrup
1. Place all the ingredients in a pan, and slowly bring to a boil.

Method: Cream
1. Place the cream in a bowl.
2. whisk a little, then add the vanilla extract and sugar, and then whisk until quite thick.

Method: Assembly
1. Prick the base and top of the cake with a toothpick.
2. Using a pastry brush, brush the brandy syrup on both halves.
3. Using a piping bag filled with cream, pipe a circle of cream around the bottom half of the cake.
4. Place the cherry mixture in the center of the circle, and spread out to fill.
5. Place some cream on top of the cherries and spread out the cream with a butter knife.
6. Place the second half of the cake on top.
7. Spread the cream over the top of the cake, beginning with the top, and smoothing over the sides.
8. Estimate where you will slice the cake and make small cream 'hills' for the maraschino cherries to sit in.
9. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the grated chocolate, and put chocolate in your hands, and then place your hands on the sides of the cake to place chocolate on the sides of the cake.
10. Place the cherries in the little 'hills'.
11. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. This cake keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days.

English Style Scones

These are wonderfully filling with whipped cream and freshly made jam (in these I simply used the filling from the blueberry tart).

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Sugar
2tsp Baking Powder
1/8tsp Salt
1/3 cups Butter
1 Egg
1/2tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Milk

Method
1. Method preheat Oven to 375F or 190C

2.In a big bowl mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt with a fork. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to dry ingredients.

3. Using two butter knives, cut in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse bread crumbs.

4. In another bowl mix together the egg, milk, and vanilla extract.

5.Pour into the flour mixture, and stir until just combined.

6. Try not to over mix. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface.

7. Push the dough flat so that it is about 4cm thick . Using a circle biscuit cutter*, cut dough into rounds.Can use an egg glaze (1 egg and 1Tbs milk beaten together) to brown the scones.

8. Cook 15-18 min until slightly brown

9. Serve with cream and jam, or butter.

*If you don’t have a round biscuit cutter, simply break off dough and round them into balls and flatten them onto a baking sheet.

Recipe from http://www.joyofbaking.com/scones.html