aaahhhhh...the THANKSIVING FEAST...

is this the perfect plate of homemade goodness or WHAT !!!...

perfect...inside and out is fully cooked and really moist...each slice has the right ratio of turkey to stuffing....a must in the thankgiving feast.....

so the cheeses cloth comes off to unviel a beautifully browned exterior....can't wait to see whats inside......

out of the oven at 155 degrees

waiting to reach 160-165 degrees

0 Molten Sugar Time

I have to admit that when hosts Dolores of Culinary Curiosity,
Alex of Blondie and Brownie and Jenny of Foray into Food announced that November's Daring Bakers' challenge recipe was caramel cake with caramel frosting I was not thrilled. I don’t like caramel and I will begrudgingly eat it only if it's combined with chocolate. But I always try the recipes for the DB challenges and I wasn't going to skip this month just because I don't like caramel.



Since I was hosting Thanksgiving at my house this year, I was pretty busy in the days leading up to Thanksgiving Thursday. Between working full time, getting the house ready, grocery shopping and making everything for dinner from scratch, I wasn't sure if I could find the time for the challenge. I was also providing some desserts for another Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I also had to turn down an order for miniature pecan pies since I was worried about over extending myself. Unfortunately I didn’t make the caramel cake earlier in the month so I had no choice but to squeeze it in with all the other turkey day preparations I was doing.

I pretty much stuck to the recipe like we are supposed to do each month. But I decided to turn the cake into cupcakes so that it would be easier to share at the office. I expected the cake to be a bit heavy and dense, but it ended up being surprisingly light and tender.



I'm always a bit nervous when working with molten sugar, but it gets easier every time I caramelize sugar. I didn't take the caramel too dark because I wanted a subtle caramel flavor.



I also made only half the recipe for the frosting. I felt the frosting was a bit too sweet so I also used a hefty amount of sea salt to cut some of the sweetness. The salted caramel frosting ended up being quite nice. It was silky and the salted caramel flavor went really well with the cupcakes. Overall I was quite surprised that I enjoyed this month's recipe. That's the beauty of the Daring Bakers. Try something I wouldn’t normally choose to bake and then end up liking it.

I've included the original recipe. But here are the changes I made for my cupcakes:
* I made 18 standard sized cupcakes instead of one tall 9-inch round cake. I baked the cupcakes until the tops were light golden and the cupcake springed back when lightly pressed, about 20 minutes.
* I felt the 1/2 tsp baking powder in the original recipe was too little so I increased the amount of baking powder to give the cake a bit more lift. I used 3/4 tsp baking powder.
* I replaced some all purpose flour with pastry flour to make the cake a bit more tender. I used 1 1/4 cup all purpose + 3/4 cup pastry flour.
* I made half the frosting recipe and it was enough to frost all 18 cupcakes. I used a hefty amount of sea salt to really cut some of the sweetness. Of course, you should salt to taste.
* I forgot to brown the butter for the frosting. I think it would've been nice to use browned butter since it would enhance the caramel flavor and add some depth to the frosting.
* I made half the caramel syrup recipe so that I wouldn’t have too much syrup left over. Half was enough for both the frosting and the cake. I still had some syrup left over so I drizzled it over some frosted cupcakes.



RECIPE SOURCE
- Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon as published on Bay Area Bites, the KQED food blog.
- For additional guidance on the cake, Shuna’s got some information posted on her blog and on the KQED site too.


CARAMEL CAKE WITH CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING
(makes one tall 9-inch single layer cake)

10 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter, softened at room temp
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup caramel syrup (see recipe below)
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup whole milk, at room temp

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter one tall (2 – 2.5 inch deep) 9-inch cake pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.

Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.

Sift flour and baking powder.

Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}

Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.

Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it.

Cake will keep for three days outside of the refrigerator.

CARAMEL SYRUP

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water (for "stopping" the caramelization process)
In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.

When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.

Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}

Note: For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING

12 tablespoons (6 ounces) unsalted butter
1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.

Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner's sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioners' sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

Note: Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month.
To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix with paddle attachment until smooth and light

(Recipes above courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon)

0 Yum

Peanut butter. Toffee peanuts. Fleur de sel. My co-workers told me these salted peanut butter toffee cookies were insanely delicious. Need I say more?



Salted Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies
(adapted from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich)
(makes about 50 cookies)

1 1/3 cups (6 ounces) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp coarse sea salt (like fleur de sel)
4 ounces (8 tbsp/1 stick) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
2/3 cup firmly light packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup smooth natural peanut butter
[Be sure to stir PB well to blend in the oil before measuring]
1 cup (5 ounces) toffee peanuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 325F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and both sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in egg and vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in peanut butter. Add the flour mixture and mix until the flour is incorporated.



Pour the chopped toffee peanuts in a shallow bowl. Scoop 2 level teaspoons of dough for each cookie and shape into a 1-inch ball. Roll the ball in the chopped peanuts to coat heavily, pressing any bits that fall off. Place the coated balls 2 inches apart on the line cookie sheets.

Bake the cookies until they are lightly colored on top, about 14-17 minutes. The cookies will seem soft to the touch but will firm up as they cool.

0 Seeing Stripes

Don't be jealous. San Francisco experienced record high temperatures this weekend. It was 80F on Saturday. I know it's mid-November and Thanksgiving is right around the corner but apparently no one told Mother Nature. It was the most gorgeous and sunny weekend and I had no inclination to bake or cook. Thank goodness for delicious takeout from my favorite Thai restaurant. So I'm digging into my repository of unblogged items to bring you this recipe for zebra cake.

The zebra cake has made its way around the blogosphere for some time now. But it was a couple weeks ago that I finally got around to making the cake. The zebra cake is mostly about the way it looks. Alternating stripes of vanilla and cocoa make for a visually interesting cake. And people were quite impressed with the striped effect. But that's where the impressiveness ended for me. Other people liked the cake, but I found it a bit bland and lacking in flavor. I think I expected a bit more of a pronounced chocolate or cocoa flavor. On the plus side, the cake was quite moist due to the cup of oil in the batter and it had a nice texture. I also liked that it wasn't super sweet.

Creating the stripes was not difficult, but it does take some patience. You start by ladling some of one batter in the center of your cake pan. Then ladle some of the other batter right on top and in the center of the previous batter. As you add each of the alternating batters, it'll push the batter already in the pan and will spread out into a ring pattern by itself. The key is that both batters are fluid enough (but not too runny) and that both the vanilla and cocoa batters are similar in viscosity. Adding too much cocoa powder would make the dark batter too thick and hinder the spreading. Making sure the batter was the right consistency so that it would spread correctly is the reason for the lack of cocoa flavor.




I really wanted to like this cake. I read so many raves about it that maybe I had unrealistic expectations. But don't let my opinion about the taste stop you from trying it. Maybe I have weird taste buds or maybe because as I get older I have something against things that are more style than substance. (Geez, I'm beginning to sound like a crabby old lady. Heck, just call me practical.) Like when I fell in love with this beautiful faucet and had to have it even though the manufacturer did not offer a side spray option. I've learned to live without the side spray, but occasionally I do wish I had one.





Zebra Cake
(makes one 9-inch round cake)
(recipe adapted from here)

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
4 large eggs, at room temp
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk, at room temp
1 cup canola oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan. Line with a parchment circle and butter the parchment.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine eggs and sugar. On medium speed, beat until the mixture is light and creamy. Add milk, oil, and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.

On low speed, add the flour mixture and mix until the flour is just incorporated.

Divide your batter into 2 equal portions. Keep one portion plain. Add cocoa powder into another and mix well.

Scoop 3 heaping tablespoons of plain batter into the middle of your prepared cake pan. Then scoop 3 tablespoons of cocoa batter and pour it in the center of the plain batter (yes, right on top of the plain batter). Continue to alternate between the plain and cocoa batter (always pouring it in the center right on top of the previous batter) until you use up the batters.

Bake at 350F until golden or until a cake tested comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

Cool for 15 minutes in pan and then remove cake from pan to cool on a wire rack.

JELLO JIGGLER CUPCAKE...

rasberry, crushed pinapple, mini marshmellows and coconut...really fun...note to self: more expiremntation...

0 Best of Both Worlds

Sometimes I can't decide between vanilla crème brulee and a chocolate tart for dessert. For some strange reason, if both are on a dessert menu and nothing else strikes my fancy, then it usually comes down to those two items (both of which I like equally). If I'm dining with companions who like to have dessert after dinner and are the type of people who like to share dessert, then maybe I would have a chance to taste both. But if none of my companions want to have crème brulee or a chocolate tart then I'm out of luck. I've always thought to myself "Wouldn't it be great if the two could be combined into one single dessert?" I've seen crème brulee tarts and I've seen chocolate crème brulees, but it's not exactly what I had in mind.

After scouring my many cookbooks, I came across a photo of an apricot tart topped with a caramelized disk of crème brulee in Sherry Yard's "The Secrets of Baking". It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it gave me the inspiration to come up with my own version.

First I had to decide on the chocolate tart. Instead of doing a refrigerated chocolate ganache made from equal parts chocolate and heavy cream for my tart filling I opted for a chocolate truffle cake batter since it would be sturdy enough to support a disk of crème brulee. Most chocolate truffle cake batters could work as a filling for this tart. The recipes usually have names like chocolate intensity, chocolate oblivion, chocolate indulgence, well, you get the idea. The ingredients are usually just chocolate, butter, eggs and sugar. Some recipes, like this one, have a bit of flour too. The cake batter is baked in the tart shells until it's just set. The center is still a bit gooey when you take it out of the oven but will take on the texture of a chocolate truffle when cooled. A sweet nutty crust like an almond pate sucree complements the dark chocolate truffle filling perfectly.

For the vanilla crème brulee disks, I used Sherry Yard's recipe. The custard is baked in a large baking dish, frozen and then disks can be cut out with a cookie cutter. That woman is a genius with desserts. I would've never thought to do something like that in a million years, but I'm so glad that she did.

This chocolate truffle tart with vanilla crème brulee is definitely not everyday food, but it's perfect for special occasions or holiday entertaining. There are a lot of components to this dessert, but each can be made in advance. But the final assembly should be done on the day you plan to serve it and the tart should be served as soon as the tops have been caramelized. I know it seems like a crazy concoction, but it was really worth all the effort. The smooth and creamy custard with the caramelized sugar combined with the rich chocolate truffle encased in a sweet sugar cookie crust is my best invention to date. I'll never have to choose between the two again.



Chocolate Truffle Tart with Vanilla Crème Brulee

Ingredients for Crème Brulee
3 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
6 large egg yolks
Additional sugar to caramelize the tops

7 (4 3/4-inch x 3/4-inch) tartlet shells made with Sweet Almond Cookie Crust, prebaked (see recipe below)

1 recipe Chocolate Truffle Cake Batter (see recipe below)

Directions for crème brulee:

1. Preheat oven to 300F. Make sure you have a 9x13 inch baking pan and another baking pan large enough to hold the 9x13 inch pan.

2. Bring the cream, 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla bean and scraped seeds to simmer in a large nonreactive saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat, cover pan with lid and let cream steep for 15 minutes.

3. Gently whisk the egg yolks in a large bowl.

4. Remove the vanilla bean and gently whisk the cream into the egg yolks. When the cream and egg yolks are incorporated, strain the mixture through a fine meshed strainer into a clean heatproof bowl.

5. Pour the mixture into the 9x13 inch baking pan and set it in the larger pan. Add enough hot water to the larger pan to come up halfway up the sides of the 9x13 inch pan. Cover loosely with foil (Take care not to let the foil touch the crème brulee.) Bake at 300F until crème brulee is set, about 40-45 minutes. Remove pan from water bath and set on a cooling rack for 1 hour. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze overnight.

6. Remove crème brulee from the freezer. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet pan. Run the edge of a paring knife dipped in hot water around the crème brulee. Flip the crème brulee out onto the parchment paper. (If you have trouble getting the crème brulee out of the pan, place the inverted pan on the parchment paper lined baking sheet pan, and warm the bottom of the pan with a warm towel or with a hair dryer. The heat will loosen the crème brulee until it falls onto the parchment paper. If the top is too melted you can put it back in the freezer for a few minutes before cutting.)




7. Cut out seven circles using a 3 1/2- or 4-inch cookie cutter. Immediately place the circles back in the freezer until it's time to brulee the tops and assembly your tarts. You will have some crème brulee leftover.

Chocolate Truffle Cake Batter
(enough cake batter to fill seven 4 3/4-inch x 3/4-inch tartlets)

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 ounces unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all purpose flour, sifted

Directions for cake batter:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. In a bowl set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water), combine the chocolate and butter and stir occasionally until smooth and melted. Set aside.

3. In the bowl from a stand mixer heat the 4 whole eggs, 1 egg yolk and sugar, set over the same pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally to prevent curdling, until mixture is just warm to the touch.

4. Attach bowl to the stand mixer, and using the whisk attachment, beat on medium speed until just lemony yellow and doubled in volume.

5. Whisk the flour into the chocolate mixture. On low speed, add the chocolate mixture to the eggs all at once. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to mix until well combined, about 1 minute. At this point the cake batter can be refrigerated, tightly wrapped, for up to 5 days. Or you can use it right away.

Sweet Almond Cookie Crust
(makes enough dough for seven 4 3/4-inch x 3/4-inch tartlets)

2 ounces ground blanched almonds
3 tablespoons superfine or granulated sugar
4 ounces (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1-inch cubes
5 ounces (1 cup) all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions for dough and prebaking the crusts:

1. In a food processor, add the ground almonds and sugar and pulse to combine. Add the butter cubes and pulse about 15 times or until no loose bits of almonds/sugar remain. Add the flour and salt and pulse about 15 times or until the butter is about the size of small peas.

2. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk and the cream. Add it to the mixture in the food processor bowl and pulse until the ingredients are just barely incorporated, about 8 times.



3. Dump the mixture into a plastic Ziploc bag and flatten the dough. Chill dough in refrigerator for 30 minutes or until firm enough to pat into the tartlet pans.

4. For seven 4 3/4-inch x 3/4-inch tartlets, divide the chilled dough into 7 equal portions. Press each piece of dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of each tartlet pan. Chill the tartlet shells in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before baking.



5. Preheat the oven to 425F. Bake for 5 minutes at 425F. If the dough starts to puff in places, prick it lightly with a fork or press down lightly with your fingertips. Reduce the oven temperature to 350F and continue baking for another 5-8 minutes or until it turns pale gold, feels set but is still soft to the touch. Cool tartlet shells (still in the pans) on a wire rack.

To assemble the tarts:

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Pour cake batter into the seven prebaked tartlet shells. It's okay to fill the shells all the way to the top. (You might have some batter left over.) Bake at 375F for 13-16 minutes until the filling is just set and slightly wobbly in the center. Allow tartlets to cool for at least 30 minutes. Carefully remove the tartlet from the pans.




2. Remove the crème brulee circles from the freezer and place one circle on top of each tart. Sprinkle each circle with 1 tsp sugar and caramelize the tops using a kitchen torch. Serve immediately.

Sources:
Crème Brulee recipe adapted from "The Secrets Of Baking" by Sherry Yard
Chocolate Truffle Cake recipe adapted from "Desserts By The Yard" by Sherry Yard
Sweet Almond Cookie Crust recipe adapted from "The Pie and Pastry Bible" by Rose Levy Beranbaum

0 Choco-Coco-Mac Pie

Susie of She's Becoming DoughMesstic started a new pie-themed event last month called You Want Pies With That?. I wanted to join the fun last month, but I couldn’t get my act together in time. So I vowed to join the pie making for November. The premise behind the event is to make a pie based on the chosen theme. Then everyone who made a pie can vote for their favorite pie and the baker with the most votes gets to host and choose the theme the following month.



Hostess Holly of PheMOMenon presented us with the theme of "Pies as a Fashion Statement" for November. She was inspired by the reality show Project Runway and asked us to channel our inner pie fashionistas. I've been faithfully watching Project Runway since the very beginning. Has anyone else noticed that Heidi has gotten snarkier with each season? During season one she didn’t have too much to say about the fashions we've seen on the runway, but in the most recent season (season five) the woman had a lot to say and not much of it was constructive. And I just love Tim Gunn. That man is just fabulous.

Since almost anything can be considered "fashion" these days, I felt that almost any pie could fit the theme. So like in many of the challenges presented to the contestants on Project Runway, I decided to reinterpret a classic while showing the judges my point of view as a (pie) designer. The classic pie I decided to reinterpret was the pecan pie. I changed it up by using coconut and macadamia nuts instead of pecans for a tropical twist. And then I dressed it up by adding some bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder.



The pie was fairly quick and easy to make. I made my own pie dough, but this would work with store bought pie dough if you're short on time. The pie filling was mixed up in a couple minutes. I loved the buttery macadamia nuts and the earthiness of the coconut. The cloying sweetness normally associated with the corn syrup in pecan pies was tempered by the bittersweet chocolate and the chocolate was further intensified by the cocoa powder. Overall, I felt the pie had the familiar comfort of a pecan pie, but with some sophistication added by the chocolate. The pie was a good marriage of classic with a twist and it was absolutely delicious.



Chocolate Coconut Macadamia Nut Pie
(makes one 9-inch pie)

1 partially baked pie crust in a 9-inch pie pan (see dough recipe below)

Filling:
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
2 ounces (4 tbsp / half stick) unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs
3 tbsp heavy cream, half and half or whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
5 ounces macadamia nuts, toasted, halved or coarsely chopped
3 ounces bittersweet (60-70% cacao) chocolate, finely chopped
2 tbsp unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder

Flaky Pie Dough
(makes enough dough for two single crust 9-inch pies)

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup ice water
1/2 tsp vinegar

To make the pie dough:

Cut the butter into tiny cubes and place in freezer for 15 minutes. Sift flour, sugar and salt into the bowl of a standing mixer. Place bowl of dry ingredients in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Remove butter and mixer bowl with dry ingredients from the freezer. Add the butter to the flour mixture and mix on low for 2-3 minutes until the butter is the size of peas. Combine ice water and vinegar and add to dough. Mix until dough just comes together, about 20 seconds.

Gather dough and divide into 2 disks. Wrap each disk in plastic and chill in refrigerator for 1 hour (and up to 3 days).

Take out one disk of chilled dough. Save the other disk for another use. Roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thick and about 2 inches larger than the pie pan. Transfer dough carefully to a 9-inch pan. Crimp or flute the edges. Let the pie shell rest in refrigerator for 30 minutes (and up to 1 day) before baking.

Preheat oven to 400F. Partially bake the pie shell by lining with parchment or buttered foil, filling the parchment/foil lined shell with pie weights and baking for 15 minutes at 400F. Carefully remove parchment and pie weights. Continue baking for 5 minutes more until light golden. Set pie shell aside on a baking sheet while you make the filling. Decrease oven temperature to 350F.

To make the pie filling:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, corn syrup and butter. Whisk in eggs, cream, vanilla, and salt. Stir in coconut, macadamia nuts, chocolate and cocoa powder. Pour filling into your partially baked crust.

Bake pie at 350F until the filling is set on the edges and barely set in the middle, about 40 minutes. Let pie cool for at least 2 hours before serving.