mix, mix… stir, stir

First, there is a bit of a back story for this one that is described in my previous post. I made the ricotta cheese for for the very first time for this cake. Now for those who have never made ricotta it may sound impressive, but anyone who has made it knows it is no big deal, and I am thrilled to now count myself as part of the no-big-deal camp and will forever enjoy the pleasure of fresh warm ricotta cheese. If you haven’t tried making it you must.

I actually call these Honey Snack Cakes. The figs and polenta are no doubt significant flavor elements, but this cake is driven by the flavor of the honey. Polenta makes the texture of the cake work; the sturdy crumb and lovely crunch of the larger polenta grains seem necessary to stand up to the ricotta and honey combination which make for a very moist and somewhat sticky finished product.

I love to make bite-sized food for hors d’oeuvre/mingle type parties and thought this recipe would lend itself well to such an application. The tartlets worked beautifully and because the structure of the cake is dense and moist they are easy to pick up and eat by hand. Another plus for these little gems in a party application is they are better the next day, so you can make them a head of time.

In reviewing some of the comments on Tuesdays with Dorie from other bakers who had already made the cake, a number found the cake to be too sweet. Heeding their words, I cut the sugar by half, but still find it a bit sweet. I am incline to also cut back the honey a bit next time. This batter struck me as a perfect canvas for a spice element, considering the figs and honey, I added some ground anise seed and it was a nice match. Because I was making tartlets, I cut the figs in to small pieces rather than just in half and distributed them among the tins. The only other change I made to the recipe was by pure oversight. I neglected to dot the tops with butter before baking and can’t see that any harm came from the deletion.

Feeling like the tartlets were too sweet, and wanting a garnish on them at the same time, I turned to the fresh ricotta cheese I had left. A little scoop on top of each tartlet created the perfect creamy counterbalance to the sweet sticky little cakes. Now I loved them! My venture into to ricotta cheese making really paid off! Please don’t top these lovely little cakes with commercial ricotta, homemade ricotta is that much better. See my previous post and make some fresh ricotta cheese - it’s really worth it!

This selection for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking group was made by Caitlin of Engineer Baker. You can find the recipe in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. 

It has never occurred to me to make ricotta cheese. I didn’t even know it was something one could easily make at home, but after stumbling across two different ricotta cheese making references in the last few weeks, combined with the next Tuesdays With Dorie baking assignment involving ricotta cheese, I got all fired up and decided I must make ricotta cheese!

The best part is it’s very simple, the even better part is it actually worked! There is absolutely no reason to ever buy ricotta cheese again. Packaged ricotta, the only kind I had known until this week, looks like it should taste delectable but it just strikes my palate as strange. One bite of the homemade stuff and I now understand what all the commotion is about. I was eating it by the spoonful. The velvety soft texture gives way to a delicious sweet creamy flavor; this ricotta really does tasted as good as it looks.

After reading loads of resources and making many batches of ricotta I have settled on what will be my standard recipe. During my testing phase I learned a couple of key things. First, stirring makes tough cheese and second, don’t use ultra-pasteurized milk. The higher heat of the ultra-pasteurization process changes the protein structure of the milk just enough so that curds won’t form.

My experience with ricotta has been limited to its use as a filling in lasagna or ravioli where thankfully other flavorful ingredients make up for its rather bland presence. With fresh homemade ricotta a whole new world has been opened up! Though spooning it up right from the strainer while it is still warm is a delectable treat, I decided to come up with something a little more elegant to serve at a party or as a lovely light dessert after dinner. 

Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese

1 quart whole milk (do not use ultra-pasteurized milk)
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Place a fine mesh strainer over a medium bowl. Cut a piece of cheese cloth large enough to line the strainer and be folded to create 2-4 layers. Wet the cheese cloth with water and wring out the excess so the cloth is just damp. Layer it and spread it evenly over the strainer and set aside.

Pour the milk, vinegar, and salt into a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and heat the mixture over a medium-low temperature stirring occasionally to prevent the milk from scorching on the bottom of the pan. Once the mixture reaches 175 degrees F the curds should begin to form. If you have a thermometer, use it to track the progress, but it is not critical to use a thermometer because either way you want to watch carefully for the curd formation. As soon as you see the first signs of curds forming, remove the pan from the heat and resist the urge to stir.

Let the mixture rest 10-15 minutes and then give it a gentle stir to release any curds from the bottom of the pan. Carefully pour or gently scoop the curds with a mesh scoop into the cheese cloth lined strainer. Let the ricotta cheese drain until it reaches a consistency you are happy with. Once the initial volume drains down, you can gather up the cheese cloth ends and tie them to create a sack that can be hung from a kitchen faucet to continue draining. Store the ricotta cheese in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week. You can freeze any ricotta you will not be using right away.

Pecan Shortbread with Fresh Ricotta and Honey

These are delicate little shortbread cookies that offer a perfect stage for fresh homemade ricotta. The ricotta plays so nicely against the peppery bite of the mace. If you are not serving the ricotta you could use a bit less mace or substitute a less potent spice like nutmeg or cinnamon. 

Makes about one dozen 2 -1/2 inch cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces (about 1/2 cup) coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
12 nice looking pecans for garnish
honey for garnish
1 batch fresh ricotta cheese (see recipe above)

Sift together the flour, mace, and salt and set aside. Using an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until fluffy. Add the sugar and vanilla and continue to beat for about 3 minutes. With the mixer on the lowest speed add the flour and stop the mixer just before all of the flour is fully incorporated. Add the pecans and finish mixing by hand just to the point that all the flour is mixed in and the pecans nicely distributed. Over mixing will build gluten and make the cookies tough.

Turn the dough out onto an large piece of plastic wrap and press it together to form a round disc. Wrap tightly with the plastic and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to chill.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or bake on an ungreased sheet pan.

Unwrap the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out to about 3/8-inches thick. the dough may crack as you roll, but just press the cracks together and keep working the dough out. It will tend to stick to the work surface so after every few rolls slide a spatula or bench scraper under the dough to free it from sticking. Cut the dough with a cookie cutter and place each cookie on the baking sheet about one inch apart. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges of the cookies are just beginning to brown. Remove from the oven and slide the parchment onto a cooling rack, if you are not using parchment let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes until they are set enough to safely lift to the cooling rack without breaking.

Just before serving, place a scoop or fresh ricotta on each cooled cookie and top with a pecan half then drizzle with honey. If you have just made the ricotta it will be extra delicious to serve the cheese warm, but if it has been in the refrigerator let it warm up a bit before serving on the cookies. 

There are those that consider the idea of vegetables in cake to just be wrong, but this carrot cake is right in every aspect. Quiet the protesters with a pint of ice cream while you grab a fork and indulge in this carrot cake bliss.

Bill’s Big Carrot Cake from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours delivers toothy, moist, well balanced carrot cake satisfaction. This recipe doesn’t mess around calling for three cups of grated carrots along with raisins, coconut, and walnuts, but despite being so loaded with goodies it isn’t heavy, overly sweet, or confused by spices. Cinnamon carries the spice role solo and I encourage you to splurge on some beautiful fresh cinnamon for this cake. I used a spicy bold Vietnamese Cassia that carried the other ingredients along beautifully.

This is a quick cake to put together with no fussy steps to cause problems. If you don’t have a food processor to grate the carrots, it will still be an easy cake to make especially if you recruit a helper to do the grating. It is not suggested, but I prefer to toast nuts before adding them to recipes. I find the flavor to be deeper and the crunch of the nut more responsive and satisfying.

You might think a straightforward cream cheese frosting is about as perfect as it gets and I would have agreed until I made it with vanilla-infused powdered sugar. The vanilla adds a rich warm flavor element that balances out the sweetness of the frosting. I recently started tossing my used vanilla bean pods into powdered sugar rather than granulated sugar because it seems that I use powdered sugar in applications where the flavor of vanilla would be desirable, but not the color or the extra liquid that comes with using vanilla extract. It was a delicious result and now all my used vanilla bean pods will be happily tucked in a jar of powdered sugar to infuse that intoxicating flavor in the next batch of royal icing, bunt cake glaze, or cream cheese frosting.

The carrot garnishes are made from gum paste. After getting hassled about making a vegetable cake, I decided to really drive home the point with a little vegetable garden. I found that I needed just a bit more frosting to fully frost and decorate the cake, another half batch did the trick and left a bit extra to spread on graham crackers.

This carrot cake adventure was inspired by Tuesdays with Dorie, a cooking community intent on cooking one recipe a week from Baking From My Home to Yours. So, each Tuesday I will post my results and you too can join in the fun by signing up at Tuesdays with Dorie. This book has become one of my favorite baking books and I highly recommend adding it to your collection. Because this isn’t my recipe I have not posted it, but you can buy a copy of the book here or at most book stores. Next Tuesday will feature Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake.

Feeling a little lost as to how to start my very first blog post, I turn to one of the most basic and key elements of cooking and have decided to start by adding a little salt.

I recently purchased a beautiful chunk of Himalayan pink salt with the expectation of adding some exotic drama to my cooking by grating salt from this large beautiful rock right into dishes as I cook. I imaged what a beautiful presentation it would make at the table letting guests grate their own salt, fresh off the rock.

Well, salt is really, really, hard and even my beloved Microplane grater wasn’t up to the task. Frustrated that I was only able to create super-fine salt powder and a little turned off by the realization that dinner guests would be putting their hands all over the salt while trying to grate it, I knew I needed a different solution.

Visually this large chunk of salt is stunning and wanted to take advantage of that. In addition, I wanted to actually use it for seasoning because this salt has a wonderful clean delicate flavor. I started to chip off some chunks and crush them into granules when it hit me to turn the rock into a salt celler of salt!

Using the narrowest chisel I could find at the hardware store, I chiseled a well in the center of the rock. After collecting the salt chunks that were chiseled off, I simply crushed them in a mortar and pestle and filled the well with the crushed salt. As I use the salt I can keep chiseling away to create more granules.

A few tips for chiseling:

• Place the salt on a towel up against a wall or solid surface to create resistance and stability while chiseling.
• Cover the whole set-up loosely with plastic wrap to keep the salt pieces from flying all over the room. You will need them to fill the lovely well!
• Safety glasses are a good idea. The salt can really fly and sometimes gets around the plastic wrap.
• Keep turning the salt to work all sides of the well evenly as you chisel. You can sculpt your salt into any shape you like. Salt sculpture could be the next big thing!
• In chiseling the salt try to get large pieces off. This requires some aggressive hammering on the chisel so don’t be shy, though I am sure it is possible to crack the whole chunk in half so start gently and work into it.
• Once you are finished carving your vessel, give it a rinse under running water to restore the shine of the salt. Dry with a towel and you are ready to fill it up.
• After gathering all the salt bits, sift out the fine powder and set that aside for some other use. Crush the larger pieces in a mortar and pestle to a coarseness you like and place it in your new salt celler.

Himalayan Pink Salt rocks available at World Spice.