mix, mix… stir, stir

It seems that if it weren’t for my weekly baking assignment with Tuesdays with Dorie, I would have a rather empty blog. I have been working on other topics to post and they will be showing up soon, but now it’s time to talk about sticky buns, which was Madam Chow’s baking selection this week.

As if sticky buns aren’t indulgent enough, these are made with brioche dough! I will admit that my high marks for this recipe could be rooted in the fact that this was the first time I have made brioche that was really good, but the finished buns were truly a sticky gooey delight - the second time around.

The reason for the second batch comes later in the story, the first step is making the brioche which worked beautifully once I got over the fact that I was putting three sticks of butter in the mixer. A near disaster was averted when I turned around just in the nick of time to prevent my Kitchen Aid mixer from walking off the counter during the final kneading, whew. The brioche recipe set me up for an easy recovery when I realized I needed to re-make the buns because it makes double what is needed for the sticky buns. With back-up dough just standing by in the refrigerator, I simply announced we would be having sticky buns for lunch rather than breakfast and got back to work.

My downfall was placing my baking dish on a baking sheet lined with a silpat as the recipe suggests. It sounds harmless, but this is a suggestion I usually ignore in recipes and for some reason I used the extra pan this time. The problem is the pan created too much insulation and the bottom of the buns were very undercooked while the tops nearly burned. Additionally, I think it was the top and bottom temperature differential that caused the buns to spiral up like growing volcanoes. Of course I didn’t realize the bottom was still so doughy before I turned them out of the pan and by that time it was too late. Happily, I was able to reuse the pecans and in picking at the cooked parts came up with a few additional adjustments for the next batch.

Take-two started with taking advantage of the opportunity to add some flavor to the sticky part. Anytime I can play in the spice drawer I will so I tossed a beautiful cinnamon stick in to cook with the sugar, butter, and honey and I added about 1/4 teaspoon of salt. The glaze is essentially a caramel and nothing goes better with caramel than a touch of salt. I might even bump this up a bit next time. If I had an orange on hand I would have also tossed in a nice slice of the peel to infuse along with the cinnamon stick. Subtle changes that were very pleasing. If I weren’t reusing the pecans, I would have toasted them first as well. I also added an extra 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon to the filling which I don’t think is necessary, but I liked the stronger flavor. This time I baked them without the extra pan liner and they were beautiful. It pays to know your own oven and follow your instincts.

Honey is cooked with a cup of brown sugar and a stick of butter to make the glaze and I think honey is the key to achieving such a nice caramel sticky coating on the buns. These really do live up to their name and with the built in back-up dough for a second take, how can you not give it a shot? It’s also important to remember that sticky buns are just as good at lunch as they are at breakfast! You can find all the Tuesday with Dorie recipes in Dorie Greenspan’s wonderful book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. It is worthy of space on your bookshelf.

For such a formal looking result, madeleines are really easy to make. It’s the mold that makes them so pretty, yet it is also the mold that poses the only potential hitch to success - unmolding them! I thought I was home free buying a non-stick madeleine mold, no such luck. A well-greased non-stick mold must be all it will take, think again. The only way to get madeleines out of my mold is with a nice coating of melted butter and then a dusting of flour. I was reminded of this when making them for this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie recipe that Tara of Smells Like Home selected as I stared at my pretty little madelines that appeared to be permanently bonded to the pan.

I followed the recipe and the suggestion to grease the pan. Without thinking much about it I used a spray cooking oil and filled the molds. As I was struggling to get the cute little cakes to let go of the mold, I remembered I usually butter and flour the mold. The second batch went in a  buttered and floured pan and this time they jumped right out of the mold with a light tap on the counter.

I mentioned a second batch, the first batch I did a bit of an experiment with toasted flour. I have read about the concept of toasting flour as a way to add flavor to food and I usually make a madeleines with brown butter, so I thought I would try browning the flour instead. I just toasted it to a nice light brown color on the stove top in a heavy skillet. The result wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t add what I had expected and the texture seemed a little dense. I thought the only way to really know the effect of the toasted flour is to make a control batch with un-toasted flour. Wow, what a difference - as in don’t bother toasting flour for madeleines. The Madeleines made with regular flour were so light and soft and delicious that I tossed out the other batch. I will experiment with toasted flour in other types of recipes,  but for madeleines I will stick with tradition.

Getting back to the recipe as written; it is simple, quick and produces beautiful little cakes. I am not sure I will even bother using brown butter in the future. The madeleines of my past use almond flour and I think I prefer the lighter texture of this recipe. I really didn’t want to stop eating them and luckily managed to get a picture before they were all gone.

This is yet another winner from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From my Home to Yours. If you don’t own this book yet, what are you waiting for?

Luck was on my side last week in Las Vegas and I had the great pleasure of meeting Dorie Greenspan! She was the host for a cooking workshop taught by Anthony Amoroso, Executive Chef at Michale Mina, as part of the Bon Appetit Vegas Uncorked event. The workshop was a fantastic inspiration to explore sous-vide cooking, and Dorie was a wonderful host asking great questions of the chef. When I told her I was a Tuesdays with Dorie baker she was thrilled and mentioned that she loves following along with our kitchen adventures as much as she can. Now, on to the dessert of the week, Florida Pie. 

Florida Pie is a bite of summer thanks to the refreshing and tart key limes. I have never used key limes before and for being tiny little suckers they deliver a bold floral lime juice that justifies all the hoopla . Happily my juicer made quick work of them after I simply cut off the rind. I stuck true to the recipe, but made my graham cracker crust, well I made the graham crackers and then made the crust. The graham cracker recipe is one I worked out last year during a smore’s binge. Graham crackers are one of those items that I didn’t realize could be made at home, and I still get a thrill every time I make them and they really turn out like graham crackers.

The best thing about this pie is the velvety, creamy, texture of the filling. I have not cared for the key lime pies I have tried because they all had a very gelatinous texture to the filling. Most of they key lime pies I have encountered were on a convention buffet, which explains a lot, but this recipe proves there is no need for a stiff gel-like filling when making a key lime pie. There is a layer of shredded coconut that has been cooked down in cream between the crust and filling that not only adds flavor, but chewing satisfaction! The coconut adds a delightful tootheness allowing each bite to linger for a couple of extra chews before the filling melts away. It is a technique worth incorporating into other creamy/meringue style pies. The other nice twist to this recipe is folding coconut into the meringue topping.

You can find other pie results by checking out the Tuesdays with Dorie Group. Thank you to Dianne of Diane’s Dishes for selecting Florida Pie for this week and introducing me to key limes. You can find the recipe for Florida Pie along with loads of other fantastic things to bake in Dorie Greenspans book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Here is my graham cracker recipe. If you have never made graham crackers I hope you will try it. My grahham cracker pie crust proportions still need work or I would post them. The standard ratio I use for a crumb crust of 1 1/2 cups crumbs to 3 ounces of butter was far too wet with these crumbs, so I just kept adding crumbs until I got it right, but I don’t know what I ended up with.

Graham Crackers

Makes about 40 three-inch crackers

 1 cup all-purpose flour

1 ¼ cups whole-wheat pastry flour

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup (4 oz.) unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

2 Tablespoons honey

2 Tablespoons molasses

¼ cup whole milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor add the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Pulse a few times to thoroughly combine. Add the pieces of cold butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the honey, molasses, and vanilla and pulse a couple of times to distribute the ingredients. With the machine running drizzle in the milk and stop processing just as the dough is beginning to come together, but is still a bit scrappy.

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured board and bring the dough together to form a ball. Divide the dough in half. Wrap one half in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator while working with the first half. Place one of the pieces of parchment from a baking sheet on the counter and and roll the first piece of dough out on the parchment paper to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Dust the dough lightly with flour as needed to prevent the rolling pin from sticking. Try to roll the dough into an even rectangle shape, feeling free to trim and reposition any strange protrusions that develop while rolling.

Leaving the dough on the parchment, cut squares in the dough to create break lines for the crackers. This is quite like creating score lines, but cut all the way through the dough, just be careful not to slice the parchment into pieces. With the tines of a fork dock each cracker three or four times to create prick marks. I leave the ragged edges in place for baking because they make the edges of the outter crackers more uniform and they make great snacks for the cook once the crackers come out of the oven!

 If you like you can sprinkle the tops of the crackers with a course sugar or even a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.

 Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F

Slide the parchment of prepared dough onto a baking sheet and let chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes before baking. Repeat for the other half of the dough.

Bake for 13-15 minutes. The edges of the crackers should be fairly brown and the center portion will have a nice golden toasty color.  Remove from the oven and slide the parchment onto a cooling rack. Using a spatula loosen the cracker (which should have baked into one large piece) from the parchment and slide the parchment out from under the crackers. If the crackers won’t move as one unit, cut along one of the score lines and break it in half to transfer in pieces. Once cooled, they will be very crisp and should easily snap apart along the score lines, if not use a knife to cut along the score marks.

Store in an airtight container.

My ambitions got the best of me this week. With my preference for individual bite-sized desserts driving me, I spent more time than I care to admit pressing cookie crust into little mini muffin tins. What I didn’t anticipate about this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection that Elizabeth of Ugg Smell Foodmade, is it was a very light mousse-like filling that just didn’t have the structural integrity to be finger food. Thankfully I had some extra cookie crust and made six-inch torte shell while I was at it, which made for a very successful end result.

The mini muffin shells would have worked fine if I had not piped the filling to resemble a soft-serve cone. I was able to dip the little guys in the ganache and garnish them just fine, but when it came to eating them it was all over - as in all over your face and hands. The filling is like a cloud and just goes everywhere on the first bite. If they were small enough to pop in the mouth as a one-bite delight, problem solved. The other solution I discovered is they make a great frozen treat!

The unexpected surprise of my back-up torte shell is that the low profile increased the all important filling-to-crust ratio and though the filling is very good, I love crust! Other twists and spins in my version include: a chocolate wafer crust with a touch of ancho chile rather than Oreos, and candied spiced peanuts. The candied nuts worked really well adding another layer of subtle flavor (see previous post for my recipe).

If you like light, fluffy, mousse style fillings this recipe is for you. It is sweet and very rich and does not scream peanut butter, but comes across as a more subtle and refined peanut flavor.  As always you can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

 Chocolate Wafer Crumb Crust
1 1/2 cups chocolate wafer cookie crumbs
3 ounces unsalted butter (6 Tablespoons), melted
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ancho chile powder
pinch of salt

To make the cookie crumbs, place the cookies in a plastic zip bag and crush with a rolling pin to a fine even crumb.

Mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl until well combined. Press mixture firmly and evenly into an un-buttered 9-inch pie pan or torte pan. Refrigerate at least 10 minutes and then bake for 10 minutes in a 350 degree F oven.

Spicy, crunchy, sweet, and glistening like little gem stones. How can you not want to nibble on these? It may not seem like the appropriate time of year to be focusing on candied nuts, but if you think salads and desserts rather than holiday parties and hostess gifts, spiced candied nuts have limitless possibilities all year long.

They are happy companions with a roasted beet or spring greens salad, and they make any cheese platter sparkle. As a garnish on anything chocolate, they work. I was making a peanut butter tort today and rather than folding in naked peanuts, I used spiced candied peanuts for a nice added layer of flavor and interest. The candy coating sort of melted off into the surrounding mousse, quite reminiscent of the melt-ring around the toffee bits in butter brickle ice cream, and I can tell you these nuts will be going in my next batch of ice cream!

Though still perfect to serve at a cocktail party, and always a thoughtful hostess gift, don’t limit yourself - go candy some nuts!

Spiced Candied Nuts
I experimented with various sweet coatings and settled on maple syrup because it not only adds a nice flavor but it creates a crunchy rather than sticky coating. Using primarily whole spices and infusing the flavor makes for a clearer candy coating and a smoother flavor.

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2-3 inch long cinnamon stick (cassia or true cinnamon)
2-3 mace blades or 4 whole cloves
24 allspice berries
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
16 black peppercorns, whole
2 dried spicy chiles such as de arbol, or pequin, or Japanese
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups nuts, toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine all the spices, except the salt and paprika, in a mortar and pestle and crush them just enough to break them up into large pieces. You can also accomplish this by putting the spices in a plastic bag and crushing them with a rolling pin or mallet. 

Heat the oil in a small saute pan over low heat and add all of the spices except the salt. Simmer over low heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally than remove from the heat and let the spices infuse into the oil for 10 minutes. Add the maple syrup, brown sugar, and salt. Over a low heat bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, let it boil for 5 minutes.

Pile the toasted nuts in the center of a rimmed baking sheet. Strain the spices out of the syrup and pour the syrup over the nuts. Toss to coat and spread the nuts out in a single layer. Place the nuts in the oven and set a timer for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, remove the nuts and stir them to re-coat with syrup. Repeat the 3 minute baking/stirring cycle three more times so they bake for a total of 12 minutes.

Place a sheet of parchment or a silpat on a cooling rack. After removing the nuts from the oven for the final time, stir them to re-coat and scoop them onto the parchment to cool. Using a spatula spread the nuts out and work to separate them. As they begin to cool keep breaking apart any nuts that are clumped or touching. Once cool store in an airtight container.