mix, mix… stir, stir

This was the biggest surprise I ‘ve had in my Tuesdays with Dorie baking adventures. This cheesecake blew me away it was so good! Good cheesecake comes down to texture as far as I am concerned. I like creamy-smooth to the point that it almost feels light, which seem like an oxymoron given the cream cheese, sourcream and eggs involved in making cheesecake, but if the texture is right, it is like eating a delicious creamy cloud.

photo by David Peterman

I followed Dories advice to “mix like mad” for a “flawlessly smooth texture” and she did not lead me astray. I let my Kitchen Aid rip until the batter was thick and satiny-smooth. Baking in a water bath is also critical for nice texture, but carries the risk of a soggy crust from water leaking into the springform pan. I have a “no-leak” pan, but it leaks. After years of batteling soggy crusts, I bought a roll of extra-wide foil that I keep stashed away for this specific use. It is wide enough to wrap the outside of a springform pan without any seams. No seams, no leaking, so simple!

It may have been just the extra attention I gave to beating the batter so super-smooth that resulted in the exquisite texture, but the very gentle cooling cycle that Dorie suggests could also be a key factor. After baking, leave the cheesecake in the water bath with the oven turned off and the door propped open for an hour. Then remove it from the water bath and let it cool to room-temperature before refrigerating. This is not a baking project to start late in the evening, which I realized as I was reading the cooling instructions after putting my cheesecake in the oven at 9:00 p.m. I know the first thing to do is read the entire recipe before starting, but this is apparently one of those lessons I need to learn again and again.

A Cheesecake Factory’s menu is proof that you can take the flavor of cheesecake in any direction, but there is something to be said for plain. Well, plain with a warm Spiced Caramel Sauce. Though, I will admit to adding a little ginger powder to the graham cracker crust. It is Anne of AnneStrawberry who gets credit for the recipe selection this week. She has the recipe posted on her blog, but really you should own Baking: From My Home to Yours for the other 500 pages of recipes and baking advise from Dorie Greenspan.

Spiced Caramel Sauce

For the times when you have just shy of a cup of cream on hand

3/4 cup + 1/3 cup+ 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon water
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice
2 cloves, ground (about 1/16 teaspoon)
pinch of salt

In a small dish combine the spices and salt and set aside.

In a medium pot over medium-low heat, melt the sugar in the water. Stirring initially, but stop stirring once the sugar is dissolved.  Increase the heat a bit and bring the syrup to a boil. Run a clean pastry brush that has been dipped in water around the side-walls of the pan just above the level of the syrup to wash down any sugar crystals. Repeat until the pan walls are clean. Boil the syrup until it begins to turn a dark golden-brown color. Don’t be afraid to let the caramel develop a nice dark color; a darker caramel has more flavor.

Once the syrup is at the desired color, remove the pan from the heat and carefully pour in the cream. The caramel will bubble up wildly and let off a fair amount of steam, so stand clear. Return the pan to a low heat and stir, with a clean spoon or spatula, until smooth. Then stir in the spices and salt. Serve warm.

I have always had chocolate chip cookie baking inferiority complex because they never seem to turn out to be what I desired a chocolate chip cookie to be. I decided to conquer the chocolate chip cookie and search out the recipe of my dreams. After making dozens of different recipes and not finding what I was looking for I began to take various elements from one recipe or another to create my ideal cookie. It is soft and chewy with a nice crisp outside edge. It is not overly thick, not overly sweet, and not overly large.

photo by David Peterman

One of my favorite elements is a light sprinkling of flake salt on the top, an idea I picked up from Jacque Torres. Another key change for me was to use my favorite chocolate rather than chocolate chips. I like a 62% chocolate made by Guittard, but as long as you use a chocolate you love to eat, even chocolate chips, I bet you will be happy with the results.

A couple of factors that can affect the end result is temperature, creaming time, and measuring accuracy. Make sure the eggs aren’t cold and that the butter is right around 66 degrees F. Too cold and it won’t get light and fluffy, too warm and it won’t hold volume. Taking the time to add the sugar gradually builds volume in the batter as does allowing the mixer to run for a full minute between adding the eggs. Just for kicks, time yourself after adding the first egg yolk. You will be amazed at how long a minute is when you are standing over the mixer ready to add the next ingredient. Be patient, wash a dish, clean up the kitchen, let the mixer run. Accuracy in measuring the flour and portioning the dough is important as well. I work off a cup of flour weighing 5 ounces. If you have a scale, use that instead of a measuring cup.

It really doesn’t matter what size you make your cookies as long as they are all the same size so they bake evenly. The baking time will change with the size as well as if you have refrigerated the dough or not, so it is really best to set the timer on the shy side and then watch them to determine when they are done to your liking.

Chewy and Slightly Gooey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Makes about 35 cookies

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (11.25 ounces)
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
8 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature about 66˚F
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk from a large egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. water
10 ounces of semisweet chocolate, cut into chunks, or 1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
Flake salt or sea salt for sprinkling

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and pre-heat oven to 375˚F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside.

If the eggs are cold right from the refrigerator, place them in a bowl of warm tap water to take the chill off.

Measure the flour, salt, and baking soda into a medium bowl and whisk to combine then sift the ingredients together and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter for a minute and then with the mixer continuing to run, begin adding the sugars a tablespoon or two at a time. Stop and scrape down the bowl at least once while adding the sugar and then again once it is all added. Let the sugar and butter cream for two minutes and then add the egg yolk and continue to cream for another minute. Add the egg and mix for another full minute to thoroughly combine. Measure the ½ teaspoon of water and two teaspoons of vanilla into a small dish and then drizzle it into the butter mixture with the mixer running. Continue to beat the ingredients for an additional minute.

With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients and stop mixing just before all the flour is mixed in. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the chocolate by hand which should finish incorporating the dry ingredients as well.

Drop large walnut-sized balls of dough (about 1.15 ounces each) onto the parchment lined sheet pan. Sprinkle each cookie lightly with flake or sea salt. Bake for 9-11 minutes watching for a nice golden brown color to develop around the edges of the cookies. The centers will look undercooked. Remove cookies from the oven and let them sit on the hot sheet pan for 2-3 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack. They are especially good the next day, it’s just hard to make them last that long.

Once again the Tuesdays with Dorie group expands my dessert boundaries. I had never made rice pudding until this week, and I made a lot of rice pudding this week.

photo by David Peterman

The recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, uses Arborio rice, which is the type of rice used to make risotto. This rice pudding is a deliciously comforting dessert that takes me right back to all the tapioca I used to make as a kid. The only variation I made to Dori’s recipe is using half a vanilla bean rather than vanilla extract. The little vanilla specs look lovely and with such a minimal ingredient list of milk, rice, and sugar, it is a perfect place to splurge a little by using a vanilla bean.

After cooking the rice pudding I was initially put off by the texture of the rice. The grains were cooked to the point of being quite mushy making the rice pudding a disappointment from a texture standpoint, though the flavor was lovely. I wondered what rice pudding would be like if it were cooked like traditional risotto, so I embarked on a second batch starting by sauteing the rice in a little butter and then stirring in hot milk bit by bit as it was absorbed. This rice pudding had lovely toothy risotto grains nestled in a sweet creamy sauce of milk and sugar. I was thrilled with delicious results, so into the refrigerator to cool.

The next day I sampled my risotto rice pudding and it had transformed into hard little pellets in a sweet creamy sauce, where as Dorie’s rice pudding had chilled to perfection. The rice firmed up to be perfectly toothsome, but still tender. Hum… then I remembered a little lesson I had learned some time ago about retrogradation, which explains what’s going on.

photo by David Peterman

Harold McGee in his book, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, and Shirly O. Corriher in her book, Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed, give detailed explanations of different starches and how they react to heat and refrigeration. The bottom line is the type of starch found in rice, amylose, binds together really tightly when it is cooled after having been cooked, and the rice gets very hard once it is refrigerated. The term for this process is retrogradation. Once reheated, the crystallized amylose molecules melt and the rice becomes soft again, so if you want to eat chilled rice pudding you either need to cook the rice to a very soft consistancy (ah, Dorie knows what she is doing!) or use a medium or short grain rice which has less amylose than long grain rice. Arborio rice is a medium grain rice, but I cooked the rice pudding to the same texture I cook risotto, and it was fine while hot, but once chilled, it was like eating raw rice pudding. So, hot overly-mushy rice pudding will transform, once chilled, into perfection.

photo by David Peterman

All this rice pudding experimenting got me to wondering about black sticky rice. Sticky rice (also known as glutinous or sweet rice) has a predominately amylopectin starch structure, so retrogradation is not issue. Once it is cooked it is very sticky and if refrigerated will remain soft. Sticky rice is sold as black, containing the outer bran and germ layers, or white with the outer layers removed. It is typically soaked overnight and then steamed rather than boiled, though I have seen reference to Black sticky rice being boiled, cooked like risotto, and steamed for anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. The traditional application of sticky rice in Asian cuisines is as dessert, but I have also come across numerous savory applications and after trying this rice for the first time, I think it has fantastic potential in savory applications. It has a nice nutty, wild rice type flavor and the color is stunning.

For my Sticky Black Rice Pudding experiments I tried two different cooking methods. One batch I soaked for 4 hours and then cooked it like risotto using the soaking liquid. The other batch I soaked overnight and steamed for about 45 minutes. Both were good, but for the rice pudding I preferred the steamed version. In savory applications stirring in a flavorful stock like a risotto might be the way to go. I didn’t follow an existing recipe, but started with the classic base of coconut milk and added a few more layers of flavor; pandan leaf, palm sugar, and true cinnamon.

photo by David Peterman

Pandan or pandanus leaf is a fantastic flavor and fragrance to add to both sweet and savory dishes. It is available in Asian markets and looks like long palm leaves. I have heard it described as the equivalent of vanilla in Asian cuisines. A leaf simply tied into a loose knot, to release the flavors, and tossed into a pot of oatmeal or rice adds a warm fragrant flavor that is subtle and exotically satisfying. I don’t make oatmeal without it. The leaves store well in the freezer tightly wrapped in plastic. Palm sugar can easily be found in Asian markets and is use frequently in Thai cooking. True cinnamon (Cinnamomun zeylanicum) is almost exclusively grown in Sri Lanka and offers a slightly more subtle, but far more complex flavor than the common cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia) sold in the U.S. The sticks, called quills, are much softer and more papery than cassia cinnamon sticks. I usually always opt for True Cinnamon in savory applications like soups and braises. If you have not experimented with it, you should give it a try.

Here is my recipe for Black Sticky Rice. I really enjoyed it as a black and white combination with Dorie’s recipe. A big thank you to Isabelle of Le Gourmandise d’Isa for selecting this week’s recipe, and setting me off on a grand rice pudding cooking adventure. Dorie’s Arborio Rice Pudding recipe can be found on Isabelle’s post (scroll down for the English version) and of course in Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: from my home to yours.

Sticky Black Rice Pudding

1 cup black sticky rice
3 cups water, plus additional for steaming
2 six to eight inch pieces of pandan leaf, each tied into a loose knot
1 cup coconut milk
1.5 ounces palm sugar
2-3 inch piece of True cinnamon quill, or a cassia cinnamon stick
Pinch of salt

Place black sticky rice in a bowl with 3 cups of water and let soak at least 4 hours or overnight.

Set up a steamer for the rice by placing a steamer insert in a pan with a tight fitting lid. Ideally the steamer will allow for 2-3 inches of water. A colander or vegetable steamer lined with cheese cloth set into a large pot works well. Drain rice and place in steamer with one pandan leaf that has been tied into a loose knot. Steam the rice for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until soft and tender, adding additional water throughout steaming as needed.

While the rice is steaming, melt the palm sugar in a heavy bottomed pan over low heat. Once melted, turn up the heat to medium and bring the sugar to a gentle boil and let boil for 30 seconds to a minute. Carefully add the coconut milk to the melted sugar. The sugar will clump up just like caramel does when the cream is added. Stir over medium low heat and the sugar will melt into the coconut milk. Add the cinnamon quill and second pandan leaf and bring the mixture to a gentle boil for a minute or two. Remove from heat and cover for 20 minutes to let the cinnamon and pandan infuse into the coconut milk. Remove the cinnamon quill and pandan leaf.

Once the rice is cooked add it to the coconut milk and stir over medium heat. Add a pinch of salt. Cook until the rice and coconut milk are nicely combined, stirring continuously. Let rest 10 minutes if serving warm, or refrigerate and serve chilled. Additional plain coconut milk can be poured over the rice pudding for serving if a thinner consistency is desired.