mix, mix… stir, stir

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.

It’s fun to say and even more fun to eat. Kugelhopf is a buttery-rich bread along the lines of brioche, that is studded with dried fruit and often nuts. The traditional dusting of powdered sugar in addition to baking it in a fancy shape pushes this bread very much toward the cake world.

photo by David Peterman

I didn’t happen to have a true Kugelhopf pan, which is similar to a Bundt pan but taller and narrower with a shape somewhat like a spiraled turban. I can attest that there is no need to purchase a Kugelhopf pan to make Kugelhopf, a Bundt pan, mini Bundt pans, standard loaf pan or muffin tins will work just fine.

Originally an Alsatian bread, it is made all over Europe and as the bread has traveled, the spelling of the name has morphed. I have run across Kugelupf, Gugelhopf, Gugelhupf, Kougelhopf, and Koeglof, but because this is Tuesdays with Dorie, I will stick with Kugelhopf as Dorie uses in her book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

The most difficult thing about this bread, like many yeasted breads, is time. Dorie’s recipe calls for three risings that take about seven hours. Knowing I couldn’t fit that into my schedule the day I wanted to make this I made a few adjustments in the process. One option she gives is resting the dough in the refrigerator overnight, which with any bread is a great way to develop flavor. As a compromise I mixed up a sponge of 1/3 the yeast, the milk, and enough flour to form a thick, but still very liquid batter. After letting it sit at room temperature for three hours it got nice and bubbly and then I put that in the refrigerator to ferment the rest of the day and evening. Right before going to bed I pulled the sponge out of the refrigerator and let it sit overnight in a very cool part of the house. I needed to start the bread first thing in the morning and I didn’t want the sponge to be refrigerator-cold. It seems to have worked just fine. I then finished mixing, let the dough rise twice in a warm spot, molded it, and let it rise a final time in the mold and baked it. My “speedy” version still took all morning with the bread coming out of the oven about noon.

On the flavor front Dorie calls for plump raisins and I just couldn’t leave well enough alone, so I veered off here as well. I used golden raisins soaked overnight in dark rum and added a teaspoon of mahleb to the dough.  I also sprinkled a few slivered almonds in the mold before adding the dough which added a really nice crunch and flavor to the bread. Once these come out of the oven, Dorie takes things one step beyond simply dusting with powdered sugar and first paints the bread with melted butter then sprinkling on the powdered sugar. This makes such a nice sweet almost crispy glaze over the bread.

photo by David Peterman

I used a heavy metal pan of mini-Bundt molds to bake my Kugelhopf, but had more dough than the molds could accommodate, so I pulled out my silicone Cannell mold to finish off the dough. This is the only silicone baking pan I have and must admit that I don’t have much experience baking with it. The criticism I frequently hear of silicone pans is they don’t brown well. This was true for one side of my Kugelhopf buns. Each little bun had a very blond side that faced to the inside of the pan and a nicely browned side that was on the outer edge of the pan. Not the end of the world, but interesting to observe. The little Kugelhopfs were a great nibbling size.

Overall I was thrilled with the results and besides taking a fair amount of time, it’s not a difficult bread to make. If you feel like creating your own Kugelhoph you can find Dorie’s recipe on Yolanda’s post at All Purpose Girl. Thanks Yolanda for selecting the recipe for this week; I now know how to make Kugelhopf!

Oh no, my first really dud of a result in baking with the Tuesdays with Dorie group. I am very pleased with the way the cupcakes look, so enjoy the photo, but they were dry and lacked flavor.

photo by David Peterman

I was banking on the frosting to save the day, but no, it was hard as soon as it cooled. Chocolate, butter and sugar, seems reasonable enough, but when I stopped to think about the fact that the proportions of sugar and butter were small compared to the chocolate and butter is solid at room temperature, it is no surprise that it set up rather solid. Dorie refers to the frosting as a glaze indicating that it should just be a thin layer, which would be better, but I think it would still be too hard even as a thin glaze.

I did mix some smooth commercial peanut butter into the glaze to make a soft filling hoping to distract from the dry cake and it was delicious, but didn’t do much to hide the fact that the cake was dry. It would make a wonderful topping as well.
Quick Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting
Gently melt bittersweet or semisweet chocolate and mix in half as much smooth peanut butter, by weight. Whisk in powdered sugar by the tablespoon until the flavor reaches the desired sweetness.

I am so interested to go see all the other blogs on Tuesdays with Dorie and find out if I was the only one with these problems. Thanks to Clara of I Heart Food For Thought for selecting the recipe for this week.

This week’s Tuesday’s With Dorie activity of baking Pumpkin Muffins led to a pancake and cranberry maple syrup creation all because the grocery store only had large cans of pumpkin. Leftovers generate such creativity!

photo by David Peterman

Muffins first. Dorie’s recipe for pumpkin muffins in Baking: From My Home to Yours, is very good. As usual, my taste preferences drove me to fiddle with it a bit. I substituted half the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour, which is a very finely ground flour made from soft wheat that has a low protein level and thus has less gluten forming ability, which results in tender baked goods. Whole wheat pastry flour is a great way to add a touch of whole wheat goodness while avoiding the heavy dense texture that can result with some whole wheat baked goods.

Protein content in flour
Low protein flour is sold as pastry flour or cake flour and is a good choice when baking goods where tenderness is the goal, for example, biscuits, muffins, cakes, and pie crusts. Often a combination of all-purpose flour and pastry flour works nicely. On the other end of the spectrum is bread flour which is high in protein and great for forming the strong gluten bonds necessary for bread to rise and hold its shape. The tricky element is the protein content of flour ranges depending on where the wheat is grown. In the southern region of the U.S, all-purpose flour has much lower protein content than flour in other parts of the country. National brands of all-purpose flour have a protein content of 11-12, but all-purpose flour in the South, such as White Lily brand, has a protein content of only 8-9. Pastry flour generally has a protein level of 8-9 with cake flour at 7-8.  Whole wheat pastry flour has a protein content of 9 vs. anywhere from 11-15 for whole wheat flour. Just for reference, bread flour is in the 12-13 range. So if a recipe works great at home, but bombs when making the same recipe while visiting a different part of the country, it could be the flour, not you!

Ref: McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking. New York, Scribner, 2004.
Corriher, Shirley. CookWise. New York, HarperCollins, 1997.
Wing, Daniel and Alan Scott. The Bread Builders Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens. White River Jct., VT, Chelsea Green, 1999.

I added half a cup of fresh cranberries because I had them on hand, and cranberries with pumpkin, well, you just can’t go wrong. Dorie suggests topping the muffins with sunflower seeds, but I stayed true to the pumpkin theme and when with pumpkin seeds (pepitas) then gilded the lily with a sprinkling of ginger sugar to add a nice crunch to the top. I increased the amount of salt to 1/2 tsp. from 1/4, which just didn’t seem like enough for the volume of batter and all the other spices. There were many comments in the group that the 400 degree F oven temperature was too hot; I choose to bake at 350 degrees F with a convection fan, and my muffins baked beautifully in about 22 minutes.

Overall, I love the results. They are flavorful, tender, and most importantly, not greasy. The cranberries add a nice tart zing and great color. A big thank you to Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp for selecting a recipe to get us all in the mood for fall and one that inspired some great pancake improvisation - read on…

photo by David Peterman

Pumpkin Pancakes with Cranberry Maple Syrup

These deliciously dressed up pancakes are the result of leftover pumpkin after making pumpkin muffins. The Cranberry Maple Syrup walks the line between a beautiful jam and syrup, with the whole cranberries offering textural interest and the perfect tartness to play against the sweet maple syrup. The pecans in the pancakes blend seamlessly with the syrup, like a perfect match. This would be a very festive start to Thanksgiving or Christmas day. Leftover pancakes freeze well and reheat nicely in the toaster for a quick mid-week breakfast. 

Makes about 10 six-inch pancakes.

Cranberry Maple Syrup
1 cup whole cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 cup maple syrup
1 Tbsp. dark rum or bourbon
zest of one orange
2 star anise pods, or a cinnamon stick

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once the cranberries begin to pop, cook at a low boil for 5 minutes stirring and mashing the berries occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside. When ready to serve, remove the star anise pods or cinnamon stick and re-warm if necessary.

Pumpkin Pancakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sea salt
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger powder
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. clove
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

2 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Preheat griddle to 375 degrees F.

In a medium bowl combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices, and nuts. Mix well to incorporate the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs, pumpkin, and melted butter. Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and stir just enough to combine. A few lumps and dusty spots are better than over mixed batter.

Ladle batter onto hot oiled griddle or frying pan and cook until golden brown on both sides. Serve with Cranberry Maple Syrup.

Sweet
Lenxox Almond Biscotti is what the Tuesdays with Dorie group is cooking up this week. Biscotti are my favorite cookie to eat while enjoying a hot cup of coffee or tea. They are crunchy and satisftying and usually big, making it possible to enjoy the cookie accompaniment with the entire cup of hot beverage. I still remember experiencing great excitement the first time I made biscotti; having sliced the logs of baked dough as directed, there before my eyes were biscotti shaped just like the ones at the fancy coffee shop! It was thrilling.  It is a simple shape to achieve, but I had never thought through how to make a cookie shaped that way. To this day I love the moment of transformation from single log of dough to beautiful bias-cut shaped cookies, all with the simple slice of a knife.

photo by David Peterman

Dorie Greenspan’s recipe in Baking: From My Home to Yours, is good, but I added a few twists to suit my preferences. I like really crispy biscotti so I cut the butter back to 4 Tbsp from 8 which did the trick. I also prefer whole nuts in biscotti for both aesthetics and taste, so I used whole balanced almonds rather than slivered. I buy a magnificent spice blend called Kashmiri Garam Masala, from World Spice and it works so beautifully in baked goods that I tossed in a teaspoon in addition to bumping up the salt by an 1/8 teaspoon. For a shiny finish, I gave the logs a brush with an egg wash before the first baking.

At first glance Kashmiri Garam Masala might seem like a strange choice for baking, after all it has black peppercorn, black cumin, and coriander in it. It is the cardamom, clove, nutmeg and cinnamon along with the fact that all the spices are toasted to a nice warm nutty flavor that maks this blend so delicious in sweet applications. One whiff and you will know what I mean. I have used it to spice up butter cookies, pancakes, madeleines, chocolate ganache, and the list goes on.

I did have an issue with the baking instructions for this recipe. Dorie instructs the first baking to be “15 minutes, or until the logs are lightly golden and springy to the touch.” I found that to be not nearly long enough to sufficiently set the interior of the dough. I ended up baking mine for 30 minutes before pulling them out and slicing them. The first batch I baked about 20 minutes and when I removed the logs from the oven they proceeded to collapse because they were still quite raw in the center. After slicing them, I returned them to the oven for the second baking and they puffed up again, but lost the nice sharp cut edges that say “biscotti” to me. I made these a second time and baked them for 30 minutes, let the logs cool just 10 minutes, enough so I wouldn’t burn myself when slicing the cookies, and then returned them to bake for an additional 20 minutes. I also reduced the oven temperature from 350 degrees F to 300 degrees F for the second baking. The result was much more to my liking. Crispy dry with clean cut edges and not overly browned.

Thank you to Gretchen of Canela & Comino for selecting the biscotti recipe. These are easy to make, and though they require a fair amount of baking time, you can set a timer and wonder off to do other things. Because the dough is not individually portioned into cookies, biscotti are quick to make.

Savory
In addition to being a great sweet treat, biscotti are wonderful in a savory application. I have served these as an hors d’oeuvre nibble at parties, as part of a bread basket at dinner, and as a nice alternative to bread along side soup or salad. I like to make savory biscotti a little less crisp than dessert biscotti, so there is the addition of olive oil and milk. The flavoring can really go in any direction, so play around to suit your needs. I am thinking of working on a sundried tomato and parmesan version next.

photo by David Peterman

Toasting Spices
Toasting spices is not about bringing out flavor; it is about changing the flavor. A toasted spice is like anything toasted, think of toasted verses raw almonds or bread. Sometimes toasted is what you want and other times not, it is the same with spices. Try toasting a spice and taste it compared the untoasted spice and you will immediately understand what a toasted or non-toasted spice will bring to a dish

For small quantities I prefer to toast spices in a dry skillet on the stove top over a medium heat. It is important to shake the pan and keep them moving around so they don’t burn.  The level of toasting depends on how much toasty flavor you desire. Experimentation is the best way to determine preferences for different dishes. Some foods will benefit from a nice dark roast on the spice and other lighter flavored dishes may be best complimented with just a golden hue added to the spice. 

Rosemary Orange Almond Biscotti
2 cups flour
1/2 cup corn meal
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
4 tsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
zest of one orange
2 tsp. whole coriander, toasted then crushed
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup whole blanched almonds
Additional egg for egg wash, if desired
Kosher or flake salt for garnishing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

If eggs are cold, place them in a bowl of warm tap water to take the chill off. The milk can be warmed in the microwave on low for about 15 seconds to take the chill off.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, corn meal, baking powder, salt, pepper, rosemary, orange zest, and coriander. Stir with fingers to combine ingredients and break up any clumps of the orange zest so they are well disitributed throughout the mixture. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter then add the olive oil and beat to combine. Add the eggs one at a time giving the mixture time to combine before adding the milk. The butter may appear clumpy, but it will come together once the dry ingredients are added. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and stop the mixer just before the flour is fully incorperated into the dough. Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the almonds, stirring by hand to incorperate should integrate the flour mixture without risking over mixing.

Divide the dough into two portions on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Using your hands, form each portion of dough into a long log shape. This is a wet, sticky dough that generally behaves without the need for additional flour if just patted and pushed into shape. If making party nibbles, it is best to make the logs rather long and only 2-21/2 inches wide and not to thick, so the biscotti will be bite-sized once cut into pieces. For nice long biscotti, shape the logs 3-31/2 inches wide.  

Wisk an egg with a little bit of water to create an egg wash. Using a pastry brush paint the logs with the egg wash then sprinkle with a light dusting of kosher salt, or preferably a delicate flake salt if you have it. Bake for 30 minutes. The dough should just be taking on a golden brown color and be cooked through enough to hold its structure. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack for about 10 minutes, or until you can comfortably slice the logs.

Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

Using a serrated knife, slice the logs at about a 45 degree angle creating slices about 3/4 to 1 inch thick.  Conduct a quality control study by snacking on the end piece trimmings. Place the biscotti slices back on the baking sheet and return to the oven for about 20 more minutes. The second baking is designed to dry out the biscotti and make them crisp. Transfer to cooling rack and serve at room temperature, or store in an airtight container for about a week.

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking adventure really surprised me. I saw the photo in the book and it looked beautiful, but registered with me as run of the mill, predictable, I thought I knew what I was going to get.

photo by David Peterman

What I didn’t count on was a velvety soft brownie cake that was the perfect balance to the chewy caramel peanut topping. This simple cake worked so stunningly well primarily due to the excellent combination of textures. I took the caramel pretty dark to keep it from being overly sweet and ensure it delivered a nice strong caramel flavor; then I added a little kick to the topping in the manner of 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. It was a perfect little swell of heat at the end of each bite. The nice thing about cayenne is the heat hangs back for the finish so the chocolate, caramel and peanut flavors can all be enjoyed before it is detected.

The only difficulty with this cake was cutting it after it had been sitting for a few hours. The darker caramel is cooked the stiffer it is when cooled, which I knew, but didn’t expect this to cause any problems because it was still a rather loose caramel topping. Interestingly this was only a problem for the knife. After cutting the first piece I thought the topping was going to pull everyone’s fillings out, but much to my happy relief, it was very easy to bite and chew. I think the knife had difficulty because the soft layer of cake under the caramel provided no resistance to cut against. The nature of the brownie-style cake had a good structure which made it easy to eat out of hand and the topping was soft and very easy to bite through, just difficult to cut with a knife. I cut a left over portion of cake into pieces by flipping it upside down so the caramel was against a cutting board making it was easy to cut perfect litle pieces. Turn them pretty side up and serve, but this technique would only be applicable if the caramel has set enough not to fall off the cake or stick to the counter. 

I took a lot of process shortcuts in making this. All of the recipes I have made so far in Dorie’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours have been very efficient and streamlined, but this one just seemed unnecessarily complicated. I simply turned the cake out, trimmed off the high edges as it sunk a bit in the middle, flipped it over so the perfectly flat bottom became the top and poured on the caramel topping. Because I made a rather stiff caramel and let it set up a few minutes in the pan, I was able to spread it on the cake without needing to put it back in the springform pan.

I defied Dories warning against making half a batch of the caramel and did so with no problems. It was the perfect amount for the cake topping.  I make caramel fairly often and prefer to add the butter once the caramel has cooled a bit, and then I stirred in the peanuts once the butter was in and the caramel had cooled even more. Once it was set enough not to run right off the cake, I spread it on.

Thank you to Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy for selecting a recipe that I might not have gotten around to making on my own. I loved this week’s result and will be making it again in the future.

Sophisticated, elegant, delicious, impressive and intimidating; maybe it is the creamy decadent center or the elegance of a beautifully brûeléed top that cracks into pieces when tapped with a spoon that fuels the intimidation factor of this dessert. The truth is it is an easy dessert to make and if you love crème brûlée you owe it to yourself to invest in the tools to be able to make it at home.

photo by David Peterman

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie assignment had us all playing with fire. Marni of Mevrouw Cupcake selected Crème Brûlée, which translates to “burned cream” as our recipe this week from Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours. One thing I had forgotten about crème brûlée is it can be made a day or two in advance and held in the refrigerator and then right before serving caramelize the top. How perfect is that for entertaining?

The specialized tools needed are small ramekins for portioning, and the shallower and wider they are the more delectable caramelized topping each serving delivers. That is really all that is needed, but a blow torch is great to have for caramelizing the tops, a broiler works, but a torch is much more fun and adds a great “wow” factor if you are entertaining! As much as I love fancy kitchen shops and all the specialized tools designed for cooks, this tool is best purchased at a hardware store. The hardware store torch is so much more powerful than the small kitchen torches and that means it will be fast. The longer you have a flame hovering over these custards the more likely it is the centers will melt while trying to get an even caramelization over the top. Additionally, if you want to brûlée anything larger like the top of a pumpkin pie, or a marshmallow icing on a cake, the little torch just won’t get the job done. When you aren’t torching things in the kitchen you also have a fully functional torch for doing whatever it is people do with torches. Mine has come in handy when I have needed to heat and bend metal for example. Go for the big guns, you won’t be sorry.

Dorie’s recipe was very straight forward, but the baking instructions confounded me. Baking at 200 degrees F took a very long time. I think my tiny little custards baked for 80-90 minutes and after an hour I bumped up the temperature to 225 degrees. To be fair I will admit to baking my custards in a water bath out of habit, and didn’t register that she skipped the water bath at this lower temperature. Most of the other crème brûlée recipes in my book collection suggest baking at 325-350 degrees F in a water bath and the custards should set in about 20-25 minutes.  I decided to use a fresh vanilla bean rather than extract for flavor and because it took so long for the custard to set all the vanilla bean seeds settled to the bottom of the ramekins which was rather unfortunate. In the future I will stick with a hotter oven and a water bath.

Initially I used brown sugar on top, but found it burned before all of it fully caramelized. For the next round I used granulated sugar which resulted in a much nicer caramelization. I coated the tops of the custards enough so the sugar created a fully white surface, but not so thick that I couldn’t still see the hint of yellow custard below. Touch the flame to the sugar and keep it moving over the entire surface so as the sugar begins to melt and bubble it doesn’t burn. Once the surface is a beautiful caramel color, it’s done. One word of caution, countertops don’t generally take well to direct flames.

Water bath or bain-marie

This cooking method is used to protect delicate foods like custards, sauces, mousses, and cheesecakes, from curdling or over baking. A gentle heat is the best way to achieve a tender end result and the water acts to temper the oven or stove top heat. The item to be cooked is placed in a larger shallow pan that is filled with hot water. The water in the pan can’t exceed 212 degrees F (once it hits 212 it boils away) so the temperature of the water directly in contact with the food is lower than the actual oven temperature, creating a more gentle cooking process. Interestingly the type of pan used for the water bath effects the temperature of the water according to Harold McGee in his book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.  The mass of the pan makes the difference; a thicker cast iron pan accumulates more heat than a thin metal pan for example. He states that water in a cast iron pan in a moderately hot oven will reach 195 degrees F, a glass pan will reach 185 degrees F, and a stainless pan only 180 degrees F. He then points out that to get custard to fully set it must reach at least 185 degrees F. One last point he shares is placing a towel in the bottom of the water bath prevents the water from circulating under the dish. The trapped water can reach a boil resulting in the dish getting bumped around. His suggestion is to use a wire rack rather than a towel.

 I prefer very small ramekins for serving crème brûlée because it is such a rich indulgence of heavy cream and egg yolks. Along with the delicate custard I like to serve crispy cookies to round out the presentation. As delicious as crème brûlée is, four of five bites is not quite enough to satisfy my dessert expectation. The molasses spice cookies I served alongside the crème brûlées were a nice match.

If crème brûlée is your favorite thing to order at restaurants, dig through your recipe collection and pull out all the crème brûlée variations you inevitably have at your fingertips, or visit Mevrouw Cupcake for Dorie’s recipe and give it a try. It’s easy and you will no doubt have fun with the torch.

I hear plum cake and just can’t help but to think of little Jack Horner.

Little Jack Horner sat in a corner,
Eating his Christmas pie,
He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum,
And said, “What a good boy am I.”

photo by David Peterman

There is no need to stick one’s thumb into this cake for a plum, as they are perched right on top and get beautifully caramelized while baking. I embraced fall and selected Italian Prune Plums that are now showing up at the farmer’s markets in my area. They are small little gems, so I decided to make small little cakes to suit them.

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking group selection of Dimply Plum Cake was selected by Michelle of Bak-en. I can’t say this is a recipe that ever jumped out at me when flipping through Dorie’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, and it just proves that personal biases can lead one to miss out on some great things. Though it is difficult to select a recipe that is less interesting when there are dozens of recipes that are highly enticing on other pages, I will try to remember to expand my interests now and again just to see what surprises await.

This cake is interesting in that it is “hearty,” as in a bit dry and crumbly, but oddly in a good way. For me it worked in the mini-muffin format, but I am not so sure how I would feel about it as a plated dessert requiring a fork. Though served warm with a little vanilla ice cream could be another magical surprise. As a mini-treat the solid structure of the cake makes it easy to eat from the hand and would be an excellent nibble to serve at a party of finger food or for an afternoon tea. This recipe gave me great inspiration to make all sorts of cakes in mini-muffin tins with a delicious dollop of something paced on each one. I think a cardamom rosewater cake with a dollop of thick fig jam in the center would be delightful.

I knew I wanted to add a hazelnut garnish, but never like to garnish with something not in the dish, so I added 1/3 cup of chopped hazelnuts to the cake batter. The garnished nuts were given a little bath of simple syrup before placing them on the cakes and baking. The hazelnuts worked really well adding a nutty flavor and the crunch was lovely in contrast to the baked plum. The other deviation I made was adding a 1/2 teaspoon of allspice in addition to the cardamom. I have been reading a lot about allspice lately and just couldn’t resist adding a touch. I had a tendency to want to fill the muffin tins a little too full and it worked better when the cake did not rise over the top of the mold, so half-full of batter is all that is needed. Of course for the tiny cakes the baking time is reduced, I pulled them out after about 18 minutes.

photo by David Peterman

Allspice has been my spice obsession of late. Allspice is the dried berry of a large evergreen tree called Pimenta dioica that grows in Jamaica, West Indies, and Central America. Jamaican allspice has been long held as the premier product for its higher essential oil content which is primarily made up of eugenol. The name comes from the spice tasting like a combination of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. Allspice crosses between sweet and savory cooking beautifully. It is an essential ingredient in Jamaican jerk seasoning as well as being  used frequently in curries, pickling, and even ketchup. The warm sweet aromas of course are a natural match to sweets and baked goods. I tossed a few berries in a pot of potato leek soup over the weekend with delicious results.

I highly recommend buying whole berries and grinding them as needed to best preserve the flavor and aroma of the volatile oils. Whole berries also makes it easy to infuse the flavor of the spice in soups, mulled wine, spiced cider, and poaching liquids for fruits, where the ground spice would make the liquid cloudy and less visually appealing. If your interaction with allspice has been limited to holiday pumpkin pies, I hope you will explore the warm peppery flavors it can bring to all sorts of dishes.

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking adventure continues with more cookies. I wasn’t sure how these cookies would stay together with chunks of bittersweet chocolate, semisweet chocolate, and white chocolate, in addition to peanuts, and only a third cup of flour, even less cocoa powder and a couple of eggs acting as a structural binder. Impossible. The ingredient list just didn’t look structurally sound. It is deliciously confounding, and maybe I shall have another to further analyze the situation.

photo by David Peterman

Not only are these cookies structurally sound, they are so delicious. They taste like the cookie version of a Dairy Queen Peanut Buster Parfait. Sandwich a couple of them around some vanilla ice cream and you might have to pay a flavor royalty fee to DQ! The recipe also called for raisins, but I omitted them out of respect for David’s aversion to raisins, and no harm was done to the end result. I used honey roasted peanuts that I raided from David’s personal snack supply, which he wasn’t too happy with initially but seems to be enjoying his peanuts in the cookies just fine.

These powerfully chocolaty cookies deserve to be made with really good chocolate. With so many varieties of chocolate involved it is important to incorporate the full spectrum of chocolate flavors or the end result might border on sickly sweet. What I mean by the full spectrum is chocolates that are distinctly different from one another based on how sweet they are. If you are interested in the differences and learning how to decipher chocolate labels, read on… but first you need to know you can find this fantastic recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours and I would like to thank Claudia of Fool for Food for selecting such a winner of a recipe for this week.

Deciphering Chocolate Labels
The common terms used in describing different types of chocolate are cocoa powder, unsweetened, bittersweet, semisweet, milk, and white. It seems reasonable enough that these terms alone would sort out the different types of chocolate on the market, and in some situations that’s the case, but too often there are big differences between two chocolates that are both labeled “semisweet” for example. In a few instances the labels are pretty clear; with unsweetened chocolate you know it’s going to be bitter chocolate with no added sugar, but beyond that it can be a bit of a mystery.  The way to determine the difference between one bar and the next is to decipher the formula of cocoa solids, sugar, and total fat in the chocolate.

This has become easier with the increasing variety of specialty chocolates available on the market these days. More information is available on the chocolate packaging as manufacturers work to distinguish their product from all the others on the shelf and we consumers benefit from this additional information because it gives us some data to work with that is consistent across the board rather than relying on terminology that is open to interpretation. The data I am referring to are the numbers such as 58%, 61% 70% that are very common on chocolate packages anymore. You might also see a series of three numbers like this, 60/40/38. This is the key to knowing what you are buying. One company’s bittersweet might be another company’s semisweet, but when you are dealing with the numbers, the terminology doesn’t really matter.

The three ingredients in chocolate are cocoa solids (also called cocoa mass or cocao liquer), sugar and fat. Cocoa solids are simply cocoa beans ground into a fine paste. The numbers indicate the composition of the chocolate with regard to the percent cocoa solids, percent sugar and percent fat. A bar labeled 70% indicates that 70% of the weight of the chocolate is cocoa solids and fat, therefore 30% is sugar. A 62% chocolate will have more sugar and taste less bitter. When the numbers are shown as a series of three, such as 60/40/38, the first number is the percent cocoa solids, then the percent sugar, and the third indicates the percent fat. Knowing the percent fat is important when melting chocolate to dip candies or coat molds because the greater the amount of cocoa butter the better the melted chocolate will flow.

Referring to the percentage of cocoa solids in a chocolate is a more accurate indication of the sweetness of a chocolate than relying on a term. However, it does not determine the flavor because like coffee beans or wine grapes, cocoa beans are very complex and the flavor is influenced by where the beans grow, how they are fermented, roasted and processed in to chocolate. The best way to determine what kind of chocolate you like to eat is to taste a lot of it!

Milk chocolate is milder because it has added milk and a high percentage of sugar. Because of the added milk and large amount of sugar, the ratio of cocoa solids and cocoa butter are lower. This makes milk chocolate softer so it won’t have the crisp snap that a 70% dark chocolate has.

White chocolate doesn’t actually contain any cocoa solids at all, which is why it doesn’t taste like chocolate. It is made from purified cocoa butter, milk solids, and sugar. It has as soft creamy texture rather than the crisp snappy texture of dark chocolate.

Cocoa powder is made from the left over cocoa bean once the cocoa butter has been extracted. It is really a by-product of cocoa butter. It is this left over part of the cocoa bean that has all the flavor and color, so it provides a very intense chocolate flavor when added to foods. Cocoa powder is naturally very acidic so some cocoa powders are treated with the alkaline agent, potassium carbonate, to neutralize the pH. This is referred to as “Dutched” cocoa powder because the inventor of the process was Dutch. Dutched cocoa powder has a milder flavor and a darker color.

I hope this helps you sort out your chocolate choices the next time you are standing in front of a dizzying selection of chocolates trying to decide what to buy.

More delicious cookies are piling up in the kitchens of the Tuesdays with Dorie online baking clan. This week we indulged in Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops. Oh yes, it was off to the candy isle to stock up on a big carton of whoppers!

photo by David Peterman

I love malt and whoppers so I knew these would be a big hit with me, though I also know from experience that desserts with candy mix-ins run the risk of being cloyingly sweet. I am not a fan of the sickly sweet stuff, so I hedged my bets with extra bitter 70% dark chocolate chunks in place of the bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips that Dorie calls for. I am happy I did. The cookies are rich and chocolaty, and the sweet hits of melted malt balls are nicely tempered by the bitter chocolate chunks. Additionally, I topped them with a light sprinkling of Murray River Flake Salt as a final counterpoint to the sweet candy and a flavor enhancer to the chocolate.

The biggest factor for these cookies slipping from “ooh-ahh” reviews to “eh” is baking time. They are a bit of a cakey cookie and the difference between soft and gooey or dry and cakey could be as little as an extra thirty seconds to a minute in the oven. Error on the side of underdone and they will be “ooh-ahh”‘ good.

photo by David Peterman

So now that I have a big jar of leftover malt powder in my cupboard what do I do? Oh, sure I could make more cookies, but it’s not like the extra whoppers are going to even last until tomorrow, so I thought I had better come up with another plan. My need for a future-use plan is due to the last time I had a jar of malt; it languished in the back of my cupboard for about five years and the remaining contents was so rock hard I finally tossed it out a few months ago. Feeling a bit guilty, I decided to put it behind me and move on. Then this recipe comes along forcing me to face my demons! I vow to use the entire jar of malt and not let a single bit go to waste. Or should I say every bit will go to waist!

The first thing that came to mind is a spicy malted hot cocoa. Like it or not the air is starting to have that crispy nip of fall, at least here in the Northwest where we never really even had summer this year, and hot cocoa is one of my favorite cold weather treats.

Wed. 8/17 - I have updated the recipe now that I have been drinking it for a few more days. I decided it needed more malt and more cocoa.

Spicy Malted Hot Cocoa Mix
1 cup malted milk powder
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Combine all the ingredients together and mix well. Store in an airtight container.
To make a spicy hot beverage, heat one cup of milk and whisk in 3 Tablespoons of Spicy Malted Hot Cocoa Mix. Relax and enjoy.

This has a pretty good kick, so if you don’t like spicy cut back on both the ancho chile and cayenne pepper. Hot cocoa is the perfect place to use a high quality dutch processed cocoa powder if you can. After tasting this, I am not the least bit worried about that extra malt powder languishing in the cupboard this time. I may even need to buy another jar before the winter is over.

Thank you to Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart for this week’s recipe selection. You can find the recipe for Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops in Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours.