Bernachon Palet d'Or Gâteau

Heavenly Cake Baker Submission #14

I took this cake and my Stary Browar Apple Almond Tart for the May birthday celebration with my coworkers.  I didn't have time to make the lacquer glaze, but the presentation was still impressive with just the creme fraiche ganache.

The cake batter consists of cocoa, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla combined with cake flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and butter.  It's baked in a 9 x 2 pan.  I don't have a 9 x 2, as my previous overflow can attest, so I made a parchment collar for my pan.

I popped the cake and the oven, and then tasted a spot of batter.  Yikes!  There was nothing sweet about it.  I quickly reviewed the recipe and my process.  I had forgotten the sugar.  The cake was pulled from the oven.  I dumped a cup of sugar on top and stirred it in.  Fortunately, the batter hadn't begun to bake.  The point of this story, dear friends, is always lick the beater, and do it sooner rather than later.

After calling all of the local markets that tend to carry unusual produce and emailing one online supplier, I was unable to find fresh red currants to garnish the cake - a pity because they looked like red jewels in Rose's photos.  I lamented the situation to my friend, Sandi; she suggested substituting cherries, which I did.  Because of the cherries, I used kirsh in place of the creme de cassis in the ganache.  I also purchased a small shaker of edible gold to sprinkle on top.

My friends loved both desserts.  As for this gateau, specifically, it has the most intense chocolate flavor I've ever tasted - a good thing in my book.  I'm sure the cake is true to French tradition, but it was a little dry for my taste.

Unlike my other blog posts, as part of the Heavenly Cake Bakers, I don't post recipes from this book on the internet.  One of the reasons for this baking group is to encourage readers to purchase the cookbook.  That strategy worked on me!  After follow the group's baking adventures for a couple of months, I ordered a copy from Amazon.

Mushroom Soup

The mushroom soup at Emeril's in Orlando was my inspiration here.   This soup is rich and savory with layers of flavor.  If only I could keep popping into Emeril's to see if it needs anything else. 

Ingredients 

2 tablespoons butter
1 small shallot, minced
6 oz. sliced mushrooms
6 oz. sliced baby portabellos
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups stock (beef, chicken or vegetable)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon sherry
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
dash cayenne pepper
dash nutmeg


Directions

• Melt butter in large saucepan or dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add shallot and cook until transluent stirring frequently.  
• Add both mushrooms and salt, continuing to stir frequently.  Cook until the mushrooms are browned and greatly reduced in volume.  
• Deglaze the pan by adding stock and scraping the brown bits off the bottom.  Remove from heat. 
• Use an immersion blender in the pot, or transfer mushrooms and stock to a blender or food processor.  Blend until the mushrooms resemble a very coarse sand.  
• In another pan, melt butter, add flour and cook until flour begins to brown.  
• Add sherry, cream, milk and mushrooms and stock.  Heat, but do not boil.
• Season with cayenne and nutmeg.  
• If the soup is too thick, thin with a little milk.

 Serves 3 - 4

Stary Browar Apple Almond Tart

This was my second effort to recreate an apple tart sampled, almost accidentally, in a little pastry shop in Stary Browar (Old Brewery) Mall in Poznań, Poland.  

We were in the mall, late one evening; some shops were already closing.  We weren't quit ready to return to our hotel, so we shared a slice of an apple tart and watched the crowds go by.  (My husband had read that some of the best apple pie in the world can be found in Poznań, so we sampled a lot of apple pie in search of the best - even extending our search to Berlin).

Before we finished it, we knew that this tart was one that we'd want to have again.  I'm glad that we started to analyze and make note of it's construction because it wasn't available on subsequent trips, and the bakery has since become a Starbucks.

Ingredients

for crust

1/2 cup almond slices

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 cup flour

2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, chilled

1 egg yolk, beaten

for filling

5 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced

1 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

apricot preserves

1 tube marzipan

Directions

for crust

• Preheat oven to 350.  Spread almond slices out in baking sheet.  Bake about 5 minutes or until golden brown.  
• In food processor, with steel blade, process toasted almonds and sugar, until finely ground.  
• Add flour, powdered sugar, and salt.  Process just a few seconds to combine.  
• With processor running, add butter one tablespoon at a time, run until incorporated.  
• Add egg yolk.  
• This should provide enough moisture to make the ingredients come together in a ball of dough.  Pat dough into a 9 inch buttered tart pan.  
• Prick dough with fork, bake about 20 minutes at 350.  Cool.

for filling

• In a saucepan, combine apples, water, sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon.  
• Simmer until apples are tender but still holding their shape.  (I usually like to use two kinds of apples in a pie, but the softer, sweeter apples tended to go mushy, so I'm sticking to Granny Smiths with this tart.)
• Drain apples.
• Place apples in crust. 
• Heat apricot preserves. (I ended up using about half of a 23 oz. jar.) 
• Strain preserves, generously brush this hot, thin, apricot jelly over the apples.  
• Roll out marzipan to 1/8 inch; cut into long thin strips.
• Top apples with a marzipan lattice, made by laying out the strips in a criss-cross pattern.  
• Broil or brown with a torch until the marzipan just begins to change color.  
• Chill until serving.

Thanks to Petit Chef for featuring this recipe in their menu of the day on 12/31/09!

Soft Pretzels

 
I picked my daughter up at the Phoenix airport 10 days ago.   On the drive home, she told me about the wonderful, straight from the oven pretzel she had in the Dallas airport.  Knowing that my food blogging friend, ButterYum had a great looking recipe, I suggested that we make pretzels while she was home.  It's been a full, fun visit, and here we are approaching midnight, making pretzels as she packs for her flight tomorrow.


Source: ButterYum

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/8 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread flour
3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups warm water
2 Tablespoons baking soda
2 - 4 Tablespoons butter, melted
kosher salt, to taste
cinnamon sugar (with a pinch of salt), to taste

Directions

• Add 1 1/2 cups warm water to a mixing bowl. 
• Sprinkle yeast over water; stir to dissolve.
• Add brown sugar and 1 1/8 teaspoons salt; stir to dissolve.
• Add flours, kneed until smooth and elastic.  (I had to add a little extra water at this point.  I may have been a little careless in measuring my flours.)
• Cover and let rise 30 minutes
• Combine 2 cups warm water and baking soda in a bowl.  (Keep this solutions stirred up as it's being used.)
• Divide dough into 6 portions; roll each into a rope about 1/2 inch thick.
• Shape into 6 pretzels, and dip into the baking soda solution.
• Place on a baking sheet; allow to rise until doubled in size.
• Preheat oven to 450.
• Bake 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
• Brush with melted butter.  Sprinkle with kosher salt or cinnamon sugar.   

 My daughter made these.  Anyone want to guess what they are?

Zucchini Bread

Today's harvest: 3 zucchini.  I can't claim to be overrun with summer squash and just looking for ways to use it.  So, I'll fess up.  I was just craving zucchini bread.  This version uses whole wheat flour and less sugar and oil than many recipes.  The crust is crisp, the center moist, tender and sweet. 

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinammon
2 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup grated zucchini

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325.
• Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan.
• Combine flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a bowl. 
• In a separate bowl, beat eggs, add oil, applesauce, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla.   
• Stir in grated zucchini.   
• Add zucchini mixture to dry ingredients; mix until combined.
• Bake for 45 - 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Bananas Foster

Friends shared this recipe with us almost thirty years ago.  They were a couple that loved to cook, and my husband and I benefited from their hobby on many a Sunday evening.  I thought it was so appropriate that the next address we had for this family was on Ladle Lane.

Bananas Foster was developed in New Orleans, but would be a perfect dessert for almost any cuisine.

 

Ingredients

2 T. butter
3 T. brown sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
2 bananas, peeled and halved across and lengthwise
1/4 c. banana liquer
1/4 c. rum
vanilla ice cream

Directions

In a large skillet, melt butter over low heat.
Stir in brown sugar and cinnamon.
Add bananas to pan and cook until soft.
Add liquer and 1/2 of the rum.
Heat remaining rum in microwave for 10 seconds.
Add hot rum to skillet and ignite.  Allow flame to burn out.
Serve over ice cream.

Serves 2 - 4

Gâteau Breton

Heavenly Cake Baker Submission #13

After last week's trifle - a day long project, I appreciated being able to start this cake at 9 PM and still have a good night's sleep.

My friend, Jennifer, will be ordained next month.  When she mentioned that Friday would be the last meeting of a group that's been together for years, during this preparatory process, the occasion seemed to call for a cake.

My first thought had been to make the Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake.  After checking the baking schedule, Gâteau Breton also seemed like a great choice to have with their morning coffee.

As I alluded above, the batter is easy to put together.  Almonds are ground with sugar and salt.  A European-style butter is creamed with sugar and then egg yolks.  The almond mixture is added with vanilla and kirsch.  I didn't have kirsch, so I used a raspberry liqueur.  A little flour and you're ready to bake.

I've been eager to use my new mini-bundt pans, so I didn't glaze the tops with a beaten egg, as I would have if using a tart pan.

Before I started and not knowing if I'd have "leftovers," I asked my daughter, who's home for a few days from college, if I should make a double recipe.  When she learned the cake wasn't chocolate and there was no frosting, she said not to bother, but she came around. The recipe filled my twelve mini-bundts, and 5 in a mini-muffin pan, and she gladly helped me finish off the frosting-free, mini-cupcakes.

Unlike my other blog posts, as part of the Heavenly Cake Bakers, I don't post recipes from this book on the internet.  One of the reasons for this baking group is to encourage readers to purchase the cookbook.  That strategy worked on me!  After follow the group's baking adventures for a couple of months, I ordered a copy from Amazon. 

Merluza a la Vasca (Basque style hake)

For Mother's Day, I thought I'd fix my mom (and the rest of the family) one of my favorite Spanish dishes, sampled often at Restaurante Colon in the village of Torrejon.  The fish cooks in a savory, garlic laced, green sauce and involves no last minute preparation, always a plus in my book. 

Ingredients

4 fish steaks, hake or cod, about 1 inch thick
salt
pepper
flour for dusting
4 T. olive oil
1 T. lemon juice
4 cloves garlic
3 T. minced onion
2 T. flour
3/4 c. white wine
3/4 c. clam juice
6 T. minced parsley
3/4 c. peas, fresh or frozen
1 dozen small clams
1 dozen mussels
1 jar (11.6 oz.) white asparagus
1 jar (2 oz.) pimento strips
1 hard boiled egg, finely chopped

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Season the fish with salt and pepper.  Dust with flour. 
• Heat 2 T. oil in large frying pan.  Cook fish about 1 minute on each side.
• Transfer fish to 4 individual baking dishes.  Top with lemon juice
• Add remaining oil to pan.  Cook garlic and onion until translucent.  
• Stir in 2 T. flour, gradually adding wine and clam juice.  Stir until thick and smooth.
• Add 5 T. parsley, peas, salt and pepper.
• Pour sauce over the fish.  Add clams, mussels, asparagus, and pimento to the baking dishes.  
• Bake for 20 to 40 minutes, until fish flakes and the clams and mussels are open.  
• Top with remaining parsley, 1 T., and chopped egg.

Serves 4

Saint-Honoré Trifle

Heavenly Cake Baker Submission #12

I made the trifle last week for my mother's birthday dinner.  I'm fortunate that she has a trifle dish I was able to use.  Every year, my brother comes to AZ for Christmas and makes a trifle.  Mom also serves a plum pudding, which is started earlier in the year.  (You're right HC Bakers; if I don't tackle the pinecone cake, no one will notice.)

My family loved the trifle; they appreciated the subtle touch of Grand Marnier.    They raved about the beautiful, impressive presentation, but they hadn't seen Rose's version in the book.  My spun sugar looks like it's having a bad hair day.  :-)

This trifle has six components: the cake, Grand Mariner syrup, Chiboust cream, strawberries and preserves, whipped cream topping, and the "wild" spun sugar.  I wasn't working at a hectic pace, but it took most of the day to prepare.  By the time I was finished, it seemed like every dish in the kitchen was dirty, and I'm here to tell you it was worth it!  The complexity, the layers of flavor were a treat for the mouth.  

But now that I've tasted the flavors together, will I be able to finish off the jar of sweet orange marmalade without stirring in Grand Marnier?  That would be quite a pick me up for morning toast.  :D

Unlike my other blog posts, as part of the Heavenly Cake Bakers, I don't post recipes from this book on the internet.  One of the reasons for this baking group is to encourage readers to purchase the cookbook.  That strategy worked on me!  After follow the group's baking adventures for a couple of months, I ordered a copy from Amazon.  You can too. 

PS - I have to insert this last photo, a kaleidoscope shot of my trifle created by my friend, Martha.  Thanks, M. it's really cool!

 

Gazpacho

Just as I sampled Sangria all over Spain, I spent four years tasting Gazpacho across the Iberian Peninsula.  My only regret was that it was a seasonal dish on restaurant menus, served only in the Spring and Summer.  During the colder months, one had to make due with other selections.

How do I describe the sensations of Gazpacho for you?  The soup itself is cold and tart with a smooth texture, which is in stark contrast to the crisp, finely diced vegetables (and bread) served on top of the soup.  It is SO refreshing!

The recipe I've developed rivals the best tasted in my Don Quixote like quest for the ultimate Gazpacho.  

Ingredients

3 c. tomato juice
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
1/2 bell pepper
2 tomatoes
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
1 T. olive oil
1 T. wine vinegar
dash Tobasco
1 T. Wondra flour
1/4 t. salt
dash black pepper

Directions

Combine tomato juice, cucumber, bell pepper, tomatoes, onion, and garlic in blender or food processor until smooth; strain through fine mesh strainer into a bowl, working the mixture through with the back of a spoon.  Add olive oil, vinegar, Tobasco, Wondra flour, salt and pepper.  Chill.

Serve with finely diced bread, cucumber, onion, tomato, and bell pepper on the side.  Each diner can decide which of the toppings they would like to have on their gazpacho.

When the waiter would serve the toppings, I always said, "un poco de todo."  My Spanish may not have progressed much beyond the kindergarten level, but taste buds did. 

Giveaway Winner

Thanks to all who participated in my first giveaway; I enjoyed reading your comments.  Thanks also to CSN stores for sponsoring the giveaway. 

There were 35 entries.  I used random.org to generate a number between 1 and 35, inclusive.  The winning entry was #26, which was Paige of the blog, Two Runners and A Brown Dog. Paige and I are both part of Tall Mom's 1,000+++ Mile Club (she runs, I walk). Congratulations, Paige! 

Thanks again, everyone, for playing along.