LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, EGGS IN SNOW

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

“Eggs in snow” or “oeufs a la neige” or “ovos nevados“… conveys the same delight in any language: a classy, delicious, impressive dessert, that’s surprisingly simple to make. Besides that, you can prepare its components in advance, which is the golden rule for a relaxed host.

OEUFS A LA NEIGE
(adapted from several sources)

for the creme anglaise
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cornstarch (optional)
1 + 1/2 cup boiling milk

for the meringue
4 egg whites
6 Tbs sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt

for the caramel glaze
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

Thinly sliced almonds (optional)

Prepare the creme anglaise: beat the sugar and yolks with an electric mixer for a few minutes, until the color turns pale yellow and the texture becomes somewhat thick (ribbon stage). Beat in the cornstarch, if you decide to use it, and while still beating, slowly add the hot milk without scorching the egg yolks.
Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and warm over low heat, while constantly stirring. Don’t let it boil, but bring the temperature to 170F on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and pass it through a fine sieve to remove any bits of egg yolk that might ruin the texture of the creme anglaise. Put it in the fridge until ready to assemble the dessert.

Prepare the meringue: Starting with egg whites at room temperature, beat them with the vanilla, cream of tartar, and salt until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and continue beating at very high speed, until the peaks are all glossy and thick.
Heat water in a large skillet to 180F (at this point, the water will form bubbles on the edges). Using two tablespoons or an ice cream scoop, spoon mounds of meringue and gently dislodge them into the water. You can cook several at the same time, making sure that the water never boils. If it does the meringues will disintegrate. Cook them for 3-4 minutes per side, then transfer to a baking sheet lined with a soft cloth to drain any excess water. Reserve in the fridge.

When ready to assemble the dessert, add about 1/4 cup of creme anglaise to the serving dish and add 3 cooked meringues to the dish. Sprinkle on some almonds and glaze everything with streams of caramel, made as follows:

Add the sugar to a small saucepan, drizzle the water on top. Set the mixture over medium-low heat, and gently swirl the pan until the sugar dissolves. Then, increase the heat to high, cover the pan, and boil the caramel for 2 minutes. Remove the lid and continue boiling until the sugar turns amber. Place the bottom of the pan in cold water to rapidly cool it, and working quickly, dip a fork in the caramel and allow it to stream through the tines of the fork onto the cooked meringue and almonds.

Serve immediately, or keep in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

for more photos and comments, keep reading

21Dec2009

A SPECIAL HOLIDAY FRUITCAKE

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

Fruitcakes have a bad reputation because many people find them dry, tasteless and chock full of artificially colored and flavored “fruit” ingredients. I was among the anti-fruitcake group, until my beloved introduced me to his recipe, that originated from Juanita Neilands, the wife of his doctoral adviser, the biochemist Joe Neilands at UC Berkeley. They’re completely natural, which is consistent with their popularity in the hippie era of the San Francisco Bay area. Each year Juanita and friends would bake a big bunch of these incredible cakes and distribute them to each of Joe’s lab members.

The remarkable man Joe Neilands passed away a little over a year ago at age 87. He was an outstanding scientist and political activist, a true free-spirit. You can read about him here. In our current lab we still continue the research that he began decades ago, and in our kitchen we still bake this favorite fruitcake, “an old Southern family recipe”.

HOLIDAY FRUIT-NUT CAKE
(from Juanita Neilands, an old Southern family recipe)

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup flour
4 eggs
1 T vanilla
1/2 cup white grape juice
1 t baking powder
1 lb pitted, chopped dates (unsugared)
(or 1/2 lb dates + 1/2 lb mixed dried fruits of your choice)
1/2 lb dried apricots, chopped
1 lb pecans, chopped
3/4 lb walnuts, chopped (about 3 cups)
optional: Tawny Port wine

Beat the eggs and sugar together. If you can only find chopped dates that are coated with sugar, then reduce the sugar by 2 T. Mix in the flour and baking powder, then add vanilla and grape juice. Dust the dates and apricots with flour, add them to the batter, then add the chopped nuts. The batter will seem very dry, do not worry about it.

Prepare six mini-loaf pans by greasing them with butter. Line with 2 layers of parchment paper, greasing each layer. Spoon the batter into each pan, and decorate the cakes with half walnuts or pecans on top.

Bake at 350F for 50 minutes to 1 hour, and remove the loaves from pans as soon as you can touch the cake. Remove the parchment paper, and put cakes on a rack over a pan. Pour Tawny port (or brandy or bourbon), about 2 T each, over the fruitcakes and and allow them to cool. Add more Port later, if you desire, and wrap for storage. Enjoy the cake right away, or store for several months, if Port wine (or brandy) is added.

Happy Holidays!

to print the recipe, click here

This post will be my first submission to “Bread Baking Day”, this month’s theme is “Baking Under the Tree”

for step by step photos and comments, read on….

Continue reading →

2Dec2009

DUNDEE CAKE BAKE-ALONG

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

or…. “THE DAY DAN LEPARD TRICKED ME“

Maybe some cooks are fearless. They open any cookbook, pick any recipe, open their cupboards, and make it: no trauma, no drama. But, I am not such a cook. I notice some improvement over the years: in the past I wouldn’t even attempt a risotto or a souffle. But I’m still severely “cake-challenged.” Nothing infuses me with fear more than the phrase: “cream the butter and sugar“. Ever since a painful fiasco with a strawberry genoise “shoe” cake, that I regrettably served at a party back in 2003, I’ve successfully avoided recipes that instruct to beat the butter and sugar into the elusive “creamy” stage. Why would I even bother?

Fate plays strange tricks, though.

A couple of weeks ago I learned about an internet event – a Bake Along – organized by Dan Lepard (my bread baker guru). Folks from all over the world connected to “The Guardian” website at 3pm London time, and waited for Dan’s instructions to bake a traditional Dundee Cake together. He posted the ingredients the day before, and the bakers logged in for a virtual group meeting – even a lady from Australia who awakened at 2am to join the party!

Where I live, the baking started at 9:00 am. Well, to be precise it was 9:03 am…. Can you tell that I was ready for it?

I measured the ingredients, prepared the pan and waited for Dan’s first instructions, that arrived like a hydrogen bomb overhead: mix the sugar with the butter and beat until creamy. WHAAAT? I re-read it, hoping for a misunderstanding on my part. Nope.

I looked at my butter, it was not even “softened” (whatever that might be). I considered quickly logging out, explaining that a tornado was headed my way, but…. in November? Who would believe me? Then, a fellow baker, probably hyperventilating almost as much as me, related that his butter was still cold from the fridge, what was he supposed to do? “Don’t worry, Dan responded, ” heat it until about 1/3 melts, and proceed.”

Maybe that’s why his last tip before we began was…

“Stay calm and relaxed. We’re going to have the best time, ok?”

Yeah, right! Calm and relaxed I was not. Still, I took a deep breath, microwaved it slightly, added the whole pitiful blob to the bowl of my mixer, dumped the sugar on top, and…… beat it. To my amazement, IT WORKED!!!

I suddenly realized that I hadn’t done it correctly before. Maybe my butter was too cold or my sugar too coarse (this time I used superfine), but on this occasion it worked!

Thrilled, I moved on, adding the eggs, the marmalade, the dried fruits…

This cake baked in two stages: first a partial bake covered with foil to generate steam, and then after removing the foil, nuts were added on top and the baking resumed, uncovered, for the remaining time. I couldn’t find whole blanched almonds to cover the fruitcake, so I used macadamia nuts instead. My cake wasn’t as beautiful as those with the nicely distributed almonds, but it tasted great!

Beautiful cake or not, having survived the “cream the butter with sugar” battle, I was happy….

Maybe for the most part I was not calm and relaxed, but… I did have the best time that Sunday!

You can see the work of all my virtual friends by following the pictorial show organized by Dan and his crew in London, by clicking here

Verdict: A wonderful fruitcake indeed! I was planning to eat a few slices and then add Port wine to some of it, wrap and store. But there were only crumbs left next day… Next time I will make it in small loaf pans, and save a couple to taste later.

get the recipe after the jump, or by visiting Dan Lepard’s blog
jump for recipe

28Nov2009

PUMPKIN PIE, LIGHT AS A FEATHER

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

My first Thanksgiving was in 1986, the date that also marks my first encounter with a pumpkin pie. Not knowing exactly what to expect, I overindulged in the turkey, the dressing, the mashed potatoes AND the gravy, so that by the time dessert arrived, I was absolutely full. Not to be rude to my hosts, I accepted a small piece, but even that was not easy to negotiate, as the pie was heavy and sweet. For years I avoided pumpkin pie, until my husband convinced me to give it another chance. He makes it from the recipe in the second edition of the Joy of Cooking, but he’s adamant about the use of fresh pumpkin in the filling.

This year was the first time I made it all by myself. If you think “light-as-a-feather pumpkin pie” is an oxymoron, then think again and give this one a try. Now I can’t conceive of a better way to finish Thanksgiving dinner.

PUMPKIN PIE
(adapted from Joy of Cooking, second edition)

2 cups cooked pumpkin (see comments)
1 + 1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 slightly beaten eggs

Heat the oven to 425F.
Mix all the ingredients very well and pour the mixture into a pie shell. Bake for 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 350F and continue baking for at least 45 minutes longer, until a toothpick or a knife blade inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve with slightly sweetened whipped cream.

to print the recipe, click here

PIE CRUST
(from Cook’s Illustrated)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs sugar
12 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup cold vodka
1/4 cup cold water

Mix the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bow. Place the very cold butter and shortening on top and quickly incorporate them into the flour using a pastry cutter, until they have the size of small peas. Add the vodka and water over the mixture and with a rubber spatula fold the mixture pressing it down to form a dough that sticks together. Divide the dough into two balls, flatten them into a 4-inch disk, wrap them separately in plastic and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes, or up to 2 days.

Remove one of the disks from the fridge, roll it out in between two plastic sheets, place it inside a pie dish. For the pumpkin pie, only one disk will be used, the remaining can be frozen.

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9Oct2009

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

Talk about an American classic… I’ve seen so many recipes for chocolate chip cookies, and one of the major issues is… do you like nuts in your cookies? Purists want the flavor of chocolate, and little else. Others enjoy the scrumptious crunchiness of walnuts or pecans, and without them, something is missing. My beloved falls in the second category, and he’s set in his preference. I don’t care that much, as long as the cookies are chewy. Please, no dunking in milk, as my stepson loves to do, it grosses me out, and he dunks them right in front of me! 🙂 In fact, the first thing he said after my naturalization was: “now that you’re an American, you’ve got to start dunking some cookies in a tall glass of milk“….

Whether you are a purist or not, or a “dunker” or not, I’ll bet you’ll enjoy these cookies. I’ve made them several times since I first saw the recipe at Smitten Kitchen. In this batch my only adjustment was to chop some of the nut pieces slightly larger. These cookies will still please the purists, though…

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
(as posted in Smitten Kitchen, original recipe from The Great Book of Chocolate)

(receita em portugues na segunda pagina)

100g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
120g (1/2 cup) dark brown sugar
8 Tbs unsalted butter (1 stick), cold, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
175 g (1 + 1/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
200 g (1 + 1/2 cup) good quality semisweet chocolate chips
130 g (1 cup) walnuts toasted and chopped

Heat the oven to 300F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or use a Silpat lining.

Beat the sugars and butters together until smooth. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and baking soda. Stir together the flour and salt, then mix them into the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips and nuts.

Scoop the cookie dough into 2T balls and place them on a baking sheet separated by 3 inches. Bake for 18 minutes, until pale golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Makes 24 cookies.

to print the recipe, click here.

Comments: You’ll notice that these cookies bake at a lower temperature than most recipes call for. If you are like me, and enjoy chewy cookies, this is the best way to bake them. I like to make the dough and rest it in the fridge for a couple of hours. By doing so, the dough spreads less during baking, which also favors a chewy texture.

Toasting the nuts is an important preliminary step, but watch them carefully, because the difference between toasted and burned is just a few seconds!

Match made in heaven: a chocolate chip cookie with a mini-capuccino, served in a cup from one of our favorite cafes in Paris!