The strawberry production continues in my little urban garden, yielding a handful of berries a day: still not enough for a pie or jam, but certainly a lovely accompaniment to a dessert or salad. And as I pick berries, conveniently located next to the mint patch, I’m reminded of what a lovely combination they are.
I stopped baking in earnest in 1997, when I left my last restaurant job, as a pastry chef. I was never a particularly good baker by professional standards (which would probably explain why I didn’t last long at that job), but managed to hold my own in the circle of home cooks.
The desserts I make today are the same I made 15 years ago… Thankfully, they’re timeless and always in good taste (sort of like the clothes from Eileen Fisher). The chocolate molten cake is a mostly flourless chocolate cake that is intentionally undercooked so the inside is gooey and lava-like.
My favorite garnish for the molten cake is berries tossed with mint, a sprinkle of sugar and a touch of vanilla. The preparation yields a garnish that your guests will actually want to eat, even with commercially grown berries (as opposed to a lone mint sprig or a rock-hard, bland strawberry)
Chocolate Molten Cake
yields: 4 – 6 oz. servings
6 oz. semi sweet chocolate 4 oz. butter (1 stick) 2 eggs 2 egg yolks 1/4 cup sugar pinch of salt 2 tbs. flour extra butter and flour for ramekins.
1. Butter and flour 4 ramekins.
2. In a double boiler, melt chocolate and butter.
3. In a mixer, whip eggs, sugar and salt until tripled in volume
4. Slowly mix in flour and chocolate/butter mixture until well incorporated.
Psychgrad at Equal Opportunity Kitchen gave me my first blogging award! This is quite an honor for two reasons:
1. As you know, I just started blogging a few months ago. I've enjoyed the practice of writing on a regular basis and forcing myself to try new recipes and think about food in a different way. It's flattering to know that others are enjoying my blog as well!
2. The award comes from Psychgrad, quite an accomplished food-blogger. She and her mother co-write their "living cookbook with colour commentary." I started reading their blog soon after I started my own. I've enjoyed reading about their culinary adventures, especially their perspecitve on Jewish holidays and food. I'm always inspired by their recipes, and they help get me out of my own cooking rut.
If you were in Cambridge, I would make you a thank you present:
Cappuccino Brownies with Cinnamon and Chocolate Glaze
8 oz. semi sweet chocolate 6 oz. soft butter 2 tbs. instant espresso, dissolved in 1 tbs. boiling water 1 1/2 cup sugar 2 tsp. vanilla 4 eggs. 1 cup flour 1/2 tsp. salt.
1. Melt chocolate and butter together. Mix in espresso, vanilla and sugar.
2. Beat in eggs, one at a time until fully incorporated.
3. Mix in flour and salt.
4. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes in a 9” x 13” pan.
5. Remove brownies from pan and let cool. Spread cream cheese frosting on top, and let cool in the refrigerator.
6. Pour chocolate glaze ontop of frosting. Let set. Cut into bite sizes pieces.
These freeze well so you can eat just a few at a time and save the rest for later.
Frosting 8 oz. cream cheese 6 tbs. soft butter 1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 1 tsp. cinnamon
Mix everything together
Chocolate Glaze
6 oz. semi sweet chocolate 2 tbs. butter 1/2 cup heavy cream 1 1/2 tbs. instant espresso dissolved in 1 tbs. boiling water
1. Melt everything together in the top of a double boiler.
My friend Leslie is teaching a class on Bûche de Noël – the classic French Christmas Treat. In preparation, she wanted to do a trial run to test the timing of the class, and also to get pictures for the class posting.
We all know, I’m not a good baker and more a salt-head, than a sweet tooth. Nonetheless, I have a secret dream of being a star, cake decorator. I even bought a cake turn-table for when the urge strikes. Probably once a year, I make a few pounds of butter cream, a couple of cakes and decorate to my heart’s content. They look like pouffy wedding dresses reminiscent of the 1980’s (read: overdone and not particularly fashionable), and I never eat them, but it’s fun. That being said, I couldn’t miss an opportunity to watch and learn, so I offered to take pictures (just for her, I SWEAR!)
According to Wikipedia:
One popular story behind the creation of this dessert is that Napoleon I of France issued a proclamation requiring households in Paris to keep their chimneys closed during the winter, based on the notion that cold air caused medical problems. This prevented Parisians from being able to use their fireplaces, and, thus, prevented them from engaging in many of the traditions surrounding and involving the hearth in French Christmas tradition. French bakers, according to the theory, invented this dessert as a symbolic replacement around which the family could gather for story-telling and other holiday merriment.
The cake, which ultimately looks like a tree log with mushrooms, can be made with either a vanilla or chocolate sponge cake and filled with chocolate or vanilla buttercream. The cake is lighter than traditional genoise which makes it easy to roll. This cake batter is so light that it can only be used as a sheet-cake and can’t stand up to a layer cake. The mushrooms are made with Italian Meringue.
Before you can even think about assembling the cake, you must assemble all the parts: cake, filling, icing/glaze. For the garnish: rosemary sprigs to look like pine needle covered in ice and meringue mushrooms. The special equipment is limited to a piping bag with a round tip, a “decorating triangle” (used to texturize the icing to look like bark) and a good icing spatula.
For the Cake and the other components:
Cake 6 large eggs, separated 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 12 tablespoons sugar 1/4 cup cake flour, sifted 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Whip the egg yolks with sugar until they are thick and pale. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites sugar to stiff peaks. Fold the whites into the yolks. Sift the cocoa powder and flour onto to the egg mixture and gently fold to combine. Bake on a sheet tray for 15 minutes at 400F.
The filling is less persnickety. You can use a traditional buttercream or a modified version of simply beaten butter with white chocolate. The filling can also be used to glaze the outside of the cake or you can use a chocolate ganache:
Ganache 1/2 cup whipping cream 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped 2 tablespoons light corn syrup 1 tablespoon rum or other favorite liquor
Heat heavy cream over medium heat until bubbles form around the edge. Remove from heat. Stir in remaining ingredients. Continue to stir until chocolate dissolves.
For the mushrooms, make a French meringue.
½ cup egg whites 1 cup sugar ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar.
Dissolve sugar in egg whites over a pot of simmering water, whisking constantly, and heat until 110F degrees. Remove from heat and then whip until stiff peaks. To make the mushrooms pipe out mounds to be the caps, and pipe up 1” stems. Bake at 200F for 45 minutes and the 175 for another 30 minutes to dehydrate. When they are dried, you can brush the bottom of the mushroom caps with melted chocolate. Using a small paring knife, cut a little indentation into the base of the mushroom cap. Use chocolate or icing to glue the stem into the cap.
To make pine needles, dip rosemary sprigs in beaten egg whites, then roll in granulated sugar.
Assembly Ice the sheet cake. Roll it lengthwise, and roll the seam to the bottom. Slice the cake, 1/3 portion, on a bias to create two pieces – on that is twice as long as the other. Put the longer piece on a serving platter. Take the smaller piece, and align the angled side along the longer piece. This should give you the basic shape of a log. Ice the whole cake to cover the seam, but leave the ends un-iced to show off the roll. Run the decorating triangle along the outside to texturize.
