Cake Talk

The Secret to Creme Brulee

First, repeat after me.

"This is a torch and THIS is a lighter..."

"This is a torch and THIS is a lighter..."

"This is a torch and THIS is a lighter..."

Now...the secret to creme brulee is cold "creme" and hot "brulee."  The creme part of this delicious dessert is a custard made from egg yolks, sugar and cream.  You cook it slowly so that it does not curdle or separate.  Then you have to chill it.  Preferably overnight.  Then, just before serving, you top it with sugar and torch the top to caramelize the sugar.  A perfect creme brulee goes to the table hot on the top from the torch, but cold underneath.

A very good friend of ours, who happens to be a caterer, had a party the other night for 60 guests.  The dessert was creme brulee.

Realizing, the day of the event, that he could not find his torch, he asked if we had one he could borrow. We had borrowed a bunch of supplies from them the week before, including some portable butane burners, and they were coming over anyway to pick them up.   I found our torch and put it aside for them.  It was blue, very much like the one in the photo, only a bit smaller.

That afternoon, we were both busy.  I was out of the shop running an errand, and he was prepping for dinner.  He sent one of his servers to pick up his supplies and the torch. One of my employees helped load the truck.

Long story made short, the serve took a "blue" lighter instead of the blue torch.

When I returned from my errands, I noticed the torch was still on the counter and called the caterer.  Voice mail.  Left a message that I would be happy to drop it off if they called and let me know where the event was.  Never got a call back.

When the server returned, the caterer asked if he had the blue torch.  The server said yes. And that was that.  Until it was time to torch the cremes for dessert.  He asked for the torch and was handed the lighter.

I won't repeat what happened next.

"This is a torch and THIS is a lighter..."

Even if the lighter is blue.

Recipe for Creme Brulee

2 cups heavy cream

5 large egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1 vanilla bean

1. Using a wire whisk or an electric mixer fitted with the whip attachment, vigorously whisk egg yolks with granulated sugar in a large bowl, until mixture becomes light in color and sugar has dissolved a bit; set aside.
2. In a medium-sized saucepan, combine heavy cream with vanilla beans which have been carefully split down the center, its fragrant black seeds scraped from the pod, and both combined with the cream. Bring the mixture to a simmer; when small bubbles have formed around the edges of the cream it is ready.
3. Gradually pour the cream mixture into the egg/sugar mix, whisking gently by hand to combine. Strain custard through a fine mesh strainer, retrieve vanilla bean and place it back into the custard. Chill and cover mixture with a sheet of plastic wrap, pierced several times to release any steam (chilling mixture overnight will let the flavors develop and allow custard to thicken a bit).
4. Preheat oven to 350*F (180*C). Place individual ramekins in a baking pan, large enough to hold 4 to 5 six-ounce custard cups and deep enough to allow the water for the bain-marie to be added reaching at least halfway up the sides of the dishes.
5. Remove the vanilla bean from the custard mixture (can be reserved for another use) and fill ramekins 3/4 full. Place pan in preheated oven and pour hot water into baking pan so water level reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover pan with a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, sealing edges to retain steam. Cook 40 to 50 minutes or until custards are set. To test for doneness, gently shake the individual ramekins; if center is still a bit liquid-like or wobbly return custards to oven and continue to cook, checking every 5 to 7 minutes, until it has just set, with a small area in the center, the size of a quarter, still a bit loose.
6. Remove ramekins from baking pan and chill custard in refrigerator several hours or until chilled through.
7. To serve put a thin layer of granulated sugar atop each custard. Using a blow torch, over a heat and flame proof surface (like over a large cookie or baking sheet) caramelize sugar working from the outside in towards the middle keeping the torch in constant motion. Sugar should be golden brown and caramelized never black. If burnt, let the sugar layer cool a few minutes than peel it away with a paring knife and begin again.
8. Serve immediately.

Chilton County Peaches

It's peach season again.  Peaches from Chilton County started showing up at the local farmer's market about two weeks ago.  So when my brother (who is visiting from California) and I were looking for something to do on Sunday, we decided to drive down and "get us some."

I realize we could have just bought a few baskets at the farmer's market next Thursday but we needed an outing and the Giant Peach is an Alabama Curiosity, as my brother reminded me.  He knows this because it says so in a book of the same title that I gave him several years ago when I first moved to Alabama.  The Giant Peach is actually a 120-foot tall water tower on I-65 at exit 212 in Chilton County.

There is a smaller Giant Peach at a roadside stand a few miles south of the big one, which is where we were headed when I spotted a sign that said "OPEN, U-Pick Peaches, 3 Miles."

It would much more memorable if we actually picked our own.  And it seemed a little silly to drive 60 miles to go to a roadside stand when the Tuscaloosa farmer's market is right here in town.  At least that is the argument I used to persuade my brother to get out of the car in 90-degree heat and tromp down an unpaved orchard road with four baskets in hand looking for ripe peaches.

The lady at the farm asked what I was going to do with them.  "Gelato, fresh peach gelato."  I'm not sure she had any idea what gelato is.  My brother caught the blank look on her face and piped in "it's like ice cream."

"Oh," she said, smiling, "I love home-made peach ice cream."

$28 later we were back in the comfort of the air conditioning of my PT Cruiser, heading back up Highway 82 to Tuscaloosa.  Should you find yourself with some ripe peaches this season, here is the recipe from our cookbook.

Fresh Peach Gelato

• 6 medium peaches
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 package (3.4 oz) instant vanilla pudding mix
• 3 cups milk

Prepare the peaches.  Blanche the peaches in boiling water and immediately plunge them into a sink full of ice water.  Peel the skin off.  Pit and rough chop the peeled peaches.  Place the peach pieces, sugar and lemon juice in a heavy saucepan.  Bring to a rolling boil and cook for about 2-3 minutes.  Cool completely.

Make the gelato base.  Whisk the instant pudding mix and milk together in a bowl until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. (We also have a recipe for a cooked gelato base which calls for egg yolks, milk, cream and sugar, but this one is so much easier...)

Combine the peach mixture with the gelato base.  Mix well, pour into an ice-cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Makes 1 quart.

Or, come on down to Mary's and try ours.  We'll have it beginning Tuesday.

Rhubarb Pie

"Mama's little baby loves rhubarb, rhubarb,
Beebopareebop Rhubarb Pie.
Mama's little baby loves rhubarb, rhubarb,
Beebopareebop Rhubarb Pie. "

Beebopareebop Rhubarb Pie is a fictitious sponsor of A Prairie Home Companion, a National Public Radio program.  While you can listen to it on Alabama Public Radio, it really speaks all things Minnesota.

Like rhubarb.  Which doesn’t really grow in the south although I have heard there might be a variety that does.  But it's probably why most folks here have no idea what it is, or what it tastes like.

And it probably also explains why the local grocery store here, Publix, sold it with the poisonous leaves still attached, but I am getting ahead of myself.

I like rhubarb.  I love rhubarb pie.  It's tart and sweet at the same time.  Not too gooey.  Holds together nicely when you cut it.  Until I moved south, I always had access to it.  We grew it in California.  Had friends who grew it in New York.  Even had friends who grew it in Finland.  But it doesn't grow in Alabama, too hot and humid.  Which is a problem for me and all the other Yankee transplants (aka "damn yankees") that know and love it.

Most people cook it, it makes great jams, jellies or puddings.  And pies.  And you only eat the stalks.  The leaves contain oxalic acid, and you can't eat them cooked or raw.  You can read all about it at this website.  Anytime I have purchased rhubarb at the supermarket, the leaves were removed.  The Super Target in Tuscaloosa sometimes carries it.  And I found it last week at Publix, leaves intact, for $4.99 per pound (ouch!).

We had promised rhubarb pie to a customer so I spent $17 for enough rhubarb for three pies.  Our normal suppliers can't get it, but one of my chef friends has a produce supplier who is supposed to deliver a case on Tuesday.  So we'll have rhubarb pies next week.

The recipe is simple, and in our cookbook:

Rhubarb Pie

Unbaked pie shell
Additional pie crust dough
6-8 stalks fresh rhubarb
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 C. granulated sugar
1/2 C. instant tapioca
1/4 C. water
Cream
Granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375^o F.  Wash rhubarb and slice into 1/2 inch slices/  In a large mixing bowl, combine the rhubarb, cinnamon, sugar, tapioca and water.  Toss to combine.  Pour the rhubarb mixture into the pie shell.  It should mound 1-2 inches higher than the shell.

Roll out additional pie crust dough.  Using a pizza cutter or rolling pastry wheel, slice about twelve 1/2 inch strips of pie crust dough.  Place over pie, forming a lattice design.  Brush lightly with cream and sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake at 375^o F for about 45-55 minutes, or until the pie crust is lightly browned and the rhubarb mixture is bubbly.  Once the center begins to bubble and thicken, remove the pie from the oven and allow to cool completely before serving.

Makes one pie.

I followed the recipe...

Whenever something goes wrong and I ask what might have happened, the excuse is always the same..."I followed the recipe."

And my response is..."You could not have followed the recipe.  If you follow the same recipe every time, the result will be the same every time."

Like most bakeries and restaurants, we have master recipes for everything we make.  They are in a big binder and list the ingredients as well as the directions.  As far as I know, there are no ghosts or gremlins in the shop that mess with the cookie doughs, bread doughs, cake batter or pastries when we are not looking.

So it's all about how you define "following the recipe."  Here are the top ten examples of NOT following the recipe:

1. Use a measuring cup? The recipe calls for 1/3 cup of butter -- that's a little less than a stick of butter, right?
2. The recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar.  You dip the cup measure into the bin of sugar and it comes out full -- more or less. You never really understood why there was space between the line marking one cup and the top of the cup anyway.
3. You use a heaping teaspoon of baking powder, baking soda or salt instead of leveling off the spoon because that's how you do it with your coffee in the morning.
4. The recipe says to cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.  What exactly i's "fluffy?"
5. The recipe says to add the eggs one at a time -- surely they do not mean to wait after each addition until the egg is thoroughly mixed in do they?
6. A half cup of milk? There were only a few drops more than that in the carton anyway and no point putting an almost empty carton back in the refrigerator.
7. The butter is too hard to use, so it's ok to "soften" it in the microwave, right?
8. How many eggs have I cracked?  I knew I should have been counting...
9. Someone has written in an adjustment to the recipe in the margin.  That must be what I should use, right?
10. You dump all the ingredients into the mixer without ever reading the directions.  Your excuse?  Mary never reads the directions.

The really sad part is when you don't follow the recipe, it comes out badly, and then you do it again exactly the same way.  This is when I repeat the joke about the one-legged dog.

Q: "Do you know where you find a one-legged dog?"

A: "Right where you left him."

OMG...Chocolate Peanut Butter Delights

Throwing a bunch of stuff together to make a "new" bakery treat works...sometimes. Other times not so much.  These are a winner.  Only problem is that I'm not sure I can make them again.  Here's the (long) story.

I get a magazine called "Modern Baking."  One of many trade journals dedicated to the pastry business, it just appeared in my mailbox one day.  Most of the content is focused on large independent and in-store bakeries, but it is refreshing to see what others in the industry are doing.  We're the only bakery of our kind in Tuscaloosa and don't have many peers to share experiences with.

There is a section in the magazine called "Formula Exchange."  Many months may go by without anything that catches my eye but I have found some useful recipes there including granola, croissants and baguettes.  Last month there was a recipe for Chocolate almond espresso petit fours, contributed by the Almond Board of California.  It was the photo that caught my eye.  Some people call this type of photo "food porn" and I understand why.  Looks pretty inviting, huh?

I promised the girls in the shop that we would try it if they got all the items on the daily list done at a reasonable hour. (We have a daily list of about 10-15 things to do and items to make -- ranging from the simply obvious (breakfast) to the mundane (bake snickerdoodles) to the more pressing (finish cookie deco for tomorrow's orders).  By 3:00 the "reasonable hour" had passed so I took matters into my own hands.  This recipe would take too long to make before 6 when we closed, but I could probably throw something else together, and a variation of the multi-textured chocolate covered treats was calling to me.

Back to the dry food storage area in the back of the shop: oats, peanut butter, chopped peanuts.  From the freezer: chopped day-old pound cake.  Ground the pound cake into crumbs then toasted the oats, cake crumbs and nuts in the oven for about 30 minutes.  No patience to let it cool, just dumped it in the large mixer.  Added peanut butter, almost an entire 40-oz. jar.  Too crumbly and not sweet enough.  Added some confectioners sugar.  Better, but still too crumbly.  I was looking for something I could press into a sheet pan, let firm up, then cut into squares and coat with chocolate.

Epiphany!  Added some melted white chocolate and butter.  It was crunchy but held together, slightly sweet and begging to be enrobed.  I must have said "Oh my God!" out loud because suddenly there were three others standing over the mixer waiting for a taste.

Yep.  Delicious.  Right out of the mixer.

Only one problem.  I didn't measure anything so I am not sure I can ever make it again.

Bloody Awful!

Most of the recipes we have tried using sugar substitutes have been OK.  Some good.  Some better than others.  Some not great but edible.  The Pavlova using Xylitol was downright awful.  Rubbish!  One of the worst things I have put in my mouth in a long time.  Not only did the meringue never crisp up, it acquired an off taste. And no, it wasn't the egg whites because we made a "control" meringue with real sugar and egg whites from the same carton for comparison, which tasted fine and crisped up nicely.

A Pavlova is an Australian dessert made from baked meringue.  It was created to honor the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova on a tour of Australia and New Zealand.

The meringue is formed into a "bowl" and baked until crisp on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside, then topped with sweetened cream and tropical fruits.  Except for the cream, it is fat-free, and I was hoping to make a sugar-free version.

Xylitol is made from fermented and crystalized birch sugar and I had bought two varieties of fermented sugar substitutes.  The other (Sun Crystals or Erythritol), is made from raw cane sugar and worked OK in the Madelines where it was dissolved in eggs, but failed in the shortbread where it was combined with the butter.  The sugar crystals never dissolved in the fat, giving the cookies an odd look and even odder taste.  Because the erythritol didn't dissolve, the cookies were also mealy.

So we'll keep experimenting.  I read one Pavlova recipe that swears by a bit of vinegar and cornstarch to produce the crisp outside and marshmallow-like inside.  It also suggests grinding the sweetener in a food processor to make it finer.  So we'll try that next.  Please make suggestions if you've ever used these sweeteners this way.

Chocolate Mousse Cake Recipe with Splenda

We used up the Splenda Brown Sugar Blend yesterday.  I'm not convince the cakes and cookies we made are any better for you than the sugared version, we took a brisk two mile walk around the Baylands Park and Sanctuary just in case.

This recipe is super easy and delicious.  Not too rich.  We divided the batter into two pans, then spread some home-made (but strained smooth in a sieve) kumquat preserves between the slices for even more citrus flavor.  We cut the 9-inch round into 16 pieces and nobody complained about the size of the dessert.  We may offer it at the bakery.  It's flourless and lower-sugar but certainly not calorie-free.

Orange and Rum Chocolate Mousse Cake

1 C. water
1/2 C. sugar (we used Splenda brown sugar blend)
8 T. (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
10 oz. bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao bittersweet), chopped into pieces
6 large eggs
Zest of one orange
2 T. dark rum

Preheat oven to 325F.  Butter and line a 9” round cake pan.  Heat water and sugar in medium saucepan until sugar dissolves and syrup begins to simmer.  Remove from heat and stir in butter, then chocolate.  Mix until the chocolate has completely melted.  Whisk eggs with orange zest and rum in a separate bowl.  Gradually whisk in chocolate mixture.  Pour into prepared cake pan.  Set cake pan in a water bath.  Bake 45 minutes until slightly risen and soft but firm and not jiggly.  Remove cake from pan and let cool.  Brush with melted orange marmalade or cover with ganache.

Just in case you are wondering what we did with the rest of the Splenda since this recipe only called for a half-cup... We made Congo Bars.  The original recipe is from Margaret Fox, formerly of Cafe Beaujolais in Mendocino.  We added the dried cherries.  And of course she didn't use Splenda.

Congo Bars

11 T. butter, melted and cooled
1 lb. light brown sugar (we used Splenda brown sugar blend)
3 large eggs
2 3/4 C. a.p. flour
2 1/2 tsp. b.p.
1/2 tsp. salt
2 C. chocolate chips
1 C. nuts
1 C. dried fruit

Preheat oven to 325F.  Grease and line a half-sheet pan.  Mix brown sugar, butter and eggs in bowl.  Add dry ingredients, then mix in chips, nuts and fruit.  Spread into pan and bake 20 minutes or until deep golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool a bit.  Cut into 2-inch squares while still warm.  Makes 24 bars.

They were REALLY good.

Recipe for pumpkin pie

It's Monday before Thanksgiving and the shop smells like pumpkin pie.

The pumpkin pies started their life at Mary's as Halloween decor.  Then, a few days ago, we chopped them up and baked them.  Next we removed the skin and pureed the baked pumpkin, and presto!  Pumpkin ready to make pies. One little trick...let the freshly cooked and pureed pumpkin drain in a china cap or strainer for several hoursor overnight in the refrigerator to remove some of the excess liquid.

It's a perfect day to bake pies.  Cold and rainy outside.  Nice and cozy inside.  And that wonderful bakery smell... Today's it's a combination of cinnamon and nutmeg and brown sugar and chocolate.

Besides pumpkin, we're making sweet potato, sweet potato pecan, pecan, fudge, and fudge pecan.  Here's the recipe for the pumpkin pie from our cookbook:

Pumpkin Pie
1 prepared 9-inch deep dish pie shell, unbaked
1 lb. fresh pumpkin puree
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 C. margarine
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg

Place pumpkin and condensed milk in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Melt margarine and add to pumpkin mixture.  Mix until blended.  Add spices and egg and continue mixing until smooth.  Pour pumpkin mixture into prepared unbaked pie shell and bake at 325 F for about 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Store in refrigerator.

Makes one very delicious pie that tastes great served with vanilla ice cream or plain whipped cream.

How to make a banana split cake

The banana split cake was an accident.  A nice accident.  We had some banana-nut bread batter left over from making individual loaves.  Not enough to pour into a loaf pan, but too much to throw out.  I considered making muffins, but it was Saturday, and they would be sitting out or frozen until Monday, when they would no longer be fresh.

 We poured the batter into muffin top pans (and you thought they just cut the tops off muffins...).  They look like little cake pans you might make baby cakes out of.  Like the kind I used to make in my Easy-Bake Oven when I was about eight years old.  Then we brushed the little cakes with rum (the official reason was to keep them from drying out...).  At this point, they sat all wrapped up in plastic) in the freezer for a while, until last week when we took them out and piped a generous amount of caramel icing between two cakes, topped the stacked layers with swirled vanilla buttercream, then drizzled warm ganache over the entire cake, and garnished the dessert with chopped nuts and a candied cherry. These little babies needed a nice presentation, so they were placed on individual gold boards.

We made 18 cakes, which sold out in a couple of hours.  I knew we had a winner when one of our customers called back a few days later to say how good they were.  This is a guy who is always brutally honest, especially if it hurts.

All of these recipes are in our new cookbook, but you can use any recipe you like.  For this dessert it is all about the assembly.

Banana Split Cake Ingredients

• Banana-Nut Bread Batter
• Caramel Icing
• Buttercream Icing
• Ganache
• Chopped  Pecans
• Candied Cherries
• Individual Cake Boards

You will also need the following specialty baking and decorating tools:

• Muffin Top Pans
• Pastry Bags
• Large Star Tip

Assembly Instructions

1. Bake the banana-nut bread in muffin top pans, using a 2-ounce scoop (or disher) to neatly and evenly scale out the batter.
2. Make the buttercream, ganache and caramel icing. We whip the caramel icing until fluffy to make it easier to pipe.
3. When the banana cakes are done and out of the pans, brush each generously with rum using a pastry brush.
4. Pipe about an inch-worth of caramel icing on half of the cakes, using a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip.
5. Place an un-iced cake layer  on top of each iced layer.
6. Pipe a generous amount of buttercream on top of the stacked cake, using a large star tip.
7. Drizzle some warm ganache on top of the iced cakes and top with chopped pecans and a candied cherry.

Or, if you live in the Tuscaloosa-Northport area, call us and we'll make some for you.

Kiwi sorbet recipe - wow!

We had such success with Pear William sorbet last week I decided to experiment a little.  I had intended to get strawberries at the local market.  Or maybe mangos.  But for whatever reason, there were none to be had.  They did have overripe bananas, which I bought for banana bread.  I even considered making banana sorbet, but (no matter what you add) it usually turns brown after a day.  Then I saw the sign.

"Kiwis: 6 for $1"

Why not?  I like kiwis.  They were pretty ripe and soft, perfect for making sorbet.  And the price is right.  If it doesn't work I haven't spent a fortune.  I remembered from Culinary School that you really don't want to cook kiwis so the sorbet recipe is perfect.  Make up the sugar, glucose and stabilizer mixture.  Blend in the kiwis. Then let the freezer do its magic.

One problem.  The book I have with formulas for different fruit sorbets does not include kiwi.  I quickly scanned the table.  It lists how much sugar, glucose powder and sorbet stabilizer is needed for one kilo of each type of pureed fruit.  I used the formula for strawberry puree, but with a higher ratio of the sugar mixture, and slightly more stabilizer.  It worked great!  So here it is.  You will need a kitchen scale that measures grams.

Kiwi Sorbet Recipe

12 kiwis, peeled and pureed, about 600 grams of puree
250 grams granulated sugar
50 grams powdered glucose
4 grams sorbet stabilizer
350 grams water
1 tsp. salt

Combine the sugar, glucose, sorbet stabilizer and water in a large sauce pan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sweeteners.  Cool completely over an ice bath, or overnight in the refrigerator.  Stir in the kiwi puree and salt.  Pour into an ice cream freezer and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.  Makes about 1 quart.

Stabilizer is important to prevent ice creams, gelatos and sorbets from becoming gritty and hard when frozen.  You can leave it out if you intend to enjoy the sorbet immediately, but it is absolutely necessary if you intend to keep it overnight.  You can buy sorbet and ice cream stabilizer on the Internet.  We buy ours from Albert Uster, but PastryChef.com also carries it.