Death by Chocolate...

I haven't been posting as much lately, since I've been spending a lot more time at DaisyCakes baking fantastic things on a daily basis!  I am, however, going to try to start snapping more photos of the things I'm making there, even though I can't share a recipe.  At least I can share some decorating tips and ideas and maybe hope to advertise a little for my new employer.  Tonight I'm starting on a "Death by Chocolate" cake that I'm making for my brother Tom's birthday this weekend.  The cake is a moist chocolate cake, made using melted chocolate and sour cream.  I'll cut the two cake layers in half (making four), then stripe each layer with a small amount of whipped ganache and fruit preserves.  I'll also squeeze some whipped cream in between each layer.  To top it off, I'll pour liquid chocolate ganache over the top, let it set and finish with an elegant chocolate design.  Then, everyone's favorite part, we will cut into it and eat it!!  Ahhhh...what a great way to go!

Heidi's Chocolate Cake
makes two 9" round cake layers

{Print this recipe!}

Ingredients:

16 oz (2 cups) sugar

7 oz (1 1/3 cup) all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

¾ teaspoon baking soda

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, cut into ¼” pieces

8 fluid oz (1 cup) hot water

2 eggs, room temperature

4 fl oz vegetable oil

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla

½ cup sour cream

1 fl oz buttermilk

Directions:

Butter and line two 9” cake pans (or spray with non-stick spray).  It is essential that you line these pans with parchment paper, otherwise your cake will stick and will not be able to be removed from the pan. (Trust me, I know this personally to be true...#canyousayeatingchocolatecakepiecesforweeks?)  Stir sugar, flour, salt, baking soda in mixing bowl. Put chocolate in another bowl and place hot water over it.  Whisk eggs in a third mixing bowl until liquid, then whisk in oil, vanilla, sour cream, and buttermilk, one at a time. Whisk chocolate and water mixture smooth, then scrape into egg mixture. Whisk smooth.  Stir in the dry ingredients.  Divide between prepared pans and smooth tops. Bake at 325 for 30-40 min, until well-risen and toothpick is clean. Cool on racks for 5 min, then invert, peel paper and invert again to cool.

Basic Recipe for Chocolate Ganache  

Mix equal parts chopped chocolate and heavy cream by heating the cream to scald, then pour over chopped chocolate.  Let sit for 2 minutes, then whisk smooth.  Allow the ganache to cool to close to room temperature (so that it will not melt the icing on top of the cake).   Prepare the cake for ganache covering by icing smooth and bringing the cake close to room temperature.  (You don't want the cake to be too cool, or else it will give you less time to work with the ganache once it's been poured.)  Also, if you put some of this ganache in a metal bowl in the fridge or freezer for a few, and then, once it's solid, whip it up using a mixer, you'll have a nice whipped ganache that is of spreading consistency.

Stabilized Whipped Cream

This is a good recipe to have.  Everyone knows how to whip some cream.  Not everyone, however, knows how to stop.  Yes, you must STOP when you have whipped cream.  Or else you will get butter.  Seriously.  Stop when the cream is peaked.  To make a delicious sweetened whipped cream, simply add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar to 2 cups cream and whip together in a bowl.  Adding a little softened gelatin will help to stabilize the whipped cream, great for if you want it to hold up during travel or overnight.  This part can be a little tricky, so pay attention.  Get yourself about 2 teaspoons of powdered gelatin and sprinkle it over about 2 Tablespoons of cold water.  This will allow the gelatin to absorb the water, called "blooming."  Once the gelatin is softened, melt it into a liquid either by microwaving it in short bursts (5-10 seconds at a time) or by setting the bowl over a double boiler.  Once the gelatin is liquefied, set it aside and allow the liquid to cool (but not set back up).  You want the gelatin liquid to be sorta close in temperature to the whipped cream and if it's too hot it will solidify immediately when it hits the cold whipped cream.  This creates hard little gelatin chunks in your cream which is not what you were wanting, was it?  Once the gelatin liquid has cooled a little, pour it slowly into your mixer when the sweetened cream is at medium peaks.  Keep whipping until at stiff peaks.  This stabilized gelatin will be great for squeezing in between cake layers. 

Stop reading and make this cake.  Seriously, it will get you over any hump and make your day, week, month better.  Yummy!  Peace out -

Ice Cream Trio

I've never been a person who gets sick often, but this week started out bad.  I felt a little crummy when I got up on Monday, you know, a scratchy throat and some body aches.  I went to work, mostly forgot about it and went to bed that night without giving it another thought.  About 1:00 in the morning, I woke up, throat in flames, could not swallow, definitely could not sleep.  I took some ibuprofen, switched on the TV, made myself some hot tea and a salt-water gargle (2 separate things!) and tried to make myself feel better.  The hot tea felt good on my throat.  I made another cup of tea.  And another.  And another.  Pretty soon, another thing that was keeping me from sleeping -- I had to pee every 10 minutes!  The next morning, I went to the doctor and found out I had strep throat.  Do adults even get strep throat?  Well, I did.  The doctor sent me home with some penicillin and told me to get some rest and stay out of work for at least 24 hours.  I crashed on the couch and willed myself to feel better.  Two days passed in misery.

Now, today I am no longer contagious, the antibiotics have kicked in, and all that's left is that minor scratchy feeling in my throat, mostly a memory.  I bet some ice cream would make it feel 100% better!

Please enjoy this delightful ice cream trio, adapted from David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop. Tomorrow, it's getting plated up as a grown-up banana split...

Chocolate Tiramisu

It's starting to get chilly outside.  OK, correction, it got COLD.  TODAY.  We left the house this morning in Durham and it was chilly outside, but I swear the temperature dropped at least 10 degrees between 8:00 this morning and noon.  I was not prepared.  But, I will be soon!

To prepare, get yerself some hot coffee and some booze.  Seriously.  What better way to beat the chill?  That's right, I'm making tiramisu.  Tiramisu, literally translated from Italian, means "pick me up."  This dessert will pick you up for sure.  And then shake you off and make you dance!  I'm hoping for some people to dance with me tomorrow night (so I don't look so silly dancing by myself), so hopefully this dessert will do it. 

This recipe is a slight variation on the classic tiramisu, which typically consists of ladyfinger cookies soaked in espresso, alternating layers with a zabaglione (also known as zabaione, sabayon, or zabajone), which is an egg yolk custard mixed with rum, Kahlua, brandy or marsala (some kind of alcohol).  The egg yolk custard incorporates heat and a lot of air from whipping to turn egg yolks, sugar and the sauce into a fragrant, boozy deliciousness!  (Baking holds many faces of bliss for me in particular, and standing over a double-boiler with the steamy smell of eggs, sugar and marsala wafting into my face is seriously one of them!) 

The zabaglione is mixed with mascarpone cheese, which is a sweetened Italian cream cheese, and some whipped cream.  These layers are usually topped with whipped cream, chocolate shavings and cocoa or cinnamon.  I'm adding some chocolate ganache in with the zabaglione to liven things up a little

Anatomy of a layer cake

Today I would like to demonstrate how to assemble a simple layer cake, the banana blitz (or nannersplosion, please feel free to comment and let me know which name you like better), from start to finish.

To begin, the cake layers should have been baked, cooled, then wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen overnight. Bring them to room temperature to thaw for 1 hour before assembly. Also, put previously-made buttercream and ganache on the counter at room temperature for an hour as well.

Grab an appropriately sized cake board (at least 1" larger in diameter than your cake), place a small smear of buttercream on the middle of the board to keep it from sliding. Unwrap one of your cake layers and place it top-side down on the middle of the cake board. If you left your parchment on the cake when it cooled (a good idea), you can place your hand here to steady the cake as you cut it in half. Use a long, sharp, serrated knife (at least a couple inches longer than the cake) and start slicing through on one side in the center of the layer. If you watch the other end of your knife while you are moving the cake around, you will see that the knife continues to follow the path you originally cut. This helps to keep the layers even. Once the cake is cut in layers, remove the top half and set it aside.

Some really awesome cookies

So, if the title doesn't give it away, what follows here is a recipe for some really awesome cookies! If you are a cookie person and don't already own Carole Walter's Great Cookies, please do go out and get a copy. You can buy it off Amazon right now for about 20 bucks. It's the best cookie book out there!!

Anyway, cookies were on the menu on Friday since I found out that I have a nephew who is on the mend and I decided I needed to send him a little care package. These really awesome cookies are easy to make, use ingredients I already have, travel and store well and are AWESOME!

Most people are pretty familiar with how a basic cookie recipe comes together, but this one uses a few alternate ingredients that I'd like to take some time to explain.

One of the first steps for making a cookie is usually the creaming step. Butter is whipped until soft and then sugar(s) mixed in, edges scraped down and mixture continued to be whipped until "light and fluffy." This recipe, however, uses brown sugar in addition to regular sugar, and it also calls for a small amount of corn syrup. Brown sugar is a less refined sugar than granulated sugar and usually contains molasses. The molasses contributes not only to the distinct flavor of brown sugar, but also to its more hygroscopic nature. Brown sugar contains about 35% more moisture than granulated sugar. Hygroscopic means that it absorbs or attracts moisture. So, when brown sugar is added to a recipe, it serves to allow the cookies to be chewier, even after they have been cooled. The darker the brown sugar (i.e. dark brown sugar), the higher the molasses content. The extra addition of corn syrup in this recipe helps to give the surface of the cookies a little bit of a shine and it browns at a lower temperature than regular sugar. It is also part of the liquid in this recipe, and contributes to the moisture of the cookie while limiting its spread.

Finally, Carole's recipe incorporates oatmeal in 2 forms, the whole oats that are actually mixed in to the recipe, but there is also a little over a cup of oats that are ground in the food processor and mixed in with the sugar during creaming. This seriously limits the spread potential of these cookies, since the oatmeal binds the dough. This counteracts (in a good way) the impact of the added moisture from the brown sugar, leaving you with a cookie that is magically thick and chewy. On with the recipe...

New Flavors!

I wanted to try (to conquer) some new flavors of macaron today, plus I promised Todd that I'd make him something with chocolate and espresso. So...today I made three flavors of macaron: a repeat of the plum flavor I made a couple weeks ago (they were just so good!), a chocolate macaron with chocolate espresso ganache (I threw a touch of Kahlua in there for good measure), and a Marion Blackberry flavor. I had hoped to make a macaron using some kind of unusual frozen fruit from the grocery store (I was thinking passion fruit or guava), but they didn't really have any "unusual" fruits. Back when we were in NYC, I could buy fruit purees, just about any kind, at lots of locations throughout the city. But, the Marion Blackberries were really pretty and came in a nice biodegradable bag, which pretty much sold me on them. Ha ha!

I also bought some freeze-dried blueberries (couldn't find blackberries), which I ground into a powder and added to the macaron batter for the blackberry flavor. It gave the cookies a nice speckle and added to their flavor.

I'm somewhat lacking in photos today, it was cloudy and overcast and we don't have much natural light back here as it is. I snapped just a few pics, will try to get some more tomorrow to show off the details!

I will share a few recipes today, for my macarons, as well as some insight on the outcomes and tips/suggestions/ideas.

Berry Macaron with Marion Blackberry Jam
makes about 60 filled 1" macaron

5 oz egg whites (aged 24 hours at room temp, followed by 24 hours in the fridge)
0.8 oz freeze-dried blueberries (blackberries would have been ideal)
6.35 oz powdered sugar
6.35 oz almond meal
6.8 oz sugar
2 oz water

Process blueberries in food processor, along with powdered sugar and almond meal. Sift and set aside in a large bowl. Divide the egg whites in half and set one half aside. Beat the other half to firm peaks with a stand mixer. While whites are whipping, heat sugar and water in a saucepan to 244°F. When sugar water is at temp and whites are at firm peaks, turn off mixer and pour hot sugar into whites then immediately begin whipping again at high speed. This creates what is called an Italian Meringue. When the meringue has cooled to just slightly warm, add the extra egg whites to the dry mixture, followed by the meringue and use a folding motion to incorporate all of the ingredients. The batter, when mixed appropriately, should be the consistency of molten lava...Not that that's a concept that most of us will be very familiar with in real life, but you'll probably figure it out!



Pipe the macaron onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, double-stacked. Today, I baked 330°F, just to see what the extra 5° would do for me. I still baked all cookies on double baking sheets, but I did notice an impact using some new (thinner/cheaper) baking sheets. Since the double sheet is supposed to protect the bottoms of the macaron from browning or heating too much, I did realize that the bottoms of today's cookies were crunchier than past batches. (A little too much so.) Not sure if this is from the thinner pans or the extra 5°. Will bake on these pans again at 325°F and see what happens. I also baked this batch of macaron without letting them sit at room temperature. Overall, the MOST IMPORTANT thing I learned today is something I warned all of you about just the other day. If the macaron have peaks on top that don't settle out, it's very important not to overwet them. I think I used too much water on my fingertip to smooth the peaks and ended up compromising the integrity of the cookie shell for many of the first batch. This batter was slightly too thick, so I'd probably cut back a little on the quantity of dry ingredients next time. Cookies were DONE (no question) by 14 minutes in the oven and removed easily from pans. I ended up with half of this batch being "macawrongs" because of my overzealous wet finger.



Blackberry Jam
makes about 1 cup jam

1 cup mashed blackberries
1/4 cup agave syrup
2 t pectin

Heat blackberries over medium heat to a boil. Mix pectin with agave syrup. Once blackberry mixture is at a boil, remove from heat, stir in pectin/syrup mixture and stir well to dissolve. Place back on the heat and cook, stirring well, for a couple minutes. Remove from heat. Since I don't have equipment to can at home, I just poured this into an old glass jar (while hot), screwed the lid on and let it cool. Once cool, I refrigerated and will use within a few weeks. If you want to can this to store for a longer period of time, you should probably check out another resource on canning like this. Or this. Once this sits overnight in the fridge, the pectin has a chance to work and the jam thickened completely.

I filled some of the macaron with the jam itself and, the other half I filled with a buttercream mixed with a 1/4 cup or so of the jam. Both combinations were good, and a touch sweeter than I'd have preferred.

Chocolate Macaron with Chocolate Espresso Ganache
makes about 40 filled 1" macaron

3.2 oz liquid egg whites (pasteurized from a carton)
1 t meringue powder
3.8 oz powdered sugar
3.8 oz almond meal
1 oz cocoa
4.3 oz sugar
1.1 oz water

Process cocoa, powdered sugar and almond meal in a food processor. Sift and set aside in a large bowl. Divide the egg whites in half and set one half aside. Beat the other half (along with the meringue powder) to firm peaks with a stand mixer. While whites are whipping, heat sugar and water in a saucepan to 244°F. When sugar water is at temp and whites are at firm peaks, turn off mixer and pour hot sugar into whites then immediately begin whipping again at high speed. When the meringue has cooled to just slightly warm, add the extra egg whites to the dry mixture, followed by the meringue and use a folding motion to incorporate all of the ingredients.

For this batch, I was hoping to see the impact of using pasteurized, packaged egg whites. I did put a teaspoon of meringue powder in with the whites, hoping to strengthen the structure. Overall, though, I would say that this batch was largely a flop. Actually, when I first took them out of the oven, the looked nearly PERFECT. I think I even said, "A batch of perfect chocolate macaron!" But, not 2 short minutes later, the tops were all wrinkling and then they almost all cracked when I picked them up off the parchment. Like the top of a brownie, you know how it gets that paper-thin wrinkly top? The cookie was chewy, too, like a brownie. Hmmm, I'm not going to lie, it was really good, but didn't have the texture that a macaron is supposed to have. I think what happened here is that the batter may have been overmixed. Either that or the meringue wasn't strong enough because of having used pasteurized egg whites. I read that using pasteurized whites was not a good idea, because apparently the temperature at which eggs are pasteurized at is similar to the temperature at which proteins become denatured, which would likely ruin a successful meringue. So, for NOW, I will not be planning to use pasteurized egg whites any more. It was a cheap shot, but I had them in the fridge and I was trying to devise a way to limit the number of lonely YOLKS I have! (Those who know me well can predict that I will be posting egg yolky recipes in the next few days!!) If you have any suggestions or special requests, post a comment and I'll see what I can come up with...

So, on with the chocolate espresso ganache...

Chocolate Espresso Ganache
makes about 2 cups

8 oz chopped chocolate
10 fl oz cream
2 t instant espresso
2 t Kahlua (optional, but seriously, why not?)

Place chopped chocolate in a bowl. Heat cream just to scalding and dissolve espresso powder in the hot cream. Pour over chocolate, wait 2 minutes then whisk smooth. Add in the Kahlua if using. Allow to settle and harden at room temperature or in the fridge for a bit. Whip with a hand mixer before using to lighten and soften.





So, Heidi's lessons learned about macaron from today's marathon:
1. My ideal temperature (in this oven) seems to be 325°F, 330°F was too hot.
2. I will not be using pasteurized egg whites again.
3. Aging whites seems to be a good idea.
4. Letting the macaron sit on the counter to form a skin before baking also seems like a good idea.
5. No more wet fingertips on the macarons! Oh, and
6. Have fun, keep testing, keep learning!

OMG, Macarons!

Known as one of the hardest things for a pastry chef to master, the French treat known as a macaron is truly a myriad of challenges. I've attempted macarons many times, and have had an endless number of problems: flat macaron, cracked macaron, macaron with no "feet," macaron that were too light, too dark and macaron that stuck to the paper. But today, things finally fell into place! I've never blogged my macaron adventures before, but I'm ready to show some pictures today. I can't wait to create other combinations and flavors!!

Many sources attribute the origin of the macaron to Pierre Desfontaines of the famous Paris pastry shop Laduree. Now, macaron are being sold all over France, in some major cities in the US (I know there are a few shops in NYC that sell macaron), but this is not a treat that's available in most local groceries or bake shops.

Macaron should not be confused with another similarly-spelled cookie, the macaroon. Macaroons are a much heavier almond cookie, often made with coconut. The macaron is something different entirely. It's made from only 4 basic ingredients: almond flour (ground up almonds), powdered sugar, egg whites and regular sugar. The basic concept is to mix the dry ingredients into a meringue, but there are MANY different theories as to the best way to do that. The first recipe I attempted yesterday came from Today's Nest. Unfortunately, the macaron never did raise up off the baking sheet, so it didn't get the characteristic "feet" that a macaron is supposed to have. I went in search of more information and made another several batches, adjusting the ingredient ratios and the oven temperature. I even threw some cocoa powder into a batch and made chocolate macaron, with feet and all. So, there really isn't a specific "recipe" that I followed, but I ended up using a ratio of 1.35-1.5: 1 for each ingredient relative to the amount of egg whites I used. For the chocolate macaron, I removed an ounce or two of the other dry ingredients and replaced them with cocoa.




A few things that I learned (and this may NOT apply to your home, your oven):
- 310 F is too low of a temperature in my oven. 325 F was much better.
- Baking on double baking sheets is helpful.
- It did not make a difference whether I left the piped macaron to sit out before baking, I did it both ways and didn't see a noticeable difference.
- I did not find it necessary to prop the oven door open with a spoon to let heat out while baking.
- I sifted the powdered sugar and almond flour together, then processed in a food processor, then blended with a whisk to make sure there were no clumps.
- The egg whites I used were aged 24 hours at room temperature. I'm not sure if this made a difference, because I only used those whites.

The basic steps:
Blend your powdered sugar with the almond flour and set aside. Make a meringue with the egg whites and sugar. This can be a simple meringue, made by whipping egg whites to firm peaks, adding in the sugar and then blending into the dry ingredients. However, I found it easier to make an Italian meringue by cooking a sugar syrup (to about 244 F) and then pouring over whipping egg whites.




This mixture is then folded carefully into the dry ingredients. Once the mixture is smooth (DO NOT overmix), it can be piped into circles on parchment-lined baking sheets.



Macaron can be fickle and VERY frustrating, but they are also really beautiful, unique, extraordinarily delicious and one of the most versatile treats. If you can dream it up, you can put it in a macaron. Today's flavors are vanilla plum, chocolate/chocolate and chocolate chai.



Plum Buttercream

I wanted to make plum macaron because I'd never had them before and because plums are in season. I bought about 2 pounds of plums, pitted and chopped them and put them in a saucepan with some sugar and cooked the mixture down until it was thick and syrupy. I had hoped to strain out the solids, but to be honest, I couldn't get anything through my strainer, so I put it all back in the saucepan and cooked it a little more. I pureed the mixture using an immersion blender and added it to a classic Italian buttercream.





The finished product