Brioche Baguettes with Jefferson Market Nostalgia

Do you remember Jefferson Market the way it used to be when Jean Henry owned it? If you do, consider yourself lucky. Sadly, it changed ownership before my arrival to Ann Arbor. My friends talk fondly of this popular bakery shop in its heyday. It was a favorite neighborhood hangout: a good location to run into friends, catch up on weekend gossip, and eat amazing pastries while lounging in the adjacent garden.

One fond memory involved eating brioche baguettes, a brioche dough-based pastry filled with vanilla cream and chocolate chunks. Jean was kind enough to share her recipe with my baking friends. (A perk of living in a small town; someone always knows someone...) Last Saturday, while sharing a stellar brunch from items collected that morning at the farmers' market, Susie, Shana, Shannon, Elizabeth, Emily, and I made the baguettes with great success. Elizabeth beautifully documented the day in pictures, which can be viewed here.

If you're appetite is whetted, and you are interested in making these yourself, then read on...

For the Brioche:
link to recipe source
Makes about 2¼ pounds dough

The Sponge
⅓ cup warm whole milk (100 to 110° F)

1½ tsp instant yeast
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Put the milk, yeast, egg and 1 cup of the flour in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer. Mix the ingredients together with a rubber spatula, mixing just until everything is blended. Sprinkle over the remaining cup of flour to cover the sponge.

The Rest

Set the sponge aside to rest uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes. After this resting time, the flour coating will crack, your indication that everything is moving along properly.

The Dough
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
4 large eggs, at room temperature and lightly beaten
1½ cups (approximately) unbleached all-purpose flour
1½ sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Add the sugar, salt, eggs, and 1 cup of the flour to the sponge. Set the bowl into the mixer, attach the dough hook, and mix on low speed for a minute or two, just until the ingredients look as if they’re about to come together. Still mixing, sprinkle in ½ cup more flour.

When the flour is incorporated, increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for about 15 minutes, stopping to scrape down the hook and bowl as needed. During this mixing period, the dough should come together, wrap itself around the hook, and slap the sides of the bowl. If, after 7 to 10 minutes, you don’t have a cohesive, slapping dough, add up to 3 tablespoons more flour.

Continue to beat, giving the dough another full 15 minutes in the mixer – don’t skimp on the time; this is what will give the brioche its distinctive texture.

Warning

Be warned – your mixer will become extremely hot. Most heavy-duty mixers designed for making bread can handle this long beating, although if you plan to make successive batches of dough, you’ll have to let your machine cool down completely between batches.

Incorporating the butter

In order to incorporate the butter into the dough, you must work the butter until it is the same consistency as the dough. You can bash the butter into submission with a rolling pin or give it kinder and gentler handling by using a dough scraper to smear it bit by bit across a smooth work surface. When it’s ready, the butter will be smooth, soft, and still cool – not warm, oily or greasy. With the mixer on medium-low, add the butter a few tablespoons at a time. This is the point at which you’ll think you’ve made a huge mistake, because the dough that you worked so hard to make smooth will fall apart – carry on.

When all of the butter has been added, raise the mixer speed to medium-high for a minute, then reduce the mixer speed to medium and beat the dough for about 5 minutes, or until you once again hear the dough slapping against the sides of the bowl. Clean the sides of the bowl frequently as you work; if it looks as though the dough is not coming together after 2 to 3 minutes, add up to 1 tablespoon more flour. When you’re finished, the dough should still feel somewhat cool. It will be soft and sticky and may cling slightly to the sides and bottom of the bowl.

The First Rise

Transfer the dough to a very large buttered bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let it rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, 2 to 2½ hours.

The Second Rise and Chilling

Deflate the dough by placing your fingers under it, lifting a section of the dough, and then letting it fall back into the bowl. Work your way around the circumference of the dough, lifting and releasing. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough overnight, or for at least 4 to 6 hours, during which time it will continue to rise and may double in size again. After this long chill, the dough is ready to use in any brioche recipe. This recipe yields enough brioche dough for 3 têtes or 3 loaves.

Storing

If you are not going to use the dough after the second rise, deflate it, wrap it airtight, and store it in the freezer. The dough can remain frozen for up to 1 month. Thaw the dough, still wrapped, in the refrigerator overnight and use it directly from the refrigerator.

Putting It All Together:

1 recipe brioche dough
1 recipe vanilla pastry cream (see end of post for recipe)
8 ounces good quality semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Roll out defrosted or freshly-made (2 rises and deflated) brioche dough into a rectangle about 12" x 18" x ¼" deep on a floured surface.

Spread a ⅛" layer of pastry cream across the top leaving a ½" clean on each 18" side. Sprinkle chocolate chunks, in an even layer on top of the pastry cream. Be sure to leave space between chocolate pieces as too many will make the dough difficult to cut.

Fold dough into thirds along the 18" side, sealing by pressing with fingers along the clean edge. This leaves a 6" x 18" piece of dough with filling inside.

Make baguettes by cutting along the 18" length every 1½" creating 9 or more rectangles depending on the length you rolled the dough. Place on a parchment covered sheet pan, with plenty of room for rising left between the baguettes.

Preheat oven to 375° F. Allow baguettes to rise at room temperature to double their size (about 30 minutes), then bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly brown. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store at room temperature and consume within 12 hours of baking.

To freeze and serve up to one month later:

Freeze the filled and cut baguettes immediately (before rising) directly on the parchment-lined sheet tray for about 30 minutes. Once frozen, remove from tray and place in freezer-quality zipper storage bags. When ready to bake, remove as many baguettes as you'd like and place onto a parchment covered sheet tray. Allow the baguettes to fully defrost in the fridge overnight, then bring to room temperature, so that the baguettes rise to double their size. Bake as directed above.

Vanilla Pastry Cream
yield: ~1½ cups
1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
2 TBS (16 g) cornstarch
¾ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 TBS (30 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Dissolve cornstarch in 2 TBS of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat. Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour a third of the boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook. Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking. Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla. Pour cream into a bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours or up to 2 days. Just before using, whisk by hand until smooth.

Pièce Montée, it's a showpiece and a lesson in vocabulary

Classic French centerpiece desserts, like the croquembouche, are usually reserved for important occasions, such as weddings or baptisms or communions. But when your favorite hip hop artist, who just happens to adore caramel, invites you to his birthday party, I can think of bringing nothing more appropriate.

The first time I made one of these, I learned that croquembouche meant "crunch in the mouth" since each individual pastry is drenched in hard caramel. This time around I have a new French vocab word to share: pièce montée. Used as a synonym for croquembouche, it translates as "mounted piece". Think pastry architecture, or rather, the deft assemblage of sugar and cream puffs into an impressive, sculpted form.

While a lofty tower of profiteroles is pretty amazing to look at, cutting into one to serve is another challenge entirely. The profiteroles are physically "glued" together with hard candy, making it tough work to gracefully disassemble. Last time, we attacked it rather clumsily with a serrated knife. I've read that others have taken a chisel and hammer to crack the hard surface. YIKES!

This time around, to facilitate sharing as an eat-out-of-hand casual party dessert, I decided to keep the caramel-dipped profiteroles separate (not touching) and flat on a single sheet tray. No sticking together (which, turns out, is pretty hard to unstick)...no montée...just pièce. The height would come, at least I was hoping with fingers crossed, from the fancy sugar work spun on top. I spent a few nights studying sugar techniques in this textbook as preparation, hoping to create something extraordinary.

But when the day came to make this, it rained. That brings me to another vocab word: hygroscopic. Sugar is hygroscopic meaning it will absorb water from the surrounding air. See those beads of liquid on the sugar strands in the photo up above?! It was dissolving faster than I could finish! I decided to cut the decoration short, and instead poured JD's initials with the remaining caramel and sprinkled the finished piece with crystallized lilacs. Not quite the pièce montée I envisioned, but I was told it was delicious all the same.

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a pièce montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri. Instead of the suggested recipes, I followed closely the instructions in Bo Friberg's The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef with great success. I was particularly proud that my profiteroles did not deflate.

Vanilla Crème Patissiere
yield: ~3 cups

2 cups (480 ml) whole milk
4 TBS (32 g) cornstarch
1½ cups (200 g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
4 TBS (60 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 TBS vanilla bean paste

Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour ⅓ of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.

Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.

Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

Pour cream into a bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

Pâte à Choux
yield: ~60 (1-inch) profiteroles

2 oz (57.5 g) cake flour
2¾ oz (77.5 g) bread flour
1 cup (240 ml) water
6 TBS (85g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
¼ tsp (1.25g) salt
5 large eggs (1 cup), at room temperature

Sift the flours together on a sheet of parchment paper and reserve.

In a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan, bring the water, butter, and salt to a full rolling boil so that the butter droplets are dispersed throughout the liquid. Form the ends of the parchment into a funnel/cone shape; use this to pour the flour into the liquid while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Add the flour as fast as it can be absorbed, but avoid adding it once, which may create lumps. Continue cooking, stirring vigorously until the mixture forms a smooth, dry mass and pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 2-3 minutes.

Transfer the dough into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (you can also continue by hand). Let the dough cool while mixing on low for a couple of minutes so that the eggs do not scramble.

Once the dough has slightly cooled, begin to add the eggs one at a time. The dough will separate in the beginning, but it should come back together after the 3rd or 4th egg.

While the dough is still slightly warm, transfer it to a piping bag and pipe onto parchment lined baking sheets into shapes slightly larger than a cherry. Use a finger dipped in warm water to pat down any peaks.

Bake at 425° F until fully puffed and starting to show some color, about 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375° F and bake about 10-12 minutes longer or until golden brown and dry. Turn off oven and leave door open with puffs remaining on the oven racks puffs. Allow them to cool completely to room temperature before removing. This should encourage steam to escape and prevent the puffs from deflating.

Once cool, make a small hole in the bottom of each profiterole. Using a pastry bag fitted with a No. 2 tip, fill each with the pastry cream.

Caramelized Sugar
yield: 2¼ cups

1 cup (240 ml) water
2 lbs (910 g) granulated sugar
¼ cup (60 ml) light corn syrup

Fill a bowl large enough to hold the pan used for cooking the sugar with enough cold water to reach halfway up the sides of the pan. Set this aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup water and sugar and set over medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves and use a brush dipped in water to wash down any sugar crystals that stick to the side of the pan. Bring to a rolling boil, add the corn syrup, then lower the heat to medium. Do not stir once the sugar starts boiling. Instead, continue brushing down the sides of the pan with water as needed until the sugar reaches 280° F. Keep boiling until the syrup is amber in color. Quickly remove the pan from heat and dunk the bottom in the bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process.

Using 2 forks, dip the tops and sides of each cream-filled puff into the caramel, and arrange puffs as desired.

To make a spun-sugar web to decorate the croquembouche:
Cut the looped ends of a wire whisk with wire cutters, or use two forks held side by side, and dip the ends into caramel. Wave the caramel back and forth over the croquembouche, allowing the strands to fall in long, thin threads around it. Wrap any stray strands up and around the croquembouche.

Serve within 2 hours.

Happy Birthday, Gingered Rhubarb Puddin'

I'm all for traditional methods of baking, doing things purely from scratch, challenging my notions of what's fit for consumption, and sampling culinary dishes from various cultures. A recent introduction to Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management certainly has satisfied all four of these tenets at one fell swoop.

Mrs. Isabella Beeton was a famous British cookery writer of the late 19th century. Married to a publisher of books and popular magazines, she contributed articles on cooking and household management for her husband's publications. Eventually, all 2751 entries were published as a single volume, comprising information in all realms of Victorian British domesticity including tips on how to manage servants and rear children, medical and legal advice, as well as multi-course menu planning and detailed cooking instructions including seasonability and estimated cost of ingredients. Meant as a guide for an aspiring middle class, this compendium is said to be the first cookbook to show recipes in the format to which we are accustomed today. Flipping through the pages of her book, almost immediately, I was enthralled!

So when challenged this month to make a traditional, boiled British pudding, I chose to try a historical recipe from Mrs. Beeton. Rhubarb is in season, so I went with that as a basis for the filling. For never having seen or tasted a steamed pudding, the technique was quite surprising; you make a pastry dough that appears like pie crust, yet when steamed yields a moist cake crumb-like texture. In essence, I made gingered rhubarb-filled muffins.

By far though, the most adventurous aspect of this recipe was the required source of fat: suet. This was an anatomy and species lesson unto its own. Suet is the hard fat located around the loins and kidneys of a cow or sheep or deer. Not just a hardy consumable energy source for winter bird feeders or Arctic explorers, when rendered, it becomes tallow, an ingredient found in Twinkies and McDonald's french fries (before 1990) and candles and soap. Because of it's relatively low melting point, it makes an excellent source of fat for steamed British pastries. The pig and chicken equivalents of tallow are lard and schmaltz, respectively. Good information to file away...

At 80¢/lb (a sure bargain!), I purchased fresh suet from a local grocer and proceeded to rendered it in my kitchen (see bottom of post for instructions). It was an educationally fulfilling yet somewhat disgusting task that emitted a fragrance reminiscent of french fries. Though economical, I'm not sure I could adopt this source of fat in my regular baking repertoire. Sorry Mrs. Beeton, I think I prefer the flavor of butter instead. I've got a bit more tallow left over though in which I'm tempted to fry potatoes, but after that, I'm done.

By the way, today is the first birthday of my blog. Last year on this day, my inaugural post was Lavender-Infused Cheesecake with Crystalized Lilacs. Interesting to see how far this has come and to imagine where next it will go...

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Gingered Rhubarb Pudding

6-8 servings

Sweet Suet Crust

350 g self-rising flour
175 g rendered suet (see below for directions), or suet substitute (i.e., Vegetable Suet, Crisco, Lard)
1 tsp lemon sugar
a pinch of sea salt
210 milliliters

Filling
4-5 stalks rhubarb, ½-in dice
2 TBS crystallized ginger, finely chopped
110 g (4 oz) Lyle's Golden Syrup

Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. Coarsely grate the rendered suet on the large holes of a box grater into the bowl. Lightly mix the flour and suet together with fork or pastry blender, forming small pebble-sized pieces.

Mix in the water, a tablespoonful at a time, tossing lightly around the bowl until the pastry just comes together as a sticky and elastic dough. Use your hands to gather the dough into a smooth ball that when swiped around leaves the bowl clean. You may not use the full amount of water, so it is important to add it in small increments. Don’t over handle the pastry or it will become tough and glutiness.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Cut away a quarter of it and put aside to make the lid. Using a flour-dusted rolling pin, roll the larger portion of dough to a fairly thick circle about 13 inches in diameter.

Line a generously buttered, 4 cup capacity pudding basin with the pastry. If making single-sized servings, cut the pastry into individual rounds to fit smaller ramekins. Squeeze and tuck the pastry to fit snugly in the bowl, pressing it evenly all around.

Divide the diced rhubarb, crystallized ginger and golden syrup among each pastry-lined dish, then roll out the remaining pastry to form circular lid(s) large enough to cover the top of the basin or ramekins. Dampen the edges of each pastry lid with a bit of water and position it on top of the pudding. Seal well by crimping its edges. Cover with a sheet of parchment, pleated in the center to allow room for expansion while cooking and folded and tucked firmly around the edges of the basin. A video of this pleating technique can be seen here. The parchment cover can be secured with cooking twine, making a useful handle for lifting in and out of the hot steamer.

Place the pudding basin in a stove top steamer set over boiling water. Be sure the water comes no higher than a third of the way up the pudding basin, so as not to boil over into the pudding, which would create a soggy disappointment. Secure the lid of the pot and steam for 2-2½ hours for a large pudding or 1-1½ hours for individual ramekins. You may need to add more boiling water halfway through or possibly more often if it runs low. There is a lot of leeway in this steaming time. One way to determine that the pudding is sufficiently cooked is when the pastry changes color to a light golden brown. It is hard to over steam a pudding, though, so it can be left steaming for quite some time until you are ready to serve it.

When ready to serve, turn the pudding out of the basin and eat while still warm.

Rendering Suet into Tallow:

Obtain about a half a pound of suet from your local butcher, keep refrigerated until ready to use. With your fingers remove and discard as much of the muscle and membranous casing stuck to the suet. Once picked over, grate the suet on the largest holes of a box grater into a wide skillet. The smaller the bits of suet, the faster it will melt. Slowly heat the skillet over medium-low heat, allowing the fat to melt into a clear liquid and separate from any remaining extraneous bits. This could take up to 20 minutes or more. A fragrance reminiscent of french fries might waft in the air. Like clarifying butter, heating not only separates the proteins from the fat, but also allows any water to evaporate making it shelf stable. Once completely melted, pour the hot liquid through a fine mesh sieve lined with several layers of cheesecloth into a shallow heatproof container. Using the back of a spoon, press on the bits caught up in the cheesecloth to extract as much of the liquid tallow as possible. Allow the tallow to cool completely at room temperature. In its liquid state, tallow appears yellowish. It turns an opaque white at room temperature. Store at room temperature for near immediate use or freeze for long term projects.

Orange Tian, Nostalgia

It may take a good long meandering to get where you're going, but there are some things in life that are fairly, intrinsically evident from the very beginning. Let me explain...

When I was a kid, growing up in Florida, our yard was pretty fantastically prolific with a lemon tree, 2 grapefruit trees (one pink and one white), 3 orange trees (of various types), 2 tangerine trees, and an avocado tree. Playing outside meant climbing the trees and picking the fruit to snack on at whim. When the little neighbor boys came over, my sister and I would set up "house" under the branches of a particular orange tree. Interestingly, now that I think back on our pretend roles, I was never the "wife" or the "mother" or the "child". Instead, I was the "cook". (That's me in the picture below.) And, oh boy, (with all that citrus at my little finger tips) did I come up with some creative "meals"! The thing I remember making the most, my specialty if you will, was tangerine pie.

The recipe was simple really: take one frisbee, fill with dirt, then level off the surface; next peel several tangerines, separating the segments and arrange each segment with care atop the dirt; serve immediately to hungry playmates. Every time I made it, I would arrange the tangerine pieces in a different pattern. I bet in one play session alone I must have consumed 4-5 tangerines on my own, clinging dirt included. Tangerines tasted so much better back then... Although, I'm doubting the extra "minerals" had anything to do with their incredibly sweet juiciness.

When this month's baking challenge popped on my horizon, I was instantly taken back to my days of tangerine pie making. We were challenged to make an orange tian. The dessert is made of different layers: a pâte sablée (a shortbread crust) with orange marmalade, a flavored whipped cream topped with fresh orange segments, and served with a caramel and orange sauce.

You build the dessert upside down and then unmold it so that the bottom layer (the orange segments) becomes the top layer. Admittedly, the tian is much fancier of an approach than my frisbee method, but the fanned-out orange segments look so amusingly similar. As a tribute to my childhood, I substituted a chocolate pâte sablée crust to approximate the dirt layer, and I posed the finished tian in a frisbee I borrowed from a friend. Doesn't quite taste the same as I remember when I was a kid, but that's alright by me. This "new" method has a grown-up appeal all its own.

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

ORANGE TIAN RECIPE

Chocolate Pâte Sablée

2 medium-sized egg yolks at room temperature
6 TBS + 1 tsp granulated sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
7 TBS unsalted butter, cubed and frozen
⅓ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup + 2 TBS cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

Put the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, ice cold cubed butter and salt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse briefly to combine.
In a separate bowl, add the eggs yolks, vanilla extract and sugar and beat with a whisk until the mixture is pale. Pour the egg mixture in the food processor.
Process until the dough just comes together. If you find that the dough is still a little too crumbly to come together, add a couple drops of water and process again to form a homogenous ball of dough. Form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350° F. Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a ¼-inch thick circle. Using your cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and place on a parchment (or silicone) lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.

Citrus Melange Marmalade
makes 1½ pints

Juice and flesh from 2 oranges

10 thinly sliced kumquats (discard ends)

Juice and flesh from 1 large grapefruit

Juice and flesh from 2 Meyer lemons

2¾ cups sugar

½ cup water

Remove rind from all fruit with a vegetable peeler. (Set aside small piece of rind from all fruits to add in later)
 Remove all of the white pith from the fruit. If left on this will make your marmalade very bitter! 
Very thinly slice reserved rind into matchsticks.
 Supreme the oranges, gratefruit and lemons and add all ingredients including juice to a non-reactive saucepan.
 Bring to a boil and simmer until mixture begins to thicken about 45 minutes.
 Once mixture has become thick and reduced, registering 221° F on a candy thermometer, transfer to jars and process in a hot water bath canner.

Orange Segments

Supreme about 8 oranges into segments over a shallow bowl, collecting the juice as you slice. Add the segments to the bowl with the juice. For a variegated effect, I used both cara cara (a pinkish, navel orange) and regular navel oranges.

Orange Caramel Sauce

1 cup granulated sugar
1½ cups + 2 TBS fresh-squeezed orange juice

Place the sugar in a wide pan on medium heat and begin to heat it. The sugar will start to melt and turn a caramel color. Holding the handle of the pan, gently swirl the pan occasionally to evenly distribute the heat. Do not stir with a utensil. The sugar will begin to turn a caramel color and smell like cotton candy.

Once the sugar starts to bubble and foam, slowly add the orange juice. As soon as the mixture starts boiling, remove from the heat and pour half of the mixture over the orange segments.

Reserve the other half of the caramel mixture in a small bowl — you will use this later to spoon over the finished dessert. When the dessert is assembled and setting in the freezer, heat the kept caramel sauce in a small saucepan over low heat until it thickens and just coats the back of a spoon (~10 minutes). You can then spoon it over the orange tians.

Stabilized Whipped Cream

3 TBS hot water
1 tsp gelatine
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 TBS confectioner's sugar
1 TBS marmalade (see recipe above)

In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatine over the surface of the hot water, wait one minute and then stir well until the gelatine dissolves. Let the gelatine cool to room temperature while you make the whipped cream. Combine the cream in a chilled mixing bowl. Whip the cream using a hand mixer on low speed until the cream starts to thicken for about one minute. Add the confectioner sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high. Whip the cream until the beaters leave visible (but not lasting) trails in the cream, then add the cooled gelatine slowly while beating continuously. Continue whipping until the cream is light and fluffy and forms soft peaks. Transfer the whipped cream to a bowl and fold in the orange marmalade.

Putting it all together:

Make sure you have some room in your freezer. Ideally, you should be able to fit a small baking sheet or tray of desserts to set in the freezer.

Lay out tian molds (i.e., cookie cutters set on a removable base like parchment or small springform pans) on a baking tray.

Drain the orange segments on a kitchen towel.

Have the marmalade, whipped cream and baked circles of chocolate pâte sablée ready to use.

Arrange the orange segments at the bottom of each ring mold. Make sure the segments all touch each other and that there are no gaps arranging them in a fanned out pattern. Make sure they fit snuggly and look pretty as they will end up being the top of the dessert.

Once you have neatly arranged one layer of orange segments at the bottom of each mold, add a couple spoonfuls of whipped cream and gently spread it so that it covers the orange segments entirely in an even layer. Leave about ¼-inch at the top so there is room for the pâte sablée cookies.

Using a butter knife or small spoon, spread a small even layer of orange marmalade on each cookie.

Carefully place the cookie over each ring (the side of dough covered in marmalade should be the side touching the whipping cream). Gently press on the cookie to make sure the dessert is compact.

Place the desserts to set in the freezer to set for 10 minutes.

To unmold, use a small knife to gently go around the edges of the cookie cutter to make sure the dessert will be easy to release. Gently place your serving plate on top of each tian mold and turn the plate over. Slowly remove the ring, add a spoonful of caramel sauce and serve immediately.

Birthday Croquembouche: collaboration among friends

Last weekend I made my first Croquembouche in collaboration with my friends Elizabeth and Shana. Over the holidays, I had seen numerous pictures of towers of profiteroles adorned with spun sugar. Beautiful. Decadent. Time consuming. I had it in mind to make one--some day--but gosh that looks like a lot of work, and who would eat it? Not true, if you divide tasks among friends and make it the centerpiece of a 30th birthday party. Shane, Elizabeth's fiancé, took the amazing photos I'm posting here. More from the day can be found on his Flickr page.

The first step was to make the Pâte à Choux, the dough for the pastries.

This dough was piped onto parchment in small spirals,

and baked in the oven until golden and puffed. Meanwhile, a vanilla pastry cream was made. Unfortunately, no photos were taken to document the process.

The profiteroles were slit (slightly) with a knife, and once cool, pastry cream was piped into each.

Having an extra pair of hands made things go smoother.

As the cream puffs were being filled...

a caramel sauce was made.

The caramel was ready for dipping when it reached a golden amber color.

Quickly (being careful not to burn fingers) the cream puffs were dipped in hot caramel,

and layered to form a pyramid.

As the caramel cooled, it formed a crisp sugar coating over each cream puff. This is where the croquembouche gets its name, as it translates: "crunch in the mouth".

The caramel also serves as a natural adhesive, holding the pastries in place.

Once the tower was formed, a modified whisk (with ends snipped straight) was dipped into the remaining caramel and withdrawn slowly and vertically to create delicate wisps of sugar. The modified whisk was a kind gift from my dental hygienist, Cindy. She gave me plenty of useful tips on how to spin the sugar.

To transfer the sugar strands, they were gathered and pinched at the base with one hand and spun around the croquembouche with the other hand holding the whisk. Placing the cake plate on a turntable helped keep the distribution more even. Working quickly was key too. The sugar hardens into shape as it cools.

Here is the finished piece.

A view from the top reveals a degree of order to the messy, haystack appearance of the spun sugar.

Sparklers were a perfect match for this birthday treat. No other candle could quite do justice to this masterpiece.

RECIPES:

Pâte à Choux
makes 35-40 profiteroles
adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé

½ cup whole milk
½ cup water
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
¼ tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
5 large eggs, at room temperature

In a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to a boil. Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all the flour in at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough will come together quickly. Continue stirring until the dough is smooth, dry and has come away from the pan (2-3 minutes).

Transfer the dough into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (you can also continue by hand). Let the dough cool while mixing on low for a couple of minutes so that the eggs do not scramble.

Once the dough has slightly cooled, begin to add the eggs one at a time. The dough will separate in the beginning, but it should come back together after the 3rd or 4th egg.

While the dough is still slightly warm, scoop it into a piping bag to beginning piping the éclairs or profiteroles.

Pipe choux dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and dry. With a serrated knife gently slice open each profiterole to allow steam to escape. Cool completely.

NOTE:
Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.
You can pipe the dough and freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, and freeze. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the piped shapes into a freezer bag and store for up to 1 month.

FOR PASTRY CREAM
makes 2½ cups

2 cups whole milk
4 large egg yolks
6 TBS sugar
3 TBS cornstarch, sifted
2½ TBS unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ of a vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped

In a small saucepan, bring the milk and vanilla bean seeds to a boil.

In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.

Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously until the mixture returns to a boil. Continue whisking for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).

Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring occasionally so that you end up with a smooth cream.

Once the cream has slightly cooled, slowly begin to add the butter in three or four installments.

Transfer directly to pastry bag fitted with desired tip and chill in the fridge at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

When ready to fill profiteroles pipe pastry cream into the slit edge of each pastry.

FOR CARAMEL
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup

In a medium saucepan, combine 2/3 cup water, sugar, and corn syrup, and bring to a boil over high heat. Do not stir. Cover pan, and boil until steam dissolves any crystals. Uncover, and boil 5 more minutes, or until syrup is amber in color. Remove from heat. Dip the bottom of each cream-filled puff into the caramel, and arrange puffs in a pyramid.

To make a spun-sugar web to wrap around the croquembouche:

Cut the looped ends of a wire whisk with wire cutters, or use two forks held side by side, and dip the ends into caramel. Wave the caramel back and forth over the croquembouche, allowing the strands to fall in long, thin threads around it. Wrap any stray strands up and around the croquembouche. Serve within 2 hours.

Comfort en Croute

The December 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.

For this challenge, I decided to go the vegetable route partly because of my lack of enthusiasm for cooking salmon (or beef for that matter) and partly because I had recently acquired a host of harvest vegetables through Tantre Farms CSA Thanksgiving share. This is the time of year when one looks to tuck into savory warmth and hearty fare. And thus, I envisioned individual puffed pastry pockets filled with a vegetable stew, kale and a bit of leftover roasted turkey from the Thanksgiving feast. For the stew, I adapted Deborah Madison’s recipe for Winter Vegetable Pot Pie from her cookbook Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone to suit the ingredients I had on hand. For the puff pastry, I used a recipe from a previous post, but swapped out a cup of all-purpose flour for whole-wheat pastry flour. Perhaps this makes it a tinge more healthful? Although hopeful, I realize with the amount of butter involved this is doubtful. Once baked, the veggie pockets ended up looking a bit like flying saucers, but no matter, the comfort provided with each bite surely satisfied.

Harvest Vegetable and Turkey Hand Pies
Makes about 2 dozen 3-in diameter pies
After filling the pies, there will be plenty of leftover stew to freeze and enjoy later!
2 TBS olive oil
2 TBS butter
1 ½ lbs butternut squash (peeled and diced into 1-in cubes)
2 onions, diced
1 parsnip, peeled and diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 kohlrabi, peeled and diced
½ head of romanesco chopped
2 handfuls of brussel sprouts quartered
3 kale leaves, torn to small shreds
1 cup cooked turkey breast, chopped
2 TBS fresh sage, chopped
mushroom stock (see below)
1 recipe puff pastry
1 egg, beaten and mixed with a bit of warm water to create an egg wash

Quick Mushroom Stock
Makes about 1 ½ cups

¼ cup dried shitake mushrooms
2 tsp olive oil
1 red onion quartered
1 turnip roughly chopped
1 carrot cut into 3 pieces
1 large clove of garlic, crushed
one handful oyster mushrooms, chopped2 tsp tomato paste
1 TBS sage, chopped
½ cup champagne (it’s what was open, red or white wine works too)
1 TBS flour
salt and pepper to taste

Pour 2 cups hot water over dried mushrooms, cover and set aside. Heat oil in saucepan over high heat. Add onion, turnip, carrot, garlic and oyster mushrooms. Sauté stirring occasionally, until well browned (about 10 minutes). Reduce heat to medium. Stir in tomato paste, sage, and champagne. Deglaze pan by scraping up any browned bits. Sprinkle flour in pan, cover, and cook until the champagne is reduced to a syrup consistency (about 3 minutes). Add the shitake and their soaking liquid, ½ tsp salt, dash of pepper and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain.

Preheat oven to 425° F. In a dutch oven heat oil and butter, add onions and butternut squash and sauté over medium heat until crisp tender (about 15 minutes). Add remaining vegetables to the dish and mix in with the mushroom stock, adding water if more liquid is necessary. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with lid and transfer to oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes until vegetables are slightly tender.

Meanwhile roll out pastry dough to ⅛-in thick and cut out round shapes using a large cookie cutter or a small bowl. Place circles on parchment-lined baking tray and refrigerate (at least 15 minutes) while assembling fillings. See tips for working with puff pastry from previous post.

Preheat oven to 400° F. Remove pastry circles from refrigerator and carefully stack a dollop of vegetable stew, shredded kale, and turkey on top of half of the circles. Be sure to leave a border around the edges to create a good seal. Brush border with egg wash and place another circle over the top of the filling. Crimp edges with a fork to seal and, if needed, trim excess with a knife. Brush outside of pastry with egg wash. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly before serving.