Month: July 2012

by Rachel Sally

Du Beurre Noisette

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. You know those blackened, wizened, and wrinkly bananas that no one wants to eat?


They’re the sweetest and most flavorful bananas of all the land.  I swear.
They may not be the most beautiful nor the most appealing, especially if one intends on eating them straight up, but in a baked good, they put other bananas to shame with their sublimely sweet and intense flavor.
The process of banana aging is simple: the sugars in the banana flesh begin to break down, as do the aromatics (benzene compounds and esters), creating a more concentrated sweet, banana-y flavor, and a very mushy and brown banana.  
Not that any of that matters.  What does matter is that instead of throwing those bananas away, you promise to let them rot ripen and become a dark, dark brown, then stick them in your freezer for the next time you crave banana bread, cake, or muffins.  Simply pull them out an hour or so before you want to use them and put them in a warm spot to thaw.  Then you can squeeze the super awesome, mushy, melted flesh out of the wrinkly skins. So appetizing. It feels like squishing a giant slug. Mmmm baby.
While I’m on the subject of banana baked goods, and though I know many people before me have said this, everyone has got to stop declaring them moist.  That word seems wrong to describe a cake or bread… It feels voyeuristic and… crude.  Ick.  


Anyways.  This banana cake was a hit among my coworkers.  It’s soft, tender, and super buttery, thanks to the brown butter and brown sugar base, both of which help lock in the banana juices. (Is banana juices any better than moisture?  Methinks not.)  I topped it off with my favorite glaze that can be used for just about anything, from doughnuts to cakes to quick breads to eating straight out of the pan.  Again, featured prominently, is du beurre noisette (brown butter), whose nuttiness is perfectly balanced with a touch of maple syrup.
This cake has so many ingredients that might work themselves into the name that I couldn’t possibly use them all (brown butter-brown sugar-buttermilk-walnut-
coconut banana bundt with a brown butter maple glaze?  Too much of a mouthful), so I decided to keep it simple.  So, here’s the recipe for my brimming banana bundt!  It’s super moist.

In my haste to get to the lab, I forgot to take pictures with a real camera.  So instead, I have shaky iPhone pictures taken while hastily driving to work.   


Brimming Banana Bundt
Inspired and guided by the great Dorie Greenspan
Ingredients:
4 super ripe bananas, mashed
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks, or 3/4 of a cup, or 12 ounces) unsalted butter
1 tightly packed cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
Big pinch sea salt
Generous tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 2/3 cup flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch each of ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice
Handful of shredded coconut (optional)
Generous handful (or two: up to one cup) of walnuts (also optional)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 10 cup bundt pan.
Place butter into a saucepan on medium heat and allow to brown, scraping all the lovely bits off the bottom of the pan as you go.  
Meanwhile, place sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  
Once the butter is properly brown and nutty smelling, add the mashed bananas to the pan and allow to cook for a minute or two.
Pour the buttered up bananas into the bowl with the sugars, and mix on medium speed until all the sugar is incorporated into the butter. 
Add in the eggs, and mix until combined. 
Add the vanilla, salt, spices, and buttermilk. Mixture will be super runny. 
Dump in the flour and baking soda all at once, and mix until the batter thickens and holds a ribbon. 
Stir in the walnuts and coconut, if desired.  
Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until a skewer sent all the way to the middle of the cake comes out with just a few straggling crumbs. 
Invert out of pan after 10 minutes of cooling in the pan and allow to cool.
Brown Butter Maple Glaze
(good for everything. Seriously)
Ingredients:
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons, 1/4 of a cup, 4 ounces) butter
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream, or more as needed
Directions:Brown butter in a saucepan. 
Once brown, dump in the sugar and whisk, creating what I like to call a “sugar roux”. 
Once a creamy paste has formed, add in the maple syrup and stir. 
Add in enough heavy cream so that the mixture is pourable (this can also be replaced, wonderfully, when it is available, with apple cider, which creates a beautiful autumnal glaze).
Pour over cooled cake.

by Rachel Sally

Cookie Monster

I’m about to say something that I’m sure many bakers would consider sacrilege… Whatever.
I don’t like baking cookies.

I know.


 


     

 

 

 

Somehow, I can justify the amount of work that goes into a pie or a huge cake, but the act of making cookies (I have to scoop out all those little portions of dough?! And not eat them all?! AND work in batches instead of shoving everything into my oven and doing a hail Mary?!) is overwhelming and somewhat irritating.  
What can I say, I’m fickle.  I like the drama of big desserts: sure, there is a magnetic pull when warm cookies emerge from the oven, slightly melty and begging to be dipped in cold milk, but I am a cake or pie girl meself.  Chaqu’un a son goût. (To each his own.)
Anyways, somehow, even in this heat, and even with my slight aversion to baking cookies, I’ve managed to turn the oven on, get my butt in gear, and whip out a few batches.  
The first one I made for my best friend, Gwen, who’s out in Colorado working at a camp.  I miss her so so much, and I especially miss our “tea days,” which are basically excuses to lie in bed next to someone cuddly and warm and drink bucketfuls of tea… all day long.  In honor of those days, I made chai shortbread and dipped them in dark chocolate.


Secondly, I got around (finalement!) to making the ultimate chocolate chip cookie that was written about in the NYT a few years ago.  (Yeah, yeah, it’s been a while that I’ve been eyeing these babies, but I have a lot to do, okay?  This is one of the many recipes that sit on my radar for ages, waiting to be recycled from the cavernous depths of my subconscious into whichever part of my brain controls cravings.)  
David Leite, who first set out to find the “consummate” chocolate chip cookie, succeeded.  These cookies are good, and worth every minute of the resting period. Plus the dough is really good when you pinch off a little bit to test every few minutes hours during said 24 hours.  Ahem.
Make these.  Your view on chocolate chip cookies will be forever changed.  Also, sprinkle a teeeny bit of sea salt on top when they first come out of the oven.  You’ll thank me.  Ahem.

Chai Shortbread
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan
2 sticks softened, unsalted butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 cups flour
2 chai tea bags
pinch ginger
pinch all-spice
pinch cardamom
pinch cinnamon
pinch cloves
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup turbinado sugar (optional), for rolling
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, for dipping (optional)
Directions:
Cream butter, sugars, salt, and spices together until smooth and velvety.  Beat in vanilla and egg on low speed.  Now (slowly) add in flour, while mixing, until just combined.  Form logs and refrigerate, at least 1 hour, and up to 3 days.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Remove the dough from the fridge, roll in turbinado sugar, if desired, and cut into 1/3 inch slices.  Bake for 15- 20 minutes, or until lightly golden.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  If desired, once cool, dip into melted chocolate and sprinkle with more turbinado sugar.

Head here for Leite’s amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe.  My only suggestion: sprinkle a little extra sea salt, either before or after baking, on top of each cookie.  It will send them over the top.  Also, it is vital to use good chocolate for these!  It is a key player and the main supporting actress.  (The dough, surprisingly, is the lead starlet in these cookies.)  I highly recommend these toffee-like, buttery cookies; they won’t let you down.

by Rachel Sally

Beat the Heat Up

It’s hot.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed or anything, but a heat wave has swept over America, roasting every square inch from east to west.

It it is as hot as a furnace in the sun. I love it. Kinda.
Though it’s cooling off to some extent, I thought that everyone would appreciate a list of heat wave emergency solutions…

Eat a Popsicle.

Eat gazpacho.

Eat entire watermelons out of your refrigerator.

Lie in your cool basement in front of a fan.

Lie in your underwear in front of said fan.

Sleep nekked.


Banish pants from your vocabulary and your closet. See also: turtlenecks, sweaters, sweatshirts, etc. 

Bake bread on the grill.

Drink sweet tea.

Pant.

Seek out air conditioning (air-con, for Koreans), because the people who run your household have not bothered providing it in any rooms except for theirs, at movie theaters, supermarkets, hospitals, and your friends’ houses.

Do not, and I repeat, do not turn on your oven at any point in time.  Not that you’re stupid enough to do so.

Swim.

Whine.

Make this ice cream.

It’s refreshing, cold, and easy to make. It tastes good, and it is super creamy. Perfect for this heat. 
Anyways, excuse me while I dissolve into a puddle of sweat and ice cream… Mmmm.

 Matcha Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

Adapted from userealbutter
Ingredients:
6 egg yolks
3 cups whole milk (I used a mixture of half-and-half and 1%)
3/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons matcha powder
Pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 to 1/2 cup heavy cream
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut up into chunks
Directions:
Whisk the yolks, sugar, milk, salt, and matcha together in a medium saucepan. Cook on medium heat until mixture thickens. Soft cornstarch over the top and blend with an immersion blender. Cook until mixture is custardy and thick: you should be able to draw a line on the back of a custard-covered spatula with your finger and have the track remain intact.  Remove from heat and cool.  Once cooled, mixture will be a bit congealed.  Whisk in the heavy cream to loosen it up a bit.  Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions, and when it is almost done, add in (or fold in) your chocolate chunks.  Ice cream will harden if you store it in your freezer for a long time, but if you take it out and let it thaw for 5 minutes, scooping should be a breeze.

by Rachel Sally

Stoned

I’m referring to stoned fruits, of course: those token fruits of summer.  Juicy, sweet, ripe peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, and apricots.

Now that summer has started and these fruits abound, I’m in heaven.  Seriously.  There is nothing better on a summer morning than some plain Greek yogurt with a sliced up white peach.  
Summer is a fruit lover’s dream.  Go to your local farmer’s market and take a look around: you’re sure to find some amazing fruits, right along with the towering piles of garlic scapes and swiss chard.  The other weekend, I picked up some beautiful red and green gooseberries and long, slender stalks of rhubarb, which I combined into an olive/pumpkin seed oil-polenta crumble.  It was divine… In fact, it was gone too quickly for me to photograph (ugh), but I’ll share the recipe anyways.  It’s a keeper, for those times when you might have some gooseberries and rhubarb lying around… Actually, it might be worth seeking out these seemingly esoteric ingredients.  Inquire around your local market, I’m sure you can get your greedy paws hands on some.
As for the tart(s) that are in the photos, they were quick almond-plum-nectarine tarts that I whipped up for a dinner guest.  Slightly sweet chantilly topped them off for a perfectly light summer dessert.  I was lucky that I took photos of them that very night, because the next morning not a crumb was left.  

Other than the aforementioned stone fruits, I’m looking forward to a summer bounty of beets, kale, tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, spicy carrots, an overwhelming amount of zucchini, melons, peppers, and squash.  I’m always somewhat surprised when I’m reminded of how bountiful the region where I live really is;  I’m always reminded to be thankful.  What are you looking forward to in your CSA baskets, grocery shopping carts, or gardens this summer?

Gooseberry, Rhubarb, and Polenta Crumble
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups red and green gooseberries
6 small stalks of rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch long pieces
2/3 cup turbinado sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1/4 cup stone-ground polenta
1/4 cup cornmeal
pinch of sea salt
1/3 cup+ oil (I used pumpkin seed and olive oil, and ended up needing just a splash more)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Toss the gooseberries and rhubarb with 1/3 cup turbinado sugar in an oven-proof dish.  Put them in the oven while you prepare the crumble.  Mix the flour, salt, sugar, and cornmeals in a bowl.  While stirring, add in the oil until the mixture comes together and has a texture like wettish sand.  Pull the fruit out of the oven and top with the crumble.  Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the juices are bubbling at the sides and the crumble is slightly crisp.

Nectarine and Plum Almond Tart
Bits and pieces from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking
Ingredients:
1 recipe tart dough
4 ripe nectarines
3 ripe plums
6 tablespoons butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup blanched, ground almonds
2 teaspoons flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 egg
splash vanilla extract
tiny splash almond extract
Directions:
Press your tart dough into your pan , prick with a fork, line with buttered foil, shiny side down, and freeze.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Bake tart dough for 15 minutes.  Pulse the butter and sugar in a food processor until the mixture is smooth.  Add the almonds, flour, and cornstarch and process, then add the egg.  Add the extracts and process for just 15 seconds.  Refrigerate.  Slice up your plums and nectarines into thin slices.  Remove the foil from the shells, pour in the almond cream, and arrange the slices as you desire.  Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the almond cream has puffed up and become golden brown.  Let cool in pan, then remove to serve.  Serve with fresh chantilly if desired (whip cream with a touch of confectioner’s sugar until soft peaks form).