Category: chocolate

by Rachel Sally

Skywire

“There must be a better way to get a pole across the Grand Canyon…”
Did you guys watch the Skywire special on Discovery a few weeks back?
The one where a man walked across the Grand Canyon with a giant pole on a tightrope without a harness wearing slippers?
I watched it with a bunch of friends.
It really was attention-capturing.  We watched for 45 minutes without realizing there hadn’t been commercials.
I had a bet with one of my friends that they would cut off camera if he fell.
 My friend insisted that they would show it at least once- his reasoning was that they replayed Kevin Ware’s horrific leg injury twice, so falling 1500 feet to one’s death would be aired.
I was just glad we never settled the bet.  Ick.
Anyhow, that’s a bit off topic.  I was just reminded of that special because of this ice cream.  
It’s called “Graham Canyon,” because it’s a copycat, as far as I can tell, for BYU Creamery’s flavor of the same name.
People describe Graham Canyon (no, I’ve never had it, but the descriptions sounded so good that I had to try and make my own) as caramel-y, with dark chocolate covered honeycomb candy and a graham swirl.
My version is a graham ice cream, with graham ganache mixed in (unfortunately it didn’t swirl the way I wanted it to, but the graham cracker flavor was already prominent), along with honeycomb candy, both robed in chocolate and plain.
The non-chocolate coated honeycomb melts into the ice cream, creating a toffee flavor that pairs really well with the graham.
 
That said, this ice cream is still an endeavor to make, with lots of components.
However, it’s similar to store bought ice creams in that it has a rich flavor and lots of mix-ins.
I’m becoming more and more interested in trying to make ice creams like Ben and Jerry’s- inventive and flavorful… Stay tuned!
 
P.S. I’m thoroughly enjoying myself at a super hippie local music festival, Grassroots, for the weekend.
It’s hot as… all get out.
It’s wonderful.
Happy groots weekend to all!
Stay cool!  Eat ice cream!

“Graham Canyon” Ice Cream
ingredients:
1 batch graham ice cream, recipe below
1 batch graham ganache, recipe below
1 batch honeycomb candy, divided, recipe below
1 cup melted dark chocolate, mixed with 1 teaspoon coconut oil
directions:
Churn the graham ice cream in your ice cream maker.
Meanwhile, break the honeycomb into small bits.
Take approximately 1/3 of the honeycomb- (choose the bite sized pieces rather than the crumbs) and stir it into the dark chocolate.
Fish the bits out of the chocolate with a fork and place on a plate- chill until chocolate is set.
Take approximately 1/4 of the original amount of honeycomb (this measure should be mostly crumbs and tiny pieces) and mix it into the ice cream while it churns.
Once the ice cream is done churning, swirl the graham ganache into it.
Stir in the chocolate covered honeycomb and freeze until solid.
Enjoy!

Graham Crackers
adapted from smitten kitchen
ingredients:
188 grams (1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon) white whole wheat flour
88 grams (1/2 lightly packed cup) brown sugar
3 grams (1/2 teaspoon) baking soda
2 grams (3/8 teaspoon) kosher salt
50 grams (3 1/2 tablespoons) butter, cold and cut into pieces

57 grams (1/6 cup) honey
38 grams (2 1/2 tablespoons)milk
14 grams (1 tablespoon) vanilla extract
directions:
Place the flour, sugar, baking soda, and kosher salt in the bowl of a food processor.
Add the butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse sand.
Add the honey, milk, and vanilla and pulse until a dough forms.
Turn out and wrap in plastic; refrigerate.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Roll out dough on a well floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness.
Cut desired shapes and bake on a parchment lined sheet for 15-18 minutes.
 
Graham Crust
adapted from momofuku milk bar
ingredients:
graham crackers, above, pulsed and turned into crumbs (190 grams, if you want to use store bought, which is approximately 1 1/2 cups of crumbs)
20 grams (1/4 cup) milk powder 
25 grams (2 tablespoons) sugar
3 grams kosher salt (3/4 teaspoon)
55 grams (4 tablespoons) butter, browned
55 grams (1/4 cup) half and half
directions:
Pulse the graham cracker crumbs, the milk powder, sugar, and salt together. 
Add the butter and half and half and pulse until the mixture resembles damp sand.
 
Graham Ice Cream
adapted from momofuku milk bar
ingredients:
1 cup graham crust
380 grams (1 3/4 cups) half and half
1 teaspoon gelatin
35 grams (2 tablespoons) golden syrup
65 grams (1/3 cup) sugar 
40 grams (1/2 cup) milk powder
1 gram (1/4 teaspoon) kosher salt
directions:
Combine the half and half and graham crust and allow to steep for 20 minutes.
Strain out the graham crust with a fine mesh sieve; discard the mush.
Bloom the gelatin in 2 tablespoons of cold water.
Warm some of the graham milk and whisk in the gelatin to dissolve.
Add the gelatin/graham milk mixture back to the entire batch of graham milk, then add the rest of the ingredients. 
Blend with an immersion blender or a regular blender to combine.
 
Graham Ganache
inspired by Christina Tosi
ingredients:
the remainder of the graham crust from your graham ice cream 
half and half
directions:
Continue to pulse the graham crust, adding half and half a teaspoon at a time, until it turns into a very smooth, grit-free paste.  (Do not add too much half and half at any one time, it may turn the ganache liquid.)
The consistency should be thick and creamy and smooth, like a cooled chocolate ganache.
 
Honeycomb Candy
adapted from not so humble pie
200 grams sugar
10 grams honey
15 grams golden syrup
40 grams water
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
directions:
Line a baking pan with a silpat and spray with nonstick spray (do not use parchment; if you must, go bare with just nonstick spray).
Place the water in the bottom of a heavy, high-sided pot.
Add the sugar, honey, and golden syrup to the middle of the water, stir carefully to combine.
Heat over medium-high heat until it turns a very light golden color, or 300 degrees F, stirring constantly. (The color should be just barely turning; this took me 3 tries, 2 without a thermometer, so I just recommend going by temperature rather than looks.)
Moving quickly, stir in the baking soda with a whisk and pour the mixture onto your pan.
Allow to cool, then break into pieces.
by Rachel Sally

C.R.E.A.M.

Catz Rule Everything Around Me.
Meow.
I have a love/hate relationship with these two nasty little buggers.
See, Sasha and Kasha were both rescues of sorts- both rescued from dirty, teenage-boy apartments.
 
Sasha was a farm kitty who was bought on a whim by my older brother and his roommates.  
They brought her back to NYC and she promptly (and tragically) fell out of a four story window.
She survived with just a tiny cut on her chin…  She now has 8 lives left.
She’s the nicer of the two cats, but certainly lacks in the beauty department.
She also has a bad habit of escaping outdoors when you’re least expecting it (our cats are firmly indoor cats), and then manages to evade recapture for ages.  
She lets you get in very close, almost as if to catch her, then sprints away.
That little ratfink.  
Kasha was just a little kitten “rescued” from my friends’ apartment last summer.
They had initially rescued her from a field.
She is truly a feral cat… Raised among teenage boys, what else could one expect?
She’s a pretty one, covered in stripes and spots, but she’s very small.
I don’t expect she’ll grow much more.  We call her Peewee.  (More often than we use her real name!  She’s such a dinky little thing.)
Kasha is not very friendly, and doesn’t like to be held or pet.  Real lovely personality.
She eats like a starved and crazed animal, which she is not.
She’s even got a tiny pudgy little belly. 
If you even come near her eating her food, she will make a strange, high pitched gurgling/growling noise and proceed to try to fit everything in her bowl in her mouth.
It’s grotesque.  Seriously nauseous eating habits.
Also, Kasha tends not to purr.  Or meow.  She beeps.
She sounds like a bird mixed with a telephone.
I don’t know where this is going.
But basically, all I do is take photos of my cats and food.
And all I talk about are my cats.  I don’t even like them that much.
Welcome to my life, I guess.
It’s very exciting and instagram-worthy.
I don’t have a recipe for these cookies.  
I dumped a bunch of things in a bowl and hoped for the best.
When I experiment like that (which is very often), I always make notes on a post-it.
Trouble is, I have so many damn post-its that I can’t remember what they mean!
Also, I can only find two- I don’t know where the others go.
Somehow, I still have notes for an orange-olive oil cake, and I swear I’ve thrown this very one out three times.
It keeps coming back.
But alas, the search for the maple-bacon-brown butter-brown sugar cookie post-it has been in vain.  I will update this if I find it!
 
Be back soon… With ice cream!
by Rachel Sally

Spectrum

Remember how I said that people like to shove cookie butter into every dessert imaginable?
 
Well then, this swap of cookie butter for peanut butter should come as no surprise to you.
Cookie butter cups!  
The only problem with these is that the cookie butter mixture for the middle has to be formed into little patties- if it were more liquid and pourable, the little cups would have even tops, just like the peanut butter cups we all know and love.
A lumpy top is but a small price to pay for these.
 
The dark chocolate combines with the spices to give two or three perfectly creamy and balanced bites from each confection. (and then you reach for another… and another…)
Bonus?  They’re super quick and easy to make.
(I tempered my chocolate, which takes a bit longer, but feel free to add a teaspoon of shortening and a teaspoon of corn syrup to melted chocolate to make an approximation!)
This is a peanut butter cup.  This is a peanut butter cup on drugs…

 

Speculoos Cups
makes about 9
adapted from the Little Kitchen
ingredients:
1/4 cup speculoos spread (make your own!)
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
pinch of salt
1/4 cup powdered sugar
about 2 cups dark chocolate, tempered (or see approximation above)
directions:
Put cookie butter and butter in microwave and heat in 30 second bursts until melted.
Stir in salt and powdered sugar until a thick paste forms.
Set out 9 cupcake liners and drop about a teaspoon of chocolate into the bottom of each.
Form small patties of speculoos mixture and nestle them into the chocolate.
Finish each cup by filling it with chocolate until the patty is covered.
Allow to set by placing in the freezer or fridge, then unwrap and enjoy!

by Rachel Sally

Speculative

These cookies are wholly counterproductive.
Welcome to the first installation of uses for your homemade speculoos spread (other than ravaging it with a spoon).
Basically, we made cookies to make cookies.
Oh, my lyfe.
 
These cookies are similar to peanut butter cookies, but they use cookie butter (can we just appreciate that for a minute?) in lieu of the traditional nut butter.
They’re big and soft and they make perfect sandwich cookies when pressed together with some dark chocolate ganache.
I’m telling you, these are not gingersnaps.  
Stop trying to make them gingersnaps in your head.  
They’re not.  I did it too.  Trust me. 
They’re more like lightly spiced peanut butter cookies.
Make them and you will appreciate this sentiment.
You will also be annoyed that you had to make cookies, grind them up, and then make cookies again.  It’s worth it my dear.
 
(Also, any excuse to pull out my Swedish pearl sugar is worth it.  
Let me just say how obsessed I am with this stuff.  It’s like sprinkles.  Addictive.
I actually prefer it over the larger, coarser Belgian pearl sugar, but you could theoretically coat these in the Belgian stuff, although it will add a lot more sweetness and crunch.  
You could also sub regular or turbinado sugar, but you’ll get less crunch.
 
I’m starting to think you could also coat these in sprinkles and then you’d have sprinkle Biscoff cookies and whaaa that’s a trap I’m getting out okay bye.)

 

Biscoff Cookies
adapted from Baking Bites
makes 6 large sandwich cookies
ingredients:
4 ounces (8 tablespoons, 1/2 cup) butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
pinch each cinnamon, ground cloves, and ginger
scant 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup Biscoff (make your own!)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
swedish pearl sugar, or turbinado sugar, for rolling
for the ganache:
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
2 tablespoons heavy cream
directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
Beat butter on high until fluffy and soft, about 1 minute.  
Add in the sugars, spices, and the salt and beat on high until all of sugar is dissolved and mixture is very light in color and shiny and not-gritty in texture, about 3 minutes.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and add in the egg and vanilla extract.  
Beat for 3 more minutes.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and add in the Biscoff and beat for 1 minute.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and add in the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
Mix just until homogeneous, about 1 minute.
Using a large cookie scoop, or an ice cream scoop, scoop out 12 cookies. 
Gently roll them in the pearl sugar, making sure to coat all parts of the cookie.
Bake for 9-10 minutes, until puffy.  
They will look very underdone and will still be extremely soft in the middle; they will look somewhat uncooked in the very center.
Allow to cool on the sheet pans; the cookies will decompress and retain their softness, but the residual heat will ensure that they are not raw.
Once cooled, make the ganache.
Microwave the chocolate chips and cream together until the chips are mostly melted; do this in 30 second bursts.  
Stir to combine and finish melting the chocolate.
Spread between two cookies and sandwich them!

by Rachel Sally

Narco(leptic)

I am a chronic napper.
 
The last two or so weeks have afforded me extremely little sleep: although the majority of my finals were a month ago, during AP week, I have had final projects, presentations, and the odd final test in the past two weeks.
What this has resulted in is that any time I get remotely warm or comfortable, I fall asleep.
I can’t make it through one whole T.V. show.  
I’m constantly yawning.
The bags under my eyes are as droopy as Charlie’s.
Today, I fell asleep.  One hour after having woken up.
As in, I woke up, ate breakfast, went upstairs to change out of my pajamas, and fell asleep.
I mean, whatever.  
It’s summer, now.  I’m going to let my poor sleepy little brain live its life.
I don’t mind all too much.
It’s rainy and dreary outside- just how I love it.  
All I want to do is sit inside and nap under a fluffy blanket while watching LOTR.
Good lord that sounds good.
 
So, speaking of summer:  (Graduation is exactly one week from now… Trippy mane!)
You can expect posts to randomly appear at strange times, like 3 in the afternoon, when normal people would generally be working or doing productive things.
You can expect things to be extra sassy, once Ithaca heats up (still waiting for that to happen…).
You can expect no-fuss, no-bake things like this fudge.
5 ingredients.  2 minutes to make, 2 hours to chill 
(or 1 hour if you stick it in the freezer.  Plus then you get frozen fudge.  Ooooh have mercy.).
This stuff is like crack.  
Creamy with just a touch of chew.
Sweet but punctuated with crunchy, sour, fruity raspberry bits and the occasional salt grain.
Delectably stretchy and alarmingly available (like I said, 5 ingredients, 2 minutes…).
 
All I can think about is new adaptations to this easy little fudge recipe.
Namely, coffee and chocolate.
I mean, that’s all that I can think about lately anyways.  Coffee.
(And chocolate, always.  Always on my mind.)

 

Swirled Raspberry Fudge
ingredients:
9 ounces white chocolate
3 ounces dark chocolate
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk (you may need a couple more tablespoons, depending on your chocolate)
3/4 ounce crushed freeze-dried raspberries
two big pinches sea salt
directions:
Place the white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl with a pinch of sea salt and 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk.
Do the same with the dark chocolate, but with 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk.
Melt each on high until the chocolate is mostly melted and the sweetened condensed milk is hot and bubbly.
Stir each together swiftly to melt the rest of the chocolate.
Layer 1/3 of the white chocolate in the bottom of a 12×6 (you could use an 8×8 as well, for thicker fudge) pan that has been lightly greased.
Sprinkle some of the crushed raspberries on top.
Dollop some of the dark chocolate on top of the raspberries (if it has already hardened, you can stir in up to 3 more tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk).  
Repeat, layering white chocolate, raspberries, and dark chocolate.
Finally, dollop the remaining white chocolate and any remaining dark chocolate on top.
Swirl the whole mixture together very, very well with a fork.  
Don’t be worried about messing it up or getting it too marbled.  Just swirl.
Refrigerate until set, or freeze, if you’re impatient like me!

by Rachel Sally

Protips

Dirty little kitchen secrets shortcuts.
I never bother to sift.
(Except for royal icing, when lumps will cause certain failure and imminent disaster.)
Heck, I rarely even bother to combine the dry ingredients before adding them to the wet.
As long as everything is evenly distributed, it’ll all work out just swell.
Or temper eggs.
The idea behind tempering eggs is to ensure even heating of the eggs, preventing the proteins from clumping together and scrambling.
An immersion blender solves this issue very nicely.  
As long as the eggs are well blended into all the other ingredients and you bring them all up to temperature at the same time, blending constantly to ensure even heating, your eggs will not scramble.
I’m positive about this.  A lot of these tricks are just time-savers for evenly distributing ingredients and heat; traditional methods are equally effective, but often take longer and are fussier.  
I don’t like fuss.
 
I taste (constantly) as I go.
No explanation necessary.  Ahem.
 
 
I microwave pretty much everything and I never use a double boiler.  Ever.
Admittedly, ye of much patience and time to spare may prefer bain maries because they ensure even heating, but I prefer things done quickly and efficiently.  
You can insure even, slow heating yourself, by whisking, or better yet, blending, constantly and vigilantly.  
I make my curds, crème pâtissière, and crème anglaise (for ice cream) this way.  
I melt (and temper) my chocolate in the microwave; for ganache, I don’t even bother adding the cream to the chocolate afterwards.  I microwave them all together.  It’s faster.
(I will admit that for tempering, if you are not experienced and/or do not feel comfortable with chocolate, you should try tempering on a stove top first, so that you can constantly monitor the temperature of the chocolate.  Once you get the hang of it, ‘nuke it!)
 
I sling salt like cowboys do guns in Westerns.
A pinch in my book is approximately 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt.
I never measure salt, I’ll admit it.  That’s what tasting is for!
Too often I find that recipes call for a measly amount of salt, too small to have an impact on the flavor.  Salt brings out and heightens flavors, especially sugar.
 

 

I eyeball things; I always add more vanilla and citrus zest than is called for.  

Again, just like salt, these additions heighten flavor.  
I rarely strain zest out of curds and batters and whatever because a) I like the texture and b) the rind contains a ton of the essential oils that give flavor, which is why we used it in the first place.  Why take that out?! 
Oh, and c) it’s less work.  Right.
 
Whenever I use melted butter, I brown it.
Um, duh.  No explanation necessary.
 
I indiscriminately swap yogurt, sour cream, and buttermilk; 
I even use milk with a little acid added, whether in the form of a baking powder swap or a touch of lemon juice.
Baking powder is baking soda with tartaric acid added, so if you add acid in the form of buttermilk or yogurt or sour cream in place of milk, switch some of the baking powder in the recipe to baking soda, which reacts with the acid.
 


I bake by weight 95% of the time.

This is one of the most important things; people’s measurements of cups and pinches and all sorts of things vary wildly, depending on how they measure them.  
Volume is not the best way to bake, especially not when precision is called for.
 
I very rarely soften butter.  
In fact, the only time when I do is for meringue buttercreams.
See the next shortcut for an explanation.
No matter what a recipe calls for, I cream my butter for a minimum of 5 minutes.  
This means that starting with cold butter is no problem.  Just beat it on high for 30 seconds before adding the sugar to cream.  
Easy peasy, and no pesky waiting.
(This especially applies for cookies, which I beat for a minimum of 10.  
I learned this trick from Christina Tosi.)
 
I temper my chocolate.
Tempering chocolate frees you from needing to use shortening or other fats and/or corn syrup in your candies.
The result is a cleaner, deeper, and richer taste: one of chocolate alone.
Granted, tempering chocolate takes (minimally, once you’ve got the hang of it) longer than candy melts, but it is way more flavorful and, in truth, healthier.
Candy melts= paraffin wax.  Yes, wax.  
Um… I’ll pass on those traditional cake-pops.

Even better? Cookie dough pops.  Om nom nom.
There’s nothing better than raw cookie dough.  Except raw cookie dough that’s safe to eat and is covered in more chocolate.
One last protip?  Stick these in the freezer (if you’ve tempered your chocolate, this won’t create any ugly blooms) and you have heaven on a stick.

Cookie Dough Truffles
ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick, 8 tablespoons, 4 ounces)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
heaping 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons milk
splash vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2-3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
bittersweet chocolate chips, tempered, for coating
popsicle sticks
directions:
Beat butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until fluffy and softened, about 2 minutes.
Add in the sugars and beat for 3 more minutes, until very fluffy, shiny, and not gritty.
Scrape the sides of the bowl.
Add in the milk, salt, and vanilla, and beat for 2 more minutes.
Add in the flour and mix on medium low until homogeneous.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Roll into balls, dip popsicle sticks in a little bit of chocolate, and stick into the balls.
Freeze until solid, dip into tempered chocolate and allow to set.
Enjoy!
by Rachel Sally

Merry Happy

March Hare: A very merry unbirthday. 

Alice: To me? 

Mad Hatter: To you! 

March Hare: A very merry unbirthday. 

Alice: For me? 

Mad Hatter: For you! Now blow the candle out, my dear, and make your wish come true!

March Hare & Mad Hatter: A very merry unbirthday to you!


Today, La Pêche Fraîche turns 1.
That’s right y’all; we’re celebrating a blogiversary right here.  Right now.
And we’re doing it properly: with a very large, opulent cake.

It’s hard for me to believe that one year ago, May 30th, 2012, at 9:11 PM, I first hit publish.

I hit publish and I didn’t know what was going to happen.

I had a blog and I didn’t know what that really meant.

I sent a post into this space, my corner of the internet, and waited.
For what, I had no idea.

Now, 80 posts later, I’m not sure if I have any clearer of an idea.

It’s an interesting experience, to look back on this past year, to browse through the many posts, reminiscing (and cringing).

Many things have changed, some for the better, some the worse.

People have moved in and out of my life;
things I always took for granted as constants fell away: cliffs sheared off, leaving me teetering on the edge;
new experiences, new relationships, have nested snugly, precariously, on the crags and crannies left behind;
triumphs have been trumpeted, flags left proudly waving on distant planets;
losses have been suffered, sending me cowering in a corner, covered with tears and blood;
I survived even those which I thought I could not.

This has been a year of change, of growth, of progression, of learning.
This blog makes that uncomfortably clear.

Just looking back at some really terribly formatted, I mean really awful, posts and photographs, I cringe, yes, but also laugh and enjoy them, as embarrassed as I feel.
There have been times, I’ll admit it, when I have wanted to go back through and re-format all the oldest posts, but I refrained.
That’s a rabbit hole which this little girl is most certainly not falling into.
This blog is a reflection of my journey, in life and photography and pastry.

I would rather celebrate and embrace that than change it and sand off all the rough edges.
Those rough edges are, um… charismatic.  Or something.  I don’t know.
Actually, I would really like to sand off those edges.  I just don’t have the time or energy.

Oh and, by the way? Don’t you dare look back at those older posts.  Stay right here.
Eyes on the prize.

So anyways!  Right!  It’s celebration time!
Look!  Cake!
My kind of cake, specifically.  Yep.  Greedy and selfish.  That would be me my tastebuds!

My favorite flavors and components are incorporated into this cake.
It’s a brown sugar and deep, rich chocolate marble cake, filled with a tart, buttery passion fruit curd, generously frosted with a barely sweet and wonderfully tongue-coating Italian meringue buttercream.
The filling and frosting of my choice, as in, my favorites!  Absolute favorites.  I could eat ’em straight.  And I did.
Things are getting real wild, as you can tell.

This is a special cake; it does take a bit of effort and time (this cake took me 4 hours start to finish, which is a long time for me… like a really long time), but it’s worth it.
It’s easy on the eyes and the tastebuds.
It’s a celebration cake, in all senses of the word.

Let me just say…

I am grateful for my family and my friends, those whom I keep so very close to my heart, who support me and kick me in the butt, albeit occasionally unnecessarily.

I am grateful for the chance to blather on and on while standing atop this blog soapbox, to share what I love most in this world (no, not whining.  Pastry.).

I am grateful, above all, for you lovely readers, my dears, mes chéries, because it’s your clicks and comments that keep this blog going; it’s because of you that this blog gives me any sense of satisfaction, and, honestly, it’s for you.

This blog is for you.

Bon anniversaire, La Pêche Fraîche!  

Et mes chers lecteurs, je vous remercie de tout coeur.

Je vous adore.

Je vraiment vous adore.

My Kind of Cake

for the brown sugar marble cake:

adapted from Food and Wine

ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup milk
2 splashes vanilla extract
6 ounces (12 tablespoons, 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups tightly packed brown sugar
4 eggs
2 ounces very good quality unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
2 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled slightly

directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Pam spray 4 6-inch cake pans (or 2 9-inch, or 3 8-inch).
Stir flour, baking powder, and salt together.
Mix milk and vanilla extract.
Cream butter until very light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the sugar.
Cream for 2 more minutes, until super fluffy and smooth- not gritty.
Add in the eggs one at a time, while mixing on low.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix on low after adding all the eggs.
With the mixer on low, simultaneously add the milk mixture and the dry ingredients- go slow.
Once everything is mixed, scrape the sides of the bowl and mix on low again to ensure homogeneity.
Split the batter in two- by weight, you should have one half with 1 pound 5.5 ounces to which you will add the 4 ounces of chocolate.  By volume, measure out approximately 2 cups.
Stir in the melted chocolate into the batter that you just measured out.
Alternate placing scoops of the vanilla and chocolate batters into your pans; once all the batter is portioned out, swirl it well with a fork.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a paring knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

for the passion fruit curd:

ingredients:

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

55 g sugar

80 g passion fruit purée, thawed if frozen

pinch salt

56 g butter (4 tablespoons, 2 ounces)

directions:

Blend the eggs, sugar, salt, and passion fruit together, either in a standard blender or with an immersion blender.

Transfer to a pot (if using a standard blender, clean the blender canister).

Place over medium high heat and cook, whisking (or blending, should you have a stick blender) all the while.

Cook for about 6 minutes, until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Remove from heat and blend in butter (transfer to the cleaned blender canister and add the butter and blend, if using a standard blender).

Allow to cool completely before using.

for the vanilla bean Italian meringue buttercream:

from Joe Pastry: click through for an in depth tutorial

ingredients:

5 ounces of egg whites (about 5)

8.75 ounces of sugar, divided

pinch of cream of tartar

scrapings of 1 vanilla bean

2 ounces water

16 ounces (4 sticks, 32 tablespoons, 1 pound) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened but still cool

directions:

Mix the egg whites in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment until foamy.

Add in the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks begin to form.

Slowly stream in 1.75 ounces of sugar, mixed with the vanilla bean scrapings.

Beat on high until stiff peaks form.

Stop the mixer.

Meanwhile, mix the water and remaining 7 ounces of sugar together in a heavy bottomed saucepan.

Place over medium high heat and bring to a boil.

Use a candy thermometer, and bring the syrup to 245 degrees F.

Remove from heat and pour into a glass mixing cup.

Drizzle some of the syrup over the meringue, then whip on high speed for 5 seconds.

Continue in bursts like this until all of the syrup is used up.

Whip the meringue until it has cooled to room temperature (feel the side of the bowl for an indicator).

One tablespoon at a time, beat in the butter.

Mixture may curdle and look separated; keep beating.

It will come together, usually quite suddenly, and you will be staring into a bowl of the fluffiest, most delicious frosting ever.

It will be shiny and smooth.

There should be no butter lumps and everything should be homogeneous.

to assemble:
Torte (level) each layer with a serrated knife to create a nice, smooth, flat top.

Place a cake layer on your cake stand.

Pipe buttercream around the edge of the layer to create a dam.

Fill the center of the layer with a scant 1/4 cup curd, then place the next layer on top of that.

Pipe another dam and repeat with second and third layers.

Place the fourth layer on top, and crumb coat the cake.

Place in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes to set the crumb coat.

Use the rest of the frosting to create a smooth, even outer coat.

Enjoy!

by Rachel Sally

Time is Deceiving

 
Because sometimes, even when celebrating is the last thing in the world that you want to do, you still need cake.
 
 
Happy birthday to my big brother, Tom.
 
I love you.
 
Chris, you are in our hearts and on our minds and we will continue to search.
We will not give up.
We love you.
 
Readers, I write this through my tears.  
I will not be posting for the next few days.
 
For those of you in the Ithaca area:  please come out and help us search for Chris.  
We just want need to bring him home.
Search party organization and information can be found here and here.
{Cake and frosting from Sky High.  Find the full recipe here.}
by Rachel Sally

Hipsternation

My Korean grandmother is a hipster.  
(Hi Grandma!)
A few weeks months ago, while she was visiting, a conversation about hipsters was sparked by God knows what.
In a feeble attempt to explain this large sector of the populous, I explained, 
hipsters live in Brooklyn and make their own pickles.
 
My grandma just stared at me.  I was probably eating some of her kimchi at that very moment.
Then: a revelation from my irreverent always wise father- 
Grandma is the ultimate hipster.
 
Lives in Brooklyn? Check.
Makes her own pickles?  Oh good Lord you betcha.
Best kimchi I’ve ever tasted.  Not to mention the tens of other types of pickles she makes, stuffed in her fridge at home and here in both of our fridges.
 
(Find something floating in a brown liquid in my fridge?  Keep your paws off and certainly don’t throw it out.  It’s probably some pickles.  
My favorite are chayote pickles.
Funny story about these pickles: none of my family knew what exactly the pickle even was; we couldn’t figure it out, even after poking around in the murky container for a few days.  Unfortunately, my grandma wasn’t quite so helpful, because her pronunciation of chayote left us all puzzled.  It sounded like she was sneezing.  
Ach aye OH tay.  What?!  
Eventually, I realized what she was saying- but none of the rest of my family knew what chayote was, even when pronounced correctly.  Whatever.  More for me.)
We all found this hilarious, including my grandma.
Still not sure if she understands what a hipster is, although we expanded the definition to “also really liking food trucks.”
 
Hipsters also like these rice krispie treats.
They’re the snobbiest krispie treats in the history of rice krispie treats.
First of all, everything is homemade, save for the rice krispies themselves (although, to be completely honest, I did quite a bit of googling for “homemade rice krispies”).
Secondly, the flavors are very different from your regular ole run of the mill krispie treats:
the marshmallows are made with maple syrup and an entire vanilla bean,
the caramel is heavily salted with miso,
and the whole shebang is tied together with brown butter.
(Remember when I made snobby krispies?  Yeah, these up the ante even further.)

I made these a while back, and they’ve waited quite some time in the “draft” stage of my posts, but nevertheless, they’re a chic little bar, definitely worth mentioning.  
My friend, le français, said they tasted like croissants.
I’ll take it.

P.S. Luv u gramz.

Hipster Krispiez
marshmallow adapted from smittenkitchen, inspired/adapted from A Cozy Kitchen
ingredients:
for the marshmallow:
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/4 teaspoons gelatin
1/2 cup water, divided
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
scrapings of a vanilla bean
big pinch salt
for the caramel:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons shiro miso
to assemble:
3 tablespoons of butter, browned
6+ cups of rice krispies
melted chocolate for drizzling, if desired
directions:
First, make the caramel.
Bring the sugar and water to a boil, allowing them to cook until the mixture turns deep amber, about 7 minutes.
Immediately remove from heat and whisk in butter; mixture will foam.
Stir in the cream; mixture will bubble violently- keep whisking.
Stir in the miso, whisking until everything is smooth.
Set aside; if it sets while you are making the marshmallow, just reheat it gently in the microwave or over a low flame.
Next, make the marshmallow.
Place 1/4 cup of the water in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Sprinkle the gelatin on top to allow it to soften and bloom.
Mix the maple syrup, sugar, salt, and second 1/4 cup water in a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat.
Bring the syrup mixture up to 240 degrees F, about 10 minutes over medium heat.
Pour the hot syrup over the bloomed gelatin and whip until mixture has tripled in volume and is very fluffy and white.
Sometime while the mixture is whipping, add in the vanilla bean scrapings.
Meanwhile, prepare your pan; grease a 13×9 pan with a little butter and set it aside.
Once your marshmallow is ready, transfer it to a large pot with the browned butter; heat gently to mix the butter into the marshmallow, then stir in miso caramel until everything is homogeneous.
Stir in the rice krispies, adding more only if the mixture is very wet still; you won’t need much more than 8 cups, maximum.
Scrape the mixture into your prepared pan and press firmly all over to even out the tops.
Refrigerate about 30 minutes to set, or leave it at room temperature for a bit longer.
Cut into bars or squares, and drizzle with chocolate if desired.