Category: whining

by Rachel Sally

O.C.D.

Or, alternately, Why I Shouldn’t Be Left Alone In the Kitchen.

 Or perhaps, Why I Shouldn’t Be Allowed on the Internet.

 Hello, my name is Rachel, and I am a perfectionist and an obsessive-compulsive, bossy, unstable control freak.
Doesn’t that just make you want to live with me forever and ever?
Don’t answer that.

Alas, I admit it, I am.  I’m so glad I have you all here to support me.  
The thing is, when I get an idea up in my head, I can’t let go of it.  I saw a picture on the dreaded interweb the other year day of little rosettes made of mangoes.  On a pie.
I died.

In addition, my mind was wrapped around the idea of marrying nectarines and gingersnaps.
Oh yeah, and I was so very intrigued by peach pits that I wanted to do something with noyaux, à la Bravetart.
Besides, I had already been hoping to freeze some peaches, what with the abundance right now, to save for winter. 

Oooh! Also, croissants.  For tea.  With company.

So yes, today I am presenting you with not only a laminated dough, but also a labor intensive tart. 

If, by the off chance, you aren’t as… shall we say, crazy… as me, feel free to dump the nectarine slices on haphazardly.  It tastes good.  That’s what matters.
I suppose I understand if you don’t want to undertake making croissants, but please, put them on your bucket list.  They aren’t half as hard as they’re made out to be, and they will impress your friends and terrify your enemies.  

And as for the peach pits?  I managed to crack two open, using a giant mallet and some pliers, but gave up when I discovered that I had rent a gash in my favorite bamboo cutting board.  (Damn pits!)  While I possibly could have done something with those two measly noyaux, when I awoke the next morning, all the peach pits had been trashed.  Ah, well.

 

Nectarine, Lemon, and Gingerbread Tart
For the crust: (adapted from The Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
BIG pinch each of ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, sea salt, and cardamom
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick very cold butter, cubed
1 tablespoon molasses
ice water as needed
Directions:
Put the flour, sugar, spices, and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor.  Pulse to combine.  Pulse in the butter and molasses until there are small bits of butter, ranging from sandy to pea-sized.  If the dough is too dry, add in ice water, a tablespoon at a time, until it can stick together when pressed.  Press the dough into a buttered tart pan, prick with a fork, cover with a sheet of aluminum foil that has been buttered (press the foil right down into the pan), and freeze, for at least 30 minutes, or up to 1 day.  When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, put some pie weights (you won’t need as many because the shell has been chilled) on top of the foil, and bake until deep golden brown and fragrant, 20-25 minutes.  Allow to cool.
For the filling:
Ingredients:
3/4 cup lemon curd 
1/2 cup to 2/3 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons powdered sugar (or to taste: it doesn’t need much)
Directions:
Whip the heavy cream and mascarpone and powdered sugar together (I used an immersion blender because it is super fast and effective).  Fold in the lemon curd.  I actually made this in two parts, folding the lemon curd into some of the whipped mixture, then layering that into the tart with the plain whipped cream/cheese on top of that.
To assemble:
Ingredients:
5 or 6 nectarines, sliced as thinly as possible
Directions:
Pour the whipped filling into the tart shell, and smooth the top.  To make nectarine rosettes, gently curl the thinnest pieces of nectarine you can find, and stick them into the filling.  Then begin to place other pieces around, with less curl.  Once you are sick of rosettes, you can just place gently curled pieces around and in between, to take away the white space and act as filler.  

Whole Wheat Sourdough Croissants:
adapted from Christina Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar
Ingredients:
for the dough:
550 g white whole wheat flour
12 g kosher salt
3.5 g active dry yeast
370 g water, at room temperature
for the butter block:
2 sticks butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions: 
Mix all the dough ingredients together with a dough hook in a mixer, until smooth and supple.  Place in an oiled container that is covered but still has air flow (like a bowl with a damp dish towel cover, or a plastic bucket with a top that has a few holes poked in it).  If you want the sourdough component, stick the dough in your fridge for at least 2 days, but up to a week, then pull it out and let it come to room temp, then rise in a warm place until double its original size.  If you don’t, allow the dough to rise to at least double its orignial size, then begin to make your croissants.  When you’re ready to make the croissants, beat your butter in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment until fluffy.  Pat it into a 8 x 12 rectangle between two sheets of parchment paper.  Put it in the fridge to firm up.  Meanwhile, punch down the dough on a smooth, floured countertop, and roll/stretch it gently into  a rectangle 16 x 24 inches, and even in thickness.  Put your slightly firm butter block on one half of the dough, then fold the other half of the dough over and pinch the edges shut.  Let rest for 10 minutes.  Now, you must do 3 double book turns to create the layers.  Here’s how:  Roll the the dough out again to a rectangle of 16 x 24 inches and even in thickness.  Be gentle, so that you don’t have any butter mushing out.  Visualize your dough divided into 4 quarters.  Fold the outer two quarters to the center, then bring one edge over to meet the other (Tosi says: When I’m showing someone how to make a double book turn, I stretch my monkey arms out wide like I’m going in for a big hug, then I fold my arms at the elbow, so my fingers are touching my armpits, and fold my elbows in to touch one another.)  Now transfer your dough to the fridge to rest, wrapped loosely in plastic wrap, for 30 minutes.  Repeat the double book turn twice more.  After the final rest in the fridge, roll your dough out to a 16 x 24 inch rectangle, then cut the dough into 10 triangles (like a backgammon board), putting a small notch on the base of each Isosceles triangle.  Roll em up, allow to rise for about 45 minutes, or until puffed up, then brush them with an egg wash (1 egg+1 teaspoon water), and bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees F.  

by Rachel Sally

Send Help

Where the f@#% did August go?!
I want to face plant into this.

Sorry.  I’m just so overwhelmed.
Suddenly it’s cool enough that I broke out the yoga pants again… Great. I’ll be wearing those for the next six months. Then, just maybe, my legs will see the sunlight.

I’ll be hibernating until next May, too, Sasha.


I don’t mean to be fatalistic, but I just finished up my last day at the lab where I’ve been working, and I was expecting to command Siri to open my calendar and to see weeks of free, unrepentant sleep and relaxation stretching out in my future, only to be shocked by what seemed to be a two digit date beginning with a 2… 
Surely you jest, Siri.  But nay, she assured me of the date.  
Guys, it’s the twenty first of August…

Puff Daddy


What?!? (Why the face?)
I swear that I work in a time warp zone.  It’s the opposite of school.
Every time I think or talk about it, I realize that I’m so unnerved that I am sure to waste away the rest of my summer whining about how little is left.  Nothing will be able to comfort me.
Except maybe these buns.
Jussss keeding, I meant these buns!

This is what happens when I try to take a photograph from above.

Coffee-Chocolate Swirl Buns
Adapted from smittenkitchen
Ingredients:
For the dough:
240 mL milk, warmed to 100-115 degrees F
1 tablespoon espresso powder
90 g sugar
15 g yeast
1 large egg plus one egg yolk
375 g flour
3/4 tsp salt
70 g butter
For the swirl:
70 g butter
75 g sugar
12 ounces dark chocolate
Pinch salt
For the glaze: (I know this isn’t properly measured. Deal with it.)
Bit of chocolate
Splash of cream
Tiny pat of butter
Pinch of salt
Spoonful of espresso powder
Directions:
For the buns:
Bloom the yeast in the milk with 30 g of the sugar.  Once foamy, stir in the espresso powder.  Add to the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook attached, and add the eggs, rest of the sugar, and salt and mix around a bit.  Slowly add in the flour.  The dough should be super soft and form a “tornado” at the bottom of the bowl, i.e. not stick to the sides but stick at the bottom. Once the dough has come together, add in the softened butter and allow the dough hook to work that in.  Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl with a slightly damp dish towel over it and place in a moderately warm and draft-free place to rise for an hour or so.  Meanwhile, chop up your chocolate and mix it with the sugar, salt, and butter for your filling. You can do this in a food processor or by hand.  It should be chunky and should crumble but also be nice and moist.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Once the dough has doubled in size, roll it out into a large rectangle and spread the filling all over it. Roll up the dough, and slice it (It’ll be very difficult, because the dough is so soft, but they’ll be covered in glaze so don’t worry.) and place each bun into greased muffin tins.  Allow to rise for a little bit (30 ish minutes depending on the warmth of your kitchen), until they have puffed up a bit, then pop them in the oven for 30-35 minutes.
For the glaze:
Melt the chocolate, add a pinch of salt and the espresso powder, and a small pat of butter and a splash of cream, enough to make it a pourable consistency, and pour over your warm buns (lol).

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

Easy As…

Alright guys.  It’s time to cut the B.S.  If I see or hear one more person committing themselves to a life of pre-made, store-bought, nasty, preservative-filled pie crust AKA junk in a box (literally), I’m going to lose it.  Think this kind of retaliation for the next lemming who jumps off the precipitous cliff of store-bought crustdom.  Seriously people.  It’s past time to stop.  There is no God-given reason to be afraid of pie crust.  It’s pastry, for heaven’s sake.  There is a reason that the saying is “easy as pie.”  So, without further ado, suck it up, don’t be whiny, and let’s make some pastries.
Yes, you can make this.
These, too!

Rule 1:  The Freezer is Your Friend
I do not care whether you are living in the Sahara or Siberia.  You need to chill your stuff.  Every little piece of it, from the food processor to the flour and especially the butter.  Chilling everything will help the pie or tart dough be flaky, because it will insure that the butter stays cold and in pieces.  Flaky crusts are a result of cold pockets of butter melting in the oven, creating pockets of steam in between layers of flour, thus stratifying your crust.  Yum.

See those pieces? That’s what you want.


Rule 2:  Just Say No to Shortening
I am not of the school of thought that believes shortening contributes to a mind-blowing crust.  And you shouldn’t be, either.  Shortening is icky.  Butter is yummy.  I believe that if you can’t spread something on a piece of toast and shove it in your mouth with a squeal of delight, then it should not be in your pie.  Butter is flavorful fat; shortening is greasy flavorless fat.  All-butter, all good.

Cold butter in, good dough out.

Rule 3:  More is Not Always More

This applies to a few facets of pies and tarts; both the elements and the formation.  Firstly, more butter does not always equal a better crust: a balance must be kept between fat and flour; more fat will only overwhelm the dough and leave you with a greasy mess in the oven.  Also, and this especially goes for pie dough, you don’t need more ingredients than butter, buttermilk, flour, and a pinch of salt and sugar.  No eggs in pie dough.  Please.  Tart dough, however, is a different animal; it needs an egg.  Secondly, fillings should be simple; the essence of a good pie or tart is in its elegant or rustic simplicity: showcasing good ingredients is the goal, not showing them up with too many competing flavors.  Overly sugared fillings are unappetizing and overwhelming.  In terms of the actual making of the stuff, more rolling and more mixing are bad.  More kneading?  Same deal.  This is because of the whole butter-pocket thing again.  If you mush all the butter into invisible pieces, there will be no pockets and you will have a dense mess in the oven.  Let the dough speak for itself; don’t work it to death.  
Fresh ingredients that you would willingly eat on their own.  

Rule 4:  Less is Not Always More

Do not underfill your pie crust.  No one wants to see or experience the gaping canyon between a few layers of cooked-down fruit and your beautifully risen pie dough.  Fill ’em up nice and full, because the fruit will shrink when baking.  Do not automatically add the exact amount of liquid that your recipe calls for: you must play it by ear and eye, because a slightly sticky dough is far better than a dry, crumbly mess that you can never roll out.  Add more if it looks like it needs more.  Simple as that.  

Pressed and ready to be pricked.
Crumbly is good only for tart shells.  Not pie dough

Rule 5: Relax.


Don’t freak out. If you find yourself panicking, shut the front door and take some deep breaths. If your crimps and lattices aren’t perfect… Who cares?  Certainly not the people who are going to be indulging in your delicious, buttery, flaky, fruity pie.  Trust me on this one… They don’t care how it looks.
Everything is going to turn out just fine.
You are now fully prepared to go out and make some great looking and tasting pies.  Go forth and prosper.   And take nary a look towards the refrigerated section of your grocery store.  But really.  I’ll be watching, ready to snatch that Pepperidge Farm crap out of your hands.


Unbeatable Pie Dough
Ingredients:
For a double crust: (halve for a single crust pie)
3 cups all-purpose flour, cold
2 sticks of unsalted butter (16 tablespoons, 8 ounces), cold or frozen, cut into pieces
1/2-1 cup ice cold buttermilk
Healthy pinch salt
1 teaspoon-1 tablespoon sugar, depending on your preference
Directions:
1. Put the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and chill.  
2.  Once chilled, pulse butter in until the mixture has some butter pieces the size of peas.  
3.  Add the buttermilk in, slowly, with long pulses, until the dough forms a semi-cohesive ball.  If it is too sticky, do not worry, just sprinkle a little more flour on your clean surface when you turn the ball out, and roll it around a bit.  
4.  Divide the dough into two balls, pat into disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and put in fridge for at least 30 minutes, but for up to 3 days.  (Can be frozen for 1 month, just take it out and let it thaw when you want to use it, or, chill it in the fridge and roll it out and shape it to the pan before freezing (then you can go straight from the freezer to oven to mouth).)
5.  Roll the dough out.  When rolling dough out, don’t overdo it.  You want it to be the proper size to fit your dish (about 1 1/2 inches larger radius than the dish), but not any larger (and therefore, thinner), than that.
6.  To par-bake, put in a 350 degrees F oven (pricked with a fork)  for 10-15 minutes, or until palest golden.

Indefatigable Tart Dough
adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking, helpful tips from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients: 
Makes enough for one 9-inch tart crust1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, cold1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, cold1/4 teaspoon salt1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons; 4 1/2 ounces) very cold or frozen unsalted butter, cut into pieces1 large egg
Directions:
1. Pulse the flour, sugar and salt together in the bowl of a food processor. 
2. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in.
3. Beat the egg gently, and pulse it into the dough.   
4. When the egg is in, process in long pulses–about 10 seconds each–until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change–heads up. 
5. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing. Chill the dough, wrapped in plastic, for about 2 hours before using.  
6. Rolling this dough can be tricky, due to its crumbly nature, so instead of doing so, simply press it, gently, with your fingers or a cup measure, into a greased tart pan.  Prick all over with a fork (gently!).
7. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.
8.  To fully or partially bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil (or use nonstick foil) and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. And here is the very best part: Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights. Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 20 to 25 minutes.9.  Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Bake the crust about 10 minutes longer to fully bake it, or until it is firm and golden brown, brown being the important word: a pale crust doesn’t have a lot of flavor. (To partially bake it, only an additional 5 minutes is needed.) 
10.  Transfer the pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature, and proceed with the rest of your recipe.  
(This dough can be wrapped and kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months. While the fully baked crust can be packed airtight and frozen for up to 2 months, the flavor will be fresher if you bake it directly from the freezer, already rolled out.)

Brown-Sugar Peach Pie
Here’s the beauty of working with peaches for pies:  One, they are the most absolutely delicious fruit in a pie, in my opinion, at least, and two, you don’t have to peel them! In fact, the skin only adds to the deliciousness of the peaches, so none of this nonsense about boiling and shocking them to peel ’em.  Lawd have mercy this fruit is a miracle! 
Ingredients:
1 recipe Unbeatable Pie Dough (double crust)
6-8 ripe but firm peaches, depending on the size of your peaches
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
1/3 cup brown sugar (you don’t need to pack it real tight if your peaches are nice and sweet)
1/4-1/3 cup granulated sugar (same deal as with the brown sugar in terms of quantity)
Healthy pinch of ground cinnamon
Healthy grating of nutmeg
Big pinch of sea salt
1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon water
1-2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
Directions:
After rolling out your pie dough and chilling it, cut up your peaches into 8ths and mix them, gently, with all the other ingredients.  Pour into pie crust and top with the other half of your crust, whether in lattice form or just whole, with some slits cut for steam escape routes.  Brush with the egg wash, and sprinkle, generously, with the turbinado sugar.  Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown, and you can see peach juice bubbling and peeking through the openings in the crust.

Peach Tart
Ingredients:
1 recipe Indefatigable Tart Dough
3-4 ripe but firm large peaches
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
2 tablespoons plus up to one more tablespoon flour(depends how juicy your peaches are)
2 tablespoons butter
Pinch salt
Directions:
After preparing your tart shell (Par-bake it for about 10 minutes, until it’s starting to turn a very light golden color), cut up your peaches into relatively even, thin slices (about 16 pieces per peach).  Pulse the rest of the ingredients until there are small, oatmeal-flake sized pieces of butter.  Arrange the peach slices in a sunburst pattern, then top with the streusel.  It will seem like a lot, but just sprinkle it as evenly as possible over the peaches.  Bake for 35- 45 minutes at 375 degrees F, or until the peaches have released juices that have become thick and sauce-like.  


This pie lasted for a record 8 hours in my house. 
by Rachel Sally

The Frenchman

So, here’s the thing:  I did  have a delicious recipe for burnt caramel ice cream, à la Toscanini’s, and a very sweet story about my father and his affinity for said ice cream.  Unfortunately, said father ate said ice cream faster than you can say Toscanini’s and therefore I had no opportunity to photograph it.  Glad at least someone enjoyed it…  Anyways, here’s something equally sweet.
Fresh from the garden

 J’ai un ami qui s’appelle Emile, et il adore la lavande; on blague que ça c’est car il est français.  Alors, il est le “Frenchman.”  C’était son anniversaire la lundi dernière, mais je n’étais pas à l’école ce jour là.  C’est dommage que je l’ait raté, mais j’ai fait ce gâteau pour lui hier.  C’est un gâteau de lavande et citron avec le glaçage de la gousse de vanille.

Du sucre avec la lavande et zeste d’un citron

    I have a friend named Emile, and he loves lavender; we joke that it’s because he’s French.  He is the Frenchman.  It was his birthday last Monday, but I wasn’t in school that day.  It’s too bad I missed it, but I made this cake for him yesterday.  It’s a lavender and lemon cake with vanilla bean frosting.

J’ai su immédiatement que j’ai voulu adapter un gâteau de yaourt français pour qu’il puisse avoir de la lavande; je fait ce gâteau souvent, et il est magnifiquement moelleux et de citron, grâce au yaourt.  Il n’y a pas de beurre dans le gâteau, mais on ne le sait jamais du saveur.

I knew straight away that I wanted to adapt a French yogurt cake to include lavender; I make this cake often, and it is wonderfully moist and lemony, thanks to the yogurt. There is no butter in the cake, though you wouldn’t know it from the taste.
Freckles like mine

 

 Anyways, I had a little issue with the decorating:  I dyed some sanding sugar lavender, and planned to use that on the cake.  Once on the frosted cake, it looked garish and simply awful.  So, I scraped it off and tried to save the frosting.  I then wanted to use lots of sprinkles to make it more festive, but somehow, Lord knows how, I was almost all out of sprinkles. This I only realized after putting some sprinkles on the cake.  So, I scraped that off and did a minimal sprinkling and tried to make those that stuck on the cake look purposeful.  Oh well.  You live, you learn.
Joyeuse anniversaire, mon ami.
 
Glossy, stiff peaks.  Parfait.
Lavender Lemon Yogurt Cake

adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking
makes 2 8-inch rounds
ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
healthy pinch sea salt
1 cup sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons chopped fresh lavender
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil (I used equal parts olive and canola)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease two 8-inch rounds.  Whisk the flours, baking powder, and salt together.  Rub the lemon zest, lavender, and sugar in a bowl with your fingers until it becomes fragrant; add to the flour mixture.  Add the yogurt, eggs, and oil, and mix together.
Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the cake springs back to the touch and is golden.
Vanilla Bean Mascarpone Swiss Meringue Buttercream
makes 2.5 cups
ingredients:
5 ounces egg whites
5.5 ounces sugar
Scrapings of one or two vanilla beans
Pinch of salt
1 pound butter, slightly soft, in small pieces
5 ounces mascarpone
Directions:
Heat the egg whites, vanilla beans, salt, and sugar in a bain marie until they reach 145 degrees F.  Whip until a stiff, glossy meringue forms, and the bowl is cool to the touch.  Add in the butter slowly, one piece at a time, until all is incorporated (meringue will deflate).  Then add the mascarpone.
Didn’t bring my camera to school.  iPhone suffices.

 

by Rachel Sally

Caramel Craze and Memorial Daze

It’s starting to feel a lot like summer

 

 

This past weekend, to the dismay of the entire cast and crew of my dysfunctional household, our backyard neighbors hosted their annual Memorial day children’s

bonanza.  Replete with a gigantic bounce house (I swear they started blowing that sucker up at nine AM), approximately thirty wee little tots under the age of seven, and innumerable honking bicycle horns, Sunday was looking to be a very dismal day.  That is, until I remembered my AP Chemistry project that was due after the long weekend: the assignment was to explore the chemistry of an edible compound, and most importantly, bring in samples.  My partner and I chose caramel.  (Just kidding.  I’m way too bossy to let someone else choose.  I chose caramel.  He agreed, especially when I promised him all the leftover samples.)  It wasn’t exactly the prospect of doing a chem project that excited me (yuck!), but rather the fact that I had a concrete purpose to bake.  


So I made these suckers.

 
Oh yeah.  Uh huh.  Those would be salted caramel cupcakes with salted caramel filling, a salted caramel cream cheese Swiss meringue buttercream, and a hard salted caramel topper.  Upon describing them to my classmates, I was met with whining protestations: “Why is there so much salt?!” “Is there any sugar?!”

 

Um, yeah.  There was plenty of sugar.  I made so much caramel, I swear I went through five pounds of sugar, thanks to the fact that I burned a few batches, letting them get to “monkey blood” stage AKA too dark for even that wonderful burnt caramel taste. 
I don’t care how or why this happens.  I only care about how it is getting to my mouth.
 

 I could tell you oh-so-much about caramelization and all of the wonderful chemicals produced in the poorly understood process, but to be honest, it’s a lot more boring than making or tasting caramel.  And that’s coming from a self-proclaimed chem geek.  

*Insert your favorite four-lettered word here*
By the way, try not to be as greedy as me.  Sugar burns hurt.  

Burned caramel and fingers aside, the project went off without a hitch, despite the ten decibel screaming that permeated my kitchen for twelve straight hours.  

I guess I’m glad I didn’t choose to study soufflés.
 

(Pourable) Salted Caramel
 makes 3 cups 
ingredients: 
2 cups sugar 
1 cup water 
generous 1 1/2 teaspoons fleur de sel
 2 cups heavy cream, warmed 
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 
Directions: 
Combine the sugar, water and salt in a heavy-bottomed pot.  In a separate pan, gently warm the heavy cream with the vanilla.  Don’t stir the sugar mixture.  Shake the pot once in a while to help the sugar and salt dissolve.  Allow to cook, shaking occasionally, for 8-10 minutes until the sugar has turned a deep amber color.  Immediately (you want to stop the cooking), but slowly, pour the cream mixture into the sugar, in a steady stream.  Be careful, as it will bubble up furiously.  Stir the caramel with a long spoon until it is smooth and homogeneous.  Pour into a heat-proof dish and allow to cool. 


Caramel Cupcakes:  
makes 24 mini cupcakes + 6 regular sized cupcakes  
ingredients:
 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 
1 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder 
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel 
1 1/2 cup buttermilk or milk 
1 egg 
generous 1 tablespoon vanilla 
1/2 cup vegetable oil 
1/3 cup caramel sauce (see above) 
Directions: 
Sift flour, sugar, and baking powder into a bowl.  In a stand mixer, mix the buttermilk, salt, egg, vanilla, and vegetable oil.  Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet, alternating with the caramel sauce.  Mix only until everything is incorporated.  It will be a thin batter.Bake at 350°F for 12-18 minutes, depending on what size your cupcakes are.  Check them often; when they are done, they will be springy, deeply tanned, and ever-so-slightly sticky.


Caramel Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Frosting 
adapted from Bravetart’s SMB
makes 5-ish cups
ingredients:
5 oz egg whites
5 oz sugar
pinch salt
1 pound butter, cubed and slightly softened
1/3 cup caramel sauce (see above)
5 oz cream cheese
6 oz marscapone
Directions:
Combine egg whites, sugar, and salt in a clean, clean, clean bowl.  Set over a pan of simmering water, or a bain marie, and cook until the temp registers 145°F.  Remove from the double boiler and whip until stiff, glossy peaks form and the outside of the bowl is neutral to the touch.  (If you are super impatient, ahem, stick the bowl in the fridge for a minute.  It will cool down, but won’t deflate.)  Now, with the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, add in the butter, one cube at a time.  Once the buttercream is smooth, mix in the caramel.  It may look curdled: don’t panic! add in the cream cheese and marscapone in small batches until all is incorporated and smooth.  

Hard Caramel Topper
from Sprinkle Bakes (for that matter, these cupcakes are entirely inspired by her beautiful “Triple Salted Caramel Cupcakes”!)

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 
1/4 teaspoon fleur de sel
3/4 cup water
2-4 tablespoons of large-crystal sugar, mixed with 1/4 tsp fleur de sel

Lay out a large piece of parchment on your work surface and spray with cooking oil (such as canola). Put sugar, salt and cold water in a heavy pan; do not stir, but shake until the sugar has begun to turn light amber.  Remove from heat and, after stirring briefly, dip a spoon in the caramel and let it drip onto the paper, forming abstract shapes (or beautiful rounds like Heather’s!).  After a few minutes of leaving the caramel to dry, sprinkle the sugar/salt mixture over the caramels.  Once they are dried, gently lift them from the paper and adorn the cupcakes.

Assembling the cupcakes: once they are cooled, cut a small round from the top, and fill with a small amount of caramel sauce.  Put the top back on, and frost.  Top with the hard caramel!

I also made these delicious Salted Butter Caramels from David Lebovitz, but I replaced half of the cream with fresh peach juice, to make peachy, buttery, caramels that were to die for.  

Mr. Bear needed a bath

 

I know the caramel sauce makes a lot more than you’ll need for the filling, frosting, and batter, but trust me: I have a wonderful re-purpose for them coming soon!  Here’s a hint: it’s cold, creamy, and caramel-y.