Apricot Tart

Towards the end of August, the Sunday farmer's market at our co-op had some delicious fresh apricots. I love to eat apricots by themselves but I never can resist looking up what I can bake with new goodies. I found a recipe for an apricot tart that got rave reviews. The result was delicious. If you ever get fresh apricots, try this tart. The crust seems to get a bit soggy after the first day. All the better to share with friends... or just eat it all yourself in one day and no, I did not do that, you can't prove it!

You want to eat this.

Whole Wheat Bread

A while ago I baked a whole wheat bread from Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice." I had been getting loaves that were too moist so I baked this one for the maximum time and it came out a little dry. I later figured out that using high gluten flour (which wasn't called for in this recipe) seems give softer moist loaves so maybe that was the cause of wet bread before. The whole wheat made a delicious sandwich loaf. His recipes are super long so I'll just recommend that you borrow or buy the book.

Tiramisu Layer Cake

My friends has a potluck (yay) and I made a tiramisu layer cake. Next time I would add even more liquid to the sponge to make it a truly moist cake. The whipped cream frosting was delicious and kept really well in the cold freshness of late fall. I felt a little dirty using box cake but I actually already had a box in my cupboard that I had bought a while ago because of some ridiculous sale and also because I intuited way back then that it would come in handy in a pinch.

Tiramisu Layer Cake

Cake:
1 (18.25 ounce) package moist white cake mix
2 teaspoon instant coffee powder

Syrup:
1 cup coffee
3 tablespoon coffee flavored liqueur

Filling
1 (8 ounce) container mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons coffee flavored liqueur

Frosting:
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons coffee flavored liqueur

Cocoa powder and chocolate curls for Garnish

Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). Grease and flour 3 (9 inch) pans. Prepare the cake mix according to package directions. Measure out one third of batter and pour into a pan. Stir instant coffee into remaining batter and divide into remaining pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. In a measuring cup, combine brewed coffee and 1 tablespoon coffee liqueur; set aside.

Filling: In a small bowl, using an electric mixer set on low speed, combine mascarpone, 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons coffee liqueur; beat just until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Frosting: In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium-high speed, beat the cream, 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons coffee liqueur until stiff. Fold 1/2 cup of cream mixture into filling mixture.

To assemble the cake: Cut domes off of cake layers. Place one coffee flavored cake layer on a serving plate. Using a thin skewer, poke holes in cake, about 1 inch apart. Pour one third of reserved coffee mixture over cake, then spread with half of the filling mixture. Top with plain cake layer; poke holes in cake. Pour another third of the coffee mixture over the second layer and spread with the remaining filling. Top with remaining cake layer; poke holes in cake. Pour remaining coffee mixture on top. Spread sides and top of cake with frosting. Place cocoa in a sieve and lightly dust top of cake. Garnish with chocolate curls. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.

Breads and apprenticing

I suppose it is a little dubious to be apprenticing from a book but I'm doing my darnedest to from "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart and "Amy's Bread" by Amy Scherber and Toy Kim Dupree. The two bread that I have been working on are Amy's Walnut Scallion Bread (delicious) and Peter's Ciabatta (hard to work with such a wet dough). The breads get a little better every time but I've still got to play around to get the right crust and coolness of the crumb. Anyways, here are some loaves I've baked.

Walnut Scallion:



Lots of bread (the left two are the ciabattas and the rest are walnut scallion (my roommate really loves walnut scallion bread so we bake lots of it).
Close up of the ciabattas

Mille Feuilles

We went apple, grape and raspberry picking this last weekend at Milborn Orchards. The grapes were phenomenal! And I came home with a beautiful box of raspberries.

The first thought that ran through my head was "Napoleons!!!"

It was my first attempt at puff pastry and mille feuille, aka Napoleons. I clearly remember the first time I ate a Napoleon. I was in 10th grade, sleeping over at a friend's house and her parents had just returned from NY city bringing back a big boxful of pastries from a fancy shmancy bakery. I got to have the Napoleon and oh my god, it was one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten. I continued to have an obsession with Napoleons and came across this intriguing recipe on Tartlette's blog last week. I took it as a sign and I gave it a go.

I was up at 6 am, translating grams into our silly english measurements and measuring out crazy shit like 3/4 cup + 1 T + 1 t butter and 2/3 c - 1 T flour, etc. Maybe it's time to get a scale?

Rolling out the dough encased in butter block wasn't intuitive to me. The butter block softened much more quickly than the dough block so whenever I rolled it, the butter block would all squish to the edges. Maybe that's why it's usually the inverse of this inverted recipe. I probably should thrown it in the fridge to firm it up a bit too. But after the 4th hour of rolling, folding and chilling, I had a nice looking dough:


I baked it according to directions by sandwiching the dough between baking sheets to keep it from puffing up. My result was a somewhat heavy and dense puff pastry. It's probably how I rolled out the dough or that the dough got too warm or that my pan was too heavy but the pastry wasn't fall apart flaky bits of heavenly lightness which was disappointing. I decided to cut each piece in half thickwise to lighten it up a bit.






I whipped up some heavy cream with sugar and got out my lemon curd and proceeded to layer. It was good but, again, not the light airy pastry orgasm I had a long time ago. I'll have to fiddle around and maybe get a book out on puff pastry. Note to self: here's a nice video, showing a logical way to make it and here is an illustrated recipe.

Rosewater Pistachio Cake

A blog! Yes, a place to spout about some of my baking and tango adventures.

I always loved putzing around in the kitchen and I seem to go through phases. For example, it was the winter of my discontent and Amy's Bread book. Spring found me focused on simple vegan cooking. Summer was cookies and tomatoes. In August I got an intense desire for homemade ice cream after eating some at a friend's house so I bought a nice Donvier (the environmentalist that I am) and made a batch of peach ice cream with fresh Delaware peaches. The second batch was vegan chocolate ice cream made with cashews which was amazingly creamy and chocolately. Then Cupcake Bake Shop inspired me to try my hand at cupcakes.

The first batch I made was pistachio cupcakes with rosewater cream cheese frosting. They were very yummy and even a pal who is not so fond of desserts gobbled it down.


Pistachio Cake (adapted from epicurious.com):

1 cup pistachios shelled
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon salt (omit if pistachios are salted)
1/2 cup whole milk (I used soy milk)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs

A couple hours before baking, take out butter, eggs, cream cheese and milk and bring them to room temperature (this is a reminder for me).

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare cupcake liners.

Pulse half of the pistachios in a food processor until finely ground (be careful not to overprocess into a paste). Sift 1 cup flour, baking powder, cardamom, and salt into a large bowl. Mix in ground pistachios. Coarsely chop remaining pistachios and add them to the flour mixture.

Combine milk and vanilla in a measuring cup.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add pistachio flour and milk in batches, beginning and ending with flour, and mix at low speed until just combined.

Pour into cupcake liners and bake for 20 - 22 min.

Rosewater Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package cream cheese (8 oz)
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1 t vanilla
1 t rosewater
3-4 cups confectioner's sugar

Blend cream cheese and butter until fluffy and smooth. Blend in vanilla and rosewater and half of sugar. Slowly blend in rest of sugar.