A Lotta Leeks

While I was preparing for my bake-off, I was also thinking about how I can’t just do a cookie or a cake or a cupcake. It was done, it will be done and I needed to break from the mold. So I decided to turn to my source of culinary inspiration…my green grocer.

I had been eyeing their pile of leeks for weeks. I like leeks braised, grilled and in vichysoisse. I used to make this lovely soup so often that I was asked to stop. Literally, every week there’d be a pot of it bubbling away. The rationale was that if they were growing in my backyard, I should use them!

Since I no longer have leeks growing in my backyard, I fall back on eyeing them at my green grocers. And when the opportunity came to use them in a savory recipe, I jumped at the chance. And I also jumped onto the internet to find a recipe. Luckily, I knew that I could turn to smittenkitchen.com instead of just trolling the internet, and I found a lovely Leek Bread Pudding recipe. While I liked the version that was on the site, I decided to change it a little.

Leek Bread Pudding (modified from the SmittenKitchen recipe)

Ingredients

2 cup leeks in 1/2-inch thick slices, white and light green parts only, cleaned and rinsed*
Kosher or coarse salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter
Freshly ground black pepper
6 cups 1-inch-cubed brioche loaf (I like to leave the crusts on)
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
1 teaspoon of fresh oregano leaves, chopped
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup of heavy cream
2 cups of milk (I used my 2%, but you can use what you have)
Freshly grated nutmeg (or in a container if you have that)
1/2 cup shredded Gruyere

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a loaf pan and set aside.

Place a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat, drain excess water from leeks, and add to pan. Season with salt and pepper, and sauté until leeks begin to soften, about 5 minutes, then reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in butter. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until leeks are very soft, about 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and set aside.

While the leeks are cooking, spread the brioche cubes on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake until dry and pale gold, about 15 to 20 minutes, turning pan about halfway through. Transfer to a large bowl. Keep the oven at 350 degs.





Add leeks, chives and oregano to the bowl of bread; toss well. In another large bowl, lightly whisk the egg and egg yolks, then whisk in milk and cream, a generous pinch of salt, pepper to taste and a generous pinch of nutmeg.

Sprinkle 2 tablespoons shredded cheese in bottom of the buttered loaf pan. Spread 1/2 of bread mixture in pan, and sprinkle with another 2 tablespoons cheese. Spread remaining bread mixture in pan, and sprinkle with another 1/4 cup cheese. Pour in enough milk mixture to cover bread, and gently press on bread so milk soaks in. Let rest 15 minutes.



Add remaining milk mixture, letting some bread cubes protrude. Bake until pudding is set and top is brown and bubbling, about 55 to 65 minutes. Serve hot or cold…both temperatures are equally delicious. Enjoy!

Second Annual Bake-Off (on the rooftop) - Success!

Well, it turned out that yesterday was destined to be the most perfect day for a roof-top bake-off. The sky was blue, the sun shining, the breeze only mildly out of hand - perfect.



With close to 60 guests, 25 sweet and savory submissions and lots of good will, I was able to raise $315.00 for Share Our Strength and also name several deserving bakers as winners of the contest. The categories being judged were Sweet and Savory. There also was a "Most Popular" category, which was voted by the people, for the people.

I was lucky enough to have two celebrity judges - Andy Yang from Rhong-Tiam and Marlo Scott from Sweet Revenge, who not only took on the daunting task of eating through 25 sweet and savory treats, but were lucid enough after the sugar rush to name winners from the Sweet and Savory categories.

From the Savory Category, Yelper Madhuri I. won with her fantastic Pastry Puff Bites.



And from the Sweet Category, Nafeesa S. won with her Carrot Cake Cupcakes w/ Pecan Frosting.



And the winner of the most popular baked good was, well, yours truly for my twist on a favorite recipe of mine, Grapefruit Lavender Cupcakes.



There was sun, sweets and some pretty fantastic sangria - tie that in with celebrity, charity and good ol' fashioned fun - I think it was a pretty successful event.

I did submit something in the savory category, but you'll have to wait for the recipe to see it!

Bake-Off!

I am holding my 2nd Annual Bake-Off (on a rooftop this time) tomorrow, May 15, 2010.

It's both an exercise in ego and philanthropy as I am going to use this as a venue to promote the Great American Bake Sale, an annual event run by ShareOurStrength.org.



If anyone wants to donate, they can do so at my participant page here.

I am excited that a) the weather is going to be gorgeous b) I have close to 25 committed bakers c) I have three judges, two of which are professional and finally - that I get to try my hand at baking something savory as opposed to my usual cookies/cake/cupcake fare.

::excited::

You Put the Lime in the Coconut...

There's something about spring that makes me think of citrus. And sunny skies and balmy weather.

So what better way to celebrate all of these wonderful occurences in a confectionary form? I was trolling on Twitter the other day and a post on my feed referenced lemon as an ingredient in cupcakes. Since I had bought some pretty awesome coconut flakes and went a little nuts with the citrus purchases at the local greengrocer, I figured...why not make some lime and coconut cupcakes?

Thanks to the internet, I found a recipe...and then promptly decided to change it a bit.

Lime Coconut Cupcake

Cupcake Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons lime juice
1 teaspoon of orange blossom water
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
zest of one lime

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350.

Line cupcake tin with cupcake liners (this recipe makes 12).

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a larger bowl, cream together the butter, zest and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. I like to use my handheld mixer for this, because it's no joke creaming butter and sugar by hand.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the juice and orange blossom water. Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour. Fill each baking cup two-thirds full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

Icing Recipe

1 cup confectioner's sugar
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 coconut milk
1 tablespoon lime juice
zest of one lime

Combine together confectioner's sugar, coconut milk, lime juice and zest. Whisk well. Then add butter, tablespoon by tablespoon, whisking well until fully incorporated. Frost cooled cupcakes with icing and top with either sweetened grated coconut, or (like I did) unsweetened coconut flakes.

Now if that ain't a pretty sight, I don't know what is. Enjoy!

Cheese!!! (cake)

My youngest brother had a plan, one that I was unaware of. It was for me to make a chocolate cheesecake. Of course, he didn’t actually apprise me of his plan until all the ingredients (literally) were in place. “Oh, I bought a six-pack of cream cheese from the store because it was on sale…I also bought this giant bag of chocolate chips! Wait, do we have graham crackers?”

You get the idea.

I had never made a chocolate cheesecake before, usually sticking to being a purist in the cheesecake realm by making a New York-style cheesecake once a year (mainly because I don’t want my hips to start getting the form of a cheesecake).

But a chocolate cheesecake always intrigued me. So keeping in cookbook theme, my trusty New York Times Cookbook was pulled out, because I knew Craig Claiborne had a recipe in there.

Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe (adapted from The New York Times Cookbook recipe)

Ingredients

1 cup of graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup of shredded wheat crumbs/flakes/leavings
5 TBSP melted butter
3/4 (minus 2 TBSP) sugar
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate pieces
2 1/2 8 oz packages of cream cheese
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs, separated
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Another reason why I don’t like making cheesecake is because of the time consuming process when you have to make one from scratch. The whipping, the folding, the long baking time at a low temp, the resting period, the chilling period, etc. If you’ve seen the other recipes I’ve posted here, you might have noticed that I’m a fan of the quick and tasty. And there is nothing fast about a cheesecake.

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

Mix the graham cracker and shredded wheat "crumbs" with the butter. Press the mixture into the greased springform pan until a 1 to 1 1/2 inch crust is formed around the sides of the pan and the bottom is evenly coated. Set aside.

Melt the chocolate on the top of a double-boiler, remove from heat and let cool.

Beat together the cream cheese, salt, vanilla and half of the sugar until creamy and smooth. Beat in the egg yolks one by one until well incorporated and you have a nice smooth batter. Fold in the melted chocolate until well incorporated. Set aside.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until they hold stiff peaks. Remember to add the sugar a little at a time while beating the eggs so that they actually incorporate completely.

Whip the heavy cream until stiff.

Add the egg whites and whipped cream to the chocolate cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle flour on top. Fold all these components together and make sure every item is well incorporated.

Pour the mixture into the prepared springform pan and bake for 1 1/4 hours. Do not open the oven door for one hour. Turn off the heat and let the cake sit in the oven for another 3 to 4 hours before removing. Once out of the oven, place in your refrigerator to chill.

And voila a good 4-5 hours later, a chocolate cheesecake is born.



The texture was decidedly creamier and lighter than a New York-style cheesecake. I spread some strawberry jam on top (which was "melted").It made me feel less self conscious about scarfing down a slice every other day until it disappeared. Dangerous.



Enjoy!

Birthday Cake

Because apparently I’m a decent enough baker in the eyes of my friends and family, I was commanded to bake a birthday cake for one of my father’s friends. I wasn’t sure what to do, mainly because the majority of the people attending were from West Africa and I was afraid that if I didn’t do something familiar, it’ll go down in flames. This is not an unfounded fear – when I lived abroad in a tiny island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, most of my “American as Apple Pie” creations were dubbed as interesting, but when I made a “tarte banane” or something that was culturally local, the reviews were more of the rave variety.

Well thank jeebus I was told they like chocolate. (because even on my tiny island, they liked chocolate.)

I of course hunted online for recipes, but then realized that I had perfectly good falling apart cookbooks to turn to for a simple chocolate cake, filling and frosting. The actual cake had the following components: Basic Chocolate Cake, Dark chocolate ganache, Mocha Buttercream Frosting.

The recipes for the cake and the buttercream I modified from The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts, which has really nice standard recipes for cakes and frostings.

Basic Chocolate Cake (adapted from from The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts recipe)

Ingredients

3/4 cup Valhorna cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting
2 cups cake flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
3/4 cup shortening
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans, line the bottom with parchment paper and grease parchment paper; dust pans with extra cocoa powder.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Next, in your mixer cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl in intervals to incorporate the ingredients. Add the vanilla and mix well.

Alternately add the dry ingredients with the milk to the egg/shortening mixture. I like to add it in thirds of each. Remember to scrape down the sides of your bowl so that all the ingredients are incorporated.

Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans. You might need a spatula to spread the batter if it's a little thick. To remove air bubbles, tap the pans on the counter a few times. This also lets the batter settle more evenly in the pan for a uniform rise.

Bake for 30 to 35 mins until toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake.

Let cool completely before frosting or decorating.


The frosting I used was a simple Mocha Buttercream, and what made it extra special I think was using my leftover French-pressed coffee from the morning’s brew. Now, I am sure any kind of coffee would work, but I think brewed versus instant will work better flavor-wise.

Recipe for Mocha Frosting (adapted from from The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts recipe)

Ingredients
1 16 ounce package of confectioner's sugar
6 TBSP butter, softened
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (I used Valhorna here as well)
1/3 cup cold, fresh brewed coffee
1 tsp vanilla

Directions

In your mixer bowl, on medium speed, mix together the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and butter until well incorporated. Add the vanilla and coffee until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

I like to beat the frosting for a few extra minutes to make it fluffier. My brothers claim that it tastes like the filling from the Dunkin Donuts® Chocolate Cream Filled Donut.

As for the ganache filling, I used a regular recipe that called for a 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup of just boiling heavy cream poured on it, followed with a teaspoon of vanilla. All whisked until smooth and then set aside to cool.

Maybe because this cake was for a festive occasion, I tried my hand at decorating…and ended up with this.




It’s not Ben Israel, but my cake-eaters loved it.

Kid in a Candy Store

It’s been months since I’ve wanted to check out the New York Cakes & Baking Supply store here in the city. This cavern of confections was first mentioned to me by a very regular baker in my office and he was pretty impressed by its offerings. Judging from his baked goods (brought into work every now and again), I could safely say that he knew what he was talking about.

I usually kept my baking contraption purchases limited to Bed, Bath & Beyond or Zabar’s, the latter for the more obscure utensils and ingredients. So when I came in here and saw all that this store had to offer – I think I might be visiting more and more in the future.

My wallet might need to be put on lockdown.

You can read a proper review of this fine establishment here.

I know this isn’t a post about a baked item, but it’s baking related so it counts!

(photo courtesy of Yelp.com)

Haman has got nothing on Hamentashen

I know that my mother has been trying to get me to make this particular cookie treat for a while now. She remembers them from her days in Winnipeg, where she, an "island princess", was exposed to Jewish cookery by her landlord. Not only does she now exclaim "oy vey iz mir" whenever she gets irritated with us children, she also has a predilection for hamentashen, rugelach and chocolate babka (although the latter was probably more due to Zabar's than Winnipeg).

So when my friend Susan told me she was making some Hamentashen for Purim, she also told me I should give it a go.

So, of course I turned to my favorite baking blog - SmittenKitchen for the recipe.

Of course, instead of adding orange zest (which is what her recipe calls for) I added lemon zest because it's what I had on hand. Citrus is citrus and lemon works just as well a orange in this case.



Well, I was able to get the dough to the right consistency and I used a 3-inch cookie cutter instead of her suggested 2-inch, mainly because I wanted a bigger cookie and in the SmittenKitchen blog, she mentioned that one needed to pinch the walls really tight in order to create a proper seal. So, I thought more dough would mean less leakage.



How wrong I was. Even with my careful filling of the preserves (I used apricot, strawberry and blackberry preserves) and my solid pinching...



I still ended up with little random shaped oblong cookies with preserves all over the place.



Moral of the story of Hamentashen, lots of dough doesn't mean that your filling wont leak. I think maybe next time, I'll do a half shortening half butter dough and maybe use an egg wash to seal those pesky corners!

Still, they tasted good with tea!

Wheat vs. White

Wheat. White. Wheat. White. Wheat...OK, I've been thinking about how to make my cookies and other baked items healthier so I bought a two pound bag of whole wheat flour.

And it's been sitting in my cupboard for about three weeks now with nary a use to be found. Or rather I have yet to feel inspired enough to use my whole wheat flour (not to mention a lot of the recipes I've researched, breads aside, have not been inspiring). Then I got to thinking - maybe it wasn't lack of inspiration, but rather a fear of the unknown. I admit, I am a fan of simple tried and true recipes and my recent foray into the realm of french pastry had me more than a little frustrated. But this year I am going to be adventurous with my baking! So whole wheat flour will be used in the very near future!

With the help of the inter webs, I have reassured myself that substituting whole wheat for white flour shouldn't be a problem.

According to a neat How-To on eHow.com:

1) Each flour can be substituted for the other, part per part. I.e. 1 cup of whole wheat can be used for 1 cup of white.

2) One must sift whole wheat flour so as to avoid a denser than normal product. Aeration is good.

3) In order to avoid a dryer product (because it'll happen apparently), you need to slightly increase your wet ingredients or shorten your baking time by a few minutes.

4) Fold instead of mix - you want your liquid to just absorb, not become a gluey mess.

I think that's simple enough, right? Well, let's see if the cookies I make tonight are proof positive that 4-steps to substitution works.

Stay tuned...

Longest Post Ever!

If there is one thing you need as a baker (amateur or otherwise) it's patience. Although I tend to steer towards one-bowl, under an hour recipes, I do like to challenge myself sometimes.

Personally, I think the epitome of baking lies in the realm of the French. Especially when it comes to pastries. And nothing else spells French pastry like a croissant. So of course, after a conversation with a friend and baker where it was discussed that challenging oneself was important - I decided to embark upon making croissants.

The recipe I used I found online and it was from Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Small Breads.

Let's just say after reading it through, I realized that this was not simply a recipe - it was an undertaking. A 2-day undertaking. But I was game and not a little motivated to try something so outside my comfort zone. Allons-y!

I used a lot of flour and butter for this thing. In fact, your butter component is a mixture of flour and butter pressed into a block and then chilled until firm.



After placing my butter square to chill, I made the dough. It needs to rise for a couple of hours until doubled in bulk. Then the rolling and folding commences. About three different maneuvers with several hours of proofing in between. Patience is something one learns when one attempts making croissants.



The final roll had me using rulers and rollers to cut out perfect triangles. This is precision work people!



And...apparently this is what a raw croissant looks like?



Alas, I forgot the final rising of the croissant once the dough was cut into little 5-inch triangles. So I ended up with lovely...dinner rolls.



However, due to my small work surface - I ended up cutting my batter in half. All was not lost when I realized that I ended up goofing on the first batch - and the second batch was proofed properly before being fed to the oven. They ended up as Pain Au Chocolat.



Would I make these again? I am not sure. While I was excited to be doing something so involved, I find that I like to bang out my baked goodies. But, if I need to be challenged again...maybe puff pastry?