Friends, I may have found my calling.

Friday was a workshop in Advanced Cake Decorating, meaning we all baked and embellished a miniature-sized wedding cake. It’s interesting how my class is divided into the pastry-loving folks and the pastry-phobic; some people were stressed out by the whole exercise and couldn’t wait for their cakes to be finished, while others loved every minute of it. Personally, I felt like I was at a middle school birthday party all day. That is a good thing.

Now, I don’t really want to be a cake decorator for a living, but if we are close friends and you’d like for me to make your cake one day, I’d be delighted. I had SO much fun with this.

We started out by baking a few layers of a traditional Genoise cake, which actually isn’t the best for decorating because it’s so light. I alternated each layer with white chocolate buttercream and lemon curd. Then we covered it with a crumb coat of buttercream to “seal in” the crumbs, and you refrigerate it so that it’s easier to work with.

Next, I rolled out a layer of fondant, the thick frosting with a consistency of playdough. After you roll it out into a thin sheet, you can literally pick it up and place it on the cake, then fit the fondant to the top and sides. The trick here is getting it smooth, which isn’t easy. See the puckering at the bottom of mine? Clearly I could use a little practice. In fact, most people opted to put additional bands of fondant around the bottom of their cakes to cover up the mistakes.

After the fondant came the fun part: piping decorations onto the cake. I piped some bows, curls and dots for a traditional look, and made a fondant rose to go on top.

My cake was frilly and traditional, which isn’t really my style. But I figured: When’s the next time I’ll have a chance to do this? Might as well go all out.

Other people kept it simple and sweet, and I was so impressed with how all the cakes came out.

Now I’m just crossing my fingers one of my friends will decide to get married soon on a VERY tight budget.

I truthfully cannot say enough good things about my instructor at cooking school. I’ve never met someone quite so approachable, yet whose approval I seek beyond all else. When Christmas rolled around, she reinforced just how amazing she is by giving each and every one of us students a hand-written card  and a bag of homemade sweets — truffles, gelées, and marshmallows. Positively adorable.

That’s why I was so excited to try out the treats myself during our recent workshop in confections. Candy-making is all about temperature; it’s extremely precise with very little room for error, and only the most meticulous cooks out there will want to devote their energies to it. As much as I’ve loved the pastry component of my course, staring at a thermometer submerged in boiling sugar doesn’t quite have the appeal I thought it would.

Equally disturbing are the ingredients in many of these confections. Obviously the sugar content is obscene, but cornstarch, gelatin and glue-like pure glucose syrup look much less appetizing in their raw forms.

That said, we made some truly delicious candies. Check it out: Homemade Marshmallows — something worth making yourself if you’re a big fan, because they’re so much fluffier and pillowy than the store-bought kind.

Toasted Coconut Marshmallows. Enough said.

Nougat, made with melted chocolate, chopped almonds and dried apricots

Blood Orange Gelées coated in sanding sugar. May cause diabetes in mass consumption.

And my project, Caramels topped with sea salt. YUM.

Unless there were a special request, the Caramels are probably the only ones I’d consider making again. They’re very easy, use no questionable ingredients, taste deliciously rich, and look precious when wrapped in wax paper. Bonus: Since they’re pure sugar, they’ll keep pretty much indefinitely.

I’ve already promised my sister a batch, but I’m holding out until my sweet tooth returns.

Fact: Banana Nut Bread is a perfectly acceptable breakfast. So are muffins, Pumpkin Bread and scones; never mind that all of those things are basically cake, and that you’re eating them before 9 am.

Until recently at school, we’ve focused on yeast and steam as “raising agents,” or things that make food puff up in the oven (scientific, I know). But we since dove into the complex world of baking powder and baking soda, which are important ingredients that give us cookies, scones and cupcakes.

In sum, baking soda is an alkaline, and it has to be mixed with an acid for the rising to occur — usually in the form of buttermilk when you’re baking sweets. Baking powder, however, does the work for you. It’s baking soda plus tartaric acid, so you don’t have to worry about needing the extra acid in the buttermilk.

The recipes we worked on ranged from Cherry Scones to Pumpkin Squares to Gingerbread Cakes and Streusel.

Don’t worry, most of this went to charity. After a small feast, of course.

I made an Pernod-Scented Olive Oil Cake with Almonds. It was my first brush with the now-trendy olive oil cake, and I see why butter has generally prevailed in baking: The mild, slightly grassy flavor doesn’t love sugar the way other fats do. I’ll save my oil for salad dressings and sautéing, I think.

Most of our baked good were made by one of two methods: The creaming method, in which the butter and sugar are whipped together, and the cut-in method, in which cold butter is incorporated into the flour first. The latter makes for a flakier final product, and I highly recommend it, considering how these scones turned out. Which leads me to wonder…

… Why don’t I make scones more!?

]]> http://livbites.com/2010/12/08/bread-for-breakfast/feed/ 1 http://livbites.com/2010/11/16/the-sweet-stuff/ http://livbites.com/2010/11/16/the-sweet-stuff/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 06:10:57 +0000 Liv http://livbites.com/?p=845

I hate it when bloggers apologize for being MIA, so I’m not even going there. Suffice it to say that last week, culinary school became, well, school. I was faced with a practical exam (read: cooking a three-course meal under a deadline for my instructor to critique) and a written exam, rounding out the week with an oral presentation about a famous chef.

On the plus side, I now know the entire life story and philosophy of Zuni Cafe’s Judy Rodgers, which I’d be happy to relay if anyone’s interested. Bottom line: She’d advise you to go for the full brine this Thanksgiving.

In lieu of a play-by-play of my past week, I’ll just fill you in on the sweet stuff. We recently participated in an all-day workshop on making meringues, as you can see in the photo above. And though completely unseasonal, the Raspberry Almond Dacquoise made a very pretty picture.

A dacquoise is a meringue (egg whites beaten with sugar) baked with ground nuts, and usually layered with some kind of filling in between. In this case, the filling was simply whipped cream and fresh raspberries, with a mint garnish for color.

Another example is this Hazelnut Dacquoise, which is filled with an espresso-flavored buttercream and garnished with chopped hazelnuts. As you can see, you can make them in either large or individual sizes.

The secret to baking meringues is beating the egg whites and sugar for longer than you think is probably necessary, then baking them in a very low heat in the oven. It’s about drying the whites out, not actually cooking them — hence the low heat.

They’re also incredible delicate, so frosting and garnishing (and generally moving) these guys is no small task. I tended to feel like the proverbial bull in a china shop all day. But they do look pretty, right?

As adorable as these little basket-shaped meringues would be to bring for a baby shower, I have to admit the flavor disappoints. That is, unless you love the taste of pure sugar without any added flavoring, because that’s essentially what it tastes like: sweet. Nothing more, nothing less.

And for the health-conscious, my instructor also appropriately called them “sugar bombs.”

But not all was lost on the dessert front of late…

That’s a fairly basic chocolate cake, dubbed a Queen of California Cake by its creator, Alice Medrich. It’s filled with dried apricots and brandy and topped with a chocolate glaze and candied walnuts — and it’s every bit as rich as it looks.

My classmates and I each made one of these as part of an introduction to cakes, though our studies are ongoing. This Friday, in fact, I’m (0bviously) looking quite forward to a workshop in cake decorating. Good thing I spent all those years in middle school practicing my penmanship.

Confession: Before last week, I had never really made a pie. Okay, there was this chocolate one and these mini tarts, but in terms of an old-fashioned, crusty, fruit-filled pie, I admit I’m fully intimidated.

Until Friday, that is, when our school day consisted of a workshop in basic pastry dough — that buttery, flaky, crumbly mixture that lines many a tart and pie pan. Everyone made either a Fresh Fruit Tart or a Tarte Tatin. Everyone except me, who was the lone soldier assigned to my instructor’s own Pear and Ginger Pie (finished product above).

Not bad for a first pie, right? And no, that’s not a fish cut out on top, it’s an acorn. And it’s probably not a shape I’d use again, considering the confusion that ensued.

I’m sure most readers aren’t as wimpy as I am when it comes to cooking traditional dishes, but if you do find yourself pie-phobic, please reconsider. A good basic pastry dough recipe, when executed correctly, will hold up to all kinds of shaping, crimping, cutting and general handling. But here are a few tips anyway.

Always use cold butter in the dough, and make sure to keep the dough as chilled as possible. That means chilling it in the fridge after every time you handle it, in addition to being careful not to work it much with the palms of your hands. Your body heat will warm it up faster than you realize, and your crust won’t be as flaky when it’s baked.

Chill the dough in the general shape you want to use it later. If you’re making a pie, you want it to be in a small, flat circle shape so that it’s easy to roll out later. One need only make this mistake once for it to set in.

Hold back on the water in your original recipe. You can always add more, but you can’t take it away, and you want your dough to be able to just barely form a ball for maximum crumbly goodness.

I sincerely wish I could share the recipe I used here, but I’m unfortunately not allowed to! Look for one that calls for flour, cold butter, a pinch of salt and water, and you should be fine.

My pie was filled with apples, pears, golden raisins and crystallized ginger, so it was very seasonal. Perfect for a Thanksgiving meal, come to think of it. But enough about me.

Here are a few of the Fresh Fruit Tarts made by my classmates, which all turned out beautifully. It’s just a basic crust covered with pastry cream and topped with layers of berries and kiwi. Even more gorgeous close up:

I’m on a mission to make one before all the summer berries are used up. But once they are, there are always these Tarte Tatins.

It’s a layer of caramel, cooked apples and a pastry crust all baked together, and I quite literally order it every time I see it on a dessert menu. Each student used a different type of apple — Braeburn, Granny Smith, etc. — to demonstrate how each variety cooks down differently. Braeburn was one of the best ones, for the record.

You can also see the wide range of caramel colors, some very dark and some just golden. Personally, I love the slight bitterness of dark caramel.

As much as I’ve enjoyed filleting fish and making pizzas, I find that I’m always most excited when pastry day comes around. There is something soothing about making desserts — and I LOVE decorating them. I’m happy to report that my piping skills are improving by the day.

My culinary instructor is full of words of wisdom. The other day she was preaching the importance of working efficiently, keeping our work spaces clean and putting things back where we got them, and she said, “How you do anything is how you do everything.”

Kind of makes you think twice before taking shortcuts.

Her advice was more relevant than ever on Friday, when my classmates and I spent all day making soufflés. It sounds awfully intimidating — we were joking about the classic image of “cooking fail,” the sadly deflated soufflé. But even though a few of the desserts came out with a little dip in the center, there were surprisingly zero disasters.

A soufflé is made from a base (appareil in French), which consists of egg yolks, sugar, flour, butter and milk in various quantities. Then, in a separate bowl, you whip egg whites until they’re stiff enough to form peaks. The trick is combining the contents of the two bowls precisely so that the whites keep their volume, which gives the soufflé that fluffy texture that made it famous.

Here’s a good tip, on that note: Even if the recipe calls for all the sugar to go into the base, reserve around half to sprinkle into the egg whites, and incorporate the sugar after the whites are stiff. The sugar helps stabilize the whites so they aren’t quite so fragile, and you’ll probably have more luck maintaining said texture and volume.

We made chocolate soufflés, soufflés with candied orange peel and Grand Marinier, fruit soufflés made with raspberries and blackberries, and apple soufflés with tons of seasonal spice. Needless to say, Friday wasn’t such a good eating day either. But how often do you get to taste 15 different soufflés at a time? The tasting is educational, folks.

I was in charge of the berry soufflé, which involved cooking the fruit down and straining it through a sieve to make a purée, which I ultimately incorporated into my base. You have to be extra careful with fruit desserts, because the berries contain so much sugar on their own and will burn in a second.

On that note, the berry purée should never be handled by anyone in a white jacket who wishes to keep their jacket white. I was covered in purple syrup after this little workshop, and now I’m a walking commercial for OxyClean. Seriously, my jackets are in the dryer without a speck of stain. Magic.

But back to desserts. If you like your soufflés to have more of a pudding-style texture in the middle, underbake it. Baking them longer will give them a more cakey texture, and baking them too long will make them sink. Sigh.

Such is the finicky soufflé, which led my instructor to also advise us, “A soufflé waits for no one.” Did you ever notice how restaurants will ask you at the beginning of the meal if you want the soufflé for dessert? That’s because the timing is brutal. They can estimate as closely as possible, but you better be ready when it’s ready — or you may be looking at a sunken soufflé.

In any case, enjoy the oohs and ahhs…

Because they always look like this after the first bite.

Who knew there were so many ways to combine eggs, sugar and milk into a classic French dessert? You’d be surprised.

Those were the main ingredients in the dishes my cooking class made during our Friday workshop, which was all about sweet custards. Each student cooked either Crème Brulée, Crème Caramel, Oeufs à la Neige or Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, which all start out with the same combo.

I crossed my fingers hard for the Crème Brulée, because walking around the kitchen with a giant blowtorch is something of a fantasy. Instead, I was assigned to the dish I was least familiar with, the Oeufs à la Neige. It’s basically little blobs (canelles) of meringue poached in water and served over a base of Crème Anglaise (custard). Then you drizzle caramel on top. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself for actually finishing it (after one discarded pan of caramel) and for some Jackson Pollock-style drizzling effects.

The Crème Caramel (I’ve got one in my own oven as I type!):

The Ice Cream, made with real vanilla beans and served with an incredible caramel sauce. It involved making caramel on the stove, adding in some hot milk and rounding it out with butter, and it was every bit as rich as it sounds.

And finally, the Crème Brulée.

My instructor invited interested parties to try their hand at the torch after the custard finished baking, so my wish came true! After the custard is cooked, you pour a very generous layer of white sugar on the surface and then torch it, moving the flame constantly so as not to char it beyond recognition.

Clearly, we’re all still learning on that last part.

]]> http://livbites.com/2010/10/10/milk-and-eggs-four-ways/feed/ 0 http://livbites.com/2010/09/23/not-too-late/ http://livbites.com/2010/09/23/not-too-late/#comments Thu, 23 Sep 2010 20:22:55 +0000 Liv http://livbites.com/?p=664

Summer is officially wrapping up, even in San Francisco. Since summer generally feels more like fall here, we usually get a couple of months of glorious sunny weather in September and October, but the sun seems to have overlooked the whole city this year. I can’t complain, really: It’s been a breezy 65 degrees for the past… well, forever.

The season is on its way out, and I can see the changes at the farmer’s market. Vendors are selling the last of their summer berries, which means those tiny, organic strawberries are practically fuschia right now, and they’re as sweet as they’ll ever be.

With strawberries like these, it would be such a shame to douse them in sugar and butter for dessert. Their taste cannot be improved upon. So I decided they’d be best used in a Late Summer Strawberry Tart, sliced and untarnished, topping off a mini custard-filled pie.

It’s not too late for strawberries, nor is it too late to vote for me in Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog contest! Today is the last day of voting, so click here to cast one. I am truly grateful for everyone’s support!

Late Summer Strawberry Tarts

Ingredients (Makes 4 tarts):

For the crust:

1 and 1/2 cups flour

1 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. milk

1/2 stick butter (not too cold)

For the custard:

1/3 cup sugar

1 and 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch

Pinch of salt

1 egg yolk

1/3 cup milk

Juice of half a lemon

1 tbsp. butter

1 and 1/2 cups chopped strawberries

For the crust: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all ingredients together. Roughly chop butter into several small pieces and mix in with the rest of the dough. Use fingers to work the butter into the other ingredients until the dough is firm and stays in one ball.

Divide dough into four equal balls, and work each portion into the bottom and sides of a miniature tart pan 4 inches in diameter (*See note below). Use fingers to spread the dough evenly to form a crust. Poke a fork in the bottom of each crust. Bake crusts for 10 to 15 minutes or until they begin to brown.

For the custard: Combine first 3 ingredients (sugar through salt) in a large saucepan. In a separate bowl, beat egg and milk together. Add the egg mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Once mixture thickens into a custard consistency, stir in the lemon juice and butter.

Distribute custard evenly into pie crusts and top with strawberries.

*Note: If you don’t have mini tart pans, you can use a standard 9-inch diameter pan and cut the tart into slices, like a pie.

The other night I went out for a comfort food dinner of lasagna and fresh-baked bread at Chow, and after sipping a glass of white wine, it occurred to me that I’m still about eight years old at heart. After my plate was taken away, all I could think about were brownies.

It’s no revelation that I love sweets (who doesn’t?) but I’m sure everyone will understand that after some dinners, chocolate isn’t an option. It’s a necessity. A lifeline.

Back at my apartment I found away to unite my young and old souls with Chocolate Coffee Brownies. The gooey chocolate is everything your inner eight-year old craves, but the bitter, aromatic coffee taste adds just the complexity your sophisticated side craves. These brownies fall somewhere in between sweet and bittersweet, and you even get a little caffeine in the mix.

Still, a brownie is a brownie. Don’t even think about eating this one without a tall glass of cold milk for dunking.

Chocolate Coffee Brownies

Adapted from the Fudgy Coffee Brownies on Epicurious.com

Ingredients (Makes 20 brownies):

2 sticks butter

5 oz. unsweetened chocolate

3 tbsp. instant coffee

1 and 3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

5 eggs

1 cup flour

1 tsp. salt

1/3 cup milk chocolate chips

Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.

In a large saucepan, melt butter, chocolate and coffee on low heat, stirring continuously (keep the flame very low and avoid boiling to ensure the chocolate doesn’t burn). Remove from heat and set aside for about 5 minutes to cool.

Stir in sugar about a half a cup at a time, then stir in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, using a whisk to break up yolks and incorporate them into the batter. Stir in flour, then salt, then finally the chocolate chips.

Pour batter into baking pan and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the brownies comes out clean. Cool completely, and sprinkle powdered sugar on top, if desired. Cut evenly into squares.

My assistant’s mother came to town this week, just days after celebrating her xxth birthday (a lady never tells). The son let it slip that she loved citrus desserts, so I knew we had to prepare with a sweet surprise.

This is a woman from Miami, so I wasn’t about to try to trump all the legendary Key Lime Pie she’s had down there. Thus, the cake path was chosen. I found a recipe in my cookbook Tables of Content for a Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake (it’s from the Birmingham, Alabama Junior League — how perfect), and I made only a few tweaks to fit my tastes/pantry contents.

The cake was a hit, but the real star is the camera we used to photograph it. My assistant got a new Panasonic DMC LX5 for his birthday, and we were so impressed with the cake pictures that I put one of them in my blog header! Any feedback on the design changes?

Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake

Recipe adapted from the Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake in Tables of Content

Ingredients (Makes 1 bundt cake):

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

2 sticks butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

3 cups sugar

1/4 cup milk

Juice of 3 lemons

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest

For the glaze:

1 and 1/3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 tbsp. water

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix flour and baking powder in one bowl.

In a second bowl, beat the butter and shortening with an electric mixer until the mixture is fluffy. Add sugar to the butter mixture, one cup at a time, beating with the mixer. Add eggs, and beat until well-combined. Stir in sour cream and milk. Slowly add flour mixture to the second bowl, beating until blended. Stir in lemon juice, vanilla and zest.

Grease and flour a bundt pan, and pour in batter. Bake for about 1 hour and 45 minutes, or until the cake is just beginning to brown on top. Stick a wooden toothpick in if you’re not sure if it’s finished — if it comes out clean, you’re good. Cool completely before glazing.

For the glaze, mix all ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl, and drizzle over the cake. (Note: I made my glaze with 1/4 cup water instead of 3 tbsp., and it basically made a huge mess. I’d recommend starting with the glaze a little thicker so it’s easier to control. Pour it on the top of the cake instead of the sides, because it will drip down on its own.)

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