Honey & Co. The Baking Book

Every time someone posts a photo of Honey & Co. in London, we just drool. Even crappy photographers can't diminish the warmth and charm of Sarit Packer & Itamar Srulovich's eatery/shop. Their first book, Honey & Co. has become a classic. They followed it up with Honey & Co. The Baking Book, named the Sunday Times Food Book of the Year and the Fortnum & Mason Cookery Book of the Year.  Yes, it is that good.

Drawing on their Israeli backgrounds, the couple offers up cakes and bread full of color and spice. there is plenty of honey and nuts and more than a few cereals. Sweet pastries are just a fraction of the story.

There is a large chapter on jams and preserves that could be expanded into a whole other book. Many of the photos at Honey & Co. feature shelves of preserves, so the sampling in the book is clearly the tip of a sweet and runny iceberg.

The stand outs are the many savory pastries that grace the pages of this book. It is not often that one finds a baking book with so many wonderful pastries that are not sweet.  Case in point. Cauliflower is our favorite vegetable. We have done almost everything one could possibly imagine with this cruciferous bundle of joy.  But this was a new one.

Spiced Cauliflower Muffins

1 small head of cauliflower
700g/ml water
1 tsp table salt

For the muffin batter

175g plain flour
40g caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
150g unsalted butter, melted

for topping (if you like)


3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
3 tbsp grated pecorino or Parmesan cheese



Break the cauliflower into florets, making sure there are at least six large "trees". (You will most likely have more than six; cook them all and save the unused flowerets to eat another time.)  Put the water and salt into a large pan and boil the cauliflower until soft (this will take  5-10 minutes). Check to see whether it is done by inserting a knife tip into the stem; it should penetrate without resistance. Drain well and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 190C/ 170C fan/gas mark 5 and butter six muffin moulds. Mix all the dry ingredients for the batter together.  Add the eggs and use a spoon or spatula to mix until combined, then slowly mix in the melted butter and fold in until it has all been incorporated.

Place a spoonful of batter in the center of each mould and then stand a whole floret stem down in each.  Cover with batter to fill the moulds to the top. Mix the pumpkin seeds and cheese, if using, sprinkle on top of the muffins and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from tin and eat while still warm --they are the best this way.

We will never look at cauliflower in the same way. Honey & Co. The Baking Book is a real eye opener.

Honey & Jam

In our ongoing disdain for desserts that resemble compost, we have found another ally, Hannah Queen. He lovely new book, Honey & Jam is a tribute to dessert and to baking in particular.  Born and raised in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Queen picked up a cupcake cookbook when she was 16 and she never looked back. She began blogging as Honey & Jam and it quickly became a "go to" site for bakers.

The obsession, or lack there of, of "deconstructed" dessert is not born out of a desire to relegate dessert to the land of Betty Crocker, but rather from a place of craft and precision. Grind up enough cake, cookie, meringue and scatter it about with jam, coils, jelly, mousse, foam and a sprinkling of herbs and chances are one bite of it will be decent. But take a cake. It is a thing that every child knows. It is vanilla or chocolate. It is predictable...except when it isn't.

The recipes in Honey & Jam are anything but predictable.  Open the book to any page and you will be able to say: Cake! Pie! Cupcake!  But delve into the flavor profile and you find something completely modern. Butter is browned and bourboned. Vegetables take their place with seasonal fruits. Crumbles are enriched with herbs. The result is a collection of recipes that will elevate your baking to a new level.

One of our favorite types of cakes to bake are those that are baked in a single layer and require not frosting.  This is a great example.

Cherry-Almond Brown Butter Cake

1/2 cup (1 stick/115 g) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups (170 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (70 g) almond flour
1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (120 ml) whole milk, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup (80 g) pitted whole fresh cherries
1/4 cup (30 g) slivered almonds
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until it turns golden brown and nutty scented. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter a 9-inch (23-cm) round cake pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, almond flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, vanilla, almond extract, and the browned butter.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, stirring to combine. Stir in the cherries.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and sprinkle it with the almonds. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan before turning it onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust the cake with powdered sugar before serving.

 Honey & Jam is the perfect blend of old-fashioned baking and thoroughly modern flavor profiles. It is quite literally, the best of both worlds.  Betty Crocker is turning over in her grave.

Sweet & Vicious

As you know from this blog, we love confiture, eggs, and French cuisine.  If you write a book about French eggs and jam, we are so there.  Baking, not so much.  Basically we are the one-trick-pony's of baking. For layer cake we like Red Velvet and Chocolate.  We like chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies.  And chocolate chunk cookies, and peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies, and peanut butter blossoms...you follow us.  So baking, we are a bit less enthusiastic.

It is true that we follow Salted and Styled, Libbie Summers' blog, but we were still not convinced we wanted a baking book by her, even though she was a Southerner. Then one day we saw this youtube video of Summers demonstrating 20 pie crimping techniques in 120 seconds.  




We figured bake/smake we would buy any cookbook she wanted to write.  

AN ASIDE: Baking has always kinda been a girl thing.  But when guys start getting involved they tended to take things too seriously.  Now that "food" is such a big, macho guy thing, and chefs are traveling the world to kill live chickens, and get written up in TIME Magazine, cookbooks are becoming painfully serious and often as technical as nuclear launch codes and about that interesting. Just saying...

First, Sweet & Vicious has lovely pink edged paper.  Again, any cookbook with pink paper edges would be on our "must get" list.  Most importantly, if you never cook a single thing from the book you will have a blast just reading it and looking at the pictures, by Salted and Styled accomplice, Chia Chong.  (There is a Red Velvet Cake recipe, so we are in luck.)  

We have a baking drawer where we store the chocolate in various stages of chip and chunk for our peanut butter cookies.  We also keep all those little mini candy bars that are prevalent during Halloween and Easter.  We keep them there and use them as decoration and add-ins to recipes, just in case we run out of chips and chunks.  Well, Summers just loves to add candy bars and other sweet treats to her recipes.  Did we mention she is a Southerner?

She even has a section for dog treats.  There is even a Red Velvet doggie snack. (Alas, there are never cat treats and that is just not right.) So who wouldn't love this book.  Here is a nifty tart recipe for the tart in you.

 Stoned Tart

(rum, stone fruits, + pistachio cream)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal

1/4  cup plus 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar

4 tablespoons cold butter, cubed

2 to 4 tablespoons ice water

3/4 cup shelled pistachios

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon S & V House Blend Almond Extract

5 stone fruits (any mixture of apricots, peaches, nectarines or plums) pitted and sliced, skins on

2 tablespoons of dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon Gosling’s Black Seal rum

1/2 teaspoon S & V House Blend Citrus Extract

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Ice cream or whipped cream, for serving (optional)

1) In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, and 1/4 cup vanilla sugar.  Cut in the butter using your fingers or two knives.  Add 2 tablespoons ice water to the dough and stir to combine.  Continue to add ice water by the tablespoon until the dough comes together (this should take no more than 4 tablespoons).  Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap, wrap well, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2) In a food processor with the blade attachment, pulse the pistachios until roughly chopped.  Add the remaining 2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar, heavy cream, and almond extract.  Pulse until a thick paste forms.  Set aside.

3) In a large mixing bowl, stir the fruit slices together with the brown sugar, lemon juice, rum, citrus extract, cinnamon, and salt.

4) Spray 9 1/2 -inch round, 9-inch square, or 13 3/4-inch rectangular tart pan with removable bottom wit nonstick baking spray.  Remove the dough from the refrigerator and unwrap it.  On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thick.  Drape and press the dough into the prepared pan, covering the bottom and sides, with some overhang.

5) Roll a rolling pin over the edges of the tart pan to clearly cut off the excess dough.  Spread the pistachio mixture over the bottom of the dough and arrange the fruit slices on top.  Refrigerate to firm up the dough while the oven is preheating.

6) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with foil.

7) Transfer the tart from the refrigerator to the baking sheet and bake in the lower third of the oven for 40 to 50 minutes, until the fruit begins to bubble.  Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.  Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

 We are so glad that we branched out for some sweet and vicious baking.  You should do the same.  Now get into that kitchen and trow some frosting.

Great Baking Begins With White Lily Flour

About 10 years ago, I was heading back to DC from Alabama and I got stopped for speeding.  This would not be that unusual.  There would, however, be one thing to take into consideration.  I never came back from Alabama without a food-laden car.  It was as if there were no grocery stores in DC.  The policeman, simply didn't understand why I had 10 bags of White Lily Flour in my car.  He assumed the worst.  But after digging through the corn meal and the grits and cases of Tab, he sent me on my way with a mere warning.

A week or so later, a chef friend was in my kitchen surveying the bags of White Lily and asked, nonchalantly, if I might be opening a bakery.  Well, if I was to open a bakery, I would use nothing but White Lily Flour.  Of course, nowadays, White Lily Flour is produced in some Yankee wasteland.  I recently found an authentic bag of White Lily, milled in Knoxville.  It was about 6 years old, so I am not sure its Southern mojo was still intact, but I couldn't bear to toss out that bag.

Over the years, White Lily has put out several cookbooks.  Great Baking Begins With White Lily Flour is my favorite.  white Lily gets its prized baking characteristics from a soft, red wheat.   The flour is milled from only 100% pure winter wheat.  This soft winter wheat has a lower level of protein as well as a lower gluten content.  To accentuate the baking quality, White Lily uses a finer grind than most flours.  White Lily was always east to spot because the bags were a pinch larger due to the fine grind which made the flour weigh lass, so more was needed to make a full five pounds.

For White Lily, great baking requires specific attention to detail.  Here is the White Lily recipe for biscuits, with all the notations one would have learned at Mama's knee, spelled out.

Famous White Lily Biscuits

2 cups White Lily Self-Rising Flour
1/4 cup shortening
2/3 to 3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  Place Flour in mixing bowl; ad shortening.  With a pastry blender or blending fork, cut shortening into flour until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Mixing by hand tends to soften the shortening making a sticky, difficult-to-handle dough.  Blending the fat completely with the flour or using a liquid shortening produces a mealy biscuit rather than a flaky, tender one.  Gently push the flour mixture to the edges of the bowl, making a well int he center.  Blend in the milk with a fork till dough leaves sides of bowl.  Too much milk makes the dough too sticky to handle: not enough milk makes the biscuits dry.  Do not overmix.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead gently 10 to 12 strokes.  A short period of kneading develops biscuit structure and evenly distributes the moisture to make the biscuits more flaky.  On lightly floured surface pat or roll dough to slightly more than 1/2-inch thickness.  Cut with a 2- or 2 1/2 biscuit cutter, dipping cutter into flour between cuts.  Press the cutter straight down to get straight sided evenly shaped biscuits.  Be especially careful not to twist the cutter of flatten the cut edges.  Transfer cut biscuits to an ungreased baking sheet.  For crusty-sided biscuits place about 1 inch apart.  For soft-sided biscuits place biscuits with sides just touching.  Reroll scraps of dough and cut into biscuit shapes.  Bake in 500 oven for 6 to 8 minutes, or until golden.  (If sides touch, bake biscuits for 8 minutes; bake 6 to 7 minutes if sides f don't touch.)

That is how you bake biscuits.  Now go forth and get those biscuits in the oven.

Martha Stewart Living Christmas Cookbook

Christmas is here. And don't you wish you had some help with all that Christmas entails. Today, on Martha Stewart's blog, she featured a little party she had for her household staff at Bedford. All 17 of them.

You have no idea how much work I could get done with a staff of 17. I would be writing my blog (actually my blog writer would be writing my blog) and I would right now be asking for nice hot tea with a pumpkin scone from Starbucks. Since Starbucks no longer has pumpkin scones (that is another blog entry...) I would have my baker make and remake pumpkin scone until they were just like Starbucks. (Note to self: Have my secretary call Howard Schultz and give me that recipe.) But I digress...

After years of doing up Christmas in her magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart compiled a Christmas cookbook, Martha Stewart Living Christmas Cookbook. It is chocked to the gills with Christmas recipes, over 600 of them. Frankly, you do not have enough Christmases left on this earth to make all this stuff. So start now.

The recipes tend to be overcomplicated. And long. There is section of photos, but most of the recipes require the use of your imagination as to how they will look. Here is a recipe for that Italian classic, panettone. Martha likes to bake them in half-pound brown paper bags. But then again, Miss Martha has someone to go out an find half-pound brown paper bags. Feel free to get some of those little panettone cups from King Arthur's Flour.

Miniature Panettone

For Sponge:
1/3 cup warm water
1 envelope active dry yeast
½ cup all-purpose flour

For Bread Dough:
1/2 cup warm milk
1 envelope active dry yeast
2/3 cup sugar
4 large whole eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, plus more, melted, for bowl, plastic wrap, and bags
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
2 cups mixed dried and candied fruit, such as currants, orange peel, apricots, and cherries, finely chopped
Grated zest of 1 orange
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon heavy cream
Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

1. Make sponge: Pour the warm water into a small bowl, and sprinkle with yeast. Stir with a fork until yeast has dissolved. Let stand until foamy, 5-10 minutes. Stir in flour, and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 30 minutes.

2. Make the dough: Pour warm milk into a small bowl, and sprinkle with yeast. Stir to dissolve, and let stand until foamy, 5-10 minutes. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, 2 egg yolks, and vanilla. Whisk milk mixture into egg mixture.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and flour on medium speed until mixture is crumbly. With mixer on low speed, slowly add egg mixture; continue beating on medium speed until smooth.

4. Add sponge mixture; beat on high speed until dough is elastic and long strands form when dough is stretched, about 5 minutes. Beat in dried fruit and grated zests. Transfer dough to a buttered bowl, and cover with a piece of buttered plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

5. Fold 12 paper bags down to make cuffs, about 3” deep. Generously butter the bags inside and out; set aside. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface; knead a few times, turning each time, until smooth. Divide the dough into 12 equal parts, and knead into balls. Drop balls into prepared bags. Place bags on a large rimmed baking sheet; cover loosely with buttered plastic. Let rise in a warm place until dough reaches just below the tops of the bags, 45 to 60 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, with rack in lower third. In a small bowl whisk together remaining egg yolk and the cream. Brush tops of dough with egg mixture. Using kitchen scissors, cut an X, centered, in the top of each loaf. Bake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F and continue baking until loaves are deep golden brown, about 20 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. If they start to get too brown, drape a piece of aluminum foil over tops. Transfer baking sheet to a wire rack; let panettone cool completely; dust with confectioners’ sugar.

I totally recommend this recipe, especially if you have twelve staff a-leapin! If not, buy yourself a panettone and stuff it into a paper bag. And to all... a good-nite.

Betty Crocker’s 101 Delicious Bisquick Creations

Betty Crocker’s 101 Delicious Bisquick Creations


Southerner’s love their Bisquick. I love my Bisquick. I am convinced that there is no better way to make pancakes. The house specialty at Doe Run Farm is our famous 3 "B" Pancakes – Buttermilk Bisquick and Bacon Pancakes.



Bisquick is also great for biscuits, scones, dumplings, and even shortcake.


Since I have a great affection for Bisquick, I am please to share with you this little pamphlet from 1933. It seems that I am not the only one who loves their Bisquick. Fashionable hostesses from New York to Chicago to Los Angles are also big fans as well as some big box office stars.




I can’t tell you how happy I am to find that Gloria Swanson was home making cheese biscuits with little more than a box of Bisquick and some grated cheese.



It seems the Comtesse de Fries of New York and Palm Beach loves her Bisquick waffles. Here is how she makes them:

Waffles

2 cups Bisquick
1 1/2 cups of milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp. melted butter (if desired)

Beat eggs well with rotary beater. Add milk and Bisquick. Beat with the egg beater to mix batter very thoroughly. Mix in the butter if a richer waffle is desired. Pour into hot waffle iron (3 tablespoons of batter make 1 waffle). Bake until golden brown. To get a crisp waffle the waffle iron must be very hot.

Now the truth be told, you can assemble a fine substitute for store-bought Bisquick. In fact rumor has it that Bisquick got its stat when a sales executive watched a train porter pre-mix flour and shortening for a quick way to make biscuits. So if you are feeling a bit like a porter today, try this:

Train Porter's Baking Mix

9 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups shortening

Mix to a fine crumble and store in a cool, dry place. Some folks add a tablespoon of sugar to the mix.

Either way you and the porter and Gloria will be having a wonderful time baking away.

Baked Explorations

Baked is one of my favorite cookbooks and I wrote about it back in April of 2009. Well, the Baked boys are back with a new cookbook. Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito have another winner with Baked Explorations.

Baked Explorations features traditional American baked goods with exciting twists. Check out this interview at Eater for more incites into the Baked experience. To get a look at the actual bakery check out their Baked web site.

And now, without further ado...Wait! Let me just say here that the recipe is long and seems complicated. But here is the truth. The recipe has two components -- sweet and salty. Then the two components have to be assembled. So you really do not want a recipe that leaves out valuable sets do you? My advice is to read the recipe -- read it again -- and when you fully grasp the steps, you will see it is not nearly as complicated as you might think from looking at it.

So now, really, without further ado... a recipe.

Sweet & Salty Brownie

Caramel:
1 c. sugar
2 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp fleur de sel
1/4 cup sour cream

Brownie:
1 and 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
11 ounces quality dark chocolate (60-72%), coarsely chopped
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 & 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla

Topping:
1 and 1/2 teaspoons fleur de sel
1 teaspoon coarse sugar


Make the Caramel:

In a medium sauce pan, combine the sugar and corn syrup with 1/4 cup water, stirring together carefully so you don't splash the sides of the pan. Cook over high heat, until a thermometer reads 350 degrees and is dark amber in color.

Remove from the heat and slowly add the cream (it will bubble up). Then add the fleur de sel. Whisk in the sour cream. Set aside to cool.

Make the Brownie:

Preheat oven to 350. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9 x 13" pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter the parchment.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt and cocoa powder. Place the chopped chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water. Whisk in both sugars until completely combined. Removed bowl from pan.

Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until incorporated. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey. Add the flour mixture. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the dry ingredients until there is just a trace of the flour mixture remaining.

Assemble:

Pour half of the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Drizzle and 3/4 cup of the caramel sauce (not all of it) over the batter, trying to stay away from the edges. Gently spread the caramel sauce evenly. In heaping spoonfuls, scoop the remaining batter over the caramel layer. Smooth the brownie batter gently over the caramel.

Bake the brownies for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. Brownies are done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove the brownies from the oven and sprinkle with the fleur de sel and the coarse sugar. Completely cool before serving.

What else? Oh yeah, Matt went to the University of Alabama so no wonder he knows how to bake. I know that many of you are quite distraught that Alabama has a "buy" this Saturday. I know I am at a loss for what to do. Well, here's and idea -- BAKE!!!

Earth to Table

You can never have too many cookbooks. That’s my story and I am sticking with it. A while back home before dark suggested that I take a look at Earth to Table. What can I say; I rarely turn down a cookbook suggestion. I looked it up and was immediately entranced. The cover featured four of my favorite things: a chicken, a potpie, fresh radishes and a rustic fruit tart.


I realize, at some point, these big cookbooks with pictures of heirloom tomatoes are going to fall out of fashion. In twenty years, when someone picks up a cookbook featuring those heirloom tomatoes pictures, it will immediately date it to the early 2000’s, but I don't mind a bit of dating.

Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann wanted at restaurant that got its produce form a farm. They found ManoRun Farm and began cooking at Ancaster Old Mill producing a menu from what the farm provided. It’s not profoundly new. Crump has worked with both Alice Waters and Heston Blumenthal.

One of the differences with this book and many of the other “we cook form our farm books” is the process Crump brings to his writing. Interspersed between the recipes are thoughtful interviews with like-minded chefs and farmers. While not everyone can have a restaurant sitting in the middle of three acres of farmland, they offer several ways to begin a more localized approach to eating like: source a single product, join a CSA or plant a garden. In the meantime, make muffins.

Apple Cider Muffins

1 cup white sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup grapeseed or vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup pure apple cider
3/4 cups sour cream
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 medium apples, peeled and grated (ideally crisp baking apples, Granny Smiths or Mutsus)

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour 12-cup muffin tin. In a medium bowl, whisk together white sugar, brown sugar and oil. Add eggs and whisk to combine.
In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a third bowl, whisk together apple cider, sour cream and vanilla.
In 3 additions, add flour mixture and apple cider mixture to sugar mixture, folding with a spatula to combine. Fold in apples then pour batter into muffin cups. Fill the cups about 3/4 of the way to the top. Bake, turning halfway, until the muffins spring back tot he touch, 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

Thanks again to home before dark for this suggestion.

A Brief Aside...

For some time now, we have been encouraging you to try new vegetables in your baking. We are now feeling validated by the folks at Tasting Table.


So next time you want to drag out that same old carrot cake recipe, substitute beets, or summer squash or my favorite, parsnips. I am still searching for just the right recipe for Brussels Sprout Cake....


Beet Cake at Lucindaville

Williams-Sonoma Paris

I never met a Williams-Sonoma I didn't want to move into. There is a back room which would just be perfect for a bedroom. The center area, where the registers sit, could be easily gutted and gigantic table placed right there. Every day, I could summon the casual shopper who gave off an amusing air, unlock the door and let them in to have a lovely, late lunch...

A girl can dream!

If one can't live in the Williams-Sonoma then surly she will want to have their cookbook, Williams-Sonoma Paris. Not only is it filled with lovely recipes, but the photographs are close to actually beings in Paris. I lied. Nothing is like being IN Paris, other than being in Paris, of course. But if you can't fly away, try theses.

Madeleines aux Citron

2 eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon. almond extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
and cooled
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat an oven to 375 F. Using a pastry brush, heavily brush softened butter over each of the 12 molds in a madeleine pan, carefully buttering every ridge. Dust the molds with flour, tilting the pan to coat the surfaces evenly. Turn the pan upside down and tap it gently to dislodge the excess flour.

2. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, granulated sugar and salt. Using a wire whisk or a handheld mixer on medium-high speed, beat vigorously until pale, thick and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts. Sprinkle the sifted flour over the egg mixture and stir or beat on low speed to incorporate.

3. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the lemon zest and half of the melted butter just until blended. Fold in the remaining melted butter.

4. Divide the batter among the prepared molds, using a heaping tablespoon of batter for each mold. Bake the madeleines until the tops spring back when lightly touched, 8 to 12 minutes.

5. Remove the pan from the oven and invert it over a wire rack, then rap it on the rack to release the madeleines. If any should stick, use your fingers to loosen the edges, being careful not to touch the hot pan, and invert and rap again.

6. Let the madeleines cool on the rack for 10 minutes. Using a fine-mesh sieve, dust the tops with confectioners sugar and serve.

It is cold a very dreary here in West Virginia and I can't think of anything that might just lift the spirit more than a nice pot of tea and some Madeleines aux Citron. In an attempt to bring about the total "Paris" experience, Williams-Sonoma offered a companion CD cleverly entitled, Williams-Sonoma Paris.

While you are waiting for the tea to steep give this cut a listen. It's that kind of electronic, "housey" music that is all the rage in Paris clubs.

Breath -- Telepopmusik

Cakes Bread and Breakfast Cake

There is something wonderful about old baking books. So many cake books today feature white, yellow, chocolate, spice and that is about the extent of the variations. In older books there are amazing variations on cake flavors. Cakes Bread and Breakfast Cakes is a turn of the century cookbook, written by Olive Cotton in 1900. There are twenty recipes alone for gingerbread! It is a cookbook of a certain era where the cook is provided with a list of ingredients but little else. I suppose the assumption is if you are in the kitchen cooking you have some idea of how to proceed. Those types of recipes might work with Squirrel Pie but when baking it becomes a bit more tricky.

In the introduction there is a list of how to assemble the recipes. Mrs. Cotton suggests that copy her list for the “Order of Work” and fasten it above the mixing-table when you make cakes.

ORDER OF WORK

1. Heat the oven.
2. Place the utensils on the table.
3. Measure ingredients.
4. Prepare baking pans.
5. Beat white of egg.
6. Cream the butter.
7. Slowly add the sugar.
8. Add beaten yolk of egg.
9. Add water and flour alternately.
10. Add extract.
11. Fold in white of egg.
12. Add fruit.

Good rules to follow even with the more detailed recipes of today.

Here is one of the recipe for gingerbread. It is annotated in my copy to say that 1/2 this recipe would be sufficient. I say make the whole cake.

Gingerbread (Sour Cream)

2 eggs
1 cup molasses
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
3 1/2 cups flour

Cream the butter, add the sugar, then the well-beaten eggs. Dissolve the soda in a little boiling water, stir in the molasses, and add it to the batter. Then stir in the spices, milk, and flour

As I said, you are expected to know what to do with the info. So tack up your "Order of Work" list and start baking.

Baked

The Prince of Tides is one of favorite books and one of the best reads you'll ever come across. It is a sweeping family saga set in the mossy fecundity of the coastal South. Barbra Streisand bought the rights and made it into a movie. If you saw the movie but didn’t read the book, you would think that The Prince of Tides was a book about a Jewish psychiatrist set in New York City.


What you may ask, does this have to do with Baked, a book written by two guy who live in New York City and have a bakery in Red Hook Brooklyn? Well, Baked, like the MOVIE version of The Prince of Tides, seems to be a about trendy NYC, but if you actually read the book, if you scratch the surface, you will find a good old Southern story underneath.

The cover is adorned with beautiful lemon meringue tarts; tarts that would make your Ganny weep. There is a great recipe for “Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie”. I spent some time in Tuscaloosa, as did Matt Lewis (proving you can take the boy out of the South but …). Lewis mentions that only in the South do they make Tollhouse Pie, something I never realized till now. Since you can now find crayfish in Ohio, and grits in New York, and biscuits in Seattle, it would be a good idea to spread the love of Tollhouse Pies across the country. The book has recipes for Pumpkin Whoopie Pies and S’more Nut Bars and cakes made with root beer. Southerns can find more ways to incorporate soft drinks into food than anyplace in the universe, in fact, the uses of Cheerwine are endless!



I once had a recipe for a monster cookie. I made it several time and really love it. Then I lost the recipe. I spent endless hours looking for the recipe, but to no avail. This recipe is close to the one I lost somewhere in the mountains of North Carolina!

Monster Cookies

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
5 3/4 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup (6 ounces) M&Ms

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Add the oats and stir until all the ingredients are evenly combined.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth and pale in color. Add the sugars and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Do not overmix.

Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth (about 20 seconds) and scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the corn syrup and vanilla and beat until just incorporated.

Use a spatula or wooden spoon to fold in the chocolate chips and M&M’s. cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate for 5 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Use an ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to scoop the dough in 2-tablespoon-size balls onto the prepared baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until the cookies just begin to brown. Let cool on the pans for 8 to 10 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Once you have made a big batch, break out a Cheerwine and read a few chapters in The Prince of Tides.

Luscious Chocolate Desserts

I love chocolate. Not a shocking revelation. I am pretty sure I would eat cardboard if it was coated in a 60% Valharona. I am always hunting for chocolate cookbooks.

Ironically, the best book on chocolate is not a cookbook at all, but Sophie Coe’s, The True History of Chocolate. Coe died of cancer before finishing her book on chocolate which was eventually completed by her husband, Michael. Coe was a brilliant food historian whose legacy lives on at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies' Arthur & Elisabeth Schlesinger Library, which holds her extensive culinary library.



For a great general chocolate cookbook, you can’t stray too far from Lori Longbotham’s Luscious Chocolate Desserts. The book is full of great photos and general recipes for every kind of chocolate desert from drinks to brownies, ice cream to cakes, cookies and candies and sauces and pies oh my! The recipes are good, they are easy and they appear accomplished. All you need is a kitchen and great chocolate. A few utensils are needed but nothing you don’t have.

Katharine Hepburn loved chocolate. She often contributed recipes to magazines with her favorite confections. On different occasions, Hepburn gave different recipes for her brownies. These brownies appeared in Family Circle.

Katharine Hepburn’s Brownies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Position rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 F. butter and flour an 8-inch square baking pan

Melt the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of about 1 1/2 inches of nearly simmering water, whisking until smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat, add the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and whisk until well blended. Stir in the walnuts. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out sticky, with just a few crumbs clinging to it, but is not wet; do not overbake.

Cool completely in the pan or on a wire rack. Chill if you have the time, then cut into 9 brownies.

Years ago, Katharine Hepburn intervened in the life of Heather Henderson. Henderson wanted to quit her studies at Bryn Mawr. Hepburn invited both the young woman and her father to tea for brownies and a lecture on the importance of education. Years later, Ms. Henderson reminisced about the actress, sharing Hepburn rules for living:

1. Never quit

2. Be yourself

3. Don't put too much flour in your brownies

English Country Cooking At Its Best

Caroline Conran is a wonderful cookbook writer. She has a wealth of old cookbooks she uses as background for her recipes. She writes lovingly about the Britain she knows and lyrically about her adopted France.

English Country Cooking At Its Best is filled with old-fashioned English cookery that seems fresh and new under Conran’s pen. The book is scattered with great photographs of the English countryside that resemble a set for a Masterpiece Theatre production.

In introducing her recipe for Bramble Scones she writes:

“This is a lovely autumn recipe, particularly useful in the country when you have been out walking and picked a few handfuls of blackberries, but not enough to make jam or jelly.”

Well, I often venture into the garden and return with a scant handful of berries and end up tossing them into a freezer bag for later. I can’t wait for berries to return so I can make a batch of these.

Bramble Scones

3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup butter, diced
2 oz blackberries, very ripe
2 Tbsp cream
milk and sugar for glazing

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Sieve the flour, baking powder and sugar into a bowl, rub in the butter with your fingers until it looks like coarse crumbs, then drop in the blackberries.

Mix the cream in with your fingers, adding a little more if necessary to make a light, soft dough. Work lightly – the less handled the better. Roll the dough out lightly 1/2 inch thick and cut into 2 1/2 inch circles. Brush with milk, sprinkle with coarse sugar, place on a buttered and floured baking sheet and bake for 10 –15 minutes.

Eat the scones while they are still warm, buttered. You can use well drained frozen blackberries instead of fresh --they are very good too. They look very rustic (a little uneven) – and wonderfully home-made.

So her husband is a billionaire, big deal, the girl can cook.

Essential Beeton

Isabella Beeton is arguably the first in a long line of domestic superstars. Between 1859 and 1861, Mrs. Beeton published 24 issues of the English Woman’s Domestic Magazine. In 1861 those magazines were compiled into her opus, Beeton’s Household Management. Before the decade ended, 2 million copies of the book had been sold. Her book has been printed and reprinted in dozens of forms. A recent “best of” edition, Essential Beeton was published in 2004

Among her “Golden Rules” for the kitchen:

Leave nothing dirty, clean and clear as you go.

A good cook wastes nothing

Stew boiled is stew spoiled

Boil fish quickly, meat slowly

This winter, my friends and I lamented the fact that we cannot find decent suet for mincemeat or for a lovely suet crust. Suet is the hard fat around the kidneys. I’m sure if you live in New York City or in a small town with a proper butcher you may be able to find just the suet you need. If not, you can only imagine how fine this crust can be.

Suet Crust, for pie or pudding


Ingredients.--To every lb. of flour allow 5 to 6 oz. of beef suet, 1/2 pint of water.

MODE.—Free the suet from the skin and shreds; chop it extremely fine and rub it well into the flour; work the whole to a smooth paste with the above proportion of water; roll it out, and it is ready for use. This crust is quite rich enough for ordinary purposes but when a better one is desired use from 1/2 to 3/4 lbs. of suet to every pound of flour. Some cooks for rich crusts, pound the suet in a mortar, with a small quantity of butter. It should then be laid on the paste in small pieces, the same as for puff-crust and will be exceeding nice for hit tarts. 5oz. of suet to every lb. of flour will make a good crust; and even 1/4 lb. will answer very well for children, or where a crust is wanted very plain.

Isabella Beeton and the "invention" of her book is a wonderful story. There are several biographies of Beeton but this is the best: The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton: The First Domestic Goddess by Kathryn Hughes.


If you are thinking of making this crust without the suet --Don't. Lard or any other type of fat is not a acceptable. Alas, there is simply no substitute for suet, so befriend a butcher or no steak and kidney pie for you.

Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts

My friend Anne was off to California to see her granddaughter. She was looking for a Maida Heatter recipe. It seems Anne has several Maida Heatter books but not the one with this recipe. Anne wanted to make, Victorias, a famous pastry from Angelina's on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris.

Maida Heatter acquired this recipe when she contacted Angelina's asking them to if they would send a box of Victorias to her. She was told in no uncertain terms that Victorias are to be eaten immediately. In lieu of pastries she got a recipe which she included in Maida Heatters Book of Great Desserts.

Victorias

Pastry Shells

2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar

5 ounces butter, cut into 1/2- inch chunks

1 egg plus 2 egg yolks

Place the flour on a large board, marble, or other smooth work surface. Make a large well in the center and add the remaining ingredients. With your right-hand fingertips, work the center ingredients together. Gradually incorporate the flour, using a dough scraper or a wide spatula in your left hand to help move it in toward the center. When all the flour has been absorbed, knead briefly until the dough holds together and then finish by "breaking" the pastry as follows.

Form it into a ball. Start at the further side of the dough and, using the heel of your hand, push off small pieces (about 2 tablespoons), pushing it against the work surface and away from you. Continue until all the dough has been pushed off. Re-form the dough and "break" it off again. Re-form the dough; do not chill.

Work with half of the dough at a time. On a floured pastry cloth, with a floured rolling pin, roll evenly to 1/8-inch thickness. Reverse the dough occasionally to keep both sides lightly floured. With a 4-inch round cookie cutter, cut 18 rounds. Scraps of dough may be reserved and then rerolled together. (You will have a bit more dough than you need - extra shells may be frozen before or after baking, or extra dough may be frozen unrolled).

As the pastry circles are cut, transfer them with a metal spatula and fit them into tartlet pans. (If you don't have enough tartlet pans to use the 18 rounds all at once, place the extra rounds on waxed paper or plastic wrap until you are ready for them).

Do not stretch the dough. Press it gently into place. Place the lined pans on a jelly-roll pan or cookie sheet and freeze or refrigerate until firm.

Tear aluminum foil (against a ruler or table edge) into 4-inch squares. Line each frozen or refrigerated shell with foil, pressing it firmly against the bottom and sides. (Do not fold the foil down over the sides of the pastry). Fill with small dried beans or uncooked rice, to keep the pastry from puffing up. Then remove from the oven and lift off the foil and beans/rice/pennies by carefully lifting opposite corners of the foil. Return to the oven and bake 6-9 minutes until the bottoms begin to color slightly and the edges are golden.

As shells are baked, remove the pans from the oven individually with a wide metal spatula. With your fingertips, carefully remove the shells from the pans to cool on a wire rack. When cool, transfer to trays that will fit in the refrigerator. Prepare filling.



Chocolate filling

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, broken into pieces

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream, scalded

In the top of a large double boiler over hot water on moderate heat, melt the chocolate. Stir in the sugar. Add the boiling hot cream all at once and stir and stir with a wire whisk until smooth. Cook uncovered over moderate heat for 30 minutes, scraping sides and bottom occasionally with a rubber spatula. Remove from heat and place top of double boiler in ice water. Stir continuously and gently with a rubber spatula, scraping the sides and bottom in order to not let the chocolate start to set. Test the temperature frequently on the inside of your wrist. As soon as it is cold, pour it into a pitcher.

Pour into pastry shells, pouring carefully just to the tops of the shells. They should be as full as possible, but be very careful not to let any run over in spots where the shells are lower. Carefully tranfer to refrigerator. Refrigerate for a few hours.

Victorias may served simply as they are at Angelina's, with a light sprinkling of chopped green pistachio nuts right in the center, put on while the chocolate is still soft. Or they may be very elaborate with whipped cream swirled through a pastry bag with a star tip.

Serve these chilled.


You will need individual tartlet pans 3 1/2 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch in depth, and a 4-inch round cookie cutter.

Here are Anne's Victorias. She is still getting used to her iPhone!