Baking

A good dessert…usually.

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An Old Fashioned Barn Party

This is the entrance to our friends’ barn in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  Every October for the last several years, we have met at this barn to take part in an old fashioned barn party.  The barn on my friends’ property is very old and is constructed of stone and wood.  The top has a floor made of wooden beams with several stalls on top that most likely once housed larger animals like cows, horses or pigs.  Underneath is another level that most likely housed equipment and smaller animals like chickens, ducks and geese.  Over the years, my friends have restored their barn to its original appearance and the party is held to help raise money for old barn restoration in the area, to sell high-end craft items to the guests and general public who attend and offer up a great way to see old friends and family one more time before the holidays.  We also ate lots of food and drank lots of drinks (from coffee to wine to champagne).

This year the barn party also tried to teach guests a few tricks of the trade from local artisans.  There were booths and workshops where guests could see the looming of thread, hear live music played by a local musical group, learn to knit, learn to tie a fly for fly fishing or learn to make some wine among other things.  Of course there was an apple pie baking contest followed by a cookie baking contest with prizes for the top three finishers.  Come enjoy a few of the pictures that we took during the day.

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By the end of the day, most of us had a bag full of craft goodies, a full stomach and an introduction to a new skill.  I am now a novice knitter learning in the class with some yarn and chopsticks for knitting needles.  It was also great to catch up with everyone, especially those that we don’t see on a regular basis.  It was a big day and a lot of work, but everyone had a great time.  Here’s to next year’s party!!  What Fall festivities go on in your neck of the woods?

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New Advances In Corn Bread Technology

This is fresh, hot corn bread being cut into six generous wedges for serving.  Corn bread seems to be a very sensitive topic for people in the South.  When we were on vacation, I saw more than a couple of restaurants that made claims to serving the best corn bread in Charleston.  One claim I saw said it was the best due to the use of white corn meal.  Another claim said that they had the best because they used local stone-ground yellow corn meal.  I didn’t know there were so many choices available in the art of corn bread making as I usually enjoyed the one and only Jiffy-boxed corn bread as a child and have rarely eaten corn bread as an adult.  Now that we are back in Connecticut and still cooking a lot of Southern classics, I decided to look around and determine what I would consider the best corn bread recipe on the market.  Here is the first contender, again from the ‘Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook‘.  Since they haven’t steered us wrong since our return, I figured I’d give their recipe the first shot.  What interested me in this recipe was the title, Crispy Corn Bread.  I was envisioning a soft center and a crispy and chewy crust on top and that is just what we got.  To achieve this crispy corn bread, all I needed was a 12 versus a 9 inch cast iron skillet.  The larger skillet is the trick to obtaining corn bread that has that delicious corn flavor and carmelized crust, but because the batter lies thinner in the pan and only gets up to about a half-inch thick, you double the crispiness of the bread while retaining its moistness.  Because the crust-to-crumb ratio is very high, this corn bread is like a moist flatbread with a big corn taste.

Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1 1/2 cups stone-ground cornmeal (yellow or white, the choice is yours)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons sugar (I added one more teaspoon than the recipe called for because I like it a little sweeter)
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 1/2 cups whole or low-fat buttermilk
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • Butter and honey (or whatever) for spreading

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Grease a 12-inch skillet with the butter, leaving any excess in the pan, and place it in the oven.

In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients together.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg until frothy and then whisk in the buttermilk.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix thoroughly.  Melt the butter in a small pan over low heat and whisk the butter into the batter.

When the butter in the large skillet is smoking, carefully remove the skillet from the oven and swirl around the butter to coat the bottom and sides evenly.  Pour the batter into the skillet.  It should sizzle.  Bake for 15 minutes, or until the top of the bread is golden brown and the edge has pulled away from the side of the skillet.  Remove from the oven.  Cut the cornbread into 6 wedges in the skillet and serve hot, with the butter, honey or any other spread of your liking.

This corn bread was very good served in a big wedge beside our chicken-fried steak with vidalia cream gravy.  This was some good Southern eating.  Are you getting the point that I am in love with the Lee Bros. cookbook?  So far, no disappointments and some great food.  I’m giving this corn bread a score of 8 because I thought it needed to be a little sweeter (again, this is why I increased the sugar content in the recipe above).  Give this quick and easy corn bread recipe a try and enjoy the crispy crust the next time you are cooking up your favorite Southern dish.  Do you have any tricks for making good, old-fashioned corn bread?

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Trying To Determine What Red Tastes Like

This is a slice of a wonderful red velvet cake.  Red velvet cake is a mellow chocolate cake with an intense red color.  A white cream cheese icing is traditional and, as you can see, my frosting ability is not too great.  Even so, the cake and the frosting did not disappoint.  Most chefs say that it’s hard to get a good red velvet cake recipe.  Many times they are bland without the proper amount of cocoa to give it the right chocolate taste.  Many times they taste too citrusy due to way too much orange rind or flavoring being added.  This recipe from the ‘Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook‘ is one of the best.  I think it blends the cocoa and citrus to great effect.  As you may recall, I am not a citrus or rind lover when I bake so I cut the recommended rind amount down to half of what was given.

Why the red color?  Obviously coloring the cake red does not give it any enhanced flavor.  If the cake was just white or yellow, would people like it any less?  I have to be honest and say that the answers to my questions were not easy to find on the internet or any of my cookbooks.  The best I could find was the red was probably added as a means to dress up a cake with no other flavor than some cocoa.  I guess I’ll buy that, but I was looking for somewhat of a more elegant answer than this.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

  • 2-3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon sifted cake flour or 2-1/2 cups sifted bleached all-purpose flour, plus more for flouring the pans
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 cup natural cocoa powder
  • 1 ounce red food coloring
  • 1-1/2 tablespoons water
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the pans
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tablespoon orange zest (from 1–2 oranges)
  • 1 cup whole or low-fat buttermilk

For the icing:

  • 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 1 pound cream cheese (2 packages), softened
  • 1 pound (4 cups) sifted confectioners’ sugar
  • 2 tablespoons whole milk, if needed

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two 9-by-2-inch cake pans or line their bottoms with greased, floured waxed paper.  Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together twice.  In a small mixing bowl, whisk the cocoa, red food coloring and water to a smooth paste, about 1 minute, and reserve.

In a large mixing bowl, beat 1 cup butter with an electric mixer until creamy, about 30 seconds.  Add the sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, beating about 15 seconds after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary, until the mixture has lightened in color and become fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, the vanilla, and orange zest, beating for 15 seconds after each addition. Add the red cocoa paste and mix until evenly incorporated.

Add the flour mixture to the butter and egg mixture in thirds, alternating with 2 additions of half the buttermilk.  Once all ingredients are incorporated, beat the batter 10 to 12 strokes with your spoon or spatula if using cake flour, 2 to 3 strokes if using bleached all-purpose flour.  Divide the batter between the cake pans and spread the tops evenly with the wooden spoon or spatula.

Bake until a cake tester or toothpick emerges clean, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cakes cool in their pans on a rack for 10 minutes, then slide a thin paring knife around the edge of
the pans and invert the cakes.  Lift away the waxed paper, if using.  Cool the cakes completely on a rack, with their tops facing up.

In a large bowl, beat 3/4 cup butter with the mixer until creamy, about 30 seconds.  Add the cream cheese and beat until the mixture is fluffy, white, and very smooth, about 1 minute.  Add the confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition, until the mixture is creamy, fluffy, and smooth.  If the frosting is too stiff, beat the milk into it to loosen it.

Gently ice the cake layers generously.  Spoon 1 cup of icing in the center of the first cake layer.  Working an icing or rubber spatula in gentle swirling motions, spread the icing from the center toward the edges of the cake until it forms an even layer 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick (if you need to add more icing, add it to the center and work it out toward the sides).  Carefully set the second cake layer on top of the first and ice the second layer in the same manner, beginning with a dollop in the center and working it out to the sides.  Then ice the sides of the cake.  For my cake, I cut each cake in half in order to have four layers.

Store the cake at room temperature, beneath a cake cover.  If you don’t plan to eat it for 24 hours, put it on a plate, tent it with plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.  Remember to remove the cake from the refrigerator 1 hour or more before serving to take the chill off.

So I’ve determined that red tastes…delicious.  Again, the recipe above has cut the citrus recommended in half.  I could still taste a pretty good hint of citrus, so I might even go with less the next time around.  As for my frosting abilities, I think I need to take a class or just use chocolate frosting (which hides all sins) for the rest of my life.  Chocolate frosting forever…thinking about it, what could be bad with that?  What is your favorite kind of cake/frosting?

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Charleston’s Hominy Grill Restaurant – Yum!

This is one of the first things you see when you arrive at the Hominy Grill in Charleston, South Carolina.  Painted on the side of the building, this waitress seems to assure you that inside you will soon be eating some great home-cooked food just like your Grandma used to make.  Nationally acclaimed and locally beloved, the Hominy Grill is a Charleston institution serving classic Southern specialties.  No cans are opened at the Hominy Grill.  All of the food is prepared from scratch with fresh, locally raised ingredients.  Chef/proprietor Robert Stehling first learned to cook at Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill, NC.  He then worked for several years in New York before moving to Charleston where he opened the Hominy Grill.  He received the prestigious James Beard Best Chef Southeast award in 2008.

When we first arrived, we knew we would have a little wait given the number of people who were outside on the patio already waiting for a table.  Given the gorgeous weather that Charleston is known for, waiting outside for our table was nice.  Although there wasn’t a bar to stand at, the Hominy Grill does have a window where you can go up to and order whatever it is you would like to drink during your wait.

After about thirty minutes, it was our turn to eat.  The six of us sat down at a table inside a nice bright room with what appears to be an old-fashioned stamped tin ceiling.

Next up, it was time to read the regular menu and review the daily board of specials.  Almost of the dishes offered were Southern classics made with fresh ingredients.  Right off, we knew that we would hit all three courses in our eating adventure–appetizers, main course and dessert.

We started off with fried green tomatoes with ranch dressing for the entire table.  Is there anything more Southern than that?  Did you know that there is not a special variety of green tomato that you grow to use when you make your fried green tomatoes?  You just need to gather unripened, green tomatoes off the vine and batter and fry them.

After polishing off the fried green tomatoes in record time, it was time to move on to the main course.  Take a look at this delicious dish of shrimp and grits, another Southern classic.  The shrimp was sautéed with mushrooms, scallions and bacon and then served over cheese grits.  In this dish, the bacon actually gave the dish a nice smoky and salty flavor when up against the smoothness of the grits and the tender shrimp.

What would the South be without something fried and then served with gravy and a biscuit?  The Hominy Grill did not disappoint and several of us ate the Big Nasty Biscuit with a fried chicken breast smothered in cheddar and sausage gravy.  When we saw this, all we could do is trick ourselves into thinking it only had 200 calories in it and then dig in.  Talk about some good eating!

BBQ was also on order at the Hominy Grill.  Southern barbeque is more vinegar based than other barbeques that you may have eaten.  I like the bite that this type of barbeque offers.  Here is the BBQ chicken sandwich with slaw.  Vinegar BBQ heaven!

Are you ready for dessert?  We were.  We kept it simple and delicious as you can see.  Nothing light about butterscotch pie and a chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream, huh?  The butterscotch pie was creamy and delicious.  It has been quite a while since I had eaten butterscotch pie and this was a light and flavorful treat.

Now onto the chocolate brownie with homemade vanilla ice cream.  Here’s the question–have you ever met a brownie a la mode that you didn’t like?  I haven’t and the Hominy Grill’s selection was as good as it looks in this picture.

What a great brunch!  At this point in a meal and after all of this food, all you can do is either go back to home base and take a long nap or walk it off.  We thought it best to do some walking which is probably the right choice after you just finished devouring something called the Big Nasty Biscuit.

When we go on vacation, we do some sight-seeing, but for the most part our favorite part of a vacation trip is getting to know the locals through eating.  The Hominy Grill in Charleston really got us acquainted with the food of South Carolina’s low country.  Given that they try to utilize fresh and local ingredients, the food was really delicious.  We hope you enjoyed our little eating frenzy at the Hominy Grill….we sure did.  Do you enjoy dining out a lot when you are on vacation?

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Stuffed Artichokes In A Jiffy

This is a great way to make stuffed artichokes in a quick and dirty manner.  There is the traditional way, which involves clipping and trimming whole artichokes, stuffing them and then steaming them for a long period of time until they are tender and then there is this way.  I’ll admit that the traditional way is best, but when you are in a hurry, nothing impresses more than this quick stuffed artichoke treat.  I have modified this recipe from one that I found in an old Italian cookbook.  Remember, I’m not keen on lemon so I took the lemon juice amount down and I also brought the amount of breadcrumbs down as well.  Because we are in a hurry on this dish (remember?), I used store-bought seasoned breadcrumbs and not ones that I make myself.  GASP!…I can hear it now….forgive me food gods.  Since I am in the confessing mood, I also used bottled artichoke hearts from the Italian section of the supermarket instead of fresh artichokes.  THUD!….the foodies that didn’t quit reading after the breadcrumb disclosure are now picking themselves up off the floor.  I think this is a good recipe.  Again, there are days when you have all the time in the world to cook and there are days when you need something quick, yet homemade.  This is one of those dishes.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese
  • 1 tablespoon combined dried herbs such as thyme, oregano and savory or herbs sold as Italian seasoning
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
  • Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
  • 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 30 ounces of bottled artichoke hearts, drained

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  In a medium bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs, parsley, cheeses, dried herbs, salt and pepper.  Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice and garlic.  Set aside.

Rub olive oil inside a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.  Lay the artichokes in a single layer in the baking dish.  Evenly distribute the crumb topping over the artichokes, pushing it down in between the hearts.  Drizzle the dressing all over the crumb topping.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Increase the temperature to 375 degrees, remove the foil and bake an additional 10 to 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown all over.

Simple, quick and really tasty.  This is a nice dish to take to the table when you are pressed for time.  In our quest to make all things Italian, this is a dish that gets high marks from even our harshest critics.  So the next time you are in the mood for stuffed artichokes and don’t have the time (or the patience) to make them the old-fashioned way, give this quick version a try.  What recipes do you have for artichokes that you make in your kitchen?

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A Field Trip To Le Farm Restaurant

This is Le Farm restaurant in Westport, Connecticut.  We were lucky to go there for dinner over the weekend.  Le Farm is one of those great restaurants where it seems one dish is better than the one you ate right before it.  It is an absolute great place for dining.  What else is great about it is that it is one of the front-runners in the farm to table movement.  Bill Taibe is the executive chef and here is how the restaurant and local farmers operate together to make the food at Le Farm some of the best and freshest food in the area.  This is from the website for Le Farm:

Farmers like to grow things.  They don’t like to market, advertise and transport them.  Bill Taibe likes to cook.  He loves using local ingredients — the fresher the better.  The convergence of area farmers and Taibe is good news for diners — and not just fans of Le Farm, Taibe’s restaurant that earns raves for showcasing market-based food cooked and presented in a homey, comfortable and very sustainable atmosphere.  Thanks to RSA — “Restaurant Supported Agriculture,” a concept that Taibe knows needs a zippier name — 5 local restaurants now offer the best in local products.  Banding together, they guarantee farmers a market for their goods.  Promising to buy takes pressure off the farmers.  They reciprocate by planting what the chefs request.  Make no mistake:  It’s not just lettuce, tomatoes and corn anymore.  Taibe — who built 2 previous restaurants on the barter system, and admits he “may have been born in the wrong century” — explains that RSA is based on the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model.  RSA is less structured – shares are not bought in advance from farmers — but the concept is similar.

Once a week — via the Green Village Initiative — 5 restaurants (Le Farm, the Boathouse and Dressing Room in Westport, CT, plus Wilton, CT’s Schoolhouse and Fat Cat Pie Company in Norwalk, CT) receive a list from local growers of whatever is ripe.  By 4 p.m. each Monday, the chefs respond with their own list:  what they want.  The farmers pick the crops on Tuesday morning.  By 2:30 that afternoon, Green Village Initiative volunteers have gathered it and it’s ready for pick-up by the restaurateurs.

Le Farm is a very small restaurant.  We counted 11 tables and were told that the restaurant holds 34 people at capacity.  That doesn’t mean there are 34 people dining there at one time.  The hostess told us that the kitchen cannot accommodate that many diners at one time.  So when you dine there, you are eating with a relatively small number of people and the atmosphere is really quiet and relaxed.

Wooden tables line the walls in a very homey and country sort of way.  Glass jars filled with dried split peas hold the silverware.  Water for the table is brought to you in country-style bottles.  There is a wine list for sale and limited cocktails are available made with spirits that were hand selected by Le Farm.  Have you ever heard of:

  • Tito’s Hand-Made Vodka
  • Caeden Head Old Raj Gin
  • Gran Centennaro Plata Tequila
  • Ben Riach 12 Year Scotch?

After you’ve secured the beverage of your choice, the food starts to roll in and you can’t believe what you are feasting on.  Let us show you some of the things our party ate while at Le Farm.

Let’s start with appetizers.

This is roast pork belly with whipped cornbread, collards and sweet bacon vinegar.

How about foie gras terrine with cherry marmalade, pistachios and toast?

This is smoked duck potato hash with black truffle and a fried egg.

This is an aged beef meatball salad with green cabbage, pignoli, parmesan and pickled cipolinis.

Last, but definitely not least, here is some cavatelli for the table made with sweet 100 tomato pan sauce, spicy oregano and parmesan.  We asked what sweet 100 was and we were told it was a type of tomato.

Who said we were done eating yet?  Now it is on to our main courses.  Not as many pictures as many of us got the same dish.  Great minds think alike I guess???  Here is what we had.

A Southern classic.  This is shrimp and grits with italian sausage, roasted corn and shrimp sauce.

A little comfort food?  Brisket braised in beer with beet tops, potatoes with horseradish and dill.

You can’t leave without dessert can you?  We couldn’t, that’s for sure.  Take a look at these treats.

This is a chocolate pot de creme with peanut butter cream and salted pretzels.

A brown-butter almond shortcake with strawberry gelato and cajeta caramel.

Some bourbon white raisin bread pudding with vanilla gelato and hazelnuts.

We’ll admit we were stuffed.  Well, with all this food, we were beyond stuffed.  If you are ever in Westport, Connecticut, Le Farm is a restaurant you must go to and enjoy.  We think you can tell a difference when you are eating really fresh and local ingredients prepared in such fun and inventive dishes like those served to us.  Tell us about your favorite farm to table restaurants in your neck of the woods?

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A Non-Traditional Strawberry Shortcake

This is my take on strawberry shortcake.  I love strawberries, but place them in a traditional strawberry shortcake recipe and I don’t really care so much for them.  I think that the strawberry sauce with its syrup is too sugary sweet for my liking.  The shortcake is another thing I don’t like either.  A homemade shortcake tastes like it has too much of something in it.  Maybe baking powder?  Then when it is topped with whipped cream, that does it for me.  Just too much sweetness.  I guess I don’t really strawberry shortcake on second thought.  So I wanted to create my take on traditional strawberry shortcake that takes all the sugar and sweetness out of it.  I want sugar, don’t get me wrong, but I also want it to have a little kick as well.  Something that plays off the tongue.  So this is my non-traditional strawberry shortcake recipe that uses a honey vanilla pound cake and balsamic strawberries.

Ingredients:

For the honey vanilla pound cake:

  • 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
  • 2 cups sifted cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

For the balsamic strawberries:

  • 2 pints fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease the bottom of an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2-inch loaf pan.  Line the bottom with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for 3 to 4 minutes, until light.  Meanwhile, put the eggs, honey, vanilla and lemon zest in a glass measuring cup but do not combine.  With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the egg mixture, one egg at a time, scraping down the bowl and allowing each egg to become incorporated before adding the next egg.

Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.  With the mixer on low-speed, add it slowly to the batter until just combined.  Finish mixing the batter with a rubber spatula and pour it into the prepared pan.  Smooth the top.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool for 15 minutes, turn out onto a baking rack and cool completely.

About 30 minutes before you are going to serve the pound cake, take the sliced strawberries and mix with the balsamic vinegar, sugar and ground black pepper.  Stir to mix all ingredients.  Cover and place back in the refrigerator to chill and blend flavors.  Cut the cake and place an appropriate amount of strawberries over the pound cake.

There you have it.  My non-traditional strawberry shortcake.  Even though it’s not my speed, a little whipped cream on top would be pretty good too if you choose.  It’s your choice.  We were so lucky to get some great strawberries at the farmer’s market.  Very fresh and pesticide free which is always nice to have.  Farmer’s markets seem to be everywhere these days so take a trip to your local one and pick up some great fruits and vegetables.  It may cost a little more but the flavor boost is worth it.  What strawberry recipes do you like that you could share on Acorns On Glen?

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Boston Cream Pie Made In Connecticut

This is a Boston Cream Pie made in Connecticut.  Is this against the law?  Let’s hope not, because I don’t think I look good in stripes.  I liked this recipe, I really did.  People ate it, which is always a good sign.  I’m going to make it again, but the next time, I’m going to do one thing different.  I’m saying this up front.  It’s not to turn you off, but I’m saying it because I believe recipes that interest you should always be made and then modified to be even better the next time you make it.  So many people make a recipe and if it is not perfect the first time, they never make it again.  I like to make things and then jot notes on what was good and what was not good and then think the recipe through and modify ingredients or cooking times so that it is even better the next time I make it.  Most times my modifications are good ones.  Sometimes not, but that’s the fun of cooking in my opinion.  OK, so let me break this recipe down for you and tell you what was great and what I’m going to modify the next time I make it.

The cake itself is really made in four parts:  the pastry cream, the cake, the chocolate ganache frosting and the assembly.  I loved making the pastry cream (my first time) and the taste was fantastic.  Light and creamy with a hint of vanilla.  The chocolate ganache frosting was also delicious.  It was the standard ganache recipe where you use chocolate and heavy cream.  What could be wrong with this combination?  Assembly was really easy so that is always a plus.  It was the cake.  The yellow cake was good, but not great.  It was a little too dense and not as flavorful as I would have liked.  The next time I make this, I’m going to try to find a different yellow cake recipe, even if I have to go the Duncan Hines route (I can hear the gasps and screams now from my true foodie readers).  If I can get the cake to be more moist and a little sweeter, this recipe goes from good to great.  No doubt about it.  I’m going to walk through the recipe as written and tell you what I used and what I did during my first attempt.  Please make this cake.  It’s worth the effort and I hope I haven’t talked you out of giving it a try…just modify.  Did I just make a new saying?  “Give it a try…just modify”.  Who knew I could be this clever?

Ingredients:

FOR THE CAKE

  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon coarse salt
  • 1 cup safflower oil, plus more for pans
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup sour cream

FOR THE PASTRY CREAM

  • 5 large eggs: 1 whole egg plus 4 egg yolks
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk, scalded
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

FOR CHOCOLATE TOPPING

  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

FOR THE CAKE:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Oil and flour two 8-inch round cake pans.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  In a large bowl, whisk together the oil and sugar.  Whisk in eggs and vanilla.  Alternately add in flour mixture and sour cream, beginning and ending with flour.  Divide batter between pans.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, until cakes pull away from the side of the pan.  Cool in pans for 10 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

FOR THE PASTRY CREAM:  In a large bowl, lightly beat the egg and yolks together.  Add the sugar, a little at a time.  Continue beating until mixture falls in ribbons when the beater is lifted, about 5 minutes.  Mix in the flour.  Begin to add the milk, a little at a time.  Add a little milk and then let it mix well until you add a little more.  The worst thing you can do is add too much and end up with scrambled eggs on your hands.  Transfer the mixture to a saucepan.  Boil gently over medium heat, cooking and whisking until the mixture thickens, 10 minutes.   Strain the mixture though a fine sieve into a large bowl.  Stir in the vanilla.  Press plastic wrap over the surface.  Cool for at least 1 hour.  To chill cream quickly, place bowl over a bowl of ice and stir until cooled.

FOR THE CHOCOLATE TOPPING:  Place chocolate in a medium bowl. Bring cream to a simmer in a small saucepan. Pour cream over chocolate and leave undisturbed 1 minute. Stir completely and allow to cool until it turns into a frosting consistency.  It is really shiny and runny in the beginning.  I place mine in the refrigerator and keep checking on it until it is the right consistency for frosting.

ASSEMBLY:  Slice off the domed top of one cake to level.  Hollow out 1/2-inch depth with fingers, leaving a 1/2-inch border from the edge.  Place cake on a plate or cake stand.  Fill with the pastry cream.  It’s okay for cream to spill a bit over edges.

Top with the second cake, dome side up.  Swirl the chocolate topping over the cake.  Chill until ready to serve.

Don’t let my cake warning scare you on this.  It is a great dessert….I mean who makes a Boston Cream Pie anymore?  Surprise them all with this little creation.  Again, I am going to do this cake again after I find another yellow cake recipe.  It’s worth a repeat.  Let us know how you liked it.  What great dessert recipes do you have that you modified after your first try?

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Chocolate Caramel Tart With Fleur De Sel

This is a little slice of heaven.  There is a thing with caramel and chocolate here on Glen Road.  Basically, we can’t get enough of them.  After I made the caramels with fleur de sel, I thought there must be a recipe that incorporates the same ingredients on a grander scale.  When I got my pies and tarts cookbook, I thought a tart would be the perfect way to put the same flavors to work.  After searching the internet, I finally found a recipe that would do the trick.  The recipe itself was one for 24 little tartlets, but I wanted to make the recipe and fit it into my 9 inch tart pan.  There was going to be some modification necessary to make enough to fit my pan.  The recipe I show below is my modification, but know that you will have about 2 cups of caramel left over and about 1 cup of chocolate.  Feel free to modify some more, but I was actually happy, because later in the week, I have some great toppings for an ice cream sundae or maybe spread on a graham cracker or two.  The recipe I found says it is from the pastry chef at the Gramercy Tavern restaurant in New York City and she actually served it at her wedding.  How could it be bad?  Give yourself some time to make this recipe.  It is not one of my easy and quick ones.  It took several chunks of one day to pull off.  The other thing worth noting is that getting the crust in the tart pan was challenging.  I literally slipped the bottom round under the chilled dough and lifted the round into the raised part of the pan.  There was some cracking, but the dough is pretty forgiving and you can mend it pretty easily with your hands.  Don’t make yourself crazy….the dough was delicious even after my mending it.  It is like a wonderful chocolate cookie.  So here is a wonderful dessert….our chocolate caramel tart with fleur de sel.

Ingredients:

For the Chocolate Tart Dough:

  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

For the Caramel Filling (I made mine in 2 separate batches for ease.  I didn’t have a pan big enough to do it in one shot and it really bubbles up at the end–be careful):

  • 1 cup water
  • 4 cups granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup light corn syrup
  • 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 4 tablespoons creme fraiche
  • 2 pinches of coarse salt

For the Chocolate Ganache Glaze:

  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 7 ounces extra-bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
  • Fleur de sel for sprinkling

Directions:

Make the tart dough:  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and confectioners’ sugar until combined, about 1 minute.  Add egg yolk and vanilla and beat until smooth.  Sift in flour and cocoa powder and beat on low-speed until just combined.  Scrape the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and form it into a disk; wrap well.  Chill until firm, at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.

Preheat oven to 325  degrees.  Between two sheets of lightly floured parchment paper, roll the tart dough out to fit the 9 inch tart pan.  Place into the pan and trim away any excess dough.  Chill the tart shell in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Line the tart shell with a piece of parchment paper and fill with raw rice or dried lentils. Pull parchment paper together to form a small packet.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove the packet and bake until the pastry looks dry and set, 5 to 10 minutes.  Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool (the tart shell can be made 8 hours ahead).

Make the filling:  Place 1 cup water in a large saucepan.  Add sugar and corn syrup and cook mixture over medium-high heat, swirling the pan occasionally, until it becomes a dark-amber caramel, about 10 minutes.  Carefully whisk in butter, cream, creme fraiche and a pinch of salt (the mixture will bubble up when you do this so be careful), whisking until smooth (the caramel can be made up to 5 days ahead and refrigerated in a covered container).  Carefully transfer caramel to a glass measuring cup.

Pour caramel in the tart shell while still warm until the shell is about 3/4 full and let stand until the caramel is set, at least 45 minutes.

Make the ganache glaze:  Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl.  In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil.  Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let stand for 2 minutes.

Stir with a rubber spatula until smooth.

Pour the glaze over the tart while still warm.

Let the glaze set at room temperature for at least 2 hours before serving.

When dessert time rolls around, slice pieces of the tart and place on a plate.  Sprinkle some fleur de sel from the top to the bottom of the slice.  Trust me, there is something about the saltiness of the fleur de sel that plays off the sweetness of the caramel and chocolate that makes your tongue come alive with the flavor that hits it.  We hope you like our fleur de sel caramels blown out into a tart configuration.  If you have the time to work on this tart, you will be happy with the outcome.  The taste it unbelievable.  What do you think about mixing fleur de sel, caramel and chocolate altogether in a dessert?

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Our Happy 4th of July Picnic Celebration

This is our second day of recovery from our July 4th celebration held on Saturday.  Our party started five or six years ago and was really a small affair.  We would invite our immediate family and close friends over for a barbecue.  The kids would swim most of the day and the adults would gossip about what was going on over the beverage of their choice.  Oh yes, we also ate…and ate…and ate.  Each year after that first party, the July 4th celebration just kept getting bigger.  We weren’t really increasing our immediate family so that wasn’t the reason for the growth.  I guess we were just meeting more friends that we felt we wanted to come over.  So this year, it was our biggest party to date.  125 people big.  So big that we thought we needed a tent for people to sit under to ward off the sun.  That was a good idea as temperatures hit 85 degrees with full sun.  The tent that we got was like a circus tent.  We were joking that later that night, one of us would be performing a Cirque du Soleil performance at the top of it.  Festivities went from 1 in the afternoon until about midnight.

Believe us when we tell you that 125 people can eat.  We had food on the barbecue grill outside and lots of good old Italian food on the inside.

We will try now to the best of our ability to document all the food that we enjoyed.  I am sure we forgot a lot, but here’s a good try:

  • 20 pounds of hot dogs
  • 30 pounds of hamburgers
  • 20 pounds of skirt steaks
  • 30 pounds of baby lamb chops
  • 20 pounds of boneless chicken thighs
  • Large tray of chicken marsala
  • Large tray of eggplant parmesan
  • Large tray of sausage and peppers
  • Large tray of penne marinara
  • Large tray of rigatoni with sausage and broccoli rabe
  • Tomato brushetta with ricotta salata
  • Filet mignon on toast points with carmelized onions and balsamic reduction
  • Shrimp cocktail
  • Potato croquettes
  • Antipasto (cheese and sliced meats)
  • Pigs in the blanket (because it is not a party without pigs in the blanket)
  • Italian sausage wrapped in phylo dough
  • Salad
  • Bread, buns, rolls (you can’t imagine how much starch there was)

Now the dessert.  Our Brooklyn Italian Grandmother put out the call for all Brooklyn and Staten Island bound guests to hit their best Italian pastry shops.  You can imagine the results.  We had so many pastries, cookies and cakes that we actually took many of the leftovers to the homeless shelter the next day.  There was no way we could eat all of the desserts that entered our house on Glen Road.  Here are some cupcakes (which are always a favorite):

Each year, I also ask one of my best friends to make her famous flag cake which is from Ina Garten.  She always obliges.  The flag cake sort of ties it all up here…you know, a symbol of why we are celebrating.

So Happy 4th of July to all of you from all of us here on Glen Road.  We also want to take this opportunity to thank all of our women and men in the armed services who risk their lives to protect all of us.  We appreciate your dedication.  By the way, if you are looking for us, we are still recovering from the big party.  Our beverage of choice was not lemonade, so that fact, coupled with the number of hours that we partied have made all of us Glen Road old people tired.  Thank God we have to go back to work tomorrow.  At our age, work is much easier than partying.  What are you doing today to celebrate the 4th of July?