02.28.09
Posted in Cake, Chocolate, Dessert, Foodblog Events, Ice Cream at 12:18 am by julie
You may have noticed that I left out any mention of a dessert in my Valentine’s Day post. But no Valentine’s Day (or any other holiday—or most weekdays, for that matter) would be complete without a dessert, preferably something chocolatey. And this month’s Daring Bakers challenge filled that need admirably. The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge. Decadent chocolate cake and ice cream—who could ask for more?
For me, the most difficult part of the challenge was acquiring a good quality chocolate on a shoestring budget. Although most of the time I am content to use bittersweet Ghirardelli bars from the grocery store, I was determined (in the spirit of the challenge, of course) to try out a brand we’d never eaten before. Chocosphere carries more options than I could shake a stick at, but I went with Valrhona Le Noir Gastronomie, a 61% bittersweet. I decided against a higher cocoa content because I was concerned about bitterness, considering the lack of sugar in this recipe. The 1Kg bag of fèves I purchased was more expensive than I would have liked, but on the plus side, I now have just over a pound of excellent chocolate leftover for another recipe.
The cake itself was incredibly easy to make. I went my usual route and melted the chocolate and butter in the microwave, and then it was just a matter of stirring in the yolks and folding in the beaten whites. I was stumped at first by the 50 sq. in. pan requirement, because I don’t have any springforms or cake pans smaller than 9×9, a deficiency I will someday have to rectify. But after taking my tape measure to every dish in the kitchen, I went with a small ceramic casserole of about 6×9, and couldn’t resist saving a bit of batter for my lone heart-shaped ramekin. The casserole went in for 25 minutes, and the ramekin joined it after the first 10.
They both turned out beautifully, and I had no problems with sticking. I decorated the heart with a simple cloud of powdered sugar, and attempted a stencil on the larger valentino that also incorporated cocoa powder.
As for the ice cream element of the challenge, I’ve tried countless ice cream recipes since receiving an ice cream maker a year or two ago, more than one of which was a variety of vanilla. And I was out of heavy cream. So I took the liberty of making peanut butter frozen yogurt instead, adapted freely from several recipes in The Perfect Scoop
. It turned out very well, and beyond the obvious perfections of the chocolate-peanut butter pairing, the sweet tang of the yogurt proved a good counterpoint to the bittersweet chocolate. Too bad Nolan isn’t quite old enough yet to sample peanuts.
All in all, this was one of the more straightforward challenges, and I have to admit it was a welcome one. The cake really does showcase the chocolate you choose. The texture is a bit like crumbly velvet at room temperature, and reheats to fudgy decadence with just a few seconds in the microwave, a perfect Valentine’s dessert that lasted us several days. Thanks so much to Dharm and Wendy for choosing this month’s challenge, and check out all the other chocolate valentinos at the Daring Bakers Blogroll.
Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt
3 C plain yogurt, whole or lowfat
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
about 2/3 C peanut butter (I used natural, and didn’t really measure)
1 tsp vanilla
Combine all ingredients in a blender, and process until homogenous. Chill in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight, then churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
I am a member of the Theta Class of Daring Bakers, inducted in July 2007. Below is a list of previous challenges:
Strawberry Mirror Cake – July 2007
Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart – August 2007
Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns – September 2007
Bostini Cream Pies – October 2007
Tender Potato Bread – November 2007
Traditional Buche de Noel – December 2007
Lemon Meringue Pie – January 2008
French Bread – February 2008
Perfect Party Cake – March 2008
Opéra Cake – May 2008
Danish Braid – June 2008
Filbert Gateau – July 2008
Chocolate Éclairs – August 2008
Lavash Crackers and Dip – September 2008
French Yule Log – December 2008
Tuiles – January 2009
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02.16.09
Posted in Bread, Cuisines, Dinner, Italian, Pastas at 12:30 am by julie
They say food is love. If that is true, then the brand of love I want to cultivate is best represented by slow food, the sort that sits at a lazy simmer for hours, or rises gently into a yeasty pillow of dough. It speaks of comfort, patience and effort. Not to say that quick-fix meals aren’t an equally expression of love or nurture in their own way—most nights that is all I can personally manage, and I know my family appreciates a 30-minute meal just as much as one I slaved over all day. But special occasions deserve special meals, so I spent most of the day yesterday working on one. Since we can’t afford to eat out much anymore, I decided to make something we haven’t had for a good long while: cannelloni, with fresh pasta and homemade ragu bolognese.
It was delicious. Using Marcella Hazan’s recipes, it took like 7 hours to make, most of which was fortunately just simmering time for the ragu. I had some boneless pork shoulder meat leftover from making Hawaiian braised pork last week, so I ground that up and added it to the sauce. I slightly adapted Marcella’s cannelloni filling to use spinach rather than more meat, and rolled up the noodles jelly-roll style as she recommended. Doesn’t make the most lovely photograph, but hopefully Jeremy thought it was worth the effort (and the time he spent watching Nolan while I worked).
In our house, no pasta dish is complete without bread to accompany it, and bread seemed like an appropriate labor of love to make for my bread fiend on Valentine’s Day. I chose a recipe for oatmeal buttermilk bread from the Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook. The plan was to make a single loaf of bread to go with the pasta, but, as I have found to be the case with this cookbook, there was enough dough to make not only a huge loaf, but also nearly a dozen rolls. (Last time I baked bread from this book, I ended up with a loaf bigger than my pizza stone. No joke!)
I only made a few slight adjustments to this recipe out of necessity. I had to use quite a bit more flour than called for, probably as much as 2 cups, because the dough was much too sticky to work with. I also made a substitution for the buttermilk that seemed to work out perfectly—a 50/50 mix of 2% milk and lowfat plain yogurt, mixed together. I made my rolls into little “love knots” for a little interest, and baked them at 400F for 12 or 13 minutes. The loaf went in at 385F as called for, but came out again after only 40 minutes with a much darker top than I would have liked. Next time I would start temping it after 30 minutes or so.
Oatmeal Buttermilk Bread
1 1/2 C rolled oats
1 C boiling water
1/4 C warm water
2 tsp dried yeast
1 1/2 C buttermilk
1/2 C canola oil
1/2 C light brown sugar
1 C whole wheat flour
3 1/2 C unbleached AP flour
2 tsp kosher salt
Set aside 1/4 C oats for topping bread. Place the remaining 1 1/4 C oats in a small bowl and cover with the boiling water. Mix together and allow to soak uncovered until the water is absorbed, about 10 minutes.
Place warm water and yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer and stir to combine. Allow to proof for 5 minutes, then add soaked oats, buttermilk, oil, brown sugar, salt, and both flours. Use the hook attachment of your stand mixer to knead the dough for about 10 minutes, or until the dough becomes less wet and forms a satiny ball that bounces back quickly when pressed.
Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Proof in a warm place for about an hour, or until the dough has almost doubled in size. Pull dough out of the bowl and shape in a 9×5 loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof again for about 45 minutes. Spray the top of the loaf with a light coat of water and sprinkle with reserved oats. Bake in a preheated 385F oven for about an hour, until the top is a deep golden brown, and the internal temperature is about 195F. Allow to rest in the pan on a rack for 30 minutes, before removing from the pan to cool completely.
Source: Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie.
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