Kitchenette

…for a very important date!  At the opera!

Would you believe me if I told you I posted my May Daring Bakers challenge post a day late just so I could use that Alice in Wonderland reference?

No.  No, you wouldn’t.

And you’d be right.  It completely slipped my mind this month that our post was due on the 28th and not on the 31st.  By the time I realized I hadn’t posted, it was too late and Mr. K had lost the camera cable.

But all is well, and I did NOT skip out on this month’s challenge, which was brought to us by four very talented ladies - Fran of Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie, Shea of Whiskful, and our two founders, Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice.

This month’s challenge was a spin on the classic opera cake, a lighter version of the normally rich chocolate cake.  The light color and flavor requirement was due in part to the advent of spring (finally, although here in Chicago, it threatened to dip below 40 degrees the other night!), but also dedicated to Barbara of Winos and Foodies for all of her work with the LiveSTRONG food blogger event.

I chose to make miniature cakes cut from the layer cakes with a biscuit cutter so that I might pawn the calories off on friends and neighbors in a more simplified manner.  I topped my cakes with lemon syrup, strawberry buttercream (just folded in some pureed strawberries after assembling the buttercream), lemon mousse, and a white chocolate glaze.  I bought these adorable little Martha Stewart boxes, packaged up my cakes, and headed off to spread the opera love!

The Daring Bakers’ Opéra Cake
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Paris Sweets and Tish Boyle’s and Timothy Moriarty’s Chocolate Passion.

For the joconde:

• 6 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 2 tbsp. (30 grams) granulated sugar
• 2 cups (225 grams) ground blanched almonds
• 2 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 6 large eggs
• ½ cup (70 grams) all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp. (1½ ounces; 45 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Divide the oven into thirds by positioning a rack in the upper third of the oven and the lower third of the oven.

Preheat the oven to 425◦F. (220◦C).

Line two 12½ x 15½- inch (31 x 39-cm) jelly-roll pans with parchment paper and brush with melted butter.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or using a handheld mixer), beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Add the granulated sugar and beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy. If you do not have another mixer bowl, gently scrape the meringue into another bowl and set aside.

If you only have one bowl, wash it after removing the egg whites or if you have a second bowl, use that one. Attach the paddle attachment to the stand mixer (or using a handheld mixer again) and beat the almonds, icing sugar and eggs on medium speed until light and voluminous, about 3 minutes.

Add the flour and beat on low speed until the flour is just combined (be very careful not to overmix here!!!).

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the meringue into the almond mixture and then fold in the melted butter. Divide the batter between the pans and spread it evenly to cover the entire surface of each pan.

Bake the cake layers until they are lightly browned and just springy to the touch. This could take anywhere from 5 to 9 minutes depending on your oven. Place one jelly-roll pan in the middle of the oven and the second jelly-roll pan in the bottom third of the oven.

Put the pans on a heatproof counter and run a sharp knife along the edges of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Cover each with a sheet of parchment or wax paper, turn the pans over, and unmold.

Carefully peel away the parchment, then turn the parchment over and use it to cover the cakes. Let the cakes cool to room temperature.

For the soaking syrup:

• ½ cup (125 grams) water
• ⅓ cup (65 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 to 2 tbsp. of the flavouring of your choice (i.e., vanilla extract, almond extract, cognac, limoncello, coconut cream, honey etc.)

Stir all the syrup ingredients together in the saucepan and bring to a boil.

Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

For the buttercream

(Note from the head DBers: The recipe for the buttercream that is listed here is based on the original. When testing the buttercream, we tested a slightly modified version that had 2 cups sugar, ½ cup water and 1¾ cups butter. The eggs remained the same. We ended up with a very creamy buttercream. But we don’t want anyone to be afraid of our modified version so you have the option of using the original above or the quantities we’ve listed here in this note):

• 1 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar (Used to say 2 cups but should be 1 cup)
• ¼ cup (60 grams) water (Used to say ½ cup but should say ¼ cup)
• seeds of one vanilla bean (split a vanilla bean down the middle and scrape out the seeds) or 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1¾ sticks (7 ounces; 200 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature (Used to say 1¾ cups of butter but it should be 1¾ sticks)
• flavouring of your choice (a tablespoon of an extract, a few tablespoons of melted white chocolate, citrus zest, etc.)

Combine the sugar, water and vanilla bean seeds or extract in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat just until the sugar dissolves.

Continue to cook, without stirring, until the syrup reaches 225◦F (107◦C) (Note: The original recipe instructs to heat the syrup to 255◦F (124◦C). We heated it to 225◦F and it worked just fine. However, if you are concerned, then by all means heat your syrup to 255◦F.) on a candy or instant-read thermometer. Once it reaches that temperature, remove the syrup from the heat.

While the syrup is heating, begin whisking the egg and egg yolk at high speed in the bowl of your mixer using the whisk attachment. Whisk them until they are pale and foamy.

When the sugar syrup reaches the correct temperature and you remove it from the heat, reduce the mixer speed to low speed and begin slowly (very slowly) pouring the syrup down the side of the bowl being very careful not to splatter the syrup into the path of the whisk attachment. Some of the syrup will spin onto the sides of the bowl but don’t worry about this and don’t try to stir it into the mixture as it will harden!

Raise the speed to medium-high and continue beating until the eggs are thick and satiny and the mixture is cool to the touch (about 5 minutes or so).

While the egg mixture is beating, place the softened butter in a bowl and mash it with a spatula until you have a soft creamy mass.

With the mixer on medium speed, begin adding in two-tablespoon chunks. When all the butter has been incorporated, raise the mixer speed to high and beat until the buttercream is thick and shiny.

At this point add in your flavouring and beat for an additional minute or so.

Refrigerate the buttercream, stirring it often, until it’s set enough (firm enough) to spread when topped with a layer of cake (about 20 minutes).

For the ganache/mousse:

• 7 ounces white chocolate
• 1 cup plus 3 tbsp. heavy cream (35% cream)
• 1 tbsp. liquer of your choice (Bailey’s, Amaretto, etc.)

Melt the white chocolate and the 3 tbsp. of heavy cream in a small saucepan.

Stir to ensure that it’s smooth and that the chocolate is melted. Add the tablespoon of liqueur to the chocolate and stir. Set aside to cool completely.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream until soft peaks form.

Gently fold the whipped cream into the cooled chocolate to form a mousse.

If it’s too thin, refrigerate it for a bit until it’s spreadable.

If you’re not going to use it right away, refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

For the glaze:

• 14 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
• ½ cup heavy cream (35% cream)

Melt the white chocolate with the heavy cream. Whisk the mixture gently until smooth.

Let cool for 10 minutes and then pour over the chilled cake. Using a long metal cake spatula, smooth out into an even layer.

Place the cake into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set.

So what do a career crisis, recurring headaches, and general anxiety have in common?  They are all things that have been happening to ME recently.  And while I know that each post lately seems to be not a post, but an excuse for why I am not posting…it’s time to be honest.  I fell off the foodie wagon.  I failed The 366 Recipes in 366 Days project.

Or rather, I chose to let it go.  For the sake of sanity.  And our budget.  And Mr. K’s waistline (hey, someone had to eat all 366 recipe’s worth of leftovers).

But what I didn’t give up on was The Daring Bakers.  Believe it or not, with all this stress going on, the idea of baking up some mad-crazy recipe was one of the few things I had to look forward to last month.

This month’s challenge comes to us from the talented Morven and is for Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake, a fabulous white layer cake that Morven was wonderful enough to let us customize to our hearts’ content.

Of course, I was a little less than coordinated when slicing one of the two cakes in half:

But buttercream frosting and orange-mango curd cover all manner of wrongs!  To wit:

I chose to go with the basic white layer cake recipe, filling it with the orange-mango curd for two layers and the suggested raspberry jam for the third. I used lime juice instead of lemon for the frosting.  It turned out fabulous!  We served it in celebration of my brother-in-law’s seventeenth birthday, and a good time was had by all.

Note:  Please visit Morven’s blog, Food Art and Random Thoughts for the complete cake and buttercream recipe - yes, I know I’m too lazy to enter it all here, but she has done it beautifully!

Orange Mango Curd
Adapted from recipe found on Food Migration.com

• ½ cup mango, pureed
• ¼ cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 T. orange peel
• 6 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• ½ cup unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

1.  Heat mango, orange juice, and lemon juice, and orange peel in a nonreactive saucepan over medium heat until hot, but not boiling.  Whisk eggs and egg yolks in a medium nonreactive bowl and gradualy whisk in sugar.

2.  Whisking constantly, gradually pour hot juice mixture into egg mixture, then return to saucepan.

3.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture reaches 170 degrees and clings to the back of the spoon, about 3 minutes.

4.  Immediately remove from heat, stir in cold butter until incorporated.  Strain through a mesh strainer into a nonreactive bowl.  Cover surface directly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.

Ah, cooking.

Certain things are just impossible to screw up. Spaghetti, for instance. Taste it. Is it crunchy? Taste it again. Drain, pour sauce, done.

Then there’s buttermilk fudge.

It’s a short list of ingredients - buttermilk, sugar (lots), butter and walnuts. The basic idea behind fudge is to create a very, very sugary liquid and boil it down so that when it cools, you have yourself a nice bar of sugary goodness. Oh, but the details.

When you first start to heat the buttermilk and sugar solution, it turns a fairly transparent milky white color as more of the sugar dissolves into the buttermilk. One of the ways to protect yourself should you get burned (sticky, 215° F liquid hurts!) is to keep a bowl of ice water nearby, just in case. That said, it’s not something to be terribly worried about, as the sugar mixture isn’t exactly sloshing around the whole time.

Regarding the soft ball stage

This stage of sugar doesn’t refer to the sport, but instead to how pliable the candy is once it cools. If you don’t have a candy thermometer, you can test the candy by dunking a teaspoon of syrup (carefully) in cold water and then rolling it between your fingers to see what form it takes. If you can form it into a soft, pliable ball, voila! Soft ball stage. For lots of details, click here.

The longer you simmer a sugar and liquid mixture, the more water boils out of it. The liquid will look the same from 210° F to 240° F - like a thin syrup - but as it cools and crystallizes, it takes on different forms depending on how much water boiled out from the mixture. If you heated the mixture to 230° F, it becomes something akin to caramel. At 235° F is the soft ball, fudgy stage. At 240° F, you enter the hard ball stage, at which point any hopes of fudge are lost to something resembling a thick, hard brittle. And thus, I was afraid to heat the mixture too much beyond the lower limit of the recipe’s target temperature.

The recipe specified 234° F as soft-ball stage. I managed to get it to 233.8° F and called it done. Oops. At this temperature, you get not fudge, but something akin to “sludge”.

In the classic style of “do as I say, not as I do”, I now offer a few tips to avoid “sludge”.

DO stir constantly for 35 minutes. The goal is to keep the fudge-to-be at the same temperature throughout, so let’s just call it a biceps workout.

DON’T be afraid of overheating the fudge if you have a digital thermometer. Obviously, if you’re testing for soft ball stage via the “dunk in water” method outlined above, this doesn’t apply to you. By having a digital thermometer, this uncertainty can be eliminated - and then the risk is in undercooking your fudge if you get nervous and jump ship. Heat the fudge to 235 or 236 - then you can be sure you’re firmly in the soft ball stage.

DO know your candy thermometer, especially if it is of the non-digital variety. Bring a pot of water to a rapid boil and stick the bulb/sensor of the thermometer into it. Does it read 212 degrees (assuming you are at sea level)? If not, you’ll need to take the difference into account when making any type of candy.

Buttermilk Candy
Adapted from the America’s Best Lost Recipes cookbook

2 cups low-fat buttermilk
4 cups sugar
4 tablespoons butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 1/2 cups walnuts or pecans, chopped

1. Line an 8-inch square pan baking pan with foil, leaving some excess over the sides. (You’ll pull the fudge out with the excess later.) Grease the foil.
2. Combine the sugar and buttermilk in a medium or large heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. (Be careful - buttermilk boils over in a hurry!)
3. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage on a candy thermometer, 234-240 degrees. This will take 35-40 minutes. At this point, the mixture will be milky, yet translucent. And very, very hot.
4. Off the heat, add the butter, mixing with a wooden spoon until the candy begins to thicken, about 5 minutes. Stir in the nuts until the mixture becomes difficult to stir, 3 minutes. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and cool for at least 2 hours
5. Remove and cut into 1-inch squares. The candy will store for 2 weeks.

Hello everyone - Jennie, your usual site blogger, has graciously allowed me, her usual husband, to post about the wonders and virtues of homemade Vanilla Ice Cream.

A short introduction about me: I’m generally referred to as Robert in the house, although “hey you” is the preferred terminology. If the blog is ever down, it’s my fault, and odds are, I’m fixing it. Before college, my mom did most of the cooking (and a lot of runs to Taco Bell), but now that Jennie and I are in the real world, it’s time to have some real food. I prefer to cook with Coltrane or Miles on the stereo.

If only the kitchen were about twice as large. But onto the ice cream!

I confess that I have a sweet tooth. That’s putting it mildy; more accurate would be to say that I probably have sweet teeth, and when the day inevitably comes that I’ll need dentures, those will be sweetened with turbinado sugar, too. With confectioner’s sugar on the side.

But I think my first revelation regarding the viability of ice cream at home came thanks to Iron Chef America, circa 2006. Thanks Alton Brown. (Ice cream machine!!!) It’s not so much that I wanted to shove seaweed, tomatoes, or kashi into one and come out with something edible, though the thought has crossed my mind. Like the miracle that makes flour, yeast, salt and water into bread, taking heavy cream, sugar, whole milk, and a vanilla bean and creating ice cream out of it is something I’ve wanted to see firsthand.

The recipe is from America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, but it’s available here to subscribers of the website. One ice cream attachment for our stand mixer later, and we were ready to roll. Then there’s the matter of the vanilla bean, which necessitated a stop at Penzey’s. The beans retail for a modest $2 and change each, in sets of 3 for $6.89 or 15 for $27.29. I haven’t come up with a reason to buy 15 vanilla beans yet, but to be sure, I’m thinking. Everything else, you should be able to find at your local supermarket.

Vanilla Ice Cream
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated.com
Makes 1 quart.  An instant-read thermometer will make your life happier during this process.

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out of the pod (they say 4 inches long, but I didn’t measure mine)
4 large egg yolks

1. Set a medium bowl in a large bowl filled with ice water, then put a strainer on top of the medium bowl.  This is probably the hardest part of the recipe, since for a while it looked like I would get a nice ice-water custard. If you can find something to weight down the edges of the bowl, it will help.

2.  Stirring occasionally, heat milk, cream 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla (pod, seeds and all) to a temperature of 175°F (steamy, as in McSteamy - about 5 minutes).

3.  Whisk the 4 yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in another bowl. Temper the eggs by pouring, one ladle at a time, 1 1/2 cups of the hot milk mixture into the bowl with the eggs and sugar (you don’t want vanilla-flavored scrambled eggs, right?)

4.  Pour the egg and milk mixture back into the hot milk. Stir constantly and heat to 180°F to 185°F. This won’t take very long! If it starts boiling, remove from heat immediately.

5.  Remove the vanilla pod (or add vanilla extract, if you prefer) and strain. Stir occasionally in the cold bowl for about 30 minutes. Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours (until the temperature of the custard reaches 40°F.)

6.  When you’re ready to make the ice cream, stir the custard thoroughly and add the custard to the ice cream machine, following the machine’s instruction manual. At this point, it will have the consistency of soft-serve.  Freeze for another 3 hours or so, and it’ll be scoopable and delicious.

And so it begins.

Not just this blog, but with it, 2008. Another year, another new calendar. Another set of resolutions. Get healthy. Get out of debt. Make 366 recipes in 366 days. Get organized.

Wait, what? Back up. Did she just say make 366 recipes in 366 days? You heard me right, folks. Forget the rest, my one and only resolution for 2008 is to make 366 recipes before the year draws to a close and then blog about them.

Of course, it goes without saying that I am, in fact, insane. Let’s just get that out of the way right up front so that we can move on to bigger and better things.

Like chunks of bread dipped in steamy pots of melty cheese.

It seems fitting somehow that I would start off The Project (how we adoringly refer to it these days…I’m sure come September or so we will have some other not-so-adorable names in mind) by making Rose Levy Beranbaum’s recipe for basic hearth bread. I spent New Years Day mixing and waiting and kneading and waiting and baking and waiting. Oh, and did I mention waiting?

I am relatively new to breadmaking, but I am quickly learning that yeast breads are not something to be rushed. None of the yeast breads I’ve seen so far from The Bread Bible can be accomplished in anything short of an entire day, and that is just the sort of patience and simplicity I am hoping to welcome in 2008.

The basic hearth bread has just a hint of whole wheat flour included, which adds great flavor without making it seem heavy and cardboardy (post number one, and I’m already making up words!). Cut into chunks, it was the perfect thing to dip into this:

Smoky Cheese and Ham Fondue.

Oh yes. When I promise melty cheesy goodness, I deliver.

There is a soft spot in my heart for fondue - prior to receiving our own fondue set, The Melting Pot was one of our favorite restaurants. It was there that Mr. Kitchenette and I celebrated our dating anniversaries, our engagement, my passing of the dreaded CPA exam, etc. So, in addition to the ginormous quantities of cheese involved, fondue holds warm and fuzzy memories for us for other reasons. Real reasons. Ones that don’t involve cheese.

Plus, you can have it on the table in 20 minutes or less. Can’t beat that.

And so, without further adieu, recipes 1-3 of The Project:

Basic Hearth Bread
adapted from The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

For the sponge:

1 c bread flour
1/4 c whole wheat flour or kamut flour
3/8 tsp instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp honey
about 1 1/3 c water, at room temperature

1.  Mix all ingredients until very smooth, about 2 minutes.  The sponge should be the consistency of a thick batter.  Scrape down the bowl, cover, and set aside while you make the flour mixture.

For the flour mixture:

1 3/4 c plus 2 tbs bread flour
1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt

2.  Whisk the bread flour, reserving 2 tbs bread flour if mixing by hand, and yeast together.  Scoop it over the sponge to cover it like a blanket, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and allow to ferment 1-4 hours at room temperature.

3.  Mixer method:  Mix the dough using a stand mixer on low speed for about 1 minute until it forms a rough dough.  Cover again and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.  Sprinkle on the salt and knead on medium speed about 7 minutes.  The dough will be smooth and will cling slightly to your fingers.

Hand method:  Add salt and mix until flour is moistened.  Knead in the bowl until it comes together, then scrape onto a lightly floured counter and knead by hand for 5 minutes, adding as little of the reserved 2 tablespoons flour as necessary.  Cover and rest for 20 minutes.  Knead the dough for another 5-10 minutes until smooth and barely sticky to the touch.

4.  Both methods: Scrape the dough into a lightly-greased 2-quart container.  Push dough down and spray lightly with cooking spray.  Cover and allow the dough to rise until doubled, about one hour.

Scrape dough onto floured counter and press into a rectangle.  Give it one business letter turn (fold top and bottom sides in to the middle to make a smaller rectangle, then fold left and right sides in to the middle of that).  Return to the container, oil the surface, and allow to rise until doubled (about 45 minutes to an hour).

5.  Turn the dough out onto the counter and shape into a 6 inch ball and set on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a nonstick baking mat.  Alternatively, form dough into a rectangular loaf shape and place in a lightly greased loaf pan.  Cover shaped dough with greased plastic wrap and allow it to rise until almost doubled (45-75 minutes).

Preheat the oven during this step to 475 degrees about one hour before baking.  Place oven rack in lowest position and place a baking stone on rack.  Place a shallow pan (I use my broiler pan) on the bottom of the oven.

6.  If desired, use a sharp knife or razor blade to slash the top of the dough.  Mist the dough with water and quickly set the baking pan on the hot stone in the oven.  Toss 1/2 cup of ice cubes into the pan beneath and immediately close the oven.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Turn oven temperature down to 425 degrees and continue baking for 20-30 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean (200 degrees on an instant-read thermometer).  Rotate pan halfway through baking to ensure even browning.

7.  Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack.  Enjoy!

Smoky Cheese and Ham Fondue
adapted from Fondues by Barnes and Noble Books

1 c grated Gruyere
2 c grated smoked Cheddar
1 tbs cornstarch
1 tbs butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2/3 c dry white wine
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
4 oz smoked ham, chopped

1.  Toss together grated cheese and cornstarch.

2.  Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat.  Add onion and garlic and cook for 10 minutes until softened.  Place wine in the fondue pot and heat until boiling.  Gradually stir in grated cheese mixture and heat until completely melted.

3.  Stir in onion and garlic, paprika, and ham.  Cook for a few minutes until thick and smooth.  Serve with cubes of bread, Granny Smith apples, and/or raw veggies.

Chocolate Fondue
adapted from Fondues, above

9 oz dark chocolate, chopped
2/3 c heavy cream
2 tbs brandy (optional- can substitute orange juice)

Place all ingredients in a double boiler (or use a glass bowl set over a pot of simmering water).  Heat gently, stirring, until chocolate has melted and is smooth.  Transfer to fondue pot and serve with fresh fruit, marshmallows, cookies, etc.