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salted butter caramel

Gluten Free Candy Filled Chocolate Cake Doughnuts

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Doughnut & Salted Butter Caramel Icing


Despite seeing it on the store shelves since late August, I resisted getting candy for Halloween until yesterday. For once, that’s kind of how my stubborn mind works. The more commercial a holiday gets, the longer I’ll resist buying into it, and it was not until B. gave me a friendly hint that maybe we should stock up for trick or treaters, that I finally started seeing the displays at the store. However, I had a better reason for waiting to be closer to Halloween: Lara's Candy Filled Doughnuts. Oh yes.

Kisses


If I make cookies, they disappear as if a tornado went through the kitchen. If I get Halloween candy a week before the due date, I keep finding little gold and silver wrappers in his pockets for seven days straight. The man cannot be left alone with food. I count my blessings that he can’t cook but knows how to eat. I also love when he gets involved and excited about baking something even if I know I’ll be the one at the stove.

Candy Filled Chocolate Cake Doughnuts


Nothing warms my heart more than seeing people get excited about food even if they feel or are clueless about putting it together. I know we will have a good time in the kitchen or at the dinner table ultimately. It did not fail when I saw B. huntched over Lara’s book letting out some "ooohs" and "aaaaahhs" with almost every turn of the page. Then he got quiet. Pages were not being turned. He gave me a look so meaningful I thought he was going to start his sentence with "mom, can I have that?"

Candy Filled Chocolate Cake Doughnuts


Yep, at the sight of Candy Filled Chocolate Cake Doughnuts, this grown up guy was 6 years old again. Very relieved to hear his deep sexy adult voice "hon, isn’t it time for Halloween candy?" You know the old complaint "it’s not what you said, it’s how you said it"? Yay…I totally knew what he was up to. I said "give me the book – Give me the book now – you can’t look at the book. You’re making me crazy." And then he gave me that look again and I melted. Again. Damn he’s good! So I told him to pick one and stick to it.

This recipe is so easy to put together and so timely if you want to play with some of your extra candy. If that ever happens to you that is. I had to hide a handful to make sure I’d have something to post! I made the dough the night before which always makes it easier to roll, gluten free or not and had enough to make 15 doughnut holes filled with various candies and 4 doughnut rings. I want to make a full batch of dipped cake ones now. Forever. Well, only if it involves salted butter caramel icing.

Candy

Lara…dear…you did again. And we could not be happier…!

Public Service Announcement: a while back, my friend Rachael from Today’s Mama and the nice folks at Avery asked me if I wanted to contribute a design to their "back to school" binder initiative with pictures of mine for the cover and back. Unless, it’s a doughnut Rachael asks me for, I pretty much melt when she talks to me. She’s hot. Strong. Nice and her schedule really makes me look like a lazy bum. Anyway… Avery and Today’s Mama are running a follow up campaign and giving away 10 binder certificate for you to create your own. It’s super easy and fun…and a neat way to keep things organize. More details on Today’s Mama.

Candy Filled Chocolate Cake Doughnuts



Gluten Free Candy Filled Chocolate Cake Doughnuts:

2 cups Gluten Free Baking Mix for Doughnuts (recipe follows)
1/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon guar gum
1 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 unsalted butter, cold and cut into small dice
2 eggs, separated
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2/3 cup milk, scalded and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
vegetable oil for frying
your favorite candy (cut smaller if too big)
extra sugar and cocoa powder for dusting if desired

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the baking mix, cocoa powder, guar gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Blend on low and add the butter still on low speed, blending until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks, yogurt, milk and vanilla. With the mixer running on slow, slowly pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides and mix for 30 seconds. The batter should be similar to loose cookie dough. Let rest 30 minutes (I like overnight) (stay with me people I am still talking about doughnuts!)
When ready, roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thick and cut out 3-inch rounds with a cookie cutter. Place a candy piece in the middle of the round, bring the edges over toward the top and seal. Roll the dough ball in the palm of your hands and place them on a baking sheet.
Refrigerate 20 minutes. During that time, heat the oil up to 350F.
When ready to roll, gently drop the holes in the hot oil. Fry a couple of minutes per side. Drain on paper towels and dust with sugar and cocoa powder if desired.

For doughnut rings:
Roll the dough and cut holes with a 3-inch cookie cutter then with a smaller cookie cutter to create a hole (I use the opposite end of a pastry tip). Fry as directed above.

For the salted butter caramel sauce:
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 stick (115gr) salted butter at room temperature, cut into small pieces
1 cup heavy whipping cream

In a heavy saucepan set over low heat, combine the sugar and water. Cook just until the sugar is dissolved. Add the butter. Let it come to a boil and cook until it reaches a golden caramel color. Remove from the heat and add the cream ( it will splatter and get crazy). Whisk to combine and put back on the stove. Let it come to a boil again over low heat and cook 15-25 minutes until you reach a creamy consistency.
Let cool. Dunk or double dunk (!) the doughnut.

Gluten Free Doughnut Baking Mix:
Enough for a standard recipe in the book – mix all the ingredients together.

1 cup potato starch
1/4 potato flour or sweet sorghum
1/2 tapioca flour (we don’t like the taste so I used cornstarch)
1/2 cup sweet rice flour

Dark Chocolate Brownies, Ginger Ice Cream & Salted Butter Caramel Sauce

Dark Chocolate Brownies, Ginger Ice Cream & Salted Butter Caramel Sauce


For the first few years I moved away to the US, my family would always ask me to bake brownies when I’d come back to visit. There is a little of an unspoken love affair for that simple square of dark chocolate, sometimes studded with nuts, sometimes often adorned with a scoop of ice cream. Almost always with a short cup of espresso.

I can’t even recall where I found my first recipe for brownies and I admit I go through what B. dubbed my “brownie baking frenzy phases”. I have been known to bake quite a few batches in the span of a few days just to keep finding the elusive “perfect” one. I know I am not the only one with that problem.

Dark Chocolate Brownies, Ginger Ice Cream & Salted Butter Caramel Sauce


Just as with anything in life, and after hundreds of batches tested and enjoyed by our friends and neighbors, I do believe there is no perfect recipe for us – just the one we like then. Consistently different and yet every time just right

However, there is one I have favored a bit more over the years, probably because I memorized it easily and it has never failed so far to produce the same deep dark squares of chocolate brownies, smooth and rich as velvet. The thing is, I am pretty sure I have never baked this one for my family here. I’m hoping to have enough time to do so and leave a batch on the kitchen countertop before I head back home to the US.

Dark Chocolate Brownies, Ginger Ice Cream & Salted Butter Caramel Sauce


When Caitlin and her fiancé came to visit this past month so I could shoot their engagement session, I had just worked on a savory food feature and the fridge was fairly void of anything sweet. One evening that we had planned to grill and just chill on the patio, I figured Caitlin and I could tackle a batch of brownies as we went about the kitchen getting dinner together.

Who better than an “engineer baker” to share the kitchen with? Well, all my blogging friends actually but the dogs would go insane from excitement!! As we were baking, I threw in the idea of vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. Salted butter caramel sauce to be exact. All of sudden I had 3 pairs of eyes staring at me with such intensity that I knew I could not get around that one and take my words back. You cannot take back “salted butter caramel sauce”…Period.

Dark Chocolate Brownies, Ginger Ice Cream & Salted Butter Caramel Sauce


Before I left for France I made B. a double batch and tucked one in the freezer labeled "in case of an emergency – ice cream to your right". After only one week away, he said that batch is about gone. His schedule has been a frenzy of work and rehearsals for Hairspray (he plays trombone) afterwards and he has had no energy to cook afterwards. We are traveling in the Alps and Provence as you read this (the magic of scheduled posting) and I sure hope I don’t get a text "come home now – brownies all gone!"…ehehe!

Vanilla ice cream worked perfectly with the brownies but I got to tell you that the ginger ice cream I made a couple of days after that weekend was so much better. It highlighted the intensity of the chocolate and contrasted with the sweet/salty caramel in such a way that it took us great self control not to polish a couple of more servings.

Dark Chocolate Brownies, Ginger Ice Cream & Salted Butter Caramel Sauce


I made the same batch of brownies, ginger ice cream and salted butter caramel sauce three times that week. And if you find yourself with extra of either or and nothing to go with it, just a spoon will do. Trust me.

Dark Chocolate Brownies, Ginger Ice Cream & Salted Butter Caramel Sauce



Dark Chocolate Brownies, Ginger Ice Cream & Salted Butter Caramel Sauce:

For the brownies (adapted from Martha Stewart):

Notes: you can replace the gluten free flours with 3/4 cup all purpose flour if not gluten sensitive.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 ounces semisweet chocolate
1/4 cup best-quality unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 cup superfine sweet rice flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup millet
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup Kahlua or strong coffee

Preheat oven to 350°F and position a rack in the center. Line an 8-inch square baking dish with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on 2 sides. Butter the paper and set aside.
In a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt together the butter, chocolate, and cocoa. Remove from the heat and stir until smooth; let cool slightly.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the rice flour, cornstarch, millet, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until pale on medium high speed, about 4 minutes. Beat in chocolate mixture. Add kahlua or coffee. Add flour mixture and beat until just combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake 30 to 35 minutes until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool 15 minutes, lift out of pan, and transfer to a wire rack. Let cool completely. (check at 15-20 minutes if using smaller molds). Cut into 8 rectangles. Brownies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

For the ginger ice cream:
2 cups (500ml) heavy cream
1 cup (250ml) whole milk
1 cup (200gr) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons freshly and very finely grated ginger

In a large saucepan, stir together the cream, milk, sugar and ginger. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium low heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and let steep as it cools to room temperature. Refrigerate, preferably overnight. Strain if desired.
Process the mixture into your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s intructions.

For the salted butter caramel sauce:
1 1/4 cup (250 gr) granulated sugar
80 ml water
1 stick (115gr) salted butter at room temperature, cut into small pieces
150 ml heavy whipping cream

In a heavy saucepan set over low heat, combine the sugar and water. Cook just until the sugar is dissolved. Add the butter. Let it come to a boil and cook until it reaches a golden caramel color. Remove from the heat and add the cream ( it will splatter and get crazy). Whisk to combine and put back on the stove. Let it come to a boil again over low heat and cook 25-35 minutes until you reach a creamy consistency. Pour into a jar and try to refrain yourself from drinking it!

It Takes All Sorts Of Macarons To Make The World Go Round

Peanut Butter & Jelly Macarons


I love, like, enjoy, many people and many things in this life but if there is one thing that I live for on the weekends is when B. comes home from playing music and we sit on the bed and geek out for hours about all sorts of topics. Photography, films, history, and often times, food. Before we know, it’s three o’clock in the morning (not his bedtime at all) and we go to sleep with growling stomachs and visions of sugar plums. Especially when we geek out about macarons. Especially when they are Peanut Butter and Jelly, Lemon Meringue Pie and Banana Caramel Macarons.

We were recently putting together a care package for a friend in town and we started brainstorming about what to include. Macarons, are always first on the list for some reason, eheh! I was looking for flavors I had not done before and he was looking to recreate some of his favorites. In the end, our friend S. received 2/3 of the Daring Bakers challenge delivered right to her front steps. From the look on her face, I knew I’d be repeating these flavors over again.

Bill’s go-to breakfast is a bagel with peanut butter and jelly and turning this into a macaron was very easy. I used half almond and half peanuts for the shells and filled those with a teaspoon each of peanut butter and homemade raspberry jelly.

Lemon Meringue Pie Macarons


One of my favorite desserts is lemon meringue pie and after coniving on the best way to make this into a macaron, I finally settled on keeping the shells all almonds and adding the zest of one lemon to the batter. I filled the insides with homemade lemon curd and a teaspoon of freshly made Swiss meringue.

One of my husband’d favorite snacks when he comes home from playing music is to cut up a banana and drizzle it with Salidou, the homemade salted butter caramel sauce that I always keep handy in the fridge. For the macarons I simply mashed a whole banana and mixed it with the leftover from the Taffy Apples I posted yesterday. Once cooled and naturally thickened a bit, it was easy to pipe on the macarons shells and sandwich them.

I’ve known about this month challenge since this summer when Amy emailed with concerns about doing macarons for the Daring Bakers. We covered all types of questions from aging the egg whites, drying the macs before baking to food coloring and how to best incorporate flavors. I volunteered a phone macaron making session and guided her over the phone while she baked my tried and true recipe. In the end she felt most comfortable with the version she knew best, Claudia Flemming’s, which brought on my most common comment about macarons: if you find a recipe that works for you, stick to it, no matter whose it is, especially if you are new to macarons and don’t make them that often.

Banana Caramel Macarons


Amy, thank you for the fun phone macaron making session and it was a pleasure helping out with some of your questions!

I’m glad I tried a new recipe for macarons and did not have any problems with it, probably because I’ve been making them for 15 years so I know what to expect. I will however stick to the recipe I use all the time, for no other reason that it is engrained in my DNA right now!

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Macarons


Macarons, from Claudia Flemming' The Last Course: The Desserts Of Gramercy Tavern.

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
Cool on a rack before filling.

For the PB&J Macarons:– Replace half the amount of almonds with finely ground unsalted roasted peanuts.
– Once cooled, fill the shells with a dollop of peanut butter (either smooth or crunchy) and jam.

For the Lemon Meringue Macarons:
– Fill the shells with a teaspoon or so of freshly made lemon curd
– Add a teaspoon or so of Swiss meringue. (I made half the recipe)

For the Caramel Banana Macarons:
– Mixed one smashed banana with half the quantity of toffee sauce I made for the dipped crabapples.

Vanilla,Salted Butter Caramel and Chocolate Mousse And A Giveaway

Vanilla, Caramel & Chocolate Mousse


When I asked Bill what he would like me to prepare for him while I am gone for a few days, his answer was an unequivocal "Mousse please!". Yes, he is a softee and I know his mom spoiled him with homemade desserts pretty much all his life so his answer did not come as a surprise. I did prepare a few things to warm up after work during the five days I’ll be gone but I know Bill. When I showed him where everything was in the fridge, his eyes immediately landed on these Vanilla, Salted Butter Caramel and Chocolate Mousses. And they were all the way in the back. Of course.

So where am I going for 5 days that he needs a fridge full of goodies? San Francisco! I am attending the 2009 BlogHer conference which will be held on Saturday. I am also one of the speakers at the conference! I am so psyched about this event for so many reasons. For starters just take a look at the program here. All these amazing bloggers giving of their experience and expertise, I am honored to be among them and hope to contribute as much as they are.

Then there are all these attendees that I will finely get to meet in person and finally hug silly until they call security because Tartelette is cutting their air supply from excitement! Friends kept tweeting they wanted to meet me, well I want to meet them just as much.

Making Mousse


Last May, I was supposed to join Bill on a working trip near Jen from Use Real Butter and we immediately made the plan that I’d stay with her a few days while he’d work. That plan fell through. We were both upset at the circumstances and she asked if I’d be coming to San Francisco for BlogHer. She was. Maybe we could meet up there. This summer has been financially sucky so we were pretty much tied down not going anywhere for a long time. She emailed back the same day and said in her usual ways "Damn it Helen! You’re going! Here are Frequent Flyers miles we are not using and you are sharing a room with me. Get a conference ticket and we’ll figure something out."

Yes. That is the kind of chick Jen is and I am proud to call her my friend. She rocks. Period.

Man! Those tickets were hotter than the best Nutella crepes on a street cart in Paris. They sold out before I could even log on the computer. So waitlist it was. Drats! Then my name got tossed in the hat for potential speaker and the wait began. Either a ticket would come open or I’d be a speaker in which case I would not need one. Nothing happened on either front for a very long time. Then, I finally scored a ticket and three days later got an email about being a speaker (in case you are wondering, that ticket went back in the ticket pool).

Vanilla, Caramel & Chocolate Mousse


So here we are…On Friday I get to squeeze silly one of the best gals I know and on Saturday I will be talking about "Your Blog is Great…now what? Letting your blog lead the way to new opportunity". I am honored, ecstatic and nervous all at once. Sharing this panel with Jaden and Amy gives the chance to see three different people with different opportunities, different paths and at different pit stops on their careers. I have no doubt this panel will be informative and fun. Did I say I was psyched already? Ok, ok….

Well, I am not done being psyched because my friend Anita from Married With Dinner extended an invite to stay with her a couple for a few days passed the conference and of course I jumped on it! Finally we get to hang out! We have plenty of fun things planned and I can’t wait to tell you about it through pictures and emotions. There will be plenty of dinners, lunches and stories shared with friends and strangers and I hope to post a few fun shots while I am gone.

I know by now you must be pretty tired about me gushing about the next five days, so I will shut up and give you back some of the "good schtuff" I am lucky to experience everyday by hosting a little giveaway.

Aprons sample, for more colors and motifs, check The Hip Hostess website.

To win one of these adorable demi style aprons by The Hip Hostess (winner’s choice) all you have to do is leave a comment on this post between Thursday September 24th and Sunday September 27th, midnight Eastern Time. My dear husband will draw the winner at random and I will put her/him in contact with The Hip Hostess to pick the preferred demi style apron. But that’s not all! Deborah from The Hip Hostess generously offers all the readers of Tartelette a 15% discount on any order throughout October 15th 2009. Use the promo code TART (all caps) at check out. Very cool!

Enter Jen’s to win an Ipod Nano and enter here to win a fabulous apron handmade by The Hip Hostess, so you can bake and groove in style. And no, we did not plan it, would not have worked, ahah!

Now you can understand why I loaded the fridge with tons of good things for Bill to eat while I am gone. I am sad he won’t be able to walk around SF with me but I know he is not yet prepared for a room full of people saying "Oh my god it’s you!" and hugging you every 5 minutes. He said mousse was just fine. Especially one that starts with a soft and silky Bavarian cream and combines delicious layers such as vanilla, salted butter caramel and chocolate…

Vanilla, Caramel & Chocolate Mousse


Vanilla, Salted Butter Caramel and Chocolate Mousse:

Serves 4 to 6 depending on the size of your ramekins

Notes: you want to prepare the caramel part of this triplr mousse first as it needs to cool down properly before being incorporated to the rest of the base.

For the caramel:
1/2 cup (100gr) sugar
2 tablespoons (30ml) water
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or fine sea salt
1/4 cup (60ml ) heavy cream
2 teaspoons (10gr) unsalted butter

For the chocolate:
4 oz (120gr) dark semisweet chocolate

For the vanilla mousse base:
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup (50 gr) sugar
1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean
1 Tb (7gr) powdered gelatin, sprinkled over 3 Tb water
1 cup (250ml) heavy cream

Prepare the caramel:Place the sugar and water in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Continue to cook until caramel in color. Remove from the heat and add the salt, heavy cream and butter. Stir with a wooden spoon until completely smooth. Let cool to room temperature.

Prepare the chocolate:
In a medium bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate until smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

Prepare the mousse base:
In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until very pale. In the meantime, in a large saucepan set over medium heat, bring the milk and the vanilla bean (split open and scraped over the milk) to a boil. Slowly pour the milk over the yolks, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan over medium low heat and cook until the cream coats the back of a spoon (as if making creme anglaise). Add the softened gelatin and stir until melted completely into the cream. Let cool to room temperature.
Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks and fold it into the cooled cream base. Divide the base into three equal portions (one will stay untouched).

Assemble:
Add a couple of tablespoons of the base to the caramel to lighten it a bit and stir with a spoon. Gently fold the rest of the alloted mousse base into the caramel with a spatula.
Do the same for the chocolate portion.
Layer all three parts evenly into dishes or ramekins and refrigerate for an hour.

Poire D’Eve

Poire D'Eve


I know, I know…no pictures of Lisa’s wedding cake yet, at least not today….One reason is that I have been saving this wonderful Poire D’Eve cake for a week now and another reason is that I have hundreds of pictures to go through from the wedding and a few other attendees have graciously allowed me to use their shots too so I am working on a little montage. I actually started writing about it yesterday and this morning tons of little details came rushing to my mind so I need to "sit" on it a couple more days to do it justice.

I can’t tell you how much your visits and excitement over this past week have meant to me and I promise to tell you all about it. As ubber critical me, I did find faults until both Lisa and Wayne decided to smear some cake on their noses, but I guess that is normal when you bake for such a dear friend…under the watch of other foodies….Thank you Kelly and Lisa for staying up late, talking to me while I was "spatulating" (new word) the same corner over and over again. Thank you K. for not taking that same spatula and knocking me over the head with it although your look was screaming "put that thing down….Now!!"

Allright, I will give something away about this cake. It was a three tiered square cake which bottom layer was Lisa’s mom favorite carrot cake filled with cream cheese frosting, the middle layer was Lisa’s favorite pumpkin cake with butterscotch filling from Marcel Desaulniers, and the top layer that the two lovebirds have kept and froze was Lisa’s Mothership Chocolate Cake adapted from Orangette. The whole cake was covered in her favorite Italian meringue buttercream from Jacques Torres. I don’t know if it was the near freezing temperatures, the beverages flowing a plenty or just good appetites, but at the end of the night there was just about half the carrot cake left…and I had made the cake for more than the accounted number of guests….I like when people are not shy to eat cake 🙂 Now that your teeth are shattering and your stomach growling, I hope you can wait until the weekend for the recap!!

Bavarian Mousse Ingredients


In the meantime, let’s share a slice of this pear cake, shall we? I forgot to mention the other day that the Chai Persimmon Tatin was inspired by one of my pastry heroes, Hidemi Sugino from his The Dessert Book that Inne graciously sent me last year and even though the recipes are translated, I tend to get inspired by the pictures and the dominant flavors and then change it around. This Poire D’Eve is also inspired by one of his creations, the Pomme D’Eve cake in his other book. Now, this one was given to me by a Japanes exchange student I met a couple of months ago and when we started talking about Japan, I mentioned Sugino and she had her mom send it to me….in Japanese. Needless to say, I once again looked at the picture of his mousse apple cake sandwich between sheets of caramel mousse, apple mousse, vanilla and chocolate genoise and decided to develop a recipe for its cousin, the Poire D’Eve.

I know, Eve ate an apple, not a pear…but if she had had a Forelle pear poached in spices such as star anise, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla and folded with a light bavarian cream, she might have changed her mind. I liked the original apple cake mixing apple, caramel, chocolate so I decided to use these flavors in different texture contrast and medium for this cake. Like Eve and her apple, Forelles are my guilty pleasure when it comes to pears. It is similar in size to a Seckel pear and grows mostly in the Pacific Northwest. When I saw them popping up at the grocery store, I immediately bought a case. They are the perfect snacking pear, both in size and flavor since they remain firm and not milly for a long time. They fit in your pocket, purse or pocket and have this absolute tantalizing fragrance. I bought the case right before my trip so I did poach a bunch of them and preserved them in their poaching syrup. For this recipe I used some I had poached that day so I wrote the recipe accordingly.

Spiced Poached Pears Diptych


The base is a milk chocolate feuillantine topped with a salted butter caramel mousse and a vanilla bavarian cream with diced spiced poached pears throughout. Before applying a glaze made with the poaching syrup I gave the cake some brush strokes with some yellow pearl dust mixed with a bit of water. The finished cake got the two thumbs up from B. who is not that big of a pear fan and commented that the caramel and chocolate complimented the fruits very well. Trust me, he does not only say that because I cook him dinner….he is really my most severe critique!!

Do not be afraid at the term "feuillantine". It is a entremets or cake base usually made with crushed "crepes dentelle" cookies but I was out (ate too many with ice cream) so I substituted crushed corn flakes and added a bit of chopped hazelnuts to enhance the mousses and it worked like a charm. I used the same caramel mousse as the one used in The Translatique, minus the chocolate. The bavarian cream is as easy as 1-2-3 if you have a little patience since you start by making a creme anglaise, adding some gelatin and once cooled, folding in some whipped cream and the poached pears. The spices and strokes of gold dust were the touches that have me in full blown holiday mood right now!! As always, be reassured that you can prepare this step over a couple of days (my head is more scattered than ever these days so any "time" help is welcome)

Poire D'Eve


Poire D’Eve

Serves 8-10

For the poached pears:
4 small pears, Forelles or Seckels, skinned, cored and left whole
3 cups of water
1/2 cup sugar
4 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
one whole nutmeg
1/2 vanilla bean
4 cloves

Over high heat bring the pears, water, sugar and all the spices to a boil (leave the nutmeg whole). Reduce the heat to medium low heat and let the fruit simmer for 30 minutes or until just about fork tender. Remove the pears and put the liquid back on stove and let it reduce down to half its volume. Remove from the heat and strain all the spices. Reserve the liquid for the cake glaze.

For the Feuillantine:
5 oz (150 gr) milk chocolate
4 Tablespoons (55 gr) butter
1 cup (30 gr) corn flakes
2 oz (60 gr) toasted and skinned hazelnuts

Line a 8×8 square pan with aluminium foil and set aside (use a square pastry frame if you have one). Put the cornflakes and hazelnuts in a small freezer bag, close the seam and roll your rolling pin over it until finely crushed (do not run the mixture in the food processor, you want to keep some rough pieces). On top of a double boiler set over medium heat, melt together the chocolate and butter until they come together. Remove from the heat and stir in the cornflakes mixture. Immediately pat the mixture with your fingertips or the back of the spoon at the bottom of the line pan. Set aside while you prepare the mousses.

For the caramel mousse:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tb water
2 Tb salted butter, room temperature
1 cup heavy cream, divided

Measure 3/4 cup of cream and refrigerate, this portion will be used to make whipped cream so keep it well chilled. In a microwave or small saucepan, heat the 1/4 cup remaining until it is fairly hot. It will be added to the caramel and by being hot it will prevent the caramel from seizing on you and clumping up. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, add the sugar to the water over medium high heat and cook, without stirring until you get a dark brown caramel. Take the pan off the heat and add the butter and 1/4 cream. It will bubble like mad but it will not run over….if the butter and cream are not cold the bubbling will be minimal and short lived. Stir with a wooden spoon to smooth the caramel if necessary. Let it cool to room temperature Whip the remaining heavy cream to soft peaks in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Fold 1/3 of the whipped cream to the caramel to loosen it up and then add the remaining whipped cream. Spread over the feuillantine base and refrigerate until completely set.

For the Vanilla Pear Bavarian Cream:
4 poached pears (see above), chopped in small dices
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup (50 gr) sugar
1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean
1 Tb powdered gelatin, sprinkled over 3 Tb water
1 cup heavy cream

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until very pale. In the meantime, in a large saucepan set over medium heat, bring the milk and the vanilla bean (split open and scraped over the milk) to a boil. Slowly pour the milk over the yolks, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan over medium low heat and cook until the cream coats the back of a spoon (as if making creme anglaise). Add the softened gelatin and stir until melted completely into the cream. Let cool to room temperature.
Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks and fold it into the cooled cream base. Fold in the pear dices. Pour the mixture over the caramel mousse until set.

At this point you can skip the painting and glaze but it makes it all the more festive.
For the paint, mix some gold dust with water to make a "paint" and brush in small strokes over the cake. Freeze the cake before applying the warm glaze, do so even if you skip the painting so your mousse won’t melt.

Pear Syrup Glaze:
1/2 cup reserved poaching syrup
1 1/2 teaspoon gelatin, sprinkled over 1 Tablespoon water

Bring the poaching syrup to a boil, add the gelatin and stir until completely dissolved. Let cool to room temperature (if the mixture gels, warm up over low heat until barely melted again). Pour it over the frozen cake and let set in the fridge.
Cut through the cake with a knife dipped in hot water to prevent breaking the glaze instead of slicing through it.

Note: I have terrible manners as I keep forgetting to thank Cenk from Cafe Fernando and the DMBLGIT judges for awarding the Toasted Coconut and Berries Charlottes the overall first place in last month event. I am truly honored and thrilled!

Pecan Pie Macarons and Giveaway Winners

Pecan Pie Macarons


I know! Macarons…again! Before you roll your eyes and quit reading, indulge me for a minute, there is a story behind it. A lovely meeting with a fellow Daring Baker and an afternoon spent baking macarons…and a lot of them! Before I get to that, I must announce the winners of the Confetti Cakes For Kids Cookbook for which I let the Random Number Generator pick the five lucky you’s.
#9: Dorothy from The Fat Free Tester Squad
#19: Allie (no blog)
# 76: Ruby from Ruby’s Tuesday
#106: Sugar Chef
# 266: Erica from The Underground Cupcake

Congratulations ladies! Please send me an email at marinette1 at comcast dot net with your mailing address and I’ll pass on all your info to the publisher.

Now…the rest of the story and the Pecan Pie Macarons. When I can’t sleep at night, I usually don’t count sheeps, I think of flavor combinations for macarons instead. Seriously. You think I’d joke about that?!! Problem is, the world in my head and the world around me don’t always agree with each other but I knew this one would work. I have been meaning to make a pecan pie inspired macaron for ages but you know how it goes….your mind wonders off and before you know it you are baking something else that you "just had to make". I wanted these to have a French twist and instead of figuring out how to put the traditional pecan pie filling into a mac, I used salted butter caramel sauce. It’s not like I need an occasion to make them but I pretexted C’s birthday to put a few many of these together for her. However, it took a few years and an afternoon baking with a new friend to get my head together with my hands and my time on that one!

A few weeks ago, I was reading my favorite American in Paris, David Lebovitz, when I read Kim’s comment about how she had slaved for two days over macarons and most of them flopped. Kim writes one of my favorite blogs, A Yankee In A Southern Kitchen and lives in the same town. "Get out!"….Seriously! We "met" over the internet last year and tried to get our schedules together to meet and it never happened. As a joke, I have started a list of all the dishes I would like her to make me when we meet. Crabcakes, Cola Ribs, Tomato Pie, and so many more are already on the list. After reading about her misadventures in macaron making, I sent her an email saying that if she needed help next time, not to hesitate and I’d be happy to give her a hand. Last week, Kim asked if we could get together this past Monday so I could give her a macaron 101 lesson. Yes, yes, yes!

Caramels


Her kitchen is a foodie’s dream: spacious, well equipped, bright with a huge window giving on the serenity of a beautiful garden. Now, let me add that meeting Kim was truly wonderful: cheery, full of Southern charm and hospitality and sweet as pie. Her daughter M. joined us and we spent the afternoon measuring, grinding, folding, piping, sprinkling, filling. We troubleshooted what went wrong the first time she made them and also figured out the proper settings for the ovens which was no small business. We made plain macarons Bourbon vanilla buttercream, pecan macarons with coconut cream cheese buttercream and peanut ginger macarons. The afternoon was graced by lovely weather, great conversations and laughs. I left with a skip in my step.

That evening as I was mentally registering all the delicious moments of the afternoon, I got a craving for the pecan macarons we made and decided it was time to make the Pecan Pie inspired one I have been thinking about. It also helped that I had plenty of egg whites and salted butter caramel sauce already made. The shells were half almonds and half pecans from our tree and the extra pecan boost was a little piece of pecan brittle in the middle. Hugh…yes….they are sweet….but dang! One is just perfect with a cup of coffee! So here’s to new friends, new adventures and new experiences!

Pecan Pie Macarons and Pecan Brittle

Pecan Pie Macarons:
Makes about 20

For the shells:
3 egg whites (about 90 gr)
40 gr granulated sugar
200 gr powdered sugar
55 gr almonds
55 gr pecans

For the whites: the day before (24hrs), separate your eggs and store the whites at room temperature in a covered container. If you want to use 48hrs (or more) egg whites, you can store them in the fridge. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a foam, gradually add the sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue. Do not overbeat your meringue or it will be too dry. Combine the almonds,pecans and powdered sugar in a food processor and give them a good pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Add them to the meringue, give it a quick fold to break some of the air and then fold the mass carefully until you obtain a batter that flows like magma or a thick ribbon. Give quick strokes at first to break the mass and slow down.The whole process should not take more than 50 strokes. Test a small amount on a plate: if the tops flattens on its own you are good to go. If there is a small beak, give the batter a couple of turns.
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (Ateco #807 or #809) with the batter and pipe small rounds (1.5 inches in diameter) onto parchment paper lined baking sheets. Preheat the oven to 300F. Let the macarons sit out for 30 minutes to an hour to harden their shells a bit and bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on their size. Let cool. If you have trouble removing the shells, pour a couple of drops of water under the parchment paper while the sheet is still a bit warm and the macarons will lift up more easily do to the moisture. Don’t let them sit there in it too long or they will become soggy. Once baked and if you are not using them right away, store them in an airtight container out of the fridge for a couple of days or in the freezer.

For the filling:
Half a recipe of Salted Butter Caramel Sauce
100 gr (1/2 cup) sugar
80 gr (3/4 cup) chopped pecans

Make the sauce and refrigerate until cold so it won’t ooze out of your macarons when you sandwich them together (mine only did because it was hot upstairs where I photograph).
For the pecan brittle: Place the pecans on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Place the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water in a heavy saucepan on high heat and cook until you get a golden caramel. Immediately pour it over the pecans and let sit until cold and hard. Crack the brittle in small pieces to fit inside your macarons. Place a about a tablespoon of sauce on one shell, add a piece of brittle and top with another macaron shell.