I've been super busy in the kitchen lately. But I've also been super busy with Thanksgiving, birthdays, Christmas, travels, work, and other projects that seem to keep coming up. Even as I type this on New Year's Eve, my apartment is a wreck, but I've done so much baking and I'm so behind on blogging that I just have to get something up on here.
Last month, I did a major stenciling project for my pal Ed for the release party for his new book, Stencil 101. In fact, you can see a pretty cool photo on this page of some of the work I did for that event. That project took a lot of trial and error and resulted in many unused, ugly-ass cookie-stencil experiments, but in the end, it all looked really great. I was proud of my work. I'll be putting together a long, photo-intensive post on this blog about that project soon, but for now, I'm going with something a bit easier.
My pal Charlie turned 30 a few weeks ago, so I made him a cake. I was going to make him the sweet and salty cake, so I bought everything for that. Then, girl tells me she don't really like chocolate cake. What?! That's news to me. Girl wants a lemon cake. Grrrrr...
So at the last minute, and in the midst of making all the food for his party (which I love doing - don't worry Charlie), I ran out to get everything for the lemon cake. I used the recipe in the Baked book, since everything I've made from that book has worked so well. I didn't photograph the process too well because I was simultaneously making hors d-oeuvres for 25 people.
Anyway, the cake came out really well:
It looked perfect, and I was thrilled with the icing. It was lemon buttercream, but also had a bit of flour that was boiled into the cream. It was smooth and flavorful, and it spread on like spackle and held its shape PERFECTLY. I think this could be the heat-resistant buttercream icing recipe I've been looking for. It's sturdy, transports easily, and has a sculptural quality that makes it fun to work with.
I accidentally added coconut extract to the cake instead of vanilla. Oops! But it turns out that the flavors go really, really well together. I amended the recipe in the book for the next time I make this cake.
Here's a cross section:
Here's Ashton, Randy, and Eddie having a slice:
Brian likes it, I think. He always gives good "attitude face."
Brian's boyf Matt seemed to enjoy it, too.
This was a great cake, made all the more great to me because I made it in 4 hours flat and was very proud of the look and the taste of it.
I guess this is my last post of 2008. I'll get that stencil stuff up soon. To everyone who reads this inane drivel, thank you. I always get such nice compliments from people about my blog. It warms this old man's heart. Seriously, thanks for bothering to look. I really appreciate it.
I wanted to make him a cake that was interesting and different and attractive and a little bit masculine - you know, the opposite of Paul. I kid, I kid. I love this guy. The Baked cookbook I've been in love with has some great cake recipes, including one for a Sweet and Salty cake.
Even considering my interest in baking things that aren't too sweet, making a salty cake seemed like a risk (especially considering that I've never tried this cake at Baked). It vaguely reminded me of a story that my friend Dustin told me once about his bitch of a neighbor who made him a cake for a party he was having. Apparently, she hated his parties, so when she baked the cake, she unloaded her hairbrush into the batter. The cutting knife sliced through the hair, but peoples' teeth didn't when they put it in their mouths. I guess that doesn't really have too much in common with a salted cake (beyond the idea of tasting something you absolutely don't expect), but I like that story a lot.
Salted chocolate and salted caramel are two very trendy flavors right now. Even Starbucks has gotten on the bandwagon with their "salted caramel hot chocolate." I mean, it makes sense. Good salt really brings out the layers of flavor of dark chocolates and sweet caramels. I'm not fully aware of the chemistry behind it, so for now, I'll just allow myself to think of salt as a "magic crystal."
I felt relatively comfortable making this cake, as I've made caramel before. Remember? That pie was kind of a total disaster, but I made several batches of caramel for it. It's simple to make, but it can be tricky to perfect. Caramel heats up very slowly, until about 300 degrees, then it starts to cook very, very quickly. I don't think mine was perfect, but it tasted really great.
I just cooked some water, sugar, and corn syrup until it caramelized at 350 degrees, then added that simmering cream in the back of the photo below.
Easy. I stirred it for a bit, then threw into the fridge for the night.
I made the chocolate cake using Baked's recipe, which produced a moist, sturdy, very flavorful and very "chocolatey" tasting cake. I'll definitely use this recipe again. I think it might take other flavors pretty well, like espresso, or maybe even chili pepper or cayenne pepper. Hm...
The frosting it calls for uses a really easy, creative twist on a basic ganache that I always make. With ganache, you simply pour hot cream over chopped chocolate, stir it until it melts, then add sugar and butter and whip it till it fluffs up. This was basically the same technique, but instead of adding just heated cream, the recipe calls for making a creamy salted caramel and adding THAT to the chopped chocolate. It was really delicious. The frosting also had 4 sticks of softened butter in it.
Here's what four sticks of soft butter look like.
Here's the prep for the frosting:
And the warm ganache:
(I hate those white bowls.)
So after whipping the ganache and adding the butter, I started assembly. This is really always the most exciting part of the baking process for me. I really love making these things look perfect and pretty. I've always found that, regardless of great taste, if something looks good, people love it. Plus, it's just so nice to see people faces light up when they see something that looks good.
Each layer went like this: 1. Cake 2. Caramel sauce 3. Frosting 4. Tablespoon of sea salt crystals
Visually:
Eventually, it all gets wrapped up like this:
(Look at how sloppy I was on the cake board under the cake! It looks terrible!! I forgot to line the bottom edges of the cake with parchment. Doh!)
Eventually, the finished cake looked like this:
There were a few execution errors here. I forgot to line the cardboard with parchment, which would have prevented the fat in the butter from soaking into the paper and looking so greasy (not a cute look). The cake came out taller than the tallest box I had, so I had to use that cheap-o Rubbermaid "cake carrier." Since I assembled the cake directly on the cake board (expecting to then slide the cake board and cake into a box), I had to trim the edges of the square cake board to fit onto the round cake carrier.
Oh well. The cake looked nice, anyway.
I was proud of how it looked, and the taste was AMAZING. The crunch of salt on each layer of sweet, chocolatey caramel was sensational. The salt I used (Maldon crystals - expensive but worth it), stayed crunchy and make the chocolate taste extremely savory. Love love love this cake! Paul's party go-ers seemed to enjoy it, too.
In the next month, I'll be working on something new - stenciling. My friend Eddie has a really cool graffiti stencil business called Stencil 1, and has just published a book (which you can check out and buy here!) The book release party is Saturday, December 6, and Eddie has asked me to stencil a whole bunch of cookies and cupcakes and stuff. Fun!! What a cool challenge. I'll be working on several recipes/techniques in the coming weeks, so look out. Should be interesting.
I've been working literally non-stop on my apartment, so cut me some slack, yo. I've been installing shelving, installing flooring, painting walls, repainting walls, measuring twice, cutting once (or in a few instances, two or three times), organizing, assembling, drilling, nailing, spackling, screwing (in the home-improvement sense), cleaning cleaning cleaning, and occassionally honking for Shirley when I've had to get the heck out of this apartment and out of town.
I feel like I'm coming to a good place to slow down the frantic renovation efforts and re-focus on baking, knitting, and other fun fall festivities. So on that note, I decided to make some muffins yesterday morning. Nothing fancy. A few weeks ago, I got the cookbook from Baked, my absolute favorite bakery in New York City, and I've been so eager to start using it. They use adult flavors like salted caramel and dark chocolate, and nothing I've tried is ever overly-sweet. They really do things the way I like (although their cashiers and baristas are often not too friendly).
I decided to make something quick and easy this morning since I had a busy morning before going to work. I used the recipe for "Banana Chocolate Espresso Muffins." I had all of the ingredients on hand, so I whipped 'em up in my mixer. They were embarrassingly easy.
After beating some mushy bananas to a liquidy pulp, I added melted butter, white and brown sugar, and an egg. The I sifted and added in the flour, salt, baking soda, and espresso powder. After folding in the chocolate chips and baking at 350 for 20 minutes, I got...
These.
They were extremely moist, presumably due to the bananas. I ate a few of these warm. Two friends gave me two different critiques: one said there was to much chocolate, and the other said they were too moist. I agreed.
But after sitting for a day, I tried one this morning. Once cooled, they firmed up very nicely, weren't overly-moist, and the excessive chocolate taste seemed gone. The texture was still moist, the chocolate morsels had a nice "chew" to them, and the crumb was very nice.
I'm thoroughly enjoying these muffins this morning.
I'm also enjoying some Neko Case:
I was recently introduced to this amazing album from the Watson Twins, thought the album is not new. It's a really well-harmonized, low-key, sunny-fall-day-sounding country-esque album. I think it's pretty perfect.
I've been meaning to post this for some time now. Just before I moved into my new place, I made this little asparagus tart for a dinner party in Brooklyn. I'm not even entirely sure it counts as baking, since I did nothing but assemble 4 ingredients. It just seems to simple to count. In the end, though, it was baked in the oven, so I'm saying it counts. Right? Besides, I've posted on here about making jam, and that ain't baking at all.
Oh, before I forget, if you're looking for a good album to ease into fall with, you should get this little gem by the Fleet Foxes. It's really beautiful, acoustic, and mountain-y sounding, with gorgeous harmonies and sweet lyrics. Perfect for picking apples in your new itchy vintage-looking sweaters or for falling in love with your new boyf/girlf under a sunny blue sky in McCarren park. Delightful. I'm listening to it now. Again.
Ok, this tart is a real treat, and so very easy to create. I got the idea after watching Martha Stewart make one on her show. I really kind of hate her new talk show (but I loved and still mourn her old show). It just happened to be on at the gym one day when I was Stairmastering my little buns off, and I realized my mouth was watering.
It's simple. You need:
1. Two bunches (bundles? groups? asses?) of asparagus. Asparagi? 2. Really good, aged Gruyere cheese 3. Pre-made puff pastry (more on this below) 4. Salt and pepper
I originally was going to say that two bunches of asparagus was too much, but I ended up eating everything that didn't fit on the tart, so it's ok.
I believe Martha blanched her asparagus for a few seconds in hot water, but I love grilled asparagus, so that's what I did. I used my grill pan, and though it's very smoky, it imparts such a wonderful, complex layer of flavor. I tossed the asparagus in olive oil:
Then threw a handful in the pan to grill up:
After about ten minutes and a few turns, voila! Grilled asparagus, nutty and crunchy and delicious!
This is where I was happy to have all the extra asparagus on hand. I ate about 12 of these. So delicious! Also, I should point out that I cooked these over a really high heat. You want the skins to grill up and get those nice little lines in them, but you don't want to cook them through. If you don't have a grill pan, you could saute them in a bit of olive oil over a high heat until they brown on the edges a bit. They have to cook for a while longer once they go into the oven. I don't know about you, but I think mushy asparagus are really disgusting. I love the texture and crunch you get when you bite into a well-cooked asparagus. Yum!
Next, I just shredded the cheese. I love this kind, from Whole Foods:
I don't know how to describe cheeses at all, so I'll just say this one is "really, really tasty." No, seriously, it's... umm... it's firm. So it shreds nicely. And it's salty. Sort of.
Whatever. Buy it. Or don't and be sorry.
Oh, also, this cheese is not too oily or slick when it melts. If you used, say, white cheddar, you'd probably end up with puddles of oil all over your tart. NOT cute.
Ok, so the asparagus are grilled, the cheese is shredded. Next is the puff pastry. If I'd had time or energy or experience or a cooler kitchen, I would have tried making my own pastry. But hey, for $9.99 at Whole Foods, you can save yourself a day of work. I really like this brand and have used it several times:
And look - it has a gold sticker that says it's a WINNER.
You buy this stuff frozen, let it thaw a bit until it's pliable, then just unfold it and roll it out a bit.
Into the pan it goes.
I didn't take too much time with the edges or corners. I'll say that this is because I wanted it to look rustic (and not because I was in a hurry or got sloppy). By the way, it smells SO GOOD. And I love the way it feels in my hands - like a sheet of pure, pillowy, velvety butter. Touching it is my favorite part of working with it.
You prick the insides a bit before you pre-bake it. This prevents the inside part from rising as quickly:
Then you just bake the pastry a bit until it browns up JUST lightly, and you can see that the surface is shiny and looks "sealed."
And that's basically it for the prep work. Next is assembly - just sprinkle on the cheese, pepper, and salt. I didn't use too much salt because the cheese is pretty salty and tangy. Then arrange the asparagus however you like. Here's what I did:
You can see in that photo how the edges of the partially baked pastry had puffed up, but that they aren't really brown or cooked. You can also see how the edges of the asparagus are brown and caramelized from the grilling. This is such a wonderful flavor, and one that you don't get with blanching. It's a small hassle, but so worth it. The flavor is out of control.
So that's it. Bake it at 400 degrees until the cheese has melted and the pastry is brown and puffy.
Poof. Done.
SO SIMPLE!
I guess this is ultimately like a fancy pizza - bread, cheese, vegetables. But dang. It's SO good. Six of us ate almost this whole thing, in addition to everything else we had for dinner. It's easy to make because you don't have to do much, and it will impress your friends. Give it a shot!
While I was working on making this last month, one of my all-time favorite episodes of Golden Girls was one. It was the one where Dorothy's cast of the school play all get measles, so the girls all decide to star in the play themselves. They do the story of Chicken Little, and each of them plays a different fowl. Rose is the dumb chicken, Henny Penny. Blanche is sexy Goosey Loosey. Dorothy is the bookish, nerdy Turkey Lurky. Sophia is just the narrator, but you can see her wearing a fierce high-heeled boot for a second. Anyway, each of the girls brings their personality to the character, and I just laugh my ass off every time I see Bea Arthur be totally serious and earnest while walking like a fucking turkey and wearing a ridiculous (yet remarkably well-made) feather costume. I also laugh when I see her in tights and flats. The other girls have heels. Shit gets me EVERY time!
Thanks for reading. Check back soon for more experiments in my new kitchen. I have to buy a new oven first, but I'm on that.
Just a quick note. I'm still in the midst of settling and renovating my new apartment, but I'm getting there. In this, you can see my new floors that I installed (all by myself!). I was also switching the refrigerator door so it opened from the other side, at which I also succeeded. Hoorah.
I also made a seriously good asparagus tart a few weeks ago. I'll be posting that up soon.
Thanks for checking back with me on here. More to come soon!
Obviously, it needs a little renovation and a serious paint job (those cabinets - yikes!!), but I'm excited to get to work on it. It has plenty of light from the big window, a workable layout, lots of floor space to add more storage/work surface, a cool old white enamel sink, and best of all, removable decoration! Yes, someone attached these totally fug tiles with VELCRO behind the oven, and there's a poorly-adhered strip of wallpaper running laterally as a "backsplash." Easy to remove, exciting to replace!! It'll be a custom, tricked-out kitchen in no time, so I'll be baking again by September.
I'm moving in by the middle of August, after a week-long trip to gay it out on Fire Island with my closest buddies. Stay tuned for the house-warming details!
Sorry I haven't been in the kitchen lately, friends. I discovered recently that I have move, so I've been busy packing up my kitchen and my life and looking for a nice one-bedroom somewhere in Brooklyn. With a big kitchen, of course. I'll be back baking again very soon.
In the meantime, watch this totally embarrassing video of me baking bread.
