Strawberry Tartlets with Honey Mascarpone Filling

For my next round of tartlets I used strawberres. Just another option for you. I can't decide which I liked better, strawberry of blackberry, but I think that's a good thing. Proving their versatility once again. Recipe and previous post on how to make these tarts here. Now what to make next? I think a mixed fruit would be beautiful and quite delicious....

Photos by Collin Monda

Blackberry Tart(let)s with Honey Mascarpone Cheese Pastry Cream and Coffee Shop Sampler

I wanted to switch things up last week from my usual buttercream/cake overload frenzy to something a bit more refined. Perhaps a bit more French. Less sugar. More cream. More fruit. No buttercream. With those constraints I happened upon a wonderful tart recipe that used a honey and mascarpone cheese filling. I settled on blackberries for my fruit (one of my favorites and so pretty against white) and used the tried and true Pate Brisee recipe from Julia Child for the crust. The hardest part was making the little tart shells and that truthfully is not that hard. Just takes some time if you want to make a couple dozen and only have 6 tart shell pans. Lots of shuffling and repeating but really not too bad. And the only baking you have to do is of the shells so that's nice. Just remember to line them with foil or parchment paper and fill them with pie weights and/or beans. Also, poke some holes in the crust so the dough doesn't puff up too much. 

For the filling you just mix up some honey, mascarpone cheese, sour cream, and vanilla. I was a bit weirded out by this mixture thinking it would resemble something like cheese cake (my mortal enemy) but was pleasantly surprised that it was not sour or cheesy at all. Despite the actual cheese and sour cream. It turned out more like a standard pastry cream, but richer. Had a wonderful depth and just a hint of sweet from the honey. Quite delicious with fruit. After you fill them and add your fruit topping, chill them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or more to stiffen up the cream and keep them fresh. Keep chilled until ready to serve or just before. 

I'm not sure how I could sell this to you more but I heard from several people independently that this was the best thing I've ever made and perhaps some shade of shock at how nice looking it was. Perhaps my tasters where surprised that copious amounts of butter was not involved nor any buttercream. A nice change up. It's good to keep people on their toes. One thing that I love about this is that it is so versatile. You can add any fruit as a topping. The cream and the crust are merely a base. You can do a mixed fruit or maybe even do them plain, or with chocolate. Who knows. It's open to interpretation. I'm planning on making several variations of this in the future. A definite crowd pleaser as it turns out. 

Here's the filling recipe (from Annie's Eats):

2/3 cup mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1/3 cup honey

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Pinch ground nutmeg

And the pate brisee recipe (from Master the Art of French Cooking) 

Pate Brisee Instructions

2 1/2 cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon (4 grams) salt

1 tablespoon (14 grams) granulated white sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch (2.54 cm) pieces

1/4 to 1/2 cup (60 - 120 ml) ice water

A week ago I made a little sampler of baked goods for a coffee shop I may be supplying some sweets to in the future. (Fingers Crossed). I settled on the tarts (several people insisted that I do this so I figured they know best and are the type of customer for these treats so who am I to deny them?) as well as my favorite, the red velvet cake, in cupcake and minicupcake form, and the lemon doughnuts. I think they all turned out pretty well and hopefully I'll get the gig. I tried to do a nice mixture of flavors to show some versatility but then realized I didn't do any of my usual sweet laden treats with buttercream, but oh well, I think some of myself came through. People can't subsist entirely on buttercream creations. They want some variety. I think anyway. I'm good with just buttercream though.

The Baby Loaf

Photos by Collin Monda

New Round of Mini Doughnuts (Donuts?)

I had to try out a few new flavors/toppings for my latest favorite thing to make for group meeting this week. It was a learning experience that's for sure. I decided to make good old fashioned powdered doughnuts as well as chocolate glazed doughnuts. Why must doughnut be spelled two ways and both ways are right? I always write "donut" but that seems so incorrect when compared to "doughnut". Hmmm. Anyways, the powdered were super easy since all you do after you bake them and let them cool is roll them around until coated in a bowl of powdered sugar. What could be easier? Well when I woke up in the morning nearly all of the powdered sugar had absorbed into the doughnut as if they were feeding off the sugar. A little irritated, I coated them again in the sugar and by the time group meeting rolled around the doughnuts had consumed about half of the sugar again. Despite them not looking totally coated they were really quite delicious, probably because of all the sugar additions and subsequence absorption. I ate way too many of them. Why are powdered doughnuts so addicting?

On to the chocolate doughnuts and the issues that came along with them. Instead of using a recipe I thought I could just whip up a simple ganache and that would glaze them nicely. Why wouldn't it look just like a normal glazed doughnut? Why would I have to use a special recipe? One that will actually harden and not remain sticky and wet forever. No I didn't consider any of this and made a simple ganache by pouring hot whipping cream over dark chocolate chips, letting them melt, stirring it until mixed and shiny and then dipping the cooled doughnuts in the glaze. Well, the ganache was far too thin for this sort of job apparently because it just looked like a brown sheen or lacquer rather than an icing. So I mixed in powdered sugar. And more powdered sugar. And more to stiffen it up a bit and by the time it was relatively thick that frosting was so sweet it was insane. And I have a pretty tolerant sweet tooth. The icing stuck nicely to the cake but the problem was is that it never made a shell like normal doughnut glazes. Still good albeit insanely sweet. Also, really messy.

I need to find an actual recipe for this next time. Also, I wanted to make the actual cake part chocolate too. I'll probably just add in a bit of cocoa powder to the normal recipe. I think that will do the trick.

Here's the doughnut recipe:

1 1/4 C cake flour, sifted
1/2 C granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. nutmeg (I don't add this in--unless you're doing some sort of spice cake I really don't think this is necessary).
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 Tbs. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. I use a pastry brush to coat the doughnut tin with melted butter. Works so much better than your fingers (I did this the fist time). Or you could use spray but you wants all those chemicals??

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add buttermilk, egg, and butter and stir until just combined. Fill each doughnut cup approximately 1/2 full. I pipe it in using a large tip. Makes for even sizing and is far less messy. Bake 4-6 minutes (for my oven, 5 min is perfect) or until the top of the doughnuts spring back when touched. 5 minutes doesn't allow for a browning of the doughnuts, instead it makes them soft and pillowy and since your coating them in a glaze etc. who needs them to be golden brown? Let cool in a pan for 4-5 minutes (again, 5 minutes is perfect) before removing. Finish doughnuts with glaze or sprinkles (mmm sprinkles, why had I never thought of you?! Next time. Next time). Makes 24 doughnuts.

Photos by Collin Monda.

Lemon Cake With Lemon Simple Syrup and Lemon Icing

For a coworkers birthday instead of making the usual chocolate cake I made a Lemon Cake since the recipient doesn't like chocolate. I know. Crazy. Actually it was kind of nice to not make the same old chocolate cake again. I've made it about 10 times in the past couple months. It's a good one and a definite crowd pleaser but it was getting a bit tired of making so many appearances, and so was I. I don't think I've ever even posted that cake. Reminder that I must do that. It's the best chocolate cake recipe I've ever had that isn't insanely rich and puts you into a food coma. It's especially delicious in cupcake form. But what isn't better miniature? So with chocolate out of the picture I kind of floundered a bit. So many options. What to make? What's the opposite of chocolate? Fruit? Someone suggested lemon and I was sold. I wanted to redeem my last lemon cake which was admittedly very dry (it happens....). I also added poppy seeds which I don't think it needs. Better to be smooth and sugary and lemony. No crunchy bits. Anyway, I scoured the internet (taste-spotting) and found one that looked particularly good and the blogger who made it said it was the best she had ever tried so I figured why not see if I agree? It's an Ina Garten recipe which gives it some credentials (recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-cake-recipe/index.html) . I'm not sure I trust her so much with desserts let alone cakes but I was willing to give this a shot especially since the recipe had you pour a warm lemon simple syrup over the cooling cake. That's a good enough reason for me. Dry-cake problem solved.

The recipe was the usual. Nothing fancy. Had you alternate buttermilk and flour mixtures which I think always makes for a good cake. Why? I have no idea. The batter was incredibly mousse-y for a lemon cake so that was a good start. I baked it in a bunt pan which I love doing because it's instantly fancy and much easier than making layered cakes. After you remove it from the oven and let it cool for a bit upside down (cake part up) you pour a simple syrup made with lemon juice over the cake. The recipe was a bit confusing at this point so I just slowly poured it over the cake and let it sit in the pan while it cooled. I thought this will either end up wonderfully by having the syrup soak in all over the cake or this could end horribly with the cake turning into a mush and slopping all over the place, simple syrup flying as I try to turn the cake over and out of the pan. It ended up like the former which was a relief. It seemed also the the syrup mainly absorbed at the bottom of the cake and didn't really do much at the top even though it soaked in. Strange.

Once the cake it cooled all the way you pour on a lemon juice icing. Which is just powdered sugar and lemon juice. Amazingly good. So simple. To get it looking like you spent hours carefully spooning it back and forth to create the little streams of frosting down the sides? Spend about 2 seconds and pour the frosting just on the top of the cake and let it do it's own streaming. Trust me. It looks great and requires no stress or time.

If you're looking for a good lemon cake this is definitely one to make. Enjoy!

Photos by Collin Monda

Whiskey Apple Pie (Now With More Whiskey!)

While religiously reading Ms. Humble Pie's blog (http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/) and wallowing in jealousy I came across a contest she was throwing (?? what's the proper verb here?) and with the prize of having your blog plugged in addition to a sweet little something from Morrocco (where she will be traveling soon) I decided I had to make something. And I knew that I had to make the best pie I've ever made, which is the Whiskey Apple Pie. Admittedly, I'm not a huge pie person. And as a result, I don't make pies that often (so selfish...) so this really is the best pie I've ever made. I happen to like it a great deal and the whiskey addition is just a little treat. Why not right? So here is the recipe again if you care to try it out. It's simple and tasty. Not over the top sweet, or rich, just a nice little snack or dessert. Or breakfast item? (Collin...)

Here is the recipe adapted from Joy of Baking: (http://www.joyofbaking.com/ApplePie.html)

Pate Brisee (Short Crust Pastry):
2 1/2 cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon (30 grams) granulated white sugar
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch (2.54 cm) pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup (60 - 120 ml) ice water
AppleFilling:
2 1/2 pounds (1.1 kg) apples (about 6 large), peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4 inch thick (about 8 cups sliced) (about 900 grams sliced)

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar

1/4 cup (55 grams) light brown sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (15 grams) cornstarch (corn flour)

I tend to not follow the recipe and just use the ingredients. I think my way is so much simpler and really turns out well. Instead of letting the apples macerate at room temp for 3.5 hours, I simply combine all of my filling ingredients and cook them down for about 5 minutes in a couple tablespoons of butter in a large skillet to soften them just a bit and let them release some of their juices so it doesn't boil over in the oven. 

I then remove the apples from the pan and place in a large bowl and add 3 tablespoons of whiskey (when I first made this recipe I added one tablespoon, the next time I added two, and I now I add three, but I'm convinced more whiskey is always a good thing so really you can add as much as you like! It doesn't affect the quality of the pie, just adds more whiskey flavor!) and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to thicken it a bit. 

Also, great tasting whiskey really helps. If you wouldn't drink it, don't put it in the pie. I then fill the pie with the slightly cooked apples/whiskey and top with a lattice. While the pie is baking, I cook down the juice mixture from the skillet to a carmel sauce and drizzle over the pie when cooled. 

Serve with vanilla ice cream. Next time I think I might up the whiskey factor by making a homemade whiskey vanilla ice cream. The whiskey flavor in the pie is nice and subtle so it could handle something like this as a topping. Now I just have to buy an ice cream maker. But more importantly, find the space to put it!

Fingers Crossed about the contest!

Photos by Collin Monda

First Thursday Cupcakes

For a friend's First Thursday art showing I was generously allowed to bake a couple things for people to enjoy along with the art. I wanted to make the Rogue Chocolate Stout cupcakes that I've made many times in the past and something new. I happened upon a lime cake recipe adapted from Martha Stewart that looked pretty good after Collin suggested making margarita inspired cupcakes. I added a bit of buttercream made with tequila and lime juice and voila: A margarita cupcake.

Here's the lime cake recipe: http://annies-eats.com/2010/05/04/margarita-cupcakes/

We tried a bit of fleur de sel too and it was a bit too strong. Already kind of a savory cake. At least in comparison to my usual baked goods. But never the less, the salt would have made it a bit more margarita-y. The Rogue cupcakes are one of my favorites. The combination of rich chocolate stout and sour cream make these cakes super moist. I was going to do a Bailey's buttercream on these but at the last moment in a weak moment of auto pilot I made chocolate buttercream which I'm convinced I could make in my sleep now. Along with any other buttercream for that matter. Sooooo they turned in to Rogue Chocolate Stout Cupcakes, instead of Irish Car Bombs. Still good. And still a crowd pleaser.

The margarita cupcakes were definitely different. They had a distinct sour flavor from the lime juice and the buttermilk and although this doesn't happen to be my personal preference in flavors, it seems that many people really enjoyed them. Even preferred them. For the frosting, I did a simple buttercream but instead of adding vanilla, I added about 3 tablespoons of tequila and about the same of lime juice and enough whipping cream to make it nice and smooth and combined. I rarely use a recipe for buttercream. It's nice to just wing it. If you're using good flavors, you really can't mess it up, at least in my experience. 

Aside from the fact that I made way too many mini cupcakes, they seemed to be enjoyed and the people at my lab seemed to enjoy them even more so the next day. The rogue cupcakes are a for sure winner and the margaritas might just stick around and make another appearance, even though it wasn't my favorite. Still nice to test out new and interesting flavors. I'm always surprised at how different people's preferences are in sweets. It's definitely a good thing though. If we were all the same, I'd be making millions of of coconut cakes (my fav) and that would get quite boring after awhile, even for me. 

Photos by Collin Monda. 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Yes....you read that correctly. I put chocolate chip cookie dough inside a cupcake. I know. I may have gone too far. But only (s)he who gone too far knows what is enough (or something like that). For me, I think I went too far and realized I could probably handle these better without cookie dough, but others seemed to love the cookie dough and since it is more of a novelty cake I may leave it in. Just for fun. I have to say though, the cake in the cupcakes is AMAZING. So much better than any plain cake (i.e. vanilla etc.) I've ever made. I love them!! When you hollow out the cupcake to make room for the cookie dough you're left with a little ball of cake like a donut hole and since I made about two dozen of these, I've been enjoying the cakes holes (?) all week long. The cake has a richness to it like a cookie would. A subtle molasses depth from all the brown sugar. The frosting too is rich and flavorful and anything but simple or plain. I was hesitant to make the frosting since it diverted so much from my buttercream but decided to stick with it and was the opposite of disappointed. It was brown sugary and thick, yet light and mousey. The frosting contains flour which is why I was resistant but I'm glad I gave it a try, I may start using it on a lot of things.

The recipe itself was pretty straightforward but a little involved. The author recommends making the cookie dough a day ahead but I ended up doing it all on the same night and it was fine. The cookie dough does need to refrigerate though, so plan accordingly. Once you've made the batter (which has a whopping 3 sticks of butter, even puts me to shame) and baked and cooled the cupcakes, you take a knife (I used a grapefruit knife and it worked beautifully) and carefully cut out a good round chunk for the cookie dough to sit just beneath the frosting. Take little chunks of cookie dough after it's chilled an roll in into roughly a ball and place in the hollowed out cupcake. After you've whipped up the frosting, you just pipe it on over the cookie dough and then add some mini chocolate chips to the top for decoration. Those mini chips were hard to find and after much searching I found them in the gluten free section....weird, but whatever, they worked.

Link to the recipe: http://sugarcooking.blogspot.com/2010/04/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-cupcakes.html

A couple final thoughts about these cupcakes: 1. I don't think the actual cake needs the cup of chocolate chips. Even though only a couple chips end up making in to each cake, I found it a bit much with everything else that was going on. 2. If you try to make chocolate chip cookies from the cookie dough for a cute little decoration like the author did, they don't bake very well fyi. They are hard as a rock (because there are no eggs?) and burn easily. 3. Save the cake holes (?). Delicious. 4. The cookie dough is safe to eat because of the lack of eggs even though I've probably eaten my body weight in raw eggs over the course of my life...and I'm fine.

Here's the grapefruit knife I used. Worked so well since it's curved. Works well on grapefruit too I suppose. More of a reason to buy it.

http://site.unbeatablesale.com/img101/irwg713.jpg

Photos by Collin Monda

Mini Baked Donuts

A couple Saturday's ago I happened to stumble into Sur La Table and found the coolest new piece of baking equipment: A mini donut tin. Of course I had to have it and also had to make donuts that very day. Irresistible. It just so happened to be a good friend's birthday party that evening so I decided to make a couple different varieties of mini donuts to test out on my hopefully willing audience. I used the batter recipe that came along with the tin (I had no idea what was involved in donuts batters and didn't want to mess it up since they were baked instead of deep fried). So really these are "healthy donuts" and certainly acceptable to eat handfuls at a time if so inclined (which normally I am). The recipe was one of the easiest I've made. Just flour, a bit of sugar, a bit of butter, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. So easy. No mixing involved except with a spoon until just incorporated. The first time I made these (they are quickly becoming my favorite thing to make mainly because they are so easy and so very disproportionately good for how easy and quick they are) I just used a spoon to put the batter in to the tiny molds and then use my finger to smooth them. This was tricky and very messy since the batter is almost like a yeast dough in stickiness. The next time I made these (this past weekend for Mother's Day) I put all the batter in a pastry bag with a large circle tip and just piped a long strip into the molds forming a circle. Worked so well. Will never do it any other way again.

 

The donuts bake for about 5 minutes at 425 and then cool in their tin for another 5. It's amazing how quick they are. You can whip up dozens of them in no time! After they've cooled on a wire rack you can frost them or glaze them, etc. For this batch I did half coconut and half cinnamon and sugar. I made two batches of simple icing (powdered sugar and milk) and made it fairly thin (more milk) so that they would glaze the donuts. I put coconut extract in one and left the other plain. I dipped half in the coconut so just the tops were covered and then put them back on the wire rack so the glaze would move down the sides and then dipped them in some shredded coconut. For the other half, I dipped in the plain icing and then after the glaze coated them, I dipped them in cinnamon and sugar. Afterwards I put them all in the fridge for a bit to stiffen up so I could package them in bags.

 

This last weekend I did the coconut again as well as a lemon. I used the simple icing but instead of using all milk I did about half milk half lemon juice and then sprinkled a bit of lemon zest on each.

If you can find the donut tin somewhere I highly recommend these little treats. They are delicious and one of the easiest things I've ever made. Really.

(like here for example: http://www.thehomemarketplace.net/HomeMarketPlace/Shopping/ProductDetail.aspx?CID=Baking&ProductID=BC00337416&SCID=Bakeware&SiteNum=0&TabNum=0)

Photos by Collin Monda

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

For Saint Patrick's day/co-workers birthday I made what are now named Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes. I am not clever enough to realize this seemingly simple observation (Collin was). Guiness chocolate cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream. It never crossed my mind that this is Irish Car Bomb ingredients, well minus the chocolate cake....and the buttercream. Still, it's the liquor that counts in the end. I used a chocolate stout cake recipe that I've made many many times, usually with Rogue Chocolate Stout or Rogue Shakespeare stout mainly because they are some of the best. Really flavorful and really rich. Makes for a good cake.

I regret to say that I have never been all that impressed with Guinness. Sorry to offend but I think growing up in the Northwest and starting to drink beer at a relatively early age (German family...) I had a greater appreciation for local beers which I still wholeheartedly believe stomp the global competition. Anyways, I was a bit apprehensive on using Guinness, thinking that it just wouldn't be as good as the rich Rogue Stout but I had to keep with the Irish theme and I felt that if I had stuck with my usual stouts some kind of horrible Irish karma would come my way making it on St. Patricks. The batter was pretty much the same so that was a good sign but once they were cooked, man, they were way better than the others I have made. I have no idea why.....perhaps it was some good Irish karma. The universe was pleased with my compliance with tradition and they were fantastic. Also, the Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream didn't hurt either. Instead of using cream and vanilla to bind the frosting, I used Bailey's. Just Bailey's. Amazing.

I highly recommend using liquors for buttercreams. Even if it's just a little bit. So fun to experiment with flavor combinations. Plus, there's a bit of booze in there so it's an added bonus, albeit a small one. I piped on some florets of frosting instead of topping the whole cupcake with it just because it was a bit on the strong side and didn't want to overwhelm my tasters at 11AM (why is group meeting so early?). I was very pleased with the end product and got some good reviews. They were a great take on a classic. Interesting and new, yet familiar (perhaps too familiar...in the Irish car bomb sense). Will be making these again in the future. But perhaps, on a non-Irish holiday I will make it with Frangelico. Yum. Also, next time I think I'll pipe the frosting on the inside of the cupcake so "it's like a real bomb" (Collin Monda). Agreed. And perhaps just do a simple ganache on top. Cute.

P.S. Don't steal my cupcake name, even though I'm sure it's been used a million times over. Whatever.