Deliciosa Vegetarian Paella & the Worldwide Nabisco Chocolate Wafer Shortage!!

The Picky Eater is currently ensconced at our domicile; pending her departure for the nether regions of Scotland next month; you can tell she's here from the tufts of discarded thread strewn on all the carpets. Other than desserts, cooking for her can be a tricky business, but a few nights ago we collaborated on a scrumptious casserole of paella, with shrimp on the side for the pescatarians in the family. The Picky Eater did the stirring while everything sauteed, and I took care of the peeling and dicing.

You really can use any vegetables that suit your fancy. We went with seasonal peppers from the garden, zucchini and fresh tomatoes. The trick is to saute the saffron and pimenton with the onion-garlic mixture before adding any liquid. We found that adding the garbanzos and peas just for the last ten minutes in the oven heated them nicely without overcooking the peas.

Vegetarian Paella

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 large cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced

1  1/2 tsp sweet Spanish paprika 

 5 -10 strands of saffron

3 medium carrots, peeled and diced

2 banana peppers, seeded and chopped 

or

1 red bell pepper & 1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped

1 1/2 cups paella rice

 2 medium zucchini, trimmed and cubed

 4 large ripe tomatoes, diced

 Salt and pepper to taste

 3 cups vegetable or chicken stock, boiling

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 ½ cups frozen peas (do not defrost)

In a large ovenproof sauté pan, heat the extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until it is translucent. Add the garlic, smoked paprika, and saffron. Cook 3-4 minutes, then add the carrots and peppers. Saute 5 minutes, until the peppers start to soften.

Add the rice, and sauté, stirring constantly,  until it starts to look translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and sauté a minute or two, then the tomatoes for another minute. Add the stock and bring back to a boil.

Lower heat to medium low and simmer, covered, for 10-15 minutes, until most of the stock is absorbed.

Strew the garbanzos and frozen peas over the top of the rice. Cover with a lid or foil, and put in 350 F oven for another 10 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed.
Serves 4-6.

The Great Nabisco Chocolate Wafer Shortage

Well, it's not really a shortage, because it looks like the main ingredient in the Chocolate Icebox Cake, well-beloved dessert of generations of Baby Boomers and beyond, appears to have been discontinued by Nabisco. How dare they!! I would sell all my Nabisco stock immediately, if I owned any. We have looked in vain throughout the web, Target, Walmart, Safeway, and beyond. Our searches unearthed a pallid substitute-- "Mandy's Dark Chocolate Cookie Thins." Slightly more bittersweet and decidedly smaller in size. But they will do the job.

Or, you can bake your own chocolate wafers using this recipe adapted by Smitten Kitchen from Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert, but as the Daddy says, that defeats the whole concept of the Chocolate Icebox Cake, which is as quick as the time that it takes you to whip up a bowl of cream.

Homemade Chocolate Wafers

Makes 50 to 60 1 3/4-inch wafers. 

1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) all-purpose flour

3/4 cup (2.4 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder (see Note)

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened

3 tablespoons whole milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of food processor and pulse several times to mix thoroughly. Cut the butter into about 12 chunks and add them to the bowl. Pulse several times. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small cup. With the processor running, add the milk mixture and continue to process until the mixture clumps around the blade or the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a large bowl or a cutting board and knead a few times to make sure it is evenly blended.

Form the dough into a log about 14 inches long and 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap the log in wax paper or foil and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour, or until needed.

Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the log of dough into slices a scant 1/4-inch thick (I went thinner, closer to 1/8 of inch. If you’re trying to emulate the store-bought wafers, slice as thin as you can, and watch the baking time carefully, as it might be less.) and place them one inch apart on the lined sheets (cookies will spread). Bake, rotating the baking sheet from top to bottom and back to front about halfway through baking, for a total of 12 to 15 minutes. The cookies will puff up and deflate; they are done about 1 1/2 minutes after they deflate.

Cool the cookies on the baking sheets on racks, or slide the parchment onto racks to cool completely. These cookies may be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks or be frozen for up to two months.

Note: These cookies should crisp as they cool. If they don’t, you’re not baking them long enough.

And now that we're finished with the complaining, here's the "Famous" Chocolate Icebox Cake itself-

"Famous" Chocolate Icebox Cake

2 cups heavy cream

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 (9-ounce) package chocolate wafer cookies 

Unsweetened cocoa, crumbled chocolate wafer cookies or chocolate shavings

In a large bowl, beat the cream, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form.

On a flat rectangular serving plate, run a 1" thick line of whipping cream down the center. Starting with one cookie, smear it with whipped cream and then press another against the cream. Do this until you have four cookies smushed together. Stand the stack upright at the beginning of the whipped cream strip on your plate. Do another four cookies this way, smear the end of the last one with whipped cream, and smush it against the last stood up cookie. Gently press the row of cookies from the two non-iced ends so that they are all well attached to each other. Continue spreading cream and smushing until your loaf extends the length of the plate.

Generously "ice" the sides and top of your cake with the remaining whipped cream. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

To serve, dust top lightly with cocoa powder, extra crumbled cookies or chocolate shavings.

Let Them Eat (Pear Chocolate Chunk) Cake!

SO yummy, it disappeared before I could catch the whole cake!

Sadly, I have to admit that I am not the most inventive cook. At best, I gather multiple versions of a recipe, integrate all the ingredients that appeal to me, and what to seem  to be the best techniques, and hope for the ultimate version of the recipe. This has been more or less successful with a few things- tuna tapenade and cassoulet come to mind. Still perfecting pan bagnat, though. No one has come up with a solution to the sogginess problem

 I also am a rather impatient cook. Far be it for me to make three or more versions of the same recipe with slight alterations to see which works best. Definitely not America's Test Kitchen material.

So, I am inordinately proud of this new Pear Chocolate Chunk Cake which morphed out of the well-loved Zucchini Orange Cake. I switched out the orange juice for milk, substituted pears for zucchini, and added a chocolate ganache. Somewhat miraculously, it was sublime at the first go- moist with a wonderful crumb and a lovely symphony of flavors.  Just lucky, I guess....

Pear Chocolate Chunk Cake
3 c. flour
3 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 c. butter, softened
1 3/4 c.  sugar
2 t. vanilla
4 eggs
1/2 c. milk
3 firm pears (they will soften when baked in the cake)
Juice of ½ a lemon combined with cold water in a medium size mixing bowl
1 ½ c. semi-sweet chocolate chunks or chips
1 c. chopped pecans

Chocolate Ganache Topping
8oz semisweet chocolate
2 Tb sugar
½ c. whipping cream
3 1/2 Tb butter
2 t. vanilla
2 Tb pear liqueur (optional, but it really adds to the flavor profile)

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 10” tube pan.

Peel and core the pears, and cut them into ½” diameter chunks. Immerse them in the lemon water to prevent discoloration.

Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together.

Cream the butter and sugar on medium speed about 3-5 minutes, until light and fluffy. (This makes the cake tender.)

Beat in the vanilla and eggs one at a time.  While you are beating in the eggs, drain the pear chunks and dry them on a double layer of paper towels.

Hand stir in the dry ingredients, alternately with the milk.  Stir in the pear chunks, chocolate chunks, and pecans.

Spread the batter evenly in the tube pan. Bake about 50-60 minutes (or until done). The cake will be brown, firm to the touch, and pulling away from the edges of the pan. (The internal temperature in the middle should be 185-195 F degrees.)

Let the cake cool on a rack 10 minutes, then turn out the cake, and slide it back on the rack to cool completely. When the cake has cooled completely, move it to a platter.

Make the ganache:
Chop the semi-sweet chocolate into chunks and place it in a small saucepan with the cream, butter and sugar.  Stir over low heat until all the chocolate has melted and it is smooth. Add the vanilla and pear liqueur.  Allow the ganache to cool until it is spreadable and the consistency of softly whipped cream.

Place strips of foil around the bottom of the cake to catch any drips, and drizzle or smear on the chocolate ganache with a spatula or table knife.

Serves 10-12. Keep in a cool place or refrigerator for a day or two, at most.

Picky Eater Picks: Best Desserts 2016 & 2017 (So Far)

For reasons best left unexplained, Travels with the Picky Eater has gone off the rails a bit in the last couple of years, but at the moment, under intense pressure from said child, your humble author is back at the keyboard and pleased to announce our best of the best desserts 2016-17.

Best New Cookie 
Commercial (& unattainable in North America)
"Border Crunch Ginger Biscuits"                            
The Picky Eater discovered these spicy, almost mouth burning, biscuits at Partridges, an upscale Chelsea (London) food emporium. Sadly, when we tried to procure a supply for export they were sold out! With the help of her intrepid garden tour director, the P.E.'s redoubtable mother ordered eight boxes online from a shop in the Border Counties, had them shipped express to her Windsor hotel, and carted them back across the pond.
So far, attempts to recreate them using the esteemed Paul Hollywood's mother's recipe have failed rather spectacularly.

Homemade (but modeled after a favorite bakery cookie)                  
"Ina Garten's Spicy Hermit Bars"   We searched many a website for these spicy raisin and nut filled bars, which was not easy given the fact that we didn't really know what they were called. Trust Ina Garten to provide an excellent version, which was further improved by the addition of a generous portion of nuts.
These bars need to be slightly under baked. With a terrible tendency to under bake as a matter of course, paranoia set in and I managed to almost over bake them. Fortunately, after a couple of days in a closed container, moisture from the icing seeped into the bars and made them just about perfect. Also well reviewed by a friend who has pretty much lost his sense of smell, but could taste the "spiciness" on his tongue.

Spicy Hermit Bars
Makes about 24 bars

1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temperature) or for non-dairy consumption, 1/4 cup margarine & 1/4 cup shortening
1 cup light or dark brown sugar (lightly packed)
1 extra-large/large egg    (Did you know that the equilvalency charts claim that large/extra large eggs are equal? It's a mystery to me why Ina always lists extra large when large is the industry standard for recipes)
1/4 cup unsulphured molasses
2 cups all-purpose flour (plus 2 tablespoons)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup crystallized ginger (minced, not in syrup)
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar (sifted)
dark rum

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the egg, scrape down the bowl, then mix in the molasses.

Stir together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, mixing until just combined. Mix in the raisins nuts, and crystallized ginger. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured board, form it into a disk with lightly floured hands, and cut it in half. Roll each half into a log 12 inches long and place them 3 inches apart on the prepared sheet pan. bake for 20 minutes, the logs will still be soft in the center.

Meanwhile, whisk the confectioner's sugar with 5 to 6 teaspoons of rum to make a pourable glaze. While the logs are still warm, drizzle the glaze back and forth across the logs with a teaspoon. use more glaze if a thicker icing is desired. Allow to cool. Cut each log crosswise into 1 1/4 inch-wide bars.

Best New Cake

Commercial: The Bakewell Tart at Toms Kitchen, 27 Cale St, Chelsea, London SW7. Buttery crust, frangipane, and fresh poached apricots- what could be better? Evidently, there is some debate about the difference between a Blackwell tart and a Blackwell pudding, of the sort which only an Anglophile food enthusiast can appreciate, and it appears that the Tom's Kitchen version is another variant. Bye the bye, Tom's Kitchen also serves excellent fish and chips and an unctuous version of macaroni and cheese with truffles optional.

Homemade: "Poppy Seed Lemon Cake"
A delicious moist and tender cake, based on another Ina Garten recipe, with indulgent double toppings- a glaze applied while the cake is warm and an icing after it has cooled. As a foodie snob, I used to avoid Ina Garten's recipes, mainly because someone once told me that I looked like her when I was in the hospital, and also because she was just too popular. Well, her popularity is well founded. Her recipes are solid, simple to execute and reliable- they always taste great and don't fail. I put her in the Pantheon of cookbook authors' recipes whom I trust enough to make for company without a trial run through. Only Ina, Julia Child, and Deborah Madison rest in this personal Hall of Fame.

Poppy Seed Lemon Cake
Serves 8-10

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature (plus more to grease the cake pan)
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
Grated lemon zest of 4 lemons
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup poppy seeds
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 cup buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt (use 2% or whole fat)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar

Lemon Icing
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 Tb unsalted butter, at room temperature
pinch of salt
1  Tb lemon juice
2 Tb  hot milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 10 cup bundt pan.

Cream the butter and 2 cups granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, and the lemon zest.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds in a bowl. In another bowl, combine 1/4 cup lemon juice, the buttermilk (or sour cream or yogurt), and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Distribute the batter evenly in the bundt pan, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Make the glaze:
Combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1/2 cup lemon juice in a measuring cup or bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves. When the cakes are done, allow to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans and set them on a rack set over a tray or sheet pan; and brush the glaze over them. Allow the cakes to cool completely.

Make the icing:
Put the powdered sugar, butter, and salt in a small bowl. Pour the lemon juice, hot milk, and vanilla over them and whisk until smoothly blended. When the cake is completely cool, spoon the icing over the top of the the cake and spread it over the sides.

Best Presentation- Desserts: A tie between the "English strawberries with honeycomb, rose water ice cream and prosecco gelee" at Manicomio, Duke of York's Square, Chelsea, London.

and the "Dome of chocolate and blackberry mousse" from the Silver Grille, 206 E. Main St, Silverton. OR 97381.

Both were delicious, and it is up to you, gentle reader, to decide which is the lovelier.

Best Retro Dessert: "Nabisco's Chocolate Wafer Icebox Cake"
Much to the satisfaction of harried home cooks, in the 1970's a cookbook was published with the title
Best Recipes from the Backs of Boxes, Bottles, Cans, and Jars. (The newest edition was published in the spring of 2017.) Convenience foods were a miracle of the post WWII era, and staff home economists at processed food corporations worked long and hard to attract consumers to their products with delicious quick and easy recipes. This was (and still is) a favorite in the Picky Eater's dad, amongst its many (mostly male) fans.

Chocolate Wafer Icebox Cake
Serves 12

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9 ounce) package chocolate wafer cookies

Best the cream in a mixer using the whisk attachment on high speed (or an egg beater) until stiff peaks form. Gently stir in vanilla.
Spread 1-1/2 tsp. whipped cream onto each wafer; stack 3-4 at a time, and stand them on edge on a platter. to make a log.  Frost the log with the with remaining whipped cream.
Refrigerate the cake for 4 hours. Cut into diagonal slices to serve.

The Maida Heatter Lifetime Achievement Award: "Chocolate Dump Cake"
Since the 1970's Maida Heatter, a.k.a. "the Queen of Desserts," has been making the world a sweeter and more chocolaty place. She is the author of nine classic dessert cookbooks, including the James Beard Award-winning Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts.  Ms. Heatter is a member of the James Beard Foundation Hall of Fame, has been named to Cook's Magazine's Who's Who in Cooking, and was one of the first people inducted into the Chocolatier Hall of Fame. A centenarian as of 2016, she continues to bake joyfully in her home in Miami Beach, Florida.

This cake, with its cake mix and instant pudding origins, isn't my usual modus operandi, but my mother made it for family birthdays for many decades, and it is well loved by my niece Samantha. Nadine always showered the rich chocolate ganache icing with a bevy of M&Ms.

Chocolate Chip Dump Cake
Serves 10-12

1 box chocolate cake mix
1 box vanilla or chocolate instant pudding
4 eggs
¾ c. water
½ c. oil
1 c. sour cream
1 c. chocolate chips
1 c. chopped nuts

Chocolate icing:
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
1/3 c. whipping cream
1 Tb. sugar
2 Tb. butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together all the cake ingredients except the nuts and chocolate chips until well blended. Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips.

Bake in a well buttered and floured bundt cake pan for about 1 hour. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about thirty minutes, and then turn it out onto a cake rack. When the cake has cooled, drizzle the icing over the cake and let it run down the sides.

Note: This cake can also be baked as a layer cake or cupcakes.

Make the chocolate icing: Melt all the ingredients in a saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is almost all melted. Allow the icing to cool slightly before use.

Best Town for Chocolate Lovers: Oaxaca, Mexico

Oaxaca is one of the few places in the world where chocolate is a cultural and dietary tradition woven into daily life. Families routinely have their chocolate ground and flavored to their own personal specifications at chocolate processing shops such as Soledad or Mayordomo. Walking into one of these shops is to enter a chocolate lover's dream. The air is permeated with the scent of chocolate, you are invited to sample a variety of chocolate flavored with cinnamon, almond, vanilla, moka, etc. and watch grinders vibrate as the beans are processed. Or, order a hot chocolate drink to sip in the cafe at the rear. Soledad even offers hotel rooms above the shop, where I have no doubt that the sheets are impregnated with the perfume of chocolate!

As well as an ingredient in drinks and confections, chocolate is a basic component of some moles, another flavorful essential of Oaxacan cooking. There are seven basic flavors of moles which employ local chiles and spices, but for inventive Oaxacan cooks, the sky is the limit. If you visit, don't miss the lamb chops with dark mole at Casa Oaxaca. At the chocolate shops you can also purchase house made moles to take bring home.

With it's heritage, friendly people, food, mezcal, and incredible artistic heritage, Oaxaca is an unforgettable travel destination!

So, there you have it, our picks for this year. Enjoy!! We always do.....

Picky Eater Picks: Best Dessert Awards 2015!

We've watched the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards, so to fill the void until they announce this year's Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes, we present the Picky Eater's Best Desserts for 2015. This year saw us evaluating a slightly more global crop of candidates, including entries from Paris, Amsterdam, Pittsburgh, New York City, Charleston (South Carolina), and San Francisco.
Unfortunately, our home baking efforts lagged sadly behind, and the pickings were pretty slim in those categories, but we do what we must do....

Hard to choose which biscotti you want at Enrico's; best take one of each!

Best New Cookie
Commercial: Biscotti from Enrico's Biscotti Company, 2022 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA With twenty-seven varieties, including black pepper walnut, coconut chocolate chip, and even a doggie treat flavor, this PGH institution does it all when it comes to biscotti.
Homemade: Chinese-style Almond Cookies
This is a mash-up of recipes from Emily Lucchetti's Stars Desserts and an old Sunset magazine. They rated pretty high on Dr. Hal's cookie taster monitor. The dough needs to chill for an hour before baking.
Chinese-style Almond Cookies 
1 cup (1/2 lb.) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
3/4 tsp almond extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup raw almonds
+ 24-26 additional whole raw almonds
1 egg yolk
1 TB milk
1/4 cup sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spread the 1 cup of raw almonds out on a rimmed baking pan. Bake until nicely toasted, about 7 minutes. (Toasting will take longer if they come directly from the freezer as mine usually do.) Cool slightly, then chop about medium size. Set them aside for the moment.

In a medium size bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

Beat the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add the whole egg and almond extract. Beat to blend. Stir in the flour and chopped almonds. Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour. (Overnight is okay.)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Form the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, flatten slightly, and place 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets.

In a small bowl beat the egg yolk and milk together. Brush each cookie with the egg wash, sprinkle the top with sesame seeds, and press a whole almond into the center.

Bake the cookies 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned, switching the cookie sheets halfway through baking (if you are using more than one.) Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack with a spatula to finish cooling. Makes 24-30 cookies.

Two out of three are award winners- front: Chocolate Salami, center: Chocolate Scotch Shortbread,
back: forgettable Chocolate Loaf Cake

Best New Cookie- Chocolate: Chocolate Scotch Shortbread Cookies from Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts. These were part of my annual Holiday Bake-a-thon with my friend Robert. They have deep butter and chocolate flavors, and are not too sweet. Stashed away in the freezer, I stealthily ate one a day, and managed to gain five pounds over the winter break.
Chocolate Scotch Shortbread Cookies
2 cups flour
1/2 cup strained unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (1/2 lb.) unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees

Cream the butter in the bowl of a mixer. Add the vanilla, sugar, and salt and beat to mix. On low speed (or by hand) add the flour and cocoa, beating only until the mixture holds together. Form the dough into a ball and flatten slightly.

Flour a rolling pin and 12"x12" piece of parchment paper. Roll the dough to an even thickness of 1/2" (no thinner) on the floured paper. Flouring a plain shaped cookie cutter (round or square) each time, use it to cut out the cookies, cutting them as close to each other as possible. Place the cookies 1 inch apart on parchment paper lined cookie sheets.

Press the dough scraps together and roll out again to cut more cookies. Refrigerate the sheets of cookies for about 10 minutes, to firm before baking. Prick the cookies three times in a vertical row in the middle, going all the way through the cookie each time. (Instead of pricking the cookies, you can use a cookie stamp to decorate them. I found a gizmo (the "Brigitte Message on a Cookie Cutter") that allows you to form words in the center of a rectangular cookie cutter.)

Bake the cookies for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the cookies are firm to the touch. Reverse the cookie sheets halfway. Don't let them burn, as this will make them bitter. Cool the cookies on a rack.  These keep and mail well. Makes 35-40 cookies.

Best Presentation- Desserts

Restaurant: Tied between the Chocolate Souffle Cake with pistachio butter, concord grape must, burnt meringue, olive oil, and sea salt from Cure (Pittsburgh) chef Justin Severino's dinner at the James Beard House in Greenwich Village

and the mignardises at Restaurant Jules Verne on the 2nd level of the Tour Eiffel, Paris.

Nothing like a view of the Seine to elevate an already amazing meal!

What exactly are mignardises? To quote Saveur magazine, "Mignardises are usually an artful arrangement of confections like gemlike pâtes de fruits or tiny macarons; a tradition that dates back to 18th-century France. Miniature sweets were de rigueur then--once pastry chefs had finished their work for the day in their brick ovens, they placed small treats inside to bake in the low, residual heat; the name mignardise comes from the Old French word for 'precious' or 'cute.'"

Homemade: The Picky Eater's Apple and Pistachio Frangipane Tart- does food get more attractive than this?

And here's her recipe:

Pâte sucree  (from the Use Real Butter Pear Frangipane Tart)

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar

1/4 tsp sea salt

8 tbsps unsalted butter

1 egg yolk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp whipping cream

 Place the flour, sugar, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolk, vanilla, and whipping cream to the dry ingredients. Pulse again until it resembles wet sand. 

Place the dough (it may be totally crumbly) onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Using the plastic, gather the dough into a ball and press it together into a disc. Wrap with the plastic and refrigerate the dough for at least an hour. 

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roll the dough out to 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured work surface. Press the dough into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, prick tart shell all over with a fork. Place the tart pan in the fridge for 30 minutes. Set the tart pan on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, until the pastry turns a pale golden brown. Let it cool until ready to use.

Pistachio Frangipane (from Tartine 3) and is.... kind of....involved....

Make a Pistachio Nut Milk, as follows:

1 3/4 cups raw pistachios

3 cups cows milk (I used 1% since that's what we always have)

2 T sugar

1/4 t fine salt

I skipped the overnight infusion, because time was short, and just blitzed the pistachios in the food processor until super über fine and stirred them into the milk.  It looked very green.

Then, you use the nut milk to make a pastry cream.  You only need half the nut milk though, so, either make double the pastry cream or half the nut milk.  I had to do the math, you do too.

Nut Milk Pastry Cream

2 cups pistachio nut milk

1/4 t fine sea salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 T cornstarch (maybe a tad more?  My frangipane was a little runny at the end)

2 large eggs

4 T unsalted butter, at room temperature

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch and eggs until smooth.  Heat the nut milk until just under the boil, and slowly pour 1/3rd of the hot milk into the egg mixture.  Pour the egg-milk mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk and whisk until it's the thickness of lightly whipped cream (~2 min).  Do not boil or it will curdle.  Strain and let sit until ~140F/60C, and then add the butter in four pieces, whisking until smooth.

FINALLY you get to make your frangipane!

Pistachio Frangipane

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room T

2/3 cup finely chopped raw pistachios

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

4 t cornstarch

3/4 cup Nut Milk Pastry Cream (again, not all of it.  The recipe should make 2 1/2 cups. Chad Robertson thinks you need to practice your math)

zest of one lemon

4 t orange liquor (optional, mom had Cointreau around so I used it)

Beat the butter and the powdered sugar on low speed to combine, and then increase the speed to medium and beat until smooth and creamy.  Scrape down and add-- everything else.  Beat until evenly incorporated. Keeps for 2 days in the fridge

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Fill the parbaked pastry with frangipane and slice 3-4 apples thinly with a mandoline.  I used a variety I had never heard of from the farmer's market.....

Arrange the slices in a spiral, keeping the slices directional (the top and bottom of an apple are shaped differently, so keep them the same direction) and with the peel side showing.  Really doesn't matter, but it looks pretty.  

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the frangipane sets and stops being too jiggly.  If the crust starts to darken, cover the tart with tin foil.

Take numerous photos for instagram and feed to hungry college students!

Most Entertaining Confectionary Display

Another tie between

Aux Merveilleux de Fred

Fred's shops in Paris, the provinces, London, and now New York City(!), boast a unique marketing tool- his meringue, whipped cream, and shaved chocolate confections are assembled in the front window of the shop, visible to passersby, and a natural draw to enter and purchase!

and 

Michel Chaudun; 149 Rue de l'Université, 75007 Paris

One of THE Masters of the Chocolate Universe. This 100% chocolate egg cum portmanteau speaks louder than words

Best Candy or Confection

Commercial: Caramels from Gaby et Jules Patisserie, 5837 Forbes Avenue in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. As you step into Gaby et Jules, Pittsburgh fades away and you feel transported to a patisserie in a French suburb where miraculously the employees are friendly and speak English. On our last visit there, the Picky Eater went way off her usual low fat, low sugar diet and indulged big time. And it was worth every calorie!

Homemade: My version of last year's best commercial chocolate confection- Dude Sweet's Chocolate Salami, the Picky Eater edition.

Ellin & Robert’s Chocolate Salami (Vegan!)

Makes 4-5 

1 c  homemade (or store bought) marzipan- 

made from

7 oz. almond paste

1 ½ c powdered sugar

1 ½ TB light corn syrup

1-2 Tb cold water

(This will be more than 1 cup, use the remainder for more salami or another recipe. Marzipan will keep, refrigerated, for several weeks.)

1 c melted bittersweet chocolate (about 10 oz)

1 tsp vanilla

½ c toasted, skinned, and chopped hazelnuts

½ c toasted almonds, chopped

½ c dried figs, chopped in small (about 1/8”) pieces

½ c dried, pitted dates, chopped in small (about 1/8”) pieces

½ c cocoa nibs

additional powdered sugar for coating finished salamis

Make the marzipan-

Put the powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. With the mixer on low, add the almond paste 1 tsp. at a time and continue beating until the mixture is crumbly. With the mixer still running, add the corn syrup, beat until incorporated, and then add the water. With the addition of the water the marzipan will hold together with the consistency of sugar cookie dough.

Stir the melted chocolate, marzipan, and vanilla together in a bowl until well combined. Add the nuts, dried fruits, and cocoa nibs. Mix until evenly incorporated. (The mixture will be very stiff and you may need to mix it with your hands.)

Refrigerate 30-40 minutes until somewhat firm. Scoop about one fourth of the mixture onto a piece of parchment paper and use parchment paper to roll it into a cylinder, tapering the ends to make a salami shape about 1 ½” thick and 6-7 inches long. Continue with the remaining dough. Place on a plate or tray and refrigerate. Before serving, roll the salami in sifted powder sugar, randomly brushing some off  to  simulate the appearance of a real salami. Wrap in brown parchment paper and tie with string to give as a gift. Should keep, well wrapped and refrigerated for 3-4 weeks.

Best Legendary Cake: The Ultimate Coconut Cake from the Peninsula Grill, Charleston, South Carolina. We are staying at a hotel across the street from the Peninsula, and in a fit of extracurricular gluttony, I bought myself a late night to-go piece of their 12-layer coconut cake. My reaction: "Very Southern." You can find the authentic recipe (for a 6-layer version) on Martha Stewart's website, if you're feeling ambitious. I myself will wait for another trip to Charleston.

Maida Heatter Lifetime Achievement Award

Since the 1970's Maida Heatter, a.k.a. "the Queen of Desserts," has been making the world a sweeter and more chocolaty place. She is the author of nine classic dessert cookbooks, including the James Beard Award-winning Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts.  Ms. Heatter is a member of the James Beard Foundation Hall of Fame. An octogenarian, she continues to bake joyfully from her home in Palm Beach, Florida.

This year's award, Homemade division, goes to .....

I went a little wild with the candy decorating this year!

Faye's Carrot Cake !!!!

Faye Celayeta was the “Auntie Mame” in my life. She lived in San Francisco in the 1930s, 40s, & 50s; had an apartment on Russian Hill,  knew everyone there was to know, and went everywhere there was to go. In the 1950s, Faye had a cooking show on KPIX, and I remember watching her as a child. She always said that she replaced the test pattern. 

This cake has graced countless events in our family- weddings (mine included), birthdays (most recently for my 64th- sadly these days I have to bake my own birthday cakes), bar mitzvahs, maybe even a few funerals.

2 c. flour

2 c. sugar

2 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

2 t. cinnamon

4 eggs

1 c. oil

4 c. grated carrots

1/2 c. chopped nuts

8-10 walnut halves

Preheat oven to 350°.

Stir together the flour, sugar, soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a large mixer bowl, beat the eggs until frothy, then slowly beat in the oil. 

On low speed, stir in the flour mixture, stirring until smooth. Hand mix in the carrots and nuts.

Pour the batter into 3 greased & floured 8” round cake pans, or a 10” tube pan. Bake 25-30 minutes in 8” pans, and about 1 hour in a tube pan.

Cool on a rack 10 minutes, then turn out to cool completely on racks. Fill and frost with cream cheese icing (below). Decorate with walnut halves.  Serves 8-12.

Cream Cheese Icing

4 Tb butter, softened

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

4 1/3 c. powdered sugar

1 t. vanilla

Blend the butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar, continue beating until smooth and creamy. Stir in the flavoring(s). Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before frosting the cake.

It is with great sadness that I must announce the loser in the category 

Worst Dessert of the Year:

From cookbook author Dorie Greenspan, this Gingerbread Bûche de Noël was a huge disaster! It tasted really awful and almost ruined our Christmas dinner. . So, readers beware, there are many accolades from serious foodies for this dessert, but don't believe everything you read (or see- from my photo this baby looks like it's pretty tasty- NOT!!)

Goopy Italian meringue icing, insipid cake, lackluster filling- BLEH!

The Picky Eater's Awards for Best Dessert, 2014

The awards season is rolling around, and we here at The Picky Eater decided to throw our winners for best desserts of 2013 into the ring. Trust me, you will be green as creme de menthe with envy when you peruse the delicious sweets that we enjoyed whether out on the town(s) or made at home this year.

Best New Cookie
Commercial: "Corn Cookies" from Momofuko Milk Bar in New York City
We haven't tried to recreate them at home, but you can find a version of the recipe at The Kitchn

Homemade: 
"Chewy Expresso Cookies"
(Broadly adapted from Smitten Kitchen's "Crispy, Chewy" Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe)
This cookie dough must be refrigerated for at least 4 hours before baking to prevent spreading. Also under bake the cookies to maintain their chewiness- they will finish baking on their cookie sheets as they cool.

Chewy Expresso Cookies
Makes about 32 cookies.

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
2  cups unbleached flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tb finely ground (to a powder) coffee beans - preferably decaf beans. If you have ground coffee, pulverize it in a blender or food processor.
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 TB vanilla extract
1 cup nuts, toasted & chopped (Heat on a cookie sheet in a 375 degree oven for 5-7 minutes, until they just start to taste toasty.)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Melt the butter on the stove or in the microwave and set aside to cool slightly. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking soda, and ground coffee.

Using a stand mixer, beat together the melted butter and both sugars on medium speed for two minutes.

Whisk together the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla in a measuring cup with a spout. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the egg mixture and beat until it is thoroughly combined.

Remove the mixer bowl from the machine and hand stir in the flour with a wooden spoon, in three portions. Stir in the chocolate chips and chopped nuts. Refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and place the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out walnut size balls of dough and place them about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Bake about 12-15 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets from the top to bottom racks and front to back. The cookies should still be slightly squishy in the middle when you remove them from the oven.

Allow them to cool about 5 minutes on the cookie sheets and then transfer them with a spatula to a cooling rack.

Best New Cake 
Homemade:
"Eggnog Pound Cake with Crystal Rum Glaze"
from Baking for All Occasions by dessert maven Flo Braker
Be still my heart- this is the most scrumptious new cake to grace my oven in recent memory- moist, without being heavy and hits just the right note of sweetness. We had the luxury of substituting an old E&J Gallo brandy for the rum, which may have accounted for this cake's extra smooth deliciousness. The lesson there- use a quality liqueur for best results, and spring for a nutmeg grater and fresh nutmegs! You can make your own non-alcoholic eggnog out of season (recipe below, adapted from Dumbies.com)

Eggnog Pound Cake with Crystal Rum Glaze
Makes a 10" bundt cake- about 16-20 servings
(have all the ingredients at room temperature)
1/2 cup dried currants
2 Tb dark rum, brandy or water
3 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature (plus more for buttering the pan)
2 cups white sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten (Don't ask me why, but if a baker asks you to beat something, I listen.)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup store-bought refrigerated (not canned) eggnog

Crystal (Rum) Glaze
3/4 cup white sugar
2 Tb rum (or freshly squeezed orange juice for a non-alcoholic version)
2 Tb water

Prior to starting the cake, combine the currants and liqueur or water in a small bowl and set aside for 15 minutes. Place your rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees (325 degrees if your pan has a dark finish). Thickly butter and flour a 10"bundt or springform tube pan.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a medium size bowl and set aside. Beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light colored and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Stop several times during beating to scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the mixer on medium low, and the eggs a tablespoon or two at a time, continuing to stop and scrape down the bowl, until all the egg is incorporated. Briefly mix in the vanilla.

Remove the mixer bowl and hand stir in the flour mixture, alternating with the eggnog- 3 additions of flour & 2 of eggnog, making sure that each addition is thoroughly incorporated before adding the next. Gently fold in the prepared currants and soaking liquid.

Use a rubber spatula to spoon and evenly spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake until the top springs back when lightly touched and the sides are starting to come away from the pan, about 45-60 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for about 10 minutes while you make the glaze . Stir the sugar and liquids together in a small bowl with a rubber spatula until just blended.

Turn the cake out onto a rack and leave the decorative side up. Place the rack over a large plate or tray to catch the excess glaze. Use a pastry brush to generously coat the top and sides of the warm cake with all of the glaze. Let it cool completely before serving. To transfer the cake to a serving plate, use a large offset spatula to loosen the cake from the rack and slide it onto the plate.

Kid-Friendly Eggnog
Yield: about 2 cups (2 servings)

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
f1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Beat or blend together in a blender the milk, cream, sugar, and eggs until smoothly mixed. Add the vanilla and nutmeg.
This eggnog is uncooked, which works just fine for baking in a cake. If you decide to make a recipe to consume, drink it asap or cook the milk, egg & sugar mixture on low heat, whisking constantly, until it just thickens. Remove from the heat, add the vanilla and nutmeg and chill before drinking, adding a jigger of rum, whiskey, or brandy for the adults in the audience.

Best Cold Dessert
Restaurant: "Geranium Ice Cream with White Chocolate Mousse and Huckleberries" (Sons & Daughters, San Francisco)

Homemade:
The Picky Eater's adaptation of David Lebovitz's "Salted Caramel Ice Cream" She makes hers with a "wet" caramel, no praline, and less sugar and salt.
Picky Eater Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Makes about 3 cups

2 1/2 cups whole milk, divided
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons (60 gr) unsalted butter
1 tsp Fleur du Sel
6 large egg yolks
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract


Make an ice bath by filling a large bowl about a third full with ice cubes and adding a cup or so of water so they’re floating. Nest a smaller metal bowl (at least 2 quarts) over the ice, pour 1 cup of the milk into the inner bowl, and rest a mesh strainer on top of it.

Spread the cup of sugar in a small, heavy saucepan in an even layer. Add 1/2 cup of milk and gently stir together as briefly as possible. Cook over moderate heat, without stirring, until the mixture is caramelized. Once caramelized, remove from heat and stir in the butter and salt, until the butter is melted. The caramel may harden and seize, but return it to the heat and continue to stir over low heat until any hard caramel is melted. Stir in 1 cup of the milk.

Whisk the yolks in a small bowl and gradually pour some of the warm caramel mixture over the yolks, stirring constantly. Scrape the warmed yolks back into the saucepan and cook the custard using a heatproof utensil, stirring constantly (scraping the bottom as you stir) until the mixture thickens. If using an instant-read thermometer, it should read 160-170 F (71-77 C).

Pour the custard through the strainer into the milk set over the ice bath, add the vanilla, then stir frequently until the mixture is cooled down. Refrigerate at least 8 hours or until thoroughly chilled.

Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Best Chocolate Confection
Commercial: Dude, Sweet's FDA Chocolate Salami - whole meedjoul dates and dried figs ground and added to California marzipan with Valrohna cocoa nibs and 72% South American rolled in powdered sugar - a vegan delight!

Homemade:
"Pistachio, Almond, Dried Cherry and Cranberry Bark" from Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz.
We made a good thing even better by doubling the amounts of fruits and nuts and adding dried cranberries to the mix. This chocolate bark is a cinch to make, and also vegan to boot.

Pistachio, Almond, Dried Cherry and Cranberry Bark
Makes about 1 1/2 pounds

1 1/4 pounds (20 oz) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup almonds, toasted (see the toasting instructions in the Chewy Expresso Cookie recipe, above)
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Flaky sea salt (optional, but recommended)

Stretch a sheet of plastic wrap tautly across a flat cookie sheet.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over simmering water until it is almost melted. Remove the top double boiler pan from over the hot water and stir the chocolate until it is completely melted. Mix in the nuts and dried fruits.

Scrape the mixture onto the prepared cookie sheet and use a spatula to spread it out, trying to evenly distribute the fruits and nuts. Flick bits of salt across the top of the bark. Refrigerate the cookie sheet until the chocolate is solid. When the bark is firm, break it into rough pieces. Store in the refrigerator for from one to two weeks.

Best Jam or Jelly
Commercial: "Blood Orange Marmalade" from June Taylor
Homemade: Robert Sabbatini & Bonnie Loyd's "Pear Vanilla Jam."
Smooth and succulent on the palate; essence of vanilla predominates at the start, but there are strong notes of pear in the finish.

Best Plating
Restaurant: Tie between
"The Fire Split" (Fire Food & Drink, Cleveland) - a fudge brownie, salted caramel ice cream and brûléed banana

and "variations of dark chocolate and pumpkin" (SPQR, San Francisco) - Pumpkin cake, chocolate sauce, pumpkin gelato, and pumpkin mousse enrobed in chocolate ganache.

Couldn't resist- took a bite before the photo was shot!

Maida Heatter Lifetime Achievement Award
Since the 1970's Maida Heatter, a.k.a. "the Queen of Desserts," has been making the world a sweeter and more chocolaty place. She is the author of nine classic dessert cookbooks, including the James Beard Award-winning Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts.  Ms. Heatter is a member of the James Beard Foundation Hall of Fame, has been named to Cook's Magazine's Who's Who in Cooking, and was one of the first people inducted into the Chocolatier Hall of Fame. An octogenarian, she continues to bake joyfully from her home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Commercial: Macarons from Laduree

Homemade:
"Fudge Crackle Cookies" based on a recipe, with a few additions, from The Village Baker's Wife by Gayle Ortiz.
Often imitated but never duplicated. Our standard household cookie since 1997. I estimate that I have baked more than 2500 of these babies in my time, and, unlike many things in life, they are still as good today as they were the first time.

Here  is an ode that the Picky Eater wrote to these extraordinary cookies at age 10:
"She was a wonderful dark chocolate cookie. Many cracks mar the surface, and strewn about, half buried in the airy earth cookie itself, are boulders of chocolate and nut. I took a bite, and the delectable deep rich chocolaty flavor bordered by the sweet crunch of the sugar coating filled my taste buds with delight. I swallowed, and the chunk of cookie slid down my throat like an ecstatic kid skiing down a mountain. I couldn’t resist. I took another bite, and another and another, each better than the last. When I was done I licked the last crumbs off my lips, and ran off to play."

Fudge Crackle Cookies
Makes three dozen cookies
For proper baking this dough must chill at least 5 hours before baking.

1/2 c. butter
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate- quality chocolate only!! No Trader Joe's concoctions.
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
2 t. vanilla
2 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 c. pecans, finely chopped
1 c. chocolate chips

Sugar for coating

Melt the chocolate and butter over simmering water. Set aside to cool. Beat the sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth, Blend in the chocolate mixture.

In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Hand stir the flour into the batter until just incorporated. Add the nuts and choc. chips. Refrigerate the  dough at least 5 hours.

Preheat oven to 325°. Place coating sugar in a shallow bowl. Working with 1/3 of the dough at a time (leave remainder in refrigerator), take 1 Tb of dough, roll into a ball, and roll in sugar. Place balls 2” apart on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.

Bake 12-20 minutes, until cookies have a slight crust, but are soft to the touch. Cool on wire racks.

In the Kitchen Lab with the Picky Eater

The Picky Eater was telling me that I really could stop experimenting with desserts-  I have a bunch of great ones that always turn out splendidly, and I should just stick with those. (These comments were the result of a couple of less than stellar Thanksgiving dessert attempts.)

She, on the other hand, I was informed, was still searching for her dessert repertoire, and the following recipe is a recent successful experiment:

Smooth & creamy thanks to Cuisinart!

Homemade Nutella
(Adapted from The Kitchn and, well, logic)
Most recipes don’t have you put any actual chocolate in, I thought I’d add some.  This isn’t terribly sweet (especially compared to the commercial stuff), so add more sugar if you want.
Makes ~1 cup, or the perfect amount to swirl in a cake

1 ½ cups raw almonds
¼ cup couverture disks, 70% (or half a dark chocolate bar you’ve got laying around)
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ tsp salt
Sunflower oil, as needed (almond, hazelnut, or peanut oils would be lovely, but not necessary)

Toast the almonds in a skillet until dark and fragrant.  Place in the food processor along with the chocolate and process until paste-like.  Add the cocoa powder, sugar, and salt, and blend some more.  Dribble in oil until a spreadable consistency.

Refrigerate for up to 1 week, but good luck with that.  Or, swirl into the following cake:

Vanilla-Almond Bundt with Homemade Nutella

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for the pan
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for the pan
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 large eggs
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract (not necessary, but nice)
¾ cup buttermilk*

Preheat the oven to 350º.  Butter and flour a 10-cup capacity bundt pan thoroughly—I used a springform style for easier release and the cake still stuck some.

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, approx. 3 to 5 minutes.  With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between each addition.  Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts.

Combined the flour, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl, and add 1/3 to batter, beating until just combined, then half the buttermilk, 1/3 flour, remaining buttermilk, and remaining flour.   Scrape down occasionally and don’t mix any more than you have to—I like to do the last flour addition by hand.

Place half the batter in the pan, smooth, and make a small channel.  Add one batch homemade nutella or about one cup of store-bought nutella and cover with the remaining batter.  Swirl thoroughly (I wished I’d done more, I ended up with a cake with nutella filling instead of a swirl) and smooth the top of the cake.  Bake for 55-60 minutes, turning halfway through.  The cake is done as soon as a tester comes out clean of batter.

Let sit for 10-15 minutes to cool, and then turn out of the pan.

*If you haven’t got buttermilk, either add a couple spoonfuls of plain yogurt to enough milk to make buttermilk consistency (what I did) or add 1 tsp lemon juice to a cup of milk.  We’re more likely to have yogurt (and it’s actually more like cultured buttermilk), so I used 1 ½ Tb greek yogurt in enough milk to make ¾ cup, and it worked brilliantly

This cake bakes up beautifully, with a nice contrast between the almost bittersweet nutella and the cake. Unfortunately we didn't get an interior shot.

Serve to a large party of teenage engineers and watch it disappear.

Fantasy Birthday Dinner

I had a small birthday over the weekend, small as in not one of those birthday years that end in zero or five.Truth be told, and I really never thought that I would say this, the older you get the smaller and less significant those birthday years become.

My mother promulgated a great sense of celebration and specialness to her children's birthdays. This was related to the fact that when it came time for her own mother, a child immigrant whose real birthdate was lost in a Ukranian shtetl, to choose a date for her birth, she chose the same day as my mother's. Growing up I always rather liked the idea that my mother and grandmother had the same birthday, but my mother absolutely hated it, and felt that her special day had been "stolen" by her mother. Consequently, doing what many parents do to heal themselves, we were always given fabulous birthday parties with lots of guests, gifts, and most of all, spectacular tiered birthday cakes, baked & decorated by my mother herself, cake decorating being her chosen artistic outlet. As an adult, I would never consider going to work on my birthday unless it was totally unavoidable, and usually try to pack the day doing things that I love - nice meals, friends, shopping, a spa visit, etc.

Last week I started mulling over what I would cook for a special fantasy birthday dinner, and with my chef de barbeque's assistance it came to pass in an abbreviated but most satisfactory form:

Menu

Fromage d'Affinois & Asiago fresca with panzanella crackers

Gazpacho Andaluz

Popovers

Bistecca alla Fiorentina

Vegetables en brochette

Al Di La's Torta di Pere (Bittersweet Chocolate & Pear Cake)

The man of mystery himself- Mr. Vincent Price

The gazpacho recipe is my adaptation of one served at Botin, a restaurant in Madrid founded c. 1725. Yea these many long years ago (well, about 30 years ago) I actually ate gazpacho at Botin, but the recipe comes via a truly delightful vintage 1960's cookbook- A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Price. Yes that Vincent Price, star of many a bloodcurdling B monster movie, who evidently was quite a gourmand when he wasn't sipping blood. The cookbook is a compendium of recipes from what were at the time some of the world's most illustrious restaurants, many of which, sadly have closed their doors- from dinner at Tour d'Argent in Paris to breakfast on the Santa Fe Super Chief. Probably the most amusing recipe is the one for frankfurters from the newly opened (at the time) LA Dodgers stadium, Chavez Ravine.

Gazpacho Andaluz
serves 4-6.

6 slices white bread, cubed
3 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded & chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 quart tomato juice

1 clove garlic
2 Tb wine vinegar
1/2 t. cumin
salt & pepper
3 Tb olive oil

Garnishes
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 lg. tomato
1 cucumber
Baguette slices rubbed with garlic and olive oil, and toasted. (Recipe here.)

Layer the bread and chopped vegetables in a large bowl. Pour tomato juice over all. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Puree the soup in a food processor with the garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and cumin. Correct the seasonings. Chill for at least 2 hours.

Chop garnish vegetables and mix together. Sprinkle on top of each serving of soup. Serve cold with baguette croutons.

Hard to match the satisfaction of pulling these babies out of the oven!

Perfect Popovers
Palo Alto baking goddess Flo Braker's recipe. Declared by our guests to be better than Neiman's (Marcus, that is.) To prevent sticking, be sure to generously butter the muffin cups and extract the popovers asap.

2 eggs
1 c. whole milk at room temp
1 Tb melted butter
1 c. flour
½ t. salt

Adjust the oven rack to the lower third of the oven; and preheat the oven to 400°. Generously grease 6 popover cups or a large muffin size tin with butter.

Combine the eggs, milk, melted butter, flour, and salt in a blender or food processor; process for about 40 seconds. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times and blend until the mixture is completely smooth.

To make by hand, whisk together the eggs, milk, and butter in a large bowl. Add the flour and salt and beat until very smooth.

Pour the batter into the cups or tin, filling each ½ to 2/3 full. Bake until the popovers are puffed and golden brown, 35-40 minutes. Do not open the oven door during baking or the popovers will collapse.

Serve with butter and jam of your choice.
Makes 6-8 popovers.  (Flo Braker; SF Chronicle, 1993.)

Bistecca alla Fiorentina
We have gorged on many wonderful specimens of this fine thick cut Porterhouse steak. The one eaten at Mamma Gina in Florence in 2007 has been memorialized on our computerized photo frame, and more recently a nice one was shared among three of us at perennial favorite Cantinetta Luca in Carmel last July. This recipe is courtesy of Saveur magazine, issue #157.
Serves 4


2 (1½″- 2 " thick) bone-in porterhouse steaks (3½ lb.) at room temperature
¼ cup olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 sprigs rosemary
Lemon wedges, for serving

Heat a charcoal grill or set a gas grill to high; bank the coals or turn off burner on one side. Brush the steaks with half the oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the steaks on the hottest part of grill, flipping once, until browned, 4-6 minutes. Using rosemary sprigs as a brush, baste the steaks with the remaining oil. Cook to desired doneness, 4-6 minutes more for medium rare, or until an instant-read thermometer reads 125°. If the outside starts to burn before the steak is fully cooked, move to the cooler side of the grill until done. Let steaks rest 5 minutes; slice against the grain along the bone. Serve with lemon wedges.

Vegetables en brochette
For 4 people. Just made this up on the fly.

4 small zucchini, ends removed & cut in 1" chunks
8-10 large mushrooms, stems trimmed & cut in half vertically
8 (or more) 1" diameter boiling potatoes
1 red bell pepper, seeded & cut in 1 1/2" squares
1 green bell pepper, seeded & cut in 1 1/2" squares
olive oil for brushing
salt & pepper

6-8 12" wooden skewers, soaked for 1 hour in water

Parboil the potatoes for about 20 minutes until they are just cooked. Alternately thread the vegetables on skewers. Brush with olive oil and cook on the grill along with the meat, turning once or twice. cooking time is about ten minutes.


Al Di La's Pear- Chocolate Cake from Smitten Kitchen failed quality control- too done on the outside and underdone in the middle. Having had an underdone cake disaster earlier in the week, I went overboard, or rather, overbaked. Will try it again soon using a tube pan. Instead I offer a tried and true family recipe
Nadine’s Cheesecake (photo to follow)
While people from the East Coast usually say this isn’t rich enough, it's rich enough for us! The legend in our family is that this recipe was the origin of Saralee’s cheesecake. In the 1940's a member of the family from Los Angeles that started Saralee was hospitalized in Fresno, and my grandmother didn't know her well enough to justify buying her flowers, so she baked her a cheesecake instead. When the woman recovered she asked for the recipe, and little did my grandmother know what would become of it!

1 1/2 boxes vanilla wafers
1/2 c. butter, melted
3/4 c. sugar
3 Tb flour
1/4 t. salt
24 oz. cream cheese, room temp.
6 eggs, separated
2 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. sour cream

Preheat the oven to 325°.
Crumble the vanilla wafers into crumbs and mix with the butter. Press them onto the bottom and sides of a 9 1/2” springform pan. Refrigerate.

Blend the sugar, flour, salt, and cream cheese together until well mixed, then add the egg yolks, vanilla, and sour cream. Blend well, until smooth.

Beat the egg whites until stiff, and fold them into the cream cheese mixture. Pour the batter into the crumb-lined pan. Bake 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 hours, until nicely browned on top. The cake may crack a little. When done, cover the cake with a clean dishtowel and leave in the turned off oven until it has cooled. Refrigerate until serving time.

Sprinkle top with powdered sugar before serving.