Archives for category: Desserts
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Brownies, from Paris to New York

September 4, 2011 //
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The blogosphere is well-stocked with food blogs. Mine is one of probably one million. I think one of the best is David Lebovitz’s Living the Sweet Life in Paris.

While many Parisians had taken off for August, Lebovitz kept on blogging, in part from San Francisco, where he was attending the 40th anniversary celebrations of Chez Panisse, where he was a cook and pastry chef from 1986 to 1999.

I haven’t been baking much this summer but these brownies on his blog caught my eye. They’re gluten-free, for one, and looked fudgy and amazing. (He must shoot with a Canon 7D and not an iPhone.) I don’t even really eat brownies anymore—I’m trying to eat less sugar and chocolate—but they were too darn pretty not to try. I figured I wouldn’t have too much trouble pawning them off on friends or my grandmother.

Instead of flour the recipe calls for corn starch and unsweetened cocoa powder which act as binders along with the eggs and provide a brownie-like consistency instead of just fudge. These brownies do get crumbly but are chocolately, dense, and moist. You need to mix these well and apparently that will achieve a less crumbly consistency. One of the keys here is to use the best quality ingredients you can find. Good cocoa powder for example, high-quality chocolate (upgrade from Baker’s, for instance), and good butter. And that’s basically all these brownies are. I used Valrhona cocoa powder, Ghirardelli 60% cocoa bars, and unsalted Kate’s Butter from Maine.

For a twist, I added a pinch of cayenne pepper and two pinches of Maldon sea salt. You could taste the heat just a little bit with each bite to make you wonder what was that flavor. I used a cup of toasted walnuts, but you could also use almonds or pecans.

Next time I make these I might try adding one more egg, to achieve just a little more cake-like consistency and less crumble; maple syrup instead of turbinado sugar (some of the crystals didn’t melt and integrate); cacao nibs for crunch, like Lebovitz does; and instead of lining my pan with wax paper, which just stuck like glue to the bottom of the brownies even though greased, I wouldn’t use any liner and just butter and flour the bottom of the glass pan well.

And the good news: you can serve these to your gluten-free friends! (But sadly, not to vegan friends because of the eggs.) They’ll be an almost universal crowd-pleaser.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Brownies
Adapted from David Lebovitz

Makes 9 brownies

6 tbsp (85 g) butter, salted or unsalted (if unsalted, add a pinch of salt)
8 oz (225 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 c (150 g) sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tbsp (30 g) corn starch
optional: 1 c (135 g) nuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
optional: pinch of cayenne

Grease an 8-inch (23 cm) square pan then lightly flour. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (180C).

In a double boiler (or on very, very low heat) melt the butter and chocolate (and salt, if using) in a medium saucepan, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar, then the eggs, one at a time.

Sift together the cocoa powder and corn starch in a bowl, stir, then add to the chocolate mixture. Beat the batter vigorously for at least one minute (no less!), until the batter is smooth and not grainy. Add the nuts, if using, and pour into your pan.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake. Let the brownies cool completely before cutting or transferring to a plate.

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Categories Chocolate, Desserts

July Blues

July 28, 2011 //
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You might say I’m in my blue period.

After all, it is late July, the season for plump, sweet, sun-ripened blueberries: in yogurt, pancakes, smoothies, popsicles, on their own, in a cobbler, crumble, or pie. Heck there’s a farm-vineyard in Vermont that makes dry blueberry wines.

So what to do with three pounds of just-picked blueberries?

What I usually do when I need kitchen advice: turn to Bittman.

How to Cook Everything has a crowd-pleaser of a cobbler. Bitty credits it to his friend, food writer and former Gourmet and Cooks Illustrated editor John Willoughby, who came across the recipe in the south years ago. It’s the perfect dessert to tuck into with vanilla ice cream after some barbecue, corn-on-the-cob, burgers, or some other summer, picnicky food.

But I wanted to see what another trusted friend in the kitchen had to say about the blues: Joy of Cooking. First printed in 1931, some 60 years before Bittman’s tome, I wondered if Joy might offer different wisdom on the blueberry. Well Joy covers the basics: freezing, canning, how to pick, and jam, muffins, and pie. Nothing fancy. This was after all, a time when fruit was fruit and not yet appearing in cocktails, reductions, or panna cotta gelée.

So my next challenge: the Blueberry Custard Tarts from Joy, made with a pâte sucrée. I’ve got the blues, now all I’ll need are 3-inch tart shells.

Blueberry Cobbler, from How to Cook Everything

4 to 6 c blueberries
1 c sugar, or to taste
8 tbsp (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter, cut into bits, plus more for greasing the pan
1/2 c all-purpouse flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

  1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Toss the fruit with half the sugar, and spread it in a lightly buttered 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking pan.
  2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and 1/2 c sugar in the container of a food processor and pulse once or twice. Add the butter and process for 10 seconds, until the mixture is well blended. By hand, beat in the egg and vanilla.
  3. Drop the mixture onto the fruit by the spoonful; do not spread it out. Bake until golden yellow and just starting to brown, 35 to 45 minutes. Serve immediately.

Blueberry Custard Tarts, from Joy of Cooking

For the pâte sucrée:

Six 3-inch tart shells
1 c all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Work into it as you would for pastry, using a pastry blender or the tips of your fingers:
6 tbsp softened butter
Make a well, and add:
1 egg yolk 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp lemon juice or water

Stir with your fingers until the mixture forms one blended ball and no longer adheres to your hands. Cover it and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Roll to 1/8-inch thickness as for pie dough. Line the tart pans with this dough. Prick and weight down with beans or pebbles. Bake in a 400F oven 7 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Unmold the pastry shells and cool on a rack.

For the filling:

Fill tarts with a mixture of:
1 quart blueberrires
1/2 c sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
Bake about 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Cook and stir over—not in—boiling water until thickened:
1/2 c cream
3 beaten egg yolks
1/2 c sugar
1/8 tsp salt
Cool the custard and pour it over the slightly cooled tarts. Continue to cool and top with whipped cream.


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Categories Desserts, Summer

Chocolate Cake (look ma no eggs!)

May 1, 2011 //
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If you’re like me, when you get a whiff of warm weather—even if today, it’s only the faintest whiff—your mind turns to summer and the sweet memories of summers past. Six years ago I had the pleasure of cooking for a gaggle of campers in the Sonoma redwoods about ninety miles north of San Francisco. Plantation Farm Camp is located in Cazadero, CA, just a few miles from the Pacific and off the Highway 1.

The campers live outside all summer and help run this working farm — feeding animals and gardening, with plenty of time for swimming and tie-dying t-shirts. The staff also live outside, in tents, and on more than one occasion I tucked into my sleeping bag to find a lizard squatting in there. I loved living and working here. The natural beauty of the environs inspired introspection, and the bounty of the farm inspired dishes like lamb scented with fresh-picked lavender.

This dish here, while not exactly inspired by the local or seasonal bounty of Sonoma County, became a staple dessert that summer. Many of the campers could not eat dairy and we devised this dairy-free, egg-free chocolate cake that is so moist and luscious, you do not miss what’s missing. Elise, our kitchen manager, said the secret was in the unlikely ingredient of white vinegar.

Plantation Farm Camp Chocolate Cake

2 1/2 c flour
2 c sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2/3 c good quality cocoa powder (Scharffen Berger, Ghiradelli, since we’re on the west coast)
2 tsp white vinegar
2 tsp good quality vanilla
2 c cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa. (Don’t skip the sifting step.)

In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients, then add to the dry mixture, mixing as little as possible while still removing the lumps.

Pour the batter into a greased pan, such as two 8″ round cake pans, a bundt pan, or rectangular pan. Baking times will vary depending on the type of dish you use. About 30 minutes for the 8″, a little more for a bundt.

For a variation, you could try adding spices like chili powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, or ground clove. For a mocha cake use strong-brewed coffee in place of some of the water.

Chocolate Frosting (no dairy)

1 c margarine
2 c powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
4 tbsp soy or rice milk
1/2 c cocoa powder

Blend the room-temperature margarine with a spoon until soft, then add the dry ingredients, followed by the wet. For variation you could add mashed banana, cream cheese, or coffee to the frosting.

Plantation Farm Camp

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