Posted by Lucy Baker, September 26, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Something about gingersnaps—perhaps their subtle, warm spiciness; perhaps their crumbly crunch—reminds me of crisp autumn leaves. Right around this time of year, I start to crave a plate of cookies straight from the oven, paired with a steaming mug of apple cider.
The trouble with gingersnaps, though, is that they sometimes lack pronounced ginger flavor. Nick Malgieri solves this problem with his Three-Way Gingersnaps, excerpted here from The Modern Baker, by incorporating fresh, ground, and crystallized ginger into the dough. He bakes them at a low temperature to ensure that they are extra snappy. Store the cookies between sheets of wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight-fitting lid.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, September 25, 2008 at 1:00 PM
In the 1970s, the author of this week's Cook the Book Nick Malgieri visited with James Beard, who told him about a cake that was "little more than some sweetened whipped cream, a couple of eggs, and some flour." The recipe had been submitted to a contest he was judging, and while it was supremely delicious, Beard felt it just wasn't complex enough to win.
Malgieri disagrees. He thinks this simple Whipped Cream Layer Cake, excerpted from this week's Cook the Book selection, The Modern Baker, "is a winner, hands down." Finish it with plain sweetened whipped cream if you like, but Malgieri's caramel whipped cream is a bit more sophisticated, adding another dimension of flavor. Garnish the sides with toasted, slivered almonds for extra-special presentation.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, September 24, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Everyone needs a chocolate tart recipe in their back pocket—one they can whip up for a last-minute dinner party, a hectic holiday meal, or for a special treat on a chilly Sunday night.
Nick Malgieri's Bittersweet Chocolate Tart, excerpted from The Modern Baker, couldn't be simpler. A press-in cookie crust is filled with a bittersweet ganache, topped with chocolate shavings, and sprinkled with confectioners' sugar. Since flavor of the filling depends entirely on the chocolate, use the best available. For the more adventurous crowd, he includes a variation for a Chocolate Raspberry Tart.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, September 24, 2008 at 12:00 PM
The following recipe is from the September 24th edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
Everyone loves crunchy, gooey chocolate chunk cookies. This version, from award-winning pastry chef and bestselling cookbook author Nick Malgieri uses a combination of bittersweet and milk chocolate, and plenty of butter and brown sugar to impart a strong butterscotch flavor. Pass the milk.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, September 23, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Pot pies are one of those soul-satisfying, stick-to-your-ribs dishes that start to sound really appealing in the early fall. The leaves are beginning to change, it's getting darker earlier, and there's a bit of a nip in the air. Instead of clam bakes and corn on the cob, we crave slow-cooked meals made with hearty meats; tender root vegetables; and warm, crunchy crusts.
While much of this week's Cook the Book selection, The Modern Baker, is devoted to sweet treats (keep your eyes out later this week for a luscious Whipped Cream Layer Cake), author Nick Malgieri devotes one whole section to savory tarts and pies. The last recipe in the chapter is for Chicken Pie with Biscuit Topping.
Always keen on keeping cooking times short, Nick substitutes cubed boneless chicken thighs for the more commonly called for bone-in breasts. A drop biscuit topping, versus one made from pastry, simplifies preparation even further. The vegetables he uses are carrots, onions, and peas, but feel free to substitute whatever you like. And if you prefer white meat, just substitute boneless chicken breasts for the thighs.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, September 19, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Last night I had the pleasure of attending a party celebrating the publication of this week's Cook the Book selection, Olives & Oranges by Sara Jenkins and Mindy Fox. In addition to the delicious Prosecco cocktails, I sampled many dishes from the book including Roasted Cauliflower with Tahini Sauce and Chicken Liver Crostini. Unfortunately I had to leave before the porchetta sandwiches came out, but I'll be sure to stop by Jenkins' new East Village shop, which opens on Monday.
While at the party, I asked Alia Hanna Habib, the book's publicist, which dessert she thought I should excerpt from the book. The Plum Sorbetto? The Coffee Cardamom Crème Caramel? Alia told me that while they were all exquisite, her favorite recipe was for Lemon Olive Oil Cake. It's simple (she often whips it up in the morning before work) yet sophisticated (even impressed a friend visiting from Italy). Plus, it's versatile: perfect for dinner parties, and for breakfast the next morning.
Lemon Olive Oil Cake is similar to pound cake, except that the fat used is olive oil instead of butter. Surprisingly, this lends the finished cake an even richer texture. While many renditions of olive oil cake call for milk, Sara uses whole milk yogurt, which imparts a subtle tang. The success of this cake depends wholly on the olive oil, so use top-quality extra-virgin.
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Posted by Amanda Clarke, September 18, 2008 at 8:30 AM
As much as I’m loath to admit it, dessert was never meant as sustenance. Rather, it is the non-essential flourish, a luxury that one allows—perhaps occasionally, perhaps daily—once the primal necessity of nourishment has taken place with the rest of the meal. Dessert extends the experience of a meal into the realm of the purely sensual and enjoyable.
In devising new dishes, my primary focus is, of course, to make something delicious, but I also believe it is important to make dishes that are multi-faceted, thus triggering a variety of sensations and making the indulgence that is dessert as interesting, satisfying, and worthwhile as possible. For the opening dessert menu at No. 7, where the savory menu runs to classic favorites with thoughtful twists, I wanted to tow that line by creating dishes that would be fairly familiar, but also satisfy in unexpected and varied ways.
Having already settled on a chocolate cake and a vanilla pudding, an apple pie seemed like the next logical addition, especially with apples coming into full swing. But individual pie pans were not an option, as our prep kitchen was literally 100°F at the time—rendering a flakey pie crust all but impossible—our ovens were (and are) a bit idiosyncratic, and we had to work with a fairly tight remaining budget for opening. An apple tart, though, just a shade or two removed from pie, seemed doable.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, September 17, 2008 at 5:45 PM
Like most people, I prefer to start my day with a healthy meal. My breakfast usually consists of fresh fruit and two rice cakes topped with cottage cheese. It's certainly not as delicious as a bacon-and-pancake feast, but it's full of calcium and protein, and keeps me full until lunch.
That said, life if all about compromise. We deserve to treat ourselves—in moderation—every now and again. Some mornings I wake up with an insatiable craving for something warm, sweet, and carb-laden, like a scone or a thick piece of crumb cake. On such occasions I'm often tempted to head for the bakery on my corner, but I know this wouldn't be the best decision. Their muffins are amazing, sure, but they are total calorie bombs: the size of grapefruits, and made with copious amounts of oil, butter, and cream.
Instead, I often make a beeline for my freezer. It's well-stocked with loaf cakes, which are one of my favorite things to bake for their simplicity, and because they last for months frozen when well-wrapped in foil. Since I make them myself, I'm able to control the ingredients and make healthful substitutions. My banana bread will definitely cost you more than a couple of Weight Watchers points, but it's nowhere near as scary as the Starbucks treats, which can top out at almost 500 calories.
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Posted by Amanda Clarke, September 10, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Plating Devil's food cakes on opening night.
On Friday, the new Brooklyn restaurant where I am the pastry chef, opened its doors for business. Though the open kitchen (responsible for all of our savory dishes) is fully outfitted and operational, we are still awaiting for the convection oven, ice cream maker, and freezer in our basement prep kitchen. Since I knew this may be the case, and with the dramatic temperature differentials and even baking that such equipment out of my reach affords, I had to look beyond many of my usual methods and preparations in order to still create dynamic, interesting dishes.
The restaurant’s cuisine is generally casual—New American with some interesting twists and turns, so I turned to simple, archetypal American desserts for inspiration. Because chocolate dishes are generally the most popular on a dessert menu, that was my first priority. The visual and textural interest of a classic Devil’s food—a rich, deeply chocolaty, velvety moist cake surmounted by a raft of creamy meringue frosting—was an immediate fixation. It is, however, a delicate preparation with a short shelf-life, unstable in the heat and humidity of a restaurant kitchen, unlikely to survive a full service shift. And, the erratic, uneven ovens on the line were less than ideal for cake-baking anyways.
Undeterred, I began tinkering with alternatives. Instead of a volatile meringue, perhaps a marshmallow—little more than a meringue stabilized by gelatin or agar. And instead of baking the cake, maybe I could steam it.
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Posted by Ed Levine, September 7, 2008 at 8:00 AM
There are so many bad scones in the world that it's easy to forget how good a scone can be. These scones, adapted from Lora Brody's nifty book Cape Cod Table, are light, moist, and addictive. It takes a great deal of willpower to eat just one.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, August 27, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Classic, buttery brioche is delicious enough on it own. This version adds chocolate—twice—elevating it to sumptuous new heights. Cocoa powder is incorporated into the dough, and chocolate chips are folded into the brioche as it is shaped.
To make individual chocolate brioches, François Payard, author of this week's Cook the Book selection Chocolate Epiphany, offers these instructions: divide the dough into fifteen two-ounce rounds. Shape into balls, and press a one-inch chunk of bittersweet chocolate (60% or 72%) into the center of each round. Place them on a baking sheet, allow them to rise. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Bake as you would the loaves, checking to see if they are done after 20 minutes.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, July 18, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Here’s a confession: until recently I did not really understand the appeal of pie. As a child I didn’t care for things that were crisp and buttery, like shortbread and crust, and that was that. In the past few years, however, I started eating pie when politeness required me to, and soon saw that perhaps this dessert had something to offer (although it was still no cake, cookie, or ice cream in my book). My first successful homemade pie, baked to celebrate this past fourth of July, completed my conversion to enthusiastic pie-eater.
I had had good luck in the past with shortbread-type crusts for Frenchified tarts, but one or two previous attempts at American-style flaky crust had disappointed me. In the end, the pie crust that brought me around is the one my mother has used for years. Every Thanksgiving, convinced that I did not like crust, I would eviscerate her apple pie and pass the empty shell with its beautiful brown flaky-but-tender top edge on to my grateful father. Oh, the years I missed out on this crust! I won’t dwell on it now—I will simply bake more pies. This recipe is so fast, easy, and delicious I can’t imagine ever needing to track down another.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, July 3, 2008 at 5:45 PM
In her cookbook The Taste of Country Cooking, Edna Lewis says there was always pound cake on special summer occasions to eat with whatever berries and fruit were left over from canning and preserving. This cake is dense and delicious, with a crumb that is slightly heavier and pleasantly chewier than my usual recipe (Rose Levy Beranbaum’s, which melts in your mouth). It has a pleasing soft but dark brown crust. “Oh,” I thought when I tasted it, “this is what Sara Lee pound cake is trying to be.” I mixed it by hand with butter right out of the refrigerator, as she directs, and was delighted by the results.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, July 3, 2008 at 5:45 PM
When I made Edna Lewis's blueberry cake with blueberry sauce from her cookbook The Taste of Country Cooking I used a 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan, and my cake bubbled over a bit; next time I’ll set it atop a baking sheet. I will also drain my blueberries more thoroughly, as this time they were left too liquid. Nevertheless, I thought this was good (even if it was not as mind-blowing as the plain pound cake), and Andrew, who loves blueberries, thought it was extremely tasty. I would love to eat this with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
I must confess that I used regular baking powder, but to simulate the Royal Baking Powder called for in the original recipe, combine 2 parts cream of tartar with 1 part baking soda and use the called-for quantity of that mixture.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, June 17, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Last week when I reported that I had been comforted to learn that a woman can nibble and sip during labor, many experienced people spoke up to say that they thought this was a horrible idea. Another (falsely?) comforting thing I learned recently was that during the early phase of labor, while waiting for contractions to get strong and frequent enough to send you to the hospital, you should occupy yourself with calm and pleasant distractions. Suggested activities were walking, napping, having a snack, knitting, and baking; as Andrew said, “This is like a list of your all-time favorite things to do.”
Now I’m wondering if it’s unrealistic to plan on doing some serene baking as my contractions build, whether because I’ll be too hyper or in too much pain. I hope it works out, though, because baking makes me super happy, and I’ve already decided what I want to take to the hospital to share with nurses and visitors: the whole wheat chocolate chip cookies I made for myself a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I can’t make them again right away for myself; I ate so many I tipped the scales at the doctor’s office, inspiring a mini-lecture about nutrition, and I’m afraid I can’t trust myself to ration them out sensibly. The whole wheat flour definitely doesn’t make them healthy, but it does give them a special taste and chewy texture that I really like. I don’t like a lot of chocolate in my cookies, but if you do, use two cups of chips instead of one.
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Posted by Ed Levine, June 15, 2008 at 1:00 PM
This week's Cartoon Kitchen features Serious Eats' cartoonist in residence Larry Gonick's spin on honey cake. —Ed Levine
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, May 22, 2008 at 2:00 PM
This brownie was created by Brooks Headley, executive pastry chef at Del Posto in New York City. If you don't want to splurge on the aceto balsamico tradizionale, you can try reducing a supermarket balsamic vinegar in a nonreactive saucepan. Just be careful in the reduction—let it go too long, and your saucepan is toast. Here's the recipe's backstory »
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Posted by Blake Royer, May 8, 2008 at 4:15 PM
A few things attracted me to this recipe: its supposed Basque origins, its easy preparation in a food processor, and a quick 15-minute cooking time. I imagined the gratin of white beans would be crusty and creamy, like a long-cooked cassoulet.
It didn’t quite work out that way—what came out of the oven was satisfying, but not particularly mind-blowing. If nothing else, though, this recipe is a shining example of the creaminess potential of beans. With only 2 tablespoon of butter for four generous servings (plus a glug of olive oil), the resulting hummus-like spread was as smooth and rich as ever. That said, it was also a bit bland. The next time I try something like this, I’d go with a more assertive flavor like garlic or cayenne; the rosemary and peppers just wasn’t enough to compete with the wide, open taste of white beans.
But there’s nothing wrong with the method, and the result is a melty, healthy spread that I served with a pile of sautéed spinach and a grilled sausage. Next time, I’d only purée half the beans to give it some more textural interest, lose the cheese on top, double the bread crumbs, and put it under the broiler to assure a flavorful, crusty top.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, May 1, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Everyone has ingredients they can't resist. Favorite foods that are always kept on hand; items that, when spotted on restaurant menus make a dish impossible not to order. For my mother, it's artichoke hearts. For my boyfriend, it's bacon. For me, it's fennel. Fronds, shavings, wedges—I love the crunchy, sweet, licorice-flavored vegetable in all its incarnations.
Today's Cook the Book recipe, excerpted from Lidia's Italy, is for Baked Fennel with Prosciutto. This Roman dish is straight from the heart of Italian cooking, combining best-quality ingredients with simple preparation methods. Toss everything together hours ahead, store it in the fridge, and then pop it in then oven a bit before dinner.
Salty Prosciutto, fragrant cheese, sweet fennel, and a drizzle of butter. Who could resist that?
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, April 24, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Illustration by Florine Asch
It's not just potato-chip makers that understand that if you offer us something salty we won't be able to eat just one—French pastry chefs know that trick too. And Arnaud Larher, whose pastry shop is in Montmartre, is a master of the add-salt-and-we'll-munch-away school. He's the chef who created the TV Snacks, irresistibly munchable, salty little butter cookies molded into lumpy, bumpy balls.
When I asked Larher how he came up with the idea to make a salty cookie, he said it came to him very naturally, since he grew up in Brittany, where butter is always salted. "I'm just continuing the tradition," he said.
I bet you could start your own tradition with these.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 11, 2008 at 2:30 PM
And so we come to the end of this week's Cook the Book series, which has highlighted Crescent Dragonwagon's Cornbread Gospels. It's probably a little early to start thinking about the fresh, sweet corn of summer, but just hold on to this recipe for Fresh Corn Fritters till it's time.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 10, 2008 at 4:15 PM
Continuing this week's Cook the Book series, today's highlighted recipe from Crescent Dragonwagon's Cornbread Gospels is for George Washington's Favorite Corn Cakes. How do we know they're Washington's favorite? Dragonwagon cites Nelly Custis, Martha Washington's youngest granddaughter, who gave an account of the first president's morning routine, which included getting up before sunrise, reading and writing until 7 a.m. or so, and then breakfasting on three of these cakes, "swimming in butter and honey."
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, April 10, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Photograph by Alan Richardson
Here's my go-to cheesecake recipe, a classic that can be varied in almost limitless ways. (I've got 11 variations in my book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, and the only reason I stopped there was that it would have taken way too many pages to keep going.) It's an almost traditional New York Cheesecake—it's missing the lemon, which, of course, you could add—and it's tall and lush and, no surprise, creamy. I usually make it with a graham cracker or chocolate cookie crust, but if you'd like to make this for a Passover meal, you can easily omit the crust or use macaroon crumbs.
You'll see that I use either sour cream or heavy cream in the cake. The sour cream will give you a tangier cheesecake, more New York, I think, while the heavy cream is milder. As long as you keep the measurement at 1 1/3 cups, you can use whatever combo of the two you'd like. You can also add fruits or nuts, swirls of chocolate (melt some chocolate and mix it in with some of the cake batter) or flavor the cake with an extract or oil. Whatever you do, serve something light beforehand—the cake is rich and, even though everyone knows it, people still reach for seconds.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 9, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Continuing this week's Cook the Book series, today's highlighted recipe from Crescent Dragonwagon's Cornbread Gospels is for Craig Claiborne's Sunflower, Mississippi, Spoonbread. A book dedicated to cornbread would be nothing without a section on spoonbreads, and, of course, Dragonwagon delivers.
Basically a mush of either white or yellow cornmeal lightened with eggs and then baked, spoonbread, Dragonwagon says, is "the apotheosis of cornbread." The spoon in the dish's name is sometimes said to come courtesy of the fact that you spoon it from the baking vessel onto the plate, but Dragonwagon found citations that state the name may have come from the word suppawn, a Native American word for "porridge." Either way, it's seriously good stuff.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 9, 2008 at 9:00 AM
The following recipe is from the April 9 edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
One of the best cornbreads I've ever had was a friend's great-grandmother's cornbread, in which she mixed in some creamed corn to make the dish extra moist. This recipe, from Crescent Dragonwagon's The Cornbread Gospels, does the same. She developed it for her neighbor (the titular Carroll), who was having a little trouble with it as originally written. Try it split and toasted with butter and maple syrup.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, April 9, 2008 at 8:30 AM
If you can't get to the Dessert Truck in New York City to try their thick and creamy chocolate and hazelnut-flavored Gianduja pot de crème, here's a recipe to make it at home! It's comprised mostly of half and half, chocolate, hazelnut butter, and eggs. Mm, fatty deliciousness.
Also, be sure to check out the dessert-by-dessert review of the Dessert Truck on Ed Levine Eats.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 8, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Yesterday we highlighted a Southern cornbread, so today I think it's only fair we make a bit of a deal about a Northern cornbread. Crescent Dragonwagon, the author of The Cornbread Gospels, says that this cornbread is sweet (as you'd expect), but not too sweet and that it rises high, so expect to see a little dome in the middle.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, April 8, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Last month my mother and I were talking about what babies eat and when during their first year, and she asked me if I was planning to make my own baby food. "Of course I am planning to," I said, “but I understand that things get a little crazy when you're dealing with a baby." My dreams of beautiful little jars of farmer's market vegetables lovingly pureed by mama will, I'm sure, soon be abandoned when mama is not getting the generous amount of sleep to which she is accustomed.
The difficulties of the third trimester, pain of labor, and complications of breastfeeding are all described in excruciating detail in pregnancy books, but the infant’s overwhelming needs are just vaguely, ominously mentioned. I believe it’s true because everyone says so, but I still don’t quite understand how a tiny baby can take up so much time that you have trouble sneaking in a shower. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 7, 2008 at 4:00 PM
The first of our cornbread recipes this week is for a Southern cornbread. Crescent Dragonwagon, the book's author, has helpfully broken up The Cornbread Gospels into regional divisions, explaining the differences among them. There are too many to go into here, suffice it to say that this cornbread should do you right no matter where you live. It's a recipe adapted from Sook Faulk, whose niece Marie Rudisill was Truman Capote's aunt. Faulk reportedly gave the recipe to Rudisill "with the understanding that [she] would share them with Truman Capote, [her] sister's child, who had been brought up in Sook's hometown, Monroe, Alabama."
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Posted by Emily Koh, March 31, 2008 at 4:45 PM
And the first of our Cook the Book recipes this week from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book is for sweet muffins. And with the variations here, you'll have at least three ways of making these treats, which are ideal for a quick breakfast snack.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 16, 2008 at 5:00 PM
That L.A. Times article about chefs blogging led me to the L.2O Blog, which had a great baking hack:
You need steam in the oven chamber to keep the exterior of the dough from prematurely drying and forming a crust before it is fully developed. Hence the pan filled with wet rocks for the conventional oven (pour water over the hot rocks to fill your oven with steam).
Of course, Laurent Gras, the lucky stiff behind L.20 Blog and its eponymous restaurant doesn't need so pedestrian a hack anymore, since he just took delivery on a killer steam-injection oven.
Posted by Dorie Greenspan, March 13, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Photograph by Alan Richardson
I’m still in Paris (yay!) and while I saw brilliant yellow forsythia when I was at the Sunday market, and while there are a few cherry blossoms out in the gardens that get full sun, it’s been cold and rainy all week—we even had snow for two seconds and a couple of hail showers—which means I’m still making hearty soups and substantial stews, one of which, a daube of red wine and beef cheeks, is simmering in the oven now. Between the chill outside and the breeze that comes through my ancient window frames, I don’t think my friends will find it unwelcome.
The daube will be familiar to my Parisian pals, but its accompaniment won’t—I’m going to serve the stew with a basketful of corn muffins. Of course, I’ll have to use frozen corn, but I can find really good cornmeal here, so it will be fine. And I might add a few herbs and a little bacon to the mix (the bacon here is fabulous), just to make it more savory and because there’s bacon in the daube. The way I see it, adding bacon to the muffins is like pulling an outfit together by wearing a scarf that picks up the color of your shoes. And besides, what isn’t better with bacon?
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Posted by Ed Levine, March 9, 2008 at 12:00 PM
This week's Cartoon Kitchen features Serious Eats' cartoonist in residence Larry Gonick's spin on amaretti, the classic ultra-light Italian cookie made with little more than almonds, egg whites, and sugar. —Ed Levine
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, February 28, 2008 at 12:30 PM
I don't know where you are, but I'm in Connecticut looking out at a bunch of snow. Sure, I've seen a robin or two, but it's not feeling rhubarbish around these parts yet, which is why these baby cakes, which Johanne Killeen, she of Al Forno in Providence, Rhode Island, made when she came to bake with Julia Child, look so good to me.
I know they look like moist little chocolate cakes, but they're really moist little hot and spicy cakes, sweet little things pumped up with ginger and black pepper and fortified with cocoa and espresso powder.
Johanne, a fabulous baker and a mistress of all that is small, likes to make this recipe in pans that are 4 inches across and 1 inch deep. If you don't have mini pans, you can try making the cake in muffin pans or use one 10 inch pan, in which case it will have to bake for 50 to 60 minutes.
The cakes are great with whipped cream and candied lemon zest and just as good with ice cream—particularly coffee ice cream. A couple of bites could give us northerners the patience we'll need to wait for spring.
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Posted by Ed Levine, February 24, 2008 at 8:00 AM
I know I'm going to get hammered by the nutrition police for advocating eating pound cake for brunch, but really, when you think about it, what's the difference between eating pound cake and eating pancakes or French toast or cereal?
And this pound cake, adapted from a recipe in the current issue of Saveur by James Villas, is so light and moist it's better than many pancakes I have eaten. I am telling you, a slice of this pound cake with a glass of milk makes for a mighty satisfying breakfast or brunch. And if you want to round your meal off with a little bit of protein, drape two slices of bacon on top of each slice of pound cake. Now that's good.
Note: Villas is by his own admission a pound cake fanatic. As a result, this recipe may seem a little obsessional and overly precise. But if you follow the directions to the letter, you'll be amply rewarded with the finished product—a perfectly golden brown and ridiculously delicious pound cake.
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, February 21, 2008 at 1:45 PM
While those of us in the northern part of the world are sitting around waiting for spring to come, it's nice to know that lemons are within easy reach. Not only do they perk up any salad, bring out the best in seafood and look cheery on the counter, they're a blessing when you've had your fill with apples and pears. (I love both apples and pears, but it's nice to give them a little time off in the winter, don't you think?)
I've got a bunch of lemon desserts that I turn to this time of year, but one of my favorites is a lemon tart I learned to make when I was working with Daniel Boulud on Cafe Boulud Cookbook
It's an elegant tart with a filling made with whole lemons—zest, juice and pulp—so that it's tart, tart, tart, as in really puckery.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, February 19, 2008 at 3:45 PM
The best part about taste testing a recipe for cupcakes is that you can get a dozen opinions. This week for my magazine recipe review I decided to bake the banana cupcakes with honey-cinnamon frosting from the March issue of Everyday Food. I was intrigued by idea of the spiced buttercream. In my experience, most banana cakes are slathered in sugary cream cheese concoctions, of which I'm not the biggest fan. (Is that a horrible thing to admit as a foodie? What's your take on cream cheese vs. buttercream frosting?)
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, February 18, 2008 at 1:00 PM
One night last month I realized at 9pm that I had no bread for the next day’s bread-dependent lunch. I had intended to make some, but one thing and another got in the way, leaving me breadless. I cursed myself for not having a well-stocked freezer and started flipping through cookbooks in search of an inspired, somewhat-speedy recipe, and sure enough I found one: Deborah Madison’s pita bread from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.
This recipe took me two hours start to finish, and most of that was not active time. Though my pita did not “puff” and therefore did not have pockets, it tasted good and was wonderfully soft, despite its generous complement of whole-wheat flour and wheat bran. Adam posted a recipe for white-flour pita here last October: the rising time is slightly longer, but the good tips provided for rolling out the breads properly should work in either recipe.
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Posted by Amanda Clarke, February 14, 2008 at 2:30 PM
For years, a good friend of mine with roots in the South has complained of her inability to find a respectable red velvet cake in the Northeast, even when she makes them at home. And, for nearly as long, I have vowed to one day lead her to the object of her desire.
This past weekend, since she would already be in my midst for a long-planned John Cusack movie marathon, I decided there was no time like the present to try to make good on my promise. I traipsed around the neighborhood pulling together a few of my favorite classic red velvet slices and then headed a few neighborhoods over to score a few off-beat, cinnamon-scented cupcakes—red velvet with a twist. Then I set about deciding which recipe to use to make my version. I had never made a red velvet cake before, and though I could probably have winged it, adding a little cocoa powder and a lot of food coloring to any standard white or yellow cake recipe, I wanted to be sure to find a legitimate recipe for this occasion.
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, February 14, 2008 at 1:00 PM
It's not easy to translate gourmandise from the French. Strictly speaking, I guess it would be a delicacy or a treat, but the word, when applied to food, can also mean greedy. It's a great word—I mean, how many of us haven't been greedy for the treats we love—and it's a great name for this dessert from Pierre Herme.
This gorgeous dessert has three parts; from the bottom up they are: rich coconut-tapioca; spears of fresh pineapple mixed with lime zest and sweet orange marmalade; and thin, thin slices of oven-dried pineapple.
When I wrote the description of this dessert for the first book that I did with Pierre (Desserts by Pierre Herme
), I said that it "... falls into that rarely explored realm between refreshing and comforting. The coconut—its consistency like that of a bisque, its floating pearls just right for popping against the roof of your mouth—is mild, milky, soupy and soothing, while the pineapple, glistening with bittersweet marmalade and spiked with lime zest, is all sparkle and zip." More than a decade later, it still seems right to me. More important, the dessert is still exciting.
Each part of the dessert can be made ahead and, really, each part could be served separately, but that wouldn't be very gourmandise-ish, would it?
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, February 12, 2008 at 4:00 PM
This week, in honor of Valentine's Day, we've put together a list of our favorite books on chocolate, with one Cook the Book recipe a day coming from each volume. And the next book in our "Chocolate Lover's Library" is Pure Chocolate
by Fran Bigelow, the proprietor of Fran's Chocolates. In this, her debut book, Bigelow reveals the techniques behind her creations, with additional info on worldwide chocolate-making methods and a guide to deciphering chocolate labels.
The chocolate sablés that follow are classic refrigerator butter cookies that should bake up slightly crisp but with a soft interior. The roll freezes well, so you can tuck one away for a rainy day.
Win the Serious Eats Chocolate Library
We're giving away five (5) sets of the Chocolate Lover's Library—one each day this week. So you can win Pure Chocolate, along with four other fantastic chocolate books (to be revealed as the week progresses) by answering the following question in the comments:
What is your favorite chocolate recipe?
One (1) winner will be chosen at random from among the comments of this post. Comments will be open until 6 p.m. ET February 13. Feel free to enter every day, but you may win only once during the lifetime of the contest as a whole. The standard Serious Eats contest rules apply.
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Posted by Mario Batali, February 12, 2008 at 1:00 PM
- makes about 2 pounds of cookies -
Brutti ma buoni translates roughly to "ugly but good."
Ingredients
4 egg whites, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon amaretto
1 tablespoon cocoa powder, bitter
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup pine nuts
Zest of 4 oranges
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter and dust cookie sheet.
2. Place whites in the bowl of an electric mixer; whip to soft peak. Add sugar steadily, and beat 2 minutes. Stop machine; add flour, vanilla, amaretto, and cocoa powder. Mix 1 minute, and stop machine. Stir in nuts quickly; place 2-inch blobs on cookie sheet. Bake 30 minutes until crisp. Remove and let cool.
Posted by Dorie Greenspan, February 7, 2008 at 1:00 PM
If you haven't already whipped up something wonderful for the sweetheart(s) in your life, here's a recipe for a cookie that makes any day sweeter. It's a linzer cookie—made with flour and ground nuts and spiced with cinnamon and cloves—cut out with a cute little heart-shaped cutter and dipped in melted chocolate. (I love the technique of pre-rolling the dough when it's soft and malleable and I hope you will, too.)
The cookie has the same buttery goodness and soft spices as a linzer tart and, in fact, you could use the dough to make a tart, if you wanted to. You can also make sandwich cookies (a classic linzerish thing to do), sandwiching the cookies with red jam. (Bring 1/2 cup of raspberry jam and 1 teaspoon water to the boil. Let the jam cool slightly before using it.)
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, January 25, 2008 at 2:30 PM
My sweet tooth seeks out vanilla, caramel, and fruit before chocolate, but somewhere along the line I either ate or dreamed of the perfect chocolate layer cake, and lo, it was good: enticingly tall and dark, with a firm but yielding crumb and a pure chocolate-butter taste, so moist you could eat it without icing (but why would you?).
I sampled many slices in pursuit of this ideal. Plenty of cakes had the looks, but none of them had the heart and soul: usually they were dry, and if they weren’t dry, they had a chemical aftertaste, or a squishy texture, or some kind of booze-flavored filling. When the outside world failed me, I got out my baking pans. Cook’s Illustrated and Rose Levy Beranbaum offered recipes for perfect cake, but their buttercreams were too buttery for me. I am not one to shy away from butter, but this tasted like delicious cake spread with pure, softened, faintly chocolate flavored butter, and that was kind of gross.
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, January 24, 2008 at 11:30 AM
Here's an intensely chocolaty cake from Lora Brody, who made this when she came to Cambridge to tape an episode of Baking with Julia. The official name of the cake is Boca Negra, or black mouth, and the name aptly describes what your mouth will look like after one bite. I can't think of another cake that's this chocolaty (okay, maybe the Grandmother's Cake from La Maison du Chocolate) or this easy to make. And I love the boozy white-chocolate cream that Lora makes to go on top of it. (Attention: You should make the cream a day ahead.)
Lora suggested that the cake be served warm or at room temperature, when it's moist and dense, but if you like fudge, then you'll want to pop the cake into the fridge and have it cold. Either way, I know you'll be happy.
A word about whipping up the cake: You can make this cake by hand—a cinch—or in a food processor—even cinchier. It's easy no matter which method you use; actually, it's so easy that if you've never baked before, you can start here and be a star.
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Posted by Emily Koh, January 23, 2008 at 12:00 PM
The following recipe is from the January 23rd edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
In honor of January 23rd being National Pie Day, why not sit down to this savory and comforting millet pie with spinach and feta? Millet has often been dismissed, more or less because it absorbs water like no other and is often associated with being dry and tasteless. The trick is to keep it "hydrated," so to speak, which lets it acquire a softer, porridgy quality.
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Posted by Emily Koh, January 22, 2008 at 1:00 PM
One of the reasons why I started eating healthier in recent months is because of my health-conscious roommate from this past fall. While I love my roast pork and lamb chops too much to ever consider going vegetarian like she did, she introduced me to a variety of new things that I might have just written off before because they were labeled as being "healthy," which I have a tendency to hear instead as being "tasteless."
One of my favorite discoveries thanks to her is quinoa. A light, nutty grain that cooks fast and is a great substitute for rice, quinoa is also a nutritional powerhouse, high in iron, calcium and fiber, and is also a protein powerhouse. Given that, it makes sense that I've mostly seen quinoa in healthier fare like salads. Yet who knew it also makes for a great base in dessert, like in this quinoa cake with crystallized ginger? The grains give the cake a moist, light quality, and it's definitely a much more pleasing texture than your average chocolate cake... not to mention there's no guilt splurging on an extra slice.
Sass also suggests that you can turn it into a cinnamon-walnut quinoa cake by replacing the Brazil nuts, crystallized ginger and raisins with walnuts, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/3 cup chopped dried apricots.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, January 21, 2008 at 2:00 PM
For this week's installment of my Recipe Resolution I decided to tackle February's Bon Appetit, which is chock full of incredible sounding recipes including one by Bruce Aidells for Middle Eastern Bison Meatballs with Cilantro Yogurt Sauce that I swear I'm going to make just as soon as I splurge on an automatic spice grinder. (It's on my kitchen wish list, along with a super deluxe free-standing mixer, a crepe pan, and an immersion blender...)
Since the bison is going to have to wait until at least after my birthday (hint, hint) I decided to make the Whole Wheat S'more Cookies, primarily because I feel the same way about s'mores as I do about ice cream. That is, they shouldn’t be restricted to the summer months. Sure, they taste best when roasted over a campfire—maybe with a stray pine needle or two embedded in the marshmallow—but indoor s'mores on a cold winter’s night are nothing to sniff at. Besides, whole wheat means they're healthy, right? Right?
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, January 17, 2008 at 1:00 PM
I always think of pots de crème, or little pots of crème, as the French answer to our puddings. Really a baked custard, the crème can be created in just about any flavor combo. That uber-chef Daniel Boulud created them to be coffee-cardamom was a nod to the way coffee is often drunk in the Middle East: through a cardamom pod held between one’s teeth.
Of course, Daniel being Daniel (and thank goodness he is), he ups the ante a bit: he caramelizes the coffee beans and cardamom pods before he pours in milk and cream and steeps everything for a few minutes. Even though this dessert is made with big flavors—you can hardly call coffee or cardamom wallflower flavors—the caramelizing step makes the flavors even bigger and more intense.
When these are baked in a professional kitchen, the custard cups, set in a roasting pan filled with water, are covered with a sheet of plastic wrap. The wrap doesn’t budge or burn because the temperature is low (of course, you’ve got to have an oven that keeps this low temperature). If the idea of baking with plastic wrap doesn’t make you comfortable, cover the set-up with foil.
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, January 10, 2008 at 3:00 PM
I don't know why, but whenever I'm in Paris, I end up buying way too much yogurt. Maybe it's the endless shelves of yogurt in every supermarket that makes me forget that I don't need quarts of it—or that I'd just bought a quart the day before. Maybe it's the fact that there are so many different kinds of yogurts to choose from—there's non-fat and full-fat, brasse and Greek and Bulgarian and let's not even mention the myriad flavor options. So, I've got a fridge full of the stuff—as always. And now I've got a yogurt cake—as always.
The cake, made with unflavored yogurt and olive oil, is good enough that it would be worth it to go out and buy yogurt for the express purpose of making it. (Of course, I've never had to.) It's a plain cake, rather like a pound cake, but with a somewhat coarser crumb, and it's made without fuss or fancy equipment.
This week's recipe is an olive-oil and lime variation on the cake I usually make with flavorless vegetable oil and lemon. It's great both ways, but I think the evo (extra-virgin olive oil) rendition has a richer flavor.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, January 7, 2008 at 4:30 PM
I still can’t believe the fiancée cooked this for me. When I’m working late, it’s par for her to shun bacon, eschew oil, and cook as many vegetables as possible. So I was a little surprised when I came home to a bacon laden gratin with half a wheel of cheese melted on top. I kissed her immediately. I mean, really—what a wonderful thing to do. She found it in the North Market Cookbook. The cheesemonger said he got the recipe “from a French customer.” How intriguing.
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, January 3, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Here in Paris we said au’revoir to the last bûches de Noël (yule logs) on New Year’s Eve and bonjour to les galettes des Rois on January 2, the day the city’s pastry shops reopened. While the galette des rois is a cake meant specifically for January 6, Epiphany, it’s impossible to resist its temptations before or after the official holiday—so impossible that some shops offer the sweet until the end of the month.
The galette is really very simple, if a little time-consuming to make—it’s an almond and pastry-cream filling sandwiched by two rounds of (all-butter) puff pastry dough—but so, so good. Nothing beats buttery puff pastry and a filling made with more good butter! But great taste is only one of its attractions—the chance to wear the king’s crown is another, and probably the one that keeps kids asking for the cake over and over.
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, December 27, 2007 at 1:00 PM
I’m in Paris now where the sweet you see in every pastry shop and bakery this time of year is pain d’épices. Sometimes translated as spice bread or likened to gingerbread, I think pain d’épices comes closer to honey cake than to any other sweet in the pantheon. The problem with pinning down this cake, a specialty of Dijon and Alsace and probably a bunch of other areas as well, is that it comes in a million varieties: it can be a loaf or a huge sheet cake; it can be as dark as mahogany or as light as a peanut-butter blondie; it can have nuts, or not; be full of dried fruits, or not; and be either firm or soft. And, of course, as is true with most traditional recipes, everyone who makes pain d’épices thinks his recipe is either the most authentic or the best or both.
This is a recipe from Pierre Hermé, the famous Paris pastry chef, who comes from a family of pastry chefs, each of whom made pain d’épices. In fact, if I remember correctly, Pierre said that this recipe is based on one his father, a pastry chef in the Alsatian town of Colmar, made.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, December 26, 2007 at 4:00 PM
While all the holidays are not over, I am just now going through a little rebellion of the excessive. Maybe I just in need of a quick recuperation before even more comes my way. So I decided to pull out The New Moosewood Cookbook
, a legendary vegetarian book that I picked up at the library about a month ago and never took the time to peruse. And in there author Mollie Katzen had a quick five minute recipe for custardy popovers that required no sugar, and no animal parts. Though I hardly ever bake, this dead-simple recipe seemed like a perfect place to start. Five ingredients, talk of rolls that were “crisp and puffy”, and all in under thirty minutes.
I know I’m a novice to this whole process, but I am still kind of astonished by the results. One moment I was spooning slop into a muffin pan and thirty minutes later I had beautifully puffed up rolls. It’s one of those amazing moments. But I must not have buttered the pan enough, because about half of them stuck straight to the pan, deflating sadly when I attempted to pry them out. Half of them were still a screaming success, and a worthy accompaniment to many a meal.
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Posted by Ed Levine, December 24, 2007 at 4:07 PM
- makes about 5 dozen cookies -
Adapted from Dolce Italiano by Gina DePalma
Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup whole hazelnuts, skinned or unskinned
1 cup (2 sticks/8 ounces) unslated butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, for dusting
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Posted by Jenn Sit, December 23, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Sadly, I’ve never made my own homemade rolls—always just opting for the rolls-in-the-can Pillsbury method (the leap of excitement when the tube bursts open just never gets old). But after seeing the buttermilk-onion pull-apart rolls recipe from
