Dorie’s Cocoa Buttermilk Cake and some news

My Auntie Mame’s birthday was yesterday, and for the woman who has everything ,I made her a cake. Yes I knew she would protest( the woman lives in the gym and looks like an older Hallie Berry). But sometimes when shes she not shopping, travelling, working, or working out, she just needs to curl up in her fabulous condo overlooking the lake with a slice of rich chocolate cake, a good magazine , and some coffee.
I used my go to source, Baking:From My Home To Yours, by Dorie Greenspan. Funny, up to a year ago I didn’t even know of this woman, but I have been so pleased with all I bake from her book. Some people just have that gift of good recipe writing and making it easy. I followed the recipe exactly which you can find here. The only exception was the use of Cocoa. I used Hershey’s Special dark which gave it a deep rich chocolate color and flavor. I loved her Chocolate Malted Butter cream Frosting. I wondered if I messed up at first making the chocolate component but it all came together beautifully and sets beautifully in the refrigerator. Decorating was kept simple with white chocolate seas shells. I attempted to melt white chocolate in a double boiler. I got a semi melted crumbly mess. Nevertheless I pressed it into lightly a lightly oiled sea shell silicone tray. I then microwaved it for a brief 20 seconds. Be careful as it can burn easily. I always have issues with white chocolate. Nevertheless the crumbly , non perfect texture was perfect for the realistic seashells. I dusted them lightly with lustre and kept them in the fridge until ready. I assembled the two tires , frosted and adhered the shells. A little extra piping and voila!Off to aunties house it goes.
I want to take this moment to announce I am now the Chicago Cooking Examiner for Examiner.com.Chicago. Be sure to support me and check out my columns. There will be some material from the blog, but the articles are more tweaked to living , cooking, and shopping in Chicago and all of the cities resources. If you want more detailed info and decorating tips check out the latest column about this cake.

Finding My A Game… Wish Me Luck In An Amateur Sugar Cookie Competition

A month ago , feeling ambitious, I registered to compete in the The French Pastry School Sugar Cookie Competition. The event is today. The French Pastry School is a part of the City Colleges here in Chicago and is excellent. They attract such such world re known chefs like Pierre Herme for hard to get in workshops and master classes. The prices of classes are to rich for my blood, but would be a once in lifetime opportunity. And If I had the luxury to enroll , I would! Anyway the first 30 registrants will compete today at Whole Foods On Canal. The requirements are that we must use, but are not limited to Neilsen Massey Vanilla, Plugra Butter, King Arthur Flour, and Callebaut Chocolate. Each participant will win a Free French Patry Experience and Certificate of Participation. Third Prize is a Kitchen Aid Mixer, Second is a Kitchen Aid and Thermohauser French Pastry School Professional Tool Kit, and First is what I really want, a Kitchen Aid,French Pastry Enthusiast Course, French Pastry School Chef Jacket, and Thermohause French Pastry School Professional Kit.
I practiced early on getting my recipe together. I knew I wanted the element of hazelnut. The first cookies were bulky monsters of a hazelnut dough topped with caramel, then covered in chocolate. They were way to rich and bulky. Not bad, but not what I wanted. I got sidetracked, and got back to work. Last week made a swirl dough inspired by a cookie recipe I saw over at Linda’s.I still wanted the hazelnut element. The cookies again were to big, flat, and I had a kitchen disaster when they fell uncooked all over my over. The ones I could bake I swirled chocolate to follow the marble pattern. Again not my best work. But I knew the dough was getting there. So this week I procrastinated. Last night I assembled my 2 doughs. The light dough was harder and dryer, and the dark was mushier. I had been chilling them 2 hours! I had changed the sugar type a bit, so I wondered if this played into it. Anyway it wasn’t going to plan. Instead of swirls I got marble. Frustrated but encouraged by Certain Someone, I just went with it. I didn’t fight the dough. My mother used to have a saying. ‘Let Go And Let God’. I followed her advice. So I woke at 6 am and got to work. I used a 2 inch flower cutter and sliced the dough and started shaping and forming. I got over 70 cookies. The competition requires 50 to judge and 10 for show. No oven misshapes and 2 hours later I am typing this.

Hazelnut Sugar Swirls by “Glamah”

A 3-sugar cookie divided into two dough’s to create a swirl effect. Chocolate is used as decoration to outline the swirl.

Hazelnut Dough
½ lb Plugras Butter room temperature
2 eggs
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup cane sugar
1 tsp Nielson Massey Vanilla
1/4 tsb cardamom
1 tsp orange zest or orange icing sugar (an orange flavoring gel used in cakes and icings).
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup Hazelnut Flour
2 cups King Arthur Organic All Purpose Flour
¼ tsp sea salt
Brown food coloring optional

Light Dough
1 ¼ cup confectioners sugar
1 egg yolk
1 cup Plugras butter room temperature
2 ½ cup King Arthur Organic All Purpose Flour
1 egg white + 1 tbsp water

Chocolate Swirl
Callebaut Chocolate

Preparation of Hazelnut dough:
In a bowl or stand mixer cream your eggs, brown sugar, cane sugar, cardamom. orange zest, Vanilla, and butter until incorporated. Do not over blend as to get to much air into the mixture. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, hazelnut flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the dry mixture into the wet as the mixer turns. Once all ingredients are combined stop mixing. At this point, you may add brown food coloring to deepen the color. Shape into a log (close to diameter of cookie shape) on wax paper, and chill for at least 1 hour.
Preparation of Light Dough:
Mix confectioners sugar, butter, and egg yolk in your mixer bowl until combined. Gradually add in flour and knead until dough is firm and incorporated. Chill for a minimum of 1 hour.
Assembly:
Roll out both dough’s on sheets of wax paper. Brush hazelnut dough with egg white mixture. Top with rolled out Light dough. From the long end, roll both dough’s together to form a long slim log. If the log is to thick use both hands to extend it and shape into desired width. Cut log into three parts. Slice lenght wise and lay over each other in opposite directions to mold into another log. The purpose of this is to mix up the doughs tho create the marbeled effect. Just be sure there is a contrast between both doughs. Shape the dough into a log again, wrap, and chill until firm for an at least one hour or over night… When dough is sliced and shaped, it should have a marbled effect.

Bake:
Preheat oven to 350. Place slices of cookie dough on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool on rack.

Chocolate Swirl:
Melt Callebaut Chocolate in a double boiler. Once cooled down, pour into a piping bag. Cut off a tiny tip pf the bag and swirl the chocolate over the marbled edges of the cookies.
If chocolate decoration does not solidify immediately, place cookie in the refrigerator for a few minutes to harden.

MARX FOODS IS HAVING ANOTHER CONTEST!
MarxFoods.com is calling all Chanterelle Mushroom Recipes!

To Enter: Submit your best original chanterelle recipe to MarxFoods.com
Prize: 2 Pounds of fresh chanterelle mushrooms
Contest Dates: September 2nd – Friday, September 19th

You can check out all the recipes that have been entered at our blog.

Daring Bakers Do Eclairs…And Missing My Real Sugar Daddy

I missed last months Daring Bakers and was happy to see this months challenge chosen by MeetaK an Tony. Eclairs , pastry cream, and chocolate glazes from Pierre Herme. A running joke between some Daring Bakers is to call the famous Pierre Herme their Sugar Daddy. After all he is the master of all things sweet. My blogging hasn’t been as productive this past month for a multitude of reasons , and the main one being that my real Sugar Daddy has been in Europe for work all month. You see I feel inspired to cook for him . So when its hot and I’m busy, wheres the inspiration? Just before Certain Someone left , we were at a cocktail party and he wanted to know if I could make a choux like pastry like the appetizer he had. I informed him Bien Sur. He wasn’t around the last time a made them for a family event. So naturally I was sad he would miss this months challenge. Meta and Tony gave us a leeway. The only requirement was that at least one chocolate element remain. With that I immediately knew I would make a Butterscotch filling, because that’s what my Sugar Daddy likes!See how he inspires me! Even though he couldn’t be home to taste the eclairs. Another thought was my mother. She used to tell me how when she was pregnant with me all she she craved was Napoleons and eclairs! I wish she were alive to make them with me. It’s surprisingly simple.

I divided my process into a few hours for two days. Make the pastry creams and choux pastry to freeze day one. And make the chocolate sauce and glaze the final day, along with baking. I followed Tartelettes suggestion on the forum to pipe and freeze. Great idea and that way I didn’t have to cook it all once. I have some choux ready to pop into the oven when Certain Someone is ready. Please be sure to check out the global and ever expanding Daring Bakers. The recipes for all the Eclair elements follow in addition to my one modification. What did I do with the half batch I made? I took them to a family gathering.You know the family that looks with some unknown fear at new stuff to broaden their horizons.Pound cake people. The few that I saw tasted it loved it . I found it wasn’t to sweet or rich and just a perfect dessert.
Glamah’s Butterscotch Pastry Cream
2 cups whole milk
4 large eggs yolks
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons water
4 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons corn starch
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 dram butterscotch extract or 2 tablespoons Scotch for flavor

Mix brown sugar and water , over flame. Mix to dissolve and let reach a boil.Approx 2 minutes. Add the 2 cups of milk and bring to another boil. Mixture may curdle and separate but that’s OK. In a separate whisk together add egg yolks, sugar, and corn starch. Slowly temper the egg mixture into the hot milk/Brown sugar mixture . Strain to be sure any curdles bits are removed. In a heavy bottomed sauce pan whisk constantly until mixture starts to thicken and boil. ( Like the Chocolate pastry cream directions below). Remove from heat. Add butterscotch extract of Scotch and whisk in .
Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé(makes 20-24 Éclairs)•
Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm
1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with waxed or parchment paper.2) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers.Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.3) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Notes:1) The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.Assembling the éclairs:•

Chocolate glaze (see below for recipe)

Chocolate pastry cream (see below for recipe)

1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the bottoms with the pastry cream.3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.
Notes:
1) If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water,stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create bubbles.2) The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.
Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé(makes 20-24 Éclairs)
• ½ cup (125g) whole milk• ½ cup (125g) water• 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces• ¼ teaspoon sugar• ¼ teaspoon salt• 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour• 5 large eggs, at room temperature1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the boil.2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time,beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough.You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.Notes:1) Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.2) You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.
Chocolate Pastry Cream Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
• 2 cups (500g) whole milk• 4 large egg yolks• 6 tbsp (75g) sugar• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted• 7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted• 2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.
Notes:
1) The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.2) In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.3) Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.
Chocolate Glaze Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé(makes 1 cup or 300g)
• 1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream • 3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped• 4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature• 7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature 1)In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce. Notes: 1) If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly
 in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.2) It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.
Chocolate SauceRecipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé (makes 1½ cups or 525 g)
• 4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped • 1 cup (250 g) water• ½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream • 1/3 cup (70 g) sugar 1) Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.2) It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.
Notes:
1) You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.2) This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

My First Macarons and a Early Friday Cocktail Hour.

Due to the Holiday and some other goings on week, I will finish this post with Friday Cocktail Hour and I wont post this Friday( stay tuned however because I will be posting mid week!). Certain Someone and I got a lot done this Holiday weekend and are still working on it. Our place is very cluttered and I have an abundance of books. He installed our new Expedit books shelves from Ikea to house my hundreds and books and bring some order and design to our space.I wont show you before because its frighting. And the afters I’ll post later. Certain Someone is a repressed interior designer. Anyway we also had some good cocktails, BBQ,and I decided to make Macarons for the first time.
Certain Someone loves Hazelnut and I had some Hazelnut flour from King Arthur’s. I followed the recipe and tips from the famous Tartelette. She wrote a informative long awaited article for a online Desserts Magazine. My ganache was bit runny,and some of my macarons cracked. But overall I feel some confidence in hope that they turned out OK for my first try. I hope my future attempts get better. My ganache was just some heavy cream, orange icing gel( a type of paste used for flavoring cakes and icicngs),some more hazelnut flour, white, and Amano Chocolate(from the Blake Makes Give Away). I used the Ocumare. I found a new spray luster from my cake decorating shop and sprayed a soft golden luster on top. I like the gold accents I see on some Pierre Hermes macarons.The taste? Very sweet but nice. I will play around with more variations. But I least I got over the intimidation factor. I’m also entering this in Couture Cupcakes Mad For Macarons In May.

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Friday Cocktail Hour Holiday Edition

I love a nice daiquiri. Just plain with some lime juice. simple syrup and rum. I played with this to use up a lot of apricots I have from the vegetable delivery. Its not to sweet and refreshing on a nice day. Oh and Peter if your reading this…this may be to girly for you. I have a nice cognac called Landy XO from France. A bartender once referred to it as ‘Happy Dog’. When I asked why he showed me the bottle. The stopper was of a dog with his long tail curved under. It gave the appearance of your nickname, thus the name. He also said it was a ‘Mans’ drink. So a pour of Landy for you and some daiquiris for my girls! Cheers!

Apricot Daiquiri serves 1

1 part rum
1 juice of a lime
1/2 part apricot brandy( I cheated and used some brandy I made from Prickly Pear)
3 apricots peeled and stoned
ice

Mix all with ice in a blender.Pour into a chilled glass.

It’s The Little Things

Life for me is erratic. Sometimes I have a lot on my plate and sometimes things are kind of slow.I constantly push myself.But I go out on a limb because I want to. The key is to find balance. Besides my day job I have some sidelines. I wouldn’t call them profitable yet, but I get pleasure and some other things from them. This past weekend to ‘support” my sideline product I gave a free demo on my dime and time.I really wanted to stay home with Certain Someone, play in the kitchen, blog, and veg.The day seemed fine enough. I noticed a man arrive besides me who seemed at a loss. Seems he was supposed to demo at this fine wine emporium but didn’t speak much English or know what to do. I thought it was odd and tried to help him out. We spoke a little English and French as he knew French. We offered each other samples. About a few hours into our boring Sunday the store manager came by. Seems this kind interesting man was the owner of the vineyard and made these fine wines! From that point on they moved him to his proper place and make a big fuss. Where were they at the beginning I ask? Anyway I went over to say goodbye and took a bottle of his Moscato. He grabbed the bottle and said something in halting English. He returned with the bottle all wrapped up for me . Gratis! A small thank you. Made my day.Check out his vineyards.

The today I had a special package awaiting me. I won some Amano Chocolate from Blake Makes! I don’t know how this blogger does it but he always has great giveaways. I’m waiting for Certain Someone to return so we can sample together.

And a final thought from me for the week. I want and love good food. Time is a question most times. While I don’t shy away from the complex, sometimes I like it simple. I pulled this one out of my hat the other morning.A slow cooked pork loin in my favorite Asian spices and seasonings. I wanted this slow cooked meal to be similar to my favorite Schezwan green beans. Not quite, but a good meal . I don’t have to tell you the Certain Someone had a few servings of the meat!

Slow Cooked Pork Loin

1 pork loin

1/2 cup Soy Sauce

1/2 cup water

4 Star Anise

Dried Chilies to your taste( I used 4)

1 tablespoon minced garlic

I/2 cup of a simple syrup I made infused with rum( leftover from the rum buns). Your could use Golden Syrup

Put all ingredients in a slow cooker. Place on 8 hours. Go about and enjoy your day. Serve with steamed Jasmine Rice and green beans.