A new home

I've moved - come see me at www.dogwoodgourmet.blogspot.com. Thanks!

Labor of love

An unexpected blessing has occurred since starting my blog. Thanks to this little corner of cyberspace, my already-strong marriage has improved!! When my husband read the glowing description of himself in my "About Me" section, he was so flattered that he started acting on his best behavior. Then, he joked that he's concerned that any mischief or misbehavior on his part will be directly posted here. So, I've got an even more incredible husband and father under my roof now! What a treat! He appreciates the extra baked goods that I've been experimenting with, so he's getting a good deal from this gig, too.

Believe it or not, I like to cook in addition to baking. You wouldn't know it from my first few posts (other than the fried taco shells), but I like to make entrees and sides in addition to desserts. If you read my first entry, you know that I was inspired to create this blog after joining The Daring Bakers club. The Daring Bakers club is an online group of folks who challenge each other once a month to try a new baking experiment - in the past, the group has made cakes, croissants, French baguettes, and lots of other delectable baked goods.

This month, my first as a Daring Baker, our challenge was to bake LASAGNA! I was a bit surprised, expecting a sweet baked good, but I have made pasta from scratch before and have wanted to do it again. I just hadn't gotten the kick in the pants until now! I used that as an excuse to buy an attachment for my KitchenAid mixer that's designed to roll and cut pasta dough.

The March 2009 challenge was hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. Rather than posting the frighteningly long recipe at the end of my entry, I'll refer you to their websites. My family will think I'm crazy if they read the recipe because they will see how much time it took - it did take several hours. I guess I AM crazy. But, look at this. You'd want to invest the time, too, wouldn't you?

The day I made the pasta, I was also trying to finish decorating my mom's birthday cake, featured here. I was a little ambitious that day! The lasagna (and the cake) turned out well, but I want to invite my children to help next time - I was too hurried to ask for their help this last time. While they were outside selling lemonade with their dad, I chopped up some spinach, mixed it with flour and eggs in my mixer, rolled it out in my pasta attachment, and voila! I had lasagna noodles! The noodles were delicious. (The kids raked in $20 - we might have to do the lemonade stand more often!)

Here are the spinach, flour, and eggs ready for a beating!

I hung the noodles on a dowel rod to dry overnight. I should have cut them into shorter lengths. Several of them flung themselves to the floor after tiring of holding on - sort of like I do when my husband pushes me to do pull-ups.

After making the noodles, I made a ragu and a bechamel (white) sauce. Despite misreading the recipe for the ragu, it turned out well. The recipe called for 3 canned tomatoes. Somehow, I turned that into 3 CANS of tomatoes - oops! After adding the second of three cans, I decided I was not going to follow that recipe anymore, so I skipped the third can. Later, I discovered my error, but only after assembling and eating the lasagna. Turns out, the extra tomatoes didn't cause trouble, even though the sauce would not cook down to the consistency of a stew as indicated in the recipe! (I was quite perplexed that it would not perform, especially after letting it simmer for twice the amount of time called for.) As I wrote, though, the lasagna was great in spite of my mistake. It might have been more subtle without all the tomatoes, but I liked it as it was.

After preparing the extra-tomatoey ragu and bechamel, I layered them with the spinach noodles and a cup of grated Parmesan. The finished product was gorgeous and delicious! Parker devoured a third of it at dinner. He runs every morning, religiously, so he can get away with eating just about anything he wants (stinker!). We froze the rest and ate it for lunch a few days later.

If any of you are up to the challenge of trying the recipe, I'd love to hear about your results!

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io de Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

All recipes from The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food by Lynne Rosetto Kasper (published by William Morrow and Company Inc., 1992).

Chocolate Cake

Don't you just want to dive in?!? I'm ashamed to admit that it was created YESTERDAY and this is literally all that's left...

It started with a couple of slices, as you can see here:

Then, I shared a slice with a friend, and another few slices of the cake with a lunch group today. The rest of the damage was done by my chocolate-cake-obsessed husband and me!! In just over twenty-four hours!! I'm so ashamed of myself. Actually, it's my husband who should be ashamed of himself - I think I had only two reasonable slices. He went to TOWN on this cake.

I blame The Cake Bible (TCB) again. As I mentioned in my About Me section, I love to try lots of recipes to be sure I'm using the absolute, all-time best. Have you ever read Cook's Illustrated magazine? It's published by America's Test Kitchen and it doesn't accept ads. So, I trust the recipes and reviews inside. The testers assemble scores of recipes for, say, vanilla ice cream, test each one, and determine which is the best by their definition. I'm fascinated by the differences the testers uncover in the different mixing techniques, quality of products used, baking times and temperatures, etc. I went so far as to sign up on the website to be a recipe tester - I'm not sure how much they take into account the reviews of those of us that are signed up for that job, since we're not employed by them, but it's fun to try new recipes to see if they "work." I've only attempted two of the recipes I've been sent - one for a delicious Chicken Tikka Masala that I'll try to post at a later date and one for Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownies that didn't float my boat.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the chocolate cake and TCB. I have been taking this cake decorating class and have a tiny little whisper in the back of my head telling me to start a business selling cakes, cookies, and other baked goodies. So, I've taken it upon myself to test my recipes to be sure I would be going to market with the best of the best. I LOVE Barefoot Contessa's Chocolate Buttercream Cake (there's a photo of the cake right here), but some of the ingredients are a little more difficult to keep on hand - namely sour cream and buttermilk. With no resistance from my husband, I decided that I should try the Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake with the Dark Chocolate Ganache Frosting from TCB. Wow - what a combination. The cake is super-moist and chocolately and the texture and consistency of the ganache is amazing. The ganache is incredibly easy to make - it took me about ten minutes, but it does have to cool overnight before frosting a cake, so be sure you factor that into your equation. All you do is process chocolate in a Cuisinart, add warmed cream while the food processor is running and that is IT! Piece of cake! (oops - no pun intended...)

I am probably going to try making the cake again because for some reason, it didn't release well from the pan and fell apart when I tried to level it with a serrated knife. But, before I do, I'm going to try the Chocolate Fudge Cake from the same cookbook. I'll post that another day, too.

How can I harness all of the recipe testing that I'm so compelled to do?!? I have such a long list: the aforementioned Chocolate Fudge Cake, the also aforementioned Chicken Tikka Masala, another batch of the Mousseline Buttercream frosting to experiment with flavor-wise and piping-wise, as well as all of my tried-and-true cookie recipes? Does anyone else get all aflutter and anxious inside because there are so many fun and exciting things you want to do, but just not enough hours in the day to do them? On good days, I make myself do the nonnegotiables (that I regrettably turn into negotiables a lot of days...) like laundry, fixing dinner, changing diapers, etc. before I allow myself to piddle in the kitchen. That, unfortunately, leaves me little time to do the things I'm more passionate about - playing with my children, baking, and so on. I'm so dependent on a good night's sleep, too, so I have to make time for that. What's a poor girl to do?!?

Okay, I'm digressing again. So, anyway, I love how you can makeover a cake from this:



to this:



simply by adding a handful of strawberries. My cake decorating class at Michael's has been fun, but I've got a long way to go before I master shells, star flowers, and roses attractively and consistently. So, while I work on my piping skills, I'll just use the trick above. I also like to put chocolate-covered anything on top of a chocolate cake - coffee beans, almonds... They are a quick makeover helper, too.

Oh, one last thing, my two precious older children can't stand not to be in a photo. I told them they could pose with the cake.



Without further ado, here is the recipe for the ganache. It is so easy to make and to spread. I didn't spend much time getting the cake to look good - I could have made it smoother, but I was ready to eat it!! I can't wait for you to try the frosting. Let me know what you think!!!

Dark Chocolate Ganache Filling, Frosting, and Sauce, adapted from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

Makes 2 3/4 cups to 3 cups

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I used plain ol' Nestle Toll House morsels)
1 2/3 liquid cups heavy cream

Break chocolate into pieces and process in a food processor until very fine. Heat the cream to the boiling point and, with the motor running, pour it through the feed tube in a steady stream. Process a few seconds until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and cool completely until of frosting consistency.

To use ganache as a sauce, reheat until pourable if made ahead, using a double boiler or microwave on low power, stirring every 15 seconds.

Crispy Goodness

Wow - each Monday has been rolling around very quickly here in my house!! I thought I would have time to post more often than once a week, but even that frequently is proving a challenge. My little family cannot seem to stay well at the same time. My littlest peanut has an ear infection that just won't quit. He's now on two antibiotics at once and seems to be feeling better after six days. His favorite food to make is waffles - a chip off his grandfather's block. I indulged him a few days ago when he was suffering with a 104-degree fever.

When I was little, my dad used to make waffles for my sister and me on the weekends with lots of butter and lots of syrup warmed in a brown pottery crock in the microwave. I liked to be sure that each little well of the waffle had its own puddle of butter and syrup. It's hard for me to resist doing that now when I make waffles for my own children!

Speaking of indulgences, have you ever fried your own tortillas for tacos? If you have never tried it, you are really missing out!! See the crispy, delicious treats below? They are incredibly simple and sooo tasty! All you do is heat oil on the stove and gently lay a corn tortilla in the oil. Let it sizzle until it is golden brown on one side and then flip it to the other side with kitchen tongs. There is probably a fancy technique for getting a good curve in the middle so it looks like a taco shell, but I just bend the tortilla with my tongs and hold it in the oil in that shape until it holds. Lay the tortillas to drain on dish towels and sprinkle with salt. If cooked just right, they are crispy on the outside with a chewy inside.



I like to tell my food to say, "Cheese!" when I take pictures. The taco shells really like that.


So, here's the quick recipe for homemade taco shells:

Corn tortillas
Peanut or vegetable oil
Salt

Heat the oil - I didn't use a thermometer - just turned my electric burner to 9. When a drop of water sizzles in the oil, it's hot enough. Gently lower one tortilla into the oil and when it's golden on the underside, flip to the other side. Remove when just barely golden on both sides if you want it to stay a little chewy. If you want it crunchy, then leave it in longer. You can experiment to find the texture you like best. Sprinkle salt on the tortillas just after removing them so it can stick to the hot oil. Let cool and enjoy!

These would probably be yummy with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top instead of salt. That's for another day...

Crepes and cakes

Whew - what a couple of weeks! Two weeks ago, my littlest child had a double ear infection and had to miss two days of school. Then, it snowed, so the children were out of school for two more days. Then, my middle child got a fever and missed two days more! It's a good thing my accounting job was a little slow or I would have been burning some serious midnight oil between taking care of the children and trying to get my work done.


Somehow in the midst of all of the sickness and snow, I tried two additional crepe recipes, just to see which one I liked the best. (This is where the egghead comes in - I always like to try lots of recipes to make sure I'm using the very best one. I've subscribed to Cook's Illustrated for too long...) One of the two crepe recipes was from The Cake Bible and used cornstarch instead of flour. These were quite tasty crepes - the batter included vanilla which made them yummy. The other recipe was from The New Basics Cookbook by Julie Rosso and Sheila Lukins. It was a good one, too, but we didn't like it as much as the other ones. My husband, the expert crepe tester, likes the crepe recipe we tried from Joy of Cooking. I think that was my favorite, too, but I'm going to add vanilla to the batter the next time I make this recipe.



Also, this week, I made a new cake for my mom's birthday. I whipped up my first genoise with orange curd filling and orange mousseline buttercream frosting, all from "The Cake Bible." It turned out as it was supposed to, but the orange flavor lacked the zip I think it needed. It was too sweet with neither salty nor tangy counterpoint. I would like to try again but with lemon juice and zest to create the curd and buttercream. In the cake's defense, the buttercream was ultra-smooth and the cake was light and moist. I'll share the orange buttercream recipe, but know that I will make it with the lemon variation next time around.

I'm taking a Wilton cake decorating class at Michael's this month, so there will more cake posts to come!



Mousseline Buttercream (adapted from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum)

Makes 4 1/2 cups

1 lb. unsalted butter, cool room temperature
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. water
5 large egg whites
1/2 + 1/2 t. cream of tartar
3 T. Grand Marnier
1/2 c. orange curd

IN a mixing bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy and set aside in a cool place.

HAVE ready a heatproof glass measure near the range.

IN a small heavy saucepan, heat 3/4 c. sugar and the 1/4 c. water, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is bubbling. Stop stirring and reduce the heat to low. (If using an electric range, remove from the heat.)

IN another mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy, add the cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form when the beater is raised. Gradually beat in the remaining 1/4 c. sugar until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised slowly. Increase the heat and boil the syrup until a thermometer registers 248 to 250 degrees. Immediately transfer the syrup to the glass measure to stop the cooking.

IF using a hand-held mixer, beat the syrup into the whites in a steady stream. Don't allow the syrup to fall on the beaters or they will spin it onto the sides of the bowl. If using a stand mixer, pour a small amount of syrup over the whites with the mixer off. Immediately beat at high speed for 5 seconds. Stop the mixer and add a larger amount of syrup. Beat at high speed for 5 seconds. Continue with the remaining syrup. For the last addition, use a rubber scraper to remove the syrup clinging to the glass measure. Lower speed to medium and continue beating up to 2 minutes or until cool. If not completely cool, continue beating on lowest speed.

BEAT in the butter at medium speed 1 T. at a time. At first the mixture will seem thinner but will thicken beautifully by the time all the butter is added. If at any time the mixture looks slightly curdled, increase the speed slightly and beat until smooth before continuing to add more butter. (Note: I finally had to put the frosting in the fridge until it cooled down to 68 degrees. It was not getting smooth.)

LOWER the speed slightly and fold in the curd and liqueur. Place in an airtight bowl. Rebeat lightly from time to time to maintain silky texture. Buttercream becomes spongy on standing.

Greetings! For many months, I have been lurking on a variety of foodie blogs and have finally decided to start my own. My greatest incentive to start is that I just became a member of The Daring Bakers. While they don't require their members to have blogs, I thought it would be fun to start one.

I obsess about food, and I love to find other cyber-foodies who think about food as much, and in the same way, I do!

Last night, my husband asked me to make crepes. (Please pardon the missing accent - I don't know how to add it here...) I have never made crepes, but have always wanted to try. So, try I did. I used the recipe from Joy of Cooking (see below for recipe) and the crepes turned out wonderfully. The first couple of crepes turned into jumbled flops as I tried to flip them, but I got the hang of it by the third or fourth crepe. By the twelth, I had figured out the correct amount of batter to pour and how long to let the crepe cook before flipping. I also discovered toward the end that the crepes are incredibly easy to flip. I had been quite timid in flipping the first few, but realized halfway through that those crepes were very sturdy, once they were allowed to set properly. So, I was having a good time flipping them by the end! My 5 year-old son enjoyed them with powdered sugar this morning. One of these days, I'm inclined to try Crepes Suzette.

Sometimes, my excitement about baking gets the best of me and I have to remind myself to fold and put away laundry or unload the dishwasher or make a balanced dinner for my family of five before experimenting with a new dessert recipe. Lately, I have been daydreaming about going into business selling cookies. I have a handful of really great cookie recipes about which my friends rave. Time will tell whether that dream becomes a reality or not.

I decided to start with a blog, and I'll go from here...

Basic Sweet Crepes from "Joy of Cooking"

Serves 12

Change to: Servings US Metric

• 1
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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup lukewarm water
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 pinch salt

Directions

1. Pour the batter into a pitcher or other container with a pouring lip.
2. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for 30 minutes or in refrigerate for up to 2 days. (This allows the flour to thoroughly absorb the liquid and gives the gluten in the flour a chance to relax.).
3. Place a nonstick or seasoned crepe pan over medium heat. Coat the pan with a little unsalted butter.
4. Stir the batter and pour about 2 tablespoons into the pan, lifting the pan off the heat and tilting and rotating it so that the batter forms an even, very thin layer. Cook until the top is set and the underside is golden. Turn the crepe over, using a spatula or your fingers (fingers work best here) and cook until the second side is lightly browned. Remove the crepe to a piece of wax paper. Continue cooking the rest of the crepes, buttering the pan and stirring the batter before starting each one.
5. Stack the finished crepes between sheets of wax paper.
6. Use immediately or let cool, wrap airtight and freeze for up to 1 month.