Entries Tagged as 'Dessert'

Sweet Potato Tart with Pecans

12

05.2.13

Magazine Street really exploded into THE STRIP after the flood. Blocks and blocks of busy shops and restaurants appeared, while just five minutes away, the formerly bustling South Claiborne Avenue looked like a ghost town. Yes, the strip had its share of blinking traffic lights. The crazy drivers of New Orleans impressively learned to treat each intersection like a four-way stop sign. But besides damaged roofs, most of the buildings in the Strip bubble were unscathed.

We strolled the Strip “30 minutes each day, no excuses!” we shouted. Not to get all Confederacy of Dunces, but the daily sightings of neighborhood characters (henceforth referred to as “stripsters”) was comforting. There was an older man with a gray beard and long dreads who dutifully hobbled the Strip with his walking stick, greeting us cheerfully “Hey ladies, how y’all doing? God bless y’all!” There was the pixieish blond girl, always clothed in a vintage sheath dress. She disdainfully sighed at the clothes I dared to sell at her second hand clothing store. And there was also a small child of about ten years old, shilling miniature pies outside the neighborhood A&P. His life’s story was mapped out in my mind, that his mother had no choice but to bake delightful miniature pies to make ends meet. More likely, he was just annoying, so she sent him out to burn off his energy. “Pies! Do y’all want pies?” He yelled, “We got pecan, lemon chess, sweet potato…”

Sweet potato! It sounded so exotic to me. That particular pie has loomed large in my imagination ever since I was a middle schooler in Rhode Island listening to Domino sing his underreated 90′s rap classic “so break me off a piece of that sweet potato pie” (the innuendo was lost on me at the time). The sweet potato pie was everything I had dreamed it would be. An electric orange, slightly warm, cloying, and dense custard– pretty much the perfect dessert in my mind. It was not heavily flavored with spices, so the tuber’s natural earthy sweetness stole the show. Of course the smooth filling was cradled in a tender, homemade butter crust.

Do you think that little boy, who is probably in high school now, is still selling pies? Am I the real stripster in his mind? Do you think he remembers me at all? Probably not. Life keeps moving, and Magazine Street isn’t just a freeze frame from that dizzying, drunken time. Which means I have to make my own sweet potato desserts.

Here’s a treasonous secret I never revealed to the pie boy: I prefer French tart crusts to regular pie. That shortbread quality gets me every single time. This particular tart crust from David Lebovitz is the best. thing. ever. It’s a bizarre, yet foolproof technique that results in a slightly salty caramelized crust.

The key is to puree all of the ingredients in the food processor. It results in an extra-smooth and fluffy filling that plays off the textural contrast of the crunchy pecans and crisp butter crust. I throw a generous pinch of dried ginger into the filling, but vanilla bean is key. Those tiny black seeds dotting the orange custard leave behind a haunting floral note.

Please don’t add cinnamon and clove. Yes, pumpkin pie has its righteous yet rubbery place at the Thanksgiving table, but it has no place here. Get over it.

Sweet Potato Tart with Pecans

1 recipe French tart dough

90 g (3 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used canola)
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
150 g (5oz, or 1 slightly-rounded cup) flour

Sweet potato filling

1 medium sweet potato
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
1/2 teaspoon dried ground ginger
2 tablespoons melted salted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 egg

Pecan topping

1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons salted butter, softened and cubed

Procedure

1. Poke holes in the sweet potato, and roast it in the oven at 410º F. In the meantime, gather your ingredients for the tart dough. You should be able to pierce it with a fork after 30 – 45 minutes. At this point, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool.

2. Leave the oven on and follow the ingredients to make the tart dough. Do not bake it– just set your dough lined tart pan aside.

3. Turn the heat down to 375º F. Using a fork, scrape the orange flesh of the sweet potato into the food processor, along with the seeds of the vanilla bean. Add the dried ginger, melted butter, sugar, milk, and cracked egg. Puree the sweet potato mixture for 30 seconds. Scrape the sides of the bowl, and then puree it again until completely smooth and the filling has formed a uniform texture.

4. In a small bowl, combine the pecans, butter, and sugar. Using your fingers, incorporate the ingredients so that the pecans are evenly coated with the crumbly sugar mixture.

5. Pour the sweet potato into the prepared tart shell and use a spatula to smooth the surface. Evenly scatter the pecans over the top. Bake at 375º F for 25 – 30 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

Back from Paris

0

13.5.12

Wouldn’t it be lovely to spend your life wondering the streets of Paris/eating copious amounts of cheeses & pastries/not working? That’s just not the way the world works unfortunately.

Last month we arrived in Paris jet lagged and disoriented, found our hotel, dropped off our bags, and headed for Pierre Hermé. We picked up a delicious pain au chocolat along with three macarons. Welcome to Paris!

I also dragged Dustin to several cheese shops. Fromageries are funny— it seemed like there were always more people working than shopping. The scene at Barthélemy was particularly amusing. While I was sparring/discussing with the guy about what type of Comté I wanted, he suddenly motioned at me to step back. Then a trapped door in the floor opened. A small man popped out carrying a tray of goat cheeses, piled picturesquely in perfect stacks. We also picked up a slice of rabbit terrine and pastries along on the way.

Feeling smug about my success recalling college French classes, we ventured to a kitchen supply store in Les Halles. Once again, there were more workers than customers. The woman at the register barked something at me, and I didn’t understand a single word. I bumbled through the transaction and somehow left with a new terrine for my charcuterie projects. I won’t need to use a loaf pan anymore!

We had an outstanding final meal in Paris at Les Cocottess, and witnessed Christian Constant himself interrogating his chef. I hope to recreate the standout meal for the blog sometime. More to come.

Unlocking the Mystery of Rainbow Cookies

11

15.4.12

When I worked at a crazy cheese shop in New York City around the holiday season, I didn’t have much energy to do anything but work, sleep, and drink. I didn’t eat much. Usually I ran across Bleecker Street to the Italian bakery for a much-needed sugar boost. Nine times out of ten I bought a rainbow cookie.

I might like the idea of the rainbow cookie more than the actual cookies. I’m attracted to those eye-catching layers of bright pink and green (said to represent the Italian flag) tasting strongly of almond flavoring, held together with apricot or raspberry jam and dipped in dark chocolate. A good rainbow cookie should be more cake than cookie; it should be moist and dense and not at all dry and crunchy.

Growing up in the Northeast, I took rainbow cookies for granted. Any decent Italian bakery in the Northeast carries them. They’re right up there in the Italian-American baked goods cannon with cannolis and pignolis. That said, I’ve rarely seen them in Texas.

When I saw this recipe in Saveur, I knew I had to make them. It doesn’t actually require much baking skill, but assembling the layers is time-consuming. My cookies turned out a little crooked. After I made them, I saw that Deb from Smitten Kitchen used a different recipe and weighed the cakes down to ensure even layers. Brilliant move! Check out her blog for some more hints.

RAINBOW COOKIES from Saveur

ingredients

1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
2 cups flour, plus more for pans
1 cup sugar
1 12.5-oz. can almond pastry filling, such as Solo brand
4 eggs
12 drops green food coloring
12 drops red food coloring
1 12-oz. seedless raspberry jam (I subbed homemade strawberry vanilla bean jam)
12 oz. semisweet chocolate, melted

instructions

1. Heat oven to 350°. Grease and flour three 9″ x 13″ baking pans and line with parchment paper; set aside. Using a hand mixer on high-speed, beat butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add pastry filling; beat until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour; beat until just combined. Evenly divide batter into 3 bowls. Add green food coloring to one bowl, red food coloring to the second bowl, and leave the third bowl plain; stir colorings into batters. Using an offset spatula, spread each batter into a prepared baking pan. Bake each pan until just beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto wire racks; cool.

2. Heat jam in a 1-qt. saucepan over medium heat; cook, stirring, until smooth; cool slightly. Place green cake on a cutting board or foil-lined baking sheet. Using an offset spatula, spread half the jam over green cake; top with plain cake. Spread remaining jam over plain cake; top with red cake. Chill cakes to set jam, 1 hour.

3. Using a slicing knife, trim cake edges to form an even block. Slice block crosswise into 1 ½″-wide logs; separate on a cutting board. Using an offset spatula, spread chocolate over top, sides, and ends of each log until completely covered; chill to set chocolate. Slice each log crosswise into ½″-thick squares to serve.

I’m Stuck Making Portuguese Custard Tarts

18

21.2.12

Did you hear? The winning $336 million Powerball jackpot ticket was sold in my hometown of Newport, Rhode Island. At MY grocery store. I was convinced my mom had won.

The gears in my brain started turning. What would I do with my cut? I would totally pay someone to redesign this blog. And obviously I would get Andi some physical therapy to regain use of her injured leg.

I would also fly back to the Northeast on a whim whenever I wanted some pastéis de nata, or Portuguese custard tarts, because they’re such a pain to make. They’re available in all the bakeries in nearby Fall River, Massachusetts, but no one here in Austin has heard of them.

Unfortunately my mom didn’t win— she bought her ticket at the other Stop & Shop. So I’m stuck making custard tarts from scratch when the craving strikes.

Pastéis de nata are buttery pastry cups filled with dense, eggy custard flavored with vanilla and cinnamon. They’re baked at a high temperature and get a little charred on top and around the edges. I figured Fall River native David Leite would have a reliable recipe, and I wasn’t disappointed.

I won’t post the lengthy recipe and directions, but here are some helpful tips:

1. You can use the dough blade of a food processor to mix the dough if you don’t have a standing mixer.

2. Don’t worry about making perfect pastry dough. David says that the secret to flaky pastry is evenly layered butter, as well as rolling the dough thinly and folding it neatly. I’m not patient enough and did none of these things. I rolled the dough out with a vodka bottle.

3. Remember you’ll need to refrigerate the pastry dough overnight or at least for a few hours before using it.

4. When pressing the dough into the muffin tins, don’t press it too thinly. Otherwise the custard will leak through the bottom, and the tart will fall apart.

5. I didn’t bother with a thermometer to gauge the temperature of the custard. I just waited until the syrup boiled for a few minutes before whisking it into the milk.

6. The tarts commonly found in Fall River are larger than those in this recipe, so I used a regular muffin tin. It yielded about 18 tarts.

I don’t think my shortcuts affected the final product, but a vavo might disagree. My friends gave them rave reviews, and they reminded me of the real thing.

Portuguese Custard Tarts from Leite’s Culinaria

Jeni’s Salty Caramel Ice Cream

6

07.2.12

It’s a fact. If there’s ice cream in the freezer, I’m going to eat it. I don’t ‘get’ people who can keep some on hand for surprise guests or whatever. Last summer I went through a phase making ice cream several times per week. It was fun experimenting with all sorts of flavors.

It was not okay when I stepped on the scale a few weeks later. Surely my daily serving of ice cream wasn’t to blame. Didn’t Michael Pollan say you can eat all the ice cream you want if you make it from scratch with locally sourced ingredients? That’s the message I took away from In Defense of Food.

I’ve eased back into ice cream making with a recipe that makes a perfect, irresistible, but satisfying ice cream. Something about the salty/sweet combo helps me put down the spoon and control myself. A recipe like this salty caramel ice cream would only come from Jeni Britton Bauer, owner of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams.

I have yet to visit one of her scoop shops in Ohio, but I’ve tried a few of her pints. They measure up to the hype— it really is the best ice cream ever. I ran out and bought her book as soon as it came out, and I was lucky enough to attend one of her ice cream classes at Central Market. She just glows with enthusiasm for her creative artisan ice creams.

I won’t rehash the recipe published in Bon Appetit, but the final product tasted just like the stuff I bought at the store. Jeni’s recipes are unique because they never include eggs. She uses cornstarch and cream cheese as emulsifiers, and she also boils the cream. Here are some tips:

1. Get all of your ingredients prepped before you start. Jeni uses a dry burn technique to make the caramel base, so you must watch the sugar and act quickly when it achieves the right color.

2. Back away when you add the cream as it will pop and sputter!

3. Strain the base through a sieve before refrigerating it. Don’t skip this step because you don’t want to compromise on the ice cream’s wonderfully smooth texture.

Salty caramel is Jeni’s signature flavor. Her eggless ice cream results in a bright flavor carried beautifully by the butterfat and not muddled by the egg yolks. It’s a perfectly balanced combination of salty and sweet.

Biscuits of Today

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