Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Page 36
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and gradually whisk in the water-oil mixture until incorporated. Gradually whisk in the eggs and stir until smooth. The batter will be thin.
Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Drop the pan onto the counter from a height of 3 inches a couple of times to release any air bubbles that may have formed.
Bake in the upper third of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until the cakes spring back from the touch and just pull away from the edges of the pan. An inserted toothpick should come out clean.
Cool the cakes completely on a wire rack before unmolding them from the pan and peeling off the parchment paper. To serve, place one layer down on a cake plate. Spread 1 cup Vanilla Cream in the center of the cake and gently place the second layer atop it. Spread the remaining cream onto the center of the top layer and chill for up to 2 hours before serving.
Alternatively, top with cream cheese frosting, serve with ice cream, or simply dust cakes with cocoa powder or powdered sugar. The batter also makes for fantastic cupcakes!
Tightly wrapped, this cake will keep for 4 days at room temperature, or for 2 months in the freezer.
Fresh Ginger and Molasses Cake
Makes two 9-inch cakes
* * *
As garde-manger at Chez Panisse, I had to get to work at 6:00 a.m. I’ve never been an early riser. It took such an enormous effort for me to get myself to work on time that I always skipped breakfast. When the pastry cooks arrived at 8:00, they set out day-old cakes and cookies for everyone to snack on. By 8:15, any willpower I may have had to ignore these sweets had entirely evaporated. I’d snag a piece of ginger cake, make myself a huge glass of milky tea, slip on my wool beanie, and head back into the walk-in refrigerator. Between bites of the moist, spicy cake and steamy gulps of tea, I’d reorganize the meat and produce and prepare for the day’s deliveries. Those quiet moments amid the utter busyness of the restaurant are among my favorite memories of working at Chez Panisse. I’ve adapted the original recipe to make it a little friendlier for home bakers. I couldn’t resist making it a little saltier and spicier along the way, too. Enjoy it as I did, with a steamy cup of tea, at any time of day.
1 cup (4 ounces) peeled, thinly sliced fresh ginger (about 5 ounces unpeeled)
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
1 cup neutral-tasting oil
1 cup molasses
2 1/3 cups (12 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons kosher salt or 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup boiling water
2 large eggs at room temperature
2 cups Vanilla Cream (page 423)
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Set a rack in the upper third of the oven. Grease two 9-inch cake pans, then line with parchment paper. Grease and sprinkle generously with flour, tap out the excess, and set aside.
Purée the fresh ginger and sugar together in a food processor or blender until completely smooth, about 4 minutes. Pour the mixture into a medium bowl and add the oil and molasses. Whisk to combine and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, pepper, salt, and baking soda, then sift into a large bowl. Set aside.
Whisk the boiling water into the sugar-oil mixture until evenly combined.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and gradually whisk in the water-oil mixture until incorporated. Gradually whisk in the eggs and stir until smooth. The batter will be thin.
Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Drop the pan onto the counter from a height of 3 inches a couple of times to release any air bubbles that may have formed.
Bake in the upper third of the oven for 38 to 40 minutes, until the cakes spring back from the touch and just pull away from the edges of the pan. An inserted toothpick should come out clean.
Cool the cakes completely on a wire rack before unmolding them from the pan and peeling off the parchment paper.
To serve, place one layer down on a cake plate. Spread 1 cup Vanilla Cream in the center of the cake and gently place the second layer atop it. Spread the remaining cream onto the center of the top layer and chill for up to 2 hours before serving.
Alternatively, top with cream cheese frosting, serve with ice cream, or simply dust cakes with powdered sugar. The batter also makes for fantastic cupcakes!
Tightly wrapped, this cake will keep for 4 days at room temperature, or for 2 months in the freezer.
Almond and Cardamom Tea Cake
Makes one 9-inch cake
* * *
In contrast to moist, tender oil cakes, cakes made with butter should be rich in flavor and velvety in texture. The almond paste in this recipe ensures that this cake is both. With a sweet and salty, caramelized almond crust and a dense, flavorful crumb, this cake is an ideal companion for a steaming cup of afternoon tea.
For the almond topping
4 tablespoons butter (2 ounces)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 scant cup sliced almonds (3 ounces)
Pinch of flaky salt, such as Maldon
For the cake
1 cup (5 1/4 ounces) cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 cup almond paste (9 1/2 ounces) at room temperature
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
16 tablespoons butter (8 ounces) at room temperature, cubed
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Set a rack in the upper third of the oven. Butter and flour a 9 by 2-inch round cake pan, then line with parchment paper.
Make the almond topping. In a small saucepan set over medium-high heat, cook the butter and sugar for about 3 minutes, until the sugar dissolves completely and the butter bubbles and froths. Remove from heat and stir in the sliced almonds and flaky salt. Pour this mixture into the cake pan and use a rubber spatula to distribute it evenly across the bottom of the pan.
For the cake, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt onto a piece of parchment paper to evenly combine and remove any lumps. Set aside.
In a small bowl, thoroughly whisk together the vanilla, cardamom, and eggs. Set aside.
Place the almond paste in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to break it up. Add 1 cup sugar and process for 90 seconds, or until the mixture is as fine as sand. If you don’t have a food processor, do this in your stand mixer—it’ll just take a while longer, about 5 minutes.
Add the butter and continue processing until the mixture is very light and fluffy, at least 2 minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is being combined evenly.
With the machine on, slowly start to add the egg mixture, spoonful by spoonful, as if making a mayonnaise (this is, indeed, an emulsion!). Let each addition of egg be absorbed, and the mixture regain its smooth, silky look, before adding more eggs. When all the eggs have been added, stop and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, then continue to mix until well combined. Scrape the batter into a large bowl.
Pick up the parchment paper and use it to sprinkle the flour atop the batter in three batches. Gently fold in the flour in between additions until just incorporated. Avoid overmixing, which will cause the cake to become tough.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake on the prepared rack for 55 to 60 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. The cake will just pull away from the sides of the pan as it’s done. Let the cake cool on a wire rack. Run a knife along the sides of the pan, then warm the bottom of the pan directly over the stovetop for a few seconds to encourage the cake to unmold. Remove the paper and set on a cake plate until ready to serve.
; Serve this cake on its own, or with a berry or stone fruit Compote and Vanilla or Cardamom Cream (page 423).
Tightly wrapped, this cake will keep for 4 days at room temperature, or for 2 months in the freezer.
Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding
Serves 6
* * *
For years now, I’ve cooked a regular dinner series together with the bakers at Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. We call it Tartine Afterhours—after the bakery closes, we push all of the tables together and cook all of our favorite foods and serve them to folks on big, beautiful family-style platters. It’s not very fancy, but we pour everything we’ve got into it. Sometimes, around midnight, when we’re in the middle of cleaning up, I’ll realize I haven’t eaten properly since breakfast. Looking around, I’m surrounded by pastries. As I’m invariably hot and sweaty after a long day’s work, the only thing that ever looks good is a little bowl of chocolate pudding, calling out to me from the glass-doored fridge. I’ll find a spoon, pull out a bowl of pudding, and taste a spoonful. Creamy and cool, it always hits the spot. One by one, the others will spot me and come over with their own spoons. Together, we’ll silently finish the bowl and return to cleaning up. We always share just the one bowl. Somehow, this is one of my favorite parts of the night. Here is my slightly adapted version of the Tartine recipe—a little less sweet, and a little more salty. Like Tartine, though, I use Valrhona cocoa powder, which makes all the difference.
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 large eggs
3 cups half-and-half
3 tablespoons (3/4 ounce) cornstarch
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (5 ounces) sugar
3 tablespoons (just over 1/2 ounce) cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt or heaping 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
Place the chocolate in a large, heatproof bowl and set a fine-mesh sieve over it. Set aside.
Crack the eggs into a medium bowl and whisk lightly. Set aside.
Pour the half-and-half into a medium saucepot and set over low heat. Remove from the heat just as it starts to emit steam and come to a simmer. Don’t let it boil—when dairy boils, its emulsion breaks and its proteins coagulate. The texture of a custard made with boiled dairy will never be completely smooth.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Whisk in the warm half-and-half. Return the mixture to the pot and set over medium-low heat.
Cook, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, for about 6 minutes, until the mixture visibly thickens. Remove from the heat. To test whether the mixture is thick enough, use your finger to make a line through the pudding on the back of the spoon. It should hold a line.
Slowly add about 2 cups of the hot pudding mixture into the eggs while whisking continuously, then return it all back to the pot and set over low heat. Continue to stir constantly, cooking another minute or so until the mixture visibly thickens again or registers 208°F on a thermometer. Remove from the heat and pour through the sieve. Use a small ladle or rubber spatula to guide the pudding through the sieve.
Allow the residual heat to melt the chocolate. Use a blender (or stick blender, if you have one) to blend thoroughly until the mixture is satiny and smooth. Taste and adjust salt as needed.
Immediately pour into 6 individual cups. Gently tap the bottom of each cup on the counter to pop air bubbles. Allow the pudding to cool. Serve at room temperature, garnished with Scented Cream.
Refrigerate, covered, for up to 4 days.
Variations
• To make Mexican Chocolate Pudding, add 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon into the milk. Continue as above.
• To make Chocolate-Cardamom Pudding, add 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom into the milk. Continue as above.
• To make Chocolate Pudding Pie (page 391), increase the cornstarch to 1/3 cup and make pudding as directed. Refer to page 390 for complete instructions for assembling the pie.
Buttermilk Panna Cotta
Serves 6
* * *
This light custard has been an important part of the repertoire at Chez Panisse for decades. And I always assumed it was an original recipe. Years after I left the restaurant, a friend lent me his precious copy of The Last Course, the legendary, yet out-of-print, cookbook by Claudia Fleming, the legendary pastry chef. Right there on page 14 was Buttermilk Panna Cotta! The dessert had clearly migrated west from Claudia’s menu at Gramercy Tavern in New York. Years later, I read a charming interview with Claudia where she said that nothing good is ever original and revealed that she had torn the recipe directly out of an issue of Australian Vogue Living! This recipe is such a classic, it’s made its way around the world (more than once, I suspect).
Neutral-tasting oil
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
7 tablespoons (3 ounces) sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
Using a pastry brush or your fingers, lightly coat the inside of six 6-ounce ramekins, small bowls, or cups with oil.
Place the cream, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the pan, and add the bean as well.
Place 1 tablespoon cold water in a small bowl, then gently sprinkle the gelatin atop. Let sit for 5 minutes to dissolve.
Heat the cream gently over a medium flame, stirring until the sugar dissolves and steam starts to rise from the cream, about 4 minutes (don’t let the cream simmer—it’ll deactivate the gelatin if it gets too hot). Reduce the heat to very low, add the gelatin, and stir to combine until all the gelatin dissolves, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat and add the buttermilk. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a measuring cup with a spout.
Pour the mixture into the prepared ramekins, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours or overnight.
To unmold, dip the ramekins into a dish of hot water, and then invert the custards onto plates. Garnish with citrus, berry, or stone fruit Compote.
Can be prepared up to 2 days in advance.
Variations
• For Cardamom Panna Cotta, add 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom to the cream before heating. Continue on previous page.
• For a delicate Citrus Panna Cotta, add 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon or orange zest to the cream before heating. Continue on previous page.
Marshmallowy Meringues
Makes about 30 small meringues
* * *
My friend Siew-Chin is an egg white whisperer. From her I learned the importance of whipping egg whites for meringues slowly, in order to incorporate even-size bubbles, so that they will gain more volume and be more stable as they bake. The most important thing is to keep the egg whites clean and free of contamination. Any fat—whether from the yolks, your hands, or residue inside a bowl that’s not perfectly clean—will prevent them from fulfilling their voluminous potential. I love this recipe because it yields particularly soft and chewy meringues, which are equally nice as little bites or when baked into larger cup sizes for individual Pavlovas (see variation on next page).
4 1/2 teaspoons (1/2 ounce) cornstarch
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) sugar
3/4 cup (6 ounces/about 6 large) egg whites at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 250°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and sugar.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment (if you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use an electric hand mixer with the whisk attachment), whip the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt. Starting on low, slowly increase to medium speed until trails start to become visible, and the egg white bubbles are very small and uniform, approximately 2 to 3 minutes. Take your t
ime here.
Increase speed to medium-high, slowly and gradually sprinkling in the sugar-cornstarch mixture. A few minutes after the sugar is added, slowly pour in the vanilla. Slightly increase speed and whip until the meringue is glossy, and stiff peaks form when the whisk is lifted, 3 to 4 minutes.
Spoon golf ball–size spoonfuls of meringue onto the parchment paper, using a second spoon to scrape it off the spoon. Flick your wrist to coax irregular peaks to form on top of each meringue.
Slip the baking sheets into the oven, and reduce the temperature to 225°F.
After 25 minutes, rotate the pans 180 degrees and switch their positions on the racks. If the meringues appear to be taking on color or cracking, reduce the temperature to 200°F.
Continue baking for another 20 to 25 minutes, until the meringues easily lift off the paper, the outsides are crisp and dry to the touch on the outside and the center is still marshmallowy. Just taste one to check!
Gently lift the meringues from the baking sheet and cool on a wire rack.
They’ll keep in a tightly sealed container at room temperature, or individually wrapped, for up to a week if your house is not humid.
Variations
• Form the meringues into little Pavlovas. Spoon the meringues onto the parchment paper in 3 by 2-inch ovals, then use the back of a spoon to gently create a divot in each meringue. Bake for about 65 minutes as directed above, cool completely, and then serve with Scented Cream or ice cream topped with berry or citrus fruit Compote (page 407).
• For Persian Pavlovas, add 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom and 1 tablespoon cooled saffron tea (see page 287) into the egg whites. Continue as above. Serve with Rose-Scented Berries (page 407), Cardamom Cream (page 423), toasted pistachios, and crumbled rose petals.