Ricotta 101 - Make this!!

Here is the feel-good recipe of the month, maybe even the whole year. Homemade ricotta cheese. It is empowering because what was once a mystery is now at your command, and it is a revelation to anyone who ever thought of ricotta as a mere ingredient as opposed to something delicious on its own.

Words cannot describe the unbelievable silky, creamy, salty, sweet smoothness of homemade ricotta - still warm-ish, slathered on crackers (also homemade - recipe to come).

Ridiculously easy, and the transformation from milk to cheese is nothing short of a miracle.

Heat 2 quarts of whole milk and 1 t. salt in a large sauce pan. When it comes to a simmer, add 2 T. lemon juice and stir gently for a minute or two - curds will form immediately and separate from the whey. Take it off the heat and let it rest a minute or two, then gently scoop the curds out with a slotted spoon and drain in a fine mesh sieve, or a coarse sieve lined with cheesecloth. Let drain a few minutes, then scoop into a bowl and let cool a bit. Eat slightly warm or at room temperature, plain, or sprinkled with pepper or herbs. Refrigerate any leftovers - (Ha ha ha - that's kind of an inside joke. Unless you double this, there will be NO leftovers!)

There is a pronounced lemony flavor when the cheese is less than an hour old, but that fades a bit into the sweetness of the cheese itself after that time.

I am trying this in lasagne soon, and will report out as soon as I do. I am also wondering if vinegar would work as well as lemon juice - chemistry say it should. More research is clearly called for.

Red Velvet Cake, and my high horse

OK, I really should know better. Because whenever I say "never", the universe immediately starts conspiring to make sure that it happens sooner rather than later. And I have been saying "never" about Red Velvet cake for a long time - as in, we will never do this in the bakery because it is not our tradition and there are lots of other people who make it and really really I think it takes too much food dye and maybe that makes me a food snob but I just don't have the red velvet in my blood even though with all that floofy frosting it does look pretty divine.

But then, it started cropping up all over, including here, and I totally respect Ann's food sensibility and so I thought I really should make it just to have some factual basis for all the talk. So, even though I thought I was going to make this months ago, I finally made it last night and wow is it ever gorgeous! And the floofy frosting is more than one could hope for - not too sweet, light, perfectly spreadable but not too melty even when warm. . . . .

This was much praised at the office, the frosting especially, though the cake was moist and delicious too. Yes, I could definitely over-indulge in this!

So, apparently I should get off my high horse about Red Velvet Cake. Good lord, what could this mean for vegan and gluten free??!!

Happy New Year!

Ah, not that much new, but still having lots of fun with the bakery. Well, really just recovering from the snow and the wedding show, etc. And I just wanted to put something new up, but I haven't taken any pictures in the past few days. This weekend we visited Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle. Wow. That is what every bakery wants to be when they grow up. Cherry-almond croissants. Pizza. Sicilian (thick-crust) pizza. Artisan bread. Eclairs. Chocolates. Raisin pinwheels. Chocolate hazelnut slices. Passion fruit dome. Brioche. Pineapple Brioche. Baguettes. Um, not that I did an inventory or anything, but Yum!
This little darlin' is mine, cute and delicious, if I do say so myself. But the ones at Bakery Nouveau are divine!

The 2009 Seattle Wedding Show

January 3 and 4, 2009 - here is a picture of our booth. This was an amazing adventure. So many new things to learn. Working on developing a logo, working on design and copy for a brochure, physically getting everything printed, deciding on what display cakes to bring, how to set up the booth for best visual impact, what we needed in the booth, staffing the booth, moving in and moving out (in the snow!), how much cake to take, the best way to serve samples (there are actually more options than you might think! - sample cups, on napkins, in cupcake holders, etc). This was so much adrenalin, and fun, and exhaustion.

The cake in the very front of the booth was an inspiration - I saw the Martha Stewart Weddings magazine a week before the show, and was able to order feather butterflies from the same vendor she used, and we were able to put the cake together in time for the show. It was really fun/funny to have people walk up to the booth and shriek "ohmygod that's the martha stewart cake!!" And I caught one of my helpers nonchalantly saying, oh yeah, they took a picture of our cake for that magazine! I stopped laughing just long enough to tell her she can't say that!

Merry Christmas and buche de noel!

Ah, the fabulousness of a lazy day, with nothing to do but walk the dog and cook and eat dinner! Last night was lobster and salad and fresh bread. Today is crab cakes and duck on the rotissiere. And if I eat enough of that, plus the aforementioned bread, and save room for the dessert, well, then, the fresh pasta with mushrooms might just have to wait until tomorrow!

We have suffered mightily over the past two weeks here in the pacific northwest, home of the green and soggy Christmas - my personal favorite actually. Tons of snow finally melting, shoveling muscles very sore, many cars (not mine tho) injured in the slip slidey conditions.

The buche de noel is easy and delish - as many or as few little decorations as you care to add. This one is pretty plain, but the rich chocolate roll is filled with white chocolate mousse and frosted with chocolate buttercreammmmmmmmmmm. That is not a typo. It is very good.

Ultimate Fruitcake

This is a fruitcake to love, and to change people's minds about the whole fruitcake-hating thing. Which I have to say I don't mind the fruitcake haters too much because it leaves more for US, the smart and talented fruitcake lovers. This recipe benefits from lots of rum, and lots of yummy candied and dried fruit and nuts, with the candied cherries in there for a hit of color and tradition. Bake in a jellyroll pan, cool, remove from the pan, brush with more rum, then drape with a thin and lucious sheet of marzipan.

Check out Kim's posts at A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen for another really lovely recipe and some beautiful pictures!

The best part of this is baking it with friends right after Thanksgiving. I love the process and ritual of that so much that I wouldn't even mind if I ended up giving it all away, but of course I don't!

Ultimate Fruitcake

The Fruit and Nuts

8 oz. dried figs, stemmed and cut into pieces
8 oz. pitted dates – chopped
8 oz. candied orange peel
8 oz. raisins
8 oz. golden raisins
8 oz. currants
8 oz. candied cherries – cut in half
6 oz. almonds
6 oz. walnuts
½ cup dark rum

Cake Batter

2 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ pound butter at room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar
4 large eggs

The Marzipan

½ pound almond paste
½ pound powdered sugar
2-3 T. corn syrup

The Syrup

1/3 cup corn syrup
3 T. dark rum


Method

Toss the fruit and nuts with the rum and let sit overnight.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees; butter an 11x17” sheet pan and line with baker’s parchment. Stir dry ingredients together in medium bowl (flour through cloves). Cream butter and brown sugar in electric mixer – add eggs one at a time and beat until incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture and beat until smooth. Scrape the batter over the fruit and nuts and fold everything together by hand – this may take a while, but be patient, it will all come together. Scrape it into the parchment lined pan and spread evenly, smoothing the top. Press a piece of parchment onto the top of the cake and bake 50-60 minutes or until the cake is just firm – do not overbake. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack. Take the top piece of parchment off right away.

Make the marzipan frosting – pulse the almond paste in a food processor with the confectioners’ sugar and corn syrup until it comes together. Knead by hand to form a smooth dough and cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Stir the rum and corn syrup together.

When cake is cool or just barely warm, flip it out onto a board or another cookie sheet and remove the baking parchment. Brush the entire cake with syrup until it’s all used up. Roll out the marzipan to make an 11x17 inch rectangle. Drape it over the top of the cake and press down to make sure it sticks.

If you really want it to look perfect and beautiful, trim ½” off of each side of the cake, but I don’t think that’s necessary. The cake can then be cut into 6 squares, about 5”x5” each, that make a great size to wrap up and freeze or give away. The cake is somewhat difficult to cut when fresh, but if you refrigerate or freeze it, it then cuts beautifully into small squares. It keeps in the fridge for several weeks or many months frozen.

Daring Bakers November Challenge!

November's challenge was a caramel cake with caramel butter frosting. The author of the recipe is Shuna Fish Lydon (http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2006 … he-recipe/). The hostess of this month's challenge is Dolores at http://culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com, where you will find the recipe for the challenge. The rules required us to bake the cake and make the frosting - size and shape of the cake and any flavor add-ins optional. I made the cake exactly according to the recipe - did not add anything in vecause the caramel seemed like a great taste on its own.

I baked it on thanksgiving day - of course - because there's LOTS of empty oven space that day :) So I ended up using the tiny oven, which meant I used a 6" round pan and a small cupcake pan. The flavor on this cake was fantastic, and I would try to make it again, but it was a bit heavy and dense - I would have liked it to be a lighter texture.

Here is the completed cake.And here is the caramel sauce - very flavorful!

A small slice.

The iced 6" cake.

The little cupcakes.

Ginger Scones

Oh yeah, we made Ginger Scones too! And sat with our lattes and gazed out the window for 10 minutes. These are really fantastic. I hear they're not bad as a hangover cure too :)

GINGER SCONES
400° F for 12-14 minutes

2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar, plus additional for topping
1 T. baking powder
1 t. ground ginger
pinch of salt
6 T. unsalted butter
2 oz. crystallized ginger, chopped
1 egg
½ cup milk

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Cut in butter until the butter is the size of small peas (it is fine to use the food processor for this), then stir in crystallized ginger. Mix egg and milk together. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the egg and milk mixture. Mix lightly until just combined. Turn out onto a floured board, knead for 30 seconds. Pat/roll into a round, cut into 8 wedges. Place on cookie sheet and sprinkle with additional sugar. Bake until golden brown.

I created this recipe after Mom and I visited Chris in Mill Valley and had something very similar at a café/espresso bar in downtown Mill Valley. I think it was called the Depot, and was located in the old train station. They used a star-shaped cookie cutter on theirs, which was nice because it makes for a lot of crunchy edge on each scone. These are interesting because they’re very delicately flavored – usually ginger comes with cloves and molasses and is very heavy and wintery, but these aren’t.

Baking Day with the Girls!

Eeeeeeee! Sunday was absolutely the most fun day EVER. 60's and 70's music on the radio, and baking baking baking. We made 8 pounds of fruitcake, 6 dozen peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, the caramel pear tarts from the prior post, but in 5" shells instead of 3", and we split and filled and iced some little 6" cakes as pictured. The cookies were inspired by the discovery of tiny little peanut butter cups at Trader Joe's - they melted into the cookies instead of retaining their shape like chocolate chips, but this was not a negative! And, we did not bake the Panettone because we didn't have the secret ingredient extract at the bakery with us, but we will live to bake again another day. Recipes to be posted with pics upcoming.