Recipe Sunday: Tarte Tatin

Om Nome Hero Note to Self: When working with hot sugar/caramel, pants are required, or at least an apron

A Tarte Tatin is a deceptively simple dessert that I do not know why I haven’t tried making myself until now. I have weird cravings, like a crackhead or a hormonal pregnant woman and with fall just around the corner, honey crisp apples are starting to appear at the market I was in the mood for an apple like dessert and Tarte Tatin seemed to fit the bill.

History of this dessert is hazy, but the story goes that Tatin sisters from ye old France were baking an apple pie and one of them was doing up the filling, burned it and had an “Oh Shit” moment and threw on a pastry sheet, flipped it and played it cool and made a Tarte Tatin. Tender apples glazed in rich caramel and a flaky tart are part of making this such a great dessert but the real kicker in this dessert is that moment when it is done baking and you flip it onto a plate. If all goes well, you are presented with a hopefully intact tart that has a luscious deep amber shiny glaze and tender apples, billowing cloud of sweetness.

Most recipes have puff pastry, which is fine but I decided and also lacking puff pastry to just do a sheet of pate brisee (Frenchie for tart dough) which works just as fine. Although you can go complicated and put 20 varieties of apples, any apple will really do for this. If you are big money and have a Tarte Tatin pan go for it and use it, I used a skillet but cake pan (not spring form) would work just as well. This tart is best consumed right after you are done but it still taste great when it is cold as well. Served it with some Crème Fraiche if you have on some fancy pants or a scoop of vanilla ice cream if the elastic band pants are on. Recipe after the Jump

             

 Tartin Tatin

Pate Brisee (Recipe Follows) enough for 1 8 inch tart or 1 sheet (about 8 ounces) frozen puff pastry
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons of Butter, chilled and cut into cubes
About 4 sweet firm apples such as Fuji, Gala or Golden Delicious, peeled, cored and quartered or sliced into thin half moons

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, 3 tablespoons of water and bring to a simmer over moderate heat. Simmer without stirring until an amber caramel forms, about 6 minutes. Pour the caramel into an 8-inch ovenproof skillet, tilting to coat the bottom. Set apple slices in the caramel and arrange as nicely as possible depending on your taste of presentation

2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out Pate Brisee into a little over an 8 inch round  or cut the puff pastry into an 8-inch round. Set the round over the apples in the skillet and tuck excess pastry into baking vessel Poke or cut a small hole to vent any steam and bake until it is richly browned, about 40 minutes. Remove the skillet from the oven and let stand for about 10 minutes or if you are feel brave and can stand the heat, 5 minutes. Carefully invert the Tartin onto a cake plate and let cool slightly. Eat until satisfied.

Pate Brisee

 Adapted from Thomas Keller Bouchon

2 C all purpose flour, sifted, plus extra for rolling
1 tsp kosher salt
8 oz chilled unsalted butter, 1/4″ dice
1/4 C ice water
as needed, canola oil

Place 1 C of flour and the salt into a mixer with a paddle attachment.  Turn on slow speed, and gradually add the butter, small handfuls at a time.  Once all the butter is in, turn up the speed to medium and mix until butter is fully incorporated, there should be no visible pieces.  (It will be a soft dough, but don’t overmix it.)

Turn off machine, scrape the dough off the paddle, add in the remaining flour and turn on to low speed.  Mix just until combined.  The mixture will be very dry and crumbly.

Add in the ice water and incorporate.  Again, don’t overmix.  The dough should be smooth and not sticky.  Shape into a 7-8 inch wide disk, wrap in plastic film and refrigerate for at least one hour.  Can be refrigerated up to a day, or stored in the freezer for a couple months.

Recipe Sunday: Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes with a Chocolate Baileys Buttercream

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: There is no such thing of making too much buttercream

Since Hurricane Irene decided to show up like a horrible party guest, it subdued any plans I had of Epic Om Nomzing and hindered any trip to Laudree, I did what anybody else would do if stuck in the house: re-watch the first season of Community and bake and cook. This is a bit of throw back recipe of something I made for a friend’s birthday. As much as I like making an epic layer cake, I decided to make cupcakes because:
 1. easier to transport
2. I was short on time and cupcakes can be made from start to finish within a hour
3. She likes cupcakes. Win situation for me

I decided to go with a recipe I jacked from Baking Bites blog that is great for ideas and recipes, or in my case, perfect for wasting time and reading at work. Buttermilk pretty much ensures the cake staying moist even if you freeze it and defrost it. I topped it with a chocolate buttercream that was spiked with Baileys because the addition of booze never hurts. From the Baked: Explorations I was inspired to throw on some burnt sugar shards that would be a nice crunch and also for people to be like, “whoa” and I comepletely admit it is not really necessary but a nice shits and giggles factor.
I admit, for anyone that enjoys baking sometimes when you are making stuff for others, you step your game up a bit for the ego boost of people being impressed and be like, “dude, how did you do that?” and you suavely responding in the most Cool Hand Luke response, “ehh, it was nothing” and these cupcakes will most definitely get you the response that you want. Also girls like guys that can make cupcakes, GAME CHANGER.

Adapted from BakingBites.com

Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
¼ cup butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ tsp almond extract
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350F. Place liners in a 12 cup muffin tin.
In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until it looks creamy. Beat in the egg and the vanilla and almond extracts until mixture is smooth.
Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until almost combined. Add buttermilk and stir, again, until almost combined. Add the rest of the flour and stir until all ingredients are mixed in.
Divide batter evenly into muffin cups.
Bake for 18-20 minutes at 350F, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
Let cupcakes cool for 10 minutes and then remove from the muffin pan. Cool completely before frosting.
Makes 12 cupcakes

Chocolate Baileys Buttercream

• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or 1/2 pound), softened
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
• 3-4 tablespoons of Baileys

Note** the Lush version is ditch the addition of milk or heavy cream and just add more Bailey

Cream butter until fluffy, then sift cocoa into the mixing bowl until thoroughly incorporated. Slowly add in the confectioner the sugar until fully incorporated. Beat in the vanilla extract, salt, and milk/cream and Baileys until smooth and all the ingredients are fully incorporated. Refrigerate for at least 20-30 minutes for easier piping and not having a mess of sloppy buttercream all over the place.

Overnight Yeasted Waffles and Buttered Maple Syrup

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: I want a Mickey Mouse Waffle Iron

The week is hectic and with working out, writing, working and gorging myself on food by the time Sunday rolls around, I am done. My Sunday morning routine is usual, I go for a light jog and workout and I get on going making a simple breakfast. One of my favorites is Waffles is that is designed with wells that hold and soak in awesome syrup. I went through a lot of waffle recipes, ranging from the basic buttermilk waffles to the failed recipes such as a cornmeal waffle. However, the one waffle recipe that has always stood out and that I consistently make time and time again, is from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. First off, bold statement and second, the recipe stands out to me because of its lightness and for the fact is it also a yeasted waffle. The yeasted batter has that hint of tanginess to it that you find in a buttermilk waffle but the texture of Bittman’s overnight waffle is outstanding. Light, crisp and moist makes you appreciate and give a slight nod to the Belgians for making such a tasty treat. Although prior planning the night before is required, it is a simple recipe and is finished off quickly the next morning. Waffles are designed to be topped and sure you can go just butter or powdered sugar, but you might as well indulge yourself and either slather it with Speculoos (Gingerbread-like spread, think of it as peanut butter’s hot cousin that is nut free) spread, a nice compote or go for the quick extra step and create the Clinton Street Bakery inspired maple butter syrup. I am unsure how they make it, so I took a SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess) a quick tweek and this is what I came up with. Although it is not fat-free by any means, it is Sunday, enjoy yourself before going back to work on Monday half asleep. At least it is…uhh nitrate free?

 Recipes After the Jump!

Lemon Bars and Chocolate Ice Cream- Not mixed together

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Lemon Squares are bite size pieces of pie

I do not have a particularly favorite season and I particularly do not really care. But this past winter, after being hit with snow for five straight weeks, can be best described as…craptastic. Come to think of it, I hate snow, because I do not know what purpose it serves. I mean back in grade school, snow was great best you got a free day to sleep and do absolutely nothing. Now, it is like…I need to get to work and plowing snow? That is some serious work. I feel it is so counterproductive because it is going to melt and disappear, but I can not do anything, until the snow is gone. Anyone that romanticize about snow and say that they love it and it is pretty and beautiful has never had to shove a driveway and does not live in the Northeast. I hate you.

Anyways, the barrage of snow this winter has especially taken its toll on me and I am looking forward to spring and the summer. Although lemons are available all year round…well pretty much everything is nowadays, lemons, or Meyer Lemons to be precise are technically in season around March, which is a total tease because it is never warm in March. But the vibrant yellow lemons makes you think of spring and warm weather and makes life and the cold a bit more bearable. My favorite thing to do with lemons is to make lemon bars because it is a quick and simple treat that is good to eat on your own or to a party and impress people, especially girls (But, being the shy loser I am, this hasn’t happened yet, but in my mind it totally works because I saw it on TV once and TV never lies to you). I have tried many lemon bar recipes but my favorite is the one from David Lebovitz, in which in another sci-fi Stargate world, I we would be total buds and I would never explain and find perfectly normal to have a chocolate drawer. The lemon bar recipe, although lacking chocolate is not lacking any lemon flavors and it perfectly embodies the sour and essence of the lemon. The kicker in the recipe, is it uses a whole lemon, peel and all which is great because you get little bits of chewy slightly bitter peel. The lemon bars just scream warm weather and comfort and I suggest everyone to start pumping these out, besides citrus prevents scurvy and we all want to prevent that. 

Though I make and eat ice cream all year round, I start kicking it into high gear the second I can rock shorts. So when it bizarrely hit 75 degrees, before slapping on the shorts, I made sure that the ice cream bowl was in the freezer and I have enough heavy cream to start churning out ice cream. I have been having chocolate cravings like a pregnant lady so I naturally decided to christen the ice cream making high season with a chocolate ice cream. I did not just do any old chocolate ice cream, I added in Cocoa nibs which turned the chocolate volume from 10 to 11 (This is Spinal Tap reference). I had a bag of dried tart cherries that I have been wanting to use so taking a page from David Lebovitz, I took his idea for his red wine syrup and rehydrated the cherries in the red wine syrup which was a great idea because it even after freezing the ice cream, the cherries did not turn into chewy, rock hard nubs, they were tender and the slight tartness and the fruity wine paired perfectly with the chocolate. I used a Callebaut 72% for this and but I think a milk chocolate would work well too. Use a good quality chocolate if you can get your hands on it, you should not subject yourself to crappy chocolate!

Recipes after the Jump!

Recipe it up: Dorayaki

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: I still don’t know what Doraemon is, but I would totally party with him

When I was little and we would visit Taiwan, Japanese cartoon dominated the airwaves and I would see the one cartoon, where this character Doraemon would go absolutely crazy for what I now know was dorayaki. I have no clue what the hell Doraemon is, and according to wiki, he is a robotic type of cat. The Japanese think up some CRAZY stuff. 

 WHAT ARE YOU!!

Anyways, I thought dorayaki were just chocolate cookie sandwiches and did not realize until I actually had one that they are suppose to be filled with red bean paste. I can not recall the first time I actually had them but I do know they were from the Japanese mega-supermarket Mitsuwa, but I remember the first one that I actually remembered what it tasted like and why these Japanese treats were awesome was in a 7-11 Tokyo.

Going abroad, I like to go to the convenience store, especially the 7-11 to see what they got, and the ones in Asia and in this case Japan has 10x better food than we do. They have cakes, rice balls, fish cakes, noodles, hot dogs that eating at a 7-11 I would be perfectly content (sorry, folks, haven’t found a 7-11 taquito abroad yet!). But, I bought a dorayaki and I downed it like a fat kid sneaking a Snickers bar at fat camp. This is essentially a whoopie pie and I will say that these are the origins of the whoopie pie (Sorry Maine). The pancake is fluffy and tender and the smooth red bean paste is a great contrast to the sweetness. 

Although red bean paste in the traditional way to fill these suckers, in the picture or variations, such as a custard, curd, sesame paste or in my I call, the “white trash” rendition, filled with Nutella and Fluff which taste awesome. I plan to make these in the spring when I start to abuse the ice cream maker. The firmness of the dorayaki makes it a great vessel for ice cream!

Recipe after the Jump

Carrot Cake

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Cream cheese frosting tastes awesome...especially the morning after when a smudge of it sat on the table overnight. Don't judge me.

I never liked Carrot Cake as a kid. My Mom rarely bought any sweets and when she did, it was a special occasion for a fat kid like me. On the rare occasions she bought cake, I was happy like the fat kid in Willy Wonka that drank from the Chocolate River. Imagine my surprise when I would be psyched for cake and  I realized that she bought a Carrot Cake. World would collapse and go dark, I start shopping at Hot Topic and start writing bad poetry. Being Asian I broke it down my dislike for Carrot Cake mathematically:

Carrot= Vegetable

Vegetable= Not Cool/do not want

Therefore, Carrot= Not Cool/do not want and Cake= Cool/do want then:

Carrot + Cake= 0

0 is fail.

I got older, I became less of a picky eater and became open to other foods and it was not until I got to college that I actually appreciated Carrot Cake. Sadly, the first Carrot Cake that I remember enjoying was about Sophomore year at the Busch Dining Hall (Rutgers U. acknowledgement) and I was pretty sure that it was a sheet cake. Carrots themselves are naturally sweet so it is no surprise to make it into a carrot and topped with a traditional cream cheese frosting a great pairing.

I copped this recipe from the Flour Bakery Cookbook. Joanne Chang is a badass baker and I think I secretly have a weird Amy Tang novel connection with her with the whole Asian-person-not-wanting-to-do stereotype-Asian-job-and-bake kind of deal

Great thing about her book is she not only got volume measurements but also have the weight measurements which is far more accurate and easy to divide if you don’t want that much. I used dried cranberries instead of raisins and poached them in a mix of rum and white wine to give it a boozy kick.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from Four Bakery Cookbook

1 cups + 2 tablespoon (160 grams) all-purpose flour
3 tablespoon buttermilk (yogurt, heavy cream, sour cream all works fine)

1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
12 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. of ground ginger

1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups (260 grams) grated carrots

1 cup (50 grams) coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup (80 grams) raisins or dried cranberries
1 cup (220 grams) of brown sugar
3/4 (150 grams) canola oil
2 large eggs

For the Frosting

12 ounces (340 grams) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick (8 tablespoon/half cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
 1 2/3 cups (230 grams) confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Butter and flour one 8 inch cake pan.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt. In another bowl, stir together the carrots. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, cream the sugar, oil, buttermilk together on medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one by one, and continue to beat until the batter is even smoother. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear. Gently mix in the raisins and nuts. Divide the batter among the baking pans.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until a thin knife inserted into the centers comes out clean; the cakes will have just started to come away from the sides of the pans. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes and un-mold them. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.
Frosting: Beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the frosting is velvety smooth.
To assemble: Wait for all parts to cool down, makes it easier to work with. Cut the cake in half, frost it up let it rest/cool in the refrigerator, profit/eat.
**For Boozy poached raisins (via www.thekitchn): Place your raisins in a saucepan and add 1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum, 3/4 cup dry white wine, 3 tablespoons orange juice, and a little sugar if you'd like. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until the raisins have soaked up the liquid.