Sweet & Savory

Hot Cocoa!

It was a gloomy and raining morning in the rolling city of San Francisco. We had roused ourselves from the confines of the warm bed and made our way to the San Francisco Ferry Building for a little adventure. Going to the Ferry Building on a Saturday morning to browse the shops and the fresh produce in the stands is always fun. You never know what new things you will be introduced to!

On this trip, we were especially delighted to make the acquaintance of the hot chocolate from the fairly recently opened Boulette's Larder, a beautiful store inside the building. The shelves to one side of the entrance housed an enormous variety of colorful spices in apothecary jars, most of which I've never heard of but would love to try. The counter to the left of the cash register featured tempting array of desserts. (Try the chocolate hazelnut tart. It's really good!) There were so many other interesting products on display that I had to practice great willpower to refrain from buying one of everything in sight.

After seeing three customers in front of me buy the same thing - a steaming cup of hot cocoa - I had a lemming-esque moment, my willpower caved and I bought one too.

I am by no means a connoisseur of hot chocolate as I must confess that my hot chocolates normally originate from those brown unidentified powders sealed in a paper pouch that you mix with hot water. This time, my taste-buds told me, the hot chocolate was different. It was wonderful. Chocolatey. A little bitter. Not too sweet. Creamy. Hot. The perfect hot drink to ward off the dreary February weather in San Francisco. The cup was empty all too quickly.

SHF 5 - Mille-feuilles de Chocolat à la Banane & Puff Pastry with Whipped Ganache

Clement from À la Cuisine! came up with the most brilliant topic of puff pastry for the 5th installment of Sugar High Friday. Yay for Clement! J and I have never made puff pastry before. We've certainly eaten our share of it but have never been courageous enough to face this seemingly herculean task. This seemed like a good time to try it out and see what different creations fellow bloggers from around the world would come up with.

We hmmmed and hawed over our collection of cookbooks. After much meditation, debate, and drooling, we reached a consensus. We would create an adaptation of Pierre Hermé's Mille-feuilles de Chocolat à l' Orange. This beauty had a 2-page photo spread all to itself in the book, designed to show off its perfection in minute detail. To make things a little more interesting for us, it would be banana flavored instead of orange - sort of a different take on the all-American banana cream pie or the boston cream pie.

Our resulting Mille-feuilles de Chocolat à la Banane were not complete successes but they were far from failures. The banana crème mousseline came out lovely - light and airy with an appropriate amount of banana flavor. The mille-feuilles, however, did not come out quite as lovely as we had hoped. The initial bite is a buttery flaky goodness, but then a strange salty aftertaste lingers. We know that salt is sometimes used to bring out sweet flavors but this was too salty. It ruined the taste of the puff pastry. Was the strange salty aftertaste because of the salt? The unsweetened cocoa powder? Was it supposed to taste like this? (Hope not!) We were fairly certain we had measured out 30 grams of salt as specified in the recipe. Was French salt different from American kosher salt? Or were we not suppose to use kosher salt? So many questions ran through our mind.

Unsatisfied with our first attempt at puff pastry, we decided that we were going to try our hands at making it again but this time with the puff pastry ingredients and ratios from Thomas Keller's French Laundry cookbook. The filling would be whipped chocolate ganache instead of banana pastry cream to try out a different combination of flavors.

There was significant improvement on the flavor, no weird aftertaste, just a hint of salt to complement the sweet chocolate ganache. This second puff pastry showed great improvement in flavor over our first attempt. However, the center sections of the puff pastry were dense and thick, not at all flaky like what we expected. Maybe we should have baked it a little longer?

However imperfect the puff pastry was, it was still a lovely dessert to eat!

Of course we will continue on our quest for the ultimate puff pastry... But maybe after a short break as we have been eating an awful lot of puff pastry lately. SHF this time turned out to stand for Sugar High February for us. :)

Banana Crème Pâtisseière
adapted from La Pâtisserie de Pierre Hermé by Pierre Hermé and The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller

• 6 large bananas, peeled
• 1 liter whole milk
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 250 g caster sugar
• 100 g cornstarch
• 240 g egg yolks
• 100 g unsalted butter

Place the bananas, milk and vanilla in a large saucepan over low heat. Cover the bananas with a sheet of paper towel to keep them submerged. Continue to heat on low for 10 to 15 minutes, keeping it just under the point of simmering, so that the bananas poach in the hot liquid. Remove the saucepan from heat when the bananas become soft but not mushy. Remove the paper towel and the bananas and discard. Strain the remaining contents of the saucepan several times to remove any bits of banana from the poaching liquid. Place this banana-infused milk back into a large saucepan and bring to a simmer.

Meanwhile, whisk together the sugar, constarch and egg yolks, until smooth and pale in color. Pour about 1 cup of the simmering milk over the egg mixture and beat vigorously before stirring it into the rest of the milk. Bring to a boil, stirring consistently with the whisk. Allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes, then pour at once into a bowl placed in an ice water bath. Continue to beat from time to time. When the temperature of the "crème" reaches approximately 140°F (60°C), add the butter and stir until fully combined. Let chill until ready to use.

Caramelized Chocolate Puff Pastry
adapted from La Pâtisserie de Pierre Hermé by Pierre Hermé, Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé written by Dorie Greenspan and The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller

Détrempe

• 1 kg fine wheat flour
• 30 g kosher salt
• 10 g white vinegar
• 420 g water
• 260 g melted butter

Beurrage

• 800 g butter
• 180 g powdered cocoa

For the détrempe, mix together the wheat flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the water and vinegar and stir to combine. Then add the melted butter and beat with a rubber spatula until the dough comes together. Turn out the dough onto your work surface and knead for 1 to 2 minutes before gathering it into a flat ball. Wrap in a plastic film and refrigerate it while you start the beurrage.

For the beurrage, place the butter on a cold surface, such as a marble slab, and pound it with a rolling pin to make it malleable. Fold it over itself once or twice and pound it out again. The butter should now be soft but still cold and not oily. Sprinkle the cocoa over the butter and use a plastic dough scraper to cut the cocoa into the butter until the butter has a fairly consistent cocoa color. Form the beurrage into a 9-inch square and set aside. If it is no longer chilled, place it in the refrigerator while doing the next step.

Clean the work surface and dust it with flour. Lay the détrempe on the work surface and roll it out to a 12-inch square. Mark a diamond shape in it, connecting the center of each side. Dust the dough lightly with flour. Roll out the corners of the square (the triangles formed by the diamond) so that the points extend for about 6 inches, leaving the center mound thicker than the edges.

Lay the beurrage on the diamond, adjusting its size to fit the dough as necessary. Fold the rolled out dough flaps over the beurrage, stretching them and overlapping them as necessary to totally encase the butter and form a square package. Seal the edges by pressing lightly with the rolling pin. Dust with flour. Gently press the package into a rectangle approximately 10 inches by 20 inches. Place on a tray and clean the work surface. If it is warm and the butter seems soft, refrigerate it for 30 minutes before continuing.

For the first double turns, place the dough on the work surface with a short side facing you. Roll out the dough from top to bottom or bottom to top, using even pressure, into a rectangle approximately 12 inches by 24 inches. It is important to keep the edges of the pastry as straight as possible during rolling, or else you may not get even folds and the pastry may not rise as it should. This may be facilitated by flipping over the dough, vertically, once in a while to roll on the other side. As you roll, sprinkle the work surface with flour as necessary to prevent sticking. Also, be careful that the butter does not start to leak out from the sides (as will occur with more rolling). If it does, seal the hole with some flour and refrigerate the dough for several minutes before continuing.

Fold over both short ends of the dough to meet in the center, then fold one side over the other to form four layers. Turn the dough 90 degrees to the left, so that the fold is on your left, and repeat the rolling and folding a second time to finish the first set of double turns. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for 2 hours. Repeat the double turns a second time and refrigerate again for 2 hours. Repeat the double turns one last time for a total of 6 single turns.

At this point, the puff pastry can be frozen if desired. If using right away, use a pastry cutter to cut the puff pastry into thirds. Each third will be rolled out to fit in one half sheet baking pan. Prepare the baking pan by lining it with parchment paper and then brushing the parchment paper lightly with water. Reserve another half sheet baking pan and parchment paper of the same size for later in the baking process. Roll out the puff pastry until it is 4 millimeters thick. Place the rolled out dough onto the moistened parchment paper, prick it with a fork, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours. This will allow the flour's gluten to relax so the pastry will rise evenly and maintain its size and shape under heat.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). Remove the baking sheet from the refrigerator, lift off and discard the plastic wrap, and dust the top of the puff pastry evenly with caster sugar. Slide the baking sheet into the oven, close the oven door, and immediately lower the oven temperature to 375°F (190°C). Bake the pastry for 15 minutes, during which time it will rise and begin to brown. Pull the baking sheet from the oven and cover the pastry with the reserved parchment sheet. Lightly place the second baking sheet on top. Carefully turn the whole setup over and place it on a work surface. Pull away the first baking sheet and parchment sheet so that the uncaramelized side of the puff pastry is now the side you see. Sift confectioners' sugar evenly over this side and return to the oven for another 5 minutes to allow the sugar to melt.

At this time, remove the baking sheet from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 475°F (245°C). Once the oven is done preheating, return the baking sheet to the oven and bake until the sugar is caramelized and the pastry is starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Be sure to watch closely so you don't end up burning the pastry. Pull the baking sheet from the oven, place the pastry on a cooling rack, and allow it to cool completely before assembling the mille-feuilles.

Mille-feuilles de Chocolat à la Banane
adapted from La Pâtisserie de Pierre Hermé by Pierre Hermé

• 1 kg Banana Crème Pâtissière
• 200 g single pouring cream
• Caramelized Chocolate Puff Pastry

Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Fold this gently into the banana crème pâtissière until fully combined, to form banana crème mousseline.

Cut the puff pastry to the desired size. You will need three layers of the same size for each mille-feuille assembly. Spread or pipe the banane crème mousseline over the first layer and cover it with a second layer of chocolate puff pastry. Repeat this process once more and decorate with confectioners' sugar. Serve as soon as possible.

Happy Birthday, Nancy!

It was our good friend Nancy's birthday, and all birthday girls should get a birthday cake on their birthday, especially ones that survived through all those Chem-E classes with you and drove you down to SJ during traffic hour to your job interview! Nancy, being the sweetheart that she is, gave us free reign on the birthday cake. It could be any color, any size, and any flavor. (Well actually, we may have had so much artistic freedom simply because she didn't know she was getting a birthday cake. That helps too!) And this is what she got! Different sized cupcakes topped with white buttercream icing. Each cupcake has written on top one letter from the message, "Happy Birthday Nancy" in alternating pink and purple colored icing.

With the remaining cupcakes, we had a Martha-esque moment and dug out our March 2005 issue of Martha Stewart Living to get the instructions for piping buttercream chrysanthemums. For a couple of first-time pipers, I thought we did fairly well.

Despite some problems with food dyes and false alarms regarding "breaking" buttercreams, we finished the cupcakes with all its delicate buttery glory at 11:45pm. We rushed over, repeatedly rang the doorbell, waking up all of her roommates in the process, and made it through the front door at 11:52pm, a full 8 minutes before her birthday was officially over. So... Nancy, we wish you a wonderful birthday. May all your birthday wishes come true! :)

Vanilla Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart Living, March 2005

Makes 26 cupcakes

• 8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350ºC. Line muffin tin with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment. Cream on medium speed until pale yellow, about 2~3 minuntes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addititon. Add vanilla and mix. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with 2 batches of milk. Stir until evenly blended.

Pour batter into each cupcake liner until about 2/3 full. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the cupcake comes out completely clean. Let cool in the muffin pan for 20min. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on the wire rack. Wrap in Saran wrap, put in air-tight container, and refrigerate until ready to decorate.

Meringue Buttercream Icing
adapted from Martha Stewart Living, March 2005

Makes 10 cups

• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 12 large egg whites
• 2 pounds (8 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into tablespoon size
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Whisk sugar and egg whites in large heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water until mixture reaches 140ºF on a candy thermometer, about 2~3 minutes. Beat the egg white mixture on medium speed with the whisk attachment until it holds stiff peaks. The mixture should be fluffy and cooled, about 10 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and beat in butter, several tablespoons at a time. Add vanilla. Continue beating on low speed until everything comes together and all the air bubbles are gone. Stir with rubber spatula until frosting is smooth.

SF Dine About Town: Part II-B

Pommes frites - J and I were surprised to see these two words printed on the dinner menu at Fringale. French fries are a side order typically relegated to fast food status or as an accompaniment to steakhouse fare. What was it doing here? Granted, pommes frites were French french fries, but butternut squash fries with chive mayo seemed more likely to make an appearance on this menu. On a whim, we ordered them as appetizer.

When they arrived in glazed earthenware, they were piping hot, possibly straight from the fryer, and lightly salted. The texture was fantastic - light and airy and perfectly crisp. I found no uncooked soggy potatoes or over-fried oil-soaked sticks, as is common with the mass-produced frozen variety. The gourmet quality of the pommes frites made us feel obligated to eat them with forks.

No sooner than we had finished our appetizer my chestnut soup arrived. The soup du jour was decorated with a drizzle of olive oil and freshly cracked black pepper. The texture was smooth and velvety. As such, I wondered how it could have possibly been prepared with the exacting description the waiter had given us - "no meat broth, no dairy, and just a bit of butter". This care had no doubt been taken to give people of all dietary restrictions the opportunity to enjoy the bold flavor of this chestnut purée.

My dinner entrée again featured chestnuts as one of the primary ingredients. Whole chestnuts and sautéed king trumpet mushrooms sat in a pool of sauce and provided a bed upon which the pan-seared king salmon rested. Beyond the crispy exterior, the fish was thoroughly cooked but still surprisingly moist and flaky. The sauce turned out to be an earthy marriage of chestnut and mushroom flavors. I suspect that the chestnut purée used for the soup du jour may have also been used as the basis for this gravy. The fish and gravy were well matched and balanced, neither one overpowering the other.

I was pretty full at this point, but since Fringale's Dine About Town menu included my choice of any dessert, I could not resist having a taste of the hazelnut and roasted almond mousse cake. Alternating layers of airy hazelnut mousse and genoise formed the cake, which was topped with toasted, and perhaps candied, almond slices. Beneath the cake, a pool of dark chocolate shimmered. Together, it was the perfect end to my meal.

On the drive home, J and I agreed to add Fringale to our regular rotation of restaurants, for we could not stop raving about our extraordinary dinner.

SF Dine About Town: Part II-A

So yes! Our internet at home is finally up and running. It's so good to be back. The internet really hasn't been around for very long and already it's so ingrained in my life that I felt WITHDRAWL symptoms!! Let us just say that I severely missed the internet and it's good to blog again. And now, onto more important matters... THE FOODS!!

Fringale is a beautiful restaurant with scattered soft-lit lights and filled with the low murmur of indistinguishable conversations. Interesting modern-ish arts adorn the warm "sponged egg-colored" walls. One entire wall was devoted to geometrically stacked cubby-holes of fine wines. A lovely cymbidium orchid and tulip arrangement sat at one end of the bar, greeting each hungry patron as they walked in. If the decor and atmosphere were any indication of the food, we were in for a fabulous evening of fine dining!

The meal started out with a rattan basket of sliced baquettes and a dish of sweet butter, a little something to tie us over until the entrées arrived. The bread was not warm but still light, fluffy and sweet.

As the bread and butter was winding down, our appetizers arrived. I had the arugula salad with ruby red grapefruit slices and small cubes of feta cheese lightly coated with olive oil and topped off a dusting of freshly ground pepper and minced chives. It was a delicious salad! The bite from the arugula went well with the sweet but slightly tart grapefruit and the mild-mannered feta. I'm normally not a fan of feta as some of the ones I've tasted can be described as "squeaky" and awfully pungent, but the one in the dish was very nice. In addition, the arugula, feta, and grapefruit all had different textures making for interesting bites.

My main course, the tender braised short ribs, arrived shortly after I devoured the salad. The delectable melt-in-your-mouth short ribs sat on a large dollop of creamy mashed potato and was accompanied with perfectly cooked and seasoned red chard. Yum!! I ate everything on the plate!

To finish our delicious meal, I chose the sorbet du jour, something light and refreshing after something so heavy as short ribs. The sorbet du jour was composed of a scoop each of coconut, raspberry, and passionfruit sorbets in a simple white bowl with a vanilla cigar cookie on top. What was particularly surprising was that out of the three flavors, my favorite was the coconut sorbet rather than the raspberry or passionfruit sorbets. It was delicate and sweet, rather than creamy, and the absence of pencil-shaving-like coconut shreds made it perfect. (Remind me to post about the coconut sorbet from E & O Trading Company sometime.)

In all, dining at Fringale is a very satisfying affair with beautiful decor and delicious food. My only gripe is that it's so far away! It take about 1 hour just to drive there. I wonder if they would be willing to consider moving south or at least start delivery service. :)

Masa Harina Pancakes

I know we've been unable to post a new entry for a while now, due to the internet connection being down at home. But that doesn't mean we haven't been cooking and eating!

Here's a quick warm breakfast idea - Masa Harina Pancakes - which we tried a couple weeks ago. Let tinyfork's entry and photo inspire you to drool, and then go make a batch to satisfy your craving for these delectable flapjacks.

I personally enjoyed the delicate crunch presented by the addition of corn meal and the creamy flavor of the masa harina. And don't forget the blueberry syrup and a hot cup of tea! It was the perfect meal to start the day off with a smile.