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Well, that wasn’t too complicated. I’m pretty happy with the new digs, but if you have any suggestions I’m all ears. You may see a few things change and some odd posts here and there to help me make changes across the web-o-sphere. For example, I have to insert this Technorati code to verify my new domain, 87ASV47DXDXB . Making changes like this always stresses me out to the um-teenth degree. *sigh*

Hello all! It’s funny how inspiration can strike. I really wasn’t looking to change my domain name, but suddenly the electricity to the proverbial light-bulb above my head was powered on. I believe it was the confluence of two tracks of thought: 1. I’m in the mood for something sweet, what should I bake? and 2. General thoughts about my Grandfather echoing the oft heard phrase after dinner, “Where’s dessert?” and Where’s Dessert? was born. And holy cow, what’d ya know, the domain was actually available! So that’s what’s coming kids, a domain name change from http://www.wheresdessert.com/ to http://www.wheresdessert.com/. This is of course after I figure out how to do that with WordPress *gah! coding!* Of course if anyone has any fast and easy recommendations in that regard  I am SERIOUSLY open to them! For now I will be trying to figure out how to do this over the next two weeks, but the change will most definitely be done on October 30th. I already have my new banner all ready *squee* but I am super-intimidated about making this change so please bear with me.

You know how it starts, you’re in the mood for…something. You don’t know what, but you know it’s out there. It’s times like these that you wish you were in the kitchen of the Heart Of Gold. But alas, I’ve only a bunch of cookbooks. With a craving for ??? teasing the tip of my tongue I picked up Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes. And what to my ravenous eyes did appear, but a petite pink cupcake with a strawberry meringue buttercream veneer. Sorry for the weak rhyme. I didn’t mean to wax The Night Before Christmas, or The Princess Bride even. (No more rhymes now I mean it. Anybody want a peanut!) Of course I can’t leave well enough alone and a cupcake isn’t ready to be eaten until it’s stuffed with something. At first I thought strawberry curd, if there was such a thing, which it turns out there is (find sweet recipes at Allotment 2 Kitchen and Hungry Cravings.) However, I think you’ll find that if the word “curd” pops into your head, “lemon” almost always automatically follows (if not cheese.) Seeing as I was on a sugared track, it was lemon that popped in there. And that’s how the summery Strawberry Lemonade Cupcake was born!  

I’m not sure what exactly made me check the Martha Stewart website about this recipe, but I did. I think maybe the fact that he only thing that made these “strawberry” cupcakes was the chopped strawberries tossed into the mix. If I’m going to have strawberry cupcakes I want the entire cake infused with the luscious ruby morsel. I checked to see what other strawberry cupcake offerings Martha had and discovered a couple of other candidates. At first the Sprinkles’ recipe looked good with its inclusion of a strawberry purée until I read the comments which were hit and miss (frankly a lot of misses.) Martha’s recipe here looked appealing with it’s even ratio of cake to all-purpose flour, cake flour giving a more tender crumb. I decided to throw caution to the wind and combine the two recipes. Well, marginally combine them. I took half of the strawberries and made a purée, adding it to the batter. Doing this upped the moisture factor in my mind, so I cut a quarter cup of milk to compensate. If that wasn’t enough to worry about, I found on the morning of bake day I didn’t have any whole milk on hand, only 2%. After some digging around on the internet I settled on adding a tablespoon of heavy cream to compensate for the fat loss of my milk, but if you have whole milk in the fridge you won’t have to worry about anything like that and can just follow the recipe. The only thing I see changing in the future is the amount of chopped strawberries. Next time I might throw in a total of up to 2 cups (8 ounces), at least 1 ½ cups (6 ounces), to have even more bursts of strawberry coming through. Also, I would fill the cupcake liners up more than the suggested two-thirds. Fill them at least three-quarters full as they didn’t rise all the way to the top of the liner in most cases. The recipe reflects that change.

As to the frosting I’m always up for another attempt at buttercream. I was initially piqued by Martha’s Strawberry Meringue Buttercream until I came to the strawberry jam ingredient. I’d rather do fresh or at least frozen strawberries. While strawberry jam does taste like strawberries, it also tastes like jam. I was looking for strawberry buttercream, not strawberry jam buttercream. Then I came across this strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream recipe (which it turns out is the recipe included in Martha’s Cupcakes book) that included fresh strawberries. That and the fact that it boasts a taste like “a strawberry milkshake or ice cream” sealed the deal. The only thing that I’m changing are the directions. I find Dorie Greenspan’s directions for Swiss meringue buttercream in her book Baking: From My Home to Yours to be a bit more accurate. For instance, I found eight minutes to be waaay too long to beat the initial meringue. Five minutes was more than ample enough time to get the proper consistency. Now, I find most buttercreams too buttery *gasp*. My remedy for the situation is to at least double the number of egg whites, in the case of a meringue-based buttercream. For now I’m including the recipe as written, but feel free to try adding extra egg whites if you feel the same way. One thing to note off the bat, you will need to take the time to beat this at its various stages completely for it to come together properly. I’ve seen a couple of people complain about Swiss meringue in that their mixture curdled/separated and didn’t come together. For the most part that means you didn’t beat it long enough. Also, while the lemon filling can be made a day ahead, this pipes the best the day you frost the cupcakes. If push comes to shove and you must have the time, make it a day ahead but make sure you bring the frosting completely to room temperature and then beat it for a minute or two to regain a fluffier consistency. Trust me from personal experience, if you don’t bring it completely to room temperature it will separate and you’ll get a soupy mess. If that does happen for some reason, wait a couple of minutes or even warm the bowl a bit with your hands to make the mixture warmer. I did this and then beat it for several minutes and it came back together. While all of that is possible, the frosting still doesn’t have quite as perfect as a consistency as on the day that you make it.

Alton Brown’s lemon curd filling from his lemon meringue pie recipe has been a standby for me, albeit with a few tweaks like cooking it longer so it sets up right. It has an awesome super-lemony flavor and turned out to be a perfect cupcake filling. If you don’t feel like DIY (horrors!), feel free to use some of that lemon curd in a jar I’ve seen at the grocery store.

All-in-all this strawberry experiment turned out pretty darned good if I may say so myself. If you’ve ever been disappointed by a dry cupcake, believe me, there are no worries here as the addition of the purée makes these super-moist. If you’re just here for the strawberries, then by all means partake, as it is a tasty little cupcake all on its own. However, I do heartily recommend trying it with the lemon filling as the flavors of the cake, filling, and frosting really compliment each other quite nicely.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Lemon Filling:
(can be made a day ahead)
Ingredients:
4 egg yolks (reserve whites for buttercream)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 ½ cups water
1 1/3 cups sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
½ cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

Directions:
1. Whisk egg yolks in medium size mixing bowl and set aside.

2. In a medium saucepan, combine cornstarch, water, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine. Turn heat on medium and, stirring frequently, bring mixture to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes whisking constantly. Your mixture should thicken and eventually look kind of like melted plastic.

3. Remove from heat and gradually, 1 whisk-full at a time, add hot mixture to egg yolks and stir until you have added at least half of the mixture.

4. Return egg mixture to saucepan, turn heat down to low and simmer, whisking often, for another 3-4 minutes.

5. With a rubber spatula gently stir in butter, lemon juice, and zest until well combined. Simmer for 1-2 minutes stirring periodically with rubber spatula.

6. Transfer lemon curd into heat proof bowl to cool completely before use. (If making a day early, store in covered container in refrigerator.)

Strawberry Cupcakes:
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups (lightly spooned into cup) (6.4 ounces/181 grams) all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups (lightly spooned into cup) (6 ounces/171 grams) cake flour (not self-rising)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
1 ¾ cups (12.75 ounces/350 grams) granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups (10.5 ounces/302 grams) whole milk
1 ¼ cups (5 ounces) strawberries, hulled for purée
1 ¼ cups (5 ounces) strawberries, hulled and finely chopped
optional Red food coloring
optional extra strawberries for garnish

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 1/2 standard 12-cup cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside.

2. Place strawberries for purée in a blender or small food processor; process until puréed, set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In another medium bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, and strawberry purée; set aside.

4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

5. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour; beat until combined after each addition. If the mixture doesn’t look pink enough for you add some of the red food coloring to the batter, mix until combined. Fold in strawberries.

6. Divide the batter among the prepared cups so that each is about three-quarters full. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through, until the cupcakes are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and cool completely on wire racks.

Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
Ingredients:
1½ cups fresh strawberries (8 ounces), rinsed, hulled and coarsely chopped
4 large egg whites
1¼ cups sugar
3 sticks (1½ cups) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Directions:
1. Place strawberries in a blender or small food processor; process until puréed, set aside.

2. Combine the egg whites and sugar in a mixer bowl or other large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture should look like shiny and opaque. Remove the bowl from the heat.

3. Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.

4. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.

5. Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6 to 10 minutes. During this time, the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.

6. Blend in the strawberry purée until smooth and completely incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. This may take another 5-7 minutes of beating.

Assembly:
Components:
Strawberry cupcakes (cooled to room temperature)
Lemon curd (room temperature, give a stir before using)
Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream (room temperature)

Directions (start with #3 if you are skipping the lemon filling):
1. To fill the cupcakes, cut a section or “stopper”, if you will, out of the top to make a whole inside. Slice off any extra cake from your cupcake “stopper”.

2. Drop about a teaspoon of lemon curd into each cupcake. Place cupcake “stopper” back in cupcake, covering lemon curd filling.

3. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a decorative tip with the frosting.  (I used a large, unlabeled star tip to frost these cupcakes.) Frost cupcakes as desired.

I suck at piping!

4. Optional: Garnish with strawberries, cut into halves, quarters, or left whole, depending on the size.

5. Enjoy!

I’ve been going through my cookbook collection making a list of recipes that I’d like to try next. In one of those synchronistic moments the universe throws at you, I happened on Dorie Greenspan’s recipe for Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream when it just so happened I had a container of blueberries patiently sitting in my fridge yet to be enjoyed. It was kismet. While I really enjoyed the results, next time I’ll try lightening this up a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not on any kind of crusade against fat content. But every person, even a die hard sugar freak has to have standards and equal parts heavy and sour cream…while it’s no where near a fried stick of butter (really America?) it certainly doesn’t endear itself to my arteries. (Although I have to admit I’d be willing to try chocolate covered bacon.) I wonder if I would have noticed or felt the same way if I were blissfully ignorant of the fat content, but as it stands it actually tasted a wee bit too fatty for me.  

So next time I’ll try replacing some of the sour cream with whole milk. And don’t scoff at whole milk. We’re talking about an over 30% difference in fat content between whole milk and heavy cream. If you’re going to scoff at anything I would scoff at one or two percent milk, which is about the difference in fat content between them and whole milk. Big deal. That said, feel free to try this yourself in whatever fat version appeals to you. Now, seeing as I have a quart and a half yield ice cream maker, the paltry pint this recipe produces wasn’t going to cut it for me. Thanking God for the internets, I googled how any pints are in a quart and half. I received a response of three. Well, that was an understatement. I’m not sure who had their figures off, but tripling this recipe was too much for one batch in my machine, but only slightly too much. My advice to you if you have a machine with the same quart and half yield, just double the recipe and your machine shouldn’t have any problems churning up that amount. For the life of me I don’t know what possessed Dorie to actually list “the grated zest and juice of 1/4 lemon” as one of the ingredients. A quarter of a lemon? Seriously? Talk about scoffing, you should’ve seen me when I first read that. I just added a tablespoon of lemon juice for a triple recipe, so if you’re only doubling the recipe (which I will be doing in the future) I would do 3/4 tablespoon, or 1/2 tablespoon with a splash. Whatever, sheesh. Regardless, while I realize it’s late in the season you can still get frozen blueberries, and this would make a great treat to get a little taste of summer in the middle of the upcoming winter.

Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream
(from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan)

1 cup blueberries – fresh or frozen (if frozen, thaw and drain)
1/3 cup sugar (or more to taste)
pinch of salt
grated zest and juice of 1/4 lemon or more juice to taste (as far as this goes as I said, with a single recipe use 1 teaspoon, if you’re doubling the recipe, just do 3/4 tablespoon or 1/2 tablespoon with a splash)
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sour cream

Put the blueberries, sugar, salt and lemon zest and juice into a medium nonreactive saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until mixture boils and the berries pop and soften, about 3 minutes.

Turn the berries into a blender and whir until you have a fairly homogeneous puree, about one minute. (It will never be completely smooth, and that’s just fine.) Add the heavy cream and sour cream and pulse just to blend. Taste and, if you’d like, add a squirt more lemon juice or a tiny bit more sugar.

Pour the custard into a bowl and refrigerate until it is chilled before churning it into ice cream.

Scrape the chilled custard into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Pack the ice cream into a container and freeze for at least 2 hours, until it is firm enough to scoop.

I realize I’ve been away for a long time and for all you know in a galaxy far, far away. I want to apologize for my disappearance. Explanations are hard and kind of depressing, and I want this place to be a happy one.  (If you have a disdain for the personal and just come here for the food, I certainly don’t blame you and please accept my profuse apologies for being a basket case again and disregard the rest of my sob story…er…post.)  

Despite that I feel compelled to reveal that some of the same circumstances other Americans as well as countless citizens around the world have been experiencing I too have had to endure. I’m reminded of David Gray’s lyrics for the song Nightblindness, “What we gonna do when the money runs out? …How we gonna find the eyes to see a brighter day.” There isn’t a time that I can ever remember when I wasn’t on the edge of yellow freaking fear about money in my life, and I’m in my 30′s. On top of that, those not so recent deaths in my life reopened or rather uncovered wounds from other losses in the more distant past, namely my biological Father. The last time I saw him was when I was eight years old and at the time I didn’t realize it would be the last time I would ever see him. The death of my Grandfather (who acted as a provisional father for a time) triggered the realization that I had had a Father and lost him, and no one had ever really acknowledged that fact and I’ve been trying to process both losses at the same time. The whole matter is more complicated by the fact that my Mother finally divorced a stepfather who was emotionally abusive to the both of us. Regardless of the abuse, it’s a little jarring to the psyche that you can spend 22 years with someone and one day the relationship is quite literally severed, never speaking to them again. NOT that I’d want to have anything to do with him and I’d be horrified if he tried, it’s just…weird, I wish I could give you a better explanation. Anyways, all this loss, and all this worry about money…yeah, it hasn’t been easy. Again I’m reminded of another lyric, this time from the Smiths Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want, “Haven’t had a dream in a long time, See the life I’ve had can make a good man bad.” See, this is why i don’t much like to write about this stuff. Gack. Still, I’m here dealing with all of this and it’s been difficult keeping that stiff upper lip and soldiering on. At the same time I wholeheartedly want to keep at it, heck, I need to. So, I can’t and won’t make any promises except to do my best at this whole blog thing. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions I’m sure I’m damned several times over, but I’ll try to do better to help make life a little sweeter one post at a time. Thanks for listening. Sob story out.

I’ve noticed a glut of giveaways in the last week or so, I thought I might put together a little list. I realize that I’m cutting it down to the wire on some of these, but I figured if someone comes across it you might still get in an entry and get lucky!

The Cupcake Bandits is giving away a package that includes a box of 72 Petits Fours from Swiss Colony as well as the Princess Party Cookbook. It’s been ages since I’ve had anything from Swiss Colony and I have to admit I remember the Petits Fours fondly. While I’m all about BYOBG (bake-your-own-baked-goods), I wouldn’t shun these in the least. Enter to win by December 17th.

Brown Eyed Baker had a couple of giveaways this week. Unfortunately I was too late for the first, but you can still win the DeLallo Italian Feast gift basket if you enter by 11:59pm EST today.

There’s a King Arthur Flour Deliciously Simple Chocolate Cake & Chocolate Fudge Frosting mix pairing from The Chocolate Cult. You’ve got until Firday, 7AM to enter this one.

Stumptown Savoury reported on a Buttoni Tuscan vacation for two – fantastico! This one doesn’t end until December 31st.

Good luck to everybody out there!

“You’ll shoot your eye out kid.” Yep, that’s essentially the feeling I got from one of the, what I consider to be, baking science goddesses out there who has literally written the bible(s) on baking, Rose Levy Beranbaum. I need to give a little background information before I describe in detail my own Thanksgiving (rather than Christmas) story. If you’ve read my blog in the past you know that cream cheese cheesecakes and my tummy just don’t get along. Apparently cream cheese is comprised of a sink-like-a-rock 33% milkfat. While I never balked at fat percentages before (see my post on crème fraiche for the fatty details), for some reason cream cheese does not play nice with my stomach, at least at the levels of consumption required in finishing a slice of cheesecake. Hence, no more cream cheese cheesecakes for me. Thankfully a challenge from the Daring Bakers inspired me to break away from the bar of Philly and I discovered ricotta cheesecake. Ricotta cheese contains only a svelte 13% fat, which results in light, creamy, cheesy, custardy goodness. This was the cheesecake of my dreams! Mmmmmmm…. Me likey. Ahem, pardon me.

So, as Turkey-day was hovering ever closer I contemplated what kind of sweet repast I’d like to prepare this year. Pumpkin pie seems to be the dessert equivalent to Thanksgiving. In my mind Thanksgiving = Pumpkin pie; it’s a tradition. But for some reason I wasn’t in the mood for the standard, but I did want something pumpkin. All these pumpkin cheesecake recipes surfaced in my searches for a pie alternative. “Great idea,” I thought except for the fact that they were all in the form of cream cheese cheesecakes. My stomach moaned in protest. I searched for a comparable ricotta recipe without much luck. While I did come across a few, they didn’t seem to have a good ratio of ingredients that were similar to the ricotta cheesecake I fell in love with over a year ago. That’s when I humbly asked for some advice from Rose on how to alter cheesecake recipes from the brick-in-stomach inducing cream cheese cheesecakes into light but custardy ricotta cheesecakes.  

Here is an excerpt of my posted question:

Hi there,

I’m sure you’re waaaay busy with the holidays and everything, but I was wondering if you might have a short moment to aid me in my endeavors. First off I want to say that I’m a huge fan. I love your books not only for the fantastic recipes but for their ability to impart knowledge, not just a set of instructions.

Speaking of knowledge, I was wondering if you have any advice in converting cheesecake recipes from cream cheese cheesecakes to ricotta cheese cheesecakes. I know, I know, to some using anything but cream cheese is a sin against god (especially since I’m from New York, horrors!), but ricotta is easier on my stomach, and I actually prefer the taste *gasp*. …

I’ve seen lots of different flavors of cheesecake out there using cream cheese, but not many variations using ricotta. How do I make the change? Or how can I introduce pumpkin (or chocolate for that matter) flavor into a ricotta cheesecake recipe?

Thanks so much for your help!
Aimee

PS: If anyone else has any advice in this realm, would love to hear it! Thanks in advance!

I would like a pumpkin ricotta cheesecake for Thanksgiving!

Someone chimed in after me expressing her preference for “European style” cheesecakes as well, “…looking forward to the reply,” so I’m not the only one! A day later Rose left this:

i’m sorry ladies but i prefer the cream cheese version so will not be able to help you with this. hopefully someone else will chime in.

This picture literally popped into my head after reading her reply.

Which made me feel like she just did this:

Please don’t misconstrue my account as a complaint. I understand that everyone has their preferences, myself included. I still ♥ Rose. That said, I was disappointed but there’s no sense in crying over spilt milk, or cheese predilections in this case. Despite non-remittance from my proverbial Santa Claus, I decided to press on. I’m grateful for having the sense to also post my question on Chowhound. Everyone gave me some great suggestions which I took bits and pieces from, along with a couple of other ricotta cheesecake, pumpkin cheesecake, and pumpkin pie recipes thrown in for good measure. What I came up with was the best pumpkin-anything I’ve ever eaten. While it doesn’t strictly taste like cheesecake, it’s absolutely awesome if I may say so myself. Paired with a pecan *brown butter baby!* crust it was fab!

The only thing I would probably change is the pan size. I have three spring form pans, graduated in size. I picked the 9 1/2 inch one, but next time I’ll use the 10 1/2 inch (3 inches deep for both). The reason is that I felt like the crust to filling ratio would be a bit (a bit mind you) better if the filling were more spread out, giving you a little more crust with each bite. If you decide to go that route you will need to up your crust recipe. I’m thinking of using 3 cups of pecans, maybe a pinch of extra cinnamon, 1/2 cup sugar, 5 tablespoons of butter, an extra tablespoon of flour, and an extra large pinch of salt. I will let you know after Christmas because this is what I’m planning on making. Yep, that soon because it’s that good.

Pumpkin Ricotta Cheesecake
Pecan Crust
2 1/2 cups ground pecans
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup white granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, browned
1/4 cup flour
Pinch of salt
*Please see bolded paragraph above more variation

Make the crust: Generously butter and sugar a 9-inch springform pan (3 inches deep). Brown butter in a small saucepan. Stir together ground nuts, cinnamon, flour, salt, and sugar.

Pour in brown butter and mix until entire mixture is moistened.

Press the mixture firmly into bottom of pan.

Chill the unbaked crust in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes but preferably an hour.

For The Filling
30 oz container of ricotta cheese
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
5 large eggs, separated
1/4 c flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 15-oz can pureed pumpkin or 2 cups cooked pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
*To prevent the top from cracking, try not to overmix the filling, and do not open the oven door while the cake is baking.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Whisk flour, light brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and salt together in a medium bowl.

Blend ricotta cheese and pumpkin in either a blender or food processor until smooth.

Whisk ricotta cheese/pumpkin mixture with the dry ingredients with egg yolks and vanilla in a very large bowl.

With either a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites on medium speed until slightly frothy. Add cream of tartar and beat on medium-high speed until you get a soft foam. Raise speed to medium-high, and gradually add granulated sugar. Beat until stiff, glossy peaks form. (revised November 25, 2011) Raise speed to medium-high and beat until you get a soft foam. Gradually add granulated sugar and continue to beat until stiff, glossy peaks form.

Gently fold a third of the whites into ricotta mixture using a rubber spatula until just combined.

Gently fold in remaining whites until just combined.

How the heck is it all going to fit???

Pour batter into pan, and bake until center is firm and top is deep golden brown, about 1 hour. Let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake; release sides to remove from pan, and let cool completely.

Cheesecake soufflé!

Wanted to let everyone know that America’s Test Kitchen has an uber awesome contest you can enter. The prizes are:

ONE $8,000 GRAND PRIZE INCLUDING:
$5,000 in Cash
$1,500 gift certificate to Cooking.com
$1,500 gift certificate to KingArthurFlour.com

FOUR $500 RUNNER-UP PRIZES EACH INCLUDING:
$250 gift certificate to Cooking.com
$250 gift certificate to KingArthurFlour.com

Check it out here for the rules and to enter. Good luck to everyone!

What was intended to be a short post with an even shorter recipe has exploded into a mountain of crème. Who knew that something as mundane as dairy could trigger such heated arguments. Debate over pasteurized dairy is near the boiling point, pardon the pun. I discovered that and more in my search for the origins of that moderately mysterious ingredient listed in the brioche tart recipe, crème fraîche.

What the heck is that?! Although the French translation is “fresh cream” this is actually a sour cream, that isn’t, but with just a little tang. Despite the schizophrenic classifications, the steady murmurs of appreciation that can be heard o’er hill and dale all sound basically the same…velvety, creamy, smooth. Regan Daley recounts it as, “… France’s most generous contribution to the world of dairy products,” in her book In the Sweet Kitchen.

To call this France’s version of sour cream really doesn’t do it justice. While both are cultivated in a similar fashion and they may be substituted for one another (generally speaking), they are quite varied. One telling factor is the fat content. Regular sour cream, not the corrupted low-fat and *gah!* fat-free versions, averages out to about 14% butterfat. Crème fraîche’s got around 40% butterFAT. Wow!  

Unfortunately most of us who get our dairy in North America are unlikely to realize what all that pristine unpasteurized butterfat really tastes like unless we travel across the pond, or know a farmer with a cow. I don’t really want to get into the whole pasteurized vs. unpasteurized debate much. Still, I wouldn’t want milk or any other dairy to be unpasteurized on scale until a dramatic overhaul of the food manufacturing industry occurred. Industrial food production strikes me as a scary business these days, and I’d rather anything they tried to produce be heated to destroy any nastiness within. That said, if I personally knew a guy with a cow, well, he and I would have to have a chat.

The same process that creates booze, vinegar, lots of cheeses, dill pickles even is responsible for crème fraîche…fermentation, in this case lactic acid fermentation. This is going to sound a bit ominous (at least it does to me, any time someone mentions the word bacteria I OCD-out), but it involves introducing some culture, a.k.a. bacteria, into your food-stuffs, in this case heavy cream. The bacteria converts lactose, a.k.a. sugar, in the cream into lactate, a.k.a. lactic acid or milk acid, giving the cream a zesty flavor as well as a thick, velvety texture.

I couldn’t find an exact history of crème fraîche, like when it was first discovered, although many trace its origins to the preeminent dairy region of the world, Normandy. Chances are the discovery was made soon after the first cow was milked because of the inherent composition of milk, not to mention a lack of refrigeration. For instance in France, and other places which allow unpasteurized food-stuffs, cream is left to ferment on its own since the nature of fresh, unprocessed milk is chockablock with bacteria. In North America we must supply the culture to get the alchemy going. This most often is accomplished in the form of an addition of buttermilk which is a fermented dairy product in its own right. Either way, given enough time in a moderately warm place the cream is transformed into a rich yet light, luxurious crème.

Don’t get me wrong, despite the one or two ingredient list, crème fraîche can be a complicated production. It seems that everything from the cow breed, what it’s fed, to probably the weather can modify the flavor. Apparently Jersey cow milk produces more diacetyl, a metabolic product of lactic acid , in the fermentation process. Diacetyl is responsible for the renowned flavor of butter and gives cream a golden glow. Butter is all well and good if that’s a flavor you’re after. But what if you’re looking for something that packs all of that velvety texture but is unadulterated in flavor? Then Holstein milk would be a better choice with its lighter diacetyl yield that delivers a restrained flavor in a lofty cream. Aside from the diacetyl content, Jersey cows tend to bring everything up to 11. They have higher percentage rates than Holsteins in total milk solids, fat, protein and lactose.

As you can see, crème fraîche production makes for a serious business. The French even have an award for the crème de la crème (and I mean that literally) of crème fraîche called the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée label which was awarded to Isigny-sur-Mere, a commune (no kidding!) located in Normandy. So if you’re shopping in Europe hunt for crème fraîche d’Isigny.

What makes crème fraîche so special? According to Kendall Farms, crème fraîche is an ingredient, not simply a garnish. Aside from its distinctive taste and texture, crème fraîche has the distinction of not only having the ability to be whipped but also may be cooked to a boil without separating or curdling. As long as the heavy cream you used is at least 30% butterfat, the fat will prevent fusing of the milk proteins. The uses for this divine crème run the gamut from savory to sweet and everything in between.

Rose Levy Beranbaum thinks it’s wonderful in a ganache and uses it in scrambled eggs, chicken paprikash, potato salad, a finishing swirl in soups, and a dollop on pies and tarts. The epicurean magnum opus  Larousse Gastronomique reports that it can be combined with Calvados. Hmmm, sounds like the perfect embellishment for apple pie! Emma Christensen at The Kitchn suggests substituting crème fraîche, “for yogurt, sour cream, or even mayonnaise in most recipes.” Vermont Creamery, which manufactures a crème fraîche with 42% butterfat, whips it with honey and candied ginger to spice up the ubiquitous fruit pairing. Chase Blackwell outlines a number of recipes that spike crème fraîche with a variety of flavors. Eleven Madison Park apparently once conjured up a crème brûlée with it. And Regan Daley adds it to sauces and stews as well as alongside nearly everything made in a pastry kitchen. According to her, “Once you have tried it, I promise, you will find uses for it you never dreamed of…”. Personally, I may never go back to sour cream again.

As far as the recipe goes it’s pretty straight forward. Some sources recommend using pasteurized vs. ultra-pasteurized heavy cream. If you can find it, have at it. Ultra-pasteurized worked just fine for me since I’ve yet to come across a non-ultra version. As with anything in life, use the best quality ingredients you can afford. If you want check out Danlac or the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company for your very own bacterial cultures to go the mad scientist route with your crème fraîche.

From Baking with Julia:

Makes about 1 cup

1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon buttermilk

Put the heavy cream and buttermilk in a jar or container with a tight-fitting lid and shake it a couple of times to blend the two liquids. Let the jar sit at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours, or until it thickens. (Keep an eye on it: Crème fraîche will thicken faster in a warm room than a cool one.) Once thickened, chill the crème fraîche for at least 1 day before using. As it ages, the flavor will intensify and it will continue to thicken. Keeps anywhere between 2 to 4 weeks in the refrigerator.