Second Dinner

Pancake Deprivation/Pancake Exaltation

2017-09-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

I'm a pancake person. I'm also a waffle, dutch baby, clafoutis, popover, and French toast person. If you've vacationed with me, you know that there will usually be pancakes for breakfast. Or scones. Or...something.

Until recently. Recently my main breakfast companion has been a person who has no interest in breakfast options of this kind. In fact, he doesn't even want to be near them--says they 'smell bad.' He even (don't tell New England) hates maple syrup. The phrase 'tree cum' has been used. All told, I'm cooking a lot fewer pancakes at home. The problem is, I rarely eat these things at restaurants because I make them very well and don't always like other people's versions, so I order omelets or sausage gravy or shakshuka or some savory restaurant brunch and go pancake starved.

Luckily, in my home we have staggered schedules, and there is the occasional morning when I find myself with an empty kitchen and 45 minutes before I have to leave, and this morning I made some pancakes. I made them quickly, and without much care, and of course they were some of the best pancakes I've ever made in years of looking for the perfect pancake. Leslie Knope asks 'Why would anyone ever eat anything besides breakfast food?' I would add, 'Why would anyone ever try any breakfast food recipe that wasn't written by Marion Cunningham?' Ms. Cunningham, author of The Breakfast Book and so much more, is nearly always right. In the matter of pancakes, she says:

BUTTERMILK PANCAKES
from The Breakfast Book, by Marion Cunningham

1 Cup Buttermilk
1 egg
1 Tblsp unsalted butter, melted
3/4 Cup AP flour
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda

I melted the butter in a quart measuring cup, whisked it with the buttermilk and egg, threw all the dry ingredients on top (I subbed 1/4 cup of cornmeal, as per her suggestion), mixed once more, and fried them in a preheated pan with some bacon grease. I used much maple syrup. Recommended.

Alpha Bakers - Luxury Chocolate Buttercrunch Toffee

2016-12-06T08:38:00.003-08:00

The name says it all. What we have here is some pretty good toffee covered (on both sides!) with chocolate and dipped (on both sides!) in nuts. Madness. Delicious.

The only change I made to the recipe was running out of corn syrup, so I substituted about 2/3 molasses, which worked out because I didn't have the specified brown sugar anyway, so a little molasses was needed. It had no effect on the texture and little on the taste. This was universally loved, although I found it a little sweet and would use a darker chocolate next time. According to my co-worker, the teen shelvers just stood around saying 'mmmmmm,' and one told me that 'chocolate is [her] best friend and [her] boyfriend.' My boyfriend, who as you know generally avoids sweets, but has a weakness for salty toffee and Heath bars, got the two pieces above, and was happy, saying that it 'sticks in your teeth like something very not good for you, in a good way.' I ran out of almonds so covered the bars in half almonds, half walnuts.

Alpha Bakers -- White Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Cherry Buttercream

2016-12-01T08:11:00.001-08:00

I'm still perfecting my cupcake spin. That quick twist of the wrist, properly executed, will make your cupcake frosting look both rustic and adorable, a la Magnolia Bakery or their offshoots (my favorite without a doubt is Sugar Sweet Sunshine on the Lower East Side). To be sure, piping is the more secure way to make sure your cupcakes look pretty, but sometimes I want to be rustically brilliant (and sometimes I'm concerned that cherry chunks will get caught in the piping tip).

Those of you who know me will be surprised to hear how small the volume of my recent stress baking has been, post-election. I've been diverting more of my time into panicking, laundry, phone calls to elected officials, and more panicking, with a side of writing things on the chalkboard at work. I did make a batch of brownies, but cleverly left out the flour (they were weirdly delicious).

I decided, though, with only three recipes left in the Baking Bible bake through, that it was time to get back to some precision baking, so I made these white chocolate cupcakes with mousseline buttercream. The cupcakes are soft, egg white stabilized cake with four ounces of white chocolate melted in, and the frosting is a simple mousseline buttercream (sugar syrup, meringue, butter) with raspberry flavoring and a touch of fancy cherry jam. The spin, well, it's not perfect, but it looks rustic, right?

Alpha Bakers -- Monkey Dunkey Bread

2016-11-03T08:15:00.002-07:00

Hiya. I got distracted by some new cookbooks but I'm back in brioche and rolling out the balls. Pretty excited about Louisa Weiss' Classic German Baking book, though, I'll tell you. I made a potato cake right on top of a rye bread crust. Why? Who knows. Those starchy Germans, right?

In Roseland, though, it was Monkey Bread week, and Monkey Bread is all about brioche dough. Side note: I am unable to make brioche without hearing Julia Child yodeling about BRI-oche in my head. Since I just read Alex Prud'homme's new French Chef book and showed Jeremy a bunch of French Chef episodes (one of which he found so inspiring that he immediately made Coq au Vin), this seems appropriate. For this over the top Monkey Bread, I was supposed to make brioche, roll little balls of it around pieces of chocolate, drench it in caramel, bake, and cover with more caramel. I skipped the chocolate and the final caramel drench, because I genuinely prefer a simpler sweet bread. Not everyone agrees, however. I took this in to an office meeting and mentioned what it had been intended to look like, and saw colleagues' eyes glaze over with desire. So next time, I'll make it like that. In the meantime, it's pretty easy to make spectacular BRI-oche as long as you have a stand mixer.

Alpha Bakers -- Giant Jam Cookie

2016-10-11T11:41:00.001-07:00

In the case of the Giant Jam Cookie, I'm tempted once again to quote Leslie Knope.
One could [make] that. But should one?

On the other hand, there's no compelling reason not to make a giant jam filled butter cookie. It's easy to do, you can play with acorn shaped cookie cutters, and jam is delicious.

I made this cookie a few weeks ago, and since then my brain has been melted and re-formed by some of the best that New York theater can offer -- see here for more, I haven't fully processed yet and may never be through.

Despite my best intentions, I wound up eating the entire thing. First I took it to work, but forgot to offer it to anyone. Then, I took it up to MA, but my parents weren't eating sugar. What can a girl do?

Make cookies. Be alive. Forgive. Refuse to forgive (thank you, Taylor). Lie down. Get up. New Year. L'Shanah Tovah. May it be sweet. And bitter. And tough. And new.

Alpha Bakers -- Coconut Crisps

2016-09-06T08:35:00.003-07:00

Catching up on Alpha Baking with some very simple, very delicious coconut butter cookies. Essentially a sable/sugar cookie with some flaked coconut thrown in, these would also make great sandwich cookies. 'Excellent!' said my taster, taking one bite, and then accused me of trying to buy my co-workers' love. Whatever it takes.

The dough can be refrigerated for a few days--I baked mine after 24 hours.

Alpha Bakers -- Heavenly Chocolate Mousse Cake

2016-09-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

Hot stuff. Serious hot mousse stuff here. When my friend J said 'surprise me' regarding her choice of birthday cake, I am pretty darn sure that this Heavenly Chocolate Mousse Cake was not what she was expecting.

I mean, who would think 'Gee, I bet she'll surprise me with a thin layer of sponge wrapped loaf-like around soft spongy chocolate mousse.' Honestly, no one. But why not? Sponge cake is great stuff, and chocolate mousse is amazing, and loafing it all up makes it super fancy! I ran out of cream while making the mousse so I subbed a small amount of coconut milk (the tetra-pak kind, not the just milked-from-the-coconut kind), which didn't seem to have a strong effect. I also didn't exactly make the recommended template to size the sponge casing, but just held the cake against the loaf pan and approximated.

It was a great birthday dessert, even though it hadn't entirely set up when I served it, and it was even better for breakfast two days later.

Alpha Bakers -- Coffee Crumb Cake Muffins

2016-08-27T05:25:00.002-07:00

When is a muffin a cupcake? When is a cake breakfast? These are existential dilemmas that expand beyond the range of your average Saturday morning blog post, and are thus out of my purview, but let it be known that when you put coffee cake in muffin tins and slip in a bit of apple, you have successfully effected the transformation to muffin. Here they are! They were delicious.

Alpha Bakers -- Gooey Gooseberry Crisp

2016-08-07T12:10:00.000-07:00

Few things look as cool as a gooseberry. The veined, translucent globules have fascinated me since they were only a name in British novels, and I've made several memorable gooseberry tarts over the last ten years. When it comes to crisp, though, the gooseberries really fell down. Maybe the culprit was the currants!

I made the gooseberry crisp with a mixture of green gooseberries (underripe = more pectin, no?) and red and white currants (a present from my parents). With all that beautiful fruit, I wanted more from the final effort, which was uninspiring. Oversweet, too buttery, and gooey, this crisp just wasn't the finest expression of gooseberry potential. I'm going back to stone fruits and apples for my crisps, and back to featuring gooseberries in custard tarts.

Alpha Bakers -- Cream Cheese Butter Cake

2016-07-12T05:27:00.002-07:00

Nothing to see here, really. Cream cheese butter cake is more for eating than looking at. I went simple, frosting it in the pan (but with luscious lemon cream, my favorite), and serving it with forks. This dense, rich, pound-cake style sheet cake got no complaints. Even after sitting in the refrigerator for a few days, it was chosen over the blueberry pie sitting next to it by everyone at the table. That's the power of cake.

Alpha Bakers -- Flaky Cream Cheese Scones

2016-07-12T05:23:00.003-07:00

Just saw this post lurking in my drafts and thought I should put it out there. I assume the scones, like all scones, were great.

Alpha Bakers -- Mango Bango Cheesecake

2016-07-12T05:19:00.003-07:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't get putting biscuit under cheesecake. I just wasn't raised that way. If I don't get a crumb crust, I want no crust. For Rose's Mango Bango Cheesecake, developed for Madhur Jaffrey, she recommends a ladyfinger crust. Now, before everyone jumps on me, I know the ladyfinger or cake bases soak up liquid, which is commendable, but then you just have soggy cake. This will never be resolved, and I'm ok with it, and you cake lovers have Juniors on your side, so be cool.

There was a lot of discussion in the Alpha Bakers group about the procuring and treatment of proper mango pulp. Rose recommends a canned version that I thought would be easy to locate in my neighborhood, which has a large Bangladeshi and Pakistani population. Had I walked a block or two farther in my search, this hunch would probably have been confirmed, but when I discovered that the first grocery I tried was lame, and the second closed, I went to the supermarket and settled on La Fe, a common frozen brand. The La Fe mango pulp was not terribly flavorful, but it did the job. I'll keep an eye open for the good stuff.

Standing firm on my crust policies, I bought gingersnaps, and made two six inch cakes, one with gingersnap crust and one with none for a friend with celiac.

Both cakes were good, but due to a cake pileup all but a slice or two are still hanging out in my freezer. I doubt the texture will be as good when they're thawed, but I have starving teenagers at work who will eat anything, so I'm not too worried.

Alpha Bakers -- Savory Cream Puffs

2016-07-12T05:06:00.001-07:00

I'm a big fan of things that puff. Popovers, clafoutis, dutch babies...

If it's eggy and has lots of steam in the middle, I'm in. Choux pastry, made in a pot, is fun to make and fun to eat. It's the same pastry that makes eclairs, and when you make those little puffs with savory fillings, the whole thing has an amusing whiff of mid-century cocktail party.

My puffs turned out perfectly--dried and hollow, and ready for filling. So I ate a bunch out of hand, with nothing in them.

Later, the boy came over and we turned them into appetizer crackers. Below is his creation, with olive and mozzarella, sprinkled with paprika. Reading the posts from other group members, who filled them with anything from pastry cream to shrimp mash to the prescribed chicken liver faux gras, I realized that many people who will eat all kinds of meat mush and cream have a grudge against olives. To be honest, I'm not the biggest olive fan myself, but I'm glad to be able to share this picture to creep out the other olive haters. I ate the remainder plain for an early breakfast, drinking tea, thinking about soup nuts. More power to all you savory adventurers, I've always had a soft spot for the bland and plain, especially when my throat's acting up as it is. So there you have it. Pate a choux! Gesundheit!

Alpha Bakers -- Blueberry Sour Cream Crumb Coffeecake

2016-07-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

Keep your towering buttercream fortresses. I'll take a crumb cake loaded with fruit and buttery streusel any day. This is coffeecake in the best style, perfect for all-day eating. A soft sour cream butter cake, threaded through with a sugary nutty streusel, then topped with blueberries and crumbs. This is all that's needed to gain entry to the clubbiest Kaffeeklastch.

My colleagues...well let's just say they agreed. I was glad I'd had a square for breakfast, because by the time my coffee break arrived, it was no more. I followed the recipe fairly faithfully, only substituting almonds for walnuts in the streusel.

Alpha Bakers - Molasses Cookies

2016-06-28T21:03:00.001-07:00

I spend last weekend in Orlando, alternately tearing up about the power of literature and the injustice of the world, and laughing at the various Harry Potter wands my fellow librarians couldn't help buying. That's the American Library Association Annual conference in a nutshell. That and some tequila shots with un-named but quite famous children's author-illustrators.

Conferences are a strange, sometimes inspiring, sometimes soul-killing zone, so I'll leave it at that except to say that of the hotels I saw, the pool at the Hyatt Regency by the Orlando conference center leaves the rest of them in the shade, and it's probably worth shelling out a bit extra to stay there.

Last year's ALA Annual was full of beauty and celebration (San Francisco! Tartine Bakery! Gay Marriage!). This year was a more somber and sorrowful assessment of everything we've achieved and everything we've lost along the way. We are all still working, as writers and publishers and librarians, to be stronger, more dangerous, and more courageous for those we serve and those we tell stories to.

Now, the story of these molasses cookies is that I made them back in 2014, but saved the photos in a blogger draft, knowing this day would come. If anyone were to scroll through the six year history of this blog, they would see that molasses/ginger cookies are one of my most frequently made and obsessed-over baked goods. Rose's version has chewy and cracked down pat, and I'll be making them again soon when NYC isn't a sweaty swamp.

Alpha Bakers -- Cherry Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

2016-06-20T11:25:00.004-07:00

Cherry Sweetie Pie. I have tried to make this pie, which is supposed to be comprised of sweet cherries and plums, twice now, and I can't seem to do it by the book. First of all, while cherries are in season, plums just aren't, and rhubarb and strawberries are everywhere. Second, while sweet cherries are one of life's greatest joys, they are just not the world's greatest pie ingredient. Pie is the achievement for which sour cherries were born. I prefer a pie of canned sour cherries to a sweet cherry pie, especially when I start thinking about how I could have just eaten all of those lovely cherries out of hand.

In the end, I ate a few too many of the cherries to make my pie an all-cherry pie, and I didn't even try with the plums, but my cherry rhubarb strawberry hybrid was a big hit, and Rose's cream cheese crust, which I sometimes find too bland, was flaky and lovely and got raves.

I served the pie after April Bloomfield's swiss chard cannelloni from her book A Girl and Her Greens, a dinner party recipe I'd been eyeing for a while, and which paid off in subtle, delicate deliciousness.

It was a good dinner party.

Alpha Bakers -- (Rum) Raisin Pepita Craisin Chestnut [Bread]

2016-06-20T11:18:00.002-07:00

It isn't French Toast. It isn't cinnamon raisin bread. Listen, not everything in life turns out the way we planned. When life brings you soft, sweet, bread laden with pepitas, sunflower seeds, chestnuts, and dried cranberries, count your blessings and don't ask for Rum Raisin Royal French Toast, mmmkay?

This versatile loaf would be good for many uses, but it was torn to pieces by my part-time shelvers before it had half a chance of staling enough to be dipped in egg and fried. I'll call that a win.

Aloha Bakers - Lemon Icebox Cake

2016-05-26T08:20:00.002-07:00

This week's bake was light and frothy, except for one bit, which was hard and knotty. First, let it be said, that this is my kind of cake. Billed as an icebox cake, a term I usually associate with wafer cookies and whipped cream, but which really applies to any cake that is as much cream as cake and needs some refrigerator time to truly come into its destiny.
This little beauty started out with a light lemony sponge/angel food, baked in a tube pan. Mine came out slightly wet and salty, but very workable. Next, a lemon curd is mixed into whipped cream is mixed into a gelatinized meringue. All went well until the gelatinization process, which was also around where I shorted out my scale with some spillage. Since it was clear that everything did not weigh 57555@#@$@ grams, I had to go on back into volume measures, which always makes me grumpy. Then, the gelatin just seemed...too stiff. I added a bit more water, and heated it up some more, but in the end what I ended up with were many knotty rubbery lumps and a bit too much water in the whole, which leaked out over the next few days as it rested in the refrigerator. If you look carefully at the photo of the completed cake, you can see a gelatin lump (slightly browner) discoloring the lower right hand quadrant.

I certainly wouldn't have sold it at a bakery, but I would certainly make it again and not screw it up so much. It was much admired at my workplace, lumps and all.

Alpha Bakers -- Ganache Tartlets

2016-05-17T11:39:00.001-07:00

These little puppies were the triumph they were more or less fated to be, being more or less truffles in mini pie shells. I used half leftover ganache from the ChocolaTea Cake and half almond milk ganache (a sleeper hit) from the alternative recipe.

Alpha Bakers -- Blueberry Buckle

2016-05-17T11:37:00.003-07:00

This was the picture, a classic American farmhouse dessert. Worked out fine except for the part where I didn't leave enough breathing room when dropping the dough on the filling and it never quite...baked. Very pretty, but too sweet and a little too much raw batter underneath.

Alpha Bakers -- ChocolaTea Cake

2016-05-03T08:25:00.001-07:00

Chocolate cake, chocolate frosting. Perfect for drop off in the office of your choice. I still make an effort to gift baked goods to my former officemates from time to time, and they are appreciative.

Confirmed. Delicious. Also got an email saying it was one of the best another colleague had had. Simple and delicious wins every time. I didn't have the powdered tea, but I achieved a similar effect with a touch of citric acid in the ganache.

Alpha Bakers -- Crumpets

2016-05-03T08:21:00.001-07:00

My aunt Nicki has an adorable quirk. She uses the word 'crumpet' to refer to the catchall category of breakfast pastry, but until a few years ago, had never eaten an actual crumpet. When we discovered this, we bought a few at Stop & Shop and ate them, but it wasn't until I had a crumpet at the famous Crumpet Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market (a place much beloved by my friend Rachel, who has excellent taste in breakfast pastry and tea), that I started to think of crumpets as something I might like to make. In retrospect, they live on the spectrum between pancakes and English muffins, so what's not to like? I'll make and eat anything that can be spread with butter and jam. My crumpets came out well, although next time I'd make the batter a little wetter to encourage more hole creation. But there will probably be a next time, despite the alluring bewilderment of breakfast pastry that's out there. I'm kind of intrigued by these.

Rugelach Recycled - Alpha Bakers

2016-05-03T08:08:00.000-07:00

I'll be honest, I didn't make rugelach this time around. Too busy running around in Ireland. But since I've been lackluster at posting anything and I do very much like Rose's rugelach recipe, here are some recycled photos from the Beta Baking phase--cream cheese dough is the best.

Alpha Bakers -- Flo-Ro Elegance Cake

2016-03-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring, Cocksuckers! Oh sorry, that was me thinking about Deadwood again. When the seasons turn, it's time to head back to the hills and try to start up that town again. That show is the best. Barely a day goes by that I don't think of the wisdom of the writing, especially this conversation:

Reverend H.W. Smith: When I read the Scriptures, I do not feel Christ's love as I used to.

Calamity Jane: Aw, is that so? That is too bad! Join the fuckin' club of most of us!

All that aside, happy Easter too, to those of you who like a good resurrection! All the little flowers were coming up at my parents' house and they were headed to a Ukrainian Easter eggstravaganza, so while they fussed about creating a little nest for Jello eggs (and Homer Simpson), I made a layer cake.

Mom, on the other hand, made blintzes with sour cherry filling. She has more sour cherries in her freezer than anyone.

This week's cake was the Flo-Ro Elegance cake, a chocolate layer cake (made with cocoa and unsweetened chocolate) with white chocolate caramel buttercream.

The recipe didn't seem difficult but I have trouble concentrating in kitchens that aren't mine, I did some fancy mise-en-place.

The caramel buttercream had a lot of steps but went very smoothly, although I did end up with many bits of chewy caramel in the finished buttercream. That was probably avoidable, but I thought it was a positive, so I left it. I filled it a little lightly--I'm always worried about running out of buttercream, and did a few layers of raspberry jam as well.

I didn't see the finished cake, as I was already on a bus back to NYC, but my Dad took this picture for me.

In addition to cake, the menu at the party included: "Cheese blintzes, cole slaw, salad, kielbasa, jello eggs, goyish babka, cherry blintzes (awesome), fruit salad, herring." This list is verbatim from my mother. The hosts of the party, a lovely couple that I have known for much of my life, each sent me an email, entitled 'your culinary delight.' Happy spring.

Alpha Bakers -- (Chocolate) Almond Babka

2016-03-18T11:17:00.001-07:00

There's nothing more satisfying than bread in a bundt. Unless it's a babka. And I dispute whether this is a babka. It's a great filled brioche, but Rose's babka recipe is not exactly my idea of the real thing. I'm loyal to the richer and sweeter charms of the Zabars-style stuff, a stickier, more tightly rolled and almost underbaked masterpiece that might not charm Paul Hollywood but tastes like the Jewish best to me.

Name disputes aside, this is a simple enriched dough rolled around a filling (I made it at Thanksgiving with a chocolate almond, and last week with an almond-only (sorry George Costanza)), and baked in a bundt pan.

The dough is an easy process of starter ferment, rise, chill, and fill. In a warm kitchen on a March sick day, it came together with no trouble, and the almond filling, which contains almond paste, was delicious. My co-workers did not question the name, they just ate it. Fast.

My party guests the weekend after Thanksgiving didn't eat quite as voraciously, partly because there was a lot of other food, and so I tried making bread pudding out of the leftovers. I don't recommend that plan, as the soft bread was too weak to stand up to the custard mixture and didn't provide a satisfying finish. Now I want to make a babka.