TWD: Savarin with Cointreau Sabayon

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: David Blom 

The Savarin. A spongy (equates to dry) cake that gets soaked in a simple syrup (sugar water) and served with berries and cream, or anything else that suits your personal preference.

This cake is made from a baba dough minus the raisins. I found this dough difficult to work with while filling the mini tins I had ended up using. My original plan was to make one large cake, but it did not appear to be enough dough to fill the pan.

This particular recipe has you soak the cake in plain simple syrup and give it a sprinkle of poire eau-de-vie (pear brandy) before serving. I was not about to buy a whole bottle of brandy to use only three tablespoons. My first choice was to substitute Grand Marnier which I always have on hand - until today. I do have a bottle of Cointreau - this will work - they are both orange flavored.

I was not fond of the texture these cakes had; even after a 30-plus minute soaking they still had a dryness/crumbly feeling to them, though they were moist at the same time, an odd texture.

I used Emily Luchetti's recipe of an orange flavored simple syrup to soak the cakes. This gave the cakes a bright and sweet taste, with orange flavored undertones. I think using only plain sugar-water syrup these would have been quite bland, as a handful of recipes in this book have been. I also served it with Emily's Sabayon sauce which is heavenly; I literally licked the plate clean.

Without the addition of Emily's simple syrup and sabayon sauce, I would have rated this a one. 

Success meter (1-3): 2+ due to the texture-

No way is this enough dough to fill the pan I planned on using. The book does not specify what size  pan to use. I was going to go with a ten-inch flan pan and decided I better use the mini tins.

The recipe instructs you to use clarified butter to coat your pan with. I was not in the mood to boil my butter and separate the fat solids. Just popped some butter in the microwave and used that. Worked fine.

A very sticky, somewhat elastic(y) dough. Not fun to work with when you are filling twenty four mini tins. The dough did not want to release from the tip of the piping bag. When I tried, it pulled the dough right back out of tins. I had to squeeze the dough away from the tip, then it stuck like crazy to my fingers. Wish I had thought to use scissors or to butter my fingers as suggested in Stars Desserts.

Once all the tins are filled, they were covered with another half-sheet pan and allowed to rise for thirty minutes or until the dough fills the molds. (I read that at this point you can allow the second rise to happen overnight in the refrigerator.)

Well, they did not fill the molds (other than the 4-inch pan), but they did poof up slightly.

The finished cakes are reminiscent of madeleines. Spongy and dry. This is why they are soaked in a simple syrup (this can be flavored to your liking).

Just for a little perspective. All the little cakes fit into a large Ziplock bag - with room to spare. This is supposed to serve six people? The baba dough recipe said it would serve eight. I was thinking I don't think so. In the end I think three mini cakes per person would be plenty; after all we do not need to be gluttons do we?

 Soaking away in a simple syrup made up of water, sugar, lemon juice, Cointreau and orange juice.

The leftover sabayon sauce and berries were heavenly served over pancakes.

Note: I had made the cakes two days before soaking and assembling them. After their soaking I then had leftovers a day or two later, and I think they actually improved in flavor and texture. The larger four-inch cake definitely had better texture than the mini cakes, which are about 2 3/4-inch in diameter.

We have recently been granted permission by the administrator of TWD to post the Baking with Julia recipes on our blog. 

TWD: Finnish Pulla

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing baker: Beatrice Ojakangas

I was not going to publish this post after the tragedy in Connecticut. I felt guilty going on with the enjoyments of my everyday life. I realize that life does, and must go on after such horrific incidents. That all we can do is keep the victims in our hearts and thoughts and never, ever, forget them, and hope that we can somehow curb these horrible acts from happening in the future; and to love and cherish those around us.

Therefore this post is dedicated to all in Newtown, Connecticut ~ my heart goes out to them.

As I have mentioned before, everyone should at least once try their hand at bread making. The aroma of the yeasted bread rising alone, not to mention the bread baking, fills your kitchen with a heavenly wonderfulness, and prepping the dough really isn't that difficult; it's easier then you would think and the braiding of this loaf was a lot of fun.

The finished bread is soft, sweet and with just a hint of cardamom spice. As with all breads, it is best the day it is baked. I placed leftovers in a Ziploc bag, by day three the bread was stale - but a short stint in the microwave (ten seconds or so) it was back to its first day softness.

Success meter (1-3): 3

There is no comparison to the aroma of freshly ground cardamom and the ground cardamom you purchase in the store; the difference is night and day.

Beautiful cardamom flecks.

Did anyone else have problems with the dough shrinking after being rolled? They were shorter than the suggested thirty-six inches. I just tugged and stretched them while braiding..

Wreath formed and ready for its last rise.

(A bit uneven, but not bad for my first braided loaf!)

I did not need to add yet another type of sugar (pearl is called for in the recipe) to my collection, so I took Carmen's (Baking is my Zen) suggestion of crushing sugar cubes. Thanks Carmen!

Not so pretty after the rise ~ I may have let it go too long.

Topped with sugar and sliced almonds.

It turned out beautifully in the end.

I pulled my Finnish cookbook from the shelf to see if it had a Pulla recipe, and to my surprise the food editor of this book is Beatrice Ojakangas, the contributing baker for this TWD recipe. The ingredients are the same, though in different increments.

Beatrice recommends (in Fantastically Finnish) to serve the pulla with Egg-Cleared Coffee (recipe follows). I vaguely remember hearing something of this egg & shell in coffee grounds bit before, but never have tried it myself. Have you?

This would be a wonderful bread to serve on Christmas morning. If you would like the recipe you will find it on Erin's blog The Daily Morsel, or you can purchase the book, Baking with Julia (the recipe is on page 106).

Do make sure and check out my fellow baker's take on this recipe. There are always interesting variations from ingredients to finishing techniques.

Egg-Cleared Coffee

8 cups cold water
1 egg, well washed
16 slightly rounded teaspoons coffee, plus one for the pot

Bring the cold water to a boil in a coffee pot or saucepan. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, crush the egg (shell and all) into the dry coffee grounds and mix thoroughly. When the water has come to a rolling boil, add the egg-coffee mixture and stir quickly. Let it come to the boiling point, and remove from the heat. Repeat this twice more. Then cover and let stand about 5 minutes so the grounds can settle.

Makes 8 cups.

(source: http://finnishfood.blogspot.com/2007/11/kahvi-finnish-egg-cleared-coffee.html)

Finland

Coat of Arms

Source: http://www.tpk.fi/ahtisaari/eng/institution/ensign.html

TWD: Gingerbread Baby Cakes

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan




This Tuesdays with Dorie snuck up on me. How did it get here so fast? It was Monday before I realized I still needed to bake these. I just wasn't into baking and blogging this day, which shows in the pictures, especially the final product - not what I had envisioned anyway.

This is one of those recipes I don't know if I really like or not; like the first time I made kale chips. Where at first bite you think hmmm it's OK - yet you keep eating more hoping to find that taste sensation that will hopefully knock your socks off, or at least wow you somewhat. The kale chips grew on me - these however did not.

The recipe calls for minced fresh ginger (as well as dried) which I did not care for. I did not like that it would stick to my teeth and make me feel like I'm biting down on something that should not be there. If I were to make these again (which I'm not) I would use ginger juice instead. You just grate your ginger and press through a fine sieve (or squeeze the pulp with your fingers) to extract the juice. This I just learned from Grace Young's Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge.

Maybe if they were called molasses baby cakes, because that is all I could taste, my perception would have been different. The molasses overpowers the ginger and there is not even a hint of espresso flavor. There are several chocolate recipes that call for a small amount of espresso which will enhance the flavor of chocolate, but not necessarily give you a coffee flavor. However this recipe called for a whole quarter cup! I thought for sure there would be a hint of joe in these little cakes.

If molasses is your thing - these cakes are for you! Don't get me wrong, I like molasses; I was just expecting more of a ginger flavor. I guess I have been spoiled by the delicious gingerbread my friend makes every year at Christmas.

Success meter (1-3): 2

Dried pears reconstituted in apple juice for decoration.

Yep - that's black pepper you see. This too was unnoticeable due to the overpowering flavor of the molasses.

One jar of molasses yields one and a half cups. This made me one half cup shy of the two cups called for in the recipe. I made up the difference with Lyle's Golden Syrup.

As with making cookies, beat your sugar and butter till light and fluffy.

Adding the exorbitant amount of molasses.

Fold in the dry ingredients.

I adorned two cakes with a star on top, two cakes with stars on the bottom, and left two plain.

I was hoping that the stars on top would have risen with the batter - not the case.

This one was baked in a glass ramekin. Not looking so very pretty.

I just love paper pans - especially for gift giving.

The cakes had wonderful texture. Soft, chewy, and moist. The section with pear helped tame the boldness of the molasses. These cakes would benefit with diced pear throughout.

If I had more time I would have adorned the cakes with a chocolate (or mango! mmm...) sauce and diced pears.

You can find the recipe for these baby cakes on Karen's blog ,our host this week.

Do venture over to Tuesdays with Dorie to see what others have done with this recipe.