TWD: [Not] Espresso Profiteroles

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Norman Love

I love profiteroles - who doesn't? I know, someone in the universe may not - and they be crazy.

I have only made plain profiteroles in the past. Norman's recipe is an espresso flavored profiterole, filled with a cinnamon ice cream and drizzled with a Grand Marnier chocolate sauce. Personally, the orange flavored chocolate sauce with cinnamon ice cream did not sound good to me, so I opted to use Emily Luchetti's cocoa sauce instead.

Upon reading the ingredients for the cinnamon ice cream, and my experience with the recipes in this book (bland, bland, bland), one teaspoon of ground cinnamon was not going to give this ice cream any kick. Again, I opted to use a different recipe. The cinnamon ice cream recipe from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, is intense! He uses ten cinnamon sticks to infuse the cream - so friggin good. I added a molasses swirl to the ice cream as well, after my sister-in-law mentioned to me that this flavor combination was to die for (this she had at Citizen Cake in SF - now closed).

I did follow the recipe for the profiteroles! And they were a dud. It was the worst choux pastry I have worked with. Not only did it not look right from the beginning, but it was an extremely sticky dough (choux pastry is normally soft and silky) and I had a hell of a time forming the profiteroles. They also did not rise very much after baking, and were rather dense and rubbery, instead of light and airy. With the addition of brewed coffee and espresso powder, I was surprised they did not have a very strong coffee flavor. Sad to say, they ended up in the garbage.

I went back to my trusted pastry chef, Emily Luchetti, for her profiterole recipe - as expected they turned out perfect! Thank you Emily!

This ice cream would taste fantastic served alongside a slice of apple tarte tatin or apple pie. I'm seeing a new Thanksgiving tradition on the horizon..

Seriously, which one would you prefer?

You can see how all the other talented bakers in the group worked this recipe by going to the LYL: Espresso Profiteroles link on the TWD site.

You will find the profiterole recipe on page 411 of Baking with Julia; David's cinnamon ice cream, page 38 of The Perfect Scoop - or just do a Google search; and for Emily's cocoa sauce, you can find it here.

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. 

Book Ninety-Four: A Passion for Desserts

by Emily Luchetti

What do you think of when you hear parfait? Me, I envision a layered dessert (trifle like) in tall clear glasses, not a loaf shape that is sliced and placed on a plate with nothing other than a sauce drizzled over the top. 

This past Tuesday was my sister's birthday and originally I was going to make a fruitcake, yes fruitcake. We loved my grandmother's fruitcake that she made every Christmas (wish I had her recipe) and we had just been talking about it and decided that is what we would have - until the day before as I was making my grocery list and reading the recipe I found online - best if made at least two weeks ahead! Well that wasn't going to work. 

A frantic search for a new dessert led me to this delicious treat. This is why I love Emily Luchetti's recipes - always easy, elegant, and with wonderful flavor. The parfait is lemony, smooth, pillowy soft and light, and the sauces oh so tasty. I had added my own touch to this dessert - chopped crystallized ginger and fresh raspberries. The ginger was a bit overpowering - next time I would decorate the top with additional raspberries and no ginger. (EDIT: Eating the leftovers a whole week later, this was still delicious - sauces and all. Even the chopped candied ginger tasted really good this time around.)

This dessert is perfect for a beautiful spring day, unlike our first day of spring her in California where it is raining. This being so light and refreshing, we can imagine it's not.

Success meter (1-3): 3

amazon

It's important for you to get the plastic wrap as smooth as possible before filling the loaf pan. The creases will show up in the final product. This was my second time lining the pan. The first was almost perfect, then I noticed a tear in the bottom and had to start over and did not have the patience to get it as smooth as I would have liked.

I can always say I was going for the draped look.

These sauces were so good. I can see using them drizzled over vanilla ice cream, pancakes, crêpes or even on toast.

Happy Birthday Laura!

Goat Cheese Cake

Recipe courtesy of Emily Luchetti



                              


Our daughter graduated from college this past weekend! Woo hoo!! Way to go Ash!

To celebrate we had a family barbecue and lucked out to have the most beautiful weather.  Zucchini tart for appetizer was served along with tri-tip, portobello burgers, Mexican chopped salad and for dessert a wonderful goat cheese cake topped with fresh fruit. Emily Luchetti was kind enough to share her recipe with me - Thank you Emily!!

I have several of Ms. Luchetti's books and love her recipes for their simplicity, full flavor, and in my opinion, spectacular desserts.

Don't pass this up if you are not a fan of goat cheese. My brother-in-law thought this was good and quite surprised to find out what it was made with. He passed on the zucchini tart because it was made with goat cheese.

The cake was light, bright, and beautiful! The goat cheese along with the whipped egg whites makes for a lighter cake than your traditional cream cheese cheesecake and the addition of lemon juice and zest gives this delectable dessert a wonderful sparkle of lemon flavor.

This is one recipe you will want in your repertoire to make again and again.

Success meter (1-3): 3+++

It looks like I went a bit overboard on the fruit.

In the end it was the perfect amount once divvied

up between everyone. You can always put less

on the cake and have extra served at the table.

Awesome job Ash!

Please visit Emily Luchetti at her website and on Facebook. And if you are in the San Francisco area you can try her desserts where she is the executive pastry chef at Farallon and Waterbar Restaurants.