doughnut muffins.

i'm inclined to call these a really good nutmeg muffin, but if you are the type who likes cake doughnuts, you'll like these. here's the recipe.

strawberry double cheesecake.

mamabok's request was cheesecake, here is cheesecake. two, in fact: a "rare" japanese cheesecake with puréed strawberries sandwiched between two halves of a baked japanese cheesecake, inspired by lydia's beautiful double happiness cheesecake.

both varieties employed are more commonly found in japan than the heavy new york-style cake, hence the "japanese" moniker. "rare" is just an allusion to the fact that is uncooked (as in a rare steak), just yogurt, cream cheese, strawberries and sugar set with a little bit of gelatin. i adapted a recipe from about.com for this. the baked cheesecake contains less than half the cream cheese of your average american style cake, and has a soft, silky, fluffy texture from whipped egg whites. it is because of this that it is sometimes known as a cheesecake soufflé (or soufflé cheesecake). i modded betty shimabukuro's recipe, as i actually encountered the same problems she did when trying other recipes on the web. no matter, this one turned out fine.


strawberry double cheesecake

"rare" layer:

1 package/8oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup yogurt-plain, vanilla or strawberry-flavoured, your choice
1- 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed) strawberries, puréed
1/3 cup sugar, more if the strawberries aren't sweet
2 tbsps lemon juice
1 packet/1 tbsp powder gelatin
1/4 cup water

mix gelatin and water in a small container, set aside. put gelatin mixture into microwave and heat for about a minute. dump softened cream cheese, yogurt, fruit, sugar, lemon juice, and gelatin; mix well. pour the filling into an 8" cake pan lined with plastic wrap; spread evenly. refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight.


baked layer:

1 package/8oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs, separated
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoonfuls lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

preheat oven to 325˚F . place a parchment round on the bottom of an 8-inch round cake pan or springform pan.

beat cream cheese and cream together. add egg yolks, cornstarch, lemon juice, and half the sugar until smooth. beat egg whites in a separate bowl until foamy with a hand mixer. add remaining sugar and cream of tartar, beating until soft peaks form. slowly fold beaten egg whites into cream-cheese mixture, until thoroughly combined. pour into cake pan and smooth the surface. place cake pan into a larger roasting pan and place in lower rack of oven. pour enough boiling water into the roasting pan to come halfway up the side of the cake pan. bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until cake has pulled away from the pan, and a pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

cool in the pan on a rack (it will deflate), then unmold cheesecake. refrigerate for at least three hours. once cooled, carefully cut the cake in half horizontally so you have two layers. unmold the rare cheesecake and place it on top of one layer. spread a layer of strawberry jam or cut fruit, if you want. top with second baked cheesecake layer. since the baked cheesecake will have shrunk a bit, a little trimming of the middle layer will be necessary. you can serve it immediately, but i prefer to cover the cake with plastic wrap, and refrigerate so that the layers "settle"a bit.

rochers.

rochers: meringue and toasted silvered almonds in big crispy-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside-mounds. a recipe from the tartine bakery cookbook, from the tartine bakery in san francisco, ca.

miss craftapalooza suggested meringues with cream for my strawberry glut, but there was something about these that beckoned. probably the toasty loveliness of slivered almonds that don't just dot the meringue, but create a virtual haystack within--no nibble shall be nutless, i tell you. the original recipe says it makes 30 small cookies, i managed to eke out a dozen of these giganto versions. piping is recommended, even though the almond pieces will clog the tip; also, results can be unbecoming. just stick to heaping teaspoonfuls (or tablespoonfuls) and you should get something similar to a favourite golden wrapped confection. eaten out of hand, or coarsely crushed over sliced strawberries and cream, these are big rock cookie mountains i'll take over the candy version, any day.

napoleon and charlotte.

if i was a cartoon-drawing kind of gal, i would have a comic strip involving a couple named napoleon and charlotte....

per miss deborah's request: a strawberry napoleon, made with puff pastry, a grand marnier-laced vanilla bean pastry cream, and sliced fresh strawberry. adapted from yet another ludo lefebvre recipe. the most noteworthy thing about it was the absolute ease of making this, as almost everything must be done well in advance, and each component (while time consuming) is pretty easy to make. the second most noteworthy thing: it was the first time i had made puff pastry. huzzah! another thing to cross off my list! and--i am so not pulling your leg, your finger, your nothin' on this--it was insanely not difficult to do at all. i'm not saying i did a stellar job on the matter (will i ever get the hang of rolling dough out evenly? maybe there are speed bumps on my table), but even a 50% effort yields a pastry that is 150% better than your average supermarket puff pastry dough. i always thought the puff was difficult as when i'd use the frozen stuff, it would shrink too much, be too greasy, and brown unevenly; this worked like it should. anyway, i reckon that once i get the hang of it, it deserves a post of its own. the pastry cream was one of the easiest pastry cream recipes i've tried, and one of the tastiest. chef lefebvre's version included whole vanilla beans and a generous glug of bourbon--i doubled the vanilla and substituted orange-flavoured liqueur for the bourbon. this was a little runnier than i had hoped (i blame the booze), so i'll either cut down on the amount of booze, or cook the pastry cream a little longer for a firmer product.

napoleons have never been my favourite because usually the pastry is a little stale, or the pastry cream too sweet; also, arrgh, no matter how genteel you are, they are very messy to eat. this one was as fresh as it was going to get, with delicate, flaky pastry, a lightly sweetened, flavoured cream, and of course, the bounty of perfectly ripe strawberries. and yes, still a freakin' mess to eat.

and miss susan's suggestion: a strawberry charlotte, a delightful name for a cake if there ever was one. this one was made with a base and white picket fence of ladyfingers/savoiardi, filled with an amaretto-laced bavarian cream and topped with fruit. another first, making those ladyfingers, which are cookies made with a sponge cake batter, often in the shape of fat...fingers. ladyfingers! seriously, i'm built like a peasant, but even my manhands are more delicate than this. however, the cake seems not to be the least bit bothered, with billowy clouds of silky cream and vibrant berries all wrapped up in a fluffy pink-sashed party dress. again, the ladyfinger recipe from pierre herme was actually not difficult, and yes, my 50% maxim still applies. a little more practice, and maybe i can get those stubby fingers to look a lot more ladylike.

the bavarian cream was simply the ludo vanilla bean pastry cream--this time flavoured with amaretto liqueur--folded into copious amounts of whipped cream, and stabilized with a tiny bit of gelatin. plonked on top are endless amounts of sliced strawberries, but not so endless that i don't have more berry delights forthcoming....

surprise delivery.

s just brought over a case of super-sweet strawberries from korea, about 4 pounds' worth. any baking/dessert requests?

baking by the bushel.

i am at the tail end of a cookie baking marathon--mexican wedding cookies, an odd hazelnut chocolate cookie with which i was experimenting, and chocolate chippies. new to this year's lineup: bill clinton's oatmeal cookies, from chef sherry yard's "desserts by the yard." i make a lot of oatmeal cookies, and even though they don't look like much (when do oatmeal cookies ever do?), they might be some of my favourite--possibly the only favourite anything i share with the former president. they are crispy on the outside, but chewy with oats, brown sugar, and wine-soaked golden raisins (i added some dried cranberries as well) on the inside. you can futz about with the temperature and time if you want a softer, chewier cookie, but imho, they don't turn out quite so well. stick to the plan, stan, and enjoy.

fa-la-la ludo's pain d'épices.

yes, it's from heem again, what of it? with the way things are going this holiday season could be a ludo christmas or a ludacrismas --it could go either way.

*

it's (eeeep!) only tweeks away from the 25th, and i'm still trying to decide what my christmas cake gift will be. truth be told, i'm not entirely sure anyone around here appreciates gingerbread, spice cakes, or fruitcake, but i so want to do one. or all. or, in the case of this ludo recipe, a spice and fruitcake rolled into one.

pain d'épices--"bread of spices"--is a specialty of the bourgogne/burgundy region of france, possibly adapted from a chinese honey cake in the middle ages to satisfy marguerite de france's penchant for honey cake, depending on what you read. a combination of ideal geography and shrewd calculations gave the burgundian dukes control of the spice trade through europe, which accounts for the exotic, redolent spices found in pain d'epices: anise, cloves, cinnamon, sometimes ginger. since chef lefebvre is from burgundy, i thought, what better source is there? (of course it has nothing to do with the fact that the cookbook is at my bedside, no not at all.)

it is a simple recipe, despite the 20 item ingredient list; the majority of those are spices, and only in small quantities. rather surprising to me, though, is that ginger is not one of those ingredients, but with fresh orange and lemon peel, star anise and cloves among them, who needs it? also unnecessary are eggs and fat--this is a dairy-free dessert. unlike many of the other pain d'epices receipts i have found, this one has candied fruit in it, making it very much a fruitcake. i substituted traditional glacé fruits with a dried fruit blend to great effect--the candied texture is still there, but with much less sweetness. there is also a bounty of pistachios, hazelnuts, and almonds within. once all the ingredients have been assembled--dry items in one bowl, wet in another, nuts and bolts to the side--it really comes down to just mixing them all and baking, in the easiest possible way. whoo!

the cake is dark, dense, moist, intensely aromatic and flavoured; a thin slice is better than a thick one to savour all the flavours going on within it. i find it exotic and appealing, very we-three-kings frankincensey and jewellike. however, the gingerbread jury thought otherwise: "omg, is that a fruitcake?! bleurgh" or "blarrgh! wtf? is there cumin in this?!" pfftpfftpfft. why, ho ho ho, yes, there is cumin in there--a mere fraction of a teaspoonful--but apparently enough to make staunch cuminyfruitycake-haters fuel up on haterade (who knew there would be so many). *sigh* i could leave out the cumin. or, get new friends. but do i really want to do either?

back to the books.

merry meringues.

yes, i know it doesn't seem like i know any other holiday-esque adjective besides "merry" but yah maybe i don't. i saw big, beautiful raspberry meringues on doc18's flickr photostream, and found them very appealing. doc18's meringues were from ottolenghi in london; i've never been, but it looks very much like a place i'd like. however, it doesn't look like i'll be getting to the uk any time soon, so again, i must make do with make at home.

upon some reflection, i've realized i don't really like meringues all that much, but i do like aspects of them a lot--fat freedom and texture mainly; that they are overly sweet and not particularly flavoured with anything, not so much. also, i wasn't very good at making them. however, with a little patience, a vat of egg whites, and some help from baking 911, i've learned some tricks for success in a humid, tropical kitchen. the main thing, of course, is to try to keep the humidity at bay, but making a swiss meringue--which cooks the egg whites and sugar before beating--allows for the sugar to melt thoroughly (no graininess or weeping--on the meringue's nor cook's part), and stabilizes the mix more for a lighter, fluffier texture. also, in more humid climates, longer oven times are necessary, but at a lower temperature--lower, slower. whoo. barry white meringues!

still working on flavour. vanilla is nice, but want more variety. for these i simply whirred some freeze-dried strawberries in a food processor to make a ruby red dust for decoration and a bit of tartness. holiday gorgeous, certainly, but if anyone has any other flavouring suggestions, please let me know!




big baked meringues, humid weather formula (aka barry whites)

2 egg whites (from large eggs)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoonful vanilla extract
pinch of salt

preheat oven to 300˚F. over a pot of simmering water, stir the egg whites and sugar together until the sugar melts and the mixture feels quite warm (but not hot!). add vanilla and salt. take the mixture off the heat, and whisk (or use a mixer) until thick, glossy and doubled in volume. plop big blobs of the stuff onto a parchment lined baking sheet, then bake in oven for 1-1 1/2 hours. drop the temperature to 250˚F, bake for another 1-2 hours, then turn off oven. leave the meringues in oven overnight to continue drying.

makes 4 to 6 big bazonking meringues.

happy (c)hanukkah!

love that cnn. i was looking up the significance of the jewish holiday, hanukkah, which began last night after sundown (thanks, bramble!), and came across this:

During Hanukkah, Jewish people celebrate the miracle of the tiny bit of oil that miraculously burned for eight days. This miracle is remembered by lighting a menorah for eight days and eating fare cooked in oil or laden with cheese.

um, i think there might be more to it than that. but hey, food is important in religious holidays--that a celebration should include deep fried dough and dairy goodness can only be a good thing, right?

this isn't fried in oil, but it is definitely laden with cheese: a dark chocolate chocolate chip cheesecake from the whimsical bakehouse by kaye and liv hansen. the recipe was adapted from this mocha chocolate chip cheesecake--just omit the espresso. also, all the fiddly decorative bits and chocolate glaze are nice but unnecessary--this cake is good enough on its own. it is creamy, not too sweet, rich, but not too heavy. a lovely addition to any holiday feasting.

dreaming of cake.

i had an itch to do a little baking, but ended up doing a lot. i originally started with a few cookies from "baking: from my home to yours" by dorie greenspan; although her cookie recipes are very good, and they turned out well, i don't think i'm a cookie kind of gal. i asked you what i should bake, and boy, y'all responded.



acornbud turned me onto hawaii's version of a dream cake, which is layers of chocolate chiffon cake with a whipped cream frosting and decorated with chocolate curls. i had never heard of it, or most likely, mistook it for a black forest cake (it looks remarkably like the popular devil's food white out layer cake from that dorie greenspan book i previously mentioned). as i normally do when it comes to hawaiian-style recipes, i turned to betty shimabukuro's "by request" column, which produced this gorgeous not-so-little cake. having never had a dream cake before, i don't know how it compares to others, but i found it to be moist, light in texture, but rich in flavour and therefore ono all the way.



another thing i hadn't heard of previously was chelsea buns, as requested by miss saffron. chelsea buns, i've read, are similar to cinnamon rolls only made spicier with with the addition of a little bit of lemon zest in the dough and cardamon. i went ahead with a mod of my favourite cinnamon roll recipe, with the addition of the zest in the dough, currants, golden raisins, cardamon, two kinds of cinnamon and muscovado sugar in the filling.



fluffy, golden, tender, fragrant, and yet not too sweet. perfect, really, for any time of day, and not so heavy that you'd want to take a nap after consumption of one. after two or three, however....



no one suggested it, but i swear somehow akatsukira's, saffron's, or bowb's culinary adventures influenced my decision to make a victoria sponge. depending on what you read, the victoria sponge grew from either queen victoria's hunger for a little somethingsomething in the afternoon because apparently luncheon menus had become quite meager, or because she was encouraged to host tea parties as civic duty. whether borne from low blood sugar or civic pride, a traditional victoria sponge is not actually made from a true sponge cake which does not incorporate any fats within the cake; it is made by sandwiching two butter sponge cakes (obvs sponge cakes with butter in the recipe) with layers of jam and heavy cream (clotted or double cream, i imagine). for my victoria sponge, i decided to use a traditional sponge recipe, as most recipes i found for butter sponge involve self-raising flour which i didn't have, and because my family prefers an eggier, dryer cake (is that a somewhat specific asian upbringing thing? umami and i seem to think so). the recipe i used is tricky as the only leavening is the whipped egg whites, and darned if folding in the yolks and the flour isn't the biggest baking b***h i know, but it's worth the effort if you like a bit of a freak out and a fluffy, eggy cake.



i sandwiched the cakes with a layer of mango jam, far too many sliced, superripe philippine mangoes, and an extra-generous slather of whipped cream to make up for the lack of fat in the cakes. too much fruit and cream=somewhat unattractive presentation, but also =incredibly tasty cake.

j said that this is exactly the cake he wants at his wedding so yay! that covered zarah maria's suggestion of a wedding cake. next on the list: anne's suggestion of an ube cake or sans rival, anthony's somewhat perplexing request for a shaped german cake without a hole, robin's lemon or orange cake (might have to actually request a recipe for the orange crunch cake from betty), and maybe throw in a tall cake for saffy as well.

**

chelsea buns

the dough:
1/2 c. water
1 c. whole milk
3/4 c. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. sugar
5 1/2 c. white flour (plus extra)
2 packets/14 g SAF instant rise yeast (not sure how other brands will perform)

add water, milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla together. in another large bowl, mix the lemon zest and dry ingredients. make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet mixture in. using a wooden spoon, stir everything until it forms a wet, sticky dough. keep stirring until the mixture has pulled away from the side of the bowl. tip the dough out onto a floured surface and with floured hands, knead the dough (adding flour if necessary) to shape it into a manageable ball that is still flooby and a bit sticky. place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover, and allow to double in size in a warm place. punch down, divide the dough in two.

the filling:

2 tsp ground cardamom
5 tsp ground cinnamon (whatever kind you want to use is fine--i use vietnamese cassia and ceylon "true" cinnamon)
1 c. firmly packed muscovado or brown sugar
1 c. softened unsalted butter

mix all ingredients together.

1 c. (each) golden raisins, currants, or any dried fruit of choice

shaping:

using a lined half-sheet jelly roll pan as your guide, roll and shaped a ball of dough to fit the size of the pan (i think it's 18"x 13"). spread half the filling mix (although i tend to use less--YMMV) onto the dough, leaving about an inch on one "long" side clean. sprinkle dried fruit over the filling. tightly roll the dough up lengthwise to the clean side, then use your fingers to pinch the dough seam closed. cut the dough into 12 equal portions (or whatever you can get out of it), arrange the pieces in a greased rectagular 9"x13" pan. repeat with the second ball of dough. cover pans and let rise until doubled.


bake in a 335°F oven for 20-25 minutes.