(Not a Short Cake)
How you doin’? Living in California, I have access to fresh strawberries within hours of when they are picked. I bought a flat of fresh-from-the field strawberries this weekend and they were so sweet and delicious. But a full flat was way too many for two to eat over a weekend so I had to find a way to use them before they spoiled. I thought strawberry shortcake.
 
Here was my dilemma—I really dislike those spongy little circles with the shelf-life of plutonium that you buy in the supermarket. I also don’t really care for split sweetened biscuits that go stale once they cool down. Split, day-old muffins don’t do it for me either. I started to think, how can I improve on something so great as just eating fresh strawberries? Voilà! That’s French for “Eureka.” How about a Strawberry-Custard Cake topped with whipped cream and a fresh berry? And, here it is… the perfect fresh summer dessert.
 
Sometimes when you are cooking or baking tragedies occur… even to professionals. Read the After-The-End-Story at the end of this post—it was a comedy of errors.
 
Prep time:  35 minutes
Bake time:  23 to 30 minutes
Additional time:  2 hours for macerating the strawberries
Yield:  8 servings:
 
Ingredients
For the berry filling
2 pounds fresh strawberries, sliced / reserve 8 beautiful, ripe strawberries for topping.
1/2 cup granulated sugar
 
For the cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
5 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
 
For the whipped cream
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
 
Directions
To make the strawberry filling

1. Place the sliced strawberries into a mixing bowl and stir in 1/2 cup of sugar. Cover, and refrigerate 2 hours to overnight. Stir the strawberries occasionally. The longer they sit in the syrup, the more syrup you will have.
2. Make the My Way Basic Pastry Cream / custard filling (see recipe below)

To make the cake

1. Set an oven rack in the center of the oven.
2. Preheat your oven to 375⁰F.
3. Generously butter and flour a 9” x 13” baking dish.
4. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch and baking powder.
5. Beat the egg yolks in a separate small bowl together with the vanilla extract until smooth; set aside.
6. Whip the egg whites with an electric mixer until very stiff. Slowly add the 1-1/4 cup sugar to the egg whites, a few tablespoons at a time, until the sugar is incorporated and the whites are stiff.
7. Gently fold in the yolk mixture until almost fully blended into the whites.
8. Gently fold in the flour mixture until just combined. It’s okay if a few small lumps of flour remain.
9. Deposit the batter into the prepared baking dish.
10. Bake in the preheated oven for 23 to 30 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out dry and clean.
11. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then invert the cake onto a sheet of waxed paper and cut into 8 equal pieces.

To make the whipped cream

1. While the cake is cooling, whip the heavy cream with the confectioners' sugar to soft peaks.

To assemble the strawberry not-shortcakes

1. Cut each cake square in half horizontally and put the bottom halves onto dessert plates.
2.  Deposit about 2 to 3 tablespoons of the custard on the bottom pieces of cake and smooth it out.
3. Spoon the strawberries and syrup over the custard. It’s okay if things start to run over the cake and onto the plate.
4. Place the cake tops over the custard and strawberries.
5. Spoon on another tablespoon of custard and then top with whipped cream.
6. Place one of the reserved whole strawberries on top of the whipped cream or on the side of the plate.

                                                          My Way Basic Pastry Cream
                           As found in my cookbook--Choclatique-150 Simply Elegant Desserts
A classic pastry cream is used in bakeries and restaurants to fill cakes, pies, tarts, and pastries. Over the years, I have come to judge great pastry chefs on the quality of their pastry cream and have never found this criterion to let me down. What I like about this pastry cream is that when “as is,” you can eat it like a pudding. I am always disappointed when I order dessert in a restaurant only to discover that the pastry chef uses using some kind of plastic, gloppy packaged custard mix. What’s so hard about doing it my way?

Prep time:  10 minutes
Cook time:  10 minutes
Cool time:  20 minutes
Yield:  2-1/2 cups

Ingredients
2 large egg yolks
1 large egg
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 cups whole milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
 
Directions

1. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and egg.
2. In another bowl, whisk 1/3 cup of the sugar with the cornstarch. Slowly stir into the eggs until creamy and smooth.
3. In a heavy saucepan, heat the milk and the remaining 1/4 cup sugar over medium heat until boiling, stirring continuously.
4. Drizzle the milk into the egg mixture in a slow, thin stream, whisking constantly, to temper the eggs so that they do not cook.
5. Return the mixture to the saucepan and stir constantly over low heat until thickened, 3 to 4 minutes.
6. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla until the pastry cream is smooth and blended.
7. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on top of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming.
8. Let the pastry cream cool for about 20 minutes and then refrigerate until ready to use. The pastry cream will keep fresh for up to 2 days. Whisk well before using.

ChefSecret:  To flavor the pastry cream, whisk 1/2 cup chocolate syrup into the pastry cream with the butter. You can also whisk in 1/2 cup of caramel sauce to make caramel pastry cream.

After-The-End-Story:  You know, sometimes stuff happens and that was the case with this recipe. For some reason, the cake wouldn’t easily come out of the baking dish. And, you guessed it—it broke apart and crumbled. I did manage to get at least one good piece for the picture—and I ate that soon after the photo was taken.
My very formal and strait-laced pastry chef in Paris once told me there would be days like this. So, in these cases, you can always make trifles. In my case I made parfaits—a couple of spoonfuls of custard, a broken lump of cake or two, strawberries, and repeat ‘till you reach the top of the glass leaving room for whipped cream.
Since this cake can be a bit temperamental and if you have a fear of failure, replace the whole cake recipe with a boxed version of yellow cake mix… replace the called-out oil with melted butter.

ChefSecret:  Try making different fruit fillings using other berries and ripe stone fruit. Just follow the same direction above.

#Dessert #Strawberry #CustardCake #StrawberryShortcake #Baking #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19

How you doin’? The calendar is inching toward the Fourth of July. While we may have to forego the Independence Day parades, public fireworks displays and sporting events, we don’t have to give up our picnics, especially if they're in our own backyards—which is still probably the safest place to be.
 
I’ve had a hand-crank ice cream maker since I was in college. Later, I splurged on an electric crank device. No difference in the quality of the finished consistency of the frozen dessert, as long as you just keep cranking. For Christmas a few years back, I received a self-contained Gelato Junior ice cream maker. While having a smaller churning container, the results were still excellent. My point is, you really have to screw up badly to make a bad batch of ice cream or frozen custard.
 
Frozen Custard? That may be something new to you if you didn’t grow up in Wisconsin (think Gilles, Kitt’s, Kopp's, Leon’s and Culver’s in Milwaukee) or other mid-western states. So, what’s the difference between frozen custard and ice cream? Ice cream is made from milk, cream or a combination of the two. Frozen custard is made from milk, cream and egg yolks. Also, while the machine used to make ice cream churns air (called overrun) into it to make it have a lighter mouthfeel, frozen custard is produced in a machine that barely incorporates any additional air into it, which means it's way more smooth, dense, creamy and delicious.
 
Follow the recipe below for the best Fourth of July frozen treat ever— smooth and creamy Dark Chocolate Frozen Custard Milwaukee-style.
 
Prep time:  30 minutes
Cook time:  5 minutes
Chill time:  6 hours or overnight
Churn time:  15 minutes
Hard freeze time:  6 hours
Yield:  8 servings, or maybe just 1 if it’s been a bad day
 
Ingredients
2-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1 or 2-ounces high-quality dark chocolate (64%), finely chopped
5 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
 
Directions

1. Whisk the cream, milk, sugar and cocoa powder together in a saucepan over medium heat until the mixture is thoroughly combined, and the sugar has completely dissolved.
2. Bring the mixture almost to a simmer, then stir in the dark chocolate until melted.
3. Cool the mixture just a bit so when you add the egg yolks they don’t scramble.
4. Whisk the egg yolks into the cooled cream mixture and cook until the custard is slightly thickened, about 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a container, cover and refrigerate until chilled for at least 6 hours (better yet, make the custard the night before).
5. Stir the vanilla into chilled custard mixture and freeze in an ice cream machine following manufacturer's instructions.
6. Now you have two choices: you can spoon the frozen custard right out of the ice cream maker—it will be about 17⁰F. Or you can harden the custard in the freezer overnight which will produce a professional, scoopable frozen custard—your choice.

ChefSecret:  The secret ingredient for an ever-so-rich Dark Chocolate Custard is Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Dark Chocolate and Cocoa Powder. Guittard and Forbes have similar ingredients, but they may be a little bit more difficult to find. Make it your own by adding chocolate chips, marshmallow or nuts or make ice cream sandwiches—yummmmm!

#Custard #IndependenceDay #July4 #IceCream #Gilles #Leons #Kitts #Kopps #Culvers #Dessert #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19

How you doin? Its cherry season… get ‘em while they’re fresh! My Cherry Pie recipe would make George Washington a believer—no lie! It is a not-to-sweet rich, ruby-red cherry pie, with just a hint of almond flavor and a modest cinnamon halo all baked inside a flaky yet crisp crust. The cherries play peek-a-boo through the lattice crust.
 
Cherry pie is a pie baked with a cherry filling, of course. Cherry pies should be made with tart rather than sweet cherries. Morello cherries are ones I use (but you can use other varieties if available—you may have to adjust the sugar level so the filling isn’t too sweet).
 
English history credits making the first cherry pie to Queen Elizabeth I. Pies came to America with the English settlers. The early colonists cooked their pies in long narrow pans calling them "coffins" like the crust in England. As in the Roman times, the early American pie crusts were not eaten, but simply designed to hold the filling during baking—what a waste of a good crust.
 
Prep time:  30 minutes
Bake time:  55-60 minutes
Cool time:  45 minutes
Yield:  8 servings
 
Ingredients
For the pie filling
1-1/4 cups granulate sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 cup cherry juice blend (apple-cherry juice is just fine)
5 to 6 cups fresh tart cherries, pitted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 double-crust pastry
 
For the pastry
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening (see ChefSecret)
5 to 7 tablespoons cold water
 
Directions

1. Pit about 5 to 6 cups of fresh cherries. (They do sell cherry pitters in the hand tool cooking equipment section in your supermarket).
2. Preheat an oven to 425⁰ F.
3. In a large saucepan, combine the sugar and cornstarch; gradually stir in cherry juice until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat.
4. Add the cherries, cinnamon, nutmeg and almond extract; set aside to cool.
5. If making a homemade crust… In a large bowl, whisk the flour and salt together and cut in the shortening until crumbly.
6. Gradually add the cold water, tossing with a fork until a ball forms. Divide dough in half so that one ball is slightly larger than the other—one for the top crust and one for the bottom crust.
7. Refrigerate the dough balls for 30 minutes.
8. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the larger ball to fit a 9” pie pan.
9. Transfer the dough to a 9” pie pan, trim even with edge of pan.
10. Add the cherry pie filling and spread evenly to fill the pan.
11. Roll out the remaining dough ball; cut dough into 3/4” strips and lay/weave them alternately to make a lattice pattern on the top of the pie. Trim, seal and flute edges.
12. Bake at 425° for 10 minutes.
13. Reduce heat to 375°; bake 45-50 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown.
14. Cool on a wire rack.
15. Serve with an ice cream of your choice.

ChefSecret:  Personally, I use a combination of shortenings (fats) for my pie crusts—1/3 cup cold butter and 1/3 cup lard. This makes a buttery, crisp crust. You can also use a hard vegetable shortening like Crisco. Do you want to cut down on the time and complexity of making a crust? Just buy a ready-made crust found in the refrigerated section at your supermarket.

#Dessert #CherryPie #GeorgeWashington #Baking #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19

How you doin’? Just think, today is one day closer to getting all this behind us… the coronavirus that is, plenty of other stuff to work on to improve the state of our human condition.
 
I was thinking the other day how could advanced civilizations like the Incas and Aztecs simply disappear from the face of the earth? I’ve watched lots of shows on the Discovery Channel that speculate that it was caused by war, famine, water shortage or the collapse of agriculture—but maybe it was just a pandemic. Who knows? Too much to ponder this early in the morning—let’s talk about cookies.
 
I’ve been working on a project with a Kelly—he’s the COO at Algood Food Company in Louisville, Kentucky. Kelly told me he wanted to make the Oatmeal Cookies from a previous recipe blog, but that his wife has a sensitivity to gluten. He wanted to know what I could suggest. So, we came up with a Flourless Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie that the whole family could enjoy.
 
A couple of years ago we developed a line of baked good for the National Peanut Board to be used by Yale University’s foodservice department. Our research developments discovered that peanut flour and peanut butter can be used to substitute all-purpose flour in some baking recipes. So here you go Kelly and “Mrs. Kelly” and the whole Kelly family—happy baking!
 
No one will ever believe these chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are baked without flour and are gluten-free.
 
Flourless Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
 
Prep time:  10 minutes
Cook time:  10 minutes
Total time:  20 minutes
Yield:  20 large cookies
 
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups old-fashioned quick-cooking oats (be sure they are gluten-free oats if you want the cookies to be gluten-free)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, pecans or peanuts
1 cup dark chocolate chips
 
Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350°F.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar until smooth and creamy.
3. Add the eggs (one at a time) and the vanilla extract and beat until well combined.
4. Add the oats, cinnamon and baking soda and mix on low speed until just combined. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips.
5. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
6. Using a 1-ounce cookie scoop, drop two-tablespoon sized portions of dough a few inches apart onto lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheets. Lightly wet your hands and slightly flatten the top of each scoop of dough with the palm of your wet hand.
7. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

ChefSecret: You can even add a half cup of raisins, dried cherries or blueberries to make a more complex cookie.  By letting the dough rest for a half hour before baking you allow the and oats to re-hydrate and absorb all the liquid. It also allows the cinnamon to blossom in flavor.

#OatmealCookies #Dessert #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #Gluten-Free #Baking #PeanutButter

How you doin’? I started writing this post a few weeks ago, when the unemployment counts were heading sharply up. Last week’s surprisingly good report on that front doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods by any stretch, but it was a ray of sunshine in an otherwise pretty bleak week. I reached back in our files to bring back this Chocolate Depression Cake, but perhaps we can update (vegan) it and call it the Chocolate Pandemic Cake. We are all concerned about our health and our budgets. It’s a sign of the time.

Many of the standard ingredients used in baking chocolate cakes like butter, milk and eggs were in limited financial reach and supply during the Great Depression. We are finding some of that right now in our own grocery stores.  But, then as now, people found workarounds, so they didn’t have to give up their ration of chocolate cake. Even without those ingredients in this recipe, it still delivers on big chocolate flavor and a moist, fudgy texture.

I’ve replaced the butter with oil and cut down on the typical amount of sugar. It’s still a great chocolate cake only a tad less sweet. This recipe is more about the chemistry of the ingredients than the art of baking—so follow the recipe carefully. Because there are not any eggs, butter or milk the cake is suitable for a vegan diet—hip-hip hooray! 

Prep time:  10 minutes
Bake time:  35 to 40 minutes
Yield:  8 to 10 servings
 
Ingredients:
3/4 cup whole-grain pastry flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder + 1 tablespoon for dusting
1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold water
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil or other neutral-flavored oil (or butter, if you please)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup mini dark chocolate chips
3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
whipped topping (optional)
 
Directions:

1. Preheat an oven to 350°F.
2. Spray and dust an 8-inch square baking pan with one tablespoon of cocoa powder.
3. Sift together the whole-grain pastry flour, all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
4. Combine the water and vinegars in a small bowl.
5. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture; pour the oil and the vanilla extract in the well.
6. Pour the water-vinegar mixture over the dry ingredients; stir to form a smooth batter.
7. Fold in the chocolate chips.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
9. Bake on the middle rack for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
10. Transfer the pan to a wire rack for the cake to cool.
11. Before serving, dust the top of the cooled cake lightly with confectioners’ sugar and/or a spritz or a dollop of whipped topping.

ChefSecret:  Dusting your sprayed pan with cocoa powder instead of flour prevents white streaks on the sides of your chocolate cake.

#Dessert #ChocolateCake #Baking #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #Vegan