A few posts ago, I promised I’d tell you what I did with the rest of my puff pastry. I’m sorry it took me so long! I used 1/3 of the puff pastry to make some breakfast turnovers for Jeff. If you like eggs in the morning but seem to be unable to put in the time (and wash the dishes!) they require, you would love these. I usually make a double recipe, freeze the turnovers on a baking sheet, then slip each one into its own individual baggie and pop the baggies in the freezer. The morning you want to eat a turnover, all you have to do is pull the turnover out of the bag, place it on a baking sheet, and bake it off.

Because puff pastry is so rich, I modified the original recipe a bit to lighten up the filling. You could easily swap the sausage for any breakfast meat or include any vegetables you like. In this picture, I used sauteed onions and mushrooms.

Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Turnovers
Serves 4

1 tsp. butter
½ cup chopped frozen spinach, thawed
8 oz. chicken sausage (any flavor), casings removed
salt and pepper
6 egg whites, 3 whole eggs
3 oz. cream cheese, cut into chunks, at room temperature
1 sheet packaged frozen puff pastry, thawed

Preheat oven to 400ºF. In a large nonstick skillet, heat the butter over medium heat until melted, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the spinach and cook, stirring, about 2 minutes. Add the sausage, salt and pepper to taste and cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until lightly golden, about 8 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat 6 egg whites and 2 whole eggs. Add the beaten  eggs to the sausage mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked but not dry, about 5 minutes. Transfer the sausage-egg mixture to a wide shallow bowl. Stir in the cream cheese until just combined. Let cool to room temperature. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry to a 16-inch-square. Cut into 4 equal squares. Divide the sausage-egg mixture evenly onto each square, just slightly off center. In a small bowl, beat the remaining egg with 1 tbsp. water. Brush the edges of each pastry square with the egg-water mixture and fold over to form 4 triangles, crimping the edges with the tines of a fork to seal. Brush the turnovers all over the tops and edges with egg-water mixture.

Transfer turnovers to a baking sheet and bake until golden, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving.

Adapted from Everyday with Rachael Ray

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Wow – what a deceptively difficult challenge! For a short & sweet recipe, with a mere 4 ingredients, it sure was a doozy. The discussion board was ablaze with chatter about the finer points of baking macarons. Should the egg whites be aged? Double up on baking trays? How best to dry the macarons? And most importantly – just HOW does one achieve the elusive feet?

I guess I should back up. I’ve never eaten a macaron, but I have certainly seen my fair share of them in pastry shops and on other folks’ food blogs. I always assumed I wouldn’t like them because I had the impression they tasted like meringue, which isn’t my cup of tea. But due to their growing popularity, I’d all but decided to give them a try when, bam, this challenge arrived. I knew these little buggers were reputed to be tricky, so I readied myself for a fight. Though I love the really complex Daring Bakers challenges, I also find some of the most valuable ones to be those that require us to hone in on and perfect a particular technique.

The main challenge here was getting the consistency of the macarons just right. They should have crisp outer shells but remain chewy on the inside. Most importantly, they should develop feet – a distinctive puff around the bottom of the shell. I baked 3 trays of macarons and only got about 1/10 of them to turn out as they should. For some reason there were two rows (on two different trays) that developed feet and a shiny, crack-free shell. The rest of them… not so much. Since they were all from the same batch of batter, my theory is as follows: the ones closest to the heat source did the best. Perhaps my oven temperature needs adjusting. Or maybe I shouldn’t have chosen chocolate macarons for my first go-round. If they’d been a lighter color I probably could have gauged doneness better. Also, they seemed to benefit from sitting out on the counter a bit after they’d been piped. I couldn’t fit all three trays in the oven at once, so I baked one, then the other two. The second two trays were the ones that had the” good” macarons. Interesting…

Luckily, the failures are just as delicious as the successes. We shared some with friends last night and have been munching away on them since then. I couldn’t resist making them a little Halloween-themed. I sifted 2 tbsp. cocoa powder in with the almond flour and confectioner’s sugar. A little orange food coloring in the vanilla icing and tada! Halloween macarons.

Macarons

Equipment required:
• Electric mixer, preferably a stand mixer with a whisk attachment
• Rubber spatula
• Baking sheets
• Parchment paper or nonstick liners
• Pastry bag (can be disposable)
• Plain half-inch pastry bag tip
• Sifter or sieve
• If you don’t have a pastry bag and/or tips, you can use a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off
• Oven
• Cooling rack
• Thin-bladed spatula for removing the macaroons from the baking sheets
• Food processor or nut grinder, if grinding your own nuts (ouch!)

Ingredients
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

From Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern

Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Makes about 2 cups

2 large egg whites
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into tablespoons
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

In the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer set over a saucepan of simmering water, combine the egg whites and sugar. Cook, whisking constantly, until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is warm to the touch (about 160F).
Attach the bowl to the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat the egg white mixture on high speed until it holds stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until the mixture is fluffy and cooled, about 6 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment. With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the butter several tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. (If the frosting appears to separate after all the butter has been added, beat on medium-high speed until smooth again, 3-5 minutes more.) Beat in vanilla. Beat on lowest speed to eliminate any air bubbles, about 2 minutes. Stir with a rubber spatula until frosting is smooth.

From Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook

I know you’re going to look at this picture and the title of this post and think: “Thanks, but no thanks.” It just doesn’t look or sound like anything special. But, please, stay just a moment longer and hear me out. This was one of the best recipes I’ve made all year.

Deborah Madison is a well-known cookbook author who is passionate about connecting folks to local farmers and food. She specializes in vegetarian cuisine and is therefore a master at creating recipes that center around the flavors and textures of vegetables. Though I grew up eating cabbage only in its raw form, via coleslaw or salads, I’ve come to appreciate its sweet flavor and buttery texture when cooked. And kale has been my best vegetable friend for more than a year now, after showing up weekly in our winter CSA box last year.

This dish has just enough liquid to keep the vegetables and beans moist without being mistaken for a soup. I did use canned beans but made the rest of the recipe as is. I skipped the soaking and cooking of the beans and added my drained, rinsed canned beans to the mixture in the last step of the recipe. To substitute for the cooking liquid, I threw in a little chicken stock. I hope you find room for this recipe in your repertoire one of these chilly fall nights. You won’t regret it.

White Beans with Black Kale and Savoy Cabbage
Serves 6-8

1 cup dried cannellini, navy beans, or gigantes, soaked for 4 hours or overnight
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion, finely diced
2 leeks, white parts only, diced
1 bunch cavolo nero (black kale), the leaves stripped from the stems and slivered
1 small Savoy cabbage, quartered, cored, and chopped
2 plump garlic cloves, minced or pounded with a pinch salt
1/2 cup chopped parsley
2 tbsp. olive oil, plus extra to finish

Drain the soaked beans, then put them in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, add 1/2 tsp. salt, then lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the beans are tender, about 1 1/2 hours.
While the beans are cooking, chop all the vegetables. Rinse the leeks, kale, and cabbage, but don’t dry them.
Warm 2 tbsp. of the oil in a heavy wide skillet. Add the onion and leeks and cook over medium heat until the onion is soft but not browned, about 12 minutes. Add the kale, cabbage, garlic, parsley, and 2 tbsp. salt. Cook with the heat on low and the pan covered until the vegetables are soft and the volume greatly reduced, about 30 minutes.
When the beans are done, add them, along with a cup or two of their cooking liquid, do the pot. Simmer until the greens are completely tender. Taste for salt and season with pepper. Serve with, or over, garlic-rubbed toast, drizzled with olive oil.

From Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets

Don’t ask me why I haven’t capitalized on this fact in the past, but it just dawned on me that the library has a wealth of cookbooks available for checkout. I’ve been visiting our downtown branch about every other week lately to check out books on tape for my commute to Raleigh. Each time I visit, I pick out a couple of cookbooks to page through at home in the ensuing weeks. One of my more recent picks was The Foster’s Market Cookbook by Sara Foster. For some reason I don’t have this book, although I do have Fresh Every Day. For those of you not from this area who therefore don’t know about the wonder that is Foster’s Market, check out this website. Be prepared to drool.

This cookbook immediately had about 1/3 of its pages tagged with sticky notes. It was hard for me to pick the first recipe to try. But since my class schedule has been forcing me to prepare meals earlier in the day to reheat when Jeff and I return home, I focused on those that could be prepared entirely in advance. This has meant a lot of casseroles around here. It’s a good thing cooler weather is on the way, because I think my slow cooker is going to be my best friend in the coming months.

Both of us really enjoyed this dish. It had tons of flavor and the southwestern flair helped it bridge the seasons, since it has still been quite warm around here the past few weeks. I made several modifications from the original recipe. Some were health-conscious, such as cutting some of the oil and butter. Some changes were made according to our personal tastes: cutting the amount of onion in half and swapping red for sweet, halving the heat-creating ingredients, swapping lima beans for the corn, and eliminating the thyme. I’ve written the recipe as I made it below. If you want to see the original recipe, I’d suggest visiting your local library!

Southwestern Shepherd’s Pie with Chicken and Chili Mashed Potatoes
Serves 8-10

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 sweet onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded, and diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
8 cups shredded, cooked chicken
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup fresh lima beans
3 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
leftover mashed potatoes, about 2-3 cups
2 tsp. chili powder

Preheat the oven to 400F.
Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until slightly brown, about 5 minutes. Add the celery and bell pepper, and cook 3 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and jalapeno and cook 3 minutes more, stirring occasionally.
Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the flour starts to brown slightly, about 5 minutes. Add the chicken, lima beans, and wine and stir until the wine begins to evaporate, about 1 minute. Slowly add the chicken broth, and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of a spoon. Reduce heat to low, bring the mixture to a low boil, and cook 5 to 10 minutes or until the mixture thickens and is creamy.
Remove from the heat and add the parsley and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper, and transfer the mixture to a 9 by 13-inch baking dish.
Mix mashed potatoes with 1 tsp. chili powder in a bowl until well combined.
Spoon the chili mashed potatoes on top of the chicken and bake 20-30 minutes, or until the potato peaks are slightly brown and the chicken mixture is bubbling around the sides of the dish. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with the remaining chili powder, if desired. Serve immediately.

Adapted from The Foster’s Market Cookbook

It’s that time again! The September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan. There were many, many creative and interesting twists on this recipe out there in Daring Bakersville this month. Check out the blogroll to see some of what was made.

This was such a fun challenge. From what I’ve read in the Daring Bakers forums, many people were as surprised as I was to find out that puff pastry is actually quite easy and not that time-consuming. The process really only takes 10 minutes start to finish, but because there is resting and chilling involved, you have to commit a few hours to being around the house. Luckily, time stuck in the house is easy to come by when you are a full-time student with readings coming out of your ears, half-written papers lying around, and midterms to study for. Student or not,  I will only be buying puff pastry in a pinch from here on out. Making it yourself is much cheaper and you get the added bonus of knowing how your food was made and what was put into it.

I kept it simple with this challenge and went with a very traditional mushroom filling for my vols-au-vent. I can’t think of a better combination and have been drooling all month just thinking about it. My recipe for this filling, made up on the fly, is the last item in the recipe list found below.

The recipe for the puff pastry made what I would imagine is akin to 3 sheets of the storebought stuff. We only needed 1/3 of it for the vols-au-vent. Consequently, I was left with 2 more recipes worth of puff pastry. I’ll post about what I did with the rest of it in the near future, so come on back!

Vols-Au-Vent

Equipment:
food processor (will make mixing dough easy, but I imagine this can be done by hand as well)
rolling pin
pastry brush
metal bench scraper (optional, but recommended)
plastic wrap
baking sheet
parchment paper
silicone baking mat (optional, but recommended)
set of round cutters (optional, but recommended)
sharp chef’s knife
fork
oven
cooling rack

Prep Times:
About 4-5 hours to prepare the puff pastry dough (much of this time is inactive, while you wait for the dough to chill between turns…it can be stretched out over an even longer period of time if that better suits your schedule)
About 1.5 hours to shape, chill and bake the vols-au-vent after your puff pastry dough is complete
Forming and Baking the Vols-au-Vent

Yield: 1/3 of the puff pastry recipe below will yield about 8-10 1.5” vols-au-vent or 4 4” vols-au-vent

In addition to the equipment listed above, you will need:
Well-chilled puff pastry dough (recipe below)
Egg wash (1 egg or yolk beaten with a small amount of water)
Your filling of choice

Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

Using a knife or metal bench scraper, divided your chilled puff pastry dough into three equal pieces. Work with one piece of the dough, and leave the rest wrapped and chilled. (If you are looking to make more vols-au-vent than the yield stated above, you can roll and cut the remaining two pieces of dough as well…if not, then leave refrigerated for the time being or prepare it for longer-term freezer storage. See the “Tips” section below for more storage info.)

On a lightly floured surface, roll the piece of dough into a rectangle about 1/8 to 1/4-inch (3-6 mm) thick. Transfer it to the baking sheet and refrigerate for about 10 minutes before proceeding with the cutting.

(This assumes you will be using round cutters, but if you do not have them, it is possible to cut square vols-au-vents using a sharp chef’s knife.) For smaller, hors d’oeuvre sized vols-au-vent, use a 1.5” round cutter to cut out 8-10 circles. For larger sized vols-au-vent, fit for a main course or dessert, use a 4” cutter to cut out about 4 circles. Make clean, sharp cuts and try not to twist your cutters back and forth or drag your knife through the dough. Half of these rounds will be for the bases, and the other half will be for the sides. (Save any scrap by stacking—not wadding up—the pieces…they can be re-rolled and used if you need extra dough. If you do need to re-roll scrap to get enough disks, be sure to use any rounds cut from it for the bases, not the ring-shaped sides.)

Using a ¾-inch cutter for small vols-au-vent, or a 2- to 2.5-inch round cutter for large, cut centers from half of the rounds to make rings. These rings will become the sides of the vols-au-vent, while the solid disks will be the bottoms. You can either save the center cut-outs to bake off as little “caps” for you vols-au-vent, or put them in the scrap pile.

Dock the solid bottom rounds with a fork (prick them lightly, making sure not to go all the way through the pastry) and lightly brush them with egg wash. Place the rings directly on top of the bottom rounds and very lightly press them to adhere. Brush the top rings lightly with egg wash, trying not to drip any down the sides (which may inhibit rise). If you are using the little “caps,” dock and egg wash them as well.

Refrigerate the assembled vols-au-vent on the lined baking sheet while you pre-heat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). (You could also cover and refrigerate them for a few hours at this point.)
Once the oven is heated, remove the sheet from the refrigerator and place a silicon baking mat (preferred because of its weight) or another sheet of parchment over top of the shells. This will help them rise evenly. Bake the shells until they have risen and begin to brown, about 10-15 minutes depending on their size. Reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC), and remove the silicon mat or parchment sheet from the top of the vols-au-vent. If the centers have risen up inside the vols-au-vent, you can gently press them down. Continue baking (with no sheet on top) until the layers are golden, about 15-20 minutes more. (If you are baking the center “caps” they will likely be finished well ahead of the shells, so keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven when browned.)
Remove to a rack to cool. Cool to room temperature for cold fillings or to warm for hot fillings.
Fill and serve.
*For additional rise on the larger-sized vols-au-vents, you can stack one or two additional ring layers on top of each other (using egg wash to “glue”). This will give higher sides to larger vols-au-vents, but is not advisable for the smaller ones, whose bases may not be large enough to support the extra weight.
*Although they are at their best filled and eaten soon after baking, baked vols-au-vent shells can be stored airtight for a day.
*Shaped, unbaked vols-au-vent can be wrapped and frozen for up to a month (bake from frozen, egg-washing them first).

Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry Dough

From: Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan Yield: 2-1/2 pounds dough Steph’s note: This recipe makes more than you will need for the quantity of vols-au-vent stated above. While I encourage you to make the full recipe of puff pastry, as extra dough freezes well, you can halve it successfully if you’d rather not have much leftover.
There is a wonderful on-line video from the PBS show “Baking with Julia” that accompanies the book. In it, Michel Richard and Julia Child demonstrate making puff pastry dough (although they go on to use it in other applications). They do seem to give slightly different ingredient measurements verbally than the ones in the book…I listed the recipe as it appears printed in the book.

Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups (12.2 oz/ 354 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups (5.0 oz/ 142 g) cake flour
1 tbsp. salt (you can cut this by half for a less salty dough or for sweet preparations)
1-1/4 cups (10 fl oz/ 300 ml) ice water
1 pound (16 oz/ 454 g) very cold unsalted butter
plus extra flour for dusting work surface

Making the dough:
Check the capacity of your food processor before you start. If it cannot hold the full quantity of ingredients, make the dough into two batches and combine them. Put the all-purpose flour, cake flour, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse a couple of times just to mix. Add the water all at once, pulsing until the dough forms a ball on the blade. The dough will be very moist and pliable and will hold together when squeezed between your fingers. (Actually, it will feel like Play-Doh.)
Remove the dough from the machine, form it into a ball, with a small sharp knife, slash the top in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Wrap the dough in a damp towel and refrigerate for about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, place the butter between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and beat it with a rolling pin until it flattens into a square that’s about 1″ thick. Take care that the butter remains cool and firm: if it has softened or become oily, chill it before continuing.

Incorporating the Butter:
Unwrap the dough and place it on a work surface dusted with all-purpose flour (A cool piece of marble is the ideal surface for puff pastry) with your rolling pin (preferably a French rolling pin without handles), press on the dough to flatten it and then roll it into a 10″ square. Keep the top and bottom of the dough well floured to prevent sticking and lift the dough and move it around frequently. Starting from the center of the square, roll out over each corner to create a thick center pad with “ears,” or flaps.
Place the cold butter in the middle of the dough and fold the ears over the butter, stretching them as needed so that they overlap slightly and encase the butter completely. (If you have to stretch the dough, stretch it from all over; don’t just pull the ends) you should now have a package that is 8″ square.
To make great puff pastry, it is important to keep the dough cold at all times. There are specified times for chilling the dough, but if your room is warm, or you work slowly, or you find that for no particular reason the butter starts to ooze out of the pastry, cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it . You can stop at any point in the process and continue at your convenience or when the dough is properly chilled.

Making the Turns:
Gently but firmly press the rolling pin against the top and bottom edges of the square (this will help keep it square). Then, keeping the work surface and the top of the dough well floured to prevent sticking, roll the dough into a rectangle that is three times as long as the square you started with, about 24″ (don’t worry about the width of the rectangle: if you get the 24″, everything else will work itself out.) With this first roll, it is particularly important that the butter be rolled evenly along the length and width of the rectangle; check when you start rolling that the butter is moving along well, and roll a bit harder or more evenly, if necessary, to get a smooth, even dough-butter sandwich (use your arm-strength!).
With a pastry brush, brush off the excess flour from the top of the dough, and fold the rectangle up from the bottom and down from the top in thirds, like a business letter, brushing off the excess flour. You have completed one turn.
Rotate the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Repeat the rolling and folding process, rolling the dough to a length of 24″ and then folding it in thirds. This is the second turn.

Chilling the Dough:
If the dough is still cool and no butter is oozing out, you can give the dough another two turns now. If the condition of the dough is iffy, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Each time you refrigerate the dough, mark the number of turns you’ve completed by indenting the dough with your fingertips. It is best to refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns.
The total number of turns needed is six. If you prefer, you can give the dough just four turns now, chill it overnight, and do the last two turns the next day. Puff pastry is extremely flexible in this regard. However, no matter how you arrange your schedule, you should plan to chill the dough for at least an hour before cutting or shaping it.

Steph’s extra tips:
-While this is not included in the original recipe we are using (and I did not do this in my own trials), many puff pastry recipes use a teaspoon or two of white vinegar or lemon juice, added to the ice water, in the détrempe dough. This adds acidity, which relaxes the gluten in the dough by breaking down the proteins, making rolling easier. You are welcome to try this if you wish.
-Keep things cool by using the refrigerator as your friend! If you see any butter starting to leak through the dough during the turning process, rub a little flour on the exposed dough and chill straight away. Although you should certainly chill the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns, if you feel the dough getting to soft or hard to work with at any point, pop in the fridge for a rest.
-Not to sound contradictory, but if you chill your paton longer than the recommended time between turns, the butter can firm up too much. If this seems to be the case, I advise letting it sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes to give it a chance to soften before proceeding to roll. You don’t want the hard butter to separate into chunks or break through the dough…you want it to roll evenly, in a continuous layer.
-Roll the puff pastry gently but firmly, and don’t roll your pin over the edges, which will prevent them from rising properly. Don’t roll your puff thinner than about 1/8 to 1/4-inch (3-6 mm) thick, or you will not get the rise you are looking for.
-Try to keep “neat” edges and corners during the rolling and turning process, so the layers are properly aligned. Give the edges of the paton a scooch with your rolling pin or a bench scraper to keep straight edges and 90-degree corners.
-Brush off excess flour before turning dough and after rolling.
-Make clean cuts. Don’t drag your knife through the puff or twist your cutters too much, which can inhibit rise.
-When egg washing puff pastry, try not to let extra egg wash drip down the cut edges, which can also inhibit rise.
-Extra puff pastry dough freezes beautifully. It’s best to roll it into a sheet about 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick (similar to store-bought puff) and freeze firm on a lined baking sheet. Then you can easily wrap the sheet in plastic, then foil (and if you have a sealable plastic bag big enough, place the wrapped dough inside) and return to the freezer for up to a few months. Defrost in the refrigerator when ready to use.
-You can also freeze well-wrapped, unbaked cut and shaped puff pastry (i.e., unbaked vols-au-vent shells). Bake from frozen, without thawing first.
-Homemade puff pastry is precious stuff, so save any clean scraps. Stack or overlap them, rather than balling them up, to help keep the integrity of the layers. Then give them a single “turn” and gently re-roll. Scrap puff can be used for applications where a super-high rise is not necessary (such as palmiers, cheese straws, napoleons, or even the bottom bases for your vols-au-vent).

Mushroom Filling

1 tbsp. butter
1 finely minced shallot
1 finely minched clove of garlic
8 oz. mushrooms
2 tbsp. heavy cream
2 tbsp. chopped parsley

Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant and beginning to brown. Add mushrooms; saute for until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in cream and parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste. Saute a few minutes longer, until the mushrooms have absorbed most of the liquid and the remaining sauce is thick.

Posted in appetizers, daring bakers ]]> http://recipefairy.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/daring-bakers-vols-au-vent/feed/ 1 recipefairy ninja_w150x150 vols au vent http://recipefairy.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/end-of-summer-tomatoes/ http://recipefairy.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/end-of-summer-tomatoes/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:48:34 +0000 recipefairy http://recipefairy.wordpress.com/?p=680 ]]>

It’s the official first day of autumn. My favorite season is slowly creeping in. I anticipate this moment all year long and am looking forward to welcoming fall flavors in addition to fall temperatures. With the humidity today, it looks like I’ll have to wait a bit longer, which means I can still savor some summer recipes.

Here in the South this is a transitional culinary period for us. The farmer’s market is beginning to fill up with radishes, greens, beets, green beans, and pumpkins. However, they also have the last of the corn, peppers, and tomatoes. Tomato pie has been all the rage this summer, showing up in magazines and food blogs alike. My first inspiration for it came from Aunt Anne, who was gifted with a beautiful lime green pie dish for her birthday. Grammie gave her the present one night when we were all at the beach. She exclaimed that it would be perfect for Uncle Glenn’s favorite green tomato pie. This immediately piqued my interest. I never got a chance to ask her what the green tomato pie consisted of (Anne? Are you reading this?) but I began searching for recipes when I returned home. I quickly learned that green tomato pie is traditionally made with the same spices as apple pie, and probably has a quite similar taste. Though that thought was intriguing, I decided to put it on hold for the early fall. I then did some searching for a more savory tomato pie.

There are so many recipes with only tiny variations among them. They all follow a similar pattern: fill a pie crust with layers of tomatoes and cheese. You can make a double-crust or single-crust pie, can add some mayo, sour cream, or eggs as a binder, and add any other flavors you think compliment the combination of tomatoes and cheese. You really don’t need a recipe, just go with your gut. I hope you can find some end of the season tomatoes to experiment with. Or bookmark this thought and anticipate next summer. That’s what Jeff, the lover of hot temperatures, will be doing for the next 9 months.

Here’s the general gist of what I did:

Spread a layer of caramelized onions in an unbaked pie crust. Add dollops of mashed roasted garlic. Sprinkle a thin layer of grated fontina cheese over the onions and garlic. Layer some whole basil leaves over the cheese. Layer sliced tomatoes on top of the basil. Top with another layer of grated fontina and some grated parmesan.

Bake at 350F for 30-45 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Sprinkle with some chopped fresh basil.

A few weeks ago I developed an intense craving for a piece of chocolate cake. Not a cupcake, which are too often dry, or a restaurant version, dudded up with flavors and twists. Just a plain old piece of moist, cocoa-ey cake with some chocolate icing on top, served up with a cold glass of milk. I drink milk no more than once a year, so all this made for one awfully strange craving. After a few days of ignoring it, the desire only grew stronger. So I bit the bullet and made a cake.

The problem was that I didn’t have a wealth of time, nor did I have a crowd of people around to help me eat an enormous layer cake. I love to bake, but almost always find that Jeff and I can barely put a dent in a batch of cookies/bread/brownies/muffins before it goes stale. I wanted a cake that I could bake in a single baking dish, so I wouldn’t have the challenge of eating and storing a double-decker layer cake. After spending some time perusing recipes online and in my cookbook collection, I settled on an Ina Garten recipe that received an extraordinary number of rave reviews on the Food Network website. With 1/2 cup oil and 1 cup buttermilk, it seemed to have enough of the right kinds of liquid to keep it moist. I baked it in two 8×8 baking pans so that it would be nice and thick, which would aid in keeping it moist, and topped it with a single layer of frosting. You could also half the recipe quite easily. I enjoyed being able to make two cakes with one recipe. I was able to keep one for myself and give one away – to my best teacher friend Emily, who deserved a sweet treat after bringing home her new baby, Rachel.

A word about the coffee in this cake: I’m assuming the cup of hot coffee in the cake layer is intended to increase the depth of flavor and serve as additional liquid. The cake was very moist, with a soft texture and a good chocolate flavor. The coffee did serve here to bring out the chocolate. However, the instant coffee in the icing, because it was not cooked, influenced the flavor of the icing quite markedly. It overpowered the chocolate a bit too much, and I might omit it next time. If you do not like the flavor of coffee, you should definitely skip it.

Beatty’s Chocolate Cake
Serves 8

Butter, for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups good cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
Chocolate Buttercream, recipe follows

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.

Chocolate Frosting:

6 oz. good semisweet chocolate
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 tbsp. instant coffee powder (omit if you wish to avoid the flavor of coffee)

Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners’ sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don’t whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

From Ina Garten, via the Food Network website

I don’t remember eating black-eyed peas as a child, but somewhere along the line, I developed an intense love for them. They sell them fresh at the farmer’s market in the mountains and I experimented with them a few times many years ago, but couldn’t quite figure out how to cook them properly. No one in my family knew what to do with them, so after a few discarded batches, I gave up.

A few years later, I was living on my own and discovered that they sold them during the summer at one of my local Whole Foods stores.  I figured out how to turn them into hoppin’ john, which became my regular summertime lunch from then on. It took some time, but I eventually convinced Jeff that yes, he does like shell beans, and also, hoppin’ john does in fact make a delicious and satisfying meal.

Now, we can get pink-eyed purple hull peas through our CSA, and I’m on the hunt for more creative ways to cook them. This was one recipe I stumbled upon in my search. Though I love heirloom tomatoes and am lucky to have access to a wide variety of them at our farmer’s market, I had purchased a 20 lb. box of tomatoes from our farm for canning and had some left over. Those are the tomatoes that we ended up with in our salad, and they were delicious. I also don’t particularly care for thyme, so I substituted basil in the same proportions. This was a light and refreshing summer side that also ended up being quite substantial, thanks to the shell beans. Hope you like it!

Heirloom Tomatoes with Shell Beans Vinaigrette
Serves 8

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped sweet onion (such as Vidalia or Maui)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (or basil)
4 cups shelled fresh or frozen black-eyed peas, crowder peas, or purple hull peas (about 20 ounces)
2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 fresh medium basil leaves, thinly sliced
4 medium heirloom tomatoes (different varieties, if possible), sliced

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 4 to 5 minutes. Add garlic, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon thyme; stir 1 minute. Add peas and broth; bring to boil. Cover with lid slightly ajar; reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer until peas are soft, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes. Drain. Transfer to large microwave-safe bowl.

Whisk vinegar and 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil in bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Pour over warm peas; toss. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before continuing.

Stir basil into peas. Discard bay leaf. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Arrange tomato slices on platter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spoon warm or room-temperature peas over tomatoes.

From Bon Appetit

It is a constant disappointment to me that I do not live a raspberry-growing climate. I am so jealous of folks who can get raspberries at their local farmer’s markets, through their CSAs, at u-pick farms, or even in their own backyards. But, because I am deprived of this pleasure, I make an effort to enjoy raspberries with relish during the season when we can get good ones in our grocery stores. I also love brown butter, cultivated by regular consumption of my favorite brown butter gnocchi sauce. So when I saw this recipe in the June Bon Appetit, I immediately began dreaming about how it would taste.

I finally made it a few weeks ago and it did not disappoint! It had a rich flavor from the brown butter, balanced by the tartness of the raspberries. The only issue I had was that the crust became overly brown; next time I’d cover the edges with foil halfway through the baking time to keep the crust golden. If you don’t love baking but think this looks great I really urge you to give it a shot. Tarts are so easy;  you just press the crust into the bottom of the pan, pour in the filling, bake, and enjoy!

Brown Butter Raspberry Tart
Serves 8-10

1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, diced
2 6-ounce containers fresh raspberries

The Durham Farmer’s Market has gone through many changes in the two years I’ve been regularly shopping there, and I’m sure there are many evolutions yet to come. It’s been fun to see the new vendors who’ve arrived in the past year, like Dolly Mama, who makes her own North Carolina inspired chocolates, including specialties like Sweet Tea (black tea & honey), The Southern Belle (white chocolate & peach), and Sea Turtle (caramel & local pecans).  I love the idea of the CSP (Community Supported Pie) offered by Scratch. Rather than picking up a box of veggies each week, you get a sweet or savory pie. This past winter I fell hard for the coconut cream pie with a layer of chocolate ganache.

But my favorite addition this year has been Loaf, a husband-and-wife bread team. He bakes the bread, she sells it. From what I’ve  seen, they’ve had a lot of success right off the bat; probably because they have tasting cubes of all their breads set out and they encourage you to try as many as you want until you settle on the one that is just right for you. Even though I’m usually at the market early, they are almost always sold out of my favorite: olive bread. On several occasions, though, they’ve had a second delivery. I’ve been known to wait around a little while longer just for the chance to shell out $5 for an olive loaf. Last week we were at the market much later than usual and decided to try one of the few types they still had available. We chose walnut rye and have been loving it as breakfast toast all week long. I enjoyed it this morning spread with some peach butter I’d made for canning. It’s had me thinking about tomorrow’s breakfast all day long!

This recipe, though is for a version of olive bread that rivals Loaf’s. It makes a really spectacular bread: full of flavor, soft & chewy, and beautiful to boot! While it doesn’t require a ton of of hands-on time, it does need a good half a day of babysitting because of the frequent foldings and turnings. It’s meant for a lazy Sunday afternoon or a rainy morning spent at home. But because it makes two loaves, it’s time well spent, providing you with one loaf to get you through the week and one to give away… or not, if you love it as much as we did.

Olive-Rosemary Bread
Makes two 12×3 inch loaves

1 3/4 cups (14 oz.) water, room temperature
2 tsp. instant yeast
2 tbsp. honey
3 1/2 cups (19 1/4 oz.) bread flour, plus extra as needed for dusting
1/2 cup (2 3/4 oz) whole wheat flour
2 tsp. table salt
2 tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary
1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) pitted olives, rinsed, chopped rough, and patted dry

Whisk water, yeast, and honey in bowl of standing mixer. Add flours and mix on low speed with dough hook until cohesive dough is formed, about 3 minutes. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.
Remove plastic wrap; make well in center of dough and add salt and rosemary. Knead dough on low speed (speed 2 on KitchenAid) for 5 minutes (if dough creeps up attachment, stop mixer and scrape down). Increase speed to medium and continue to knead until dough is smooth and slightly tacky, about 1 minute. If dough is very sticky, add 1 to 2 tablespoons flour and continue mixing for 1 minute. Transfer dough to lightly floured counter and pat into 12×6-inch rectangle. Press olives evenly into dought. Starting at long side, roll rectangle into tight log. WIth seam side facing up, roll log into coil. Transfer dough, spiral side up, to oiled container or bowl, at least 2 quarts in volume, and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm, draft-free location until it increases in size by 50 percent, about 1 hour.
Fold partially risen dough over itself. Turn bowl 90 degrees; fold again. Turn bowl again; fold once more. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 30 minutes. Repeat folding, replace plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes.
Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface, being careful not to deflate. Divide dough in half, loosely shape each piece into ball, and let rest 15 minutes. Flip each ball over and, starting from top, roll into tight oval shape. Using palms, roll each oval (seam side down) from center outward until 12-inch loaf is formed. Poke any olives that fall off into bottom seam, then pinch seam closed. Transfer each loaf, seam side down, to 12×6  inch piece of parchment and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours (dough is ready when it springs back slowly when pressed lightly with finger). Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, place baking stone on rack, and heat oven to 450 degrees at least 30 minutes before baking.
Slide parchment sheets with loaves onto peel or back of inverted baking sheet. Starting and stopping about 1 inch from each side, use razor blade or sharp knife to cut 3 1/2-inch-deep slashes on diagonal along top of each fully risen loaf; spray loaves lightly with water. Carefully slide parchment with loaves into oven using jerking motion. Bake 15 minutes, spraying loaves with water twice more in first 5 minutes, and then reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees. Continue to bake until bread is deep golden brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center of loaf registers 210 degrees, 25-30 minutes. Transfer to wire rack, discard parchment, and cool loaves to room temperature, about 2 hours.

From Cook’s Illustrated