Three Berry Tart

I made another three berry tart yesterday. It's sort of turning into my signature dessert I think. I used my deep dish tart pan this time, and I like the extra bit of crunchiness the extra height provides. I didn't have quite enough filling, however, so next time I need to up the filling to seven cups of berries, instead of six. I made an almond cookie crust, with 1 cup ground almonds, 2 cups of flour, maybe a 1/2 cup of sugar, two sticks of butter, 1 egg and an egg yolk and some cinnamon--perhaps a tsp. Next time, I think I'll add some almond extract to kick up the almond flavor. In the filling, I used the usual suspects: three different kinds of berry port wine, as well as vanilla, lemon, and almond extract. Next time, I need to not use the vanilla extract. It doesn't work so well, and I think avoiding lemon would be a nice try. It didn't have enough tart, however, so I added a splash of red wine vinegar, which I think is OK. I need to make one tart, however, with no added flavor other than the port wines and see how that turns out.

Anyway, it was tasty!

A New Snickerdoodle

I created a new cookie last night, or rather, a variation on an old favorite. I was sniffing around in my spice cupboard last week, and noticed that coriander has a very lemony scent to it. It's got a subtle, earthy spiciness that I sensed immediately would go incredibly well with lemon. It's been rattling around my brain for long enough that last night I had no choice but to try my hands at it.

I didn't know what kind of cookie I wanted to try and come up with, and so I pulled out my trusty companion when I want to reinvent the wheel: Cookwise, by Shirley O. Corriher. Her book goes into the whys and hows in ways that no other cookbook has done. I looked through the section on cookie making, trying to figure out the kind of recipe that I wanted to use to create this new cookie. Then the thought dawned on me that it would be an easy thing to simply adapt a tried and true recipe and make it new with a completely different character. I thought through all the types of cookies I like, and thought about sugar cookies, which often are already lemon flavored. Then I thought about Snickerdoodles and knew that I'd arrived at the right cookie. There's a built in tartness to Snickerdoodles already with the use of cream of tartar which I knew would compliment the cookie well. It's all about the alchemy of flavors, and I knew that when I combined coriander, lemon and the tartness of cream of tartar, I'd have a winner.

This cookie is amazingly tasty. It's a lemon cookie with an adult sensibility. I highly recommend trying it. Find your favorite Snickerdoodle recipe, then add to the creamed egg and sugar 1 1/2 tsp lemon extract, or about the same amount of lemon zest. To the dried ingredients, add 1 1/2 tsp of coriander, and bake how you normally would, but instead of using cinnamon sugar to roll the cookies in, use a 1/4 cup of sugar with 1 1/2 to 2 tsp of coriander.

Very, very tasty!

I think I'm in business...almost!

I just found out some very good news: it's possible, according to state law, to have a commercial kitchen in one's basement. I could easily convert my laundry room into usage for this purpose! I had feared that one needed to have a separate entrance, but though this is preferred, it is not the law. The question now only concerns zoning, which is covered by the City of Grand Rapids.

I'm very excited by this prospect, and if this is possible, I'll definitely be starting up a little baking business in my basement, and start selling things at the Farmer's Market this summer, followed by chocolates in the fall.

Giddy up!

Shipwrecked on Pastries

I didn't want to go to bed just yet tonight, and wanted another beer, so I decided to grab a good book, sit in a comfortable chair and pick up some writing by Clement of Alexandria, who I haven't had the pleasure of reading for quite some time. I decided to thumb through his book, Christ the Educator, and stumbled on a passage that I found rather humorous.

There is no limit to the gluttony that these men practise (sic). Truly, in ever inventing a multitude of new sweets and ever seeking recipes of every description, they are shipwrecked on pastries and honey-cakes and desserts.

To me, a man of this sort seems nothing more than one great mouth. 'Be not desirous,' Scripture says, 'of the meats of the rich. For these belong to a false and shameful life.' These men hug their delicacies to themselves, yet after a while they must yield them to the privy. As for us, who seek a heavenly food, we must restrain the belly and keep it under the control of heaven, and even more that which is made for the belly which 'God will destroy,' as the Apostle says, intending, no doubt, to curse gluttonous desires. 'Food is for the belly,' and the life of the body, belonging completely to this world and made for corruption, depends upon it.

What would dear Clement think of my Willy Wonka ways, I wonder? I'll go with the words of the Apostle Paul on this one: As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. ...For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

Whew! I still see chocolates in my future. And some of them will be yielded to the privy.

(Well, I suppose all of them will.)

Raspberry Flourless Chocolate Cake

Sarah really enjoyed this flourless chocolate cake I made for her last night. I wish I had a picture of the finished presentation, complete with red and golden raspberry sauces, homemade vanilla bean ice cream that is the best I've ever tried, (thanks to an amazing recipe!), as well as some chocolate garnishes and homemade whipped cream. Over the top, and very tasty!

It's fun to cook for a woman I care about.

The Final Picture

Here's the final picture. I only had time to make four cakes for this entry, and this post will be brief, since I'm just starting packing for my trip. And I need to be on the road by 5:00 AM. It's 12:45 right now.

I may just end up staying up all night. Who knows.

I Think It Looks Like A Winner!

I took about an hour or so to set up this picture, and I'm very pleased with how it looks.

It's my Guinness Irish Cream Chocolate Cake, with a Guinness Irish Cream Dark Chocolate Glaze and Irish Whipped Cream.

(I'm slightly buzzed from drinking Guinness in order to maintain the foam in the glass.)

(As you can see in the second picture.)

Two More Pictures

Here are a couple more pictures.

The top one obviously has a tropical theme--all of that stuff is courtesy of Pier One--a little bamboo on the sides of the place mat, some sort of rope square thingy underneath, some sea shells and tropical fruit. I tried to find guava, but couldn't, so the lychees will have to take care of that. I think that's sufficiently accessorised, without being too cheesy. Or at least it's just cheesy enough.

The next one is inspired by ice cream, of the cookies and cream variety, thus the Oreos. Classy and simple, hopefully.


Two more to photograph, and just a little tweaking of two of the recipes. I think I need to bake three more cakes and I'm done.

Cake Madness

I made my Guinness cake last night, and the same question I had a year ago has reared it's ugly head: why does the darn thing volcano out?

I just read through all the different versions I tried, since I thought I had a "Eureka" moment this morning that would solve the problem.

Of course I already attempted what I thought of today, or something close anyway.

There's something just a bit off in the chemistry of that cake. Though the flavor is fantastic, it balloons completely out of control out of the pan and it drives me NUTS!

I think if I was making a regular cake, in a regular pan, there wouldn't be any cracks.

Part of me thinks it's because of double acting baking powder. Here's what double acting baking powder does: it begins leavening when it hits liquid and then the double acting part comes into play when the internal temperature of the cake reaches a trigger point that kicks in further leavening power.

OK...one more experiment with that darn cake. Just baking soda.

Gotta go do some research.

A Three Cake Day

I've made two cakes today, and I'm going to whip another one before I go to bed. I need to have some time tomorrow with the finished cakes to do some more "staging."

It's been difficult coming up with some ideas for St. Patrick's Day and the tropical cake, but after spending about four hours today shopping around at Pier One, World Market and T J Maxx I think I've got some winners for both. We'll see. I'm going to try several different tableaus tomorrow. (How often do you get to use THAT word?) You guys can be the judge since I'm tossing out a few options.

From here on out I'm going to make one more St. Patrick's Day Cake, another Father's Day cake and finally one run through of my Christmas cake. The pictures should all be ready to go by Thursday and then I'll tweak the flow of the directions and the essays on Friday. All told I'll have five entries this year.

Then it's off to California and Cabrillo on Saturday.

OK...off to go whip up a tropical cake.

I Guess You Gotta Play the Game

Spying the pictures from last year, I realized that it isn't enough to simply whip up a great recipe. Apparently you've got to become a food stylist too and accessorize your cake. So here goes my attempt at "doing it up."

I spent several hours on Friday shopping for "staging" my cakes. I'm going for classy sophistication in this one, with some romance thrown in for good measure since it's for Valentine's Day. I made a second cake so I could include a cut piece that shows that this blackberry cake is indeed purple, thus the purple roses.

If this doesn't get their attention, I don't know what will.

I'd rather stick with whippin' up new recipes than this stuff.

I've got some fans!

I got a serious thumb's up on the new cake from two willing tasters. For those who don't know these adorable cuties, Ren, Dave and Torey's daughter, is on the left and Eden, Paul and Alison's daughter, is on the right.

This cake turned out well after the first go around, which is a relief. It's in the can, decoration included. It's got a white chocolate ganache on top, studded with some blackberries. I went with yellow food coloring, which I'm loath to use, but I figured it would have fit in well with the entries from last year. It's tasty, moist and delicious.

As for Eden's part, she thought that the candy mustard was the best part of the cake.

I think this will be my official picture. They apparently want a picture of the cake pan included this time around. The only thing I might do differently is to bake another one, with a cut piece in a close up to show that the insides of the cake are purple. I've also thought this could be turned into a Valentine's Day cake, becoming a purple rose, with blackberries surrounding it and a purple/blackberry glaze drizzled all around the rose. If I have time, I may give that a whirl too. Alison and Torey, since you've seen it...what do you think?

Cake-o-matic

It's looking like a three cake day today. The two I made earlier today were somewhat of a mixed bag. My Mother's Day cake is in the bag, and though the second one is almost in the bag, it's harder to figure out when it's done baking because I'm going for a gooey center. The usual toothpick technique doesn't always do the trick. The first time I made this cake I baked it a little too long--this time wasn't long enough. I think the next time I'll have it set.

I've got a third cake that came to me tonight as I was doing a little shopping. I had to zip home and give it a whirl. Based on the batter, it should be a pretty tasty cake.

Two of the three cakes use either lime or lemon zest, so I have a lot of unused citrus juice lying around. I had a eureka moment and so what I'm going to be doing is freezing all of the juice, then when I'm all done with my cake madness, I'll thaw it make a lemon-lime curd, which is a very tasty cake filling. I think I'll transform the cake I'm making tonight into a standard cake, cut it in half, fill it with the curd and then frost it with a lemon butter cream frosting. That would be a tasty, tasty cake.

All in all, it's looking like I'll have six cake recipes to enter this time around.

Pretty crazy.

Off to go temper some chocolate and fill some chocolate molds. But first there are dishes to do. Blech.

Another cake idea...

When one gets in a funk, what's the best thing to do?

Create a new cake recipe.

I'm going to get to work on a new chocolate cake, filled with all kinds of goodies. I'm not going to post what any of my cakes actually are until after the deadline, but I think this one could be pretty amazing. The idea came to me today while I was shopping at Meijer, and I just have to get to work on it.

Time to go crunch the numbers and get to whipping it up in the kitchen.

I'll post pictures.

Froot Loop cake?

I just made another cake this afternoon, with a very unconventional ingredient: guava.

It sort of tastes like a Froot Loop cake. Interesting, and tasty, but I don't think it's going to be an entry for me. But the good news is that I've struck on a formula that is incredibly adaptable for me, and given any pureed type of fruit, I can make it work, thankfully, with just some minimal tweaking of my basic formula.

I feel like I'm a mad scientist. I just had two ideas: some coconut lime sugar cookies that I'd like to try, with sugared lime zest sprinkled on top. I think it could be absolutely amazing.

And I know this sounds very weird, but I think it also could be amazing: coconut pancakes!

The old creative juices are really flowing, and it's a lot of fun.

Maybe I'm on a roll

The lime cake I wanted to make couldn't wait, so I whipped it up at about 11:30 last night. I just got up and had a slice, and I'm really happy with it. I think I've struck on a basic formula that works very well and can easily be adapted.

I'm surprised how much I like this lime cake--I didn't assume I would like it, since I'm not a huge lime guy, but man, it's darn good!

At this point, what I'm going to be doing is using the basic formula I came up with and think about variations that might be tasty, like unconventional fruit combinations. I think this current one is something where I'm going to try and make it a very tropical themed cake, by adding some sort of other tropical fruit. I have something in mind.

Hmm...and something else just popped into my mind too!

The ole creative juices are flowing! I just got ideas for a couple of more cakes, with a unique tropical with flavors that don't typically show up in cakes, at least not in traditional American kitchens. I think that will set some of these recipes apart too.

I bet by the time the competition deadline comes on August 1, I'll have six new cakes ready to go.

Culinary Adventures

I've been doing some experimenting in the kitchen. I'm on a mission: I'm trying to duplicate a bread that some monks make in the Keweenaw Peninsula in the U.P. I've been a fan of it for years and introduced it to my family on our recent vacation and they all raved about it too.

It's a sourdough spice bread. As I ate it last week, I really tried to decipher what the main flavors were. It has a unique taste for a spice bread, and I attributed that to nutmeg being the primary flavor. My second batch confirmed that when I used at least two teaspoons of nutmeg. So far, I think a close take on the spices for a batch that uses two or three cups of flour is 1/8 teaspoon of cloves, 1 tsp cinnamon, 2 or 2 1/2 tsp of nutmeg and 1/2 tsp of allspice, though I'm suspicious that cloves don't make an appearance. Beyond that, it has a dark texture, so I gathered that for a sweetener they used dark brown sugar, and based on my prototypes I believe I'm correct in that assumption.

It's a sourdough spice bread and there's a "sour" quality to it that's part of the flavor. This isn't a typical type of sourdough used in savory breads, but rather the Amish friendship bread variety. I don't want to mess around with that, so I simply added a 1/2 tsp of vinegar and it did bring a bit of a sour flavor. Where I'm still needing to tweak it is in the amount of eggs and oil. The second batch used a cup, and I think I need to go with the first batch which only used 3/4. Actually, I'll try 2/3 cup next time. I used 2 cups of flour and three eggs, and the first time used just baking powder, I think 2 tsp, and the second time used a mixture of baking powder and baking soda, though I used too much baking soda. I think just an 1/8 tsp of baking soda, which will help the bread brown a little more nicely.

I'm going to keep working on it, over time, and when I come up with the right recipe, you've got to try it! It's really very tasty, if I can reverse engineer it.
The other thing I did today is make my Irish Guinness Cake for my friend Ali, who sent me some prayer beads and a book on suffering that was greatly appreciated. She's a terrific artist, and you should check out her work. I've decided to commission something from her, and we'll be talking more about it in the fall.

Beyond that, I've got a cake in the oven right now that I think could really be a decadent entry for the Bundt competition. I won't say anything more about it until after I enter the competition though.

I love doing this stuff.

Miscellaneous

If you haven't put the HBO series John Adams in your queue on Netflix, go do it now! It's a remarkable mini series based on the book by David McCullough featuring Paul Giamatti as John Adams. As is usually the case with Giamatti, it doesn't take long for you to see that he has truly transformed himself into the character he is portraying. He's not himself--he's John Adams and it's a pleasure to watch. All of the other actors are equally up to the task of portraying some of our most important figures. Laura Linney is excellent as Abigail Adams and the story is as much about her as it is about John Adams. I find most films about the Revolutionary War to be trite and boring. They tend to feel like a Saturday morning special on ABC when I was a kid, but this is filled with brilliant writing and even more brilliant acting and directing. Amazing, and for the most part is suitable for kids 12 and over. There are some scenes of bloody violence, but they are few and in the first episode there is a graphic scene in which a British port officer is fully stripped of his clothes and tarred and feathered. The nudity makes it more believable, but for those with kids, you should know it's there.

On another note, I pulled out my Guinness Irish Cream Cake again this morning. Unfortunately, part of it stuck to the pan. One of the unforeseen results of all of that baking madness last year turns out to be a lot of enjoyment in pulling out a recipe that I created back then, smelling the smells of the ingredients again, sampling the batter and smelling the cake as it bakes. It brings back memories of insane dogged obsessiveness last year and I enjoyed making this today quite a bit.

I'm going to reenter my same recipes for the bundt competition again, as well as adding two more this summer that have been floating through my head. I'll probably try to tweak the old recipes slightly, but I'm not going to obsess over them. And the new recipes I think will come together quite quickly since I did all of that mad scientist stuff last year.

Back At It

I began my new cake competition entries tonight.  I've got one in the oven right now.  I'll let you know how it turns out. 

West-siders, samples will be coming, and east-siders, there'll be some at the west-side haunt, waiting for you.  

Tart Time

Who else do you know who takes pictures of pies? I'm a crazy man. All I'm saying though is that this one was perhaps the tastiest pie/tart creation I've whipped up in the kitchen, and my mom (God bless her--she's my biggest fan) thinks this is the best thing I've ever given to her to try. She told me as I left that I couldn't give the recipe out to anyone, which of course is nice to hear.

On a completely different note, here's a funny niece story. I spent the night last night at Jim and Kara's and helped them with a few projects around the house today. Gianna was with her cousins for most of that time and so I didn't see her until late tonight. As she bounded over to me on the couch, she asked me a question.

"Are you married yet Uncle Dan?"

"Nope, not yet."

"You should maybe go out for drinks sometime."

"Yeah, do you think so?"

"Mm-hmm. You should go meet your wife at a bar."

"Do you think that's a good place to meet a woman?"

She nodded her head vigorously in affirmation.

Gianna's five. That cracked me up. I told Kara though and she was appalled. Apparently they've been watching a lot of Wild, Wild, West, and James West is always meeting women in the saloon. Gianna's smart enough to make the leap from saloon to bar and naturally she thought Uncle Dan might have as much luck as James West does.

I'll let you know if I meet any bar maidens anytime soon.