The Last of the Summer Fruits

Ahhh...fresh seasonal fruits.

It's that time of year when I get ready to change my summer menu to a fall menu. Some desserts are taken off and replaced with more seasonal items. This morning I had to pick up some ingredients for a few cakes I'm making over the next couple of days and I found some beautiful strawberries, raspberries and blackberries that I needed to decorate a white chocolate cheesecake. I think this will probably be one of the last cheesecakes decorated with fresh seasonal fruit until next spring--it almost makes me a little sad, like having to say good-bye to a good friend. But then I think about all the great fall desserts that will be coming back on the menu and it's OK.

I've had to push back the bread baking for a couple of days and once I finish up the cake orders I have, then I will be able to bake some yummy bread (I have a couple of recipes from the BBA book in mind).

White Chocolate Cheesecake

On top of the cheesecake is a layer of sweetened whipped cream and decorated with fresh fruits; champagne grapes, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, green & red grapes.

Monday Must Have: The Bread Baker's Apprentice Book

I have a little confession to make.

If you have been following my blog for a little while, you may have remembered me mentioning something about joining a bread baking group about five months ago (or maybe not and now I've pointed out something that I haven't followed through on). This group called The BBA Challenge(Bread Baker's Apprentice) was formed by Nicole at Pinch My Salt and the goal was to make a recipe per week and post about each result.

From the very beginning, it was stressed that although many people would follow a weekly schedule, you could go at any pace that is best for you and your schedule, so don't worry if you didn't bake a recipe every single week. I was very excited and all ready to jump on the bread baking wagon, especially since I owned the book and had made some recipes from it while I was in culinary school. Now, here is another bit of information to add--I also joined the Daring Baker's Kitchen at about the same time and have found that a monthly challenge has worked much better for me and my level of commitment at that time.
Back to my confession.

I made the first bread recipe (LOVED IT), posted about it and then...work and life got busier and I never made it back for the second recipe (if you look at the side bar with the labels, you'll notice there is only (1) BBA post). I used to follow the google discussion groups and other members of the groups blogs for the first month or two, but then I felt SO guilty about not keeping up, that I had to stop. And it's not like I'm even being held accountable for whether or not I'm making any of the breads, but I still feel a twinge of guilt about not following through. I guess I am on the slow, slow, SLOW schedule and have now made a goal to bake at least three more recipes by the end of the year (yep, I think I can perhaps handle one per month).

So what is my point today? Just this. I saw the book on my shelf, looked outside at the overcast, cold, fall-ish weather outside and thought, "Hey, today is a great day to make bread and maybe others would like to know more about this great book." Also, we have some freshly ground hard white wheat that needs to be used (see picture with large container of flour two pictures down). And hey, fresh warm bread straight from the oven? I think I can make that sacrifice on my day off.

Let me introduce or re-introduce (if you are already aware of this book), The Bread Baker's Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart.



This book is a wealth of great information and contains excellent directions for making delicious bread. Even if you haven't had much experience in baking bread, but want to learn and know more, then this book is for you. If you don't have this book, but would like to try a recipe from it, click over to my post about the Anadama Bread recipe. Try it and let me know what you think about it.

I will be making one of the many great recipes from this book today and later this week, I'll post pictures and more information about how it turns out.

In the meantime, I'd love to know what your favorite bread to make is or if you don't make bread, what is your favorite bread to eat?
Happy Bread Baking Monday!

It's Official! I'm One Year Older Today.

That's right, today is my birthday. And because it is MY day, I thought I'd share a few past birthday cake pictures, some thoughts and maybe a little extra information about ME that you might not know.

I'm 38 years old.

I thought I would just put that out there, since my philosophy has been to always just say how old you are. I think this came about as a child observing several adults (mostly women) who when asked by a child of any age what their age was, always responded with some ridiculous answer like "Oh, I'm not a day over 24"--yeah, right. Even at the ripe old age of 9 years old, I know that you are NOT 24 yrs. old (even my math skills aren't that poor). So since then I decided that I wouldn't EVER lie about my age to both the young and older folks that inquire.

I love October 1st for several reasons (besides the obvious birthday thing).

Reason #1:
Even though the Autumnal Equinox began technically on September 22nd, October FEELS like it is the true fall month and so I begin to recognize it as such.

Reason #2:
Besides January 1st, October 1st is the other day that I feel I MUST set new goals for myself. It's a NEW year for me, and I love that my birthday is on the 1st--very much another type of beginning. A new year, a new age, a new month, etc... The organizer in me is very much in charge today.

The really great birthday year is when October 1st falls on a Sunday--then it's all about the firsts; a new year, a new month, a new week, the first day, etc.

Reason #3:
It still can be warm enough to be considered a late summer, and is still far enough away from winter (unless you live in places like Utah or Idaho that recently had a freak snow storm--then all bets are off).

Reason #4:
As a kid October was far enough into the school year, that you didn't get missed having it in the summer or right after Labor Day. I had a friend who's birthday falls on Veteran's Day and we never got to be at school on her birthday--bummer!

People always ask me if I make my own cake for my birthday and what kind. I have to say that since becoming a Pastry Chef I haven't made myself a special cake for my birthday--which isn't to say I wouldn't, I just haven't yet. I suppose that if I was hosting a little party for myself, I would make something fabulous, but I honestly hadn't really thought about doing it. It's more exciting to make OTHER people's birthday cakes.

But it got me thinking...what kind of a cake would I make for myself? [Answer: Probably something with chocolate and caramel, chocolate ganache, something that would go great with a QUALITY brand ice cream on the side.]

Or better yet, who would I have make my cake?

My Mom has made some AMAZING cakes during my childhood--all of which I remember very well and with fond memories. When we got a little older (past 2 or 3 years old) we got to request what character or shape or theme we wanted our cake to be. I remember thinking I was pretty smart if I could ask for a cake with lots of details, because details on a cake = lots of candy.

I love how clever my Mom was with many of my cakes. See, we have NEVER owned one single shape pan (you know that kind I'm taking about--dolls, animals, etc.), she could just figure out how to carve it from a rectangle or round cake. Many of my cakes were from a cute little character on a napkin or party tablecloth and my Mom would magically create that theme or shape in a bigger-than-life cake that I would watch with such excitement and awe.

Here are a few of my favorite childhood cakes, actually I have eight pictures to share with you. (Eight may sound like a lot, but keep in mind it's way less than 38 potential birthday cakes I could bore you with).

Jill's 1st Birthday Cake: Raggedy Ann (1972)

2 years old: Bunny Birthday Cake (1973)

3 years old: Bear Birthday Cake (1974)


4 years old: Rocking Horse Cake (1975)



5 years old: Elephant Birthday Cake (1976)


6 years old: Cute Hippopotamus Cake (1977)

8 years old: Little Girl Cake (1979)

10 years old: Butterfly Cake (1981)

A big THANK YOU to my Mom for each and every birthday cake she has made me over the years and for making my day a special one!!

Monday Must Have: The Palette Knife

The palette knife isn't really a true knife. In fact, the palette knife wasn't originally made for kitchen work, but rather for artists to mix paints and apply them to a canvas. But some of the best tools have come from other professions and have been adopted into the culinary field.

Remember this Monday Must Have? Another great example of a tool that made the cross over to the kitchen.

In my drawers of many kitchen tools, I have nearly a dozen palette knives in several different sizes as part of my collection. These are some of the handiest kitchen gadgets around. I use them daily; for icing cakes, cupcakes, lifting small pastries, lifting cakes for stacking and many other baking projects.

Here are a few of my favorite sizes:


The largest one in the above picture is my favorite size. I use it on almost every cake size that I frost and because of the straight "blade" it allows me to get my icing super smooth and if it's a square cake, it helps create straight and even corners too, which was really helpful on this wedding cake I made last weekend.


The angled palette knife (a cousin to the regular palette knife) is called an off-set spatula and many of the same baking and decorating can be accomplished with either one. But the off-set spatula is a great tool for spreading batter for cakes and jelly rolls, and fillings evenly.

These are just a few of the tasks made easier during my day, thanks to these handy artist/baker tools.
Do you have a palette knife or off-set spatula in your kitchen tool collection? If so, I'd love know how this great tool has made your life easier in the kitchen.

Daring Bakers: Puff Pastry (Vols-au-Vent)

Today is the reveal date for this month's Daring Bakers' Challenge and guess what?!

I'm still mixing, rolling, turning, chilling and baking (this will make more sense when you read the directions later).

Yep, I've waited till the last possible minute, so I'll be back much later today (hopefully before midnight PST). Check back later for write-up and pictures of this delicious pastry.

I know, I know, it's actually Tuesday now (yes, I'm 2 days late with this post--my first time and hopefully the LAST time) and I have the puff pastry made, baked and filled with yummy goodness.

But first things first--a BIG thank you to our hostess for choosing a great Daring Bakers' challenge:

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.




These last two weeks have been busy, busy, BUSY with work and other types of baking and before I knew it, it was the 27th and I hadn't started the challenge yet. I've been looking forward to making puff pastry, since it's been awhile since I've made it and I was excited to come up with some delicious savory and sweet fillings--and then I ran out of time and had to make fillings using what I happen to have on hand.

I decided to only use 1/3 of the dough and I rolled out the rest into sheets and they are in the freezer. I will be re-visiting the puff pastry later in the month and be a bit more creative with some fillings, but all was not lost with this last minute challenge.

If you happen to have some puff pastry in your freezer (homemade or even store bought), then you will appreciate the simplicity of the fillings I made. They were quick and easy and the best part was they were delicious and they could be made at the last minute if you have unplanned guests show up.

I decided to make mini vols-au-vent's for both the savory and sweet fillings. Although they can be eaten in 3 or 4 bites, 2 or 3 of these filled with the savory filling were plenty.

For the first batch, I made a Creamy Chicken & Herb filling with fresh cherry red and yellow tomatoes, topped with freshly grated Asiago Cheese.

Creamy Chicken & Herb Filling

Ingredients: Boneless, skinless chicken tenders, cream of chicken soup, milk, lemon-n-herb seasoning, fresh parsley, salt, pepper, asiago cheese & yellow and red cherry tomatoes.

1) Cook chicken with seasonings and herbs in pan on stove top.

2) Add cream of chicken soup and about 1/2 cup milk and mix with cooked chicken. Simmer for a few minutes till combined and hot throughout.

3) Spoon chicken mixture into puff pastry and garnish with parsley, cheese and tomatoes.

Now for the dessert. I made a puff pastry trio dessert plate, because two desserts are better than one and three is better than two!

Again, these were filled with ingredients or products that I had on hand and they didn't take long to put together.

Dessert #1:
Fresh Raspberries w/Dark Chocolate & Sweetened Whipped Cream

Dessert #2

Apricot-Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream w/Fresh Pomegranate Seeds

Dessert #3

Lemon Curd w/Fresh Blueberries & White Chocolate Shavings

It was fun and relaxing to make puff pastry (once I was able to catch up with my work and everything else that I felt like I was behind on) and it was a great reminder to make this more often than I have in the past.

Now for the recipe!

Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry Dough
From: Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan

Yield: 2-1/2 pounds dough

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
4 sticks (16 oz/ 454 g) very cold unsalted butter
plus extra flour for dusting work surface

Mixing 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.

1) 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.)

2) 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.
3) 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:

1) 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.

2) 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.

3) 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:

1) 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.

2)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.

3) 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:

1) 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.

2) 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.

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

*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

1) Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

2) 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.)

3) 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.)

4) 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.

5) Dock the solid bottom rounds with a fork 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.

6) 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.)

7) 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.)

8) Remove to a rack to cool. Cool to room temperature for cold fillings or to warm for hot fillings. Fill and serve.