My Box of Cookies from my secret FFWD Valentine arrived at The Gant in Aspen before me. Although I had e-mailed, called and texted the kids at the front desk to ‘not even think of eating those cookies’, I paid a ransom when I picked the box up. They received a big red tin of homemade Valentine Cookies from me. There were smiles all around.
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY 2013……….
This year many of us who belong to French Fridays with Dorie participated in a Valentine’s Cookie Exchange. Everything about this project was supposed to be top-secret until the “Big Reveal” on February 14th. Yeah, right……..
Our leader for this project was Alice Mizer who blogs at A Cooking Mizer. If you remember, Alice masterminded our Christmas card exchange and managed the project artfully. Admittedly, this Cupid Crowd was a bit unruly and, honestly, who can keep a secret? But along came February 14th, we’ve all sent treats to our secret Valentines, and you can see their sugary results and recipes at our French Fridays with Dorie link.
My secret Dorista Valentine knows how to put the Giant in Ginger Snaps. These cookies were humongous and outrageously delicious.
Nothing about this project was difficult for me. I received the name of my secret Valentine, baked my tasty cookies, packaged them up and went to the post office to mail to Massachusetts on deadline. What totally traumatized me was after paying my proper postage, the postal clerk heaved, and, I mean, heaved my box into the postal bin.
How does your cookie crumble?
So, I immediately blew my cover and e-mailed my secret Valentine, Betsy, telling her that if my cookies arrived in pieces to NOT tell me.
The cookies I received were packaged in 9 feet of bubble wrap. Seriously. Trust me, this lady, who owns a bakery, knows how to send baked goods. Thank you, Susan, this bubble wrap will be recycled for my upcoming move and your cookies arrived in perfect condition.
What a perfect dinner, after a ten-hour drive, to celebrate my safe arrival back in Colorado: a glass of wine (or, 2 or 3) and two of Susan’s Giant Ginger Snap cookies. Lucky me.
My Valentine cookie box was waiting for me last Friday when I arrived in Aspen after a ten-hour road trip. Susan, a talented chef and baker who blogs at The Little French Bakery and runs a cooking school in North Freedom, Wisconsin, had baked Giant Ginger Snaps for me. Be still my heart. I am sharing her recipe with you at the end of my blog. Thank you, Susan, for the absolutely scrumptious cookies.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Grandma” There is nothing about my family that isn’t thoughtful. The first thing to pop up on my computer this morning was this long-distance Valentine, filling our now-widened gap between California and Colorado with Love.
Giant Ginger Snaps
Ingredients:
2 Cups Vegetable Oil
4 Cups Sugar
1 Cup Molasses
4 Eggs, room temperature
8 Cups A-P Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt
8 Teaspoon Baking Soda
2 Teaspoon EACH, Cinnamon, Ground Cloves, and Ginger
Granulated Sugar for Rolling
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all the ingredients until a soft dough forms. Roll into balls the size that is slightly larger than a walnut but smaller than a golf ball. Roll in granulated sugar. Set balls on parchment-lined baking sheet. Press slightly. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. The cookies will puff, then flatten out. The crinkles will brown slightly. Bake less for chewy and more for a snap!
Makes 3 to 4 dozen but recipe can be easily cut in half.
This week’s FFWD recipe was supposed to be Long and Slow Apples. Who can get excited about making a dish with that name? I challenge you to find any restaurant in the world that offers a dessert on its menu called Long and Slow Apples.
(Memo to Dorie: I changed the name of the recipe on page 390-391 of your Around my French Table cookbook.)
This brilliantly simple recipe was created over one hundred years ago by Edouard Nignon (1865-1934), regarded as one of France’s greatest chefs. According to Larousse Gastronomique, he was head chef to the Tsar, the Emperor of Austria, and president Woodrow Wilson. I’d wager all my Johnny Appleseed trading cards that Edouard would not approve of the long-and-slow moniker.
As Dorie explains, “This recipe entails nothing more than cutting apples as thin as you can (a mandoline is great here), layering them with a gossamer slick of butter and a sprinkling of sugar, weighting them down and baking them for a long time.”
Until you’ve had it,” she adds, “you can’t imagine how glorious this dish is.”
Not only did I slice four apples as thinly as possible, I also individually placed each slice carefully in the ramekins……….until ramekin #3.
Although this recipe is simple, it is time-consuming. After peeling and slicing the four apples thinly, each slice must be arranged carefully in individual ramekins. I hang my head in shame as I admit that by the third ramekin, I was tossing those apple discs haphazardly into the bowl, just hoping they’d settle according to plan. The fourth ramekin never got filled.
After wrapping each ramekin in parchment paper and then foil, I pierced it, making 4 air holes. Each had to also be weighted down before placing in the oven at 300 degrees.
The good news is that I have become a mandoline maven. You may recall that my first visit with a mandoline was just last summer when we made zucchini tagliatelle. I was totally intimidated. But, now, we’re friends. I also opted to use cinnamon rather than ginger and coriander to pump up the flavoring. Susan Lester who writes Create Amazing Meals, made this dessert a year ago and offered some good suggestions about it on her blog.
Serve this very delicious Pommes Confites warm, at room temperature or chilled. In the ramekin or unmolded. With a whipped cream topping, ice cream, crème fraîche, or just plain. It’s scrumptious. Since the first full week in Year 2013 has been such a happy and successful one for me, I enjoyed my dessert warm, topped with whipped cream, and with champagne. I wish I’d filled that fourth ramekin.
Dorie shares the ingredients necessary for this recipe here. Visit the French Fridays with Dorie link to see if my colleagues enjoyed this dessert as much as I did.
What did you find in your stocking Christmas morning? I found celery root.
Odds are that when you planned Christmas dinner, celery root did not come to mind. When you were thinking about pies, I’m betting it was whether to bake pumpkin, pecan or apple. “Pot” probably didn’t enter the picture.
Here’s the problem. During the past six months, my Christmas dinner guests here in Henderson turned sorta-kinda-vegetarian. Sorta-kinda-vegetarian means they will not eat four-legged animals. If it moos, baas, oinks or whinnies, it’s a nonstarter. Furthermore, they won’t eat creatures with wings. Flying is a no, no. Swimmers? Yes, but only those with a shell.
Peel and cut up 2 celery roots and one medium russet potato. Quarter an onion. Add this to a pot of boiling milk, water and salt. To avoid a strong peppermint flavoring, discard the candy canes.
Here’s another problem. The French Friday with Dorie recipe this week is Go-With-Everything Celery Root Purée. To answer your question? Neither had I.
Merry Christmas. Ho! Ho! Ho!
Doesn’t everyone serve Lobster Pot Pie on Christmas Day? (With profound apologies to my Iowa born-and-bred, very traditional Mother.)
Thankfully, this story has a delicious, Christmas-bells-are-ringing ending. My menu may not have been traditional but, with a little help from you foodie friends, I pleased all our palates. Here are the 3 principal players —– We began with Cranberry and Avocado Salad topped by Candied Spiced Almonds and Sweet White Balsamic Vinaigrette as featured by Chris Scherer on The Café Sucré Farine. I added some baby beets, quartered.
The Barefoot Contessa’s Lobster Pot Pie solved my main course dilemma in a very tasty, très élégant manner. A bubble off, perhaps, but, hey, lobsters swim and have shells.
Thank you, Dorie, for this delicious, nutritious, Go-with-Everything Celery Root Purée.
Again, Dorie is correct. Why do I ever doubt that woman? When she calls this recipe, Go-With-Everything Celery Root Purée, she means business. “Because the flavor is subtle, complex, and just a little sweet,”, she writes “the purée is the perfect accompaniment to fish, meat or poultry, whether it’s a main dish that is robust and big flavored or one that is light and mild.”
No one at my table had ever sampled celery root served as a purée. It’s a wonderfully, less caloric, and more nutritious substitute for mashed potatoes. I used my Immersion Blender, instead of fussing with a food processor, to whirrrrr it into a smooth ivory purée. If you want a more silky texture, use the processor. Surprisingly, the lobsters and the celery root did not do battle. This dish totally complimented the pot pie with one guest even using it as a tasty base under the pie.
Seconds, anyone?
The ultimate compliment? No room for dessert.
Dessert, anyone? Last night Michelle and I contributed the sugar for our neighbor’s, Bobby & Adriana Scrima, annual everything-Italian Holiday Open House.
Michelle’s Eggnog Panna Cotta and Dorie’s Top-Secret Chocolate Mousse. When Lilly, a party guest from France, tasted this, her eyes brightened. “Very french,” she remarked. I asked her if she knew the secret? She replied, “Oui,” and preceeded to rattle off the recipe from the back of the Nestlé Dessert Chocolate Bar wrapper that Dorie had discovered and shared with us.
May I wish a Happy New Year 2013 to all you loyal Readers and my fellow Doristas, far and wide. And, to you, Trevor, for loyally cooking with us as our one-and-only FFWD “token” male. May the year ahead be filled with peace & happiness, good health, family & friends and the fellowship of food.
Chef François Payard’s wildly popular, kinda healthy, amazingly delicious Flourless Chocolate Cookies. An extra bonus? They’re Kosher. Photo by www.domiciliate.net
He has been named the Pastry Chef of the Year by both the James Beard Foundation and Bon Appétit. He’s all about butter, eggs and cream, owning patisseries/chocolate shops in Manhattan, Japan, South Korea and Las Vegas. His Brazilian wife, Fernanda Capobianco, is a vegetarian who also owns a bakery in Manhattan. Called Vegan Divas, it is located on the Upper East Side. She’s all about coconut oil, egg substitutes and tofu. Her chocolate mousse, made with tofu and world-class Carbonet chocolate, has 42 calories. His chocolate mousse, made with that same chocolate (plus eggs, cream and sugar) isn’t.
Regarding his cookbook, Simply Sensational Desserts, our revered leader, Dorie Greenspan, wrote, “With this wide-ranging collection, Francois shares his extraordinary talent and surprises us with his knack for simplifying even the most sophisticated sweets. There isn’t a single recipe for one of his astonishing desserts that can’t be made – perfectly – by anyone with an oven, a mixer, and a sweet tooth.”
Simply Sensational Desserts by Chef François Payard Photo by amazon.com
His name is François Payard. In 2009 he opened Payard Patisserie & Bistro at Caesars Palace here in Las Vegas. On Monday, to commemerate that fifth anniversary as well as National Pastry Day, Chef Payard taught a two-hour cooking class at his patisserie.
Time is my friend these days. My daily routine, no longer closely structured. My schedule, flexible. If Dorie’s ‘wizard with a whisk’ was going to celebrate National Pastry Day, this Dorista was going to celebrate with him. Hanging around, watching a master at his craft, is always inspiring. I signed on.
Time-out for a photo opportunity with the Chef.
My afternoon with Payard was just like his cookbook, simply sensational. Remember, we’re at Caesar’s Palace in Vegas, so please know this was not your average cooking class. The chef was affable, the entire patisserie kitchen was ours and the staff to participant ratio was 1:3.
We began with food – choosing scrumptious treats from a buffet table that groaned with canapes, sweets, sandwiches and three different Bûche de Noels (Yule Logs): chestnut, chocolate and raspberry. After making three desserts: Flourless Chocolate Cookies (his most popular product, selling about 1,000 a day), Chocolate Pudding Cake topped with raspberries and Hazelnut Tart with chantilly cream, we also devoured those results.
Here a macaroon. There a macaroon. Everywhere a macaroon.
Sweet Relief, a creamy little concoction of heaven
Throughout the demos, Payard was constantly teaching, asking us questions, having us taste, smell and feel the food. We learned he thinks television food shows should be more about cooking and less about competition. “More like Julia,” he says.
He bakes his tarts in rings with no bottoms. To test caramel, he drizzles some on white paper. “It’s not done until the color is right,” he cautions.
The Chef, removing his Flourless Chocolate Cookies from the oven.
Eggs, especially whites, are the home baker’s nemesis, he says. “In America, you have all different sizes. In France we have one egg and we know the exact weight of the shell, yolk and white.”
Again and again, he reinforced many of the things I already knew, using the best ingredients and equipment, for example, always telling us his favorites. It was two hours pastry-packed with baking nuggets of wisdom.
An assistant, finishing up the Chocolate Pudding Cake, so we could move on to the Hazelnut Tart.
Chocolate Pudding Cake topped with juicy raspberries.
An extra bonus? You gotta love his accent.
Gift bags. When we left, Payard’s very-French manager thanked us for coming, handing us gussied-up, yellow-tissued Payard sacks bursting with goodies which included his autographed cookbook and macaroons in every color. The venue dictated limited space, the cost, $85. To my thinking, a sweet bargain.
Hazelnut Tart with Chantilly Cream.
I want to share the recipe for his wildly acclaimed heart-healthy Flourless Chocolate Cookie (55 calories per cookie according to Self magazine) which can be found here. How popular are they? Do a Pinterest search for that answer. While simple to make, the caveat is the egg whites.
Alessandra, the Payard baker who tested this recipe for home baking and publication purposes, says, “This recipe completely depends on your egg whites. If you’re using large eggs, medium eggs, etc., it will make a huge difference. Start by using 2 egg whites, and then slowly add the rest. The mix should look like thick brownie mix that can be scooped. Depending on the day…hot, cold, humid, not humid, your product will change a lot, as do all pastry recipes. Don’t add all your whites at once, and check for the consistency first. If you don’t use all the whites, it is OKAY.” www.domiciliate.net
The Chef and his wife, Fernanda Capobianco, a vegetarian who owns a vegan bakery in New York City. Photo by Elizabeth Lippman
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but Payard’s cooking class (and, his cookie recipe) is a secret worth sharing. Enjoy.
Gingerbread Baby Cakes, a festive holiday dessert and this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie, Baking with Julia recipe.
Do you love gingerbread? I mean, really, really love gingerbread. The kind that is spicy and pungent but still maintains its softness and moisture? With a darkness in color that Dorie calls “mysterious”? Gingerbread at its most robust? If you’re starting to drool, just a smidge, you are going to love this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie, Baking with Julia recipe, Gingerbread Baby Cakes.
Despite using 1 tablespoon of ground ginger in this gingerbread mixture, the recipe also calls for 2 1/2 tablespoons peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger.
The ingredients in this batter offer the clues to guide us to that delicious end result. Besides flour and dark brown sugar, the dry mixture also includes instant espresso powder, unsweetened cocoa powder, ground ginger, baking powder, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Yes, that’s right, black pepper. (Note: Do not substitute instant coffee for espresso powder.)
A whole lotta finely chopped ginger – that’s why it’s called GINGERbread!
The wet ingredients include eggs and butter, of course, but also 2 1/2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh ginger and 2 cups of unsulphured molasses.
I haven’t added the 2 cups of unsulphured molasses yet. Hence, the light-colored batter.
Four eggs. Last summer I mixed up a rather complicated bread recipe. Complicated, meaning lots of ingredients. After putting the loaf pan in my oven, I found the three required eggs still nestled safely and unused in a bowl, hidden behind the flour canister on my Mise en Place tray. Since then, the egg shells always sit alone, the last to be tossed, as cracked proof that they’ve completed their job.
Although this makes a stiff batter when mixed together, it pours easily into the small baby cake pans, one 10-inch round pan, or the mini-bundts that I used. I was careful to brush each inside with melted butter and then lightly dust with flour and had no problem with unmolding. However, I added an extra five minutes to the suggested 25 minutes at 350F cooking time.
These little darlings, sprinkled lightly with a dusting of confectionary sugar, are delicious for breakfast or a late afternoon snack. Note the crusty bottom of my mini-bundt gingerbread in the foreground. I filled my molds too high and didn’t leave enough room for the rise.
Although Dorie suggests dressing the gingerbread cake with whipped cream and candied lemon peel, I chose to sprinkle peppermint candy pieces over the lightly whipped cream. A festive touch for the holidays.
A plate filled with holiday goodness (if you love gingerbread).
HAPPY HOLIDAYS. Take three deep breaths. HAPPY HOLIDAYS. Sit down, take a cup of tea-break. HAPPY HOLIDAYS. Call a friend. Take a minute to catch up. HAPPY HOLIDAYS. Yes, you have time to watch Jeopardy. HAPPY HOLIDAYS. You’ll never have a replay of December 2012. So, enjoy. HAPPY HOLIDAYS.
Top-Secret Chocolate Mousse, a delicious bittersweet chocolate concoction that will dazzle your guests. It’s make-ahead simple. Serve it in individual portions or, as the French do, in a big bowl.
I almost think of this as a James Bond-moment. Are you on the edge of your seat?
The FFWD recipe this week is Top-Secret Chocolate Mousse. Truthfully, it was scheduled last week but I mistakenly baked Goat Cheese Mini-Puffs. (Loved them.) Luckily I went all bittersweet this week, anxious to be clued in on this hush-hush, don’t tell, mousse secrecy. We’ve uncoded the recipe for you also because Dorie already shared it in Bon Appetit. That means you won’t be a spy who didn’t come in from the cold. (Yeah, a stretch, I know.)
Don’t compromise on the quality of your bittersweet chocolate. Purchase a well-regarded brand.
As Dorie puts it, “There was a moment in time when I was convinced that all Parisian dinner-party givers either had the same magic touch with chocolate mousse or bought their great mousse from the same place and passed it off as their own.”
Coarsely chop 3 1/2 ounces of bittersweet chocolate before melting it carefully using the double boiler-process or in a microwave.
To Dorie’s delight, she was finally clued in by a Parisienne friend that French women follow the recipe on the back of a bar of Nestlé Dessert Chocolate to create mousse perfection.
BUSTED.
The melted chocolate, after the egg yolks have been added, followed with the whipped egg whites being folded into the mixture.
Its ingredients are too simple: bittersweet chocolate, 3 eggs, a salt pinch and a teaspoon or two of sugar. Voilà, chocolate mousse fantastique. If you care to add Kahlua, Cuarenta Y Tres (Licor 43) or Cointreau, for example, pour in a tablespoon of the liquor when you whisk the egg yolks into the melted chocolate. I added Cointreau for flavoring. Serve as is or add whipped cream/cème fraîche, if you like.
As you can see, this recipe makes four small portions of mousse. I had hoped to have enough to fill two Christmas teacups also but no such luck. Double the recipe if you are serving more than 4 portions.
As you can see in my photographs, I served my mousse in Christmas goblets. Tomorrow my neighbors extraordinaire, Dom and Ray, are taking me to buy my Christmas tree and will carry it into my house, putting it exactly where I wish. A little early, perhaps, but I am looking forward to the holidays this year and need a head start. I love everything about this Season of the year. As always, these guys to the rescue.
In keeping with “the theme”, tonight they shall enjoy Top-SecretChocolate Mousse for dessert —- in Christmas tree goblets!
This is a lovely and tasty dessert for the holidays, special occasion, dinner party or just because you love your family!
The other Doristas are baking Goat Cheese Mini-Puffs this week. These are delicious little morsels that every cook should have in their arsenal during the holiday season. Drop by French Fridays with Dorie to see their mini-puffs.
