Tom and I just returned from a weekend trip to Wisconsin, where we were visiting his mother. I made some baked goods to take along, but I was in such a rush to pack and get to the airport that I didn't have time to post about them before we left. So now that we've returned home, I can belatedly write about the fall goodies I made last week.
First, I made individual banana caramel cakes, from a recipe in Robert Steinberg and John Scharffenberger's
Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate. Steinberg and Scharffenberger are the founders of
Scharffen Berger Chocolate in Berkeley, now owned by
Hershey's. I learned during a factory tour I took a few months ago that Scharffenberger used to own a winery bearing his name; when he sold the winery in 1995, he also sold the rights to use his name for marketing purposes. Thus, the chocolate company is "Scharffen Berger" broken up into two words.
Anyway, I like this cake recipe a lot. It's a little different from normal banana bread because of the addition of chocolate and pecans. But the most important part -- the part you absolutely should not omit if you try the recipe -- is the caramel topping that you pour onto the cake right after it comes out of the oven. I have made this cake several times, and I have screwed up the caramel more than once. It's just a mixture of 1/2 cup brown sugar, two tablespoons of milk, and 4 tablespoons of butter. According to the recipe, you are supposed to start the caramel 5 minutes before the cake is done baking. You bring the ingredients to a boil on the stove, and remove the caramel from the heat once it is amber in color. The reason I think this part is slightly tricky is that: 1) it definitely takes more than 5 minutes to cook the caramel, 2) you have to pour it on the cake immediately after it comes out of the oven for it to be absorbed, and 3) if you make it too early, it can harden into an ugly unworkable mess once you take it off the heat. Hence, your timing has to be just right to get everything to come together correctly.
I decided to make mini cakes, so I had no idea how long it was going to take for them to bake or when I should start making the caramel (I have previously always made this cake in a 12-cup bundt pan, as the recipe specifies). I started the caramel early and tried using the simmer feature on the Viking range. I was able to get a very low simmer going and hold the caramel at the appropriate temperature for about 15 minutes, as I waited for my mini fluted loaves to finish baking. When you make the caramel correctly, it is glossy and transparent, and it looks like this when you pour it over the hot cake:
The caramel absorbs into the cake (you poke holes all over it with a skewer before pouring it on), and goes onto the sides of the cake as well (as you can see in the picture of the mini-loaf at the top of this post). I don't even generally like caramel, but I think the flavors of this cake with the caramel are just delicious. Plus, I think the caramel seals off the cake to some extent and helps keep it moist. I also made two larger rectangular loaves, which took an additional 25 minutes to cook. I was unable to hold the small amount of remaining caramel at the proper temperature while I waited for these to finish, so by the time these larger loaves came out of the oven, all I had to put on them was an opaque and grainy caramel-colored paste that hardened instantly (still tasty, but not nearly as attractive):
I also made some mini-gingerbreads to take along, using the
Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread recipe. I think that the best thing about this recipe is the incredibly chewy crust, so by making mini-cakes, you improve the crust-to-cake ratio (and there are other fun things about making mini-cakes: they bake faster, cool faster, are easier to pack when you are traveling by plane, and heck, they are just so darned cute). I was able to bake exactly 12 mini-bundts with the recipe, each using one-half cup of batter. Unfortunately, they did not maintain their chewy crusts by the time we ate them in Wisconsin (maybe they weren't completely cool by the time I packed them, or maybe I shouldn't have individually wrapped each one so tightly). But they were still terrific with vanilla ice cream!
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The middle still sank a little, but it was more like a mild divot this time instead of a huge crater. And the inner portion was completely cooked and edible. Still not ideal, but perfectly passable. A cross section:
I'm just gratified that I got the recipe to turn out... Phew!
This afternoon, two of my colleagues from work -- who happen to be not only lawyers, but also Master Gardeners -- generously agreed to stop by the house to give me and Tom some advice about how to care for the plants in our yard. I thought it would be a good opportunity to test a Gingerbread recipe from King Arthur Flour that I've been wanting to try out for a bit. I saw the recipe in one of my regular emails that I receive from KAF, and I was particularly interested that the recipe uses whole grain flour. Also, I was intrigued by the fact that this recipe was "KAF Guaranteed." Apparently the "guaranteed" recipes in the KAF collection have been extensively tested and are "perfect for those of you who have never baked before." And the actual guarantee?
It was moist, and the chunks of crystallized ginger gave it a little extra oomph. It also didn't taste like it was made with whole grain flour, so a big thumbs up on that front. However, the interior part of the gingerbread was a sunken undercooked mess (of course, it sunk only after it cooled a little, so there was no hint anything was wrong when I took it out of the oven):
I am going to try to make this gingerbread again and will bake it a little longer (and chop the crystallized ginger a little more fine). However, even the parts that were baked correctly were not as flavorful and sticky and delicious as the Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread that I usually make. I think this KAF gingerbread definitely needs to be served with some whipped cream or ice cream. However, assuming I can figure out how to get it to turn out, I think it would be nice to throw it into the rotation every once in a while. It's nice to have another whole grain recipe to add to the mix.
The scones were quite crumbly, and I thought perhaps a little too dry, but they seemed to be quite a hit. Several people mentioned that the chocolate chips were a wonderful surprise. Since the dough is so dark, I guess it's hard to see the chocolate chips, and so folks were not expecting the extra chocolately chip goodness inside. I'm not sure if the chocolate intensity was in due in any part to the fact that I used Guittard chocolate chips. I always use Guittard unsweetened chocolate for baking, but I normally use Trader Joe's semisweet chocolate chips (they are very tasty, and very reasonably priced for someone who uses as many chocolate chips as I do). I did not realize that Guittard made baking chips until I saw them recently at the Gelson's Supermarket by my parents' house. They happened to be on sale for only $2/bag, so I purchased a few and brought them back home with me.
Beranbaum's commentary that accompanies the recipe notes that baking the crust before the curd topping is added solves the problem of a soggy crust that is often encountered with lemon bars. I agree; the crust never comes out soggy. However, I do think that the ratio of crust to curd is not optimal the way the recipe is written (too much crust to not enough curd). I usually make 1.5 batches of crust and a double batch of curd in a 9 x 13-inch pan of bars. The other thing I consistently find when I make this recipe is that I can never make the curd in 6 minutes as outlined in the recipe (and I do use a candy thermometer). It usually takes me essentially the entire time the crust is baking (about 30 minutes) to make the curd, so I always make sure to have all the curd components ready so that I can start it right away as soon as I put the crust in the oven.
Tom and I just returned from a weekend trip to Wisconsin, where we were visiting his mother. I made some baked goods to take along, but I was in such a rush to pack and get to the airport that I didn't have time to post about them before we left. So now that we've returned home, I can belatedly write about the fall goodies I made last week.
I also made some mini-gingerbreads to take along, using the Gramercy Tavern Gingerbread recipe. I think that the best thing about this recipe is the incredibly chewy crust, so by making mini-cakes, you improve the crust-to-cake ratio (and there are other fun things about making mini-cakes: they bake faster, cool faster, are easier to pack when you are traveling by plane, and heck, they are just so darned cute). I was able to bake exactly 12 mini-bundts with the recipe, each using one-half cup of batter. Unfortunately, they did not maintain their chewy crusts by the time we ate them in Wisconsin (maybe they weren't completely cool by the time I packed them, or maybe I shouldn't have individually wrapped each one so tightly). But they were still terrific with vanilla ice cream!
Last week in the office, someone mentioned to me that it has been a while since I've made carrot cake sandwich cookies. I was glad to be reminded of this, because I had been pondering what to make for the baby shower we hosted yesterday, and these seem to fit the bill perfectly.
My difficulties with the oven continue. It took a bit of fooling around to find the right temperature setting to achieve 325 degrees. But I got it in the end. I was in a bit of a rush (I wanted to finish the scones as early as possible so that I could deliver them to my neighbors at a reasonable Sunday evening hour) and so I baked the scones right after making the dough instead of freezing them for a bit first like I usually do. As a result, the scones didn't hold their shape as well as usual and were a bit flat. But they were still light and sweet. I was able to deliver them warm to the neighbors, along with some lemon curd. I can't wait to see what other wonderful people we meet in our new locale!
The cake turned out very tasty as always, but I guess the moral of the story is that even a high end oven might not perform as expected, and that's why I always, always, use an oven thermometer when I bake. I'll have to see how the oven performs in the future. If I can just set the oven at 400 to bake at 350 (which is the temperature I bake at 95% of the time), it might be okay; otherwise, I'm going to have to call a repairman to come in and try to recalibrate the thing. I'll also have to make sure that the oven can get hot enough to make pizza!
