The Cookie With a Caramel Secret Inside: Cornflake-Chocolate Chip-Marshmallow Cookies

I finally got to the last cookie recipe in Momofuku Milk Bar that I had yet to try, the "Cornflake-Chocolate Chip-Marshmallow Cookie." The name pretty much says it all. (The other cookies in the cookbook are blueberry and cream, chocolate-chocolate, compost, confetti, corn, and peanut butter.)

To make these cookies, you first have to make a batch of Cornflake crunch, which is simply Cornflakes mixed together with milk powder, sugar, salt, and melted butter until they form clusters, which you toast in the oven. This is not my first time making Cornflake crunch, as it's also a garnish for Christina Tosi's "Cereal-Milk Panna Cotta With Caramelized Corn Flake Crunch," which I made three years ago after the recipe was published in the New York Times.

After you have your Cornflake crunch ready, the rest of the recipe follows the standard Momofuku Milk Bar cookie method. You cream together butter, sugar, and brown sugar for 2-3 minutes, add an egg and vanilla and cream for an additional 7-8 minutes, and the stir in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt), Cornflake crunch, miniature chocolate chips, and miniature marshmallows. You scoop out the dough and refrigerate it for at least an hour before baking the cookies.

When I baked my first tray of cookies, I was completely horrified at what I pulled out of the oven. There were blobs of dark brown yuck seeping out of the edge of most of the cookies. It looked like an unsalvageable mess. I quickly realized that the brown puddles were liquified and burnt marshmallows. Thankfully, I also discovered that if I worked quickly while the cookies were still hot, I could use a stiff plastic spatula to scrape the puddles away from the cookies, such that the end product looked fine. In the photo below, you can see some golden remnants of hardened melted marshmallow along the left and bottom edges of the cookie.

These cookies were not what I expected at all. I thought that the marshmallows would be gooey and soft, in part because the photo in the cookbook shows a cookie being pulled apart, and threads of gooey marshmallow are clearly visible between the halves (the photo in the cookbook is the same one that accompanies the online version of the recipe). However, all of the marshmallows in my cookies melted into bits of hard caramel. The caramel was the most marvelous surprise, and along with the Cornflake crunch, there was wonderful texture in every bite. The rest of the cookie was basically just a chocolate chip cookie -- but the Cornflake crunch and marshmallows made it so much more than that.
 
As it turned out, my husband Tom was on a business trip in New York City when I made these cookies, so I asked him to go to Momofuku Milk Bar to pick up a real Cornflake-Chocolate Chip-Marshmallow Cookie for comparison purposes. Tom went above and beyond, going to the store twice after they were out of Cornflake cookies during his first visit. Below is a picture of the two cookies side my side. Mine is on the left, and the store-bought version is on the right.

The cookies don't look much alike. Mine is paler than the real thing, although I purposely took my cookies out of the oven just as they were beginning to brown so that I could minimize the amount of burnt marshmallow seepage. Also, the top surface of my cookie was ragged and uneven, while the one from the store was quite smooth. However my version does look almost exactly like cookie pictured in the cookbook, so I think I got it right .

Both Tom and I preferred the homemade cookie. The base homemade cookie was more crisp, while the store-bought cookie had a softer, cakier, texture. The store-bought cookie could bend without breaking, but if you try to bend the homemade cookie, a piece will snap off. Also, the homemade version seemed to have more texture from the mix-ins, namely the caramel bits from the melted marshmallow. I should note that the store-bought version didn't have any gooey marshmallow; in fact I couldn't see or taste any marshmallow in the store-bought version at all.

I wish I could figure out how to avoid the problem with the melted burnt marshmallow during baking, but aside from that hiccup, this is a darn tasty cookie; it's definitely one of my favorites from Momofuku Milk Bar.

Recipe: "Cornflake-Chocolate Chip-Marshmallow Cookies," from Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi, recipe available here at dailycandy.com.

Previous Posts:

• "Vegetarian Quiche and Not-So-Vegetarian Panna Cotta," April 15, 2009.
• "Cookies and Milk Reinvented" Blueberry and Cream Cookies," March 28, 2012.
• "Magic Doesn't Just Bake Itself In an Oven: Chocolate-Chocolate Cookies," February 3, 2012.
• "They're Magically Delicious!: Compost Cookies 3.0," March 23, 2012.
• "Imitation Is the Clearest Form of Flattery: Confetti Cookies," April 24, 2012.
• "Accept No Substitutes: Corn Cookies," March 20, 2012.
• "A Little Brittle Goes a Long Way: Peanut Butter Cookies," February 16, 2012.

Ipso Fatto Instant Photo: I "Like" These Cupcakes!

Whenever I need to bake cupcakes for a party, my default non-chocolate choice is the Restaurant Eve's Cake recipe from Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, VA.  The cake recipe produces two dozen delicious cupcakes with a superfine crumb and delicate texture; the classic vanilla cake and frosting flavors have broad appeal. I often decorate these cupcakes with purchased sugar decorations (see, e.g., here and here), but I recently decided to branch out and try edible paper decorations for the first time. I had the paper printed at Little Bitts in Wheaton, MD, the same place where I buy my sugar decorations (and many other baking supplies). If you take in a photo or printed image, they will scan, resize, and print it on edible paper while you wait; they can print a maximum of 32 images on a letter-size sheet of edible paper. You just need to cut out the images and apply them on your baked goods. 

The cost of these images was comparable to buying sugar decorations, about 35 cents per image. In an ideal world, I would have better decorating skills and would be molding my own decorations out of fondant; in the real world, I'm happy to use edible paper to take a shortcut to getting professional-looking results.

Recipe: "Restaurant Eve's Cake," printed in the April 23, 2006 Washington Post.

Previous Posts:

• "Ipso Fatto Instant Photos: Pablo's Baby Shower," November 3, 2011.
• "Ipso Fatto Instant Photos: Cecelia's Baby Shower," May 7, 2011.

Imitation is the Clearest Form of Flattery: Confetti Cookies

A few weeks ago I decided that I was going to make Christina Tosi's Confetti Cookies, which she describes as a combination of a snickerdoodle and Funfetti cake mix. I read through the recipe to make sure that I had all of the necessary ingredients on hand. I was a little confused when I saw that the recipe for the cookie batter, and the recipe for the birthday cake crumbs included in the cookies, both call for "clear vanilla extract."  Now of course clear vanilla extract is not real vanilla extract; it's impossible to make a clear liquid from real vanilla beans. Clear imitation vanilla is normally used in frostings or other applications where you want the color to remain pure white.

I take vanilla extract seriously and have never used imitation vanilla before. I go through about a half gallon of vanilla every year and I use only Penzey's or Nielsen-Massey Madagascar. So when I saw that the confetti cookies call for imitation vanilla, I immediately thought, "no freakin' way," and I planned to just use real vanilla instead. However, there was a cross reference in the recipe to a note in the ingredient section of the cookbook. That note explains, "We use clear McCormick vanilla extract for the Birthday Cake, Birthday Cake Crumb and Birthday Cake Frosting. It is vanilla in flavor, but not flavored by any actual vanilla beans. It's 'vanilla' in more of a guilty tub-of-frosting, box-cake way. The two are not interchangeable in recipes." If there's anything I've learned about Tosi's recipes, it's that you have to follow the directions exactly. If she says that real and artificial vanilla aren't interchangeable, I wasn't going to try it. So I delayed making these cookies until I had a chance to go out and buy some imitation clear vanilla.

To make the birthday cake crumb that goes into the cookies, you combine sugar, brown sugar, cake flour, baking powder, salt, rainbow sprinkles, grapeseed oil, and clear vanilla extract. The mixture forms clusters, which you toast in the oven.

To make the confetti cookie batter, you cream together butter, sugar, and glucose for 2-3 minutes, add eggs and clear vanilla and cream for another 7-8 minutes, and then incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, milk powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and rainbow sprinkles) and the birthday cake crumb. You scoop out the cookie dough and chill the cookies for at least an hour before baking.

These were cookies were beautiful, and they had the wonderful chewy texture of other Momofuku Milk Bar cookies, with nice crunchy bits of birthday cake crumb. The best way I can describe the flavor is to say they taste like a cross between raw cookie dough and kids' sugar cereal. They are quite sweet and there is definitely something slightly artificial about the taste. At first, I wasn't crazy about them, but after I tasted one, I found myself craving another one the following day. I haven't ever had a real Funfetti cake, but I can see how these cookies might be channeling the essence of box cake and tub frosting. I give these cookies a big thumbs up in the fun department!

Recipe: "Confetti Cookies," from Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi.  Recipe available here at seriouseats.com.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Maple Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

This week's recipe for Baked Sunday Mornings is "Maple Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting." One of the simpler recipes from Baked Explorations, you make the batter by creaming together butter and shortening, adding in maple syrup (I used grade B), adding in a egg and three egg yolks, and then alternately adding dry ingredients (four, baking powder, salt) and milk. At the end, you fold in a cup of toasted, chopped walnuts. There is a lot of liquid in this recipe. It calls for an entire pint of maple syrup and a one and one-quarter cup of milk, along with the eggs. The batter was very thin, so much so that I kept checking the recipe to make sure that I hadn't measured something incorrectly. The recipe says it yields two dozen cupcakes, but I got 26.

The cupcakes come out golden brown. You top them with a delicious, smooth frosting made from cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and maple syrup. There are only two tablespoons of maple syrup in the frosting, and the maple flavor was hard to detect.

I'm not sure I can give a fair critique of these cupcakes. The cupcake itself is very moist and tender, and I thought that the walnuts added some terrific taste and texture (I was also pleasantly surprised that the walnuts remained evenly distributed through the cupcakes and didn't just sink to the bottom, given how thin the batter was). The frosting is fabulous.

The thing is, I didn't love the maple flavor of the cupcake. I enjoy a little maple syrup on pancakes and waffles as much as the next person, but I like my maple syrup in moderation; I have never been a fan of those leaf-shaped maple candies that are made from boiled down maple syrup. These cupcakes are pretty darn maple-y. The upside to that is that tasters who really like maple loved the cupcakes. As for me and Tom, not so much. But I can definitely appreciate that this is a good maple cupcake.

Recipe: "Maple Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting," from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.

Who Knew Clouds Are So Chewy?: Almond Cloud Cookies

The last recipe I tried for Passover this year was "Almond Cloud Cookies" from King Arthur Flour. I had high hopes for these cookies, as almond is pretty much my favorite flavor on the planet. The batter only takes a few minutes to put together; you mix together almond paste, sugar, and salt, incorporate egg whites, and then add almond extract and bitter almond oil. You scoop out the dough (I used a #50 scoop), sprinkle the dough generously with powdered sugar, make three indentations on top of the cookies, and bake.

Most of the powdered sugar that I sprinkled on the cookies before putting them in the oven dissolved during baking. Nonetheless, the remaining powdered sugar on the tops and bottoms of the cookies made eating these a messy proposition. But the mess was so worth it. Tom declares this to be one of his favorite cookies of all time. I have to agree. Other tasters also gave effusive praise, including: "absolutely delicious," "awesome," and "I think this may be the world's perfect cookie."

I'm not quite sure why these cookies are called "clouds," because the texture is nothing like a cloud, or at least, not the airy, fluffy texture I would associate with something called a cloud. The outside is crisp, and the inside is exceptionally chewy; the chewiness is absolutely delightful. The flavor is intense almond, given that the almond paste is boosted with even more almond flavor in the extract and oil.

I should note that this recipe calls for 10 oz. of almond paste, which is the size of the Love'n Bake cans of almond paste from American Almond sold by King Arthur Flour. While I can get Love'n Bake locally at Sur La Table, I generally buy either Odense or Solo almond paste, as they are more widely available and less expensive (on an absolute and per-ounce basis).  Odense comes in 7 oz. tubes and Solo comes in 8 oz. cans. As it happens, I had one of each on hand, so I combined them and made one and a half times the recipe with the 15 oz. of almond paste.

I tried making the cookies again (also one and a half times the recipe) with two Odense 7 oz. tubes of almond paste. There was a visible difference from the missing one ounce of almond paste -- the batter was much looser and the cookies spread more during baking. The taste was virtually the same, but I preferred the appearance of the cookies made with the prescribed proportion of almond paste. I don't like to use only part of a can or tube of almond paste, since the unused portion gets stuck in the fridge and I usually can't find anything to do with it before it goes bad. So I'm just going to keep making one and a half times the recipe with a tube of Odense and a can of Solo; it's easier than trying to scale the recipe down or up by some awkward multiplier.

This recipe has got to be my best Passover find ever.

Recipe: "Almond Cloud Cookies," from King Arthur Flour.

A Cloud of Coffee Cream on a Slice of Heaven: Sybil's Pecan Torte with Coffee Cream

Continuing with my Passover baking last week, I consulted the chapter of Rose's Heavenly Cakes titled, "Mostly Flourless Cakes and Cheesecakes." I decided to try "Sybil's Pecan Torte with Coffee Cream," a flourless pecan sponge cake topped with coffee-flavored whipped cream. You make the cake batter by whipping together sugar and egg yolks, adding in coffee extract and toasted pecans that have been ground with sugar, and then folding in egg whites that have been whipped with sugar and cream of tartar (which can be omitted if you are strictly following Passover dietary restrictions -- but since I wasn't, I went ahead and added it).

I baked the batter in a 9-inch round, 2.5-inch tall springform pan, and the edges of the cake rose right to the rim of the pan, with the center domed above the rim. The recipe instructs you to bake the cake for 30-40 minutes, or until "the cake is springy to the touch when pressed very lightly in the center." When I checked with cake at 30 minutes, it looked done and the center sprang back when I pressed it. However, I decided to double check the internal temperature of the cake since the recipe also notes that the cake should be 185 degrees when it's done. The cake was still significantly short of that temperature, and I ended up baking it for the full 40 minutes, at which point it registered 183 degrees.

As directed, I cooled the cake still in the pan, upside down, atop a wire rack that I had coated with non-stick spray. Because the cake had risen above the rim of the pan, this meant that the top of the cake was compressed by the weight of the rest of the cake and the pan on top of it, but the non-stick spray prevented any sticking. After the cake was completely cooled, I released it from the pan and the top had sunk a bit. I filled the crater with whipped cream beaten with sugar, flavored with vanilla and coffee extract, and stabilized with a bit of gelatin.

I loved this torte. The sponge cake was very moist, and had a terrific texture from the ground pecans. Of course, not surprisingly, it also had a wonderful pecan flavor. While the cake portion would be good enough to eat alone, my favorite part of this cake was definitely the coffee cream. I don't know if I am just in love with coffee extract or what (it's also a key flavoring in the chocolate coffee cake with dark chocolate ganache that I love so much), but the sweet delicate cloud of coffee whipped cream was sooo delicious. The coffee flavor in the cream is subtle, but magnificent. And the gelatin did a fantastic job stabilizing the cream -- I was able to leave the torte out for hours at room temperature with no deterioration in the coffee cream.

Together, the cake and coffee cream are heavenly. The proportions and the flavor balance between the two are just right. This might be a traditional Passover dessert, but there is no reason not to enjoy this outstanding torte all year round!

Recipe: "Sybil's Pecan Torte with Coffee Cream," from Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum, recipe available here.

A Culinary Misdemeanor?: Flourless Fudge Cookies

I look forward to Passover each year -- not for its religious significance (as I'm not Jewish), but for the baking challenge. It's basically just a gluten-free baking challenge, because in large part, the portion of my regular baking audience that observes Passover isn't terribly strict about it. While most will avoid flour or leavening, they generally aren't concerned about limiting themselves to ingredients that are actually certified as kosher for Passover.

This year, I kicked off my Passover baking with a recipe from King Arthur Flour for "Flourless Fudgy Cookies." This is one of the easiest recipes I've ever made. You just put powdered sugar, salt, espresso powder, cocoa powder, egg whites, and vanilla in a bowl, and mix. You can literally have a tray of cookies in the oven less than five minutes after you start. The batter is on the runny side, so it spreads quite a bit, and the cookies end up quite thin, with a crinkled top.

These cookies live up to their name -- they are moist and very fudgy, not unlike a flourless chocolate cake in cookie form. In fact, I found them to be too fudgy, and I thought that the chocolate and espresso were overwhelming. Apparently others disagreed, as a lot of tasters really enjoyed this cookie. But I don't like having my palate assaulted with so much chocolate; the combination of the espresso with the chocolate makes this cookie much more intense than simply eating a chocolate bar. I felt the same about the Mocha Cookies I made recently.

I've come up with a term to describe this sensation: ACO, or assault with a chocolate object.  (I am a lawyer, after all. When I was in law school, my student practice organization defended a lot of folks charged with ADW, or assault with a dangerous weapon. While I never did see a case where someone was assaulted with chocolate, we did handle a case where the dangerous weapon was a snowball.) Some people seem to like this chocolate overload, but it's just not my cup of tea.

Recipe: "Flourless Fudge Cookies," from King Arthur Flour.

Previous Post: "Blunt Force Chocolate: Mocha Cookies," January 12, 2012.

Coming Down from an Angel Food High: Pistachio Lime Thins

Recently, I discovered the amazing flavor combination of pistachio with lime, which was an eye-opener in Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito's Lime Angel Food Cake with Lime Glaze and Pistachios. So when I came across a recipe in Great Cookies for "Pistachio Lime Thins," I couldn't wait to give it a try.

These are slice and bake cookies. You make the batter from butter, lime zest, lime oil, sugar, egg yolks, lime juice, vanilla, flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda, and form the dough into logs. Then you brush the logs with egg white wash, coat them with chopped pistachios, and refrigerate the logs until they are firm before cutting and baking.

Walter suggests cutting the logs on the bias to create ovals, but I found that this was difficult to manage. For one thing, normally you would keep rotating a log of cookie dough as you cut slices to help preserve its round shape; otherwise it will flatten out on the bottom where you have it on the cutting board. But if you are cutting at an angle, you have to maintain the log of dough in a static position the entire time. Second, if you cut the log at an angle, you don't get an even ring of pistachios around the perimeter of the cookies, and some of the nuts will end up on the underside of the cookies. Anyway, I cut slices straight across with the intention of creating perfectly round cookies.

The cookies did not maintain their shape well during baking, and as you can see in the photo above, they aren't nicely round. I wouldn't say they were bad, necessarily, but they also weren't good. I thought that the lime flavor (which was quite strong and borderline harsh) crowded out the pistachios here, instead of complementing them. The cookies had a nice texture, but their sloppy appearance was just not appealing. Meh.

Recipe: "Pistachio Lime Thins," from Great Cookies: Secrets to Sensational Sweets by Carole Walter.

Previous Post: "Got Egg Whites?: Lime Angel Food Cake with Lime Glaze and Pistachios," February 25, 2012.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Marshmallow Chocolate Cups

I have never had a real Mallo Cup, but I am a big fan of the various marshmallow-filled chocolate treats that are widely available around Easter (in the off season, I like getting my fix from See's scotchmallow chocolates, which consist of a layer of honey marshmallow on top of layer of caramel, covered in dark chocolate). So I was thrilled to see Marshmallow Chocolate Cups on this week's schedule for Baked Sunday Mornings. These cups are pure chocolate shells filled with homemade marshmallow.

The chocolate shell is two parts dark chocolate to one part milk chocolate. I used 500 grams of 72% chocolate and 250 grams of 33% milk chocolate -- so I think that if I had simply used 750 grams of 60% chocolate, I would have ended up with exactly the same result. You melt the chocolates together in a double boiler, and then use a brush to coat the insides of candy cups with the chocolate. I used foil candy cups that were 1.25 inches in diameter (across the bottom), and I used a small synthetic paintbrush to paint the chocolate up the sides of the cups. (I keep a set of inexpensive children's paintbrushes in the kitchen to use for applying luster dust and other tasks like this.) You refrigerate the unfilled cups to set the chocolate.

Meanwhile, you make the marshmallow from gelatin, sugar, salt, and water. The marshmallow filling is quite fluid, and it was easy to fill the chocolate cups using a pastry bag. Then I reheated the chocolate and spread a layer over the marshmallow, using the paintbrush get an even coating. After a few minutes in the fridge, the cups are ready.

The marshmallow cups were addictively good. The marshmallow filling is just amazing -- dense and springy, or as I like to say, "boing-y." Straight out of the fridge, the chocolate shell yields a satisfying snap. However, there were two major obstacles to eating the the cups. First, I didn't temper the chocolate, and so the chocolate melted upon contact; people who ate these walked away with their fingers covered in chocolate. Second, the chocolate stuck to the foil candy cups, which were quite prone to tearing. After eating a few of these cups, I finally figured out that tearing off the wrappers against the grain of the pleats was the clean and easy way to go -- but trying to peel off the wrappers straight down, with the grain of the folds, resulted in nothing but a pile of frustratingly tiny shreds of foil wrapper.

I am already planning to make these again. I might even see if I can make my own scotchmallows at some point -- but these little cups are so satisfying on their own that I don't think they need any improvement.

Recipe: "Marshmallow Chocolate Cups," from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito; recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.

What a Difference Three Years Makes: the Sweet and Salty Cake

A little over three years ago, I made the Sweet and Salty Cake -- layers of chocolate cake covered with salted caramel, filled and frosted with a chocolate caramel ganache -- from Baked. It was only the fourth time I had ever tried a recipe from Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Since then, I have baked my way through more than 50 of their recipes from Baked and Baked Explorations (in large part because I joined the Baked Sunday Mornings group back in 2010; I am on schedule to have completed every recipe from Baked Explorations by June 2013). Given my experience with Baked recipes, including layer cakes in particular (e.g., Whiteout Cake, Lemon Drop Cake, Caramel Apple Cake, Grasshopper Cake, and Chocolate Coffee Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache), I am much more comfortable (and competent) making these recipes now.

I recently revisited the sweet and salty cake (this is only the second time I've made it), and it was an entirely different result from my inaugural experience. In particular, the chocolate cake component is now old hat to me, as it is the exact same cake recipe used in the Chocolate Coffee Cake and Grasshopper Cake. Last time I made the Sweet and Salty Cake, I baked only two 9-inch layers of chocolate cake; this time, I made three 8-inch layers, as the recipe directs. As a result, my final assembled cake was much taller. Also, I'm a little incredulous that last time I pronounced the chocolate cake as "quite unexceptional." This is now my favorite basic chocolate cake recipe -- it's so light and tender and chocolatey! At this point, I can also pretty much make the salted caramel component in my sleep; it's the same caramel used in the Sweet and Salty Brownie, which I make all the time.

Last time I made the cake, I had great difficulty with the ganache being too runny; the top half of the cake practically slid off the cake after I took it to a housewarming party. For my recent attempt, I had time on my side; I was making the cake a day in advance, so I didn't have to rush to assemble it and could afford to be a little more patient with the ganache. The ganache was definitely still difficult to work with -- when it's freshly made, it's quite soft. It does firm up after being chilled, but if you chill it, then it becomes difficult to spread to a smooth finish. So when I assembled the cake, I spread the salted caramel on a cake layer, spread on some ganache, and then refrigerated the frosted cake layer for a bit until the ganache was firmer; otherwise, the room temperature ganache was too soft to support the weight of a cake layer on top of it. However, while the cake layer was in the fridge, I kept the remaining ganache at room temperature so that it would remain easily spreadable and wouldn't become too stiff.

Going through this somewhat laborious process, I was able to create a beautifully filled and frosted cake. [Note to self: in the future, it would save time to take the two bottom cake layers, and concurrently spread caramel and ganache on both. Then the two layers could be refrigerated (unstacked) at the same time, and after the ganache was firm enough, it would be possible to stack all three cake layers at once.] I refrigerated the cake overnight, after which it held together with no problem, even though it spent several hours at room temperature the next day before serving.

So I wish I could give you a review of how this cake tasted. However, I dropped off this cake with our friends Jim and Colleen, and I didn't stay for the serving and eating -- so I can't give you a firsthand report. 

However, Jim gave me some general complimentary feedback on the cake. I know he's a huge fan of the Sweet and Salty Brownie, so I figured that this cake would be right up his alley (plus, I know that he loves chocolate cake generally). When I pressed him for details on a comparison to its brownie counterpart, Jim commented that this cake didn't seem as salty as the brownie. That seems to make sense, because despite the salted caramel on top of each cake layer and the garnish of fleur de sel on top of the cake, the ratio of salty stuff to sweet stuff is lower in this very tall cake than it is in the very dense brownie.

Still, I was assured that the cake was enjoyed by all. I am confident that it's going to be nowhere near three years before I make this cake again!

Recipe: "Sweet and Salty Cake," from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito; recipe available here on marthastewart.com.

Previous Posts:

• "The Sweet and Salty Cake: Chocolate Cake, Salted Caramel, and a Runaway Ganache," February 8, 2009.
• "Baked Sunday Mornings: the Sweet and Salty Brownie," December 5, 2010.
• "My Cake Has a New Set of Clothes: Grasshopper Cake," January 24, 2012.
• "Baked Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Coffee Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache," March 25, 2012.

It's All about the Bavarians: Chocolate Raspberry Bavarian Cake

Having recently acquired a few cake rings, I now think that they are just the coolest. Who knew that a relatively inexpensive metal ring can turn some cream and cake into an impressive special occasion dessert? Last week I used a cake ring to make Nick Malgieri's "Chocolate Raspberry Bavarian Cake," a elegant confection assembled from chocolate genoise, raspberry simple syrup, chocolate ganache, raspberry Bavarian cream, whipped cream, chocolate shavings, and fresh raspberries.

I love Malgieri's chocolate genoise recipe. You whisk together eggs, egg yolks, sugar, and salt in a bowl set over simmering water until the mixture reaches 100 degrees. Then you whip the mixture until it is cool and increased in volume, and fold in the sifted dry ingredients (cake flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder). My cake rose beautifully and had a perfect sponge texture.

After the cake is cooled, you split it into two layers, and place one of the layers in the bottom of a cake ring. The cake is nine inches in diameter and you use a 10-inch diameter cake ring, so there is a small band of empty space between the outer edge of the cake and the ring. You moisten the cake with raspberry syrup (water, sugar, and Chambord), spread on chocolate ganache (whipping cream, chocolate, and butter), and the pour over some raspberry Bavarian cream (frozen raspberries, sugar, Chambord, gelatin, and whipping cream). The raspberry cream fills the empty space between the perimeter of the cake and the cake ring. Then you add the remaining cake layer, and again follow with more raspberry syrup, chocolate ganache, and the remaining Bavarian cream.

After you refrigerate the cake to set it, you unmold it from the ring, spread whipped cream around the outside, and then decorate with chocolate shavings and fresh raspberries.

The Bavarian cream has a gorgeous pink color (apparently, the exact same shade as one of my tablecloths, as you can see above).  The cake is quite large. Not only is it ten inches in diameter, but my cake came right up to the top of my 3-inch tall cake ring; it can easily serve at least 16 people. My half-pint of raspberries was barely enough to make the a single ring of berries around the perimeter.

The cake sliced beautifully, and even the day after it was baked, the cake was very moist from being soaked in the raspberry syrup. The genoise had a mild chocolate flavor that was reinforced by the layers of chocolate ganache. The flavorful Bavarian cream was incredibly light; the dessert overall was not heavy at all. I love this cake. Its exquisite good looks and lovely refined flavors are exceptional.

Recipe: "Chocolate Raspberry Bavarian Cake" and "Chocolate Genoise" from Chocolate: From Simple Cookies to Extravagant Showstoppers, by Nick Malgieri.  Recipe available here.

Previous Posts:

• "I Liked It and I Put a Ring on It: Chocolate Bavarian Torte," January 18, 2012.
• "Mind the Gaps: Fraisier," February 18, 2012.

Episode of the Chocolate Madeleine: Chocolate Orange Madeleines

Earlier this week I decided to make some madeleines for an afternoon reception, and I thought it might be nice to have some variety from my usual lemon madeleines. So I decided to try Nick Malgieri's recipe for "Chocolate Orange Madeleines" from Chocolate. The recipe is very quick to put together -- you just whisk together eggs, orange zest, and orange extract (I didn't have extract, but I used one-fourth the amount of orange oil instead), whisk in sugar, add melted butter, and fold in the sifted dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, and baking soda). You pour the batter into buttered madeleine molds, and 15 minutes later, you have cute little madeleines.

I am a big fan of chocolate and orange together (for instance, I love chocolate orange brownies), and I enjoyed these madeleines. They were moist and I liked their smooth chocolate-orange flavor. However, I still prefer the regular lemon madeleines (the two types are pictured together above). Perhaps the chocolate madeleines just weren't quite chocolatey enough. Malgieri suggests that the madeleines are tasty when dipped in tempered chocolate, and I'm thinking that a coating of chocolate would make these not just good, but great.

Recipe: "Chocolate Orange Madeleines," from Chocolate: From Simple Cookies to Extravagant Showstoppers, by Nick Malgieri.

Previous Posts:

• "For the Hostess with the Mostess: Madeleines," July 24, 2010.
• "Bake One for the Gipper this Passover," March 30, 2010.
• "Stuck in the House with a Bunch of Pistachios: Nut Brittle and Madeleines," December 28, 2009.
• "A Mysterious Midnight Bite," July 8, 2008.