Today in class, we discussed the various properties of milk (from skim to devonshire cream) and eggs and their uses when preparing custards. Interesting stuff. For example, I didn’t know that if you over beat heavy cream you will end up with butter. You will also end up with quite a bit of whey because cream is somewhere from 36-40% fat. The main point of all this discussion was to learn how dairy and eggs can combine in various ways to produce different textures of custard. Once the lecture was over, we worked on preparing a variety of custards.
I do not like overly rich or creamy desserts. I particularly dislike the unctuous mouthfeel of the ultracreamy variety of dishes we prepared today. This is not to say that they did not taste good, as they were excellent; I simply have no desire to eat these things unless there is something to cut their texture. We made vanilla bean ice cream, butterscotch pudding, chocolate mousse, bread pudding and, of course, crème brûlée. Essentially, cream, butter and cream, cream, cream and egg yolks and cream.
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When I saw Anne’s post for broccoli-lemon risotto, I definately got a craving for risotto. I didn’t really have anything better to do than stand by my stove and stir for 40 minutes tonigh, so I figured that it would be the perfect time to indulge my craving.
I had broccoli in the fridge, but what caught my attention was the bunch of ultra-tender asparagus purchased for Easter that somehow escaped consumption over the weekend. Yum. So I first thought to just substitute asparagus in Anne’s recipe, but I noticed I also didn’t have honey. I didn’t want rice and asparagus. Sure, it would taste fine, but it’s not terribly exciting. Meyer lemon was the answer.
Owen did something similar for an IMBB a couple of months ago, but I don’t own a rice cooker. I knew I would have to improvise. I checked Epicurious for advice/inspiration and ended up with the below recipe for my final result. Less butter, less cheese, more lemon, more goodness.
Overall, I was very pleased with the dish. The cheese didn’t overshadow the lemon, which superbly complimented the asparagus. It was creamy and wonderful.
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Retrospectively, given that I had never made a galette before, I would say that adding one to the Easter brunch menu on Sunday morning, mere hours before the guests arrived, was necessarily the wisest decision. But I was concerned that there wouldn’t be enough food and I wanted to add something savory, as I had the sweet pretty well covered. A galette, I had heard, was easy to make and impressive in its rusticness. I whipped out Baking with Julia, a new acquisition, and flipped through the lovely illustrations until I stopped on her Cheese and Tomato Galette.
I rubbed the butter into a flour and cornmeal mixture to make the dough, nearly panicked because the recipe called for adding rather too much liquid, wrapped it up and stuck it in the fridge. The dough was rolled out, topped with tomatoes, mozzarella and montery jack cheeses (per the recipe) and feta (per me) and slipped into the oven.
It looked flakey and crisp as I sliced it. It disappeared in a matter of seconds from the food table. So why, you may ask, have I not posted the recipe? The reason is simple: I have no idea what it tasted like. It was devoured before I could taste it and, somehow, I didn’t get much feedback on the level of flakiness in the crust or their feelings about the ratios of cheese types from people stuffed on what was previously a delightful looking Easter Spread. “Urmm…” and “Good…” were not the responses I was looking for.
Their kids, however, were slightly more useful.
A thirteen year old: “That looks like something from Gelsons!” Gelson’s is an upscale market.
A sixteen year old: “Did you buy that?” I asked her if she liked it. “I thought it was going to be pizza. But it was good.”
A nine year old, who left the “crust” of one slice untouched: “Did you stuff the crust with cheese?” In a galette, the crust is folded up over part of the filling. Yes, I said. But that’s not pizza. “Oh.” Did he think it was pizza? “It looked like a pizza.” Did you like it? “It was ok. There wasn’t any sauce.”
I suspect that the galette tasted pretty good. I may have over-mixed the crust a bit, but I’ll be making this again. Probably with a different filling. One that doesn’t inherently resemble pizza.
As far as I can tell, the difference between a cinnamon roll and a cinnamon bun is that the latter has some sort of icing, while the former does not. I find this to be somewhat akin to the difference between cupcakes and muffins. While there are plenty of roll recipes, many bun recipes seem to be for “sticky buns”. Now I like a bit of icing, but I don’t like something that I am expected to eat with my hands to be terribly gooey. A little gooey and we can talk…
Easter brunch is a good occasion for cinnamon buns because they can be served at room temperature. Of course they’re best warm, but no one wants to slave over a hot stove making waffles or pancakes when they could be outside enjoying a gorgeous LA morning with friends. At least, I don’t.
I was going for a basic recipe to create a bun that was rich enough, but not so rich that you couldn’t have two. Though I enjoy kneading bread, it isn’t necessary because this recipe uses an electric mixer. I didn’t measure the cinnamon or brown sugar, just sprinkled them directly from their containers until the rough was covered. When I sliced the logs, I threw out the end pieces that didn’t have much cinnamon and were uneven. If I were better at rolling out the dough, I definitely could have gotten a couple more buns out of the recipe.
I really loved these. Sweet, cinnamon-y and just sticky enough to give you something to lick off your fingers. The dough didn’t taste quite as rich as a brioche, but still had a feathery crumb and a nice rich taste. This recipe is a keeper! I think that they’re best slightly warm.
These can be kept at room temperature, well wrapped, or frozen. Reheat them in the microwave if you prefer your buns warm and slightly sticky.
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I’m taking baking class at a cooking school here in LA and today the focus was on quick breads. We made scones, carrot cake and muffins. The class is very small and everyone gets to make everything on their own, an advantage that not all schools can offer.
The Apple Streusel Muffins were my favorite of the day. The general reaction was something along the lines of “These are SO good!” They were delicious, very moist and had an extremely tender crumb, thanks in part to the fairly generous amount of oil in the batter. In my first batch, I accidentally added a bit of extra butter to the streusel topping, but clearly that didn’t do anything but help the final product and add more delicious butter flavor. That said, the 2 tbsp called for in the recipe is plenty to help the topping stick together.
Use untoasted walnuts in the topping because toast up enough during baking and might be too crunchy if toasted beforehand. If you don’t want to use nuts, I add about 1/3 cup of all purpose flour in to the topping mixture to give it a more substantial crumb.
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