Savarin

So what is a Savarin?  No one I asked had ever heard of this dessert.  Our cookbook says…First baked in the mid-ninteenth century, it was named after the inventor, a French celebrated gastronome Brillat-Savarin.  Still no clue?  Me either!

Basically, it is a baba dough minus the raisins, baked in a ring mold, and then soaked with a simple syrup.  You then fill the center with whipped cream and warmed berries.

The dough is very easy to make…flour, yeast, sugar, egg, and butter.  One rise in the bowl and the final rise in the mold.  The hardest part was getting it out of the mold in one piece.

After cooling the savarin, you spoon the soaking syrup over the top a few tablespoons at a time until it is plump and cannot hold any more liquid.  At this point I was afraid of creating a soggy mess.  Surprisingly, the cake held up!

For the berry mixture, I went a simpler route…omitted the raspberry puree and the poire eau-de-vie.  While the strawberries and blackberries were warming I created the whipped cream center and the rosettes suggested for around the base.

If I was to make this again, I would cut each person a piece and spoon whipped cream and berries over it.  Putting it all together the way the recipe said, was pretty but really hard to serve!!…especially with the warm berries melting the cream.

Thankfully with my group, they aren’t very worried about how it looks…just how it tastes!  Although it was fun trying something new, none of us loved this one.   Not sure I’d see myself making it again.  Onto the next one!

Savory Brioche Pockets

Baking these made me feel like I was on a cooking show…I mean wow are these gourmet, and filled with such deliciousness!  For my “twice monthly baking and blogging world”, these were interesting and challenging…and turned out very tasty.  For my “real world, baking in my own kitchen for my family”…can’t see these happening again.  I mean…they were delicious…and held some great surprises…one unexpected, but they just took a lot of time.  If you would like the recipe, check out Carrie’s blog.

I’d say they had four steps, taking two days:

• The first day, prepare the brioche dough.  Create the starter, allow the first rise, and then overnight it in the fridge for the second rise.

• Second day: prepare the filling.  Steam potatoes; add goat cheese and chives, caramelize onions, blanche asparagus

• While the filling is cooling, roll out and cut the dough.  I didn’t have a biscuit cutter, so I used a 4 in pyrex bowl.  I felt like I was making sugar cookies.

• Next, was to fill the dough and then cover it to create the pocket.  Lastly giving them an egg yolk wash and popping them into the oven.

I wasn’t thrilled with the way my egg wash turned out but cutting into one and taking a bite showed that it didn’t matter how beautiful the outside turned out.  These were such a surprise.  The onions, potatoes, and asparagus in the middle were just delicious!…and so gourmet to go with our Thursday night dinner of pork chops haha!

So, the middle of the pocket was one of the hidden surprises but the extra surprise was that I found I had quite a lot of pieces of brioche leftover after creating these pockets.  I put them all together and chilled them again….and…made dessert.  Sticky buns!!  YUM

Fresh Rhubarb Upside-Down Baby Cakes

I have to start out by saying this recipe was so good!!  My parents, who are part of my faithful tasting group, sent me a text after they had the cake saying they loved it and hoped the recipe wasn’t too hard because they would like to have it again.

That being said…I have to admit that once I saw in the recipe “in fact there is nothing sacred about rhubarb; you can vary the fruit as you choose…try using apples” And then this… “The batter is perfect for a 12 in round cake pan” that is as far as I needed to read.  I made Fresh APPLE Upside-Down BIG Cake haha!!  If you would like the recipe check out Erin’s blog.

For such a pretty and tasty cake, it was really easy to make.

• Cook up the brown sugar and butter and add pecans

• Arrange the apples

• Beat the butter and sugar, until fluffy and pale and then add in the dry ingredients alternating with the cream.

• Spoon the batter over the apples, smoothing the top.

• Bake the cake.  I added 20-25 minutes to my cook time since I had one large cake instead of the baby cakes. Turn the cake out of the pan as soon as you remove it from the oven.

• Send texts that dessert is ready…I always think of that saying in the movie Field of Dreams…If you build it they will come…I say…Send the text and they show up!!

This was so easy and really very moist and delicious.  It reminded me of the Nectarine Upside Down Chiffon Cake…without the streusel in the middle.  So Mom and Dad…I will make this one again for you…It’s a keeper!

Madeleines

Madeleines…had to look it up!  According to Webster’s… “a type of small, rich cake baked in a shell shaped mold”.  I wish every recipe in our BWJ had pictures for these times when I don’t know what I am trying to acheive.  If you would like the recipe, check out Amy and Katie’s blog.

So I was off to Bed Bath and Beyond for a Madeleine pan.  I figured there have been so few purchases I have had to make to participate in this baking group, why not…after all…I want the classic look of the shell shaped mold if I am going to tackle the recipe.

I was feeling a bit more confident with this recipe since we made a similar batter with our French Strawberry Cake last spring….and that was a hit in my family.  What I do remember about baking genoise: the comment in the book stating “This is the point at which the batter is at its most fragile, so fold gingerly”.  That will surely make you fold cautiously!!!…especially after beating eggs for 10+ minutes!  You see, the cake gets its lift from the air retained in the whole egg and sugar mixture that is beaten until it has tripled in volume…not any leavening or beaten egg whites.  The next step of adding the dry ingredients can be daunting….

Trying to get that ribbon that will stay for 10 sec…I found the last time, that it was a lighter touch to sift the dry ingredients onto the egg mixture…still in thirds…and then gently fold.

Ready to go…after gently folding.

At this point I thought they looked pretty good…although I noticed in the recipe that it listed a cup of powdered sugar but not what to do with it.  I figured it would be to dust them, but having never seen a madeleine I was thankful to those of you who posted on the P & Q page!  Thank you!

The cookies were made, the kitchen smelled heavenly, and the text messages went out…”Madeleines are fresh out of the oven and ready if you are in the area to come pick up”.  I think this is one of my favorite parts of this baking group…my tasters!  Everyone is so eager to taste two new creations a month…never have to ask twice!!  Extra exciting this time, as I have new followers and tasters from book club…might have to bring a sampling of something to a meeting soon.

No one in my group had ever tasted a madeleine so it was a new experience for all of us.  We all thought they looked really cute and would be perfect for a tea…and…that you need the tea or coffee to go with these.  Although the flavor was good, they seemed a bit dry.  I of course thought they would taste better dipped in chocolate…another suggestion was to have jelly/jam in the middle.  My tasters that had them the next morning with coffee all reported back they were great that way.  Maybe we just don’t know that is the way they are suppose to be eaten haha!  I would say these are a keeper for times I was putting on a luncheon, tea, or shower…not too hard and would look cute on the table.

Rustic Potato Loaves

This potato bread was a really straight forward recipe!

• Boil potatoes
• Mash the potatoes
• Mix in the remaining ingredients.
• Allow the dough to rise for two short 20 min periods

If you would like the recipe check out Dawn’s blog.

Got the dough ready…got through all of the short rises…seemed like I was going to sail through this recipe.  Went to shape my loaves, and oh wow!  Then everything fell apart…literally!  My dough was SO flimsy..like hardly any substance at all. I really could not work with the dough at all to make it into any kind of a “torpedo”.  I was really concerned that the bread might not work out but I figured what was there to lose.  I shaped them the best I could and put them in the oven.

They smelled good and surprisingly looked good when I took them out of the oven!  Not quite the “torpedo” shape but at this point I was just glad we had something that looked like crusty bread.

We let the bread rest and then cut into it.  I don’t think any of us in my family had ever had potato bread so it was a new experience for us.  Interesting taste!  The bread was really fresh, light, and had a nice crusty exterior.  I am not sure I really liked the flavor, but my family enjoyed it.  My daughter was home from college and was able to partake as a “taster” so that was nice!  She usually has to hear about the TWD adventures in my kitchen and not get to experience it.   Overall, everyone was happy.  All of my tasting groups reported back that the bread was delicious!  My dad even texted me saying he loved it and he was putting in a order for two loaves.  I would say the bread was a success!  I guess the problems I had with the dough had no bearing on taste!   Always good to persevere and just see how it turns out in the end!  I will be curious to see if anyone else had the same issues with the dough.

Update:  I ate the few mocha chip cookies I saved for after Easter…they were DELICIOUS!!  :)

Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies

These were a breeze to bake after my three day project of croissants!   If you would like the recipe, check out Peggy’s blog.

Thoughts to share:

• I used a mixture of bittersweet chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate
• I refrigerated the dough for four hours instead of overnight and it was perfect
• I rolled the dough into balls and then placed them on the parchment paper.  It seemed to hold the dough together better with all of that chocolate.  I also doubled by pans the way the recipe suggested
• I used 2T of instant decaf coffee.  Everyone loved the depth of flavor in these cookies but couldn’t really detect “coffee” flavor so I think next time I would increase to the full 3T.

Everyone was eager to taste these.  I have 3 in the freezer for me to taste after Easter…gave up sweets!  I have been told I will love these.

My favorite responses via text:

• “The cookies were outstanding.  They are a keeper…really, really good!”
• “They were delicious!!! “

And my personal favorite is watching my teenage son inhale them with a huge grin on his face….yes these are a keeper and will be repeated at our house.  Thank goodness they are fairly easy to make!!

Croissants

Newest blog update:
I can say I have made homemade croissants and I survived!!…barely!

This was quite the task to take on. I was very thankful that the PBS video was posted on the P & Q page.  It really helped to watch Esther in action with Julia tackling these croissants.  She made it look SO easy, especially all the rolling.  I kept thinking of her talking while rolling out the dough with really no effort.  She kept saying if the dough isn’t ready don’t push it…I felt like I was pushing it the entire time!!  That was some really, really tough rolling AND so many times!   I mean 24″x 17″ is a big piece of dough.

I thought I was so on top of the task, starting out the night before with making the dough and the butter mixture so they could set up over night.  Isn’t it amazing to see how much 4 1/2 sticks of butter really is when you whip it together.  That is why I don’t eat croissants!!

So the next morning, I neglected to get an early start and that really impacted my croissant day.  I knew there were many rising periods but you need to plot out the time over a course of a day ahead of time to make sure you will stay on track.  I think I was most grateful for watching Esther on the incorporating the butter into the dough.  Watching her make the purse and pound the butter into the dough from the middle out was so easy after seeing how she did it.  I think about this point I was thinking…what is the big deal…no problem.

It is the rolling that was the problem.  That chilled dough with the chilled 4 1/2 sticks of butter incorporated is very hard to work out to that big of a square.

I did the first two turns with the two hours rise time…did the third turn making the “wallet” turn and ran out of time to finish that same day.  I let the dough rest in the fridge over night and then started the next morning.

I cut half the wallet and put the other half into the freezer for another time.  It was then onto the HARDEST rolling of them all.  I rolled out the half of the wallet into the 24″x17″ and it took forever and my hands felt bruised from the pressure I was putting on that rolling pin…so much for not pushing the dough.  I think this step took me almost a half an hour.  How did she do it haha!  Finally, the dough was the right size…I was constantly checking with my ruler…am I there yet…now?  See how small half of the wallet was in comparison?

I tried to eyeball the size of each triange as I cut the croissants and next time I would make sure they are each the 4 inches because I think mine must have been more like 3.  I ended up with many more croissants out of the half of dough than I should have…they were a little small but probably better that way so you don’t eat so much of them.

I actually had fun with the next step of pulling the dough and rolling the croissants.  Check out how you can see through the dough!  After all the rolling, everything else was pretty easy.

I put the two pans of rolled croissants into the oven with the pan of steaming water and left them for 4 hours.  I have to say I didn’t see much rising…certainly not triple in size.  I was hoping that wouldn’t affect the final outcome.

It was over two days in the making but finally they were ready to be put in the oven…gave them the second egg wash and popped them into the oven to bake.  The first real payoff from this project came from the amazing smell these produced while they were cooking..I mean really good.  My house smelled like baked bread for most of the afternoon.  They baked up really bronzed, crispy on the outside and looking really fluffy on the inside.  I took them out and refrained from tasting them the way the cookbook said and let them rest.

My son and I were the first to taste them and after all the work I was saying they had better taste like they were flown in from France and truely they didn’t disappoint!  They were simply delicious!  I ended up having 10 people in on the tasting this time and everyone raved about them….couldn’t believe how good they tasted and how fresh and flakey they were!!!  What a great feeling after ALL that rolling…at least the end product made it seem worth it.

I am glad I have the other half of the dough in the freezer…for that batch I am going to make some of them chocolate croissants.  I am sure they will turn out great.  After that batch I am not sure I would take this recipe on again just because of the time involved but who knows another year and my youngest will be away at college and I may find I have a lot more time on my hands!  This was a fun adventure!