Sally Schmidt's Cranberry Apple Kuchen

We've established that I have gone literally months - *months* - without cooking.  Life is busy, deadlines, work, lawyer, blah, blah.  We all get busy sometimes.  Mine led to no cooking.

By November, I was really starting to have French Laundry withdrawals.  Four months without using my round cutters or chinois!  Four months without making a new flavored oil!  Four months without worrying about accidentally setting my kitchen on fire!  So, I insisted on having people over for Thanksgiving.  It was a long, hard fight; I won.  We had a small crowd (six people), so I stuck to traditions: turkey, mashed potatoes, grilled veggies, stuffing.  I threw in one unusual item: pumpkin-thyme rolls (which were a giant hit).  

And, I managed to seamlessly add a dessert from The French Laundry Cookbook.  Since we didn't have cranberry sauce, since no one coming over really loved pie (except me and angry toddler), I decided apple-cranberry cake would be a perfect way to end the meal.  It was.  And easy to boot.  I actually managed to prep it and cook it during the five hours that it took me to do all of Thanksgiving dinner.

The mis.  Notice something unusual about this picture? 

If you said 'granite counters, so that must be your new kitchen'... dingdingding!  Good observation skills.

Next I peeled, sliced, and cored some apples.

To make the batter, I creamed some butter, sugar, and an egg, then added flour and baking soda.

I spooned that into a cake pan (or in my case, really a cheesecake springform pan, which is nice because it releases easy but can turn out poorly for a bunch of reasons I dont understand.  I used it because it was the only cake pan I had that was anywhere near the right size) and arranged the apples in a pretty ring.

Sprinkling cranberries is fun!

With cranberries arranged around all of the edges and center.

Then I dusted with cinnamon/sugar/possibly nutmeg (I have no recollection of that, but looking back at my mis I see nutmeg and milk, which must have been in the batter)

Forty-odd minutes later, it emerged from the oven all beautiful.  And without any natural light to make a pretty photograph, and with people who had just finished dinner clamoring for a bite.

I whipped up the hot cream sauce - which was basically fat, more fat, and a different form of something that will make you fat (ie, cream, butter, and sugar).

The cake was delicious, although I wished that I had used a slightly smaller cake pan, since the batter part of the cake seemed a little thin.  It was a little tart without the hot cream sauce.  The dessert-hater crowd was happy about that, since (1) they could pretend like it was healthier and (2) it wasn't really sweet.  The hot cream sauce brought the sweetness up a tinge, and soaked through the batter to almost make it like a tres leches cake.

I thought it was delicious both ways.  It definitely reheated better with the cream sauces as breakfast (and maybe lunch... and dinner) the next day.  The combination tart-sweet seems like it would be a good holiday cake or like a nice cake in the summer, when its hot and you don't want to feel weighted down by something super sugary.  It just occurred to me that cranberries are near impossible to find in the summer though - so maybe its more of a September/October in San Diego cake (when its still hot, but we like to pretend its fall.)  Just find a time to make it.  It will take less than an hour, including cooking time, and will get rave reviews.  

Verjus... uh, soup.. with Poached Peaches

There wasn't a lot to this dessert.  In fact, I was so intimidated by the idea of cooking lamb AND foie that I intentionally chose an "easy" dessert.

So, of course, I screwed it up.

The peaches went fine - I made pretty slices...

Then I poached them in liquid with a pretty parchment lid, peeled them, and put them in their poaching liquid.

For the sorbet, literally all I had to do was combine verjus and some simple syrup, and put it in the ice cream maker.  I didn't even take any pictures because it was so boring.

And I totally, completely, blew it.  Backing up... I couldn't find any verjus.  Anywhere.  I gave up and got some honey mead that was supposedly supposed to taste similar to verjus (and had a super low alcohol content).  Unsuprisingly to most, i'm sure.... the mead wouldn't freeze.  WTF?  I asked myself.  Then: 'DOH! Alcohol!'  So I boiled the crap out of it to get rid of the alcohol.  But the bowl had thawed a bit, enough to make only a slightly slushy, vaguely alcoholic mix.  (Slush that melted before I even made it to the table).

I present my poached peaches in "wine-sauce." 

The peaches were fine.  Most of us felt a bit more drunk after eating this, even though I contended (over and over) that there COULDN'T be any alcohol in it.  I was validated in that it did finally freeze, after 12 hours in the freezer.  I am currently 0 for 2 on sorbets, which are seemingly the easiest thing to make.  Pox on your house, sorbet... I *will* conquer you!

Chocolate Fondant with Coffee Cream and Chocolate Dentelles

I think this was the most complicated dessert I have ever made in my life.  Certainly the most steps ever.  And despite reading the instructions twenty times, and despite something still going disastrously wrong at a vital point, this came together nicely.  The best part: I got to use a BLOWTORCH!  To cook!  (maybe the fire extinguisher as a valentine's day gift wasn't so unwarranted)

Step 1: cookies.  Mix the below

Cut out discs, freeze them.  A nice start.

Step 2: Chocolate Fondant

See all of the ingredients?  Pretty much each one had to be cooked separately.  Bleh.

I started by melting some chocolate.

Whipping the hell out of some sugar and an egg white.

Until it turned into a beautiful meringue.  Then I whipped some cream.  Times like this really made me wish that I had a second mixer bowl.

Next, I whipped some butter.  BY HAND.  That is some hardcore stuff.

So I took the chocolate (cooled)...

And added the coffee.... then the whipped butter... and it seized.  Ugh.  This was the thing they warn about, the temp of the coffee and chocolate and not letting it seize up.  I was totally kicking myself, but was determined to make it work (as an aside, I think my chocolate was maybe too warm and it melted the butter and just was bad).

But Brandon came to the rescue - he basically whipped the mixture as HARD as he could for like 5 minutes, and it smoothed out.  Probably not to where it should have been, but it had to work (since I didn't have time to go out and buy more chocolate... a problem I will never again suffer since I have two grocery stores within 3 blocks, and a Whole Foods AND a Bristol Farms within 5 miles).

After working the chocolate out, I folded in the meringue and whipped cream...

Then spooned it into my (too tall) molds.

Step 3: ganache

Mmmm..... very few things beat chocolate and cream!

Melted and mixed into a delicious creamy mix.

But... remember the too-tall molds?  Spooning and smoothing out ganache over the too-tall molds was a  serious pain.

Step five thousand and ten:

Chocolate dentelles

I had no idea what these were when I read about them, but after making them, I realized that these were the same kind of cookies that my mom LOVED when I was a kid from this local bakery.  They were half dipped in chocolate, and half lacey-butty-chocolately, and I thought they were weird (although pretty).  Luckily with growing up, I have realized that - hello! - chocolate is never weird.  Chocolate on rabbit (seen on Top Chef tonight) - yesplease!  Because its CHOCOLATE.

So I basically tossed almonds and cocoa in the food processor.

Cooked the corn syrup and sugar and butter until it came to 220.

Then I stirred in the nut/cocoa mixture.  Pretty, isn't it?

I poured this on some parchment paper, covered it, rolled it, and stuck in the in freezer.

To cook them, I just stuck the entire sheet in the freezer.

Not as easy: cutting rounds.  Mostly because the cutter I had was completely inadequate for the job.  But I got enough pretty rounds to make it.

Step OH MY GOD IT IS STILL GOING???

Coffee cream.  Exciting to most, revolting sounding to me.

Milk, cream, vanilla: heaven.

Eggs and sugar: best supporting actor/actress nominees

I heated the cream, tempered in the eggs, cooked until it was a custard.  Good stuff.

Then I strained it, cooled it, and added a touch of coffee cream (I think 'to taste' means 'as little as possible' when it comes to coffee)

Before the plated picture - the BEST PART: BLOWTORCH!!!!!!  Unfortunately, some people (uh-hum, husband) were a little concerned about me using a blowtorch and a camera at the same time, so no pictures.  But I got to take a blowtorch - a REAL ONE - and run it around the outside of the rings to loosen the fondant.  I was convinced that I was either going to burn myself, or totally jack up the chocolate fondants.  Or set something on fire... again.  Luckily, none of those happened. Go me!

Plated: coffee cream, chocolate fondant, a dentelle.  Isn't this pretty?  (ignoring the strange little chocolate flecks in the fondant from where the mixture seized up)

Sometimes I impress even myself.

"Coffee and Donuts"

Ah, donuts.  Let me tell you about my love affair with donuts.  When I was pregnant, I ate donuts at least once a week - the only time i've let myself go that much - and never tired of them.  Once when I was left alone at home for the whole weekend, I bought a dozen donuts and ate them all.  Actually, I think that was all I ate.  Didn't get sick of them.  It would possibly be accurate to say donuts are my favorite food in the whole wide world.

So, imagine my excitement when I actually made them for the first time!  (actually, trepidation is more accurate, but it turned into excitement)

But first, the "coffee" - a cappuccino semifreddo.  You know how I just waxed poetic about my love affair with donuts?  I feel the exact opposite way about coffee-flavored anything.  I despise coffee.  I can't even stand the Starbucks candyland versions (things like caramel mocha something or the others) - too bitter.  I once sent a piece of chocolate cake back at Spago when the waiter swore up and down there was no espresso in it.  There was.  I could taste it.

So, yeah.  Love/hate relationship expected with this dessert.  But at least making the semifreddo was easy.

First, a quick custard base - eggs, sugar, vanilla bean, whipped together.

Man, I love my mixer. 

I added some coffee extract, then put to chill on ice.

Next I whipped some cream and sugar, and folded that in, followed by whipping egg whites and sugar, and folding that in. 

Into a coffee cup and the freezer they went!

I tasted it as a custard (while it was cold, but not frozen).  It was... not bad.  But not something I was in love with.

Donuts, on the other hand... well, I was looking forward to this.  Especially once I realized how EASY it was. 

Just knowing how amazing a warm donut is, I decided to make a double batch so I could freeze them.  It was a good call, since it gave me an "excuse" to experiment with cooking them prior to the dinner.

First, lets talk about compressed yeast.  I didn't know what on earth it was, but I figured it wouldn't be hard to find.  I didn't know where to look for it.  I asked people in various stores (Vons, Whole Foods, Henrys), no one knew what I was talking about.  The day before I was supposed to be preparing the donuts, I turned to the internet.  Someone on some chowhound board posted about Stan at NY Bakers - a mail order place that is conveniently located in San Diego.  I shot him an email, explained my predicament (namely: I needed it asap, and I knew he only shipped it on such and such days... but could I please pretty please come to his warehouse and get some?).  Much to my surprise, he responded quickly, with a 'Sure, how much do you want?'  Thanks to Stan, for helping my donut dreams come true.

I carefully weighed the compressed yeast...

Then mixed it in the mixer with some water, then flour, and combined for a while.  I sat the spongy mixture to proof (crossing my fingers, since I kill every yeast-based dough)... and came back in a couple of hours to this:

Appropriately-risen dough.  I was in business!  So, I mixed some more compressed yeast, some other stuff (milk, flour, sugar, salt, egg yolks, butter - basically everything associated with baking), and eventually turned the sponge base into the dough forming in the mixer.  It was really bubblicious and sticky and exactly what good yeast should look like.



I set this out to proof for another hour.  It, too, rose in its bowl.

When the dough was appropriately proofed, I (heavily) floured my counter and went about rolling and cutting.  (technical issue: I didn't have cutters that were the correct size, so I just scaled up)  And rolling and cutting.  Until I had TONS of donuts (some of which went into the freezer, others stayed out for cooking that night). 

I had read accounts from numerous people that had issues with the non-stick spray and saran wrap thing for proofing.  I read accounts where people had no issue at all.  So I decided to try it both ways.

No saran wrap proofing:

Saran wrap proofing:

As you can (kinda) see, the saran wrap ones proofed a lot better.  And the wrap came off without any type of issues.  Success!

Into the deep fryer they went.  My house smelled like fried bread... heavenly.

After cooking, I tossed in cinnamon and sugar.

Don't they look amazing?  They were.

The day of the dinner party, I realized that I didn't know how to froth milk in my coffee/espresso maker.  In my defense, its not exactly something i've ever done (except the one day in college I worked as a barista at a local coffee shop, then decided it was a terrible idea for someone who HATES coffee to try and make it).  Steamed milk.... took a lot of experimenting.  But I did it!

As for the pretty donut hole sitting the donut... I don't think that the donuts made it that long.  I had a guest meet me in the walk way to get one.  Others were gone before I got to the table.  They were amazing.  And, like I said, really easy.  Like easy enough that i'm inspired to go make some (although I need more compressed yeast - I threw mine out in the move).  The semifreddo?  Eh... it was ok.  I took a bite, decided it wasn't for me, gave it to the hubbs.  That was ok though... I had more room for donuts!