Happy Easter and Peanut Butter Cupcakes!

Happy Easter! It's been such a relaxing weekend. I've been sitting around and catching up on leisure activities.

Last week, I was down by my old neighborhood to watch Tulpan at the Film Forum. I got there early and had some time to kill, so I finally stopped by Sweet Revenge on Carmine & Bedford. Confused by all the booze and sweets, I ordered the namesake Sweet Revenge - a peanut butter cake, ganache filling with peanut butter buttercream. The base was unremarkable (completely did not know it was peanut butter until I looked it up online), the ganache seemed misplaced, but they seemed to compliment the frosting perfectly. I had been toying with the idea of a peanut butter frosting cupcake for NYC's first Cupcake Camp. I've been avoiding experimenting with peanut butter because of a relative's severe allergy, but as I spooned the rich frosting (with a wooden spoon!) into my greedy mouth while waiting for Tulpan to start, I concluded that I'll finally carry through.

I was more interested in coming up with a rich frosting that was both sweet and didn't leave me with the feeling that peanut butter was sticking to the roof of my mouth (can you tell I'm not a peanut butter addict?). I haven't figured out a good base yet...except for the conclusion that i being chocolate is imperative and each cupcake should have a peanut butter cup hidden in the center. I did come up with the right frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting

Frosts 12-15 cupcakes

1/2 c butter (1 stick)

1/2 c peanut butter

2 1/4 c powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

4 tbsp milk (Use as needed)

1) Blend butter and peanut butter in a mixer. Add powdered sugar and mix until lumps have disappeared (will appear grainy). Blend in vanilla. Add milk as needed. Don't exceed 4 tbsp milk or else frosting will be too liquid.

This is really only for those with an intense sweet tooth. If you don't have a good chocolate cake recipe, try this black magic cake recipe from allrecipes. It's very rich and moist. The coffee taste is barely noticeable and I'm still intrigued that it doesn't use butter...

xoxo,

lemonie

Palets Aux Raisins

When this recipe showed up in my workbook at ICE, I was reluctant to try this one out because...well...the raisin in the name and the thought of currants in my cookie made me uneasy. However, they turned out much better than I thought! They're no chocolate chip cookies, but still pretty good and super easy to make.

Palets Aux Raisins

4 1/2 oz butter

3 1/2 oz sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tbsp dark rum

5 1/2 oz ap flour

3 1/2 oz currants

1) Cream the butter with th esugar until soft and light. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in rum, then flour and currants.

2) Pipe on parchment lined sheet pans with 1/2" plain tube. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

xoxo,

lemonie

Eleni's Cookies

I don't know what exactly took me so long to get to Chelsea Market. I'm sort of disappointed in myself! It's weird...I had known about it, but I neer really thought about it being a place to go to until it was recommended by someone at my gym. So, I planned it into my weekend schedule and I went yesterday.

My goodness! The bakeries are so cute. I also like the transparency to it. I really like looking at kitchens so it was lovely getting to see the dough kneading going on at Amy's Bakery. I didn't buy any bread from there, although I feel like I should have, but I did go into a lot of the other stores to try them out.

Now I'm not going to buy almond flour from anywhere but Buon Italia. I've never seen the flour so fine before...and it's way cheaper than the stuff I pick up at Whole Foods. Fat Witch's brownies were completely disappointing. You would think that if brownies were their specialty, they would be better. Afterwards, they inspired me to make this blondie recipe I've been working on for dinner and they were well received, so it wasn't all bad. I ate my first rugelach yesterday and the judges are still out on that one. Taste good, texture...ehh. But the real treasure of yesterday was finding this cow cookie at Eleni's. Most decorated cookies don't taste very good b/c they need to be firm. This isn't an exceptional cookie, but despite being dry and hard, it's got good flavor. It actually reminds me of something, but I haven't been able to figure out. Right now, my best guess is Nilla Wafers. So, it has more flavor than the typical cardboard tasting cookies...and well...it's a cow. How can I resist the cow? I also wanted to get this googly-eyed dinosaur, but I knew if I ate one cookie, I wouldn't eat the other so I wasn't about to throw away $4 just to own the googly-eyed dinosaur. That's for next time.

Apple & Pear Strips

So what else can be done with puff pastry? Building on the puff pastry and the almond frangipane from the last post, we can add some fruits and sweets and make another delicious dessert.

This one, I really like...a lot of it is due to aesthetic reasons. I have a particular fondness for shiny foods. Somehow they look more delicious when they glisten. My only real complaint is that I would've liked all my apple/pear slices to be the same size...but to do that would've required the sacrifice of many more apples and pears...and a lot of waste.

Poached Pears on the left, Apples on the right

So to make these...

Apple Strips

1 lb puff pastry
1 egg for egg wash

1 lb almond frangipane
4 golden delicious apples
1 oz melted butter

2 oz apricot glaze
Optional Finishing: Sliced Almonds and Confectioners' sugar


1) Roll dough into a rectangle approximately 14"x18". Allow dough to rest in refridgerator for about an hour.
2) Cut dough into four 1" strips and two 5" strips. Place the 5 inch strips on a baking pan and dock (take a look at this if you don' t know what that means: Ateco 1357 Dough Docker). Paint the edges with the egg wash. Apply the 1" strips to the long sides. Press down on edge with the pointer and middle finger approximately 1/2 inch apart. Cut through all layers by taking a knife and slicing the dough between your fingertips at ~1/2 inch intervals. This is to get the 1" and the 5" strips to stick to each other. Refrigerate until firm.
3) Pipe frangipane between the 1" strips. Peel, core, and slice apples to 1/8" thick. Fan slightly and place over frangipane. Brush with melted butter and brush the edges with egg wash.
4) Bake at 350 degrees until the pastry is well colored (check the sides to make sure they aren't white), ~30 minutes.
5) Brush apples with apricot glaze.
Optional: If your sides didn't rise evenly or doesn't look very good, you can top with almonds or confectioners sugar to hide the "flaw."

If you want to do the pear version, poach some pears and follow same instructions. Note: Pears don't have be sliced as thinly.

Poached Pears
Cold water
1/2 oz lemon juice
1 1/4 lbs ripe pears
1/2 lb granulated sugar
1/4 vanilla bean

1) Combine water and lemon juice in a large pan.
2) Peel, halve, and core pears. Add to pan. Add sugar and vanilla.
3) Cover with parchment paper cut to fit inside the pan with a hole in the center (prevents the pears from getting too colored). Bring to a boil and remove from stove. Allow to cool.

I really like puff pastry. It might also be because I really like butter. However, mixing puff pastry with a nice fruit and the sweet taste of apricot...wowweee. The only downer is that this is definitely not as good the second day. In fact, it gets sort of stale and that's not cool! Or maybe that's just an excuse to eat it all in a day.

xoxo,
lemonie

Gateau Pithiviers

Honestly, if someone had kindly informed me of the thousands of things that can be done with puff pastry, I would've started to buy commercial sheets a few years ago and had my way with them. I could have tried a billion different wonderful things by now. It wasn't until I actually labored with them that I discovered all the uses. To be quite honest...the taste of homemade puff pastry is absolutely wonderful, BUT...it's a lot of work and if you're going to get all creative and put extra stuff on the pastry...then perhaps going with puff pastry at the store isn't that big of a deal. It saves a lot of time and you can come up with tons of different uses for it. I know it's not cost effective whatsoever for bakeries to make their own puff pastry dough, so most don't even bother, which is why you shouldn't bad about it. I feel like the time you have to devote to making the dough shouldn't deter you from trying out all of these different recipes. In fact, tons of people should try these out with sheets from the store and if they find one they like...they should take the time to make the dough. It's a true labor of love...

Ok, I'm blabbing b/c I'm like a kid who just discovered a candy store for the first time.

Gateau Pithiviers...has an awful name. It's beyond intimidating to try to pronounce. Truthfully, I'm pretty insecure at pronouncing French names b/c it sounds so much nicer coming out of a French person's mouth than my own. However, it's a lot easier to make than it sounds.

Almond Frangipane
8 oz almond paste
5 oz sugar
4 eggs
8 oz butter, softened
grated zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 oz AP flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

1) Combine almond paste, sugar, and 1 egg in mixer. Beat with paddle on medium speed until smooth.
2) Add butter, lemon zest and vanilla. Beat until smooth, then add eggs one at a time, scraping bowl between each egg.
3) Combine flour and baking powder. Beat until just absorbed.

Notes: Almond paste is pretty much 50% almonds and 50% sugar, but I can't figure out why it has such a distinctive taste. I use a lot of almond flour and I eat a lot of almonds, but they don't taste like that! It took me a while to figure out what it tastes like...it tastes like those cookies that come in plastic containers at the supermarket with sprinkles on them.
This can last in the fridge for weeks and the freezer for months!
This makes more than what's necessary for Gateau Pithiviers, but don't fear...I'll be using it in the next post.

Gateau Pithiviers
2 lbs puff pastry
12 oz almond frangipane
1 Egg for egg wash

1) Roll dough into 11"x22" rectangle. Cut into 2 11" squares. Chill in fridge for about an hour.
2) Place one square on a baking pan covered with parchment paper. Cut out two 10" circles. Mark with a 6" circle in the center (you can just use a bowl to outline these...just press the bowl upside down lightly into the dough to leave a mark). On just one circle, pipe almond frangipane inside the inner (6") circle. Brush egg glaze between the 6" circle and the edge. Press second dough circle on top and press down dough along edge so they stick.
3) Trim edges into a soft star shape (Sorry, hard to describe...kind of like the outline of flower petals. Refer to photo to understand.) using a thin knife. Be sure not to cut near the almond frangipane or else it'll leak out during baking. Brush top with egg wash.
4) Cut hole in the center to allow the steam of the frangipane to escape during baking. Holding the knife at a 45 degree angle, create curved slashes that cut only halfway through the puff pastry on the inner 6" circle. On the edges (the petals), cut X shapes.
5) Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking until pastry is well colored ~40 minutes.

When it comes out, brush with sugar syrup. Combine 8 oz sugar and 1 c water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cool. This will make it slightly sweeter and much shinier.

p.s. Save your scraps. Wrap them up and throw them in the freezer b/c they're totally still usable!

Notes: Again back to the distinct almond paste taste...it really shines in this piece. I used the frangipane in a tart and was so "ehhh" about it that I didn't even bother putting it up, but it's much better here. I really enjoyed this one! The shape is sort of comical though. On one hand, it's really beautiful just sitting there all delicate and lovely, but when it came to eating it, I felt like a child in a cartoon picking up and eating a shiny flower. Perhaps it's supposed to be eaten in a more delicate way, but I couldn't help myself!

Check out the layers below. Just imagine that there's 1200+ layers of butter folded in dough making up this beauty. It's so light and flaky!



xoxo,
lemonie

Puff Pastry

Following in the footsteps of the last post...I went back to folding butter in dough to make beautiful layered puff pastry. I've never even used commercial puff pastry before, but I did get the opportunity to taste test between this one and the commercial one. If you've got the time, I totally recommend making your own b/c it tastes so much better.

Rumor has it that the origins of puff pastry was, like many things, an accident. An apprentice making bread realized that he had forgotten to put butter into his dough. So he decided to try to add the butter in later by folding it in. But clearly, the results were very different and the layers puffed up. Chef Jeff at my pastry school jokes that he was probably fired after the discovery and his master took all the credit.

With puff pastry...you can make quite a few delicious treats. More recipes to come (with pictures!) but here are the basics.

Puff Pastry Dough
1 1/2 lb ap flour
8 oz cake flour
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 pint cold water
1/2 lb soft butter

1) Mix flours together.
2) Dissolve salt and sugar in cold water, set aside.
3) Rub butter into flour until butter disappears (will look sandy when done)
4) Fold the water in gently and set dough aside while preparing the butter.

Note: This "dough" will be really ugly. Don't overwork it...it should look pretty crumbly.

Butter
2 lbs butter
4 oz ap flour

1) Sprinkle flour onto work surface. Coat butter with flour.
2) Pound butter to soften it. Knead it into a square about 1 inch thick and 6-7" on each side.

Forming the puff pastry dough
1) Dust work surface with flour and turn dough out onto it. Press dough into a rough square about 1 inch thick. Leaving the center alone, roll out the four corners into flaps about 1/4 inch thick.
2) Place butter square on the dough. Fold flaps over the butter without stretchign them. Seal dough so that butter doesn't show.

Rolling/Folding Dough
1) On a floured work surface, roll dough into rectangular shape until about 1/4 inch thick. Dust with flour as necessary to keep it from getting sticky.
2) Fold both ends of the dough in towards the center, then fold in half to make 4 layers - which will resemble a book.
3) Position the dough so that the "spine" of the dough book is on the left so that you're rolling in the opposite direction. Dust the surface with flour again and roll out to a rectangle about 12"x30". Fold over like in #2.
4) Wrap dough in plastic and let it rest in fridge up to about 1 hour.
5) Repeat #3 two more times, resting for at least an hour in between.
6) Rest the dough at least 4 hours before use.

xoxo,
lemonie

Croissants

I had this really intense craving for croissants this past week. Even though I live in New York City, which is the home to some wonderful pastries, I insisted that I make the croissants myself. I found a recipe from epicurious and was a little wary of the brown sugar, but I decided to give it a try. Honestly, it was a lot more work than I anticipated! On top of that, I didn't think I had my rolling pin so I used a wine bottle to do all the rolling. And by the time I got to the last part, I didn't do such a good job with shaping the pieces b/c I wanted to eat them too badly. I filled them with pieces of chocolate or apricot jam. The jam was delicious, the chocolate was pretty good as expected, and the plain ones were just okay.

Croissants

1 1/2 c warm whole milk

1/4 c packed light brown sugar

1 tbsp plus 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (two 1/4 oz packages)

3 3/4 - 4 1/2 c ap lfour

1 tbsp kosher salt

3 sticks cold unsaltedbutter

1) Make dough: Stir together warm milk, brown sugar, and yeast in bowl of standing mixer and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If it doesn’t foam, discard and start over.) Add 3 3/4 cups flour and salt and mix with dough hook at low speed until dough is smooth and very soft, about 7 minutes.
2) Transfer dough to a work surface and knead by hand 2 minutes, adding more flour as necessary, a little at a time, to make a soft, slightly sticky dough. Form dough into a roughly 1 1/2-inch-thick rectangle and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until cold, about 1 hour.
3) Prepare and shape butter:After dough has chilled, arrange sticks of butter horizontally, their sides touching, on a work surface. Pound butter with a rolling pin to soften slightly (butter should be malleable but still cold). Scrape butter into a block and put on a kitchen towel, then cover with other towel. Pound and roll out on both sides until butter forms a uniform 8- by 5-inch rectangle. Chill, wrapped in towels, while rolling out dough.
5) Roll out dough: Unwrap dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface, dusting with flour as necessary and lifting and stretching dough (especially in corners), into a 16- by 10-inch rectangle. Arrange dough with a short side nearest you. Put butter in center of dough so that long sides of butter are parallel to short sides of dough. Fold as you would a letter: bottom third of dough over butter, then top third down over dough. Brush off excess flour with pastry brush.
6) Roll out dough: Turn dough so a short side is nearest you, then flatten dough slightly by pressing down horizontally with rolling pin across dough at regular intervals, making uniform impressions. Roll out dough into a 15- by 10-inch rectangle, rolling just to but not over ends.
Brush off any excess flour. Fold in thirds like a letter, as above, stretching corners to square off dough, forming a 10- by 5-inch rectangle. (You have completed the first "fold.") Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, 1 hour.
7) Make remaining "folds":Make 3 more folds in same manner, chilling dough 1 hour after each fold, for a total of 4 folds. (If any butter oozes out while rolling, sprinkle with flour to prevent sticking.) Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and chill at least 8 hours but no more than 18 (after 18 hours, dough may not rise sufficiently when baked).

8) Shape as desired depending on fillings. Place on prepared baking sheets, cover with greased plastic wrap and allow to rise until they have doubled in size.

9) Bake in oven preheated to 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Note: If you want the shiny crispy look, brush the top with an egg wash.
I really loved seeing the layers puff up, especially knowing how much work went into making each one.

xoxo,

lemonie