Posted By Lindsay on December 26, 2009
Christmas dinner. We always like to splurge just a little bit, since it is a special occasion, it’s nice to cook something we don’t normally get to eat. Last year we made ribs, same thing the year before that. This year, we thought we’d give lamb a try. It was either that or seafood (which we quickly voted down as our home tends to hold on cooking smells for far too long. Seafood isn’t something I want to be smelling for the next five days straight).
This was a nice change from the labor-intensive Thanksgiving meal, as it literally took 25 minutes to bring together. We served the lamb with some nice asparagus (smothered in the same tomato butter as the lamb) and some of Taylor’s signature potatoes.
It was truly a treat. And like Taylor said, seafood wouldn’t have been nearly as satisfying.
And just wait until you see the dessert!
In other exciting Christmas news, Taylor was really paying attention this year… remember me talking about wanting some mini cake pans? He got me a set of three 6-inch pans, a perfect size for a layer cake for two. AND he managed to somehow prevent me from ordering a set on my own, which I was very close to doing multiple times this week. Sneaky boy! Though I think the REAL reason behind such a thoughtful gift is he just wants more cake, hehe. :)
Lamb Chops with Sun-Dried Tomato Butter
Ingredients:
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
8 lamb rib or loin chops (3/4 inch thick; 2 pounds)
Directions:
Mince and mash garlic to a paste with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Transfer paste to a food processor and pulse with sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts, coriander, cayenne, parsley, and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper until finely chopped. Blend in butter and lemon juice, then season with salt.
Preheat broiler or heavy skillet. Lightly oil rack of a broiler pan.
Pat lamb chops dry and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper (total), then broil on rack of broiler pan 4 to 5 inches from heat, turning once, 6 to 7 minutes total for medium-rare or sear in skillet for approximately 5-6 minutes per side depending on thickness. Spread tomato butter over chops.
Posted By Lindsay on December 23, 2009
Already getting a good start tackling my baking resolutions (and it’s not even the new year)… I’ve moved from macarons to fondant. I stumbled upon a fondant cake decorating class in our area, and immediately jumped at the opportunity to get my hands dirty. My first attempt (solo – stupid!) failed so miserably, I realized that just watching people decorating cakes on TV was not a suitable learning tool.
The supply list for this class included a cake. Which makes sense, I guess, it’d be pretty ridiculous if they provided cake for everyone. So Friday night before the class I got to work baking a cake.
I’m sure if this was Taylor taking the class (which, that alone is very unlikely anyway), he would have just thrown together a box mix cake. It’s just practicing after all, why spend the time baking a real cake from scratch. But you know me, a box mix just will not do. I won’t even settle for a homemade cake and quick plain buttercream. Nope. I spent as much time thinking about the inside of the cake as I did decorating the outside.
The result was a delicious yellow cake, filled with a coffee-flavored swiss meringue buttercream and a layer of chocolate ganache. Tasty! The end result reminded me a lot of Tiramisu – the creamy meringue buttercream spiked with coffee, the rich vanilla buttermilk cake… with a chocolaty twist.
The actual decorating was quite a success as well. Actually seeing a cake covered in fondant step by step makes a huge difference. And I could barely believe how easy the bow was. Aside from a few small blips and tears, I think it looks pretty darned nice!
What I need to find are some miniature cake pans. Like, figure out what exactly half of an 8 inch 3-layer-cake recipe would yield (5″? 6″? Math geniuses, help me out!) With a smaller cake I could bake them more often and wouldn’t feel so guilty about just the two of us eating the entire thing. Practice my decorating skills without needing a special occasion as an excuse!
Though, as pretty as the outside looks, I do have to say that the inside just might be the prettiest part. :)
Vanilla Cake with Tiramisu Buttercream and Bittersweet Ganache Filling
Ingredients:
Cake:
3 3/4 cups cake flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon plus 2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 sticks (10 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups plus 1/3 cup buttermilk
5 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Buttercream: (halve this recipe if you will be covering the cake with fondant)
6 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds (5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons warm water
1 tablespoon instant coffee
Ganache:
1/3 cup heavy cream
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter three 9-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.
Combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl. With the mixer on low speed, blend for 30 seconds. Add the butter and 1 1/4 cup of the buttermilk. Mix on low speed briefly to blend; then raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
In a smaller bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and the remaining 1/3 cup buttermilk until well blended. Pour one-third of the egg mixture into the cake batter at a time, folding it in completely after each addition. There will be 9 cups of batter; our 3 cups batter into each pan.
Bake for 26 to 28 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Turn the layers out onto wire racks by placing a rack on top of a pan, inverting it, and lifting off the pan. Peel off the paper liners and let cool completely. When the layers have cooled, place a cardboard cake board on top of a layer, invert again, and lift off the rack. To make the layers easier to handle, wrap them on their boards completely in plastic, so they don’t dry out, and refrigerate them.
To make buttercream, combine the sugar and egg whites in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 5 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like marshmallow cream. Remove from heat and transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer, and whisk on high speed until mixture is completely cooled and stiff peaks form, about 6 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Add butter, 2 tablespoons at a time, on low speed, mixing well after each addition. Beat until smooth, about 3 minutes.
Stir instant coffee into warm water until dissolved. Add, 1 teaspoon at a time, to buttercream, mixing well after each addition, until you're satisfied with the strength of the coffee flavor (I added about 1 tablespoon).
To make ganche, place chopped chocolate in a heat proof bowl. In a heavy saucepan set over medium heat, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the stove and pour over chopped chocolate. Let stand 2 minutes and then stir until fully combined. Let cool until just firm enough to spread onto cake layers.
After leveling cake layers as necessary, place one cake layer on a cake board, flat side up. Brush with sugar syrup (if desired, it will help keep the cake moist). Spread half of the ganache evenly over the top, followed by approximately 3/4 cup of the buttercream. Repeat with the second cake layer, by first brushing on some sugar syrup, followed by more ganache and buttercream. Top the cake with the third layer. Lightly crumb coat the the cake with more buttercream. At this point you can either cover the cake with fondant, or frost it with a thick layer of buttercream.
Posted By Lindsay on December 20, 2009
There are a few things I am determined to conquer this coming year. Call them by 2010 baking resolutions, if you will. Pie crust (I WILL make a successful pie crust even if it means baking pumpkin pies in July). Caramel (or any cooked sugar for that matter). Fondant. And now you can add French Macarons to that list (not to be confused with Macar-oo-ns, which are completely different creatures).
Don’t let their cute appearance fool you, these are tricky little suckers. The four you see in the pictures are about the only somewhat photogenic cookies we ended up with. Out of dozens. And even those have their (numerous) flaws.
This is a cookie that should not be attempted alone, especially for the first time. Which is why I was extra excited (and oh so lucky) when the lovely Erin of ErinsFoodFiles agreed to join me for a day-long macaron-athon.
And let me tell you, when food bloggers get together…
Good times are had by all. :)
We attempted two different kinds of macarons. The first batch was plain, we thought that not adding extra flavorings would increase our chances of success (right). I think we under-whipped our egg whites and the resulting batter was extremely watery. Think like flowing out of the piping bag before I could get it over the baking sheet watery. Yes, we made a nice big mess. But somehow we got them on the pan in somewhat circular blobs, and into the oven they go. We watched in anticipation as the things actually grew FEET! Feet! That must mean we succeeded, ON OUR VERY FIRST TRY!
Not so fast…
I think we must have undercooked them, even though we followed the recipe precisely. Because when we tried to take the cookies off of the pan, the outer shells separated completely from the overly-gooey centers. Big mess. Somehow we salvaged a few cookies that didn’t separate, most of the others just became lunch.
The second batch, we whipped longer and baked longer at a lower temp. They came out looking slightly odd, but with feet nonetheless (hooray!). Yet, again the problem with the sticking. These things just didn’t want to come off the pans.
We persevered, and rather than giving up and trashing the rest of our sticky and lopsided cookies, we made the ganche filling anyway. And even though many of the cookies were practically just a paper thin shell that could barely support their own weight, let alone heavy ganche, we filled them anyway. And you know what?
Best. Cookies. Ever.
Especially the coffee ones (recipe found here, except we did a bittersweet ganache filling a la these instead of the nutella). Unbelievable.
Whatever. So our macarons weren’t the cute little pastel colored buttons that are all the rage. But I don’t care. I would much rather make an amazingly delicious ugly-duckling of a cookie, than a flawless and flavorless pile of blah.
I am going to make these again. I am going to figure out why the heck they stuck. I’m going to get them unstuck so I can pile on even more rich chocolate ganache. And I am going to eat them. All. Or split them if Erin is willing to bake en-tandem again (oh if only we had a double oven we could be a macaron factory, just about). Be sure to check out Erin’s blog today for another POV on the whole experience. :)
2010 will be the year it’s all going to happen. I am going to master the things that intimidate me most. Pie crust better watch its back!
Posted By Lindsay on December 17, 2009
Another delicious panini (have we been making a lot lately? Or is it just me? I’m counting on the fact that you all love paninis as much as we do and aren’t yet getting sick of them.) The secret ingredient in this one? Fig jam (which is surprisingly hard to find… I think we got luck with this one.) Subtly sweet, just enough to make you feel like you’re eating a chicken and blue cheese dessert. Well, not quite dessert, but the sweetness is an unexpected and delicious element… and when paired with the bitter arugula, well, it’s something worth repeating.
Case in point: we’ve made this twice (a rare occurrence for us – something has got to be REALLY good for us to drag it out of our archives and make it again).
The first time we used goat cheese (because we were convinced our month-old remnant of blue cheese was growing mold – go figure), and then again this week with some newly purchased blue cheese. I’m sure Taylor wouldn’t hesitate in saying he preferred the later. For me, on the other hand… goat cheese is always the winner in my book. I felt that it didn’t overpower the subtlety of the jam like the blue cheese did. You could use either.
Not to mention we get to add another rotisserie chicken to the stockpile in the freezer… we’re always looking for creative uses for rotisserie chickens for just that very reason. Gotta keep the chicken stocked for stock!
Chicken Panini with Fig Jam, Arugula, and Blue Cheese
Ingredients:
1/4 cup fig jam
1 (8-ounce) ciabatta, cut lengthwise
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese or goat cheese
2 tablespoons butter, softened
8 ounces sliced or shredded cooked chicken breast
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups arugula leaves
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Directions:
Spread jam over cut side of top half of bread. Combine cheese and butter in a bowl, stirring until smooth (if using goat cheese, skip this step). Spread cheese mixture over cut side of bottom half of bread. Arrange chicken evenly over cheese mixture; sprinkle with pepper. Place top half of bread, jam side down, over chicken.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, and add sandwich to pan. Place a heavy cast-iron skillet on sandwich; cook 5 minutes or until both sides are browned, turning once.
Place arugula in a bowl. Drizzle juice over arugula; toss gently. Remove top bread half from sandwich. Arrange arugula mixture over chicken. Replace top bread half. Cut sandwich into 4 equal portions.
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