Esterhazy

Chances are good you’ve never heard of an Esterhazy torte, at least if google is any indication. It’s a traditional Hungarian walnut cake, made with thin, meringue like cake layers and a rich walnut filling, which I first had at a little local place, and was absolutely blown away by. Of course, I immediately went home to find a recipe so that I could make it myself, but much to my surprise, there was a relative dearth of information and recipes (one that didn’t look great from about.com did come up). Fortunately, digging through some message boards on cooking websites unearthed a couple of recipes, which I combined into something workable. I’ve actually tried this cake a couple of times, first before thanksgiving, and then I made two of them for New Year’s parties.

I made one major change from the traditional cake. As I’ve seen it at a restaurant, and the few places I’ve found it, an Esterhazy is traditionally topped with a fondant or mirror, which then has a chocolate web made into it. The first time I tried this, my fondant (really, the recipe was just for a glaze) was apparently too loose, and within minutes it flowed off of the cake, literally leaving it sitting in a pool of frosting. I made several more attempts to no avail. I also thought this caused the cake to be overly sweet (a picture of this cake, as I finally served it, is at the bottom of this post). Consequently, the second time I made the cake, I replaced the traditional fondant with a nice chocolate buttercream, which I used to frost the whole outside of the cake. I have to say, this may not be traditional, but combined with the walnuts it was very good. The filling in this cake is also pretty unusual, sort of a cross between a butter cream and a pastry cream, but when it’s done it is to die for. This cake could also be made with almonds, or maybe even hazelnuts. One last note, as a consequence, this cake is incredibly rich, so serve small slices.

Esterhazy Torte

Cake Layers – makes 6 thin layers (the recipe I took from claimed it only made 5, but there was enough left for a sixth)

10 egg whites, room temperature

7/8 cup sugar (this is one cup minus two tablespoons, use vanilla sugar* if you have it)

2 cups + 2 T ground walnuts (about 8 ½ oz)

Zest of 1 medium orange, finely grated

½ cup all purpose flour, sifted

*vanilla sugar can be purchased at specialty stores, or made by combining a vanilla pod with sugar. If you have vanilla powder, you can also put in a little of that. I would not recommend adding vanilla extract to this part of the recipe, as the liquid may cause your whites to lose some of their stiffness.

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Draw 6, eight inch circles on parchment paper, and lay them out on cookie sheets.

2. Combine the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a mixer, and beat until the whites reach stiff, dry peaks.

3. Fold in the nuts and orange zest. Sift the flour over the mixture and gently fold to combine.

4. Place some batter at the center of one of your parchment circles (somewhere around ¾ of a cup). Using an offset spatula, spread the batter as thinly as possible, covering the entire circle. I would say my layers ended up being about ¼ inch thick.

5. Once all your layers are made, place in the oven for 45 minutes, until crisp and golden. Be careful not to place your layers too low in the oven (if that’s where your heating element is), or they may get scorched on the bottom (learned this the hard way).

6. Remove from the oven, and transfer to cooling racks after about a minute. Promptly peel off the parchment paper. Let sit until completely cool and firm. If you leave them overnight, and they need to be re-crisped, put them in a 185 degree oven for 12 minutes.

Here is a picture of what the completed cake looks like sliced. The individual layers become a little indistinct, but it still tastes great.

Walnut Filling

6 egg yolks

1 ½ cups milk (any kind)

1 ½ cups ground walnuts

6 T cornstarch

1 ½ T sugar

2 t vanilla extract

3 T dark rum

18 T butter (2 ¼ sticks), softened

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

½ tsp almond extract (optional)

1. In a double boiler, over barely simmering water, whisk together the egg yolks, milk, walnuts, cornstarch, vanilla and sugar. Switch to a spatula and continue stirring, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan.

2. As you go, the mixture will thicken (you are making a pastry cream). At first, it will appear to separate, as parts are thick and others aren’t, just keep stirring until it becomes uniformly thick. Bring it all the way up to a boil (it will be very thick by this point). Remove from heat.

3. Just so you know, at this point the pastry cream should taste pretty unappetizing, sort of like oatmeal. That is normal (consider how little sugar went in). Whisk in the rum. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pastry cream, and let set in the refrigerator, at least 4 hours.

4. In the bowl of a mixer cream the butter until fluffy. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar, and beat until fully combined. Add ¼ of the pastry cream, along with the almond extract, and beat to combine. Keep adding it in portions until all pastry cream has been beaten in. If the mixture is too soft, add additional powdered sugar. Do remember it is a filling though, and doesn't need to be pipeable. The end result of this looks a little strange, but should taste great.

Chocolate buttercream

½ pound butter (2 sticks)

½ pound semisweet chocolate (finely chopped, or in chip)

½ tsp vanilla

2-3 cups powdered sugar

1. Melt the chocolate over barely simmering water in the bowl of a double boiler. Set aside to cool.

2. Cream the butter with 1 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Once the chocolate is cool enough that it won’t melt the butter, add in the chocolate. Beat until well combined.

4. Beat in additional powdered sugar until frosting is pipeable, and tasty. I tend not to like overly sweetened buttercreams, and so try to stay on the softer side, with less powdered sugar, but you should do what feels right to do, buttercream is incredibly flexible

Assembly

Cake layers

Walnut filling

2 T apricot Jam

1 T dark rum (or cold water)

Chocolate buttercream

1. Place a cake layer flat-side down on your work surface. Spread 1/5 of your walnut filling on it, reaching to all the corners. Try to spread it relatively thinly, as with 6 layers, this is not a cake where you want thick layers of frosting. Place the next layer on top, and gently press it into the frosting, then frost the top of it, and press another layer on. It will look sort of like a stack of pancakes. If any of your layers are misshapen, and stick out beyond the edge of the cake, gently trim them with scissors. If any of your layers crack or break while you’re working, don’t worry about it (it happened to me twice). Just stick them back together, and cover them with filling, this stuff is a little like schlak, and will hold them together without a problem.

2. Continue until you have placed your last layer on top of the cake (this time flat side up). You should not frost the top of the cake with the walnut filling).

3. Use excess frosting to patch up the sides of your cake, first any holes you have, and then just all around the make the edges of the cake even and flat if you can.

Here's one of the cakes with the filling spread around the edges, so it's more even, and the second in the process of getting its crumb coat

4. Simmer the apricot jam with the rum in a small saucepan, just until the jam is melted. Avoiding any big chunks of apricot, use a pastry brush to spread the glaze thinly over the top layer of the cake.

5. Spread a small amount of the chocolate buttercream evenly over the cake, this is your crumb coat. Refrigerate the cake for 10 minutes.

6. Spread the remainder of the chocolate buttercream evenly over the cake. Reserve some for whatever decorations and embellishments you choose.

These are the two completed cakes I made for New Year's Eve

Here is my first attempt at the Esterhazy, with the fondant. Pressed into the sides is some ground up praline. Combined with the fondant, this was too sweet, and the fondant didn't add anything. The chocolate is better.

Chocolate and Raspberry Mousse Dacquoise Napoleons

This was the dessert I made for my big dinner, and was by far the best part of the meal. You’ll have to forgive the lack of a photo of the plated dish, but it was so good that I forgot to take one. And despite this being essentially a modification of an earlier post, I strongly recommend this preparation. I served the final napoleons sitting in a vanilla crème anglaise, and drizzled a raspberry coulis over the top of the dessert. I should note that because of the addition of the jam, the mousse was not nearly as stiff as other times I’ve made this. I stuck the mousse in the fridge for a few hours and it firmed up enough to be pipable. I would recommend making the ingredients for this dessert in advance, but only combining the Dacquoise and mousse an hour or two before serving, and not adding the sauces until it is actually time to serve. In the prep photo, if you look closely enough, you might notice there are raspberries on the bottom layers, but not the top, that’s because I ran out of raspberries. I did top each napoleon with two raspberries, which I cemented in place with a little chocolate mousse. I’ve included an picture of the assembled but not plated dessert below.

Chocolate Raspberry Napoleons

Makes ~ 6

Chocolate Mousse 

400 ml water 

16 oz. bittersweet chocolate 

6 T seedless raspberry jam, melted (I recommend Polaner’s)

1. Get a large mixing bowl and a larger pot. Fill the large pot with ice and water, and place the mixing bowl in it. You might want to build a foil collar for the mixing bowl, as chocolate is going to spray.

2. In a medium, heavy bottomed sauce pan, combine the chocolate and water. Heat over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixed with the water.

3. Pour the water and chocolate mixture into the prepared mixing bowl, and immediately begin to beat using a hand mixer. Beat for 5-10 minutes, or until mixture has cooled and stiffened into a mousse (the more you beat, the stiffer it will get, and because it will loosen up when the liquor is added, you want it very stiff to start).

4. Beat in the jam 1-2 T at a time. Store the mousse in the fridge until ready to use

 

Almond Dacquoise

215 grams blanched almonds 

150 grams confectioner’s sugar, plus more for dusting 

5 egg whites 

50 grams granulated sugar

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats.

2. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Spread the nuts out on a cookie sheet and bake them for 10 minutes, or until just golden. Quickly place them into a towel and rub them together to get the skins off. (chances are you will be more successful getting the skins of the hazelnuts than the almonds, don’t worry about it).

3. Reserve 80 grams of the nuts. Place the remaining 135 grams in the food processor and pulse until coarse. Add the powdered sugar and pulse until combined and fine.

4. Place the egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer with the whisk attachment. Whip the egg whites until soft peaks form. With the mixer on high, gradually add the granulated sugar. Continue beating the egg whites until they reach still peaks.

5. Gently fold the nut and sugar mixture into the egg white mixture, until just combined.

6. Using a pastry bag fitted with a ½ inch tip (this is just a bear coupler on a regular bag). Pipe the dacquoise into rectangles. I didn’t bother using any kind of form for this, I just made each rectangle 5-6 inches long, and three passes with the pastry bag wide.

7. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until dacquoise are crisp and golden, switching the baking sheets half way through. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container with wax paper between the dacqoise until assembly.

 

Raspberry coulis

1 pound bag frozen raspberries 

½ cup sugar 

1 T lemon juice

1. Put the raspberries and sugar in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk until liquefied (this may take awhile if you start with frozen raspberries). Continue until mixture is brought to a simmer and somewhat reduced.

2. Remove from heat and strain the coulis through a sieve to strain out the seeds. Stir the lemon juice. Refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

 

Crème Anglaise

2 cups whole milk 

1 T vanilla paste 

½ cup sugar 

4 egg yolks

1. Set a medium bowl in an ice bath, with a sieve over the top. Set it aside.

2. In a second bowl whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Set aside.

3. Combine the vanilla and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Heat until small bubble begin to form.

4. While whisking the egg mixture, pour the half of the milk into the eggs in a thin stream. Pour egg mixture into the saucepan and combine it with the rest of the milk.

5. Put the saucepan back over the heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until mixture has thickened slightly (Do Not bring to a boil).

6. Pour the mixture through the sieve into the ready bowl (the one sitting in the ice bath). Refrigerate until ready to use.

 

 

My First Macarons

I know that by posting this I am contributing nothing to the culinary world, basic recipes for macarons abound, and I just used someone else’s. In fact, if you want to make macarons, I strongly recommend this guide, which is what I used. Nonetheless, I am posting this because these are my first macarons, and I feel like making macarons are some kind of baking right of passage, given their notorious fickleness. Truthfully, these macarons weren’t perfect, the outer shell was very brittle, and there was a large air pocket. And from the descriptions in the guide, I suspect I overbeat the batter, as it was a little too thin when I was piping it. But, they grew feet, didn’t crack, and taste like almond, so I was at least pretty close. I have no idea how many cookies this actually makes, I successfully made 9 sandwiches, but that includes a lot of waste. Also, this recipe is in grams. I bought a small, plastic scale that measures in grams for under $5 from Kmart, so don’t let lack of one stop you. Especially if you’re interested in doing lots of European style baking, it’s worth having. I filled the macarons with a simple chocolate ganache

Basic Macarons

90 grams egg white (about 3 eggs worth) – separated and allowed to sit out for 24 hours (not covered with plastic) 

120 grams almond meal 

145 grams confectioner’s sugar 

75 grams regular sugar

1. Place the almond meal and confectioner’s sugar in a food processor, pulse until it is mixed into a fine powder

2. Put the room temperature egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer. Beat the egg whites at high speed until they are foamy and stiff peaks form.

3. Turn the mixer speed down to medium, and very gradually beat in the regular sugar. Continue beating until you get a stiff, glossy meringue (I beat until stiff peaks, but this might have been too much)

4. Remove the bowl from the standing mixer. Pour the sugar-almond mixture over the eggwhites. Using a folding motion begin to combine them (this should not be gentle folding). Continue folding until the mixture reaches a “magma like consistency,” or until a ribbon of batter dropped onto the rest takes about 30 seconds to disappear back into the mass. Tartlette says this should take about 50 strokes.

5. Using a large tip, pipe the meringue onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. The circles will spread out a little, so leave space. Try to make the circles 1 ½ - 2 inches across.

6. Let the piped cookies sit out on the counter for at least an hour. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

7. Put the cookie sheet on the oven’s center rack for 2 minutes. After two minutes, wedge the oven door open with a wooden spoon, and continue baking for another 5 minutes, or until the cookies have developed feet, and are a creamy ivory color

8. Remove from the oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes. Gently remove the cookies from the sheet and place them on a cooling rack (I lost a few cookies that stuck to the sheet, I’m under the impression this is inevitable).

 

Chocolate Ganache

9 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy cream 

2 T butter

1. Put the chocolate in a bowl. Pour the cream into a saucepan over medium high heat until it comes to a simmer.

2. Pour the heated cream over the chocolate and let it sit for 30 seconds. Add the butter and begin whisking. Whisk until the mixture is uniform.

3. Let the ganache cool to a spreadable consistency. If you’re impatient like me, stick it in the freezer, removing to whisk every few minutes to keep it even.

4. Gently sandwich the macarons with the ganche. Eat

 

I Can't Believe There's No Butter

A few weeks ago my brother and his family were coming over for dinner, and I volunteered to make the dessert. This was complicated, however, by the fact that my sister-in-law doesn’t eat dairy, nor is my brother’s family big into sugar. I spent a fair amount of time trying to think of something that would meet these criteria. I knew I could make something simple like a sponge cake, but that just didn’t quite seem right. And while I could make genoise without dairy, which would leave the question of frosting (a dairy free frosting is hard to come by, other than meringue). And then I remembered the magic chocolate mousse I made a few months ago, which requires only bittersweet chocolate and water. I decided I wanted to make this, and sandwich it between two dacquoise made with hazelnuts and almonds. The result was really delicious. The mousse as by far the dominant flavor, but its richness was nicely offset by the light and crispy dadquoise disks. And the best thing about this dessert is that it’s surprisingly healthy (for a dessert anyway). The only fats come from bittersweet chocolate, and the nuts, neither of which are particularly bad for you (at least compared with most desserts I make which have several sticks of butter). Remember to use good quality chocolate when you make the mousse here. This would also be really good with some fruit, either some fresh raspberries or strawberries, or some jam smeared on the insides of the disks. We, however, did not serve them like that.

Unfortunately the ingredients for the dacquoise are in grams, because I used Pierre Herme’s recipe. I’ll try to measure things back out and give a volume at some point.

 

Chocolate Mousse Sandwiches

Makes seven 5-inch sandwiches

Chocolate Mousse

400 ml water 

16 oz. bittersweet chocolate 

2 T Frangelico or Amaretto (or other nut flavored liquor)

1. Get a large mixing bowl and a larger pot. Fill the large pot with ice and water, and place the mixing bowl in it. You might want to build a foil collar for the mixing bowl, as chocolate is going to spray.

2. In a medium, heavy bottomed sauce pan, combine the chocolate and water. Heat over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixed with the water.

3. Pour the water and chocolate mixture into the prepared mixing bowl, and immediately begin to beat using a hand mixer. Beat for 5-10 minutes, or until mixture has cooled and stiffened into a mousse (the more you beat, the stiffer it will get, and because it will loosen up when the liquor is added, you want it very stiff to start).

4. Beat in the liquor. Store the mousse in the fridge until ready to use

 

Hazelnut-Almond Dacquoise

215 grams nuts (hazelnuts and/or almonds) 

150 grams confectioner’s sugar, plus more for dusting 

5 egg whites 

50 grams granulated sugar

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a ramekin or mug, trace 14 5 – 6 inch circles on the parchment, leaving an inch between each. Set aside

2. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Spread the nuts out on a cookie sheet and bake them for 10 minutes, or until just golden. Quickly place them into a towel and rub them together to get the skins off. (chances are you will be more successful getting the skins of the hazelnuts than the almonds, don’t worry about it).

3. Reserve 80 grams of the nuts. Place the remaining 135 grams in the food processor and pulse until coarse. Add the powdered sugar and pulse until combined and fine.

4. Place the egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer with the whisk attachment. Whip the egg whites until soft peaks form. With the mixer on high, gradually add the granulated sugar. Continue beating the egg whites until they reach still peaks.

5. Gently fold the nut and sugar mixture into the egg white mixture, until just combined.

6. Using a pastry bag fitted with a ½ inch tip (this is just a bear coupler on a regular bag). Pipe the dacquoise into the prepared circles. Start at the center of the circle and move outwards in a spiral. Chances are your circles won’t look perfect, but don’t worry about it.

7. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until disks are crisp and golden, switching the baking sheets half way through. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container with wax paper between the disks until assembly.

Assembly

Don’t assemble these until at least a few hours before serving, otherwise you risk the dacquoise becoming soggy from the mousse.

1. Place the 7 uglier disks face up on their serving plates (so that the flat side is down). Place a serving of mousse onto each dacquoise base (I would say half a cup, but that’s an estimate).

 Place a second dacquoise disk on top of the mousse and press down, but not so much that the mousse squirts out the sides. Serve.

Mimosa Meringues

This is an extension to the champagne meringue frosting I made for my last post, and an extension to my Sugar High Friday post. If I could add champagne to powdered egg whites, why not a mixture of champagne and orange juice to make mimosa meringues. The result was underwhelming, but I think that might be the result of my inexperience with meringue cookies. The meringues lacked that nice chewiness I’m used to in the center of a meringue. They were also a little coarse. My two guesses as to what went wrong are that I didn’t put in enough sugar, or that I over cooked them. Anyway, the recipe is below, and I would encourage someone who knows more about meringues than I do to play around with this, because I think a lot of potential exists here

Mimosa Meringues

Makes ~30 cookies

1 ½ Tbs egg white powder
¼ Cup dry champagne
1/8 Cup pulp free Orange Juice
2 Tbs superfine sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Mix the orange juice and champagne in a measuring cup. You want a total of 3/8 cup of liquid, adjust the ratios of champagne and OJ to your preference.

2. Put the egg white powder into a bowl. Pour the liquid over the egg white powder. Beat with an electric mixer at high speed until the mixture becomes frothy.

3. Add the sugar, continue beating until the mix reaches stiff peaks. Pipe the mixture onto a parchment (or silpat lined baking sheet. Leave ~1 inch between each cookie

4. Bake for about an hour on the top rack of the oven, or until they dry, but not yet brown. Turn off the heat in the oven and open the oven door, let the meringues rest for another 30 minutes or so.

I also tried to make some Grapefruit-Champagne meringues (I’m told this is called a moonwalk?) They didn’t work. I have a feeling it’s because I put them on the bottom rack of my oven, but maybe it’s something to do with the grapefruit juice? The recipe is the same as above, but with grapefruit juice instead of OJ.

Sugar High Friday – Grapefruit Curd filled Cupcakes with Champagne Meringue Frosting

Update: Part II of my Sugar High Friday post is here. I didn't think it merited it's own entry over at Tartlette.

This post is a little on the long side, but if you're going to make the recipe, it's worth reading what's written in the curd and frosting sections before the recipes.

I’ve decided that it’s time my blog started to get out into the world, and expand beyond its loyal reader base of 2. Getting a mention on Cupcakes Take the Cake last week was a big help, but I’ve also decided I’m going to start entering some blogging events. To that end I decided to submit an entry to this month’s Sugar High Friday, being hosted by Tartlette. The theme for the month is citrus, and of course I decided to make a cupcake. I do make other things, but I know where my strengths lie.

This cupcake was sort of an odd choice for me, mostly because I don’t like either grapefruit or champagne. This also makes me tragically unqualified to evaluate how these cupcakes taste, since what I would like in these flavors is different from what most people would. Fortunately, I do have friends who are happy to taste test them for me. I started by deciding on grapefruit, because I thought it might be something that other bloggers were less likely to use in their submissions. From there I decided that Champagne would make a nice addition, the question was how to add it. A cupcake filled with grapefruit curd was easy (in principle), but champagne frosting was another matter. Adding any significant quantity of it to a buttercream, meringue, or pretty much anything else I could think of would just lead to a runny frosting. I could use champagne flavoring, but I have no idea where to get that. I was pondering this problem for several days when the answer struck me: Powdered Egg white! Instead of reconstituting it with water, I could reconstitute it with champagne. I had no idea if this would work, and found no websites that suggested anything about it, so I figured I would go ahead and try. The results were surprisingly successful. I’ll write more about it when I get to the frosting section below, but I thought it deserved a mention in the intro.

I used a chiffon cake as the base for this cupcake. I though the light airyness of it would complement the champagne well. I tried both a chiffon with champagne and one with grapefruit juice, and I think the one with grapefruit juice tasted better. If you decide to use champagne instead or in combination with the grapefruit juice it doesn’t matter, you just want the same volume of liquid.

Grapefruit Chiffon Cupcake

Makes 20 cupcakes

1 cups + 2 Tbs sifted cake flour
3/4 cups sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
3/8 cup grapefruit juice
7 ½ tsp vegetable oil (2 Tbs + 1 ½ tsp)
¾ tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs, separated

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together the flour, all but a tablespoon of the sugar, the baking powder, and the salt in a bowl

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the grapefruit juice, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and egg yolks

3. Pour the wet ingredients into the try ingredients and whisk until smooth

4. In another bowl beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until they begin to become frothy. Add the sugar, and continue beating until the whites just reach stiff peaks

5. stir ¼ of the egg whites into the batter until thoroughly mixed. Gently fold the rest of the egg whites into the batter until there are no more streaks.

6. Fill cupcake tins with ¼ cup measurer, bake for about 14 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

Grapefruit Curd

Makes a whole lot, way more than necessary to fill the cupcakes (It has been pointed out to me you can never really have TOO much fruit curd)

This recipe was a pain. I started out using the citrus curd recipe listed on Cupcake Bakeshop. However, after 4 minutes, my curd hadn’t thickened at all. Stirring all the while, I tried looking up another recipe. It told me that my curd needed to get up to about 160 degrees and that it should have the thickness of sour cream. So I stuck my candy thermometer in the mix and let it get to 160. It wasn’t the thickness of sour cream, but it had thickened, and that was good enough for me. I took it off the heat, added the butter, and put it in the fridge over night. I then went and looked up egg creams in On Food and Cooking, and discovered that the proper temperature for an egg cream is 180 degrees. Wikipedia’s recipe for lemon curd confirmed this. I went to check on my curd in the morning, and sure enough it had thickened, but not nearly enough. I put it on the stove again and threw caution to the wind, turning the heat up to medium high. This time I brought it to 180 degrees, took it off the heat, and stuck it into the fridge. Came back a few hours later to check on it, and sure enough it had thickened, basically into glue. It was delicious glue, but not something you would want to find in the middle of a cupcake. Not wanting to make another batch, and needing significantly more volume anyway (there was no way it was going to fill 20 cupcakes), I decided to go back to the original method and add whipped cream to it. I whipped up some cream with a little powdered sugar, and added the grapefruit curd. It whipped together pretty well, but was not grape-fruity enough anymore, so I added three tablespoons of grapefruit juice. That ended up coming out pretty well, but I now had way more than I needed.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that if you have your own preferred recipe, use it. None the less I will print mine here if someone else thinks they might have better luck with it

4 egg yolks
2/3 cup of sugar
8 Tbs Grapefruit juice - divided
5 Tbs unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 Cup whipping cream
1 Tbs Powdered Sugar
1 drop red food coloring (optional)

1. In a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium heat, mix egg yolks, sugar, and 5 Tbs of the grapefruit juice. Stir the mixture constantly, until it reaches between 175 and 180 degrees, or coats the back of a spoon well

2. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl. Add the butter a few pieces at a time, and mix until combined.

3. Press a layer of plastic wrap directly onto the curd to prevent a skin from forming. Put in the fridge.

4. Once curd is thoroughly chilled, whip up one cup of whipping cream with the powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. Add the curd to the bowl and keep whipping until mixed. Add the remaining 3 Tbs of grapefruit juice, or as much as suits your tastes. Add the food coloring to make the mixture pink, so it looks grapefruity.

Champagne Meringue Frosting

Makes at least enough for 20 cupcakes

This frosting is interesting. I’ve never used egg white powder before, but this couldn’t be done with regular egg whites. The frosting is light and fluffy like a meringue, and tastes like champagne, because that’s what’s in it. I originally made the frosting the night before making the cupcakes, and in the morning discovered that the meringue had wept, and lost its stiffness. A few minutes of beating it on high speed and it was back where I needed it, but I noticed that a few hours later it had fallen again, though it hadn’t wept. My recommendation is that you whip this up to stiff peaks into a bowl ahead of time, but don’t put it onto the cupcakes until just before serving. Then whip the whites back to stiff peaks, and apply to the cupcakes.

1 Pkg powdered egg whites (the package I used says it contains 24 grams)
¾ cup Extra -dry champagne (you’re going to be adding sugar, don’t use sweet)
5 Tbs superfine (castor) sugar.

1. Measure ¾ of champagne (this can be tricky because of the foam). Pour the egg white powder into a large bowl, and add the champagne. Use an electric mixer at high speed to whip the mixture until it becomes foamy. Add the sugar one Tbs at a time and beat until the meringue forms stiff peaks.

Assembly

1. Use the cone method (detailed in previous posts) to fill the cupcakes with grapefruit curd.

2. Use a soup spoon to pile a mound of meringue onto the cupcake. Then use a regular tablespoon to pull the meringue out to make it interesting

3. Use a cooking torch to quickly toast the meringue, just enough so that it starts to brown. It should smell a little like roasting marshmallows as you do it.

Cover something in enough whipped cream and no one will know the difference

It’s a Friday night, so what am I doing, the expected thing for a young man on a Friday night of course: cooking. As all of us head into finals, people are sadly pulling into their studying shells, leaving nothing to do on Friday nights. However, a friend of mine is having a brunch tomorrow morning, which gives me an excuse to cook tonight.

Not long ago (but before this blog began) I made a large number of crème brulees for a dinner. The crème brulees were good, but left me with a lot of extra egg whites. Combining the ready availability of already separated egg whites with my desire not to have to do extra work (read: laziness), I decided that I ought to make pavlova’s for my friend’s brunch. Pavlova’s aren’t really a breakfast food, but brunch is really just an excuse to eat dessert for breakfast, so I wasn’t deterred.

In looking at recipes, I selected this one from epicurious for pavlovas with mixed berries. I chose it mostly because it called for 13 egg whites, and I already had 10, which I didn’t want to try to divide. The recipe wasn’t particularly challenging, but the meringues didn’t turn out particularly good. Pavlovas get their unique texture from cornstarch and vinegar. Unfortunately, I added too much vinegar (spilled a little while measuring over the bowl, oops). The result was that while the texture was ok, they tasted too vinegary. I also spread the meringues a little too thinly at points. Fortunately, the next part of the recipe is to cover the pavlovas in whipped cream and berries. Rather than plain whipped cream, I decided to make a honey-vanilla whipped cream. Piled with enough whipped cream and berries the vinegar fades into the background, and the pavlovas become not half bad. Overall I wouldn’t make them again, but they were at least edible.

Also, this recipe also calls for whipping up egg-whites. This time I got some pictures so that I can demonstrate what I mean.

UPDATE: I served these to my friends this morning, and with the berries and whipped cream on top they were really good. I think the vinegar taste faded a little over night. I also think the whipped cream by itself really stood out, and I'm going to look for ways to use it in the future.

For Meringues

13 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups superfine granulated sugar (castor sugar)
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. line several cookie sheets with parchment paper or sil-pats .Separate the eggs. Once the eggs have been separated put the bowl over a simmering pot of water until the eggs are just barely warm to the touch:

Once the eggs are warm, attach the bowl to your standing mixer, or get your hand mixer. Add the salt and beat the eggs into a foam. I found that without sugar, the whites would get foamy, and form stiff peaks very fast. When the eggs got to that point I added the first 2 cups of superfine. After that I kept beating the eggs at high speed. With the sugar added the eggs quickly took on the glossy sheen I’m used to with whipped egg-whites. Continue beating the eggs until they reach stiff peaks.

This is what foamy, stiff egg whites look like on the end of a finger before sugar is added

Once the egg whites reach stiff peaks, mix the last half cup of superfine sugar with the cornstarch. Beat the cornstarch into the egg-whites. Follow by beating the vinegar into the eggs (make sure not too add too much).

Once the mixture is fully combined. Begin measuring out quantities of Meringue, between a quarter and a half of a cup, and mounding it up, and creating a little well in the middle. Bake the meringues for about an hour and 15 minutes. They should be a brownish color on the outside.

here are the Meringues after they have been baked:

For Honey-Vanilla whipped cream

2 cups heavy cream – chilled
3/4 of a cup of honey
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla paste

Whip up the cream at medium speed in a mixer. Once the cream reaches stiff peaks, add the honey and vanilla and beat until combined

Assembly

I used a mix of frozen berries for the topping, since that was cheaper than fresh. To get the berries ready I thawed them, then mixed them with a little sugar. Since the vinegar already gave the meringues a bit of an acidy taste, I decided to skip on the lime juice. Once the fruit is mixed together. Take a meringue, pile some whipped on top or in the little well if there is one. Then put some fruit on top.