Croquembouche. Crisp in the mouth, delicious in the stomach.

Whatever you might say about the French (don’t get my dad started), there’s no denying that they know how to live. Take this traditional dessert, croquembouche, which translates to “crisp in the mouth.” It’s basically a  tower of cream puffs in a web of spun sugar. You crack the sugar with the back of the knife before serving it to your awestruck friends.

Food Network Magazine featured a recipe for making this from scratch in their December issue. They preface the recipe by saying it’s easier than it looks, which usually means it’s not. Sure enough, the recipe goes on for three pages and involves a pastry bag–already too complex for me.

Rather than trying to make cream puffs, you could buy some in the freezer case and do the spun sugar caramel yourself. I’ve included that part of the recipe below.

Full recipe here, courtesy of Food Network: http://bit.ly/7FlPmH

Caramel recipe to create web of sugar:

3 cups sugar

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 cup water

Directions: Mix the sugar, corn syrup and 1 cup water in a saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Don’t stir. Uncover and boil, swirling the pan, until the syrup turns deep amber, 20 minutes. Immediately dip the bottom of the pan into a bowl of ice water for a few seconds to stop the cooking. Transfer the caramel to a liquid measuring cup and cool just slightly–it should still be hot and liquid.

Draw a seven-inch circle on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet. Partially dip each puff in the caramel, letting the excess drip off. Arrange the puffs around the circle. (Note: If the caramel hardens, microwave about 45 seconds.) Build the base of puffs, continuing to stack into a tower formation of smaller circles.

To get the “web effect” of spun sugar, dip the tip of a fork into the caramel and quickly wave it in circle around the tower to create a web of caramel strands. Repeat. (Make sure your working surface is covered in parchment paper, because this process can be messy.) Let set. Destroy web before eating. Voila!

Mo’ better gingerbread recipes (Barefoot Contessa better watch her back!)

I wrote about Barefoot Contessa’s gingerbread here: http://bit.ly/7OsDTJ. I had modest success with the recipe, since I left out some vital elements (the raisins and candied gingerbread). The orange zest was a nice touch, but I’m not sure I’d try the recipe again after discovering the ones below. Sorry, Contessa, but you’ve been one-upped–at least when it comes to gingerbread.

Having been on a baking bender recently, I’ve had an epiphany: cakes made with oil turn out better than butter-based ones. Many pastry chefs like to begin their cake recipes by whipping together butter and sugar. But oil-based cakes just retain their moisture better (without making you resort to adding other fats, like sour cream). Plus if you use healthy oils, they’re not as bad for you.

Case in point is the two gingerbread cakes I made last week. One is a Splendora staff recipe, Allison’s ginger cake, and the one that went over the best with my tasters. Doesn’t look like much, but it was the clear winner. Two keys to its success: the oil (I used canola, not peanut) and the fresh ginger–much more potent than ground ginger powder–which made all the difference. (Click on the photo above for the recipe.)

The other is a recipe I tried by way of Smitten Kitchen. The caramelized apple topping is a great complement to gingerbread. Bummer that the cake in this recipe was too sticky, dense and clung to the roof of my mouth in a bad way. Plus, the flavor just wasn’t up to the Splendora cake. However, I’m proud that I managed to arrange the apple slices in a somewhat neat pattern. (Click on the photo below for the recipe.)

To sum it up: the perfect gingerbread cake is a combination of the Splendora cake base with the caramelized apple topping. That’s what I’m going to try next time. Stay tuned for the results.

Best cake tattoo ever. Make that the best tattoo ever.

Steve H. and I were enjoying swine sandwiches at Porchetta in NYC when we noticed the woman behind the counter had this on her knuckles. I believe she’s training to be a pastry chef (correct me if I’m wrong and you’re reading this, woman-with-the-raddest-tattoo-ever).

Clearly this a kindred spirit who understands the passion that cake inspires in people. She likes pies, too, but obviously not enough for the “bake pies” knuckles tattoo. On second thought, we didn’t see her toes.

Trader Joe’s dark-chocolate covered pretzel slims

Trader Joe’s has been offering chocolate-covered pretzels at a great price forever. These are a variation on that product. There’s more surface area covered by chocolate on the slims than their regular pretzels, so these might be  a better option for chocolate lovers. Be prepared for the large grains of salt on these, which contrast nicely with the sweetness of the chocolate.

This bag was 6 ounces for $2.99. My guess is that ounce for ounce, the regular chocolate-covered pretzels are a better value. I’ll have to verify that next time I’m in the store, though.

A shop that only sells macaroons: Macaron Cafe, NY

Well, they actually do salads, sandwiches and coffees too. But their main thing is macaroons. The first time I came across this place in NYC, I was pretty baffled. As in, is-this-a-sustainable-business-model baffled. Then again, there are people making millions off of selling cupcakes alone.

I love the hat-box packaging on these. Their macaroons aren’t cheap (about $2 a pop) and the specially packaged ones are probably more. But they are larger than your average macaroon. And seriously, what macaroon fan wouldn’t want to get a giant box of these for the holidays?

161 West 36th Street
New York, NY 10018
T/F (212) 564-3525

Breyer’s mint chocolate chip yogurt

In my mind, Breyer’s mint chocolate chip is neck and neck with Ben & Jerry’s mint chocolate chunk. It really depends how big you like your chocolate chips. BTW, I just found out the Breyer’s has 1/3 fewer calories without compromising on flavor: http://bit.ly/Jvy0K.

Anyway, this yogurt is as close as you’re gonna get to the ice cream. It tastes like the ice cream with some added tartness. Also,  I wish the chocolate chips weren’t so soft. But I definitely will buy again. I just hope it’s not really limited edition, as marked on the package.

 

Neiman Marcus Christmas Book: The Cupcake Car

Just when you thought there was a recession going on and that conspicuous consumption was out, Neiman Marcus brings you its annual Christmas Book, with their limited-edition Jaguars selling out in record time.

One of this year's offerings from the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book.

And offers this: a cupcake car. At $25,000 a pop.

Who is buying these? Can I be you?

Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle Mix

If you haven’t noticed from all the other Trader Joe’s posts on this blog, I’m a sucker for trying their new products. So it’s no surprise that this mix ended up in my cart.

I tested this by making pancakes, which was easy–just add egg, melted butter and milk. (Soymilk’s fine as a substitute.) The pancakes turned out nice and fluffy with crisped edges. Make sure to butter the pan before putting the batter in to attain crispiness. Flavor-wise I could taste the pumpkin-pie spicing, but not so much the pumpkin. That might be something that could be solved with adding a bit of canned pumpkin to the batter (?) 

Random fact: when you see maple syrup looking all amazingly thick and gooey in ads, it’s really Karo dark corn syrup. I had to double-dose this stack of pancakes with maple syrup just to get this shot.

***Update: The second time we made these, I added bittersweet Ghiradelli chocolate chips (better than Nestle, I’ve noticed). So good, and the chocolate chips aren’t cloyingly sweet. In fact, they get a bit burnt during the cooking process, but it tastes good like that.***

Goodies from the Persian supermarket, Yekta

Yekta Supermarket is a Persian/Middle Eastern deli off Rockville Pike in a nondescript strip mall. We ended up here after a visit to Joe’s Noodles, a few doors down. Yekta is fragrant with Persian flavors: saffron, pistachios, orange flower water, limes, etc. It doesn’t smell like your average ethnic grocery store (with apologies to the Chinese grocery stores of my people).

They manage to cram a lot into a small space. In the deli case are the biggest chunks of fresh feta you’ve ever seen, flanked by rows of flatbreads, inexpensive spices, yogurt drinks and more.

We picked up this cardamom rock candy (left) and almond-honey-pistachio crunch (right). The former has cardamom seeds inside that act like a natural breath mint when you bite into them—almost a cross between mint and cinnamon flavor. Pungent, in a good way.

The almond crunch candy is amazing, with a flavor not unlike the sesame honey candies you’d get from the bulk bins of natural foods stores. The sugars have been caramelized, so you get sweet, smoky goodness paired with a crunch that could result in some serious dental bills.

On a side note, for every ethic supermarket you hit, there always seems to be that one product that reminds you how far the tentacles of British Colonialism have reached. I’ve seen both Caribbean and Chinese supermarkets carry Ribena (blackcurrant juice) products. At Yekta, they sell tins of Quality Street chocolates. Apparently, the sun never sets on the groceries of the British Empire.

Yekta Supermarket, 1488 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD   20852 (301-984-1190)

cloudy with a chance of meatballs, my childhood fantasy

This was my favorite childhood book for a pretty obvious reason: it was about a town where it rained food.

Specifically, foods that were rarely found in my house. My Mom cooked Chinese all the time, not the hamburgers and hot dogs my brother and I craved. Once when we begged for McDonald’s, my mom made hamburgers with scallions and shiitakes–something I’d appreciate today, but back then, I was just miffed that they didn’t taste like Big Macs. 

Plus, we rarely had sweets in the house. My Dad’s a diabetic who sleepeats. Desserts would mysteriously disappear. (“Huh? I don’t remember eating that half gallon of Breyer’s.”) So when I imagined a place where it precipitated giant donuts and syrupy pancakes, I was smitten.

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but let’s hope it does the book justice.