These Things Take Time (LOTS AND LOTS OF TIME)

Shiny and new, before seasoning

Last year I picked up some high quality tin-lined copper canele molds from E. Dehillerin - only six because they were like 10 Euro each and I couldn't imagine myself making them often enough to buy a full dozen. Well, that was a good call because they are a pain! I used Chez Pim's method and recipe, and if you take the time to scroll through the entire post, you will understand why it was quite the daunting task. Unlike macarons that are just as dependent on having the right ingredients as the method, canele batter is very straight-forward, but the baking is what is so so finicky. I don't even want to get into the details because just thinking about it gives me a headache, and for some crazy reason I decided to make a lot of batter which meant caneles up the wazoo for an entire week. I would really like to know how bakeries make them in bulk because just baking off one batch of six took HOURS (really, read the Chez Pim post. I am not exaggerating). My very first batch (out of many, many batches) turned out the best, probably because I was getting more and more disgruntled.

My first batch, out of the oven at like 11pm

Crisp and custardy, SO much better freshly baked

After I made my first batch I was really unsure if I did it correctly. They were quite tasty, but far more custardy and not as chewy as any I had before. The only ones I was familiar with in SF were from La Boulange ($1.75 each), so the next day I decided to pick a few up for comparison. I also got a few from Boulettes Larder ($3.50 each, good God). The La Boulange ones were baked really early in the morning, possibly at 1am according to the cashier, so I thought mine should be comparable since they were baked within a few hours.

I don't know when Boulettes Larder baked theirs since they seemed quite fresh, but mine were actually very similar. Delicately crunchy caramelization on the outside, soft, almost flan-like custard in the middle. Yes, this is how caneles are traditionally described, but let me tell you... the ones from La Boulange were completely different - not as crisp, and more chewy than custardy in the middle... almost mochi-like. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but everyone I had taste test the three agreed that theirs were the worst. While I could easily pat myself on the back, I won't because I would rather eat theirs than make them myself. While $1.75-$3.50 sounds insane for one canele, it is worth the trouble. Trust.

Boulettes Larder, my first batch (I was able to even out the coloring in subsequent batches), La Boulange

Mine was very close to Boulettes Larder's (L), but a little more custardy

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Little Boys

Made some desserts for my one-year-old nephew's cowboy birthday! Throw in some Roadside BBQ, college football, and Rockband 3 and we have a party.

Menu:
- Mini sweet potato pies with pecans
- Chocolate peanut butter rice krispies treats
- Pumpkin whoopie pies with spiced cream cheese filling
- Caramelized apple turnovers
- S'more cake: chocolate layered cake with marshmallow cream and crushed graham crackers
- Spiced roll-out cookies in different shapes for the kids to decorate (cactus, cowboy hat, cowboy boot, and the state of Texas!)

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Figs on a Plate

Roasted black mission figs with some olive oil, sea salt, and a wedge of creamy chevre

It's no question that I love summer produce. One of my favorite things to do is to just walk around Berkeley Bowl without an agenda and pick up whatever looks radiant and inspiring. Let the eye-rolling commence!

You really can't beat heirloom tomatoes with olive oil and sea salt (did not have basil on hand). I also had a lot of leftover yolks so I whipped up some ice cream using stuff I already had. The sad-looking quenelles that mostly resemble pieces of poo: Dunkin Donuts on the left, and mexican chocolate with a dulce de leche swirl on the right.

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We Jammin

My parents have a lot of fruit trees in their backyard, and the loquats were at their peak a few weeks ago. As I learned last year, picking fruit is not an easy task but at least there weren't any thorns this time (just tons of bugs and spiders gah). Loquats go bad incredibly quickly, so I thought I would make jam to get the most of the harvest.

My dad has two types of loquat trees: one with a darker orange fruit, and the other with a lighter yellow/whitish flesh. My dad thought it would be cool to keep the jams separate, one from each tree. Peeling loquats is the biggest pain EVER. I've prepped all kinds of fruit, and I think this was the worst. You can't eat the skin, so my method was to cut the loquat in half around the pit, remove the pit, peel the skin off, then peel the pit lining out. Each piece of fruit is small and multiply that by a huge bag of each, plus fast oxidation... back-breaking! This is work for a team, not a sad, sad individual.

If I were trying to sell this, I would call these "locally foraged fresh all natural organic loquat preserves." I think the only keyword I'm missing is sustainable. Ah, I almost forgot tree-ripened (which it is)!

I had a lot of leftover puff pastry from a wedding a few weeks ago, and I wasn't about to waste all those hand-rolled layers! I made some poptarts, inspired by MGFD.

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Phages

Strawberry shortcake

Another little test run. I made a batch of creme fraiche (extremely easy), whipped it up with a little vanilla and powdered sugar, threw it together with some homemade puff pastry and sliced strawberries. Hello, summer picnics!

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XXXO

Just a little test run from last week.

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Yoghurt Bread

My friend Emily introduced me to lacto-fermented bread - that is, yeastless bread that rises from soaking wheat in yogurt, sour milk, or buttermilk (basically anything with active cultures). I would talk about the science behind it and the biological health benefits, but it went completely over my head. She even went above and beyond by making her own whole wheat flour by grinding up wheat berries. Now THAT is all natural.

Here is the flour after soaking in the yogurt and fermenting in a warm place for 24 hrs. It felt like a slice of bread crumpled up, very dense and dry.

After adding in some eggs, butter, and other stuff, the dough was like a super thick batter


It actually had a pretty nice crumb! Coarse, chewy, and super healthy!

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Here and There

Apple galette with almond frangipane and really great homemade puff pastry (I didn't peel the apples so there would be some color - the reds are from pink ladies); chicken adobo burrito with garlic fried rice from papalote's annual mexi-pino menu mmm

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Almond Jello, 1.5 Ways

Awhile ago, Alice went to a nut farm and brought back some raw almonds still in their shells. We had been talking about almond jello a few days before that, and I thought... why not an artisan version? No extracts, no syrupy fruit cocktail... basically strip away all the things that make it great. But hey, why not?

After shelling, I ground all the raw almonds up with some milk and a little water to make almond milk (which is actually vegan, but I wanted it to be creamy). Well, I made it a little too creamy and it ended up being more like a panna cotta. Even though I strained it, it was still pretty grainy -- should've used cheesecloth. I also poached some yellow nectarines in wine along with some lemon, cardamom, and nutmeg.

As expected, it didn't even come close to the original, but it everything did taste as natural as it could be. I was going to also make the traditional version since I happened to already have some cans of fruit cocktail, but for some reason I couldn't find ANY almond jello mix near my apartment. How is it possible that there are no Chinese markets past Park Presidio?? Mexican, Korean, Russian, American... no Chinese. Who would've thought. (Yes, I could've just used almond extract, but it's not the same! It needs to be from the mix!)

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Slim Pickens

It's the end of summer, which also means the end of berry season! The park next to my parents' house has wild blackberry bushes which are bountiful during peak season, but there was very little fruit left when I tried going this past weekend. I only yielded about a cup after braving the thorns without the proper attire (shorts and sandals without gloves do not mix with berry picking).

Using the wild blackberries and some blueberries I bought (there weren't even blackberries in the store), I made a berry sour cream pie for my sister's baby shower, among other things. I served this with a sweet corn ice cream, a typical summer combo, just squeezed in before fall really sets in. Other things I made:

- marshmallows, some dipped in chocolate
- grand marnier almond cake
- mascarpone cheesecake w/ nectarines (I wasn't planning on making this, but my dad insisted since it's such a crowd pleaser ugh)
- caramelized apple white cheddar crumble
- chocolate cookie PB ice cream sandwiches
- vanilla ice cream (for the cake and crumble)
- potato chip + pretzel prailine

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Mix Mix

As I mentioned before, I made some leche flan for a tasting over the weekend, and it was for a dessert inspired by halo halo. It is not actually halo halo since there is no shaved ice, ice cream, red bean, etc etc... but the concept of mixing a bunch of stuff together is pretty much the idea behind this dish, except a bit more pared down and simplified. It's essentially coconut tapioca/graham crumbs/leche flan/mango/candied rice krispies/basil lime syrup. Because the basil lime syrup has such a strong flavor and mango has a very subtle one, I kept most of the other components pretty neutral so there wouldn't be too much competition. It's still a work in progress though, so suggestions are welcome!

Thanks to Mike for the photos! <3

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Rage Against the Machine

I decided to make bostock for my friend's birthday, which meant making brioche. Yeast hates me, so I try to practice every once in awhile. I've tried a few different recipes in the past, and I decided to give Tartine's a go this time. It's definitely different than the others - as the cookbook disclaimer says, their brioche is meant to be less rich since they use it solely for their popular bread pudding (in fact, they don't even let you buy any, even though they sell loaves of other bread). The texture was more crumby and similar to more "normal" breads, unlike the flaky, buttery recipes of Dorie and others. It makes sense, but I think the rich version tastes better, regardless of what you're using it for. Butter = better, duh.

The dough also developed a lot of gluten while I was adding the butter - so much, that I literally had to push all my body weight onto my mixer to keep the top from flipping up. I realized that day that if I ever get a new mixer (which is highly likely at this point), it will need to be the crank kind or a Hobart (can you imagine having a 140-liter Hobart for home use?? I would need a big kitchen). Why? Because my bowl got stuck! All the motion in the bowl must've locked that sucker in. Seriously, throughout the entire day, both Val and I would periodically try to twist and turn the bowl free, but to no avail. I had trouble sleeping that night because my forearms and hand tendons hurt so much. I'm pretty much resigned to dealing with it and washing the entire machine in the sink. Sadness. =(

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Peanut Butter Banana Time!

I've been spending a lot of time with my parents, which means limited baking/cooking/food-making. However, that also means consistent access to my mom's ice cream machine! When I had leftover sour cream and some blueberries I got sick of eating... I made blueberry sour cream ice cream (tastes like cheesecake). The other day someone was talking about peanut butter banana milkshakes, so I did the most logical thing: made some ultra creamy PB ice cream topped with some hot caramelized bananas. Really the epitome of comfort food-dessert without making a pie. Also a flavor concept that is a favorite of mine.

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Partaaay in the MONT

Here's a pic of the earl grey tea ice cream that I made for dinner at Gigi's (with some shortbread). Yes, it's melting a bit in the photo. Still some creamy goodness!

The housewarming was originally supposed to be a saffron night (and I would've made saffron-vanilla ice cream) since Alice brought back like a pound of "saffron" from Thailand that she got for $3 USD this past fall. $3??? I know, right. What a bargain! Well, let's just say that we had a change of plans. <3

Instead, we just made some simple food... salad, shrimp scampi, salmon, basil gnocchi w/ mushrooms, truffle oil and brown butter... it was a great meal that definitely kept well the next day for lunch.

Oh, and Gigi's fiance discovered a new amazing Trader Joe's find: pub cheese! It tastes kind of like cheez wiz, and with crackers, it's like eating those Ritz cheese cracker sandwiches. So addicting.

So here are some pictures of the gnocchi - Gigi likes to make thinks perfect so it's obvious which ones she made. I also decided to leave out the photo of Alice eating raw shrimp to keep this blog family friendly.

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