Recently, my editor at Creative Loafing asked me if I could put together a recipe containing mostly pictures for their upcoming photography issue.  I’m a sport, so I said “Sure!”.  Then, I got the bright idea that I would do a recipe that was presented using ONLY pictures.   That’s right, no words allowed.  I decided to make these lemon bars, because I love, love, love them.  And, since today is officially the first day of Spring, sharing bright, sunny, citrusy lemon bars couldn’t be more perfectly timed.   What was I thinking!?!?

Three solid days and five hundred photographs later, I was pulling my hair out, wondering what kind of idiot was I to even attempt this!  Yes, that’s right.  Five. Hundred. Photographs. At the same time I was trying to actually prepare and bake these lemon bars. And, not just shooting the photos either, but reviewing, organizing and editing them as well.  Oh yes, and also grouping them into cohesive little photo vignettes, so that they would make sense in my photo “recipe”.

Of course, with this recipe timing is everything, so I was rushing around like a madwoman trying to set up and snap shots before my ingredients got too warm, too cool, too thick, too thin and the light got too bright, too dim, too far north and too far south.

Sigh…

By the time I was finished, I couldn’t have given a $*#& about those lemon bars!  All I was in the mood for was a big bottle of Advil with a Valium chaser!

After this little debacle exercise I’m convinced that I must be either a total masochist or just plain crazy!

But hey, the work is done, so I’ll let you decide if it was worth it.  Does the “recipe” make sense to you?    Could you actually make these lemon bars just by looking at the pictures?   I’ve gone ahead and printed the actual recipe at the end of this post just in case you would like to make them and I’ve failed miserably in my efforts.

Let me know what you think in the comments.  I’m going to go pour myself a tall, stiff drink!  Oy!

Each month, I teach an Italian cooking class at a popular local Italian specialty market.  My students and I meet in the morning, prepare a four course meal together and enjoy the fruits of our labor and each other’s company over a nice lunch.  We have a lot of fun and we all learn a lot, myself included.   A few months ago, my menu included a delicious appetizer inspired by one of my favorite food bloggers, Elaine from The Italian Dish.   After being blogging buddies for a few years, I finally had the pleasure of meeting Elaine last Fall at BlogHer Food in San Francisco.  She is sharp, funny and absolutely lovely, as I knew she would be.

Elaine’s dish was a crostini topped with chèvre, or goat cheese, fig jam, basil and prosciutto.  For my class, I tweaked the recipe a little, adding mascarpone to mellow the goat cheese, and swapping out the basil for some minced sage and thyme.  It was a big hit with the whole class, and I liked it so much that I even included it on my Christmas menu.

The other day I was searching for something in the fridge (other than my duck prosciutto), and came across a package of puff pastry that I had put in there to thaw and then forgot about.  Not remembering how long it had been in there, I decided to use it before it went bad.  Since I already had all of the crostini ingredients, I thought I’d try the dish baked in the puff pastry.    Yes, I know.  I’m a regular Indiana Jones in the kitchen!

First, I fluffed up my fig jam and whipped up my chèvre concoction.

Then, I cut each sheet of pastry into twelve, reasonably equal-sized rectangles.  I spread a schmear of the chèvre mixture on half of the pastry pieces and plopped a little dollop of fig jam on top.  After that, I placed a small piece of thinly sliced prosciutto on each.  I left out the herbs because I was still in my PJ’s and didn’t want to go outside to pick them.  If you’re not lazy like me, go ahead and add them in.

Once my twelve pastry rectangles were all dressed and sitting pretty, I covered them with the remaining twelve.  I pinched them all around the edges with the tines of a fork so that none of that cheesy, fruity, meaty goodness would leak out.  Then, I brushed them with a little egg wash so that they would get shiny and browned in the oven.  Egg wash is like the bronzer of baking.

Et voilà! Toasty, tasty, flaky little pastries filled with chèvre, fig jam and pig!  What could be better than that?

It’s that time of year again.  The time when Girl Scouts everywhere literally are everywhere, selling their Thin Mints, Samoas and Tagalongs.  I’m talking about Girl Scout cookies, people.

Yes, the little darlings are out en masse, camped out in front of every supermarket in town, hawking their wares. And, they are good at it, too!  Seriously.  They must throw in a Dale Carnegie course or two when they sign you up!  It would take the most hardened of hearts to resist those sweet, angelic faces. I don’t know about you, but my steely resolve goes right out the window each time I look into a pair of those sad and pleading eyes.  So, I buy cookies – lots of them.  And then, I take them home and try to figure out what the heck to do with them!

This is my niece, Samantha.   She’s a Daisy.  Sammie takes her Girl Scout cookie selling very seriously.  Could you resist that face?  I didn’t think so.  I bought ten boxes from her.  Is there a twelve step program for this?  If so, sign me up. 

Over the years, I’ve found some fun and creative ways to use my stash of Girl Scout cookies. By far, one of my favorites is in these Tagalong Crescents.  These buttery, flaky treats are super easy to put together and they take hardly any time at all.  The pastry is nothing more than store bought refrigerated crescent roll dough.  The dough is filled with a  rich and creamy blend of cream cheese,  peanut butter, sugar, chocolate chips and crushed Tagalong cookies.  Honestly, from start to finish, these little babies will take you less than a half hour to prepare.  As you take that first delectable bite of tender, warm from the oven pastry surrounding smooth and lush chocolate-peanut buttery goodness, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them.

Once you’ve stockpiled your cookies, the first thing you need to do to whip up these Tagalong Crescents is make the easy peasy filling.  Beat some cream cheese, peanut butter and powdered sugar together.  I use creamy peanut butter, but crunchy will work fine here too.  Don’t use that “natural-style” peanut butter, though.  It’s oily and grainy and well… it just looks a little bit gross to me.  I don’t know how it would bake up, either.  If you do use it and your crescents suck, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

When your cream cheese and peanut butter mix is nice and fluffy, stir in the crushed cookies and some chocolate chips.  I use mini chips because I find that they melt a little easier.  But, just use what you have handy.  I don’t think it really matters a whole lot.

Once your filling is ready, it’s time to unroll the crescent dough.  Set the triangles on a baking sheet lined with either parchment paper or a Silpat, and spread a small blob of filling onto each one.  Leave a small border around the edges so that you don’t have a big, oozing, melted mess when you bake them.  Unless of course, you like big, oozing, melted messes.  Then, by all means, spread to the edge!

After that, roll up each of the dough triangles, starting from the wide end.

After all of the triangles are rolled into crescents, brush each with some egg wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar.  This will make the crescents all nice and glowy.

Bake the crescents until they puff up and brown.

Let them cool for a few minutes and drizzle some melted chocolate chips on top.  You can skip this step, but since you already have an open bags of chips, you might as well use them.

That’s it!   Didn’t I tell you that this recipe was easy?  And, you probably already have all of the ingredients lurking around in your kitchen, except maybe for the Tagalongs.  But, I’m sure it won’t be too hard to find those.  If you need a few boxes, I’m sure that Sammie can hook you up.

Wowie, wow, wow, WOW!!!  Dorie’s Cranberry Lime Galette packs a huge wallop!  To be honest, I didn’t expect such a bold, “in your face” punch of flavor – but I got one.  This galette is the simplest thing in the world to make, but make no mistake, there’s nothing else simple about it.

The galette starts off benignly enough with a flaky, buttery pie crust.  But, what’s inside of that pie crust is the thing that makes this pastry so special.  The filling is a symphony of tart, sweet and a little heat.  Plump, fresh cranberries are blended with brown sugar, nuts, raspberry jam, apples, lime, dried cranberries and a firm kick of fresh ginger for a brighter than sunshine flavor experience.  Seriously, I almost had to put on my sunglasses to eat a slice!  The zing of that fresh ginger was just…well…zingy.

Once the crust was made, putting the galette together took no time at all.  First, you roll out your crust into a large circle and spread the center with a layer of ground nuts and plain bread crumbs.  You can use any kind of nuts you like, but I used walnuts.  Then, you throw the rest of the filling ingredients into a big bowl and smoosh them around a bit.  I used my hands to get everything mixed together really well.  After that, you pour the filling on top of the layer of nuts and fold up the edge of the pie crust towards the center.   Stick it in the oven until the crust is golden and the filling is nice and bubbly – and you’re done.

If you want to skip the whole making the pie crust part, you could just use a premade refrigerated crust instead.  I won’t tell.  Who am I to let a little pastry shell stand between you and the joy of eating this scrumptious dessert?

Doesn’t it look pretty in a rustic kind of way?  Those cranberries look like glistening red jewels.

Thanks to Elizabeth, Whitney and April from Celestial Confections for choosing such a great recipe for TWD this week.  If you’d like to make your own Cranberry Lime Galette (because I’m not sharing), you can find the recipe in the book or on the Celestial Confections site.  And of course, don’t forget to stop by the Tuesdays with Dorie site to check out what the rest of the group has done.

Enjoy!

Why, oh why do these Daring Bakers challenges always sneak up on me? It happens every time!  I woke up at 4:00 this morning in the kind of cold sweat that could only mean that today was the “reveal date”.  And, I had nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Again.  So, I dragged myself out of bed, put on a pot of coffee and (very quietly) got to work.  Let me tell you, it’s not easy to create a culinary masterpiece in the dead of night with few night lights and a sleeping puppy in the corner of the room! But, I did my best.  Unfortunately, the situation wasn’t conducive to taking photos, so I didn’t get any “process shots”.  But, I did get a few nice ones of the finished product once the sun came up.  C’est la vie!

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri. A classic piece montée is a high cone made of profiteroles (cream-puffs) sometimes dipped in chocolate, bound with caramel, and usually decorated with threads of caramel, sugared almonds, chocolate, flowers, or ribbons.  Piece Montée, literally means “mounted piece” in French.  You may know this dessert by its other name – Croquembouche (“crunch in the mouth”).

I had grand plans for this one too. I originally wanted to make it as my birthday cake last week, but since I couldn’t manage to get my whole family together to celebrate, it seemed pointless.  And then, I got busy with other things and forgot about it.

Since I was so pressed for time, I decided not to try to get too creative with my piece montée, and stuck to the recipe provided by Cat.  It was just as well, because plain creampuffs are one of my all time favorite treats.  Fortunately, I had made both pate a choux and crème patissiere  a few times before and kind of knew how what I was doing.  The caramel part kind of scared me a little, but I have made that before too, so I knew the pitfalls I might face.  I guess the angels were smiling on me (or else they just felt sorry for me), because I didn’t run into any significant problems along the way.  (Hmmm. Maybe I should make all of my fancy desserts when I’m half asleep!)

I didn’t use a form for my tower of creampuffs. That was an extra step I didn’t need to deal with.  I just piled my “pieces” on top of each other and “glued” them together with the (extremely hot and treacherous) caramel.  Then, I decorated it with some pink tea roses and a few swirls of leftover caramel.

We haven’t torn into my piece montée yet, but I did sneak one of those creampuffs while I was assembling it.  Tres délicieux!

If you’d like to try your hand at making a piece montée, I have provided the recipe below.  Don’t forget to also check out the rest of the groups creations at the Daring Bakers Blogroll.

Bon appétit!

Piece Montée

Note: This recipe has 3 main components: the pate a choux, the crème patissiere, and the glaze used to mount/decorate it. While you can purchase or make a cardboard conical structure to build your piece montée or use toothpicks as an aid, it is relatively easy to assemble it using just the baked pate a choux as the main building blocks and the glaze as the glue.

While a piece montée may be a bit time-consuming to assemble, the various components are relatively easy to make and don’t require any special ingredients. The best part about them is that once you have mastered them, you will be able to go on and make many beloved French French pastries such as éclairs, profiteroles, Paris-Brest, etc. all of which are made with this pate a choux recipe, a filling and glaze.

Preparation time: You will want to use your puff pastry batter and chocolate glaze or caramel as soon as it has been prepared and as close to serving time as possible. This is not a dessert that stores well and it may be a bit temperamental in humid areas as the glaze needs to harden to hold the choux together. The crème patissiere can be made a couple of days in advance and stored in the fridge until ready to use.

You will need approximately 10 minutes to prepare the puff pastry, 10 minutes to pipe and about 30 minutes to bake each batch. The crème patissiere should take about 10 minutes to cook and then will need to be cooled for at least 6 hours or overnight. The glazes take about 10 minutes to prepare.

Equipment required:
• several baking sheets
• parchment paper
• a whisk
• a pastry brush (for the egg wash)
• a pastry bag and tip (a plain tip or no tip is best for piping the puff pastry; you can use a plain or star tip to fill the puff pastry with the cream)
• a flat surface such as a baking sheet or cake board/stand on which to assemble your piece montée
• some of the items you may want to use to decorate your piece montée include ribbons, Jordan almonds, fresh flowers, sugar cookie cut-outs, chocolates, etc.

Ingredients:

For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla

Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.

Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.

Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

For the Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For the Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:

Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny. As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.  Add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:

Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.

Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.

Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:

Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)

Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.

Hard Caramel Glaze:

1 cup (225 g.) sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice

Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.

Assembly of your Piece Montée:

You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.

Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up. (You may want to use toothpicks to hold them in place – see video #4 below).

When you have finished the design of your piece montée, you may drizzle with remaining glaze or use ribbons, sugar cookie cut-outs, almonds, flowers, etc. to decorate.

This week marks the second anniversary of of Tuesdays with Dorie.  Amazing, huh?  Who’d have thought that when our founder and fearless leader, Laurie, began this little project two years ago it would take off like a runaway train?  Over three hundred members strong, TWD has become one of the most popular (and populated) baking groups on the web!  Even Dorie, herself, has gotten into the act, graciously lending her support and generously giving much-welcomed advice and tips. (I almost fainted the few times she actually commented on my posts!)

American by birth and French in spirit, Dorie Greenspan divides her time between her homes in New York and Connecticut and her flat in Paris. She has written nine cookbooks, (two with Pierre Herme), and won five James Beard and IACP awards for them, including Cookbook of the Year.   I have spent many an hour drooling over her pastries, tartes and brulées.   She is fabulousness personified!  Baking my way through her Baking: From My Home To Yours has been a delicious journey. 

For this auspicious occasion, I couldn’t think of a more fitting treat to bake than Dorie’s Tarte Tatin.  It is a quintessential classic French dessert.  Think of it as a cross between an apple pie and a cobbler. A marvelously French apple pie and cobbler, that is.  To make it, sweet, juicy apples are cooked on the stove in lots of butter and sugar until they are hopelessly caramelized.  After that, they are blanketed in pâte feuilletée, (puff pastry), and baked to ooey, gooey perfection.  Then, the whole thing is flipped with a flourish (ooh la la!) and plated upside down. The result is a light, flaky crust crowned with a mound of très délicieux apple-caramel heaven!  C’est magnifique!

The thought of making tarte tatin tends to inspire fear in many, myself included.  For me, it was that whole caramelizing the apples part.  I have almost burned my house down more than once while cooking sugar! (Just ask my local fire department. They know.)   However, after completing this recipe, I was surprised by how easy it was.  Yes, there was some nail biting as I waited for my butter/sugar bath to turn the desired color, which by the way, took twice as long as Dorie estimated it would.  And, I can’t deny that my heart skipped a little beat as I flipped my screaming hot tarte onto its final resting place.  But really, it was no big deal.  I would make this tarte tatin again in a heartbeat – and I intend to!  I think out of all of the TWD recipes I’ve made thus far, this is one of my all time favorites.

I want to send great, big, giant hug to Laurie for not only starting TWD, but for all she does behind the scenes to keep it going.  It’s a lot of work!  I’d also like to thank Dorie for giving us such a beautiful, comprehensive and well-written baking bible to work from.  And last but not least, I want to thank my fellow TWDers for inspiring me every day.

If you’d like to try your hand at making Tarte Tatin, you can find the recipe here on NPR.  And, if you’d like to see hundreds more amazing tartes, stop by the TWD blogroll.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a big, fat slice of tarte tatin waiting patiently for me to devour!

When I was a little girl, one of my family’s weekly rituals was going to Mass at St. Clare’s on Sunday mornings and then stopping at Enrico’s Bakery on Morris Park Avenue afterwards for pastries.  We did this every Sunday without fail.  We’d get a big box filled with assorted treats like chocolate éclairs, napoleons and sflogliatelle.  The selection would change from week to week, depending on what looked good.  My brother and I each got to choose a few of our favorites.  I don’t remember what he chose, but I always picked the cannoli.  I adored those  crunchy, cookie-like tubes stuffed with an incredibly rich and luscious cream filling. I could barely survive the car ride home bursting with the anticipation of taking that first crispy, creamy bite!

After we moved to Florida, cannoli became nothing but a fond and wistful memory.  No one here had ever heard of a cannolo, much less knew how to make one.  So once in a while, my mother would make her own – and I would help.  They weren’t exactly the same as the ones from my beloved Enrico’s, but I loved them just the same.  Eventually, some Italians from New Jersey moved to town and opened up a little pastry shop right next door to our new church.  My parents were delighted and our Sunday morning tradition was reborn.  Unfortunately, Italians from New Jersey were better bakers than they were businesspeople.  After a few years they went out of business.  Sigh…  Since then, other pastry shops have come and gone…and come and gone.  But, I’ve always enjoyed them, and their cannoli, while they were here. 

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

I was pretty excited to see cannoli as this month’s Daring Bakers challenge.  This recipe was new to me though, and is a bit different from the one I’ve used in the past. My recipe has egg yolk in the shells and the DB recipe does not.  I made a batch of mini-cannoli using it and some larger-sized ones using my regular recipe.  While the shells using my recipe look much prettier, both batches of shells tasted very much the same, which was pretty darn good.  I should mention, however, that this could be because I used a pasta maker for the larger ones and thus, was able to get the dough much thinner.  To be honest, just rolling out this dough with a rolling pin is pretty easy to do and doesn’t require you to haul out your pasta maker, set it up and then have to clean it afterwards.

Once you have all of your dough cut out and are ready to fry is where things get a little tricky, unless you have an extra set of hands to help you, which I didn’t.   I only had one set of one set of four cannoli forms, so I could only make four shells at a time.  Then, after frying each batch, I’d have to unmold the shells and set the burning hot forms aside to cool for several minutes before I could use them again.  Trust me, after you’ve made two or three dozen of those shells that way, the thrill is gone!

Here are what the cannoli shells looks right out of the fryer…

But, be careful!  Make sure you seal the edges of the dough around the forms really well before you dunk them into the insanely hot oil.  If you don’t, they will explode and you’ll end up with some that look like these…

Although making your own cannoli shells from scratch is time consuming and a bit tedious, making the cannoli cream filling is very simple.  You basically just have to whizz all of the ingredients up in a food processor or stand mixer.  I like to use a food processor because I think the ricotta comes out smoother that way.  You definitely don’t want grainy cannoli cream!

I filled half of my cannoli with the traditional ricotta filling spiked with cinnamon and a few drops of pure orange oil.  I also mixed in some mini chocolate chips.  These are the cannoli I grew up on and as far as I’m concerned, nothing can beat them.  I filled the rest with a pumpkin cream filling made with ricotta, mascarpone, cinnamon, a little pumpkin puree and just a kiss of spiced rum.  I also dusted the ends with crushed pistachios.  I thought they were surprisingly good, but not as good as the original.

Lidisano’s Cannoli
Makes 22-24 4-inch cannoli

Prep time:

Dough – 2 hours and 10-20 minutes, including resting time, and depending on whether you do it by hand or machine.
Filling – 5-10 minutes plus chilling time (about 2 hours or more)
Frying – 1-2 minutes per cannoli
Assemble – 20–30 minutes

RECIPE NOTE: THE EQUIVALENTS FROM THIS RECIPE WERE PREPARED USING THIS CONVERSION SITE: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/index.asp.

CANNOLI SHELLS

2 cups (250 grams/16 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons(28 grams/1 ounce) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.06 ounces) unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon (1.15 grams/0.04 ounces) ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (approx. 3 grams/0.11 ounces) salt
3 tablespoons (42 grams/1.5 ounces) vegetable or olive oil
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.18 ounces) white wine vinegar
Approximately 1/2 cup (approx. 59 grams/approx. 4 fluid ounces/approx. 125 ml) sweet Marsala or any white or red wine you have on hand
1 large egg, separated (you will need the egg white but not the yolk)
Vegetable or any neutral oil for frying – about 2 quarts (8 cups/approx. 2 litres)
1/2 cup (approx. 62 grams/2 ounces) toasted, chopped pistachio nuts, mini chocolate chips/grated chocolate and/or candied or plain zests, fruits etc.. for garnish
Confectioners’ sugar

Note – If you want a chocolate cannoli dough, substitute a few tablespoons of the flour (about 25%) with a few tablespoons of dark, unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch process) and a little more wine until you have a workable dough (Thanks to Audax).

CANNOLI FILLING

2 lbs (approx. 3.5 cups/approx. 1 kg/32 ounces) ricotta cheese, drained
1 2/3 cups cup (160 grams/6 ounces) confectioner’s sugar, (more or less, depending on how sweet you want it), sifted
1/2 teaspoon (1.15 grams/0.04 ounces) ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon (4 grams/0.15 ounces) pure vanilla extract or the beans from one vanilla bean
3 tablespoons (approx. 28 grams/approx. 1 ounce) finely chopped good quality chocolate of your choice
2 tablespoons (12 grams/0.42 ounces) of finely chopped, candied orange peel, or the grated zest of one small to medium orange
3 tablespoons (23 grams/0.81 ounce) toasted, finely chopped pistachios

Note – If you want chocolate ricotta filling, add a few tablespoons of dark, unsweetened cocoa powder to the above recipe, and thin it out with a few drops of warm water if too thick to pipe.

DIRECTIONS FOR SHELLS:

1. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.

2 Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until super thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick (An area of about 13 inches by 18 inches should give you that). Cut out 3 to 5-inch circles (3-inch – small/medium; 4-inch – medium/large; 5-inch;- large. Your choice). Roll the cut out circle into an oval, rolling it larger and thinner if it’s shrunk a little.

3 Oil the outside of the cannoli tubes (You only have to do this once, as the oil from the deep fry will keep them well, uhh, oiled..lol). Roll a dough oval from the long side (If square, position like a diamond, and place tube/form on the corner closest to you, then roll) around each tube/form and dab a little egg white on the dough where the edges overlap. (Avoid getting egg white on the tube, or the pastry will stick to it.) Press well to seal. Set aside to let the egg white seal dry a little.

4. In a deep heavy saucepan, pour enough oil to reach a depth of 3 inches, or if using an electric deep-fryer, follow the manufacturer’s directions. Heat the oil to 375°F (190 °C) on a deep fry thermometer, or until a small piece of the dough or bread cube placed in the oil sizzles and browns in 1 minute. Have ready a tray or sheet pan lined with paper towels or paper bags.

5. Carefully lower a few of the cannoli tubes into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so that they brown evenly.

8. Lift a cannoli tube with a wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, out of the oil. Using tongs, grasp the cannoli tube at one end. Very carefully remove the cannoli tube with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan. Place the tube on paper towels or bags to drain. Repeat with the remaining tubes. While they are still hot, grasp the tubes with a potholder and pull the cannoli shells off the tubes with a pair of tongs, or with your hand protected by an oven mitt or towel. Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels. Place shells on cooling rack until ready to fill.

9. Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough. If you are reusing the cannoli tubes, let them cool before wrapping them in the dough.

Pasta Machine method:

1. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Starting at the middle setting, run one of the pieces of dough through the rollers of a pasta machine. Lightly dust the dough with flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Pass the dough through the machine repeatedly, until you reach the highest or second highest setting. The dough should be about 4 inches wide and thin enough to see your hand through

2. Continue rolling out the remaining dough. If you do not have enough cannoli tubes for all of the dough, lay the pieces of dough on sheets of plastic wrap and keep them covered until you are ready to use them.

3, Roll, cut out and fry the cannoli shells as according to the directions above.

For stacked cannoli:

1. Heat 2-inches of oil in a saucepan or deep sauté pan, to 350-375°F (176 – 190 °C).

2. Cut out desired shapes with cutters or a sharp knife. Deep fry until golden brown and blistered on each side, about 1 – 2 minutes. Remove from oil with wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, then place on paper towels or bags until dry and grease free. If they balloon up in the hot oil, dock them lightly prior to frying. Place on cooling rack until ready to stack with filling.

DIRECTIONS FOR FILLING:

1. Line a strainer with cheesecloth. Place the ricotta in the strainer over a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap and a towel. Weight it down with a heavy can, and let the ricotta drain in the refrigerator for several hours to overnight.

2. In a bowl with electric mixer, beat ricotta until smooth and creamy. Beat in confectioner’s sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and blend until smooth. Transfer to another bowl and stir in chocolate, zest and nuts. Chill until firm.(The filling can be made up to 24 hours prior to filling the shells. Just cover and keep refrigerated).

ASSEMBLE THE CANNOLI:

1. When ready to serve..fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain or star tip, or a ziplock bag, with the ricotta cream. If using a ziplock bag, cut about 1/2 inch off one corner. Insert the tip in the cannoli shell and squeeze gently until the shell is half filled. Turn the shell and fill the other side. You can also use a teaspoon to do this, although it’s messier and will take longer.

2. Press or dip cannoli in chopped pistachios, grated chocolate/mini chocolate chips, candied fruit or zest into the cream at each end. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and/or drizzles of melted chocolate if desired.

PUMPKIN FILLING

1/2 cup (123 grams/4.34 ounces) ricotta cheese, drained
1/2 cup (113 grams/4.04 ounces) mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup (122.5 grams/4.32 ounces) canned pumpkin, drained like ricotta
3/4 cup (75 grams/2.65 ounces) confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1/2 to 1 teaspoon (approx. 1.7 grams/approx. 0.06 ounces) pumpkin pie spice (taste)
1/2 teaspoon (approx. 2 grams/approx. 0.08 ounces) pure vanilla extract
6-8 cannoli shells

1. In a bowl with electric mixer, beat ricotta and mascarpone until smooth and creamy. Beat in confectioner’s sugar, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla and blend until smooth. Transfer to another bowl, cover and chill until it firms up a bit. (The filling can be made up to 24 hours prior to filling the shells. Just cover and keep refrigerated).

2. Fill the shells as directed above.

Are you getting sick of my Pillsbury products recipes yet? I hope not, because I have one more to share with you. Yesterday morning, I made this super simple and incredibly delicious Cherry Cheese Danish Braid, and let me tell you – you have got to try it!

This recipe is so easy, I’m almost embarrassed to give it to you. But, it just isn’t fair for me to keep it to myself. To make it, I used Pillsbury’s Crescent Recipe Creations. You may recall that last week I made a killer Creamy Gorgonzola, Fennel & Pear Tart with this product. This time, I wanted to make something sweet. I put on my thinking cap and came up with this pastry. The whole process took about forty-five minutes from refrigerator to table, and oh, was it good!

The next time you want to impress your family on a Saturday morning with fresh, hot, cheesy, fruity pastry, try this. They’ll think you went to a lot of time and trouble, but we’ll know better!

Cherry Cheese Danish Braid (Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:

1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup cherry pie filling

1 tube Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations

3 tablespoons turbinado sugar

Method:

Heat oven to 375°F. Spray a baking sheet with a little non-stick cooking spray.

In small bowl, beat cream cheese and granulated sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla extract and set aside.

Unroll dough onto baking sheet and press into 13×7-inch rectangle.

Spoon cream cheese mixture lengthwise down center third of the dough. Then, carefully spoon pie filling on top of the cream cheese.

On each long side of dough rectangle, make cuts about 1 inch apart from the outer edge up to the edge of the filling. Fold opposite strips of dough over filling and cross in center to form a braided appearance. Seal the ends so that the filling doesn’t leak out. Sprinkle turbinado sugar over the top.

Bake 22-24 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool for about 15-20 minutes and dive in!

]]> http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2008/10/10/super-simple-cherry-cheese-danish-braid/feed/ 44 http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2008/08/31/daring-bakers-bake-eclairs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=daring-bakers-bake-eclairs http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2008/08/31/daring-bakers-bake-eclairs/#comments Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:55:00 +0000 Susan http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/?p=171 The first of the month always generates a bit of excitement in the food blogging world. You see, that’s usually the day that the new Daring Baker challenge is revealed. I was especially excited to see that the challenge for August was one of my favorite sweet treats …]]>

The first of the month always generates a bit of excitement in the food blogging world. You see, that’s usually the day that the new Daring Baker challenge is revealed. I was especially excited to see that the challenge for August was one of my favorite sweet treats ever – Chocolate Eclairs. And, not just any old eclairs, mind you, but Chocolate Eclairs from the man, himself, Pierre Herme! Woohoo!

I planned my strategy of when and how I was going to create these delectable little confections, and waited with anticipation for the assigned day I had chosen. Then, disaster struck! A few days before “E” Day, my oven just up and died. Yes, dear readers, it was deader than a doornail! After spewing a long stream of expletives, I was sure that I would have to miss this challenge. Then, I thought, “I’m a Daring Baker, for heaven’s sake, I can overcome this!” So, I spit in the face of adversity, made all of the individual components of the recipe, and hightailed it over to my mother’s house to bake my pastry in her brand new and marvelously functional oven!

Though the original recipe calls for a chocolate pastry cream, I decided to go with what I like best, which is a vanilla cream. For everything else, I stuck with the recipe as written.

Although, the recipe is quite long, with many different components, I sailed through most of it with ease. Everything came together beautifully for me until I actually baked my choux. I followed the directions to the letter, but my eclair shells just didn’t puff up as much as I’d hoped. They also deflated quite a bit after I removed them from the oven. I don’t know why this happened, but I’m attributing it to the staggering humidity and the fact that I had used an unfamiliar oven to bake them in. Even so, they were still fabulously delicious and well worth the effort!

Many thanks to Meeta and Tony for selecting such a wonderful recipe to challenge us this month!

Please take some time to see what the other Daring Bakers have created. I know you won’t be disappointed!

These eclairs consist of 3 elements:
- Pâte à Choux, also known as Choux Pastry or Cream Puff Dough
- Pastry Cream
- Chocolate glaze

Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by
positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with
waxed or parchment paper.

2) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.
Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers.
Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.
The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.

3) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the
handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the
oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue
baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking
time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Notes: The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Assembling the éclairs:

• Chocolate glaze (see below for recipe)
• Chocolate pastry cream (see below for recipe)

1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the
bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.

2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40
degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of
the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the
bottoms with the pastry cream.

3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms
with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream
and wriggle gently to settle them.

Notes:

1) If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water,
stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create
bubbles.
2) The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.

Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• ½ cup (125g) whole milk
• ½ cup (125g) water
• 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the
boil.

2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium
and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very
quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You
need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough
will be very soft and smooth.

3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your
handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time,
beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough.
You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do
not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you
have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it
should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.

Notes:

1) Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.

2) You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking
sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the
piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Chocolate Pastry Cream
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé

• 2 cups (500g) whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp (75g) sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
• 7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
• 2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.

5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

Notes:

1) The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

2) In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.

3) Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

Chocolate Glaze
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 1 cup or 300g)

• 1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
• 3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
• 7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1)In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.

2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Notes:

1) If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.

2) It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.

Chocolate Sauce
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 1½ cups or 525 g)

• 4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 cup (250 g) water
• ½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
• 1/3 cup (70 g) sugar

1) Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.

2) It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

Notes:

1) You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.

2) This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

]]> http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2008/08/31/daring-bakers-bake-eclairs/feed/ 64 http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2008/06/29/daring-bakers-swoon-in-june-with-danish-braids/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=daring-bakers-swoon-in-june-with-danish-braids http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2008/06/29/daring-bakers-swoon-in-june-with-danish-braids/#comments Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:40:00 +0000 Susan http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/?p=148






At the end of every month, after I publish my Daring Bakers post, I anxiously await the first of the next month when the new challenge is announced. As I read through the new recipe, I vow to myself that this …]]> ….