Bay Leaf-Vanilla Pots de Crème

Abby Dodge never ceases to inspire when it comes to baking, and this month’s luscious Vanilla Pots de Crème for the #BakeTogether challenge do not disappoint. She shares her recipe and invites us to create our own version. Happy to do so!

Vanilla stars in these little custards. I’ve sung vanilla’s praises many times, and am always delighted to let it shine (and may even take Abby’s suggestion to dab a little behind my ears before a night out).

I began to think about other flavors to complement and enhance the warm, enticing vanilla essence. The jar of bay leaves on my spice shelves has been staring at me lately, asking me how else I can use them other than dropping an occasional leaf into a bubbling pot of tomato sauce. Bay leaves are aromatic and lend herbal notes to a dish. I wondered what a few floral leaves might add to a sweet vanilla custard...

Sweetening these little pots with maple syrup was my next choice, and I poured a little extra in the bottom of each jar as a sweet surprise. I also toasted some walnuts with maple syrup and flaky sea salt to sprinkle on top of the custards.

After steeping vanilla beans and bay leaves in some half and half for two hours, the custard is lightly cooked on the stove top with egg yolks and maple syrup and then baked in the oven in a water bath. As always, Abby provides detailed instructions and wisdom with her recipe.

Delicate and silky, with flecks of vanilla bean, this seductive dessert is sublime. The bay leaves don’t impart a particularly distinct flavor, but rather round out the vanilla and add a savory backdrop. A subtle sweetness comes from maple syrup and the walnuts add a nice bit of salty crunch. The baked custards need to chill for at least four hours, so they are marvelous to prepare a day ahead, making dessert easy to pull out of the fridge and serve.

Bay Leaf-Vanilla Pots de Crème
Adapted from Abby Dodge’s Very Vanilla Pots de Crème
Makes 4

1 3/4 cups organic half and half
1 vanilla bean
4 dried bay leaves
5 large egg yolks
1/4 cup maple syrup + 4 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup raw walnuts, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon flaky sea salt

Pour the half and half into a medium sized sauce pan. With a sharp knife, split the vanilla bean open lengthwise. Using the tip of the knife, gently scrape the beans from inside and add them and the vanilla pod to the half and half. Drop the bay leaves in and bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat. Don’t let it boil, heat until it is hot and beginning to steam. Remove from the heat and cover. Let the mixture steep for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours (I steeped for 2 hours for maximum flavor).

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Arrange four 6-ounce ramekins or jars in a baking pan with 2-inch high sides. I used an 8-inch square baking pan. Pour 1 tablespoon of maple syrup into the bottom of each ramekin.

On a small baking pan, toss the walnuts with the remaining 1 teaspoon of maple syrup and flaky sea salt. Pop in the oven to toast until golden, about 6-7 minutes, stirring once. Remove and set aside to cool.

In a glass 2-cup measuring cup, whisk the yolks, 1/4 cup maple syrup and kosher salt until well blended. (Don’t let them sit or the eggs will begin to break down.) Uncover the half and half and, while whisking, slowly pour the egg mixture in (with the vanilla bean and bay leaves). Whisk until well blended. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a spoon or heat-proof spatula, until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon (170-172°F on an instant read or candy thermometer), about 4 to 5 minutes.

Slide the pan from the heat and remove the vanilla bean and bay leaves. Scrape any custard from the pod and leaves back into the custard.  Pour the custard into the ramekins on top of the maple syrup (it’s easiest to pour the custard back into the 2-cup measure and then pour it from there into the ramekins). Carefully fill the baking pan with hot tap water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins and cover the pan loosely with foil.

Bake until the pots de crème wiggle like jello when nudged, 35 to 45 minutes depending on thickness of the ramekin walls. Transfer the baking pan to a rack let cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to 2 days before serving.

When ready to serve, top each pot de crème with a few toasted walnuts.

Balsamic Grape Skillet Soufflé ... Sort Of

The first soufflé I ever made was Julia Child’s classic cheese soufflé, which was years ago. I loved it, and am a bit unsure as to why I have not made another since then. Plus, soufflé is such a fun word to say - wouldn’t it be marvelous to say, “I made a soufflé today”? Makes me smile.

Abby Dodge’s Bake Together challenge this month is an enticing one. As soon as I saw her Caramelized Pear Skillet Soufflé, memories of soufflé making emerged and my mind began racing with different combinations - quince and cranberry? mushroom, leek and blue cheese? This seemed a tasty way to step out and try soufflé in a new way – in a skillet with caramelized fruit or veggies.

After a bit of pondering, I decided on grapes. Granted, I am not the biggest grape fan, but I just rediscovered the most delicious juice ever – unfiltered Concord grape – and it has me pausing to rethink grapes. I’ve also been seeing grapes roasted and added to pies and chicken dishes, and since I like anything roasted it seemed that cooking with grapes might open a whole new world. It did.

I tossed some black grapes into my skillet to sizzle in butter, and then poured in a splash of balsamic vinegar and a spoonful of honey. The fragrance of the grapes made my taste buds tingle and I could easily have eaten the entire skillet right then and there and called it good. While the fruit cooked, I whisked together egg yolks, honey and goat cheese, then whipped egg whites to fold in.

My soufflé puffed up into a golden brown beauty. I carefully pulled it from the oven and flipped it onto a serving plate so the grapes would be on top. Alas, I joined many others in a classic kitchen woe – my soufflé fell. Sigh.Were the grapes too heavy? Perhaps I lost volume when folding? I didn’t have enough grapes left to try again, so I began to nibble this one. With its caramelized edges, intense grape flavor and rich, delicate body, I had a hard time stopping. So, in the spirit of Julia Child, I declared victory and called it a soufflé-pancake. A success! And then I had to tuck the rest away so there would be some to share with my family later.

This would be ideal for supper with a green salad and glass of wine (more grapes!). You can be sure I’ll happily make this again, and no matter how it turns out it’ll be delicious. And those plump, balsamic-spiked grapes? Isaac has already requested them in place of blueberries for his birthday pancakes next year.

Balsamic Grape Skillet Soufflé
Adapted from Abby Dodge’s Caramelized Pear Skillet Soufflé
Serves 2 to 4

For the balsamic grapes
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
12 ounces black grapes, seeded if needed
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey

For the soufflé
2 eggs, separated and at room temperature
1/3 cup soft goat cheese at room temperature
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Have a flat serving plate ready.

Make the balsamic grapes:
In an 8 inch skillet (I used cast iron), melt the butter over medium heat until the foaming stops. Add the grapes and cook, stirring occasionally, until the grapes soften, for about 7-8 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and honey and stir to coat the grapes. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, until the vinegar and honey thicken a little. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside while you make the soufflé.

Make the soufflé:
In a medium bowl, whisk the yolks, goat cheese and honey together until well blended and smooth. Add the flour and salt and whisk until well blended.

In a (very clean) medium bowl or a stand mixer, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment on medium speed until the whites are frothy, 30 – 45 seconds. Increase the speed to medium high and beat until the whites are very foamy and barely soft peaks. Increase the speed to high and continue beating until the peaks are glossy and form soft, floppy peaks. Do not over mix. Scrape the beaten whites into the yolk mixture and gently fold until just blended.

Heat the skillet (with the grapes) over medium low heat until the mixture is warm. Arrange the grapes evenly in the bottom of the skillet. Gently pour/scrape the soufflé mixture into the skillet and smooth the top. Reduce heat to low and cook until the edges begin to look dry, 3 to 4 minutes.

Using a potholder, slide the skillet into the oven and bake until the top is puffed, golden brown and the center springs back when lightly pressed, 5 to 7 minutes. Working quickly and using potholders (the handle is hot), move the skillet to a cooling rack. Gently place the serving plate on top of the soufflé and invert. Carefully lift off the skillet. Using a small serrated knife, cut into wedges and serve immediately.

Chocolate Cherry Bourbon Shortcake

Chocolate cherry bourbon shortcake ... I meant to take only a little bite to taste how the flavors came together.  And then another, just to be sure.  And then before I knew it, the plate was empty.   Now I’m sighing in delight and can’t even think about dinner.

Strawberry shortcake is my favorite summer dessert, followed closely by Pavlova – any excuse to pair fruit and cream!  My son, Isaac, chose strawberry shortcake for the dessert at his Bar Mitzvah Shabbat dinner ... it’s a family favorite.  So when I saw that Abby Dodge selected shortcake for this month’s Bake Together challenge I was a bit gleeful.

Normally I am traditional in my shortcake and bake a cream scone as the base for luscious cream and juicy berries.  Abby shares her chocolate shortcake, though, and I decided to try something new, adding a dash of ground espresso for more depth of flavor.  My small counter space was taken up with a flat of raspberries, so I scooped the dough out rather than rolling and cutting it.  The resulting shortcakes were quite rustic with craggy tops that I rather liked.

I haven’t cooked or baked nearly enough with cherries yet this season so I continued to branch out in my shortcake adventure and use cherries in place of berries.  I seem to have misplaced my cherry pitter, but fortunately my friend Ashley shared her handy tip to pit with a chopstick – just give the cherry a poke and the pit bursts out.  Now, pitting cherries is a tedious and messy process but if you can embrace the stained fingers and inevitable splatters you will be happily rewarded.  I listened to Ladi6 and grooved a bit and two pounds of cherries were pitted before I knew it.

I didn’t stop there – cherries lend themselves well to booze and chocolate so I spiked the whipped cream with bourbon and sweetened it with brown sugar (I love bourbon as an added flavor and in cocktails ... I promise to share a smashing cocktail later this summer).

What a combination of flavors and textures!  The dark sweetness of cherries and chocolate combined with billowy cream is rich and sublime, soft and tender.  I will happily make this shortcake again.

Chocolate Cherry Bourbon Shortcake
Adapted from Abby Dodge’s Double Chocolate-Strawberry Shortcakes
Serves 8

For the shortcakes
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
3/4 cup buttermilk, chilled
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened, natural cocoa powder
2 teaspoons espresso powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt

For the whipped cream
2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
2 tablespoons bourbon
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

For the cherries
2 pounds cherries
1/2 cup sugar

To make the shortcakes
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a nonstick liner.

Cut the butter into small pieces and place in the freezer until ready to use. Whisk the buttermilk and vanilla together and pop in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Put the flour, sugar, cocoa, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a food processor and pulse until well blended. Add the cold butter pieces and, using short pulses, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 1 minute.

Scrape the mixture into a large bowl and pour the buttermilk and vanilla over the flour mixture.  Use a rubber spatula to stir until it forms a moist dough and holds together (do not mix too much).

Divide the dough into 8 portions and drop onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake until puffed and spring back when the tops are gently pressed, about 12 minutes. Let the shortcakes cool for about 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

To make the whipped cream
In a medium bowl, beat the chilled cream until soft peaks begin to form.  Add the bourbon, brown sugar and vanilla and beat until mixed in. Serve immediately or cover and chill for a few hours.

To make the cherries
Pit the cherries using a cherry pitter or chopstick.  In a bowl, stir the sugar and cherries together and then mash with a pastry cutter to start juicing and breaking the fruit down (you may also discover a pit or two that slipped by).  Cover the bowl and refrigerate for a few hours until the cherries have released some of their juices.

To serve
Using a serrated knife, cut the shortcakes in half crosswise and place the bottom halves on serving plates.  Spoon big dollops of whipped cream onto the bottom halves, ladle some cherries and their juices over, add a little more whipped cream because it’s so good, and cover with the top half of the shortcake.  Serve immediately.

Blackberry Mini Pies with Walnut-Thyme Streusel

I am a pie person.  I like cake, but I love pie.  With summer approaching, it means pie and lots of it.  This month, Abby Dodge graciously gives us Very Berry Mini Pies for the Bake Together challenge.  Thank you, Abby!  I quickly began dreaming about what kind of little pies to bake and what flavors to combine.

Occasionally, I add fresh herbs such as basil or marjoram to stone fruit and berry desserts, herbs that more typically go into savory dishes.  I don’t care for pies that are overly sugared – I want to taste the fruit.  The fresh herbs enhance the flavors of the fruit, and balance out its sweetness nicely.  For the mini pies, I chose to include thyme in the streusel since I thought it a natural pairing with the blackberries I had just picked up.

When I decided to use the blackberries fresh rather than baking them, I knew I needed a filling to anchor them on.  Soft cheeses always appeal to me, so I stirred together goat cheese, mascarpone and ricotta with some honey for a creamy, rich, not-too-sweet filling.

I have also been curious about using coconut oil in place of vegetable shortening.  I was delighted to find the combination of butter and chilled coconut oil yielded a flaky crust that easily shattered – this is a little pie to eat with a fork and not your hands! 

Just in time for summer pies, I had the pleasure of taking a pie making class last week with Shauna Ahern, where she shared her pie making skills and some helpful tips.  I learned I have been rolling pie crust dough all wrong!  She recommends thinking of your dough disc as a clock, and rolling it in 10 minute intervals clockwise around the disc.  This produces a more uniformly even thickness and doesn’t overwork the dough.  Brilliant!  My past method of rolling back and forth, back and forth, and then turning the dough to do more of the same was overworking it and usually ended up quite uneven.  Using this new technique, my pie dough was rolled out quickly and efficiently.

We happily ate all ten of these Blackberry Mini Pies on Father’s Day.  Due to the cheese filling and fresh berries, they should be eaten the same day they are made. Not a hard task with two teenagers diving in!

Blackberry Mini Pies with Walnut-Thyme Streusel

Adapted from Abby Dodge’s Very Berry Mini Pies

Makes 10 mini tarts

For the dough

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 slices, well chilled

2 tablespoons coconut oil, well chilled

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon very cold water

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the streusel topping

1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup quick cooking oats

1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

Pinch of kosher salt

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1/4 cup walnuts, lightly toasted and chopped

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

For the filling

4 ounces soft goat cheese

8 ounces fresh ricotta cheese

4 ounces mascarpone cheese

3 tablespoons honey

Zest of 1 lemon

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

10 ounces blackberries

Place the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly to combine. Add the butter and coconut oil and pulse until the butter and coconut oil are slightly larger than pea size, about 10 to 12 pulses. Drizzle the water and lemon juice evenly over the flour mixture. Pulse until the dough begins to form moist crumbs that are just beginning to clump together, about 8 or 9 more pulses depending on your machine.

Dump the moist crumbs onto a large piece of plastic wrap and gather into a pile. With the heel of you hand, push and gently smear the dough away from you until the crumbs come together (two or three ‘smears’ should do the trick – the coconut oil will be very soft so don’t overwork the dough). Shape into a 5-inch disc and wrap tightly in the plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours, or up to 2 days.

Remove the dough from the fridge and let it sit out until soft enough to roll, 10 to 20 minutes (depending on your kitchen temp and the weather). Arrange a large piece of plastic wrap or parchment on the work surface and put the dough in the center. Cover with another piece of plastic or parchment and press down on the dough to flatten. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough between the plastic or parchment to about 1/8- inch thickness.  Roll at 10 minute intervals around the disc.  Cut out 8 rounds using a 3 1/2-inch round cookie cutter or glass. Gather up the scraps, reroll to a 1/8-inch thickness, and cut another round. Reroll and cut one more round for a total of 10 rounds of dough.

Lightly butter ten regular-sized (2 3/4- 3 inch diameter) muffin cups in a muffin tin.

Working with one round at a time, use your fingers to gently press the dough into each muffin cup, making sure there are no air bubbles in the bottom and the dough is pressed firmly and evenly up the side to within 1/8 inch of the top of the cup. Repeat with the remaining dough rounds.  Pop the muffin tins into the freezer while you make the streusel.

Put the flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, thyme leaves and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times, then add the butter.  Pulse a few more times until it is in moist clumps. Spread evenly on a baking sheet and pop in the freezer for 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the streusel for about 14 minutes, stirring after 7 minutes.  When it is golden brown, remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees.  Remove the muffin tin from the freezer.  Cut 10 squares of foil and line each chilled crust with one, then fill with pie weights.  Blind bake the crusts for 20 minutes, remove the foil and weights and bake for 5 more minutes, until golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let cool.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the 3 cheeses with the honey, zest and salt until smooth. 

Remove the crusts from the muffin tin.  Fill each mini pie crust with just under 1/4 cup of cheese filling.  Arrange blackberries on each pie, 5-6 berries each depending upon the size of your berries.  Sprinkle the streusel on top of each thickly.  You will have some streusel leftover and it is delicious over ice cream or yogurt.  Enjoy the pies right away, or within the same day.

Chive and Mushroom Cornmeal Loaf

Chives are abundant now, their cheery blossoms blooming in my yard and waving from curbside gardens as I take walks around our neighborhood.  The sturdy green stems burst with delicate onion flavor and enhance salads, eggs and any dish they are snipped into.

When I saw this month’s #baketogether challenge, I knew chives had to play a role. Abby Dodge shares her delectable recipe for Cornmeal Buttermilk Muffins and invites us to play around and get creative – always fun!

My thoughts were already on a savory track with the chives, so drawing on a favorite omelet combination I sliced baby bella mushrooms and grated Parmesan cheese. Whenever possible these days, I swap out flours to try different ones. This time I included barley flour with the cornmeal and all-purpose flour.

I recently found a couple of brioche pans at a local thrift store, so I baked the batter as a loaf rather than muffins. Let me just say, this is like cornbread elevated to new heights! The loaf is extremely moist, studded with mushrooms and flecks of chives, rich with Parmesan and a bit of zip from lemon zest. When sliced, it makes a nice little appetizer to nibble on with a glass of white wine. Perfect for a summer afternoon!

Chive and Mushroom Cornmeal Loaf
Adapted from Abby Dodge’s Cornmeal Buttermilk Muffins
Makes 1 loaf (serves 8)

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced (your choice of mushroom)
Olive oil to sauté
3/4 cup barley flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup ground cornmeal
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/3 cup snipped chives
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
2 eggs, room temperature
6 tablespoons canola oil
Zest of 1lemon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a brioche or loaf pan and set aside.  In a medium sized pan, warm a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat high and sauté the mushrooms until they release juices and begin to brown, about 10 minutes.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.  Stir in the chives and Parmesan cheese.  In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs and canola oil.  Pour over the dry ingredients and add the mushrooms.  Using a rubber spatula, gently fold until just blended (don’t worry if there are a few lumps).  Do not over mix.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake until golden and a skewer comes out clean, about 45 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and serve in wedges.

Raspberry Angel Food Cake for Bake Together

I’ve been thinking about this cake all month and have been excited for the moment I could get in the kitchen and bake it.  This month, Abby Dodge shares her terrific Angel Food Cake for April’s Bake Together recipe, along with some tempting variations.  Yes, angel food cake ... that airy, eat-way-more-than-you-intend-to cake.  My family has been known to devour an entire angel food cake in one sitting, pulling off one pillowy hunk after another.

For my version, I mashed fresh raspberries to dollop in the batter, reserving some of the juice to mix into whipped cream to frost the cake.  Mixing up an angel food cake is a gentle process – you want to keep it as light as possible.  And I love the way angel food cake cools, suspended upside down on a wine bottle to keep the cake tall and majestic.

This is the first time I’ve baked an angel food cake and I can safely say I will not be buying a store-bought one again.  After sneaking a small bite of the cake, my plan to wait for my family to come home went out the window and I had to sit down and enjoy a slice immediately. Softly textured, snow white, studded with raspberries and slathered in blush pink whipped cream ... definitely the food of angels!

This stunning cake would be lovely for a Mother’s Day brunch, a summer birthday, or just because.  I can tell you it is divine eaten straight from the pan, and is heavenly with berries and cream.  I can’t wait to bake it again!

Raspberry Angel Food Cake
Adapted slightly from Abby Dodge’s Tangerine Angel Food Cake
Serves 10-12

1 cup cake flour
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
11 large egg whites, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup superfine sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
1 cup fresh raspberries, mashed lightly and juices reserved
2 cups whipping cream, chilled

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pull out a 10 x 4–inch angel food cake pan (do not butter or grease the pan). Have a wine bottle ready to hold the pan in a level, upside-down position for cooling.

Sift the flour, 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar and salt together three times (Abby says “no joke – THREE times”) onto a piece of parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on medium-low speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar, increasing speed to medium, and beat until whites are opaque and climbing about half way up the bowl (the tracks from the whisk will be beginning to hold their shape) forming very soft peaks. Continue beating while slowly and continuously adding the superfine sugar. Beat on medium high until the whites are thick, shiny and form medium-firm, fluffy peaks. (The peaks should droop over gently.) Do not over beat. You want to leave some room for those whites to expand in the oven. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla. Beat just until blended, about 10 seconds.

Sift 1/4 of the flour mixture over the beaten whites. Using a large rubber spatula, gently fold the dry ingredients into the whites. Repeat with remaining flour mixture, one quarter at a time.

Using the spatula, spoon 1/3 of the batter into the cake pan and spread around the bottom.  Gently dollop 1/2 of the mashed raspberries on top of the batter.   Spoon the next 1/3 of batter on top, then dollop with the remaining raspberries.  Spoon the last 1/3 of the batter on top and smooth. Bake until the cake is light golden brown and the cake is springy when touched, about 40 minutes. Immediately invert the pan onto the neck of the wine bottle and let cool completely.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the chilled cream until soft peaks form.  Add the reserved raspberry juice (about 1/8 cup), 1 tablespoon powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Beat on low until mixed.

To remove the cake, rotate the pan, gently tapping the bottom edge of the cake pan on the counter as you turn it until the cake loosens from the pan. If necessary, run a long, thin knife between the cake and the pan and around the inside of the tube to loosen the cake. Slip the cake from the pan and gently lift it up from the center of the pan and arrange on a flat serving plate.  Frost the cake with the whipped cream, or serve the cream on the side with slices of cake.

Cacao Nib - Oat Sables and Dairy Success

My friend Julie dropped by with a bag of oat flour this week. Such a good friend! She and I share a love of oats, especially in chocolate chip oatmeal cookie form, and I promised I’d bake a treat for her using the oat flour.

While musing over the oat flour (delightful moments indeed), I thought of Abby Dodge’s Bake Together Challenge. This month’s recipe is a savory sable. I am always fond of a buttery, flaky cracker and Abby shared her recipe to get started.

With the oat and chocolate theme foremost on my mind, I decided to create a savory version for the sables. By swapping out some of the all-purpose flour for oat flour and including cacao nibs I could get the oat and chocolate flavors without the sweetness of a cookie. A little goat cheese added creamy indulgence, too.

The dough for the sables came together perfectly and was easy to work with. The resulting sable is delicate and crispy, rather like an afternoon tea biscuit. They are quite dainty and pair well with a soft topping, such as clotted cream or cultured butter.

Speaking of which, I am happy to report I had great success with making cultured butter and clotted cream this week! Small jars of each sit in my fridge now and make me very happy every time I open the door. I must admit, I’ve been in dairy heaven with all the tasting I’ve been doing. Clotted cream is a new family favorite, and I can’t wait to start dipping this spring’s fresh radishes in the butter. So much to look forward to!

Cacao Nib - Oat Sables
Adapted from Abby Dodge’s Spicy Parmesan Sables
Makes 29

Ingredients I used:
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup oat flour
2 ounces soft goat cheese
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1 tablespoon brown sugar
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into slices
2 tablespoons + 1 1/2 teaspoons cold water
1/4 cup cacao nibs
Fleur de sel for sprinkling

I followed Abby’s directions exactly, adding the cacao nibs after the cold water and pulsing a few times.

Wattleseed and Chocolate Peasant Boule

My house is still filled with the warm scent of freshly baked bread from this morning. One of my kitchen goals has been to bake more bread at home. I already bake challah each Friday for Shabbat but I’ve wanted to branch out and try a variety of breads. Bread making is meditative and adds a distinct rhythm to the day. I like that.

I’ve also been itching to make something using the wattleseeds I brought home from our visit in Australia. I appreciated finding something uniquely native to Australia and when I first opened my little bag they gave off a heady aroma I immediately loved. The seeds are roasted and have a coffee – nutty – toasty flavor. Enticing thoughts of chocolate floated by, too.

The bread baking plan: pair wattleseeds and chocolate. Out came the yeast and flour and Abby Dodge’s recipe for Peasant Boule (this month’s #baketogether recipe). This bread is a lovely one to get creative with. It yields a crispy, chewy crust and tender crumb - I intend to make it again and again.

While the bread dough was rising, I lightly crushed two teaspoons of wattleseeds (which pop and crackle delightfully) with a mortar and pestle. Let me tell you, the scent of warm, yeasted dough and wattleseeds together is divine. I also finely chopped two teaspoons of dark chocolate and quickly mixed it in so as not to melt the chocolate slivers.

I chose to bake the loaf in a cast iron skillet. My cake pans are nine inches in size and the recipe calls for an eight inch pan, plus I am enjoying cooking with cast iron these days. Before baking, I brushed (lots of) melted butter on top for a deep golden brown color.

When the bread emerged from the oven I had to show enormous restraint while waiting for it to cool enough to slice. The craggy top was appealing in a homey, rustic way (I think boules are supposed to be smooth, though!) and pretty flecks of wattleseed and chocolate dotted it. I quickly gave in to temptation and sampled the warm crusty heel spread with (again lots of) butter. Little tastes of wattleseeds popped in each bite and the chocolate complimented it well. I can see my boys devouring thick slices topped with Nutella.

It’s always fun and inspiring to cook with a new ingredient. If you do not have access to wattleseeds, I think a nice substitute would be ground espresso beans and a dash of cinnamon. When the wattleseeds are gone I’ll definitely be pining for another visit to Australia.