Penney’s Palate

Even though it isn’t Tommy’s birthday yet, I have already made a birthday cake, and we have already eaten it.  We went to Tommy’s parents house last weekend to celebrate, so I thought it was a perfect time to make a nice cake for Tommy.

Tommy had sent me this recipe a few weeks ago after watching Bobby Flay make it on Throwdown.  I was asleep when he was watching it, so all I had to go on was a recipe.  The first thing that I noticed about it was that the cake was covered in genache, instead of the ooey gooey caramel-nut-coconut filling that coats every German chocolate cake I have seen in the past, like this one.

There were a lot of ingredients to buy for this cake, all of which I bought here and then transported up to Wilmington.   I know where to find everything and in what store here, and I didn’t want to bother with the hastle of not being able to find specific ingredients (such as goat milk, dutch-processed cocoa powder, and heavy cream).  I’m very picky about my heavy cream.

On Saturday morning while watching the Tour de France, I started making the cake.  I realized that Bobby Flay’s directions did not include a step to incorporate the flour mixture into the batter.   The directions for the cake seemed a little weird anyway, so I made the cake my way, as demonstrated in the instructions below.  The cakes turned out nice and tall and firm enough to be able to cut them in half and layer without any disasters.  I had to add cornstarch at the end of the filling-making process, because it just didn’t thicken to a spreadable consistency on it’s own.  This step is also included in my version of the instructions below.

The cake was the best chocolate cake I have made yet, and I was very pleased by both the chocolate cake on its own and in combination with the filling.  Tommy has already requested that I make this cake again sometime soon.  The cake was great the same day it was made, but was even better for breakfast the next morning after it had some time to sit in the refrigerator.  I also found that, while the coconut-whipped cream was very very tasty, I didn’t prefer to eat it with my cake.  The cake held up just fine by itself.

German Chocolate Cake

Cake

Ingredients
2 ¼ cups AP flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoons fine salt
1 ½ cups strongly brewed black coffee, at room temperature
1 ½ cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons good quality Dutch process cocoa powder
1 ½ cups muscavado light brown sugar
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter two 9-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

In another bowl, add the coffee, buttermilk, and vanilla extract and set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat (or in the microwave). Add the butter to the bowl of your mixer and slowly mix in (using the wire whisk) the cocoa powder.  Mix for about a minute, until the cocoa has been incorporated into the butter.  Add the sugars and mix on medium speed until the sugars are dissolved. Add the eggs one at a time, waiting until each egg is incorporated before adding the next.  Once all of the eggs have been incorporated, add 1/3 of the coffee/buttermilk mixture and 1/3 of the flour mixture.  Do not add the next until the first addition is fully incorporated.  Repeat until all of the wet ingredients and the flour has been incorporate in alternating batches.

Divide the batter evenly between the 2 pans and bake on the middle rack until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 42 minutes.  My cakes took about 51 minutes to bake.  They went from a jiggly center to a firm center in about 2-minutes’ time, so make sure that you carefully watch the cakes after the 40-minute mark until they are done.  Let them cool in the pans on a baking rack for 20 minutes. Then invert the cakes onto the baking rack and let cool for at least 1 hour before frosting.

Coconut Filling

Ingredients
2 cups whole milk
1 ¾ cup unsweetened coconut milk
1 cup goats’ milk
¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon pure cane sugar
¼ cup water
½ vanilla bean, seeds scraped
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 ¼ cups sweetened coconut
1 ¼ cups toasted coarsely chopped pecans

Preparation
Bring the milk, coconut milk and goat’s milk to a simmer over low heat in a small saucepan.  Add the vanilla bean to the milk mixture while heating it up (keep the seeds out, they will go in later).   Keep warm while you prepare the caramel.

Combine the sugar and water in a medium saucepan over high heat and cook (do not stir) until deep amber brown color.   Remove the vanilla bean from the milk mixture, then slowly whisk in the milk mixture and continue whisking until smooth; add the vanilla seeds and corn syrup. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until the sauce is reduced by half and is the consistency of a caramel sauce, about 55 minutes.   If your sauce does not thicken once the mixture has reduced by half, turn up the heat a little so that the mixture is between a simmer and a boil.  Add no more than 1/4 cup of cornstarch to the mixture and stir with the wooden spoon until thick.

Once the sauce is thick, remove from the heat and whisk in the cold butter, vanilla extract, and  salt and whisk until combined. Transfer the sauce to a medium bowl and stir in the pecans and coconut. Let the frosting cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally before frosting the cake.

Coconut Whipped Cream

Ingredients
1 ½ cups cold heavy cream
¼ cup Cocoa Lopez (coconut cream, which can be found in a can usually on the soda isle with all of the other non-alcoholic mixer ingredients like Margareta mix)
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preparation
Combine heavy cream, coconut milk, sugar and vanilla in a mixer and mix until soft peaks form.

Ganache

Ingredients
8 ounces heavy cream
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Preparation
Bring cream to a simmer. Place chocolate in a medium bowl, add hot cream and corn syrup and let sit for 30 seconds. Gently whisk until smooth. Let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before pouring over the cake.

Bringing it all together
Slice each cake in half horizontally. Place one cake layer on a cake round or platter and spread 1/3 of the filling evenly over the top, repeat to make 3 layers and top with the remaining cake layer, top side up. Pour the chocolate ganache over the cake, let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before slicing.  Slice cake, top with a dollop of whipped cream.

Since getting the ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer in January, I have been making sure that the freezer stays stocked with a container of ice cream.  All of the ice creams that I have made so far have involved using a lot of egg yolks.  Not wanting to waste the egg whites, I found myself frantically trying to come up with stuff to make that used up all of these egg whites.  I baked a lot of angel food cupcakes at first.  But then I read somewhere that you can freeze egg whites and then just thaw them when you need to use them.  Each egg white takes up one compartment in an ice cube tray.

The next time I had an overflow of egg whites, I dispersed them among the compartments of my ice cube tray and put it in the freezer.  I read that once they are frozen, you should remove them from the tray put them in a plastic baggy for long-term storage in the freezer.  So once my egg whites were frozen, I found it impossible to get them out of the tray!  I bent and slammed the tray, trying to get them out, but they wouldn’t budge.  I tried dipping the bottom of the tray in hot water, and that didn’t work either.  Then I tried digging them out with a sharp knife… didn’t work.  So I gave up.

But then one day I had an idea.  The next time, I layed plastic wrap in the compartments and then I poured in the egg whites.  This time, they popped (lifted, really) right out of the tray.  I had to warm the cubes in my hand for a few seconds before the plastic wrap would peel off, but once that was done, the plastic wrap peeled right off, and I put the frozen cubes of egg white into a baggy for longer storage.

I give them a day to thaw out, but I have not had any problems using them so far.  I’ve even made macarons with my frozen-then-thawed egg whites and have been successful.

It has been a very long time since my last blog post.  That is not to say that I haven’t been baking and cooking like MAD though!  I just haven’t had the time to post.  I would like to start making the time, because I want to get better at both baking and taking nice pictures of the food that I make.

I am most recently excited about my new ability to make macarons.  I have tried twice in the the past, and both times resulted in a gloppy, lumpy-looking almond cookie that was edible but ugly, and nothing what a macaron should look like.   My stockpile of frozen egg whites was starting to get out of control due to all of the ice cream that Tommy and I have been making recently, so I gave macaron-making another go.  I put together all of  my ideas as to why the previous attempts failed, got serious and started again.   The result was plain-but-beautiful macarons that tasted delicious.  I was hoping that I hadn’t just gotten lucky, so I made another batch the following weekend and was successful in that as well.

In the next few months, I want to venture into adding flavor and fillings to my macarons.  And if I continue to make ice cream, I should have plenty of egg whites queued up for my experiments.

Plain Macarons

Ingredients
1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
4 oz (1 cup) almond flour or finely ground almonds (I used blanched almonds and ground them in my blender)
¼ cup plus 2 tbsps egg whites at room temperature (this is about 4 egg whites, depending on how big the egg is)
pinch of salt
¼ cup granulated sugar

Preparation
Allow egg whites to dry out by leaving them uncovered at room temperature for one or two days.

Line baking sheets with parchment.  If it is important to you to make perfectly sized macarons, then draw 1.5-inch circles on the back of the parchment for a guide when piping.  I find it more fun to try to match up the differently-sized macarons in the end for a perfect fit.

Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar. Mix the almonds and powdered sugar in a bowl and set aside.

In a large, clean, dry bowl whip egg whites with salt on medium speed until foamy. Increase the speed to medium-high and gradually add granulated sugar. Continue to whip to stiff peaks – the whites should be firm and shiny.

With a flexible spatula, gently fold in the powdered sugar/almond mixture into egg whites until completely incorporated. The mixture should be shiny and ‘flow like magma.’ When small peaks dissolve to a flat surface, stop mixing.  This should all take about 50 strokes of the spatula.

Fit a piping bag with a 3/8-inch (1 cm) round tip. Pipe the batter onto the baking sheets (in the previously drawn circles if you drew circles).  When  you pipe the batter, leave the tip in the center and let the batter move out. Do not try to “swirl” the batter when piping.  Tap the underside of the baking sheet to remove air bubbles.   Let dry at room temperature for at least 30 minutes to allow skins to form.

Bake, in a 310F oven for 10 to 11 minutes total, rotating the baking sheet after 5 minutes for even baking.

Remove macarons from oven and transfer the parchments to a cooling rack. When cool, slide a metal offset spatula underneath the macaron to remove from the parchment.

Chocolate Ganache Filling
8 oz heavy cream
8 oz bittersweet chocolate

Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate.  Let sit for 2 minutes, then stir with a whisk until the chocolate and the milk have been incorporated and the mixture looks like shiny ganache.  Let sit at room temperature for at least an hour to thicken.

Pair macarons of similar size, and pipe about 1 tsp of the filling onto one of the macarons. Sandwich macarons, and refrigerate to allow flavours to blend together. Bring back to room temperature before serving.