Boca Negra - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 27th Installment.  The recipe is Boca Negra.

 

I'm starting to think these posts should have subtitles.  Subtitle this one "I'm not sure Jack Daniels is my favorite choice for baking"!

This recipe went EXACTLY as described in the book.  I used the food processor for the white chocolate cream, and then used it again for the cake batter - talk about speedy.  I liked pouring the sugar syrup on top of the chocolate and blending it - it worked well.   I remembered to have butter and eggs at room temperature, and then I baked it exactly 30 minutes, and it did, indeed have a firm top, and then I took it out.

Just after baking

We ate it warm, and it was pretty yummy (see note on bourbon below...).   The texture is amazing, and it's very intense.  The rest went into the fridge, so we'll eat that chilled.

This recipe calls for bourbon in both the white chocolate cream and the cake.  I'm not so savvy when it comes to liquor, so when I looked in the cabinet, and found Jack Daniels, I asked Richard (my husband) "Is this bourbon?"  It's whiskey, but we weren't sure it was bourbon, and we thought probably not.  (Some of you are laughing at me right now for my ignorance :-)  We decided that it was close enough, so I used it in the cake.  I don't think I would do that again - it seemed to make it kind of harsh, even after baking, although perhaps that's just my lack of sophisticated taste for whiskey.  Richard thought it tasted pretty good, so maybe just a matter of personal preference.  I left it out of the white chocolate cream, and was glad, since I think it would have been overwhelming in that topping.  I am going to check out what my fellow BWD bakers did with this recipe, since someone is sure to have done something creative with the liquor component of this (Grand Marnier, anyone?).    I did like the fact that this recipe was SO reliable and simple - exactly as advertised.

Foccacia - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 26th Installment.  The recipe is Foccacia.

 Second attempt - looks good, but is it really foccacia?

This was very tasty, and a multi-day odyssey - but seemed to turn out much flatter than I expected! I tried the recipe twice, and still didn't get what I expected, based on the photo in the cookbook.  

 

On the positive side: bread that is full of (and covered in) flavored olive oil is delicious! :-)  The dough was also very easy to mix and shape.

The details on my odyssey: the first batch was made in too much of a hurry, and did not get enough time to rise before its long (36 hour) stay in the fridge. It tasted good, but was a lot flatter than I thought this bread should be:

 

 

 

 

Batch 1 - not enough rising before going in the fridge

I would love to have a reliable recipe for Foccacia, so I decided to try again,.  I followed the recipe and recommended rising times to the letter.  The result was somewhat similar - a bit puffier, but not bubbly and puffy and soft on the inside.  It was more similar to a thick flavorful pizza crust.  My yeast is fairly new, so I'm pretty sure it's not that.  I left it out of the fridge for quite a while before baking, and it really puffed back up:

Batch 2 - Puffy dough after sitting in the fridge

I flattened it as described, for baking in a square, with slashes, and it never seemed to recover its loftiness.  I will look forward to seeing what my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers did with this - maybe someone's got some good advice on how to get a puffier loaf.

French Apple Tart - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 25th Installment.  The recipe is French Apple Tart.

I should have taken a picture of this unmolded, as it looked a bit prettier out of the pan.  I don't have a 9" tart pan, so I gave it a try in a 9" springform pan.  The edge doesn't look as pretty, but it worked - the crust held up well, and released from the pan just fine.

 

The pie crust part of the recipe was very good - I have found that the mix of vegetable shortening (I know some of you are saying 'ugh' right now :-) and butter makes it very flaky AND flavorful.  My mother and grandmother always used only shortening, and their crusts were always excellent, but I think I like the combo crust.  I've even used lard in some pie crusts recently, since we have a local source of fresh lard, and that is good too, especially in combination with butter.

 

I thought the roasted apple sauce topped with thin slices was interesting and tasted good. I also liked the carmelized browning of the edges of the apple slices.  My tart was done before it got too brown - I wasn't sure whether to leave it in, but since I didn't want the crust to burn, I pulled it out.   I was wondering why I'd never seen this style of tart before (I don't remember it from the TV series either).  and why French? Any one know if this is traditional in France?

 

 

Here's how it looked before baking

I'm not sure I would make this again, with all those steps, but it was fun to make and the family liked it.  It was feeling like a bit of a slog to get this done over the weekend (busy schedule, so had to squeeze it in between other activities), but in the end, definitely worth it.

Pizza with Onion Confit - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 24th Installment.  The recipe is Pizza with Onion Confit.

 I like this recipe, and thought it was fairly easy.  I even stored the dough overnight after mixing the flour into the sponge, and it turned out well after its stay in the fridge.  Usually I made pizza dough in the food processor, but this was just as easy in the electric mixer.  I used all-purpose flour, but I am wondering if it might have more nice chewiness if I had used bread flour.  The pizza stone definitely helps with the texture, no matter what kind of flour is used.

Purple onions - they started out yellow!

The onions were simple to cook (just needed time at home for the hour of slow "confit-ing"). They did turn very purple from the red wine.  I think I didn't really cook them long enough either, becuase the wine flavor was still somewhat noticeable.  I was hoping for more sweetness.  I may try this again with less wine - I'm a big fan of carmelized onions on pizza, especially with other sharp ingredients like olives and goat cheese.

I made one pizza with the onion confit, plus oil-cured olives and goat cheese (yum), and one with red sauce, cheese, sausage, mushrooms and peppers, so the diners wouldn't completely rebel.  

Finnish Pulla - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 23rd Installment.  The recipe is Finnish Pulla.

I really enjoyed this recipe - it was fairly simple to make.  I was able to neglect it slightly by leaving it rising in a cool room all morning while I was out running errands - no problem at all with the finished (or should I say Finnish, har har) result.  It took lots of space to braid, since it is so long before looping it back into a circle. 

Cardamon is one of my favorite spices for this kind of slightly sweet bread.  I had some pods on hand (leftover from some previous recipe), so grinding those fresh made the flavor even better.  I also had the pearl sugar that I got a while back from King Arthur Flour, and that gave it the authentic look.   It was excellent as toast, days later. I had actually prepared this for the BWD "deadline" of December 18th, but time got away from me.  All too common an occurrence in December!    This would be an excellent recipe for a special occasion brunch or breakfast.

Before baking - very puffy dough

Gingerbread Baby Cakes - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 22nd Installment.  The recipe is Gingerbread Baby Cakes.

Yummy! 

 

I baked this as a large single cake, instead of the "baby cake" size, since I don't have any baby cake pans.   I greased and floured a 10" cake pan, but after attempting to fill it with the batter, I found that it was too shallow.  Take 2: I used a German pan which is a deeper dome-shaped 10" pan ,and that held all the batter.  I had to bake it longer than the recipe said, until it got firm in the center.  The cake is still very moist, even after all that baking.  As described in the recipe, it did look rather curdled while I was mixing it, but then evened out.

I really liked the spiciness of the cake (1 teaspoon of black pepper - wow!).   It didn't taste just like conventional gingerbread.  I was amazed at the 2 cups of molasses included - and even with that, plus the brown sugar, it didn't seem overly sweet.  We enjoyed it with whipped cream.

It would be fun to try this in the smaller pans - something for when I have more cupboard space for baking equipment.

Best Ever Brownies - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 21st Installment.  The recipe is Best Ever Brownies.

After the comments in the blog about gooey brownies taking a long time to bake, I braced myself, but as it turned out, my brownies went pretty well.  Maybe all the warnings made me pay more attention to following the recipe exactly.   After listening to a radio interview about how one can't multitask while cooking (or one will suffer the consequences), I decided that maybe this project is helping me to pay attention more directly while I bake.  Or maybe it's just making me realize that I don't always pay attention while I bake :-)

I also increased my popularity in my household by making brownies for "no particular reason" (usually it's for an event, and the brownies are whisked out of the house without a trace).  The brownies tasted great! 

This did seem like a lot of trouble for brownies, with the whisking of sugar and eggs, adding half of it to chocolate and then whipping the rest (getting out the Kitchen Aid mixer for brownies?!).  It seemed more like the method one would use for a cake. 

Eggs and sugar whipped for three minutes

Folding the whipped eggs into the chocolate

I also used my favorite chocolate/butter melting technique in the microwave.  I find it more foolproof than the stove.  You put the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave it for a minute or two on 50% power, till the chocolate is getting soft.    At that point, you can add the butter,  and continue on 50% power for another minute or so, keeping an eye on it.  Stir it before adding the butter, and then stir again after the butter has a chance to melt. I'm much less likely to burn the chocolate when I use this method.

I did bake them longer than the recipe said - exactly how long, I can't tell you...I put them in for the amount of time in the recipe, decided they needed a little longer, and then promptly forgot to set the timer.  Luckily, a few minutes later, I remembered them,  ran to the oven and pulled them out right away.  Phew. 

Does anyone know the bio for the author of this recipe?  The name is Rick Katz, but there is no biography in the back of my "Baking with Julia" book.