October the Turd

Look. We need to talk. We've been doing this "thing" for what? Two months now? Maybe a little longer? And I think we've hit it off well, yes? We've gotten to know each other. We like each other. So I think it's time. Time to take this relationship to the next level. Time to meet the family. It's a big step, I know, but I think you're ready for it.

Meet Mom:


She's sweet and sassy and says things like, "Talk's cheap, it takes money to buy whiskey". But more about her in a minute.

Now meet Dad:

A.k.a. Big Al. He's a farmer and the sole inventor of the finger dance. Don't ask...



And here's the whole family together last Thanksgiving:

Back row: Dad and Neal (my little bro...if you can call 6'7" little...)
Front row: Mom, Staci (my sis-in-law) and Jordyn (my baby niece who is, in my humble opinion, the cutest little girl to ever live), Jason (my big bro) and Jayden (my nephew who I adore more than most anyone else in the world) and me on the end there

So why all the introductions? First of all my family is important to me. They're fun and crazy and none of them have ever met a stranger and I just think everyone should have the privilege of meeting them at least once. Secondly, this weekend was what we in the fam like to refer to as a national holiday. Sunday we celebrated my mom's 59th birthday! 59!!! That's one year away from 60!!! I'm sorry for exposing the number like that, mom, but you don't look a day over 50 so really it's something to be proud of.

Now my dad has a hard time with remembering birthdays. They just don't stick. He can remember the month we were born in but when it comes to the actual day he's completely clueless. Except, that is, when it comes to mom. You see, a long time ago dad developed a full-proof system that guaranteed he would never forget his beloved wife's special day. It's simple, really. He explains it like this:

"Your mother was born on October third. And she's a turd. And third rhymes with turd."

Brilliant. And it's never failed him. But this year I had a small problem regarding October the Turd (which is what mom's birthday is fondly referred to as in our house). I have no job and therefore no money with which to buy mom her standard-issue Dillard's gift card (because that's all mom ever wants for birthdays and holidays, no joke.) I could've gotten her one, yes, but that would just be like her buying herself a gift. And I'm not one for playing the middle man. Or pretending I did something that I didn't. So I turned to the kitchen for inspiration and gave mom the thing she's been asking for since last year: custard filled cream puffs.


They were amazing. So good. The perfect little dessert. And mom loved them. Actually dad might have loved them more since he kept insisting they were his and his alone. Not true, dad, not true. Anyhow they were a hit and it was a sad day indeed when they were all gone. Fortunately they're super easy to make. I know, I know. They look difficult. Daunting. But they are absolutely not. It's four simple steps, three if you don't wanna dip yours in caramel like mine, and the results are really spectacular. Let's get started.

You'll need the following:

Tools

3 medium to large sauce pans (preferably heavy-bottomed)
Wooden spoon
Whisk
Rubber spatula
Metal sieve
Sheet pan covered in plastic wrap
Hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment
Piping bag or large ziplock
Silicone baking mat

Ingredients

Pastry Cream
2 cups Whole Milk
4 oz Sugar
1.5 oz Egg Yolk
2 oz Eggs
1.25 oz Corn Starch
1 oz Butter
2 TB Vanilla Extract

Pate Choux (the French name for the dough, it translates to 'cabbage paste' because cream puffs look like little cabbages!)
10 oz Water
2 oz Butter
1 ts Sugar
1 ts Salt
6 oz Bread or All-Purpose Flour (bread flour is better because it develops more gluten which helps to hold the shape of the choux balls but All-Purpose is works okay, too, as it's name would suggest.)
3-5 Eggs

Clear Caramel
10 oz Sugar
3 oz Water


Step 1

First let's make our pastry cream. In a medium sauce pan combine your milk and half of the sugar. In a bowl, combine your egg yolks, eggs, cornstarch, and the other half of the sugar. Whisk together until pale and thick. Set your milk and sugar on a burner and bring to a boil over medium heat. Begin whisking the yolks and, at the same time, pour in about half of the hot milk to temper. Set the rest of the milk back on the burner and pour in the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Once the cream begins to boil whisk for another one to two minutes to cook out the starchy flavor and thicken it up. Remove from heat.

Set the butter in the bottom of a mixing bowl and set a metal sieve on top. Pour the pastry cream through the sieve to remove any bits of cooked egg, using a rubber spatula to push it all through. Dump in the vanilla extract and stir until fully incorporated and the butter is melted. Pour onto a sheet pan that's been covered in plastic wrap and put another layer of plastic wrap directly on top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Toss her in the fridge and let her chill out for at least three hours (or overnight if you're making this ahead of time).

Step 2

Now for the pate choux. First preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Combine your water, butter, sugar, and salt in a sauce pan and set over medium-low heat just until butter is melted, making sure to not let it boil. Dump in flour all at once and stir vigorously with wooden spoon. The dough should start pulling away from the sides and forming a shiny ball. Stir for another minute until a carpet forms on the bottom of the pan. The dryer you get the dough, the more eggs you can add and the bigger puff you'll get when they bake. Transfer the ball of dough to a mixing bowl and beat with either paddle attachment or hand mixer for about three to five minutes to release all the steam. Now add in one egg at a time, beating well after each addition, until you have a smooth paste. You should be able to stretch the dough at least one inch between your pointer finger and thumb without it breaking. It might take only three eggs, it might take five. It all depends on how dry your dough gets.

If you're fancy, go ahead and fit a piping bag with a large round tip. If you're like me, just spoon the paste into a large ziplock and cut the tip off with your kitchen scissors. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and position your bag about a fourth of an inch above the paper. Now squeeze your piping bag until the round is about the the width of a silver dollar. Repeat until you run out of choux paste! If your choux balls have little tips on them, stick your finger in a glass of water, shake it off, and smooth them down. This way they'll be nice and round. Stick your sheet pan in the oven and after about fifteen to twenty minutes turn the temp down to 375. The burst of heat allows the choux balls to get maximum rise and turning the heat down allows them to finish drying out on the inside without burning. Bake until they turn a nice dark golden brown. Pull the sheet pan out and allow to cool for about half an hour.

Step 3
Time to assemble! First take your pastry cream out of the fridge. At this point it might resemble a sheet of rubber. That's good. It means you did it right! Dump it into a bowl and take a whisk to it to bring it back to life. Okay. Filling time. Now there are two ways we can do this. Option 1: We can take a serrated knife and cut off the top halves of the choux balls and just spoon the pastry cream in. Option 2: If you have a very small round piping tip (like ateco #2 or 3) you can poke a hole in the bottom of your choux balls using a paring knife or the pointy end of a chopstick and just pipe your cream in. If you plan on dipping your puffs in caramel option 2 is the only way to go. If not I say go with option 1 and lightly dust the tops with powdered sugar for a pretty presentation.

Step 4
Hokay. This step is not one for the faint of heart. It's a tad bit intimidating and just the slightest bit dangerous what with the whole dipping-things-in-boiling-hot-sugar aspect. But I have faith in you. Just in case maybe we should have a bowl of ice water sitting on the counter. Put your sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and stir your finger around in it until it's all uniform and looks like wet sand. Dip a pastry brush in a glass of water and wipe down the sides of the pot to make sure there are no stray bits of sugar hanging out there, they can cause crystallization which ruins your caramel and makes for a sad chef. And nobody likes a sad chef. Now begin heating your sugar over medium-high heat. When it starts to bubble go ahead and give the sides one more brush-down, making sure the brush doesn't actually come in contact with the sugar (don't forget, we're battling the evil crystallization process). Let the sugar cook until it starts to change color. Give the pot a good swirl to distribute all that yummy caramel goodness and let it go for another few minutes until it's the color of honey. Remove from heat and let it sit for five minutes to cool down a little. Prop up one side with a dish towel so that the caramel pools on the bottom and carefully, I repeat CAREFULLY, dip the the cream puffs about a third to half of the way down. Shake off the excess caramel and place, caramel side down, on a silicone baking mat. If you own plastic gloves I highly recommend wearing a pair or two to really protect your fingers. And if you do get any of the hot sugar on your sweet little falanges, plunge them into the ice water immediately.

Let them cool until the sugar hardens and you're done! They're ready to enjoy. And enjoy them you will. So will anyone else who gets the chance to try one.

On a related note, today is my Aunt Linda's birthday (get it? related? hehehe)! And from the bottom of my heart I want to wish her a wonderful, spectacular, fabulous, unforgettable one. I love you so much and I wish I was there to celebrate with you. Seriously, between her and my mom I have all the love and support I could ever wish for. I'm not only a happy chef, but a lucky one as well.

Now if you'll kindly excuse me, the Young and the Restless is about to start. Yes, that's right. Judge if you must. Happy baking, and have a fabulous rest of the week!

XOXO,
Mindy

Baking 101

Sweet Jesus, is it actually possible? Could it be true? Is this week really over? Oh, how I've longed, how I've pined for this day!!! Dramatic? Sure. Hyperbolic? Maybe a little. But generally accurate? Absolutely. I know I fibbed a little about being busy last post, but trust me when I say this week it's been pure fact.

You see, friends, this week was my last, I repeat LAST, week of restaurant block. What a miracle of biblical proportion! From day one the thought of restaurant block had me shaking in my steel-toed kitchen boots. I was so nervous. Plated desserts weren't what I was looking forward to and I was certain I'd, for lack of a better word, suck. And then there was the final. Four plated desserts (each with a minimum of five components) in twelve minutes. AAAHH! The twelve minute plate-up time wasn't even the scary part. We were given a total of twelve hours (spread over three days) for all of our production. And four desserts with five items each (more like seven or eight for people like me who get sick thrills from living on the edge and have pastry ambition running through our veins) in twelve hours is intimidating. Not to mention each dessert has to be completely different and repeating flavors is a no-go. Plus we had menus and portfolios due on the same day and a portfolio for restaurant block is ridiculously extensive/tedious/annoying/the-reason-i-spent-fifteen-dollars-at-kinkos/i-hate-it.

The idea of working in a restaurant has just never appealed to me. I don't want to quinelle ice cream and sorbet all night, or sauce plates for hours on end. Sit me in front of a cake stand and give me some fondant and I'm a much happier camper. But I was lucky. I had an awesome chef instructor named Michelle Antonishek who was encouraging and patient and so so talented (after all, she was the executive pastry chef at NYC's famous Gramercy Tavern). She made the class I was dreading into something fun and, as it turns out, I'm good at it! It's still not something I wanna do for the rest of my life, but now I know I can and I'm walking away with some pretty valuable skills in my back pocket. You can look at my plates here! I'm such a proud papa. Or mama. But I prefer alliteration over gender accuracy. :)

ANYWHOOOOO, after all this hip, modern, plated dessert madness the only thing I really want right now is some good, down home, simple oven love. Mayhaps in the form of a cookie? As in...an oatmeal-pecan cookie? Yeaaaaah. I'm a cookie girl at heart, it's true. The smell of them wafting through the house, the growing warmth of the kitchen as the oven heats up, the tongue-burning satisfaction of chowing down as soon as they hit the cooling rack, it all just screams home to me and I miss home today. Plus, cookies are a pastry basic. Baking 101, if you will. One of those things that everyone should know how to make and make well. It's just a good life skill. I know I've held tight to the sentiment that if there was no picture then there would be no post but gimme a break, people. The craving hit and I started typing. I've made them so many times that I wasn't concerned with the possibility of a crash-and-burn scenario. You'll just have to trust me on this one. They r0xb0x.

I found this recipe in my mom's little recipe collection about two years ago and it turned out that it came from a not-so-nice lady who I'm definitely not-so-fond-of. I guess when you make cookies like these it's easy to accumulate friends even if you're sort of a bitch. Sorry...As mom would say, truth hurts. Back to the cookies! They're amazing. Thin and crispy and sweet and oh I can almost taste them right now! Please make these cookies. And then make another batch to share with your friends and family. They're that good. So that's the why, here's the how:

Ingredients

• 1 cup Shortening (I know lots of people shy away from it, but it really does have it's place in the kitchen so give it a break)
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
  
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract (Just a word to the wise, Mexican Vanilla trumps everything else, and whenever a recipe calls for a tsp, I usually make it two)
• 2 Eggs, well beaten
• 1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour, packed down (which is usually a baking no-no but this time we're making an exception)
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 3 cups Old Fashioned Oats (the regular stuff, not the quick-cooking kind)
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup (depending on your tastes) chopped pecan

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350

Step 1
Thoroughly cream your shortening and and both sugars together until it forms a smooth paste.

Step 2
Combine your eggs and vanilla and slowly add to shortening/sugar mixture, beating well after each addition.

Step 3
Using a metal sieve, sift together your flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture in three stages, mixing after each until just combined.

Step 4
Fold in oats and pecans.

Step 5
Now here comes the only difficult part in this recipe. You have to somehow manage to get the dough from the bowl onto the baking sheet WITHOUT EATING IT ALL! I know, it's tricky. But I have faith in you. And if you happen to lose a few spoon-fulls in the process, well so be it. I don't think there's a soul out there who could fault you for it. Just place the rest on an ungreased sheet pan in rounded tablespoons and bake for 10 minutes in your 350 oven.

Depending on your personal preference you can take them out a minute early for chewier cookies or leave them in a minute longer for crispy ones. I'm a chewy gal, myself.

And that's it! They're amazing. So soothing. I love them. And I love you. Thanks for hanging out and reading. I'm sorry about not having a picture for you, but I'm hoping you'll like the cookies enough to forgive me. Have a beautiful Saturday and an even better Sunday and I'll be back sometime next week!

XOXO,
Mindy

The Queen of Hearts...

She Made Some Tarts
All on a Summer's Day

Well, I'm not a queen but I do love hearts and I did make some tarts and it is DEFINITELY still summer out there. Okay, I can tell what you're all thinking so let's just get this out of the way, shall we? I know. I've been m.i.a. for quite some time now and for that I apologize. BUT! Friends, in my defense I've been crazybusy. Like f0realz. I did miss you, though, and you were never far from my overworked mind. Now, I realize that busy is somewhat of a lame excuse but what if I told you that my busy-ness involved compiling new and fabulous recipes to share with all of my most ardent fans and avid readers? Would that help? Would you be more willing to forgive me? What? You don't believe me? You think I'm just lazy? That I've spent the last few weeks sleeping in and enjoying the slow pace of the unemployed life? Fine. Maybe I haven't been suuuper busy. And okay, so maybe I have reeeaaaally enjoyed not working and going to school at the same time. Sue me. Or not, since I have no funds with which to hire a good lawyer. Or any lawyer. Moving on. The honest truth is I just haven't felt inspired to write. Fortunately for you, I have felt inspired to bake! I've said it before and I'll say it again: Baking is my love language. It's how I care for people. And let's face it, nothing says lovin' like somethin' from the oven. Right? Right. And I've had lots of people to love on lately. Translation: I have lots of yummy recipes to share with you over the next few days.

I know I left you hanging last time with the promise of eclairs and cream puffs but, while I did make eclairs (it was my friend Jeff's one last going-away wish), I did not have the opportunity to get pics and I just don't like posting recipes without a good solid image to go along side. Sooooo, it seems as though I'll just have to redo them sometime soon. How sad. I have to make eclairs again. I tell you, it's a rough life I lead. Fear not, until then I have a bevy of recipes to blog about and I promise not to disappear on you for extended periods of time anymore. Since the last post I left you with was about a cake (oh, how I love that cake) I want to take us in a different direction this time. Our destination? The delicious land of tarts.

Now there are several things I love about tarts. First and foremost, they're just adorable. Whether they're piled high with sassy golden-brown spikes of meringue or topped with neat little rows of berries or drizzled with delicious dark chocolate sauce, tarts are just precious. Secondly, tart shells are always my first choice when it comes to crusts. Pie dough has this awful tendency to get soggy when sitting beneath most any filling, especially those with a custard base. But tart shells! Oh tart shells offer the best in texture AND flavor! They're sweet and crunchy and so easy to make that you'll never go back to pie dough again (but don't tell your friends because they'll think you slaved away in a hot kitchen all day long just for them and be uber impressed and tell everyone they know how awesome you are...you can thank me later). The tart I'm sharing with you today is one I made for a friend's housewarming recently and trust me when I say it was delish.

Now, without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to my dear friend, the chocolate-hazelnut meringue tart! We met about two months ago as I was reading through a cookbook by Rebecca Rather, aka The Pastry Queen (and let me tell you, when it comes to delicious baked goods Ms. Rather is definitely culinary royalty). It was love at first sight. Well technically there were no actual pictures of our tart friend, but just reading the description and ingredients conjured up strong enough emotions that I felt like I'd known her for years. My gut was right. She's fabulous. From her crunchy hazelnut and Frangelico tart shell to the deep dark chocolate ganache that sits inside to my personal favorite, the yummy mound of meringue that is her crowning glory, she is one lovely lady. So let's get started, shall we?

First let's preheat the oven to 350, then we'll gather all our ingredients.

For the crust you'll need:
1/3 cup hazelnuts
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter @ room temp.
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp (or if you're like me, 3 or 4) Frangelico
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup all purpose flour

For the ganache you'll need:
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla extract
7 ounces semi or bittersweet chocolate, chopped finely
2 tsp Frangelico

For the meringue you'll need:
4 large egg whites @ room temp.
3/4 cup sugar

Go ahead and grab the following tools so you'll be ready to go:
1 tart pan, buttered (or sprayed with God's gift to pastry lovers, Baker's Joy non-stick-flouring spray)
Hand mixer, or if you're one of the lucky ones a stand mixer w/ both paddle and whip attachment
Rubber spatula
Whisk
Heat proof glass or metal bowl for meringue

Step 1

Ready? Okay. First let's get our tart dough going. Take all those hazelnuts and spread them out on a baking sheet and slide them into the oven for about five to seven minutes. When you can smell them you know they're done. Mmmm. I love the smell of hazelnuts getting all roasty-toasty in the oven. Yum. Right after they come out gather them all up in a clean kitchen towel and rub them around to remove the skins. Now grab a big knife and chop 'em up nice and fine.

Step 2

Using either your hand mixer or your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Now mix in the Frangelico and salt. Add your flour in three additions, mixing on low speed until just incorporated. Toss in your chopped hazelnuts and finish mixing on low just until it's all combined. Gather up your dough into a nice little ball, wrap her in plastic wrap, and toss her in the fridge for about half an hour. I repeat, let her rest in the fridge for at least thirty minutes. Otherwise bad things will happen and I won't take responsibility for them. It's all on you, friend.

Step 3

Hokay. Now that you're dough is nice and chilled (it is, right?) go ahead and grab it from the fridge. Press it in to your buttered/sprayed tart pan in an even layer, making sure that the dough goes all the way up to the edge. Bake it off in your 350 oven for about 12 to 15 minutes until it turns a pretty golden brown. Don't worry if the bottom looks wrinkly, that's expected and we cover it up with ganache so nobody will see it.

Step 4

Time for ganache. Combine your cream, butter, salt, and vanilla in a sauce pan and bring it to a gentle boil. Place your chopped chocolate in a big bowl, pour the hot cream mixture on top, and let it hang out and get acquainted for about three to five minutes. Now whisk it until it's smooth and velvety and beautiful. Fill your tart shell with the ganache, almost all the way up to the top but not quite. Refrigerate at least thirty minutes or until the ganache is set (or if you're pressed for time or impatient like me, set it in the freezer to cut the chilling time in half).

Step 5

There are few things in life I love more than a good meringue. Place a sauce pan with about two cups of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. Now turn the heat down until your water is just lightly simmering. Put your whites and sugar in a heat-proof bowl and set it over the pot of simmering water, whisking constantly until all the sugar has melted and it's heated through (rub a little between your fingers to make sure all the sugar grains have dissolved). Remove from the heat and, using hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip on low speed for about five minutes and then on high speed for an additional five minutes until the meringue is stiff and shiny.

Step 6

Now go ahead and preheat your broiler. Pile your meringue on top of your tart making sure to take it all the way out to the edges covering all the ganache and sealing it tight. Using either your fingers or the back of a spoon pull and tease the meringue into crazy fun spikes. Stick the tart in the oven and broil for about one minute until the spikes get a nice golden brown on them but make sure you watch it because it can go from golden brown to burnt in a matter of seconds! Pull your tart out and my friend, there you have it. You're done!

Isn't she adorable? Don't you just wanna show her off and gobble her up all at the same time? And hey. If chocolate isn't your scene you can just as easily substitute the ganache for a delicious lemon curd or vanilla custard and get results that are just as satisfying. Now, I'm not going to make any specific dessert promises for next blog because I tend to be fickle and wishy-washy and what I bake depends on what I'm feeling, but I can promise you that I'll be back soon. I won't disappear on you for so long any more. You have my word. Okay, hope you have a fabulous tuesday. Maybe go eat a strawberry cupcake for me? They're delicious and I want one. In the words of one LJPe, "Peace out, girl scout!"

XOXO,
Mindy

Good v. Evil

It's a classic conundrum, right? Good v. Evil? Heaven v. Hell? And under normal circumstances there's no question which to choose. Good always wins. Well...almost always. You see, there's one particular instance where, when given the choice, I'm sucked into a pit of irresistible temptation and no matter how I try I simply cannot stand strong. The result is always an epic fail. But you know what? Somehow it feels much more like a triumphant win. What is this evil I fall prey to every time I face it? Devil's Food. MMmmmmm. Just hearing the name sends me into a state of pure bliss. It's chocolate cake, people! But not just any chocolate cake. We're not talking chocolate chiffon, or genoise, or sponge, or any of those dry, crumbly, European-style cakes. Devil's Food cake is all-American. It's moist and rich and decadent and bold and I have to stop before I embarrass myself. It's just good. The best there is. Apparently my grandmother would make one for my mom's birthday every year and, similarly, her sister Marsha would get an Angel Food cake every year for hers. Mom says that's because she reminded her mother of her real dad, Woody, who, as fate would have it, was somewhat of a hellion. But I don't buy it because if my mother reminded grandma of the devil then Aunt Marsha must've reminded her of an angel and, well, if you know Aunt Marsha... Anyhow, my point is this: if Devil's food is wrong, I don't want to be right.

About 2 years ago I was head-over-heels for this boy. And when I like a boy, I bake for him. Well, okay, I bake for everybody. But if I like a boy I tend to go a little overboard. Don't worry, I'm learning restraint. So one day I decided that I would win his heart with a Devil's Food cake. Good plan, yes? I know! Everyone loves Devil's Food cake. I had just gotten this new cook book and I was itching to try out their particular D.F. recipe. This was the perfect opportunity. I followed the instructions to the letter. Four hours and about $30 later it was done. It was beautiful. Sure, there was ganache everywhere and my roommates hated me for hogging the kitchen, but in the grand scheme of things none of that mattered. I had the perfect cake to win over the (seemingly)perfect boy. I had reserved a few of the scraps and ganache so that my roomie, Laura Jane, and I could make sure it wasn't poison so I called her into the kitchen for the long-awaited tasting. Cue enormous melt-down. The cake tasted like...nothing! It was bland! It was, despite having tons of chocolate in it, veritably tasteless! How could this happen??? I was so upset that, after stabbing the cake a few dozen times, I sat on my kitchen floor in my pj's and pink bathrobe and just cried. It was awful. I vowed to never make Devil's Food again. Never ever.

Fortunately, time heals all wounds and I once again began to hear the call of that dreaded dessert. And what perfect timing! I'm surrounded by some of the most renowned pastry chefs in the culinary industry every night of the week. Why not get the most out of the experience that I possibly can, right? So I went to Chef Mark. Mark Chapman. He's fabulous. And helpful! He gave me his recipe for Devil's Food cake or, as he called it when he was at The Driskill, 1886 cake. It's spectacularly easy and undeniably delicious. Here's how you do it:

Ingredients
1 lb 1 oz All-Purpose Flour
1 lb 14 oz Sugar
4.5 oz Good Quality Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder
1/2 oz Salt
3/4 oz Baking Soda
12 oz Vegetable Oil (Do Not Substitute Butter!!)
18 oz Buttermilk
7 0z Eggs
18 oz Hot Coffee (or Hot Water)

First, preheat your oven to 350. Now sift all of your dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda). Next up, add in your wet ingredients one at a time, mixing after each addition (I used a hand mixer but if you'd rather do it the old-fashioned way, go for it. Technology is not required for this recipe!) I know, the batter seems a bit soupy. Fear not! It bakes up beautifully. Pour it into two 10" cake pans that have been lightly greased and floured and slide them into your oven. Set your timer for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Now walk away. Resist temptation to open the oven door every twenty minutes. Just say no. Go do something fun! Watch a few episodes of Glee online or go start an herb garden or re-read Twilight. Has it been 1 hour and a half? Okay. Now you're allowed to open the door. Bump the pans a little. If they look jiggly or wet in the centers leave them in for another 10-15 minutes. When they begin to pull away from the sides and the centers are springy to the touch, you've hit pay-dirt. Rescue them from the fiery pit of hell (and by that I mean pull them out of the oven) and set them on the stove top to rest until cool (about 20-30 minutes). Once they've cooled down invert them onto a flat surface and wrap and refrigerate 5 hours or over night.

Okay. Now the fun part. If you're up for it, go ahead and cut those two cakes in half with a long, serrated cake knife to make four layers. If not, two layers works, too. My favorite way to eat this cake is with creme chantilly. Heavy cream whipped to medium-to-stiff peaks with powdered sugar and a little vanilla extract. About 1 tbsp of powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract for every 1 cup of cream. I like to ice the cake with this, between each layer and then all around the outside, and then pour chocolate ganache on top in the center and let it run down the sides. Kind of like a free-form tuxedo cake. Yum. For the ganache, bring 3/4 cup of heavy cream and 2 tbsp butter to a boil in a small saucepan. Pour over 8 oz of chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate and let stand for about five minutes. Now whisk until smooth. If you'd like you can add in a tsp of flavoring like vanilla or almond extract (almond's my fave) or liquor at this point. Let stand for about five or ten minutes until the ganache has cooled down just enough to not melt the whipped cream but not so much that it's begun to set. Pour over cake in the center and watch the magic happen. It's beautiful, I know. Just wait until you taste it.

I made this cake over the weekend in honor of Laura Jane's birthday (only I used ganache to ice and layer with and punched it with macerated raspberries). Five days later, I'm desperately searching for another excuse to get my Devil's Food on again. Be my excuse! Come see me and I'll make you one. You won't regret it, I promise. I'll even customize it just for you. You want cupcakes? Done. You want trifle? You got it. Layered with caramel mousse? Hazelnut buttercream? No prob. Whether I make it for you or you brave it alone, you have to try this cake. It doesn't disappoint, scout's honor. And speaking of things that don't disappoint, hold on to your hats. Next week = eclairs/cream puffs. Now go for a jog or a swim or do some jazzercize so you can feast without a guilty conscience.

XOXO,
Mindy

Sweet City Woman

So there's this song. One of my all-time faves, actually. And, as it turns out, also my inspiration for the name of this blog! "Sweet City Woman" by The Stampeders. It's about this guy who's totally revved about going to see his "sweet city woman". And who could blame him? She sounds awesome! For instance, in the song she makes him feel "shiny and new" and "sings in the evenings" and, most imporantly, "feeds him love and tenderness and macaroons". That's a pretty stellar combo. Does it really get any better than that? No wonder he's so pumped. Anyhow, right in the middle of the song, just after the first chorus, they stop to sing this simple phrase over and over again: "Bon, c'est bon, bon, bon, c'est bon, bon, bon, c'est bon, bon, bon, bon, bon" which translates to "Good, it's good, good, good, it's good..." and you get the point. It's good there. Of course it is! He gets to eat macaroons!! Which are, arguably, the most delicious and most adorable treat known to man.

Now, okay. He might have been talking about the little coconut cookies, but I am most definitely not. When I say 'macaroon' what I really mean is 'macaron'. Ze French Macaron! Precious little almond and meringue batter cookies baked and sandwiched with anything your heart desires: flavored buttercream, lemon curd, ganache, the list goes on and on. Any flavor you like. My personal favorite? These little guys right here -->
Almond macarons with strawberry French buttercream. The first time I made these amazing confections was during our petit four block about a month and a half ago. One bite and I was a goner. Who would have ever thought that these pink (I say pink because I chose strawberry for mine but like I said earlier, any flavor/any color you like) hamburger-esque cookies could turn your mouth into one big deliciously sweet party? And the best part? They're not nearly as much of a daunting task as everyone seems to think they are. I don't have pics of the whole process but fortunately for you I'm excellent at explaining things. Let's get started. :)

One of the first things you learn in pastry school? Mise En Place. French for "Everything in it's place." Before you begin something like macarons (or really anything, for that matter) you need to have everything together. All your ingredients and tools ready and waiting for you at your convenience. Today you'll need the following:

Ingredients
(Macaron)

• 4 oz Almond Meal
• 8 oz Powdered Sugar
• 4 oz Egg Whites (room temperature)
  
• 2 oz Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1-2 drops Food Coloring (preferably one that correlates to the flavor of your buttercream but if you'd rather be unpredictable and crazy then I say go for it)
  

(French Buttercream)

• 8 oz Granulated Sugar
• 2 oz Water
• 3 oz Egg Yolks
• 10 oz Butter (room temperature)
  
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• Flavoring to taste

Tools

• KITCHEN AID STAND MIXER!! (my favorite piece of equipment in the whole world even if I don't own one just yet...)
• Spatula
• Mixing Bowl
• 2 Piping bags, one fitted with a #4 round tip for your cookie batter and the other for your buttercream (no need for a tip on that one, just snip the end)
  
• Sheet pan lined with parchment or a silpat
• Metal Sieve (for sifting your almond meal and powdered sugar)
• Small Sauce Pan (for cooking your sugar)
• Candy Thermometer (so you know when your sugar is ready)
• Pastry Brush and Glass of Water
  

Macarons:

Step 1
Together, sift your almond meal and 1/2 of your powdered sugar onto a piece of parchment paper or into a bowl. Got it? Good. Now do that 2 more times. This makes sure you get rid of all those hard lumps in your almond meal and makes it nice and light and airy. Set aside.

Step 2
Take your room temperature egg whites and dump them into the bowl of your stand mixer. Using whip attachment, mix on medium speed until frothy. Now sift the second half of your powdered sugar and gradually add to egg whites. Mix until glossy, medium peaks form but be careful to not over-mix or your meringue will be too dry. Using a spatula, fold in 1-2 drops of food coloring.

Step 3
Now we're gonna add our sifted almond meal and powdered sugar using a technique called "macaroner" (pronounced macaronay) which basically means to slightly deflate or over-mix. Add about 1/3 of your almond meal/powdered sugar mixture into your meringue and fold about 5 0r 6 times or until it's mixed just enough so that you still see traces of unmixed batter. Repeat 2 more times. Now check your batter. when you run your spatula through it, it should look like a thick ribbon. It should flow but not be too runny. If it's still a little thick, give it a few more folds but make sure you don't turn it into soup.

Step 4
Okay. Now it's time to pipe. Grab your sheet pan lined with parchment or silpat and your pastry bag fitted with a medium round tip (I use Ateco #804). Fill with batter and pipe small rounds (about the size of a quarter) in rows about an inch and a half apart from each other. If your rounds have tips on them you can go back and smooth them out by dipping your finger in a little water and running it over the tops of your macarons. Now set them aside for about half an hour until they look dull. In the mean time preheat your oven to 300 degrees F (275 F if your using a convection oven). After about 1/2 hour go ahead and slide your sheet pan into the oven and bake for about fifteen to twenty minutes. Just watch them to make sure they don't get brown on top. When they're done, let them sit and cool while you make your buttercream.

French Buttercream:

Step 1
In clean stand-mixer bowl, beat egg yolks using whip attachment until pale yellow.

Step 2
Pour sugar into sauce pan along with your 2 oz of water. Using a pastry brush dipped in water brush down the sides of pot to make sure all the sugar is at the bottom where it belongs. No stray sugar for us, otherwise crystallization happens and you'll never get your sugar to be smooth and pourable! Set over medium heat and gently stick your candy thermometer inside the pot. Now leave it alone and let it do it's thing. The key to cooking sugar is to not disturb it. Every so often brush down insides of pot with water but that's it. Just watch the magic happen! Once your thermometer reaches 240 degrees (aka softball stage) pull your sugar off the stove.

Step 3
By now your yolks should be a nice, pale yellow. With your mixer on, slowly SLOWLY begin to pour sugar down the inside of the bowl, just letting it run down the side into the yolks. Now let the mixer do it's thing until the bottom of the bowl is cool to the touch.

Step 4
Is the bottom of your mixing bowl cool? Are you sure? Because it has to be cool before you move on to step 4. Okay? Okay. Now that your yolks and sugar have mellowed out it's time to add the room temperature butter in small chunks, one at a time. Add one every five to ten seconds. Just make sure you give it time to mix in completely otherwise your buttercream will seperate.

Step 5
Now that all your butter is in, go ahead and pour in your vanilla and your flavoring of choice. I used strawberry jam for mine, about a tablespoon and a half, but you can use whatever flavor you'd like. Whip until light and fluffy.

Assembly:

Step 1
Match up your macaron shells by size, you'll need 2 shells for each. Now fill your second pastry bag with your buttercream, snip off the very end of it, and start piping swirls of buttercream onto the bottom of every other shell.

Step 2
Sandwich and ENJOY!

I know. They're delicious. Now all your friends will call you a pastry god or goddess and you'll be the most popular person at work. No need to thank me. It's my pleasure. And now that your taste buds are totally satisfied I'll leave you with something that will appeal to another one of your senses. My inspiration. Hope the rest of your Tuesday is spectacular. :)

XOXO,
Mindy

Food and Cheer and Song

Food and cheer and song. I don't think that anyone, even Webster himself, could come up with three better words to describe me. I AM those words. I live them everyday. Well, almost everyday. Sometimes you just have to take a step back and have a good cry-day (girls, you all know what I mean). For the most part, though, that's me. I spend my days cooking and singing and laughing. I can even do all three at once. I'm very talented. Yes, those words are me in a nut-shell. And speaking of nuts, that's why I'm here. Well, maybe not nuts, but nuts are food and food is the reason. Not just any kind of food, though. Sweet food. Desserts. Pastries. Mmmmmmm.

To fully understand my obsession with all things baked you'll need a little bit of history. My name is Melinda. Mindy, for short. I actually prefer Mindy, which is a recent development but that's another story. Sorry, tangents are a bad habit of mine. I'm 24 (at least until November when I hit the big 2-5, OMG!) and for the last six years I've lived in Austin and (semi)attended the University of Texas. I say semi because the truth is my heart was never in it. I started as a theater major. Acting was it for me. My first true love. But after a year and a half in UT's cut-throat department, along with a professor who (though he recognized my talent and love for the field) said I was way too "sweet" to really succeed (cue month-long depression) I decided that maybe the classroom was a better arena for me. So on to education I moved. I started taking all the classes and began working at a local preschool and tried, I mean really tried, to love what I was doing. I loved the kids, mostly. But classes became less and less important to me. Sure, I was paying for them. But for some reason that just wasn't enough to motivate me to actually attend. I was way too busy for class. I had friends to hang out with! My schedule was such that I was able to work Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays and (supposedly) attend class Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. But like I said, friends were much more appealing. A mid-morning-target-run with one person would turn into a lunch date with another person would turn into an afternoon coffee with another person and so on and so forth. What can I say, I'm a people person. Looking back I recognize that I just wasn't happy with the direction my life was headed. I never really loved teaching. I knew I could make a living doing it, and I knew I would be good at it. But it was never a passion. It never excited me.

The time of year I really loved was finals time. Not because I loved studying or being stressed about exams (neither of those could really apply to me since more often than not I pretended like I didn't have final exams) but because that was the time of year when everyone around me was feeling anxious. And I quickly discovered that anxious people live for baked goods. I would hole up in my kitchen (or a friend's kitchen when I lived in the dorms) and bang out double and triple batches of cookies and brownies and cupcakes and pies for all the people in my life who really needed a good dose of yummy. I loved being able to provide some much needed happiness, loved the expressions on people's faces as they took a bite of something really delicious, loved how appreciative they were. There's just something undeniably special about gifts from the kitchen. I loved the process, the attention to detail, everything from the scaling of ingredients to the "please-let-everything-come-out-right" prayer that races through your mind as you slide a baking sheet into the oven to the rush of excitement and relief as you realize that it did, in fact, come out right. And, of course, the crowning glory when someone chows down and you hear that beautiful sigh of satisfaction. Music to my ears.

To make a long story short I finally had to stop and re-evaluate where I was headed. I packed up my whole life and moved back home to live with my parents (something I swore I'd never do). As I began to sort through all my emotional baggage, along with the mess I'd made of my college education, I turned once again to my tried and true stress-reliever: baking. I took a few ed. classes at the local community college and waited tables at Chili's and baked my little heart out. I began taking cookies to all my co-workers on their birthdays, but that wasn't enough for them. All of a sudden I was taking orders for a dozen oatmeal-pecan or two dozen snickerdoodles and people were actually paying me to do this! The holiday season came and every weekend I found myself baking and icing and decorating as many sugar cookies as I could to fill the orders I was getting. It was fabulous. And then the moment came that changed it all for me. One of my managers suggested I go to pastry school. It was an idea that had never occurred to me before then. I always had secret dreams of owning my own bakery someday, but a dream was all it really was. A pipe-dream that I had never even considered acting upon. But all of a sudden it just made sense. I loved baking. I was good at it. I needed a career. Why not make a career out of the hobby that I already adored? It just fit.

Fast forward seven months and here we are. I'm back in Austin and already three months into pastry school at Texas Culinary Academy/Le Cordon Bleu. And to top it all off, I've never been happier. I love it so much that I haven't missed one day of class (and if you know me at all you know just how much of a miracle that really is). I spend every night of the week in an enormous lab kitchen where my instructors teach me methods and ingredient functions and where we make the most delicious things I've ever eaten. Ever. And I want to share it with the whole world. I want everyone to be able to eat like this in their own homes. I want people to experience the joy that comes from taking a recipe and making it your own or from trying something you never thought you could do and realizing that it's not that difficult and even if it is, the results are SO worth it. What I post here during the week will be things I've done in class, but on the weekend is when I really have fun. I'll show you what I've experimented with and ask you for suggestions and give you pics and recipes and introduce you to all my fave food blogs. I'm pumped. I'm also new to the whole blogging thing, so be patient with me. I'm pretty sure I'm technologically inept so if I'm doing something wrong or you have a spectacular new idea for me just hit me up. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you have a wonderful day. Just to make sure you do, I suggest eating a whoopie pie. It's my newest discovery, and they're delicious. But more on that later.
XOXO,
Mindy