6 posts tagged “baking illustrated”
A couple of weeks ago, I made these delicious cookies from Baking Illustrated (pg. 463):
First, I started by making the dough: 2 c. chopped pecans, 2 c. flour, 3/4 tsp. salt, 2 sticks unsalted butter (softened but still cool), 1/3 c. sugar and 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla. You've probably got everything except for the nuts in your kitchen, so pick up a bag of pecans or walnuts the next time you're at the grocery store because these are SO worth making!
The dough turned out to be THE most crumbly cookie dough I have ever made:
Naturally, I was super skeptical, but when I started rolling the cookies between my palms they came together nicely. I chose to form crescents, but they can be made into snowball shapes as well.
Into the oven they went. The directions said 17-19 minutes at 325 deg. F, but I had to bake them an extra 15 minutes before the bottoms just began to brown. They kind of plumped out while baking, but that was okay... it just meant more 'cookie' per cookie!
The recipe was for 48 cookies, but I only ended up with 30 crescents. Maybe 48 is for if you make snowballs.
Now, the best part. After they cooled to room temperature, I dusted them with confectioner's sugar and took a bite.
Notes:
- YUM. Hecka delicious, in fact. I will definitely make these again.
- Perfect proportions for ingredients. The right amount of nuttiness, butteryness, and sweetness.
- Coarse texture. This was my fault, though. The recipe called for superfine sugar, which I didn't have, and I didn't feel like food processing regular sugar for 30 seconds. As a result, the crumb of the cookie was somewhat coarse, and less melt-in-your mouth. Next time, I'll try superfine sugar or a mixture of granulated and confectioner's for even more delicious cookies!
- Extra baking time. 15 minutes more at 325 deg. F.
- 30, not 48 cookies.
- 1/4 c. of confectioner's sugar was all I needed for double-coating the cookies. The book calls for a whopping 1 1/2 cups.
- Work quickly with the dough. If you wait too long, the butter starts to soften further and they start falling apart when you form them.
"To prevent leakage and for best results, we strongly recommend using a tube pan made of one piece of metal (rather than a two-piece angel food cake pan, which has a removable bottom)."
Well, I didn't have a one-piece tube pan. So I lined my two-piece angel food cake pan with parchment paper instead:
Next, I prepared the streusels for the top and inside of the cake:
Then I prepared part of the batter, which contained copious amounts of butter and sour cream:
And the other part of the batter, which contained 4 eggs and more sour cream:
...then mixed them together:
Now, the fun part... layering!
After I was done, I put it in the oven. The tricky transition from cake-out-of-the-oven to pretty presentation is (gasp) double inversion. Here we are with inversion #1:
So far, so good. Time to invert it again... beautiful!
Time to dig in!
The Recipe:
Lemon-Blueberry Sour Cream Coffeecake (Serves 16)
Source: Baking Illustrated, pg. 340
Ingredients:
Streusel:
-
3/4 cup (3 3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
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3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
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1/2 cup packed (3 1/2 ounces) dark brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
- 1 cup pecans, chopped
Cake:
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened but still cool, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups sour cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
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2 1/4 cups (11 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
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1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 cup frozen blueberries
Directions
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For the streusel: Place the flour, granulated sugar, 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, and the cinnamon in a food processor and process to combine. Transfer 1 1/4 cups of flour/sugar mixture to small bowl and stir in remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar; set aside (this will be the streusel for the inside of the cake). Add the butter and pecans to the remaining dry ingredients in the food processor bowl. Process the mixture until the nuts and butter have been broken down into small pebbly pieces. Set aside. (The streusel with the butter and nuts will be for the top o the cake).
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For the cake: Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan (10-inch diameter, 10-cup capacity). Combine eggs, 1 cup of the sour cream, and vanilla in a medium bowl.
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In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt at low speed, about 30 seconds. Add the butter and remaining 1/2 cup of sour cream and mix at low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed and beat 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Decrease the mixer speed to medium-low and slowly incorporate the egg mixture in 3 additions, beating for 20 seconds after each and scraping the sides of bowl as necessary. Increase speed to medium-high and beat for 1 minute (the batter should increase in volume and become aerated and pale in color).
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Toss 1 cup frozen blueberries with 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest in small bowl. Add 2 cups of the batter to the prepared pan. With an offset metal spatula or rubber spatula, smooth the surface of the batter. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of blueberries and 3/4 cup streusel filling (without butter or nuts). Drop 2 cups of the batter over the streusel and blueberries, spread evenly, and then add the remaining blueberries and streusel filling. top with remaining batter and then the streusel topping (with the butter and nuts).
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Bake until the cake feels firm to the touch and a toothpick or thin skewer inserted into center comes out clean (although there may be bits of sugar from the streusel clinging to the tester), 50 to 60 minutes. Cool cake in pan on for 30 minutes. Place a rimmed baking sheet over the top of the cake and invert the cake onto the pan (the cake should now be upside down, with the streusel on the bottom). Remove the tube pan, place a wire rack on the cake, and reinvert so the streusel is facing up. Cool for 2 hours and serve or cool completely and wrap the cake in aluminum foil.
Notes:
- I used a two-piece angel food cake pan but lined the bottom with parchment paper to prevent leakage. Cake turned out fine.
- I made the inside streusel without a food processor by simply whisking the ingredients together. Similarly, I made the butter and nut streusel by finely chopping pecans and butter before whisking them in with the flour, sugar and cinnamon.
- I had to bake my cake for an hour and a half--not 50-60 minutes--before it was done.
- There's a chance I didn't grease the pan enough, because the bottom two layers of batter, blueberries and streusel look rather squished in the final slice pictured above...
- There weren't enough blueberries in this cake for my liking. For a similar and equally--if not more--delicious recipe, try Dorie Greenspan's Blueberry Crumb Cake.
- The cake tastes WAY better on the second day, in accordance with BI's assessment: "We were pleased to find that if stored well, this cake actually improves with age."
The actual variation on sugar cookies from Baking Illustrated calls for lime zest, but I didn't have that. Excuse my non-flattering photo of the results:
1. Do not oversmoosh the cookies! I was zealous (smooshing cookies with the bottom of a glass is fun) but really, when they say flatten them to three-fourths of an inch thick, they mean it. My cookies were not as soft and chewy in the middle as I would have liked, and they pooled together as a result. I am definitely a cookie n00b.
2. Too much sugar. I loved the crinkly texture of the cookies on the outside that came from rolling them in sugar before smooshing and baking them, but the overall result was way too sweet for me. Next time, no sugar rolling for me.
Other than that, they were great. I loved the lemon zing, and the proportions of sugar, butter and vanilla were just right.
Of the 35 cake recipes you will find in Baking Illustrated (not including variations), roughly a third are chocolate cakes.
Varying in the intensity of chocolate flavor, richness, texture, presentation and ease of preparation, they include: Chocolate Sheet Cake, Old-Fashioned Chocolate Layer Cake, German Chocolate Cake, Sour Cream Fudge Layer Cake, Devil's Food Cake, Génoise, Black Forest Cake, Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate-Hazelnut Cake, Fallen Chocolate Cakes, and Hot-Fudge Pudding Cake.
Deciding what kind of cake to make was difficult, but I knew I wanted a moist, fudgy cake that was easy to prepare. When I read the description for Sour Cream Fudge Layer Cake I was sold:
"Sour cream gives this cake its smooth, rich chocolate taste with a dense yet melting texture, almost like fudge. An equally intense chocolate icing stands up to the rich cake."
...but what if this cake is baked in Estes Park, Colorado... at 7,500 feet?
Now I had a harder problem to tackle: baking a successful chocolate cake at high altitude.
After consulting the three pages (18-20) in Baking Illustrated devoted to high-altitude baking, as well a sour cream-based chocolate cake recipe in High Altitude Baking from Colorado State University, I settled on some modifications to make for my high-altitude version of Baking Illustrated's Sour Cream Fudge Layer Cake. They were:
- adding 3 Tbsp. flour
- adding 1/4 cup sour cream
- subtracting 1/4 cup sugar
- adding 1 egg
- subtracting 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- adding 25 degrees to the original baking temperature
- using a 9x13 baking pan instead of two circular 9-inch pans
While researching how to bake cakes at high altitude, I saw that most references suggest to make a recipe first before changing the amount of certain ingredients one by one. I didn't have the patience, money, or appetite to eat chocolate cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so I decided to implement all of the above and crossed my fingers.
Here is what my batter looked like before the pan went into the oven:
While baking, the cake puffed up quite a bit and the top cracked, but as it cooled, it sank back down to the right height. I think this is due to having too high of an oven temperature, but I didn't notice any change in the taste or texture of the cake in the middle, so I'm fine with this. When it came out:
I decided to try two different toppings: a cream cheese frosting and the chocolate butter icing the book paired with this cake. The finished presentation:
The verdict on taste? Exactly the way I had hoped. After 15 minutes of cooling after being taken out of the oven, it was warm, gooey enough to melt in your mouth, yet retained the texture of a soft and moist cake. It also had an intense chocolate flavor that wasn't too sweet. I preferred the cake with the chocolate butter icing, but my friends liked the cream cheese frosting better.
The next day, after spending a night in the refrigerator, the cake tasted exactly like a moist, chewy brownie. However, after spending 15 seconds in the microwave, it became an awesome fudgey cake again. Looks like you can have your cake and eat your brownie too!
The recipe for this cake at 7,500 feet is as follows:
Sour Cream Fudge Layer Cake (from Baking Illustrated, pg. 362) - High altitude version for 7,500 ft. - SERVES 12
SOUR CREAM FUDGE CAKE
1 ¼ cups + 3 Tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting pans
1 cup nonalkalized cocoa, such as Hershey’s
2 teaspoons instant espresso or coffee powder
1 cup boiling water
¾ cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 ½ cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
CHOCOLATE BUTTER ICING
9 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1. FOR THE CAKE: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Generously grease two 9-inch round cake pans and cover the pan bottoms with rounds of parchment paper or waxed paper. Grease the parchment paper and dust the pans with flour, tapping out the excess.
2. Mix the cocoa and instant espresso powder in a small bowl; add the boiling water and mix until smooth. Cool to room temperature, then stir in the sour cream and vanilla.
3. Beat the butter in the bowl of a standing mixer at medium-high speed until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds. Gradually sprinkle in the sugar; beat until the mixture is fluffy and almost white, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating 1 full minute after each addition.
4. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. With the mixer at the lowest speed, add about a third of the dry ingredients to the batter, followed immediately by about a third of the cocoa mixture; mix until the ingredients are almost incorporated into the batter. Repeat the process twice more. When the batter appears blended, stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Return the mixer to low speed; beat until the batter looks satiny, about 15 seconds longer.
5. Divide the batter evenly between the pans. With a rubber spatula, spread the batter to the pan sides and smooth the tops. Bake the cakes until they feel firm in the center when lightly pressed and a toothpick or thin skewer comes out clean or with just a crumb or two adhering, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer the pans to wire racks; cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the perimeter of each pan, invert the cakes on to the racks, and peel off the paper liners. Reinvert the cakes onto additional racks; cool completely before frosting.
6. FOR THE ICING: Melt the chocolate and butter in a medium bowl set over a pan of almost simmering water. Stir in the corn syrup. Set the bowl of chocolate mixture over a larger bowl of ice water, stirring occasionally, until the icing is just thick enough to spread.
I made these today using Baking Illustrated's Cream Scone recipe and threw in an egg (minus some butter, and minus some cream) to make the scones more cake-like, as per their instructions for 'Cakey Scones'.
At my friend Emily's recommendation, I purchased Baking Illustrated recently and am in love with the book.
I love how they explain what kind of consistency or taste they are trying to go for, what they did to try achieving that, and how it turned out. After reading the preamble for each recipe you can be sure of what to do in order to get the taste you want. For example:
We made four batches of pastry cream, using 3 or 4 tablespoons of cornstarch or flour in each one. Four tablespoons of either starch made gummy, chewy, gluey messes of the pastry creams. Three tablespoons was the correct amount; any less would have resulted in soup. In equal amounts, cornstarch and flour were extremely close in flavor and texture, but cornstarch inched out in front with a slightly lighter, more ethereal texture and a cleaner and purer flavor; flour gave the pastry cream a trace of graininess and gumminess.
Yesterday, I made a Fresh Fruit Tart with Pastry Cream (pg. 225), which turned out fantastic although hard to serve (the pastry cream would be EXCELLENT for something like a cream puff, however) because the cream didn't hold its shape and I ended up with strawberry and kiwi slices drowning in blobs of pudding atop a barely visible golden brown crust. In short, it tasted better than it looked. But boy did it look awesome before I broke into it!
One more note: it was necessary to blind bake the crust for this tart, which is the process of baking the crust before a pie or tart is filled and involves lining the dough with some sort of weight while in the oven to prevent the sides from sliding to the bottom before it has had time to become crisp. The book recommended using pie weights in a bag or pennies on top of aluminum foil, but I had neither and used aluminum foil filled with a few cups of rice instead. FYI, this works just fine!
