There is absolutely no reason why kosher food and desserts have to be anything less than what everyone else is eating. Share with me your baking and cooking sucesses, challenges, and disasters. I will share my recipes, shabbat and holiday menu planning and my love of food.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Designer Doughnuts


One of the hardships of my life as a pastry chef/teacher/writer is that I go to Paris every few years to do ”research”.  I want to see what new ideas and flavors I can bring to my audience, and what fabulous dairy desserts I can convert into equally fabulous parve desserts.  I go for inspiration.  I recently returned from 5 days of eating, museums, eating, shopping, eating, walking and eating.  I went to over a dozen general patisseries and then another bunch of kosher ones and saw some truly spectacular desserts.  I ate three exceptional kosher dinners.  I drank the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted.  Merci beaucoup to local Jewish friends, Dorie Greenspan and David Lebovitz’s Paris Pastry App who all pointed me in the right direction.  Stay tuned: over the next few months I will be bringing some new dessert concepts and recipes and more stories of Paris pastry to this blog. 

The unofficial Paula's Parisian Pastry report from the trenches: the verrines (little cups with desserts) are over, as are the oversized, homemade, flavored marshmallows I saw on my last trip that haven’t quite gotten as big here.  Macarons are everywhere.  The most popular dessert is  caramelized mille feuilles (napoleons with caramelized pastry, filled with praline and caramel cream), new flavors of èclairs
and decorated mini choux pastries.  Madeleines now come in pecan and raspberry.     

The mini tart shape du jour is rectangles with a few triangular-shaped tarts.  Some chefs were a tad over ambitious - a layer cake with seven different flavors inside was just showing off, because you can’t fully identify or enjoy any of them.  


As I tasted each dessert and did my surgical examination to identify the elements inside, it occurred to me that all of them were based on the same classic French techniques I learned in French pastry school in 1995.  Every crunchy layer was the meringue I mastered, every cream either a variation of classic pastry cream, butter cream or mousse, every tart crust the same pate sucré (sugar crust) I use in my tarts in The Kosher Baker.  Yes, the fillings are now flavored with black sesame, jasmine and wasabi, added to the classic pistachio, raspberry and hazelnut palate that the French adore.  And, it is true that the chefs are doing creative decorations with colored cocoa butter, marshmallows and nut powders.  Clearly, the French are masters at taking what is old and making it completely new and innovative.  

They do that with fashion too.  Everywhere I went I saw bright-colored fur (some fake) scarves, which I had not seen before around D.C.  They are still scarves, just a bit more couture.  Which brings me to doughnuts for Chanukah.  For years, everyone has been coming up with new ways to fill plain vanilla doughnuts, but what about the dough?  Inspired by my Paris research, I bring to you the Designer Doughnut Collection for Chanukah 2011: pumpkin and chocolate ganache.  My lemon doughnuts will be featured on Joy of Kosher later during the week of Chanukah.  Designer doughnuts are what every fashionista will be eating this week. 

Pumpkin Doughnuts
Makes 25-30 3-inch doughnuts
                                                                                      
¼ ounce active dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar
¼ cup light brown sugar
¾ cup parve plain soy milk
4 tablespoons parve margarine
2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin purée
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 -5 cups all-purpose flour
4-5 cups canola or vegetable oil, for frying
¼ cup confectioner’s sugar for dusting 


In a large bowl, place the yeast, ¼ cup warm water and 1 teaspoon of the sugar and stir.  Let sit 10 minutes, until thick.

Add the sugar, soy milk, margarine, eggs, pumpkin purée, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and 3 cups of the flour and mix either with a wooden spoon or with a dough hook in a stand mixer.  Add another cup of flour and mix well.  Add the next ½ - 1 cup, a ¼ cup at a time, until the dough is smooth and not sticky, scraping down the sides of the bowl before you add more flour.  You may not use the entire 5 cups of flour.  Stop adding flour as soon as the dough is no longer sticky. 

Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise for 1 hour in a warm place.  I use a warming drawer on a low setting, or you can turn your oven on to its lowest setting, place the bowl in the oven and then turn off the oven after 5 minutes.

Punch down the dough and shape back into a ball and let rest for 10 minutes.  Take out 2 cookie sheets and sprinkle some flour on them.  Sprinkle some flour on your counter and roll the dough out about 1/3 inch thick.  Use a 2 ½ inch round cookie cutter or drinking glass to cut circles and place on the prepared cookie sheets.  Re-roll any scraps.  Place the cookie sheets back in a warm place.  Let rise another 45 minutes.

Heat about 2 inches of oil in a medium saucepan and use a candy thermometer to see when the oil stays at 360º to 370º F for a few minutes; adjust the flame until the oil stays around that temperature.

Take out a cookie sheet and cover with foil.  Place a wire rack on top and set near your stovetop.  Add the doughnuts, no more than 5 at time, top side down, into the oil and cook 1 ½ minutes.  Turn the doughnuts over and cook another 1 ½ minutes.  Place on the wire rack to cool.  Repeat for all the doughnuts.  Dust with the powdered sugar and serve.  Doughnuts are best eaten the day they are made, or warmed in an oven the next day.



Chocolate Ganache Glazed Doughnuts
Makes 25 3-inch doughnuts
I made these a few times until I got the texture the way I wanted it.  They are very addictive and I had trouble following my rule of one serving only.
                                                                                 
Dough
1/2 ounce active dry yeast (2 envelopes)
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup parve plain soy milk
4 tablespoons parve margarine
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup parve unsweetened cocoa
2 – 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
4-5 cups canola or vegetable oil, for frying

Ganache
8 ounces parve bittersweet chocolate
1/3 cup parve plain soy milk
2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
1 tablespoon parve margarine

In a large bowl, place the yeast, 1/2 cup warm water and 1 teaspoon of the sugar and stir.  Let sit 10 minutes, until thick.

Add the remaining sugar, soy milk, margarine, eggs, salt, vanilla, cocoa and 2 cups of the flour and mix either with a wooden spoon or with a dough hook in a stand mixer.  Add another ¼ cup flour and mix well.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.   Add another ¼ cup flour and mix again.  If the dough is still sticky, add a little more flour, a little at a time and mix into the dough until the dough is smooth and not sticky. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise for 1 hour in a warm place.  I use a warming drawer on a low setting, or you can turn your oven on to its lowest setting, place the bowl in the oven and then turn off the oven after 5 minutes.

Punch down the dough and shape back into a ball and let rest for 10 minutes.  Take out 2 cookie sheets and sprinkle some flour on them.  Sprinkle some flour on your counter and roll the dough out about 1/3 inch thick.  Use a 2 ½ inch round cookie cutter or drinking glass to cut circles and place on the prepared cookie sheets.  Re-roll any scraps.  Place the cookie sheets back in a warm place.  Let rise another 45 minutes.

Heat about 2 inches of oil in a medium saucepan and use a candy thermometer to see when the oil stays at between 360 and 370ºF for a few minutes; adjust the flame until the oil stays around that temperature.

Take out a cookie sheet and cover with foil.  Place a wire rack on top and set near your stovetop.  Add the doughnuts, no more than five at a time, top side down into the oil and cook 1 ½ minutes.  Use tongs or chopsticks to turn the doughnut over and cook another 1 ½ minutes.  Place on the wire rack to cool.  Repeat for all the doughnuts.

Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a double boiler or in the microwave. Heat the soy milk until hot, not boiling. Whisk into the chocolate mixture a little at a time and whisk well after each addition.  Add the confectioner’s sugar and mix and then add the margarine and whisk well.  If the chocolate ganache gets hard, heat in the microwave for ten seconds and stir.

To glaze the doughnuts, pick one and dip the smoother side into the ganache, swoosh it back and forth a few times and lift up – you want a generous coating.  Eat immediately or store covered at room at room temperature.  They can be reheated the next day.


Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Stressed is desserts spelled backwards


That should be the motto for competing on a dessert competition show.  After I found out that I had a place on Sweet Genius, and right after I screamed my head off to my twins who are obsessed with Food Network, I became extremely anxious.  I am a home kosher baker and cookbook author; why did I think I could compete against fancy pastry chefs?  

I know I can make stunning desserts given several hours, time to plan and knowledge of the precise location of equipment and ingredients.  As a mom of four who runs a business, I am a planner.  My lists have lists.  On Sweet Genius, I would have to create on the fly.  

After spending a few weeks in my own personal pastry boot camp, reading about every weird fruit out there (prophetic!), and walking the supermarket aisles and considering how I would make a dessert out of mustard, quinoa or Starburst candies, I was as prepared as I could be, and my anxiety shifted to pure excitement.  What an amazing opportunity.

It was an exciting day for me.  The first awesome moment was when we competitors walked onto the spectacular kitchen set.  My jaw dropped.  I thought to myself, “Ok, send me home now because I have already experienced something truly magnificent today.”  I couldn’t believe I got to work in that kitchen.  Yet, when I saw all the sophisticated equipment around the arena, I knew, with an uncomfortable certainty, that I was clearly out of my league.  I would have found the inside of the space shuttle more familiar.  I just told myself not to be intimidated and to just stick to using equipment I knew.   So much for that plan.  The child in me trumped the adult and I found myself looking longingly at the ice cream machine, thinking, “That looks like fun; I should play with that,” when I had never made sorbet or ice cream before in my entire life.  I recall that I watched someone do it in a Swiss pastry shop in 1996. 

photo courtesy of Food Network
We taped back in early July and I have spent these months wondering what the show would look like and how I would be portrayed.  In the few hours leading up to the show, my heart started racing.  I felt like I was about to be judged all over again – this time by family, friends and complete strangers.  Ultimately, I was extremely pleased with the show and really enjoyed watching it.  My intro profile captured my pastry philosophy as well as featured The Kosher Baker to the entire foodie world.  I am thrilled for sweet genius Mauricio Santelice, who is truly talented and a really nice guy too.  I wish him continued pastry success. 

As I walked out of the taping into the steamy streets of NYC after a very long day, I had an epiphany that made me smile.  I realized that I knew with certainty what I am uniquely talented at as a pastry chef.  Maybe I kind of knew before, but never with clarity.  I am GREAT at putting deep flavors into my desserts and combining interesting flavors.  Ron Ben-Israel kept saying “delicious” as he ate my desserts.  That was a huge compliment and made me feel great.  It tells me what I do best and what I should continue to focus my creative energies on.  I also learned what I am less skilled at and could improve.  Maybe my desserts simply weren’t fancy enough.  You know, I can live with that.  I will always maintain that food is about flavor first, presentation second, no matter the medium.  


Above is the photo of my sorbet cake from The Kosher Baker that served as the inspiration for my dessert during the first round of competition on Sweet Genius.  The recipe appears below. My thinking was that making that dessert with homemade, fresh raspberry mint sorbet, and with a lemon rosemary sponge, would be fabulous.  I never got to taste the finished product.  

Sorbet Cake
Makes one 9-inch triple-layer cake, 12 to 16 servings
Spray oil containing flour or spray oil plus 2 tablespoons flour for greasing and flouring pan

Cake
1 large egg plus 3 whites
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/2 cup parve plain soy milk
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup mango sorbet (from 1 pint container)
1 cup raspberry sorbet (from 1 pint container)

Mango Sauce
2 cups mango cubes
¼ cup hot water
1 teaspoon confectioner’s sugar

Strawberry Sauce
2 cups halved strawberries
¼ cup hot water
1 teaspoon confectioner’s sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9-inch-round baking pan.

Separate the whole egg and place the yolk in one medium bowl and the 4 whites into another. Into the bowl with the egg yolk, add the oil, soy milk, sugar, flour, baking powder, and vanilla. Beat with a hand-held or stand electric mixer on medium-high speed or whisk by hand for 1 minute.

With an electric mixer on high speed, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Use a silicone spatula to fold half the whites into the batter and, when almost mixed in, add the rest of the whites and mix until combined and you don’t see any more egg white clumps. Place in the prepared baking pan and bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes, and then turn the cake out of the pan onto a rack and let cool completely.

When the cake is cool, take the sorbet pints out of the freezer and let sit for 15 minutes to soften. You can also place the sorbet containers into the microwave for 15 seconds or until when you squeeze the container. Don’t let it melt.

Slice the cake across into three pieces so that you will have three layers.  Place the bottom slice on a serving plate. Place the 1 cup of mango sorbet in the center of the cake. Use a spatula to spread it out to the sides as evenly as you can, moving the spatula back and forth. Place the middle slice of cake on top of the mango sorbet. Place the 1 cup of raspberry sorbet in the center of that cake and spread an even layer. Place the third, top piece of cake, on top.

Place in the freezer for 8 hours or overnight and keep in the freezer until you serve the cake. It can survive outside the freezer no longer than 30 minutes and then it will start melting.

Make the Mango and Strawberry Sauces by putting the ingredients for each sauce separately into a food processor and process until smooth.  Add more water if too thick.  You may strain the strawberry sauce, if desired.