10/5/09

Organic and Chic's Goldies or The Shiniest Dessert Ever

Upon seeing the below picture in Sarah Magid's Organic and Chic cookbook, I felt instantly bound to the idea of making them. But was I setting myself up for another arts and crafts attempt akin to the Decoupage egg fail?

Maybe so, but these were twice as cute and completely edible. These were "Goldies," organic and chic versions of their inspiration, the Twinkie.

Sarah Magid's version:


our version:

If you like the looks of these guys, you'll want to take a look at the whole book, which reminds me of something Martha Stewart would've produced if she were 30 years younger, more focused on eating organic, and lived in Brooklyn.

Already mentally married to the idea of creating The Goldies, I went on to read the entire recipe and realized that it called for a few items I didn't own.

1. An eclair pan
2. Edible metallic gold dust
3. A pastry bag and tips

Matt and I argued about what to spring for. I thought we could do without the eclair pan and just get eclair paper liners. We called around a few local places and they literally laughed at the idea of not needing the pan. With my feelings newly crushed, I decided to stick to the directions, log on to kitchenclique.com, and buy the pan. Interesting note: While eclair wrappers are everywhere, eclair pans are very very difficult to find. Dessert conspiracy?

For sure, we needed the gold dust. I mean, c'mon. (Per Organic and Chic's recommendation, we got ours via Kitchenkrafts.com.)

But for the pastry bag, I decided we could use a Ziploc bag.

The first step was making the Goldies' bodies a.k.a. Magid's Easiest Chocolate Cake recipe, which did live up to its name--no eggs or milk involved.
After baking for 18 minutes, the bodies were looking gooood.
The vanilla buttercream seemed tricky compared to the other icings I've made in the past. It involved mixing milk, flour and vanilla in a saucepan, stirring until it thickens and then quickly cooling before adding to the creamed butter and sugar mixture. But the result was this super smooth, semi-milky buttercream and my favorite component of the whole dessert.
I guess part of the reason you use a pastry bag is because the alternative looks kinda gross.

Also, without the tip, we would soon realize that we didn't get enough of the good stuff inside the cake.
Even though they looked great.
In her book, Sarah Magid tells the story of how she came up with the idea for Goldies (and other reformed junk food). She tells how, while browsing in a grocery store, her son wanted to buy a box of Twinkies, and after looking at the ingredients on the back of a box she decided that she would bake him her own version minus all the processing and weird bits.

Now, since Magid uses chocolate cake instead of the standard yellow found in the original Twinkie, and then covers that chocolate cake in a layer of chocolate ganache (see below), how is she going to get that yellow Twinkie-like color back in there?
Enter: edible gold dust.

Did we just blow your mind? You're probably asking yourself: What the ef is edible gold dust and/or what is it made of? The website we bought it from simply says it contains no metal. Regardless, it's amazing. Just brush it on and voila, instant Charlie and the Chocolate Factory effect.

I wish the below were a picture of the faces of our pals, Heather and Alex at the moment when we arrived at their house for dinner and pulled the foil off the dessert platter only to reveal more shiny metal. Uhm, gold bricks? Thank you?

Speaking of gold bricks, Matt boxed one up and sent it away to cash4gold.

Just waiting for our check to arrive in the mail!

In short, Goldies are awesome. I mean, at the end of the day it's organic chocolate cake with organic vanilla buttercream filling and a coating of organic dark chocolate ganache. So, yeah... we ate a lot of them this weekend.

20 comments:

Matt said...

These were a million times better than twinkies.

George Gaston said...

It is always enjoyable to see people having fun cooking. After all, it should be! Reading your post is filled with adventure, intrigue and usually a good new recipe.

I wish I were there at “cash4gold”, when they receive your treasure. Will they see the humor, or will they call the authorizes… thinking your delectable little golden Twinkie is filled with tonic buttercream? Do keep us posted!

Can’t wait for your next exciting edible post…

Heather Taylor said...

blessed jewel blessed jewel blessed jewel!

Andrea said...

Please mail Henry one for his birthday. Thanks.

Jessica said...

What an amazing idea! I NEED to get that book!

Mark said...

The goldies look great. Suze Orman advises to place the left overs not in your refrigerator but instead in your safe deposit box. They may get stale but they're sure to appreciate in value.

Alex said...

Gold aside, they were delicious. Let me know how the cash4gold works out!

Unknown said...

I want to eat GOLDIES. The dust looks expensive, how much is needed to make a batch?

bon appetempt said...

Hey Aaron,
We bought a 2 gram container of the gold dust for $3.49 and used about half of it to make a batch of 8 Goldies.

Sarah Magid said...

Thanks for trying out my Goldies! You did an amazing job, they look gorgeous. You are right, it is hard to not eat more than one...am glad to know I am not the only one. xoxo sarah

The818 said...

I want to eat this so bad.

Courtney said...

These are beautiful!! Up there in my favorite Appetempts. I might try these myself this weeked...nice job!

courtney
www.dumpstersbuffet.com

Anna said...

ohhh, now WHAT to do with the remaining half of that edible gold dust......??!

Anonymous said...

How are you feeling about Conde Nast's shut-down of Gourmet mag?? At least Bon Appetit is safe ... for now.

Amelia Morris said...

totally completely SHOCKED. the next post will be a total homage/thank you/ i can't believe this happened kind of thing. (I just typed a frown face and then erased it--internet emoticons just don't seem appropriate for this one.)

Anonymous said...

Not to make light of the situation but if there's any way you can post a slow-motion video montage of all the good times you and your husband have had reading Gourmet mag, that would be great. Preferably set to Sergio Mendes' "Never Gonna Let You Go." Thanks.

Amelia Morris said...

ha! that would be kinda amazing (and finally a youtube montage I could get into).

Mary Anne said...

Hi Ames! My mom is here with me and she specifically ASKED to see your blog. So, you do have some Mom fans. She says, "Oh, Amy, I'm so proud of you growing up to be a real cook and a real blogger!"

Anonymous said...

wow! just like the 'real thing'!

Kara said...

Um...///...completely obsessed with that shiny edible gold powder. I guess it's my inner magpie. Obsessed.