Guest Attempt: Mare's Bûche de Noël (a.k.a. The Yule Log Extravaganza)

I spent this summer in Paris, and ever since, Amelia has been badgering me to do a French attempt. As Christmas drew near, I realized I could not only relive my time in France but also one of my greatest moments of prepubescence: the time in seventh-grade that we had a Buche de Noël contest in French class and my buche WON. (Actually, I may not have won, but I felt like I did.)

So, back at home for the holidays and with the help of my mom, I decided to revisit the infamous Buche de Noël, one of France's most elaborate Christmas traditions. Surely having flashbacks from the first buche she got roped into, Mom kept trying to tempt me with a Bon Appetit "no-bake buche" recipe. But I wasn't in this for me--oh no. This was an Attempt. I knew it was gourmet recipe or nothing. I turned to Saveur whose buche recipe was adapted from one belonging to famed Parisian pastry house Ladurée. It was three pages long, and baking would be the least of it.

Saveur's version:

my version:

Day 1 (yes, this was a two-day affair).

Melt semi-sweet chocolate with butter and cream for the icing. Remove from heat and stir occasionally for four hours. I stirred it a couple of times!That was plenty. I had other, much more complicated things to tackle, such as the filling. I would like to note that this recipe would have been a total failure were I not at Mom's house. Mom really came through with amazing kitchen tools I have yet to/will never acquire such as a candy thermometer, egg separator, sugar duster, and standing mixer.

And despite her pretending to poo-poo complex, multi-day recipes like Saveur's in favor of recipes better suited for the busy woman's lifestyle (like the Bon Appetit no-bake buche), she busted out some extremely advanced kitchen knowledge that proved she's braved these waters before. For example. Several times in the recipe I had to make sugar syrup and heat it to "the softball stage or 236º." I had no idea what softball stage was so I aimed for 236. Suddenly, however, to my great dismay I noted that the temp had shot up to 250. Mom was working hard beating the egg yolks until they were "frothy and pale yellow," at which point I needed to slowly pour in the heated syrup.

Me: "Uh oh, Mom, it's at 250! Should I just wait til it cools off to 236?"
Mom: (freaking out) "250?!?!? Aww DAMMIT, Mare, it might be at hardball stage!!"
Me: (incredulous at Mom's expertise) "Wha?? There's a hardball stage? I'm so confused!"

Actually, she never freaked out or said dammit. But she did throw out "hardball stage." If these baseball-themed syrup stages are as baffling to you as they were to me, this will clear it up for you. Who knew? Moving along to Day 2 and the mushroom meringues that Mom could not believe I was actually going to attempt. Long story short, these shrooms were a HUGE SUCCESS! After going through the harrowing softball stage syrup/perfectly beaten egg white business again, piping the meringue from a ziploc bag (Mom's pastry tips went to Goodwill years ago) into caps and stems was the ultimate in mother/daughter fun. After baking and assembling these little guys, the whole family was beginning to pay attention to the buche operation and getting really impressed with my newly discovered pastry chef skillzz.

Baking the flourless cake was the simplest part: it just had to be thin and moist enough to roll into log formation. After spreading on the filling, the family had gathered around for the climax of the whole ordeal: THE ROLLING OF THE BUCHE. With cameras flashing all around me, I prepared for the step which would make or break the entire attempt. Upper left quadrant: I'm rolling. Upper right quadrant: Still rolling.

Voila!

High on my apparent culinary mastery (and my family's awe), decorating the log of yuletide joy was sheer bliss. Chopped off the ends of the beautifully rolled cake, glued 'em on top with icing to look like stumps, frosted the whole thing, arranged the mushrooms, and dusted with powdered sugar snow. A scene of winter woodland harmony, as only the French could recreate in pastry form. Oh yeah, and then we ate it. And if you can believe it, it tasted even better than it looked and was worth every second of labor. Thanks for an excellent recipe, Saveur. And thanks for all your help again, Mom!

Happy belated Hanukkah with Babette Friedman’s Apple Cake

We went over to our friends' place today for a simple latke party, though what resulted was a total celebration of Jewish cuisine.

I originally wanted to make Apple Cider donuts and then it changed to Chocolate-Apricot Babka, and then I realized that I was setting myself up for failure much more than I normally do, and so I kicked it down a notch (opposite of Emeril) and went for apple cake, specifically Babette Friedman's Apple Cake.

Babette/NY Times' version:

 

photo by Owen Franken

our version:

Apple cake involves apples?

If you read last week's post, you'll fully understand how great the below Christmas gift from my mom is... Allow me to introduce you to my brand new KitchenAid artisan mixer (in pistachio). On the right, you'll notice it tilts up. Amazing. The bad news? I may have to take it easy on mom for a little while. 

Concentrically-placed apples are cool.

I've gone semi-pro. Or at least, this picture looks so good, I would assume it's been photoshopped. It hasn't!

On to the party. Morgan manned the latke station while Jodi kept her eye on the brisket while Neal kept his eye on Jodi. What isn't shown is Neal leaving his post and Jodi scalding herself with hot brisket juice. Neal, why did you leave? Jodi, how's the burn? Morgan, nice work.

The food was Jew-tastic (Matt wrote this), and as Morgan will be the first to admit, she "makes a mean bowl of [matzo] ball."(Matt as well.) And accompanied with brisket, latkes, and our impromptu menorah, this was indeed a very happy post Hanukkah latke-fest.

P.S. Sorry so brief. Next week's is going to be craaaazy. I already started it 7 hours ago.

RECIPE:

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, more for greasing pan
1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 Gala or other flavorful apples, peeled, cored and each cut into 8 slices
1/2 teaspoon Calvados or apple brandy
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan, and set aside.

2. In bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine remaining 8 ounces butter, 1 1/3 cups sugar and the salt. Mix until blended. Add eggs and whisk until smooth. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the flour and baking powder until thoroughly mixed. Fold in a few of the apples, and spread batter evenly in pan.

3. In large bowl, toss remaining apples with Calvados, ginger and cinnamon. Arrange apple slices in closely fitting concentric circles on top of dough; all the slices may not be needed. Sprinkle remaining 1 tablespoon sugar over apples.

4. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center of cake dough comes out clean and apples are golden and tender, about 50 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

marshmallows!

I had been looking for a marshmallow recipe for a while now and finally found the one I wanted to do in Jam it, Pickle it, Cure it by Karen Solomon. Why Jam it, Pickle it, Cure it and why marshmallows? Because the title is Jam it, Pickle it, Cure it and because marshmallows are going to be my 2009 Christmas/ Hanukkah gifts! And although this is a Jam it, Pickle it, Cure it recipe, the results are pure Martha. Check it out.

Karen Solomon's version:

our version:

(What I lack in three toasted-coconut-flake covered marshmallows, I make up for in awesome Weck jars.)

As much as I try to steer clear of corn syrup in my regular, non-bon appetempt life, I couldn't find a recipe for these guys that didn't call for it. Anyone know of how to bypass corn syrup in marshmallows? I'd love to know. Also, I bought a gadget. After our red wine caramel apple non-success, I thought it was time to get a candy thermometer. Here it is clipped on to the pan of water, sugar, corn syrup and salt. It was supposed to reach 240, but the mixture plateaued at 215, so I took it off and hoped for the best.

Oh and it should be noted, that I doubled this recipe. So instead of an 8x8 baking pan (non-existent among my kitchen accoutrements anyway), I lightly oiled and dusted a rimmed baking sheet with confectioner's sugar. This led to slightly flatter marshmallows, but I wasn't too disappointed. You'll see.
(By the way, either I spilled some water on the sugar-dusted baking sheet or a super tiny man in snow boots walked across it. How could this get by me?) 

Here is where I had to get bon appetempt with it . My circa-1987 KitchenAid no longer stays in the up position on its own, so I built this (ingenious?) device in the form of a stack of books to keep it up while this unflavored gelatin and hot syrup mixture beat for 8-13 minutes. If this ever happens to you, I would recommend using my technique, especially the mix of highbrow and lowbrow books chosen here: The Great Expectations School by Dan Brown (four stars) was a good base while Art of the Story and Eclipse (its back turned as I am still embarrassed) were solid middleweights with Portnoy's Complaint topping it off. Also, be sure to cover up Portnoy once the mixing really gets going.

 

I don't think it's too stupid to remind you that this stuff is sticky. Don't even think about touching it without running your hands under water first or using an oiled spatula. Also, at this stage, you can fold in different items to spice up your mallow. I chose cocoa nibs since they've been hanging out in my refrigerator ever since the dacquoise endeavor.

You have to wait an hour for it to set up, but then it's time for your marshmallows to get some clothes on. On the left is confectioner's sugar and on the right is unsweetened cocoa powder.

Dear family members who I think would like this kind of thing: don't look! This will be arriving at your door in 2-3 days.

These packets are almost as cute as the conversation I had with my mom the other day who had mentioned that she'd been on the internet. 

"Oh, really? Did you make it to Bon Appetempt?"

She sort of half giggled/half laughed in a plotting kind of way.

"So you did?"

More laughing.

"Did you leave a comment?"

"I did."

"Hmm... Are you sure because I just checked my email and I get emails when someone comments."

"I did about two hours ago. I said: Does this get me out of trouble?"

"I don't think it registered, Mom."

"It didn't?"

While we were on the phone, I double checked.

"No, it didn't register."

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh!"

 More holiday adventures to come!

Molly Killeen’s St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake via The New York Times

I'm technically graduating from grad school this month, which means that my student loan is entering its grace period, which means that I had to take this mandatory exit counseling session for the loan I took out before I exited. (By the way, this is my new favorite non-euphemism for graduating--exiting. Congrats, exit-or!) (I know, I know--not all exit-ors necessarily graduate.) Anywaaaay, as the last step, I had to make a budget for my life, only there was no section for gourmet-food-blog-related expenses, so I just added it to food. No biggie, right?  Well, let's not get into specifics here. Let's just say, I was over budget.

So this attempt is a dedication to balancing the budget. Thanks to all the leftover unsalted butter in the refrigerator from Thanksgiving, I had everything on hand for this recipe and you probably do too.

Molly Killeen's version:

 Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

our version:

I am a huge fan of mildly sweet desserts, and so when I read Melissa Clark's article about this two-layer cake with a bottom layer that sounded more like bread than cake, I was totally sold. 

I hadn't baked in a while and forgot about the foresight needed when it comes to room-temperature ingredients. My solution was to put both the milk and butter on top of the hot toaster oven for a few minutes though I didn't feel great about the partially melted butter.

This bready/cakey layer needed to rise for three hours, which would have meant me putting it in the oven around 9pm. Instead, I remembered something from a previous baking attempt (battle challah?) about allowing bread to rise in the refrigerator overnight--that it actually made for a slower, more complex rise. (I might be making this up about the complex part, but I feel like it's true?)

In the morning, I was convinced that I'd ruined it. It was supposed to have doubled in size, but it didn't  look like it had risen even a quarter of its size. I braced myself for failure, put the bottom layer on top of my warm stove (in hope that it might rise) and continued onward with making the top layer--the layer that puts the gooey in this recipe's name.

I took my time, cleaning up as I went along, and guess what? By the time I pulled the cover off the bottom layer, it looked a little puffed up--probably not doubled, but certainly puffed.

Slightly less braced for failure, I poured what was destined to be the gooey layer over the bready layer and put it in the oven.

Uhm. Allow me to explain in terms of The Twilight Saga. Eating this cake is a lot like being a teenager who falls irrevocably in love with an extremely good-looking vampire. You know it's not good for you, but you just can't help yourself. (So I got into The Twilight Saga. So what? Matt started it.)

RECIPE via NY Times:
3 tablespoons milk at room temperature
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

For the topping:
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Confectioners’ sugar, for sprinkling.


1. In a small bowl, mix milk with 2 tablespoons warm water. Add yeast and whisk gently until it dissolves. Mixture should foam slightly.

2. Using an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar and salt. Scrape down sides of bowl and beat in the egg. Alternately add flour and the milk mixture, scraping down sides of bowl between each addition. Beat dough on medium speed until it forms a smooth mass and pulls away from sides of bowl, 7 to 10 minutes.

3. Press dough into an ungreased 9-by 13-inch baking dish at least 2 inches deep. Cover dish with plastic wrap or clean tea towel, put in a warm place, and allow to rise until doubled, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. To prepare topping, in a small bowl, mix corn syrup with 2 tablespoons water and the vanilla. Using an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl and beat in the egg. Alternately add flour and corn syrup mixture, scraping down sides of bowl between each addition.

5. Spoon topping in large dollops over risen cake and use a spatula to gently spread it in an even layer. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes; cake will rise and fall in waves and have a golden brown top, but will still be liquid in center when done. Allow to cool in pan before sprinkling with confectioners’ sugar for serving.