Butter Almond Coffee Cake

Perfect for a chilly winter morning is this Butter Almond Coffee Cake.  Its pretty simple to make, a few steps that in themselves are easy, just several of those steps to get to this wonderfully almondy coffee cake.

The real key to this coffee cake is to really whip the egg sugar mixture as there is no leavening in the cake.  That right, no baking soda or baking powder, its lightness comes from the air whipped into the eggs in the beginning.  Don't be afraid to whip it long and hard (wasn't that a Devo Song?) until the beater leaves trails in the egg mixture and it falls in ribbons from the whip. Takes about 3-4 minutes to get to that stage. If you don't do this your cake with be dense.

Butter Almond Coffee Cake

Cake:

• 1/2 Cup Sugar 
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 t. Vanilla
• 1/2 t almond extract
• 2/3 Cup Butter, plus small amount for pan
• 2 Eggs
• 3/4 Cup Flour

Glaze:

• 2 T. Milk
• 1 T. Flour
• 1/4 C. Butter
• 2 oz. Blanched almonds, sliced
• 4 T. Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour a 9" baking pan.
Melt 2/3 C. butter and allow to cool.
Using a mixer with whisk attachment, beat eggs, vanilla, almond extract, salt and sugar in large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.  Slowly add butter and flour to egg mixture and stir in on low speed.
Pour batter into an prepared cake pan. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
In a saucepan, combine remaining 1/4 cup of butter, 4 T. sugar, milk, and flour. Bring to a boil and add almonds.  Spread cake with glaze and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until just beginning to turn light brown and crispy.
Allow to cool on a rack for 10 minutes or so before cutting. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cherry Cream Cheese Pie

 I could have sworn I posted this before, but I can't find it anywhere.  Pardon the duplicate if there is one out there that I missed.

This came about because my wife loves Cherry Pie and I love Cheese Danish.  I created this recipe in my head and did it years ago when we were in the apartment in Valley Village that had an oven barely big enough to fit a pie plate in.  It worked and has been on the list of fun brunch food for us for years.

It is stupid easy to make as I use bought puff pastry sheets instead of taking the day or so to make it from scratch.  (Did that once for bragging rights, but seriously the store bought stuff is pretty marvy).  The sheets are smaller than a pie plate so you do need to roll it out a bit and then use the roller to pull the corners out a bit more.

 The corners won't meet in the middle, but that's OK.  If you stretched the dough to meet there you'd have it too thin and it would burn before the cream cheese filling had set.

 Pick a good Cherry Pie filling.  I've gone through several brands before I found one that I liked.  I really like the Cherry Pie Filling from Fresh & Easy stores based here in suburban L.A.  They have stores in So Cal, AZ and NV...use the handy store locater HERE to find the one nearest you.  Of course you can always use your favorite brand and make the filling from scratch if you so desire.  Just trying to make it a bit easier for you to duplicate what I did.  I like this brand as its not too sweet and the cherry's also have a bit of a sour bite to them.

Lastly leave the cream cheese out over night so it is amply soft for mixing.  Not having it at room temp makes it nearly impossible to beat in the egg and have a light fluffy mixture.


Cherry Cream Cheese Pie

• 1 sheet puff pastry - thawed
• 1 8 oz pkg cream cheese - room temp
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/4 t almond extract
• 1 egg
• 1 can Cherry Pie filling

Preheat oven to 400F

Flour your pastry board well.  Lay down the sheet of puff pastry and gently roll until it will fit into your pie plate.  Give the corners an extra roll or two until they are an additional inch or so further out from the pastry.
Place in pie plate.

Mix cream cheese, sugar, almond extract and egg.  Beat until fluffy.  Pour into prepared puff pastry.

Carefully spoon pie filling over cream cheese mixture.  Pull corners of pastry up and over towards the center of the pie, they won't meet. See picture of the detail.   Bake 40-45 minutes until golden brown. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.  Can serve at room temperature as well.

Paula Deen's Pumpkin Roll Cake

I've made this wonderful cake for Thanksgiving a few times since the recipe first appeared on her show.  Its not difficult but it is a bit time consuming as there are steps that must be followed.  The recipe HERE is stupid easy to follow and the results are always stellar.

A few tips to make things easier.  The eggs whip up better if they are at room temp, so set them out an hour or so before you are ready to start baking.  As always, if you have a copper mixing bowl to beat the whites do so as the inflate faster and better than any other bowl.

The second step of the recipe after the baking is most crucial.  Do be heavy handed with the powdered sugar as that is what keeps the cake from sticking to the tea towel.  Bring out your asbestos fingers and work with the cake while it is hot fresh from the oven as the recipe instructs.  I made the fatal mistake of thinking I knew better and let the cake cool  to the touch once and had a mess, the cake didn't roll rather cracked and fell apart on me.

I used Libby's canned pumpkin as it is 100% pure pumpkin, not a blend with butternut squash or other squash like some of the cheaper off brands can be.  Why the store bought this year?  Well I accidentally scorched the pumpkin I was putting up for just this purpose while stuck on a phone call a few weeks ago. *Sad face*,

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Butter Poached Lobster

I've "heard" that lobster has dropped in price.  Locally here in my corner of L.A, not that much.  My local market did have 4oz tails on sale this week so I grabbed a few.  I decided to replicate "Butter Poached Lobster" that we had on our anniversary at Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak last year.  The efforts were worth it as the lobsters natural sweetness shines when it is poached in butter much more so than when you just boil, grill or broil it. Simple ingredients simply prepared. Total success.

I did some research on the web and found that the butter used to poach isn't just melting the butter but rather creating a "Beurre Monte" or "Monte Beurre" butter sauce depending on the source you are looking at.  You use either unsalted butter or ghee a clarified butter.  I opted for the whole butter version as that is the most commonly used in the recipes I reviewed.

The sauce is tricky in that you have to whisk constantly over a low flame.  You can't allow the heat to break 190F or it will begin to break apart.  Letting it come to a boil you have lost it and need to start over.  I used my smallest burner and brought the water to a boil first, then reduced the heat to lowest setting and started whisking in the butter.  It worked for me.

After the lobster has been poached, you can strain the butter and use it for other cooking like sauteing or tossing in freshly steamed veggies.  Nothing goes to waste.

Another important step that appeared in a lot of the recipes I reviewed included par-cooking the lobster to make it easier to remove from the shell in one piece.  I used that step to minimize the waste and ensure I got every luscious morsel.  It is important to have this pre-cooking done prior to starting your butter poaching liquid as turning your back on the butter for even a second you run the risk of the sauce breaking.

Butter Poached Lobster

• 1 lb small lobster tails
• 1 lb unsalted butter cut into 1 inch cubes
• 2 T water

Prepare a bowl with water and ice.  In a large pan bring 2 quarts water to a boil.  Add lobster tails and cook 2 minutes.  Remove and plunge in ice water to stop the cooking.  Cutting down the back of the lobster tail make a slit from stem to stern.  Split open the shell and extract the lobster meat.  Set aside while making butter poaching sauce.

In sauce pan add water and bring to boil. Just as bubble start reduce heat to low and start adding butter 1 cube at a time.  Whisk constantly and add butter one cube at a time when the previous one has melted. Whisk constantly to maintain the emulsion.

When all the butter has been incorporated add the lobster.  Maintain low heat and do not allow to boil.  Poach the lobster in the butter 4-5 minutes until cooked through and still tender.  Stir while poaching to maintain the emulsion and ensure good coverage of the lobster with the butter.  When done remove and plate!

Serve over a rice pilaf.

Stilton Souffle

 Nothing has a more daunting reputation than the humble souffle for complexity and prone to failure.  I blogged it a while back that I found a recipe that was pretty fool proof and I've been experimenting away with it.  There is nothing quite like the lighter than air puffiness of a souffle paired with a salad for a nice light meal like on "Meatless Monday" that we celebrate around here.

It is actually fairly easy in terms of steps that one takes.  The key is being organized and having your pots pans and bowls all lined up ready to go as each step is completed so you can move to the next phase.

As always, if you have a copper bowl use it for whipping the egg whites as that allows them to reach greater volume faster than other bowls due to some sort of reaction between the metal and the whites.  If you don't have a copper bowl I'd suggest you track one down as the results are so much better than what you get from  other bowls.  I got mine at Tuesday Morning for $20 a couple of years ago and they always have some sort of copper selection on hand there.

I use Stilton instead of other blue cheeses as I like the flavor better.  Its not quite as pungent as others and has an almost sweet after taste.  It also has a very creamy texture that melts better.  Of course if you can't find Stilton you could substitute Gorgonzola Dulce (another creamy style blue cheese), or any other blue you can find.

Stilton Souffle

• 4 egg whites
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 cup milk
• 3T flour
• 1 T water
• 1/2 t Dijon style mustard
• 1/8 t nutmeg
• 1/4 t cream of tartar
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 oz Stilton - crumbled
• butter and flour for dusting souffle pan

Heat oven to 475F.  Set oven rack to lowest setting in oven.

In small bowl combine egg yolks, water, flour, mustard, nutmeg, salt and pepper whisking until smooth.

In small sauce pan over medium heat slowly heat milk to a boil.

Just before the milk comes to a boil remove 1/4 cup and add to yolk mixture whisking hard and fast to prevent scrambling the mixture to temper it.  When milk starts to boil, remove from heat and slowly whisk it all into the egg yolk mixture.

Add yolk mixture back to sauce pan and over medium heat bring to a boil. Whisk constantly and rotate pan to ensure you are whisking entire mixture.  Whisk until mixture is smooth and shiny and starts to bubble.

Reduce heat to low and whisk in the crumbled Stilton a few pieces at a time until smooth.  Once all cheese is whisked in remove from heat to cool a bit.

Combine egg whites and cream of tartar.  Beat on low for a minute to incorporate the tartar into the whites, beat on high until stiff peaks form.

Stir in 1/3 of the whipped whites into the yolk mixture to lighten the mixture.  Pour yolk base into the remaining egg whites and gently fold in taking care not to deflate them.  (This is the only tricky phase of the whole souffle but if you take your time and do it slowly you will keep the volume...don't beat it be gentle).

Butter and lightly dust the souffle mold with flour, shaking out excess flour.  Pour in the souffle mixture.  Bake at 475F for 5 minutes.  Reduce heat to 425F and bake another 7-10 minutes until the souffle is well browned and puffed up over the edge of the dish.   Serve immediately.

Just a quick note to my readers.  Apologies for the lack of posts the last few months.  I've been dealing with daily migraines that traditional medicine IE heavy pharmaceuticals just couldn't bring to a stop.  Just recently my health plan sent me to an acupuncturist which miraculously brought about an end to the migraines.  Now that they are under control my energy, memory and ambition has returned....so will the blogging.

A new toy for me and Mocha Sorbet

I've wanted it for years and I broke down.  Between birthday money and a gift card or two burning a whole in my pocket I got it.  An Ice Cream maker.  Oh the goodies in store with that magical beast!

My first crack at it was the "Dark Chocolate Sorbet" recipe that came with my new toy.  It was pretty awesome all by itself.  But I got to thinking, hmmmm what could make it better?  Why use coffee instead of water and make it mocha, after all coffee and chocolate play together well any way so it was worth a try.  My gawd was it good.

I used Fresh and Easy's French Roast Decaf.  Any French roast would be fine as that deep dark roast has a lot of flavor behind it.  I used decaf just in case the kids would like it to prevent them from getting all buzzed.

I used simple sea salt, fleur de sel for purity of flavor.

I used Ghiradelli cocoa powder, but any good quality cocoa powder will work.

The recipe here is for a 1 1/2 quart ice cream maker like the one I just got.  You can adjust this to fit your ice cream maker by doubling or halving.

Mocha Sorbet

• 3 cups coffee
• 1 2/3 c sugar
• pinch of salt 
• 1 2/3 c cocoa, sifted
• 1 t vanilla extract

In sauce pan heat coffee and sugar until all sugar is dissolved and you have a simple syrup.  Off the heat gradually add in cocoa powder stirring constantly with a whisk until all is Incorporated and the mixture is smooth.  Pour through strainer to insure no lumps.  Chill in covered bowl in refrigerator 2-3 hours or overnight until mixture is cold.

Pour mixture into ice cream maker and follow manufacturers directions.  In about 15-20 the Mocha Sorbet will be ready.  If you want it firmer, spoon off into a lidded container and freeze a couple of hours.  (I actually prefer the firmer version).

McDonald's not so secret sauce

All these years I thought it was something simple like ketchup that made it that signature orangey-red.  Its not but you have to follow through the video to see what it really is!  Actually the video shows you how to make a Big Mac at home, which is alright too.  (Color me funny but I prefer the Carl's Jr Western Bacon Cheeseburger over the Big Mac 'cause its char-broiled not fried).