Raccoon and Lobster

There is something about making a pretty looking pie that I have not yet learned. Crusts slide around and develop mystery holes. Toppings ooze. The whole thing is very frustrating.

Choosing this pie was an attempt to avoid some of the headaches of a proper fruit pie. Dark chocolate ganache serves as the base, while meyer lemon curd adds a sweet, tangy kick.

I still need to work on perfecting my decorative crust technique, but the flavor combination worked delightfully well. Another perk: every ingredient was something I’ve made before. The pie crust recipe is the same one that worked so nicely for the apple pie and the ganache and lemon curd are the same recipes, with mild adjustments. I’ve been progressively decreasing the amount of butter and sugar I use when I make lemon curd to make increasingly tart curds. It gets balanced out by the crust and the chocolate, but if you like less lemon-ness in your lemon curd, keep using the old recipe or adjust the sugar and butter to taste.

All Butter Pie Crust via Shuna Fish Lydon

Makes enough for a pie bottom

1 cup of all purpose flour (I used 9.2 oz)
2 tablespoons sugar
4 oz butter, cut into equal pieces and frozen
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
ice water

Assemble all dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. Use paddle attachment on mixer and drop the butter in a few pieces at a time. When the chunks of butter are slightly larger than pea size, dribble in ice water until the dough just begins to come together. Do not wait until it forms a ball. It is ready when it stops looking dry and barely starts to bind to itself.

Stop the mixer and turn it on to a lightly floured work surface. Flour your hands and  just push the dough together into a ball. The dough is ready to use immediately without resting.

Roll out the pie crust and press into your pie pan. Line the crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or beans. Bake the crust at 350°F for about 15 minutes, or until the crust begins to turn golden. Remove the paper and weights and dock the bottom of the pie with a fork and return to the oven for another 15 minutes, until the crust is a nice golden brown.

Chocolate Ganache

1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
7 oz / 200 grams dark chocolate, chopped

Whisk the egg yolk and sugar until well combined. Melt the chocolate and cream together in a double boiler and remove from heat. Add the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, stirring until smooth and the sugar is dissolved.

Extra Tart Meyer Lemon Curd

3/4 cup Meyer lemon juice
zest from said lemons
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
6 ounces butter, cut into small pieces

Heat a saucepan with about an inch water over medium high heat. In a metal bowl large enough to function as a double broiler, whisk together the juice, zest, sugar and egg. When the water is simmering, turn the heat down to low and place the metal bowl over the saucepan. Whisk the lemon mixture until it thickens about 5 to 6 minutes. You should be able to coat a spoon and draw a clean line on the back with a finger. Remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the butter one piece at a time, letting each piece get fully incorporated before adding the next. Strain the curd through a sieve or tamis to remove the zest. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled. Keeps for up to 1 week. Stir before using.

Lemon Curd Pie with Chocolate Ganache

To make the finished pie, simply layer the ganache and then the lemon curd into the pie. Refrigerate to let the curd firm up, at least 1 hr, before serving.

At this point I am baking enough of Rose’s cakes that I can’t in good conscience continue posting recipes for every one I bake. This is a four layer cake (made from two 9×2 cakes) with two layers of lemon curd and one layer of the white chocolate custard buttercream that also forms the frosting.

Between all of the components, this baby took me the large part of the day but I got to break in my new rotating cake stand and my enormous 14″ cake slicer. Assembling all of the pieces to put together a cake is the most fun part for me right now, actually eating the cake comes in a distant second. Good thing I have a willing army of cake eaters at my beck and call.

I was informed too late that today is National Chocolate Cake Day, a day that I am sorely unprepared for. This cake, tucked at the back of Bouchon, is one that I had been eyeing as a project to tide me over until the arrival of my cake book. It has absolutely no chocolate in it. Damn. Just a few hours after I had purchased the ingredients for the cake and the strawberry coulis to go with it, I was informed that the intended recipient of my cake is allergic to strawberries, or as he calls them, murderberries. It also pairs pretty well with meyer lemon curd, in case you were wondering.

Strawberry Coulis

12 oz hulled strawberries
1/4 cup water
5 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Strain with a fine mesh strainer to remove seeds and cover and refrigerate until cold.

Gâteaux aux Amandes adapted from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon

7 oz almond paste
1/4 cup granulated sugar
4 oz unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons honey
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon almond extract (or 2 tablespoons amaretto)
1/3 cup (I used 1.5 oz) all purpose flour, sifted
pinch of salt
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
confectioner’s sugar
sugar syrup (1 oz sugar and 1 oz water, heated to a boil in a small pan) or amaretto

3/4 cup  crème fraîche, whipped to soft peaks

The original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of amaretto in the batter and more to brush on top of the cake. Here, it has been replaced with almond extract and sugar syrup, respectively.

Edit: I have since obtained amaretto and baked a cake using it as the original recipe intended, and it was even better, so it is totally  worth your time to pick some up.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour an 8 inch pan and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper. I only have a 9 inch pan so my cake is a bit thinner than intended

Beat the almond paste and sugar in a large bowl on low speed until the paste is broken up. Increase the speed to medium for about 2 minutes, until the paste mixture is broken into fine particles. Add the butter and beat for 5 minutes until the mixture is light and airy, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary. Beating enough air into the mixture at this stage is key to avoiding a dense cake.

Mix in the honey and add the eggs one at a time, beating until each one is fully mixed in and the mixture remains fluffy. Add the almond extract, flour, salt and mix until just combined.

Pour the batter into the pan and shake or smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for about 25 minutes for an 8 inch pan, or until the cake is golden and springs back when pressed. It took me about 30 minutes in a 9 inch pan. Let cool on a rack.

When the cake is cool, invert the cake onto the rack, remove the parchment paper and invert again. Brush the top of the cake with sugar syrup and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Dust with confectioner’s sugar. Serve with a dollop of the whipped crème fraîche and the strawberry coulis or lemon curd.

The Boyfriend is actually home every day this week so I get to cook for two for a change. Crêpes have been on the list to make for a while, ever since I acquired an honest to goodness crêpe pan at Surfas many moons ago. Strangely, the pan keeps magically de-seasoning itself and moving around in the kitchen, which makes me think the puppies have been up to no good. The Boyfriend denies any involvement. Hopefully your crêpe pan is free of this crazy voodoo curse.

Crêpes!
Makes about 18 crêpes

2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour (4.6 oz)
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons sugar
splash of vanilla

Optional tweaks:
sprinkle of cinnamon
sprinkle of nutmeg
splash of liqueur

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk until well blended and no longer lumpy. Let rest for at least 5 minutes to let the bubbles to subside. You can even go so far as to make the batter the night before you serve the crêpes. Heat your pan over medium-low heat and melt a small pat of batter to coat. Pour about 1 ounce of batter into the pan and swirl the pan to distribute evenly. Cook 30 seconds or so on each side. Can be served plain with a dusting of sugar, or with jam, lemon curd, nutella, fresh fruit, cream, or whatever else you can think of.

Teasing the dog is purely optional.

Normally a fifth wheel is considered a bad thing, but when we are talking about wheels of cake, it’s a different matter completely. I’m really proud of how this cake came out, it’s one of my favorites so far. The Boyfriend had inquired about the possibility of a lemon-flavored cake, and so I went out in search of Meyer lemons. It took a few tries, but I finally located a stash and I needed a recipe that would put them in their best light. The last citrus cake acquired most of its flavor via the syrup drizzled on it, and I wanted bigger and better things for my hard-sought lemons.

When I considered making a lemon curd to go with the cake, it was Stacy who suggested using the curd as a filling. I wasn’t sure if the curd would survive an hour in the oven without getting soaked into the cake, but the allure of a warm, gooey punch of lemon was too much to resist.

As for the cake, the final recipe was sort of a hodge-podge. Google introduced me to a Lemon Poppy Seed Cake whose ingredient list looked very similar to the Orange Cream Cheese Pound Bundt I made on Monday. This cake had a little bit less butter, and some baking soda added for leavening, which made it a lighter variant. One might even call it a cousin to the previous pound bundt. I expanded on that and added more lemon flavor and switched out half of the sour cream for crème fraîche to make it even lighter. It’s pretty good by itself, but paired with the lemon curd filling it really turns into something special.

Is it bad form to post extremely flattering reviews of your own food? Granted, the person who wrote this has been bribed with warm cake for 5 days in a row, but I was still tickled pink when he said

There should be a warning about the lemon curd – it’s so awesome it could cause injury.

That’s a smart guy who will be getting more cakes in the future. And this is a cake that I’ll definitely be making again.

Meyer Lemon Curd

1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice
zest from said lemons, about 1 tablespoon
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
4 ounces butter, cut into 4 pieces

Heat a saucepan with about an inch water over medium high heat. In a metal bowl large enough to function as a double broiler, whisk together the juice, zest, sugar and egg. When the water is simmering, turn the heat down to low and place the metal bowl over the saucepan. Whisk the lemon mixture until it thickens about 5 to 6 minutes. You should be able to coat a spoon and draw a clean line on the back with a finger. Remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the butter one piece at a time, letting each piece get fully incorporated before adding the next. If you want, you can force the curd through a sieve to remove the zest, but I liked the extra flavor it added and the mixture was not lumpy, so I let it remain. Transfer the curd to a clean container and layer plastic wrap directly on the curd surface to prevent the formation of a skin. Keeps for up to 2 weeks.

Meyer Lemon Cake

3 cups flour (I used 13.8 oz)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 large eggs
½ cup sour cream
½ cup crème fraîche
3 tablespoons Meyer lemon zest
1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease up a 12 cup bundt pan and set aside. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and then add the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time. Whisk together the sour cream, crème fraîche, zest, and juice. Gradually add the flour mixture and the lemon mixture to the bowl, alternating between wet and dry ingredients and mixing only until just combined.

Pour most of the batter into the bundt pan, reserving roughly 2 cups worth. Using a piping bag or a freezer bag with a corner cut off, pipe the lemon curd in a circle on top of the batter, making sure to keep away from the inner and outer edges of the pan. Cover with the remainder of the batter and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

My cake rose to be exactly level with the top of my 12 cup bundt pan. Slightly harrowing.

I also got a few small spots that stuck to the pan, so I dusted this cake with extra powdered sugar.

And if a little bit of the curd filling gets smooshed by the layer of batter on top and touches the edge of the pan, this is what happens. It’s not a big deal. Maybe use more powdered sugar concealer. No one will notice. Or care.

Even though there is about 3/4 of a cup of lemon curd filling, it looks like a lot less in the cross section. Rest assured, the lemon curd offers a sweet, tangy bite that will not disappoint. Just ask Joe.