Gastroanthropology

Walnut Nut Cups + A Giveaway

**This contest is now closed. Winner is Lauren K! Lauren is an American expat in Germany and after inspiration from us bloggers will launch her own food inspired blog in the coming year.

Last week I planned, cooked, and photographed a lovely Chestnut Baklava. I used a gorgeous Italian chestnut honey for the syrup and a bit of cinnamon. It looked and smelled lovely. It was a recipe I thought of to honor one of my favorite holiday treats - marrons glacé, or candied chestnuts.

I thought my chestnuts would go so well sprinkled in between buttered sheets of paper-thin phyllo and soaked in chestnut honey. It was shockingly disappointing. Chestnuts are like treasured gold nuggets for me so I felt such anger and guilt that I used a whole bag of them for this failed recipe. I had also just been promised boxes of marrons glacés from Jeff de Bruges when they become available in late November, so I thought what a wonderful way to giveaway a box. The chocolates at Jeff de Bruges are quite good, but of all the chocolatiers and patisseries I've experienced, their candied chestnuts are the best! And while I can't give you a recipe for Chestnut Baklava, until I muster the courage to possibly lose another bag of these gorgeous things...

...you might win a box of marrons glacés! Jeff de Bruges uses the best Italian chestnuts from Turin for their candied chestnuts. These individually wrapped jewels are so special that each winter I contemplate getting my nails done in a Christmas red before I unwrap and savor each precious stone in complete silence.  

The chestnuts won't be delivered to me till the first week of December so leave a comment by November 30th, 2010 to be entered. Once I receive the box of jewels I will mail them out to the random winner in December. This contest is open to everyone and if you tweet marrons glacés giveaway from @gastro http://tinyurl.com/33nmomc it will count as a second entry.

Even though the Chestnut Baklava didn't work out I do have a tasty recipe to share. These walnut nut cups are a must for the holiday season. Instead of pumpkin breads for gifts to take home after Thanksgiving dinner, my guests are getting a few of these.

WALNUT NUT CUPS

• 1 1/2 cups coarsely ground walnuts
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup dark corn syrup
• 2 Tbs maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt

In addition to the above ingredients you will need enough pie dough for two double crusted 10-inch pies, or four 10-inch pie rounds.

This recipe makes approximately 48 nut cups, when using a mini muffin tin. Use a good quality, non-stick muffin tin.

Make your favorite pie dough. Divide by four and leave to rest in the fridge. This can be done a day or two ahead. 

Using a food processor, coarsely ground walnuts to get 1 1/2 cups. Just a few pulses should do it - you don't want walnut flour, but small pebble size bits. Set aside. Melt 1/2 cup butter and set aside. In a mixing bowl whisk together all the remaining ingredients till combined. Whisk in the butter. Divide the mixture evenly in half, placing each half in a heavy-duty quart sized plastic bag, or two pastry bags with medium tip (clip or bend the end so no mixture leaks). Refrigerate overnight if possible (this step is not critical, but the cooled mixture is a bit thicker and easier to manage when filling the little cups). You could also use a small ice cream scoop to fill the cups, but I find using a plastic bag to be the quickest and easiest.

Preheat the oven to 350F. 

Roll out one of the portions of pie dough to 1/4 inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter cut small circles to fit in the mini muffin tin with a tiny bit of pie dough exposed outside the edge of each muffin circle. Gently press the rounds into a non-stick mini muffin tin, making sure no air bubbles are trapped underneath. Use your pastry bag or snip the corner off the plastic bag and fill each cup, nearly the entire way up. If you have refrigerated your dough it will be separated. Gently massage the bag to recombine everything.

If there are a bigger bits of walnut that struggle to come out, do not squeeze the bag! You will be tempted to, but do not! If you do, you will end up with a colossal mess. It is much better to force the bit of walnut by breaking it between your fingers. With these small nut cups it is not necessary to blind bake the cups before adding the nut cup mixture.

Put in preheated oven and bake for about 10 minutes. The mixture will puff gently, filling the cup entirely. If you use a non-stick muffin tin and a bit spills over the side you have nothing to worry about. They pop out easily. If you are using a not using a non-stick muffin tin, fill your cups a bit less. The cups are ready when the filling is set and the pie dough has barely turned golden on the edges. Let cool in cups and when they are cool enough to handle remove and eat! Once completely cooled keep in an airtight container for up to three days.

P.S. Emails have been sent to those who wanted to participate in the International Cookie Recipe Exchange hosted by Lori from Fake Food Free and I. If you haven't yet received an email and asked to participate please get in touch!

Dreaming Danish

I've been gushing about savory Danish food, when in reality the best thing about Denmark might be the yeasty and buttery Danish dough. In Copenhagen its easy to stumble upon bakery, after bakery, after bakery. Kanelstang, kringle, klipkrans, kanelsnurrer...everything is lovely, delicious, with a bit of cinnamon or cardamom, maybe a sprinkling of fruit, or a dusting of sugar, and remonce (Danish pastry filling often made with butter, sugar, and almond...think frangipane) in no short supply.

Danish dough is a laminated dough, like croissant dough, where butter is folded into the dough to create layers. Danish dough is enriched with eggs and contains yeast.

If this is a bit too much indulgence there are huge selections of multi-grain bollers...

Or deep tarts loaded with apples...

Selections differ depending on which bakery you hit, but Drømmekage, or Danish Dream Cake, is something you can't avoid. It's a basic yellow vanilla cake loaded with a moist, brown-sugar-sweet, coconut topping. 

DRØMMEKAGE

For the Cake...

• 4 eggs
• 250 g homemade vanilla sugar***
• 50 g unsalted butter, melted and set aside to cool
• 200 ml whole milk
• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbs baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Combine the eggs and sugar. Beat until the mixture is fluffy and turns a pale yellow. Gently whisk in melted butter and milk. Gently fold in dry ingredients. Place in a buttered springform pan or cake pan lined with parchment so the cake can easily be taken out of the pan, top side up. I baked this in paper loaf pans and just cut away the sides to remove the cake. Bake in a 350F oven for about 25 minutes or until just set. At this point you will remove the cake to add the topping. Directions continue below.

***Vanilla sugar is a very popular ingredient used in Scandinavia. It can be bought in a super concentrated form that has a texture similar to baking powder. If using this sort for this recipe use regular granulated sugar and 1 tsp of the concentrated vanilla sugar. I prefer homemade vanilla sugar as it has a more natural taste. This is made by combining leftover vanilla bean (once the seeds have been used for something else) with granulated sugar. About 1 leftover husk to 1.5 c sugar is a good ratio. Let sit in an airtight container for about 1 month before using. Keep for about 6 months. If you don't have either just add 1 tsp of vanilla extract to this recipe.

For the Topping...

• 125 g unsalted butter, melted
• 225 g muscovado sugar
• pinch salt
• 50 ml whole milk
• 100 g desiccated coconut (unsweetened)

Combine the topping ingredients while the cake is cooking in the oven. When the cake is 7 minutes shy of being done pull out of the oven and gently spread all the topping over the cake. Put back in oven to finish cooking. Do not put the topping on if any of the cake batter is loose as you run the risk of having the topping sink. Let sit for a few hours or overnight before enjoying. Please! 

Patience is a virtue that sadly I don't possess. I'll burn the roof of my mouth on a cookie hot out of the oven and my tongue on too hot soup. With this dream cake one must wait. It must sit for at least a few hours for the eggy cake to mellow into the perfect vehicle to carry the moist coconut sweetness. This is the perfect cake for a late-night-sleeplessness-bake because its best the next day.

Barcelona + Bubo + Comerç, 24

When you are visiting a city as a tourist you often run the risk of making tourist mistakes. Wasting a meal on a crap restaurant or getting ripped off by a taxi driver are two things that come to mind. So it is always great when you visit a foreign city that has a friend who lives there. Continuing our hyper-Euro-tourism we spent last weekend in Barcelona, complete with local guide. Not born and bred in Barcelona, but a fellow pastry chef who is also exploring what Europe has to offer and currently stationed at Bubo in Barcelona. 

More like an edible art gallery than pastry shop, Bubo is a feast for the eyes. 

And every flavor of marshmallow you could ever want to eat...

Barcelona is probably best known for its Gaudi architecture, its location along the Mediterranean Sea, and its Catalan cuisine. Among the foodie world its no secret that Spain has not only a rich food history, but also leads in food trends and innovation. The likes of Ferran Adria and Oriol Balaguer all strut their stuff near Barcelona.

As Barcelona is right along the water and as the summer heat leaves you in a daze its clear why dinner is eaten super late and seafood tapas are king. One of our favorite Mediterranean treats - Grilled Cuttlefish.

And a our new favorite tapa...sauteed spinach with spanish bacon and chickpeas.

Two of our best meals, recommended by our local guide, came from Carles Abellan's two ventures. Chef Abellan trained under Ferran Adria for nearly a decade and we had dinner at each of his restaurants. One was informal, rustic, and just plain good. Here was the menu at TAPAS, 24 the day we were there...

And then, the following evening we had dinner at comerç, 24. I wish I could tantalize your tastebuds with pictures but I've never been successful at taking pictures of food at dimly lit restaurants. And trying to use flash never makes anything look appetizing, which is a real shame. So, I'll just share with you my meal titled the Festival Menu by the Chef. I jotted everything we ate so not to forget one bit. Most courses came with multiple different tastes.

Enjoy.

Course 1: Gold dusted macadamias. Green Olives. Vichyssoise with summer truffle. Parmesan-lemon mousse cannelloni.

Course 2: Monkfish with black sesame + squid ink paste. Tuna tartare on egg yolk with salmon caviar.

Course 3: Sardines with blood orange + microgreens + fresh wasabi + crunched caramelized nuts. Consomme with spherified egg + cheese + truffle.

Course 4: Cod with pinenut foam + sherry. Artichoke ice cream with warm cod foam + sherry reduction + toasted pinenuts.

Course 5: Duck + foie rice with crunchy corn. Black rice with cuttlefish.

Course 6: Seabass with potato, vinegar foam, caramelized onion, and garlic flowers. 

Course 7: Chicken with prawn and cauliflower puree.

Just when you thought it was done...dessert.

Course 8: Oreo cookie of black sesame cookie and whipped cream. Pineapple sable with flambeed meringue. Greek yogurt foam with puffed rice + mango + raspberry. Passionfruit and mandarin foam over mint tea puree. Chocolate mousse with sea salt + olive oil + tuile. Nougat espuma coated in chocolate with marcona almonds + coffee gelee. 

Jealous? =)

Coffee + Cupcakes in Covent Garden

Monmouth Coffee is some of the best I've had in London. It's strong, but not in that I got burnt in the roaster type of way. They also use full-fat jersey milk - can't start an order with a skim-this or a skinny-that! I almost always go to their Covent Garden location as its just a few minutes walk from my apartment - though they have other London locations.

Monmouth Coffee roasts coffee from single farms, estates, and cooperatives. They travel the world to find the best and follow the coffee from bean to cup. They also make it their business to know everyone and everything involved with those beans. The staff is super-friendly and laid-back - this is a must for me because its often my first interaction with the public pre-coffee. 

I love the cobblestone street its on, the little potted plants up top, and the nearby shops. Today I ventured a few blocks further to the Covent Garden Market area where they have recently welcomed a new member, Ella's Bakehouse. A few weeks ago I posted on a No-Bake White Chocolate Cheesecake that I found in one of London's local papers. Lorraine Pascale, founder of Ella's Bakehouse, provided the recipe and I quite liked the ease and taste of the cheesecake. So I thought a visit to her cupcake shop was a must.

The cupcake craze of the States - I've made trips to NYC for Magnolia and to LA for Sprinkles, as well as frequenting Kara's in San Francisco - has definitely made the jump over the Atlantic.  While the London counterparts, Primrose and Hummingbird, don't stand a chance in a cupcake contest, I had high hopes for Ella's. I found Primrose cupcakes to be hard as hockey pucks and little interest in the flavor department. Hummingbird's cupcakes are good and I love the American-inspired flavors. Though I find some of their other bakery contributions to outshine their famous cupcakes.

So how does Ella's compare?

Hands down the best Red Velvet Cupcake I've had in London. I gobbled it up - don't worry summer bikini, I ate a mini-Ella's Red Velvet Cupcake AND it uses some half-fat ingredients. Pleasantly and surprisingly it didn't taste like half-fat. It was moist and had the perfect cream-cheese frosting to cupcake ratio. It also wasn't heavily glittered like some of its friends in the cupcake case.

I also tried the chocolate and vanilla in mini-form as well. Chocolate was decent but unmemorable. The vanilla was really dry in a way that I suspect it was sitting in the case all day yesterday and hoped to be sold today. It was - to me. My friend got a Lemon-Raspberry cupcake that was great and a Peanut Butter cupcake was moist, but the flavor just didn't hit the mark with me. So, I'm absolutely going back for some Red Velvet and Lemon-Raspberry, but probably need some convincing to go for any of the others.

Brown Butter Bars

View at dusk from my parents rooftop deck at their home in Carmel.

The little coastal town of Carmel has a love-hate relationship with the many tourists that frequent it. Sandwiched between Pebble Beach Golf Course and Big Sur, its certainly no secret. For the locals who live in Carmel there's a few places we'd love to rave about, but have to stop ourselves from being too excited for then more tourists might come. But then there are those places that you just have to share because you physically are unable to keep it secret. 

 

In California, we have Highway 1 - its a road that hugs the entire coast of California, and quite possibly one of the most amazing coastal drives in the world. It starts south of Los Angeles in Orange County where the locals call it PCH. That's Pacific Coast Highway for short. It weaves along the coast north, through Big Sur and Carmel. Here there is a mandatory stop that must be made - I'll tell you where in a second. Continuing on, Highway 1 goes through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge. 

 

Nate always said we would only ever leave San Francisco when driving over the Golden Gate Bridge didn't amaze him anymore. Tempted by the romance of Europe we left San Francisco, but not at all because the bridge crossing lost any luster. This is how I know we will be going back. Highway 1 continues north past Marin, Tomales Bay, and Sonoma County - places amazing all on their own. 

Back to the mandatory stop on Highway 1. Big Sur Bakery. Address: Big Sur Bakery, Highway One, California. They have the best jelly donuts, burgers, pizzas, cookies, wood-fired bread, pancakes... Everything is the world's best but these are extra special. Brown. Butter. Bars.

The original Brown Butter Bars are made with homemade fresh peach jam. Here is where I have to make a huge modification - in London, there is no way I'm going to get my produce greedy hands on fresh peaches, so I'm using the next best thing. The next best thing is jam made by my fellow classmate, Sky Cracknell, who is the co-founder (with her husband) of England Preserves. A post on Sky's jam is coming soon where I'll be giving away a few jars. This is hands down the best jam EVER. More on England Preserves in a few days because right now it's all about Brown Butter Bars. Read through the recipe before making - its simple, but there are a few steps which require chilling time.

BROWN BUTTER BARS,** adapted from Big Sur Bakery 

For the crust:

• 8 oz unsalted butter 
• 1/2 c powdered sugar, sifted 
• 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour 

For the filling:

• 3 large eggs 
• 1 c sugar 
• 3/4 c + 2 Tbs all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 1/2 vanilla pod, halved and seeds scraped  
• 5 oz unsalted butter 
• 1 c your favorite jam 

METHOD

For the crust: Melt the butter in a pan at medium-high heat till the butter starts to brown. When it turns a deep golden color and smells nutty strain through a fine sieve into a heat-proof container. Freeze till its solid - about one half-hour. Put the powdered sugar and flour in a large bowl. Cut bits of the cold brown butter into the sugar + flour. Using a pastry cutter or your hands mix together till you get a crumbly, sandy mixture. Press into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Chill for one half-hour. Preheat oven to 375F / 190C. Bake at that temperature for 18-20 minutes, or until golden in color. Set aside to cool.

For the filling: Whisk together eggs, sugar, salt and flour in a large bowl. Place the vanilla bean and seeds with the butter in a pan and heat till the butter starts to brown. When the butter turns a deep golden color and smells nutty, strain through a fine sieve. Careful! The butter will be really hot. Pour butter into the egg mixture, whisking as you do so.  Remove the vanilla bean.

Assemble the bars: Spread half the filling over the baked crust. Spoon large dollops of the jam over the filling, reserving a quarter. Then spread the rest of the filling over the jam. Use the remaining jam and small dollop over the top. The 1 cup of jam in the ingredients list is approximate, you may need more, depending on the consistency of the jam and how liberal you are with the dollops. Bake until the filling is golden brown in color, about 25 to 30 minutes, at 375F/ 190C. 

Let cool. Cut into squares and share if you can bear it. Perfect wrapped up in paper for a spring picnic. 

**The original recipe, found here, includes the zest of two oranges for the filling. It also includes the recipe and directions for the homemade peach jam. I omitted the orange zest because of the jam flavors I chose. I used two England Preserves flavors: Strawberry Days and Ruby's Redcurrant+Rhubarb+Vanilla. Take a look at Sky's Strawberry Days Jam. 

Come back next week for more on Sky's jams and a chance to win some!

If you happen to be lucky enough to drive past Big Sur Bakery, make sure to stop. It's hard to say what time of day is best. Early means you might get a jelly donut before they sell out. But lunchtime means wood-fired Greek pizza, or dinner might mean real clam chowder with an oak grilled Ribeye. Looks like you may have to hang out all day. I won't reveal the best Italian restaurant outside of Italy that happens to be in Carmel in this post, but if you are visiting the town, email me and I will share with you my secret.