twd: traditional madeleines ... that drove me mad!

okay, wanna know the real reason i didn't get posted for tuesdays with dorie early like i usually do?

because me and my maddie pan had a fight, and the darn pan won.

i was super excited when tara from smells like home chose madeleines for this week's tuesday with dorie. i love madeleines and made them not too long ago with julia's modified génoise batter. so i was keen to try out a different recipe and see which one i preferred.

dorie's pan from tonight

well, dear dorie you are still not my favorite. not only was i humpless but as you can also see i had a disaster with getting them out of the pan. this is actually what happened last night (monday) and i thought i'd give it another go tonight with even more butter in the pan (tuesday). but the result was the same. wahhhh :(

julia's pan from last month

and so neither dorie (great taste, but stuck in pan) or julia (so-so taste but no sticking problem) won me over. i will confess though, i used the paddle attachment instead of the whip. do you think that was the reason why it stuck? or maybe it's time to let a gentleman into the ring?

tonka bean white chocolate and apricot cakes

this post is long overdue in coming. way back when this blog was still just a nice distractionn (before the obsession that it has now become. are you, too, obsessed with blogging? please tell me i'm not alone!!) i innocently asked some questions of the lovely helen from tartelette about her beautiful pineapple almond cheesecake. then out of the friendliness that is bloggo-land, she sent me some of my very own tonka beans! yes, she really is that lovely.

and that was two months ago!!! ack! every time i thought of using them, for one reason or another i didn't. they were sitting in the vacuum sealed box in the fridge, right next to the boxes of butter, just waiting to be picked up and tried out. but instead i just guiltily baked one thing after another without them.



well today is as good a day as any. and what better way to start my tonka bean adventure, then with tartelette's very own tonka bean white chocolate and apricot cakes. i admit, i was hesitant. white chocolate?? meh, too sweet. i considered myself lucky that i didn't have quite the full cup listed in the original recipe.

but oh my! this little cake surpassed all my expectations! first, the grated tonka bean was such a dreamy scent. and its flavor was that perfect mix of almond and vanilla. the cake was super moist. the white chocolate sweetened it, but not too much as i had feared. i used my easy cheat foil cups instead of the regular tin, so the cake sides didn't brown, but it kind of made this neat crunchy ridge on the top. but oops, i forgot to dust my apricots with a little flour and they sank. this seems to be my bad habit. uhh, let's think positively here ... maybe it's just my signature look. watch out martha, i've got a new trend!



thank you tartelette!! i'm already plotting my next tonka bean adventure! :)

tonka bean white chocolate and apricot cakes: makes 8 large muffin cakes
from tartelette (click here)

1 1/2 sticks butter, melted and cooled
1 cup white chocolate, melted
1/3 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup flour
2 tonka beans
15 dried apricots, cut in small dices

1. preheat oven to 350F. whisk together sugar and eggs until pale and thick, about 3 minutes. add butter and chocolate. whisk well and add the flour.

2. finely grate the tonka bean and add to batter. add dried apricots and mix until incorporated.

3. divide evenly between muffin tins coated with cooking spray and cook for 15 minutes.

* yes, i know tonka beans have coumarin, a compound used in medical blood thinners. but everything in moderation folks!

twd: fluted polenta and ricotta cake

i have to admit that if a recipe doesn't have a photo, i tend to gloss over it, um, next! so when caitlin of engineer baker picked the fluted polenta and ricotta cake for this week's tuesdays with dorie, i was intrigued. it made me think of this tasty little cake called basbousa i have at one of my favorite middle eastern lunch spots near work. of course thanks to wiki, now i know they are not really similar at all. but in the meantime, i was excited to try this interesting combination of ingredients. i mean, who doesn't like to be transported to a sunny mediterranean lifestyle?


the recipe was pretty straightfoward and easy to assemble. and it could've been just me and the fact that this was my third straight day of baking, but it was also pretty darn messy. i had honey dripping everywhere! and the figs kept sticking to my fingers as i cut them! and i was trying to take photos the whole time! but the beautiful smell coming from the oven, honey heaven, made up for all of it as i was cleaning up.



the end result was lovely. the first bite tastes very sweet, but then the corn and ricotta mellow it out. i used mission figs and i should've added more (and also dusted with a little flour so they didn't all plop down to the bottom). i also would've tried adding some sliced almonds, either to the mix or on top.

for the recipe and more figs than you shake your tush at, visit all the blogging bakers at tuesdays with dorie!


i tried another slice tonight, although it seemed a little denser. it's also just in a pie box because i don't have an airtight container big enough for it, so that could be the culprit. but coupled with a freshly made fruit salad, it was still quite good!

mm: almond-mocha roulade

martha, martha, martha! i mostly love your baking recipes, but this time you slightly drove me crazy.

i wouldn't describe this roulade as either easy or that difficult. but it was all very new to me, so i felt like each step was a learning process. when the learning went smoothly, how terrific! and when it didn't ... well, cursing out martha seemed better than getting into a fight with my darling mr. mimi. but for the purpose of full disclosure, the truth is ... i cursed out the book AND got into an "out of the kitchen, now!" fight. oh yeah, make your ever first mousse at midnight and see what happens ;)


since i don't feel quite like myself if i don't find 100 random reasons to procrastinate, it was friday afternoon when i realized that i would have to make all three of my daring bakers, tuesdays with dorie, and martha mondays baking challenges this weekend - ack! let's get going!

first, what is "espresso powder"? uhh, i hate coffee, so i had no idea. i bought some fresh ground italian roast at the lovely neighborhood leaf and bean but then i realized i need instant espresso, and this was brew. fine, forget the mocha in the mousse, i hate coffee anyway. i decided to make an almond mousse. disaster number one ... against my instincts i read in another recipe to add the almond extract to the chocolate. it may have used a different method than martha's (i can't remember, maybe the chocolate was already added to something else?) but i went and added the extract. go ahead, guess what happened. it tightened up to a big ball of no you didn't just add some liquid to this tempered chocolate. frick. next time, listen to you instincts!

but disaster number two was all of martha's making (plus a wee bit of not listening to instincts after the fact). in her mousse recipe, the sugar gets heated. then it says, take off heat. then it says, whip the egg yolks for 3 minutes. then add the sugar in steady stream. hmm, i bet you can guess what happened. sure enough the sugar hardened up. and unfortunately instead of listening to my nagging this isn't going to work doubts, i decided to try to scrape it in. yes, of course it didn't work!! by that time, now it really was midnight. but i refused to let this one get by me!!

so i went ahead and did it all over again. and wow of wowzers. i have never made mousse before and this was chocolately and creamy and fluffy. i could have just eaten this on its own, licking right out of the bowl.

but the next day i went ahead and made the cake. in the morning i did go out and buy some instant espresso, and so decided to make the cake as written.

and after that, how was the taste? as delish as the original martha photo enticingly predicted, and truly worth every minute of making (or re-making) it. i was going to bring it in to work. but alas, some pieces may just have to stay home with us ;)



thanks for reading this too-long post. here is the recipe, enjoy! if you also joined me for this martha monday, please email me and i'll get a link up here for you!

update: zakia at frosted bakeshop made a beautiful blackberry roulade and alexandra over at addicted sweet tooth created a lovely chocolate roulade. please go visit their yummy looking cakes! and we'd love to have you join us next time ...

so for the next round of martha mondays ... i'm going all pro-choice! pick any recipe from a current magazine issue and post on monday may 12. it can be sweet or savory. if you don't want to buy her magazine, you can find some recipes from current issues here.

almond-mocha roulade: serves many or few, depending on your mood
adapted from martha's baking handbook (2005, p. 187)

for mousse:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tb boiling water + 1 tb water
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sugar
2 tb light corn syrup
4 large egg yolks

1. whip cream to soft peaks, cover with plastic and refrigerate. in double boiler, melt chocolate. heat water (in the original, hot water was used for espresso. wasn't sure if this would change the consistency. so i used half the amount of water just in case).

2. with whisk attachment, beat yolks on medium speed until lightened, about 3 minutes. in the meantime (but not too far in advance), in small saucepan, bring sugar, corn syrup, and 1 tb water to boil over medium heat, until 238F.

3. with mixer still on medium, slowly pour in sugar syrup. change to high speed and beat about 2 minutes more, until ribbon like trail holds for 2 seconds when whisk is lifted.

4. beat in melted chocolate, extracts, and water to combine. gently fold in the chilled whip cream until well combined. refrigerate overnight.

for cake (bake cake same day as you assemble it):
1/4 cup dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted (plus more for dusting)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tb instant espresso powder
1 tb hot water
6 eggs, separated, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar

1. preheat oven to 325F. line a 17 x 12 inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. dust a large, clean kitchen towel with cocoa and set aside. sift together cocoa and flour, and in small bowl stir together the espresso and water. set aside.

2. with whisk attachment, beat egg yolks on high until thick and pale (with ribbon trail) about 5 minutes. transfer to large bowl, set aside.

3. with whisk attachment, whip egg whites on low speed until foamy. raise to medium-high, and add sugar in slow steady stream. beat until stiff peaks form.

4. fold a third of egg-white mixture into egg-yolk mixture to lighten. gently fold in remaining egg whites until just combined. fold in espresso mixture, then gradually fold in cocoa mixture. do not overmix.

folding eggs, espresso, and cocoa

5. pour batter onto prepared sheet, spread evenly and smooth. bake, rotating halfway through, for 10-12 minutes until cake springs back when lightly touched. immediately place prepared towel on top, turn over, lift off pan and gently peel off parchment. starting on long side, roll towel and cake into log, incorporating towel as you go. transfer to cooling rack, seam side down, and cool completely.

6. unroll cake. spread almond mousse evenly. gently roll cake again and wrap with the towel. refrigerate until well chilled, at least 2 hours. slice with serrated knife.

daring bakers: cheesecake pops

can i tell you the truth? when i first read this month's challenge, i was kinda like meh. i just wasn't that into it. which is weird because i love me some new york cheesecake. but the whole "pops" part wasn't doing it for me, pops-shmops, whatever.

well darn it if i didn't tell you now that these are not only delish, but so fun to make! (yeah, okay a bit messy but isn't that what made it fun?!) i halved the recipe and still came out with tons. i used the dark chocolate dip, with the usual sprinkles, dots, and some chopped almonds.


so a real thanks to elle at feeding my enthusiasms and deborah at taste and tell for picking this gem! i love to be given a chance to push beyond what i think i would like and find out how very wrong my assumptions can be.


i've only just recently joined the daring bakers, but each and every time i am so impressed by how drop dead gorgeous and creative they make these challenges. all they need is one single recipe and you get hundreds of different, beautiful treats to enjoy. so please, go visit everyone else and have a truly terrific poptastic daring baker sunday!

mimi's attempt at a proustian-worthy madeleine

first, wow, this is my 100th post! who knew it would be coming along like this? it's been a joy not only to play around with my food, learn new baking skills, and get a phat camera ... but what i didn't expect was how much i enjoy reading other people's food blogs. so the past couple of months have been quite a treat. i'm proud i've reached 100 and i look forward to my 1000th :)

so it's an hour before midnight. we've spent a lazy evening watching the mets. now what? oh please i don't even have to tell you what happened! i ended up in the kitchen.


i ate my first madeleine this past christmas. i loved them. so one of the first things i bought when i started baking was a special pan to make my own. all four of my baking books have a madeleine recipe, and surely there are more in my google reader too. but i chose julia's recipe (with flo braker) because i loved how it was written. and it didn't require chilling time, which is a make or break deal an hour before midnight. plus! it required me to fold "gingerly" ... which is like telling me to stop dancing, almost impossible to do! there really is nothing ginger about me! so i was on to this challenge!

and guess what? oops, i think gingerly turned a little bit too eagerly when the flour wasn't incorporating that well. but i piped the batter and hoped for the best. they didn't brown as much as i like (although, are they supposed to be browned? i know the classic french hate brown omelettes, maybe true for madeleines too?) and i think i prefer the full sized versions. they did pop right out and were tasty. i was happy to have made my first (albeit modified with yolks) génoise, but i think next time, i'm going to try this recipe instead. looks delish, doesn't it?

from ginger ...

... to eager

ladyfinger génoise
from baking with julia (1996, p. 41)

3 tb butter, melted
1 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 large eggs, room temp
4 large egg yolks, room temp
1 tsp vanilla

1. pour melted butter into bowl and set aside. sift flour, 1 tb of sugar, and salt together and set aside.

2. put eggs, yolks, and 1 tb of sugar into mixer with whisk attachment. beat just to combine. add remaining sugar and whisk on medium until airy, pale, and tripled in size, like softly whipped cream, about 4-5 minutes. you know you're ready when you lift the whisk and the mixture falls back into the bowl in a ribbon that rests on the surface, instead of sinking right into the mix. pour vanilla during last moments of whipping.

3. sprinkle about one third of flour mixture into batter and fold, stopping as soon as flour is incorporated. fold in rest of flour in two more additions. the eggs and sugar batter will deflate, don't worry, but go gently.

4. spoon about 1 cup of the batter into the bowl with the butter and fold. fold this butter mixture into the batter (mixing it first helps to incorporate it more easily).

5. use immediately with a buttered/floured madeleine pan in a pre-heated oven at 400F. regular size should take about 10 minutes, minis about 7 or so.

lemon yogurt cherry cake and the next martha monday

i had to take a pass on this week's tuesdays with dorie. the selection was marshmallows and i don't use gelatin and i didn't have time to get some vegan alternatives. but please do check out the other awesome TWD bakers that did!

last week i still had leftover lemons and just in time, smitten kitchen to the rescue with her lemon yogurt anything cake, adapted from ina. i've never made a yogurt cake before, but i love yogurt, so why not? although i hesitate to buy berries out of season, i decided to go against olfactory principles and that i must have berries in this lovely cake. until i saw they came from chile. sigh. if i wait just a couple of months i can get them right down the street at the farmer's market. was i going to be stuck with lemon yogurt nothing cake?

but then i decided to buy frozen. cascadian farms organic cherries, ahhh, the packaging looks so californian! and california is closer than chile, so you know, being environmentally sensitive is all relative. then i get home and see these frozen buggers are from chile too!! ugh. serves me right for thinking i could trick mother nature of the northeast. and with that, my watery cherries (because i was in a rush and didn't wait for them to dry out) fell to the bottom of my cake. boo hoo. was still quite delish, although i think i probably would have preferred the blueberries. and can anyone tell me, is yogurt cake supposed to be this sticky? or was it because of the lemon syrup?


and totally unrelated but without further adieu, i poured through my martha's baking handbook. it's really a tough call, there are so many things that i really would like to make. and plus, i want to get to savories too! but for the next martha monday, i'm staying with the sweet, and have selected ... mocha roulade, p. 187. honestly i don't even like coffee, but the photo looks so luscious, and i know many people who would love a little espresso powder in their dessert! if you really don't like coffee, you could also try the blackberry roulade on p. 184. i couldn't find an exact version of the mocha recipe on her website, but you can check out the chocolate-chestnut one here.

there are no "rules" to martha mondays except these:
1. post your roulade on monday, 28 april
2. email me the link to your post so i can include it here (mimikatzchen-at-gmail-dot-com)
3. have fun!!

party time, daring bakers style!

when morven from food art and random thoughts announced that this month's daring baker's challenge was going to be classic party layer cake from dorie greenspan, i was super excited. my previous experience with layer cakes has been (a) betty crocker box mix or (b) just buy a cake, have you seen how many gorgeous bakeries are here in the city? why would i ever bake my own??

but truth be told, the reason why i ever had an inkling of interest in baking was because back when i was bored in undergrad, i had the grand idea that deep down inside i was born to be a cake baker. it wasn't even the cake ... but all those flowers, squigglies, vines, and basket weaves!! i was so impressed with it all and so desperately wanted to try perfect it myself.

well, that lasted about 5 days.

but now, older and wiser, i feel free to indulge my inner cake obsession. this was my first ever layer cake. my first ever buttercream. this is what being a daring baker was all about, and i was totally excited to get to it!!


i made the cakes last week and planned on finishing this weekend (yes, i procastinate, that's the beauty of my life). since this was my first i decided to go by the book and bake exactly as described in dorie's recipe. well, since this was my first cake i have nothing to base my experience on, but they didn't seem to rise too well. i mean, it was like maybe an inch high? which was just about where the batter was to begin with. sigh. was i doomed to just a two layer cake?

when mr. mimi saw it, being the professional naysayer, he immediately pronounced it non-cuttable into additional layers!

well, i'll show him! nobody puts baby in the corner!



so here it is, with the original raspberry jam and lemon buttercream recipe. i used up all the buttercream, so whipped up some quick royal icing for the rest of the decorations, which some how came out all peeps looking, even though i didn't mean the yellow and pink to be so flourescent. but i look forward to many more piping adventures in my near future! :)



check out all the daring bakers for more fantastically beautifully delish party cakes!

the making of an (almost) chef

don't worry, this is still your favorite mimi on the move, just with a new look! spring is coming (i think?) and i wanted something lighter and brighter. some of my older posts look weird now in the new template (if anyone knows why, please let me know so i can fix!). i'm not really 100% happy with the template layout and design, but since i'm too busy (lazy?) to learn HTML or CSS, it is what it is. but now on to the food!

i don't entertain the idea that i am a chef or a cook. and i am certainly not a pastry chef. and until i understand the science of the fine art of baking, i don't really consider myself a baker either. i'm really a student.
sizzling pineapples
however, as most people in the profession will tell you ... there comes a moment in every kitchen where someone goes a crackin' and something goes a flyin'. now sometimes this is a regular occurrence because the guy running the place (and let's face the sad fact that most of the bosses of the kitchen are men) is just a mean and nasty a**hole. yep, plenty of those to go around. but usually, it's just the point of boiling in a pressure steamer ... nothing even really has to go beyond technically wrong, but there's a palpable feeling of negative energy in the air ... and then wack! a fork is flung, a dish is tossed, a wine glass chucked.

welcome to my past saturday night :)

because i waited until the last minute to shop at fairway i got stuck baking all my desserts on saturday night before the supper. and because i am an über-doer, i also just *had* to do (i mean, truly had to do!) three different kinds of desserts. folks, this the ultimate mix for the pressure steamer if you couldn't tell already.

the scene: about 1:30 in the morning. the oven has been on all night and i'm sweating (figuratively and literally) to get this shit done. my last baking (because i thought it would be easy) are some icebox cookies. mr. mimi is snoring on the couch, totally and blissfully immune to the storm brewing in the kitchen.

martha may be very good with what she does, but she had the brilliant suggestion to stuff the rolled cookie log into an empty paper towel thing for it to keep its shape. let me save you the heartache: don't do it!! as i'm trying to stuff parchment wrapped cookie logs into this stupid towel tube (which by the way, i took off half of the paper just so i could do this) it became an obvious what the frick? the roll becomes a completely mess of nearly melted butter and i'm ready to toss it into the trash, but i'm too proud.

it's at just about this swell time that sleepy mr. mimi saunters by. we have very different styles, and basically, we drive each other crazy in the kitchen. so he's yapping about cleaning up after myself, a few choice words are exchanged, and he walks away.

and then i had my first (almost) chef moment.

i threw a just-cooled mini cheesecake at his head, but i missed, and it splattered the wall instead. it wasn't my finest moment, but you know what? i happily went back to rolling my icebox cookies (sans the stupid paper towel tube). it was as if a weight had been lifted.

of course the mimis talked about it the next morning. gracious mr. mimi forgave me and said it happens to the best of us in the kitchen. so without further adieu ...

i found this wonderful pineapple almond cheesecake over at tartelette, and i knew i had to make it. i only had a 9" cake pan, so i had the leftover batter for mini cheesecake cups (which, yes, are better used as dessert than as arsenal). it came out a little creamier than i expected, the pineapples were a little under-caramelized, and the crust stuck to my parchment lining. so it wasn't the purtiest of things. but we served it as our first dessert for our sunday supper, and it was devoured. so delicious! for the great recipe, click here.

pineapple almond cheesecake

not the best looking slice, but delish!

raspberry-almond financiers

when i saw these financiers on the back page of martha, i knew i wanted to make them for v-day; they just looked so delish. it finishes out my trifecta of raspberry baking this week. my hearts didn't come out quite looking photo perfect, but practice will make perfect. i would have also liked to have baked mine a little longer to get a crisper crust on top, but there's always next time. they tasted great, not too sweet and with that great almond flavor.

i brought them to work and they got gobbled up. i'm sure some people are just being nice to me, but i never realized how happy i would feel when people really genuinely expressed joy for what i bake. i love baking because it is peaceful, patient, and reflective. it is quiet time for me and releases all my stress. i love the tactility, i love the creativity, i love the smells and surprises. but even so, i still wouldn't be as thrilled about baking unless i knew it gave a small glimmer of happiness in every tasty morsel.

mini-hearts

be mine

raspberry-almond financiers: makes 45
from martha's mag (feb 2008, p. 216)

1 stick butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup honey
2 cups sliced blanched almonds (6 1/2 ounces), lightly toasted and finely ground
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup sifted cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
5 large egg whites
1 cup raspberries, puréed and strained

1. preheat oven to 350F. butter mini muffin tins (or use cooking spray).

2. heat butter in small saucepan over medium-low heat, whisking frequently until golden brown, 6-7 minutes. add honey, whisk until combined. remove from heat.

3. using mixer with whisk attachment, combine almonds, sugars, flour, and salt on low speed. raise speed to medium-high and add egg whites one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined. reduce speed to low, and add warm butter-honey mixture in slow, steady stream. raise speed to high and beat for 45 seconds.

4. spoon batter into muffin cups, filling halfway. spoon scant 1/2 tsp raspberry purée near one edge of each cup. draw skewer through purée toward opposite edge of cup to form heart shape.

5. bake, rotating halfway through, until edges are golden brown, 15-20 minutes. let cool slightly in tins on wire racks. using small offset spatula, unmold financiers, and transfer to rack.

marble cake with white chocolate glaze

we end the night with this lovely sweet (and yes, i *am* back at the gym again this week). i’m not even fond of marble cake, but it seemed easy enough, i had some leftover buttermilk i wanted to finish up, and i want to keep practicing as much as i can.

because martha got me all worried about over-swirling, mine came out a little less swirled than i would have preferred; it only was on the top, not swirled on the bottom. next time, ditch the martha advice and swirl it out baby! and because i didn’t know there was a taste difference between “dutched” and “natural” i chose the latter (it was cheaper) and so it came out a little richer than it should have tasted. but all in all, a fun and super easy cake.

marble cake with white chocolate glaze
from martha’s baking handbook (2005, p. 65)

1 stick butter, room temp
1 3/4 cup cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup buttermilk, room temp
1/4 cup plus 1 tb dutched cocoa
1/4 cup plus 2 tb boiling water

1. preheat oven to 350F. butter 9x5 pan. whisk cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 5 minutes. add eggs one at a time, beating until combined after each, scrape down sides as needed. mix in vanilla. add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with buttermilk – begin and end with flour. set aside 1/3 of the batter.

3. in bowl, mix cocoa and boiling water until smooth. add to reserved cake batter and stir in until well combined.

4. spoon the batters into pan in two layers, alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate to create a checkerboard pattern. marble with knife through batters in swirling motion.

5. bake, rotating halfway through, until cake tester comes out clean, 40-50 minutes. transfer pan to rack and cool 10 minutes. turn cake out of pan and let cool completely.

white chocolate glaze

3/4 cup confectioners sugar, sifted
2 tb milk
2 1/4 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled

1. in small bowl, whisk together sugar and milk to consistency of thin sour cream. add melted chocolate and whisk until smooth. if too thin, add more sugar; if too thick, add more milk. use immediately.

ready for my close-up

a slice never hurt no one