Coconut Tuiles

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Laurie

At a recent gathering with friends, I mused about the possibility that cooking is mostly about caramelization. Certainly, this is true with baking. The golden crust on a baguette – caramelization. The color of a croissant – caramelization. Any well-baked cookie – caramelization. There are plenty of technical reasons why caramelization is important in baking (the sugars and/or proteins in these items brown in baking to create both color and flavor), but the one thing to know is that it provides great flavor.  Think about any of these baked items I just mentioned without their golden crusts. They would be just faint shadows of their caramelized selves.

The savory side of cooking employs the same techniques resulting in the same properties.  Consider searing a beef roast before roasting in the oven. Beef Bourguignon would never be as flavorful without first flouring and then browning all sides of the meat cubes. Vegetables such as cauliflower and yams have their own sugars which, when roasted, produce distinct flavors. All due to caramelization.

As I thought of caramelization in cooking these coconut tuiles came to mind.  Start with shredded, unsweetened coconut, add a little egg white, sugar, honey, a pinch of salt and a bit of butter.  Mix, form and bake.  It’s in the baking of these crisp treats that they are transformed – because the added sugars as well as the sugars in the coconut began to caramelize, creating a golden and intensely flavored cookie.

When I was the pastry chef at Salish Lodge and Spa, these simple, crispy cookies became a mainstay on our bistro menu.  We served the tuiles on the sides of creme brulees, layered them with vanilla-roasted strawberries and whipped mascarpone and presented them  as a welcome amenity for guest rooms. A simple mix and a careful bake make these delicate coconut cookies a pleasure to make. Don’t be deterred by the French term “tuile” which is just a thin, delicate and sometimes moldable cookie.

Be sure to use unsweetened coconut (either finely shredded or dessicated) in these cookies. Although I mostly bake on parchment, I bake these delicate cookies on a non-stick baking mat.  The baking mat makes it easier to remove the cookies after baking, as they tend to stick to parchment. An added bonus – these cookies are naturally gluten free.

Coconut Tuiles

Yield: about 18 cookies

1 ¼ cups (4 oz.) unsweetened shredded coconut
¼ cup (2 oz.) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (1 1/2 oz.) honey
1 tablespoon (½ oz.) unsalted butter, melted
2 large (2 ½ oz.) egg whites
pinch kosher or sea salt

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix using a stand mixer and paddle or with your hands. Scoop portions with a 1/2 ounce scoop onto a non-stick baking mat – about 8 cookies to a cookie sheet.  With damp fingers, press out each mound to about 3-4 inches diameter making each cookie flat, even and generally round.  (I keep a small ramekin of water nearby and dip my fingers as needed to keep the coconut mixture from sticking to them.)

Bake the cookies in a 325F oven for 8-12 minutes, or until the cookies are well browned.  Let the cookies cool on the baking mat until they are hard and crisp.  If you’re molding the cookies into shapes, let them cool for 1-2 minutes and then carefully pick up each cookie, mold it and set it on a cooling rack or cool baking sheet.  If the cookies get too cool to mold, return them to the oven for about 2 minutes to rewarm them.

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Quince Apple Pie

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Laurie

I had to make a pie today. It’s all because I’m not bringing pie to Thanksgiving tomorrow. Instead, I’ll be making sweet potatoes (the light fleshed ones) with bacon, maple and homemade vanilla bean marshmallows, roasted brussel sprouts with crispy shallots, and whole spelt rolls.

So this morning when I woke up, I started thinking about pie and some beautiful quince I still have in the fridge waiting for a purpose.  If you’re not familiar with quince, you can find more info here. Quince have a complex flavor and pair nicely with apples (they are a very distant cousin of the apple).  Here I combine the quince and apples with browned butter (beurre noisette for the Francophiles) and vanilla bean, my all-time favorite baking spice.  Both the brown butter and vanilla bean compliment, but don’t take away from the fruit, which is the showpiece of any fruit pie.  If you can’t find quince (they are still available in some stores like PCC), substitute a tart or tart-sweet apple such as a Granny Smith or Pippin variety. Use your favorite pie crust and find some tips here on surviving pie crust. Happy Thanksgiving!

Quince Apple Pie

2 pie crusts for a double crust 9 inch pie
2 large pineapple quince, peeled and cut into 1/8 inch slices
about 3 apples (combination of tart-sweet and sweet), peeled and cut into 1/8 inch slices
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 pinches salt
4 tablespoons demarara or brown sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped with pod
2-3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Roll out your pie crust for a double crust 9 inch pie and chill.

With the vanilla bean pod and pulp, melt the butter in a large skillet on medium-high heat until it bubbles and the milk solids turn brown. You should smell a nutty flavor. Add the quince slices and salt and toss to coat. Add 2 tablespoons of the sugar and continue to cook the quince until it is just tender. Cool the quince quickly on a baking sheet in the freezer.

Put the apple slices in a large bowl and combine with the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and flour. Toss to coat.  Add the cooled quince and toss to combine.

Fill your pie shell and top with the crust. Bake the pie at 400F for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350 and continue baking for 30-40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and you can hear the juices bubbling inside the pie.

Cool the pie on a rack before serving. Serve room temperature with lightly sweetened whipped cream or ice cream. Caramel drizzled over the top would also be a perfect accompaniment.

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Autumn Birthday Cake

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Laurie

Once a year I delve in a several-hour project – making my niece’s birthday cake. Proudly, I’ve made cakes for seven or her eight birthdays.  Something different each year – girlie with pink and purple flowers, trains, animals, Tigger.  We’ve done it all.

This year Linnea picked an Autumn theme and I went to work.  Making a themed and intensely decorated cake is not something I do very often. I find myself more interested in fruit desserts, plated desserts, classic cakes and general baking. Kudos to the many cake creators who make amazing specialty cakes on a daily basis.

The base of this cake is devil’s food (Linnea always chooses chocolate) with dark chocolate Italian buttercream.  I had on hand white chocolate modelling paste (sometimes called chocolate plastic).  I prefer chocolate modelling paste over fondant and marzipan. Fondant is ultra-sweet with no flavor. Marzipan tends to get sticky and it can be a little more difficult to work with. Chocolate modelling paste, easily made at home with a good quality chocolate (white or dark), is easy to hand and roll and has a good chocolate flavor.  Don’t expect your guests to eat all of the chocolate modelling paste decorations on the cake, but they will find it to have a much more pleasing flavor than fondant.  Modelling paste keeps well at room temperature in an air-tight container.

These beautiful pictures were taken by Linnea’s dad and my brother-in-law, Brad Mitchell.  Brad’s specialty is outdoor and nature photography and you can find him at www.bradmitchellphoto.com.  Happy Autumn!

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Junior’s Oatmeal

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Laurie

The summer I spent working on Nantucket Island was both idyllic and challenging. I was a pastry cook on my externship from the Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park, New York) and working at Topper’s Restaurant at The Wauwinet Inn.  Because the inn was only open for 5 months during the summer, we worked 12-14 hour days, 6 days per week.  (Later in my pastry career I realized this was often the norm, but this was my first experience in a high level, seasonal kitchen.)  That summer I was slated for the morning shift – in at 6:00 a.m., baking morning pastries for 8:00 a.m. breakfast for 70 guests, prep for lunch and often dinner. It was fabulous and exhausting.

One of the bright spots of the morning shift was enjoying Junior’s Oatmeal.  Junior was one of our morning stewards – dish man extraordinaire and all-around good guy.  If you’ve ever worked in a kitchen as a cook, then you know that it’s important to have a good relationship with the kitchen stewards or dishwashers.  As it so happened, the “dish pit” was right next to the pastry station.  (Great for getting in with the stewards, not so great for tempering chocolate.)  Junior had been coming back to the Wauwinet for several years. Clearly a morning person, he was generally cheerful and friendly.  And best of all, each morning he was there, he made oatmeal for all of the morning staff.  “Want some oatmeal?” he’d ask in his lilting Jamaican accent as he made the rounds in the kitchen.  I think in the early weeks I was there, I probably declined – too busy (and nervous) to be directed away from my morning baking.  But as the summer season started, I must have relaxed because I remember eating Junior’s oatmeal nearly every morning I worked.

Junior had just a few secrets to his oatmeal:  nutmeg, cinnamon, cream and vanilla bean – and blueberries.  I never actually saw him making it.  It just appeared at my workspace, hot and steaming topped with blueberries.  The vanilla bean was probably the most important ingredient.  (At some point the Executive Chef discovered that Junior was using the coveted vanilla beans and Junior was diverted to vanilla extract.)  But all summer, the oatmeal kept coming and it kept me going through the long shifts.

Despite my suspicion that Junior was using heavy cream, I think it’s a little too rich for the oatmeal. So I use whole or lowfat milk and then add a splash of heavy cream.  Also, don’t forget the salt – it’s a key ingredient that is often forgotten.

Junior’s Oatmeal

Serves:  2

2 cups water
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup regular rolled oats (thick cut okay)
½ vanilla bean pod (if it’s already scraped, it will still work) or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup milk
1-2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Splash of heavy cream

In a 2 quart saucepan, bring the water and salt to a boil over high heat. Lower the temperature to medium and add the oats and vanilla bean and cook until the water has mostly evaporated and the oats are soft.  Add the milk, vanilla extract (if you’re using it instead of the bean), brown sugar and spices and stir to combine.  Cook for about 2 minutes at a low simmer.  Add a splash of heavy cream and stir to combine.  Serve immediately with blueberries (Junior’s preferred fruit) or other seasonal fruit and additional brown sugar and milk.

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White or Wheat

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Laurie

It used to be that the number one question I would get from my students is, “Do you watch Top Chef?” Thankfully, that question has taken a back seat to:  “Can I make this with whole wheat flour?”  This tell-tale question just shows that my students, like most other cooks and bakers I know, are trying to work whole grains into their diet.  And face it – we feel much better about eating bread and pastries when we can say they include whole grains.

My response to this question has become rote:  I tell my students that whole grains are fabulous in baking, but they should be used where they make sense, both traditionally and technically.  That is, ciabatta, a traditional Italian bread, is always made with white bread flour – completing the traditional appearance, texture and taste.  Yes, you could make it with whole wheat, but that would change the bread and it really wouldn’t be ciabatta anymore.  The bottom line – use whole grains where they make sense and taste good, while enjoying pastries with white wheat flour also.

There are multitudes of traditional baked goods which incorporate whole grains: varieties of whole wheat bread, miche, volkhornbrot (100% rye), and a variety of other fabulous breads. Whole grain flours also work well and contribute flavor to many pastry items such as tart crust, shortbread, thumbprint cookies, biscotti, muffins and quick breads.  A delicate chiffon cakes begs for white cake flour, but a denser carrot cake could carry off some whole wheat flour nicely.

My general rule:  if I’m replacing white flour with a whole-grain flour, I start with replacing one-third of the total white flour.  If that produces a good result, I might continue to increase the whole grain flour (and decrease the white flour) as long as the result continues to have a palatable AND enjoyable flavor and texture. Using a whole grain flour just to incorporate whole grains, and turning your product into a dry, tough or unpleasantly grainy product makes this process a chore instead of a way to enjoy the amazing flavor, texture and healthful benefits of working with whole grains.

Often replacing white wheat flour with a whole grain flour can enhance your product. You discover added texture, flavor, a nuttiness, and substance to your product. And yet, the product is fairly unchanged. Other times the product can be changed completely, yet not undesirably and into a whole different product – one you hadn’t imagined. This is the process of discovery – baking and experimenting.

Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe was created from my basic chocolate chip cookie recipe with the idea that I wanted to make the cookie more substantial, add a nuttiness and yes, include whole grains. I conducted tests, starting with replacing just 1/3 of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. Eventually, I replaced all of the white flour with whole wheat flour. But I also made some other adjustments – I added almond flour for tenderness and flavor and converted all of the sugar to brown sugar – a more moist option.  And I chose milk chocolate which compliments the nuttiness of the whole wheat.  The result is a rich chocolate chip cookie with great texture and flavor – and the added benefit of whole grains.

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter
8 ounces (1 cup) brown sugar
4 ounces (1/2 cup) nut flour, toasted
1 each large egg
7 ounces (1 2/3 cups) whole wheat flour
1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
8 ounces milk chocolate, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

Toasted nut flours add a deep flavor to baked goods. To toast nut flours, spread the nut flour onto a baking sheet not more that 1/4 inch thick. Toast in a 350 degree oven for 3-4 minutes. Stir to even toasting. Continuing toasting until nut flour is lightly colored and fragrant. (Cool the nut flour before using.)

To make the cookies:  Combine the butter, brown sugar and nut flour in a mixer and combine. Do not cream and don’t forget to scrape. Add the egg and mix until combined. Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until partially combined. Add the chocolate pieces and continue mixing until just combined. Portion the cookies onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 350 F for 10-12 minutes or until light brown.  Cool the cookies on a baking rack.  (This dough stores well in the freezer.) Check out 5 Tips for Cookies for more information.

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