alanamoana

10x usually means powdered sugar...but I'll let Kim answer.

Gingerbread Fruitcake Serves 16 as Dessert. This is yet another recipe I have bastardized for the eGullet Baking and Pastry Challenge. Again, the original recipe is from a colleague - Christine Law. The recipe calls for a 16" long loaf pan. If you don't have one of these, I made mine in a 9" square cake pan without any problems. This is a very dense and moist gingerbread that I chose to stud with boozy fruit, nuts and a large amount of diced candied ginger. 1 c Guiness Stout (I used both regular guiness and Extra Stout to good results) 1 c black molasses (I used regular molasses) 1/2 tsp baking soda 9 oz all purpose flour 1-1/2 tsp baking powder 2 T ground ginger 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg ground cardamom 1/2 tsp ground black pepper 3 eggs 1/2 c packed dark brown sugar 1/2 c granulated sugar 3/4 c vegetable oil 1-1/2 c dried fruit that has been plumped up and soaked with brandy or other liquor 1-1/2 c chopped, toasted nuts (your choice) 1/2 c finely diced candied/crystallized ginger Yes, the ingredient list seems daunting...but it isn't much and it doesn't take much to mix up and bake. If you love ginger, then this cake is for you. Preheat oven to 350F Butter or spray pan and then line bottom with parchment 1. Bring stout and molasses to a boil in a saucepan (use a larger saucepan than you think because you'll add the baking soda and it will foam up). Whisk in baking soda and allow to cool to room temperature. In the meantime, you can measure out the rest of your ingredients! 2. Stir or sift together the dry ingredients up to and including the black pepper. Do this in a large bowl. 3. Using a whisk attachment in a mixer, whisk the eggs and sugar on low speed. Whisk in the the oil and then the cooled molasses mixture. 4. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour and gradually stir in the wet ingredients. Make sure to get all the lumps out but don't overmix. 5. Add the soaked fruit, nuts and diced candied ginger...they'll most likely sink to the bottom, but that's okay. 6. Pour into your prepared pan and bake at 350F for about 50 minutes to an hour. A toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake should come out clean. Cool in the pan for about half an hour and then remove from pan to cool completely. Note: to make the fruit mixture, please go to my other fruitcake recipe and read the note there. Hmmm...I'm trying to add a link, but it doesn't seem to work in RecipeGullet. The title of the other recipe is "Poundcake-Like Fruitcake". Keywords: Dessert, Cake, Christmas ( RG1881 )

Poundcake-Like Fruitcake Serves 14 as Dessert. I received a recipe for a brandied chocolate cherry fruitcake from a colleague of mine named Christine Law. I completely bastardized her recipe for an eGullet Pastry and Baking Challenge entry. The following recipe is my version of her fruitcake. This isn't so much a fruitcake as it is a cake with a lot of boozy fruit, toasted nuts and chocolate bits thrown in. It is dense, moist and flavorful. 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 c buttermilk 1 c butter, room temp 2 c granulated sugar 2 extra large eggs (I used 3 large eggs) 3 c all purpose flour, unbleached 1 tsp kosher salt 3 c dried fruit plumped in water and then soaked in brandy or other liquor (instructions to follow*) 1 c chopped, toasted nuts (your choice) 1-1/2 c semisweet chocolate chunks (1/2" size) Preheat oven to 325F Prepare a 9" round cake pan by buttering and flouring. If possible, use parchment on the bottom of the pan. 1. Add baking soda to buttermilk, whisk until foamy and set aside. 2. Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. 3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Remember to scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl frequently as well. 4. Stir salt into flour. Add dry ingredients, alternating with buttermilk mixture, mixing until combined after each addition. 5. Fold in nuts (I used a blend of chopped, toasted walnuts and pecans), cherries and chocolate. 6. Pour into prepared 9" round cake pan, smooth the top and bake until cake is firm to the touch or just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan. Probably about one and a half hours. Let cool in the pan for about an hour. * For the dried fruit, I sort of did this on the fly, you can interpret it any way you like. I made a large quantity of fruit and then measured out the amount for the cake from this large batch: I bought an assortment of dried fruit, including the following: cherries, cranberries, apricots, blueberries and golden raisins. I diced the apricots so that they were about the same size as the other fruits. I brought a large pot of water up to a boil, turned off the heat and then dumped all the fruit into it. I let the fruit soak for a bit then drained off all the water. While the fruit was still hot, I poured enough brandy (with a splash of Stroh rum and vanilla extract) to cover the fruit. I covered the whole mess with plastic wrap directly on the surface and allowed it to sit at room temperature until the fruit absorbed all of the alcohol. This will keep in the fridge for a looooong time. I'm sure you can keep pouring more alcohol on top if you like it stronger. Keywords: Dessert, Cake, Christmas ( RG1880 )

Thanks so much for the great demo Pam. Beautiful sufganiyot! I will add though that I've never heard of that particular piping tip called a Kaiser tip before. Could that be the brand? I've always heard of it as a "Bismarck" tip. That might help when looking it up on-line. More 2 cents...when you fry doughnuts (sufganiyot ) already filled, there is a tendency for the dough around the filling to not cook completely...particularly if the filling is cool. This happened where I worked because we would fry them to order and they had to be kept in a refrigerator after the final proofing. The filling would get too cold in the fridge. This obviously didn't happen with yours, but just a warning...you might have to fry filled ones a bit longer.

check out the wok shop.

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, it been a long day, the gellified brulee is made with a mixture of curd, pastry cream, and gelatine (sheets) it actually is not hot when poured over (vegaline sprayed) bubble wrap and allowed to set freeze or refrig.), it's pretty easy. hot fresh curd and pastry cream would probably melt the plastic, if not pop the bubbles, it would be a mess. make your components before hand, let them cool, bloom your gelatine sheets, heat, temper and add all ingredients together. hope this helps... BTW, although I was instructed not to do this, a gellie of champagne or white wine in the bubble impression would work very nicely, Filipe - hint/hint... Michael Robert Porru ← champagne gelee would have been too easy michael! you know it. your dessert it 100x better, without a champagne gelee...not that there's anything wrong with a champagne gelee...just wanted to see something different. you definitely delivered.

think "nuts, seeds and beans"...all in paste form...sweetened lightly with sugar (possibly palm or chinese "brown" sugar). use the above pastes filled into flaky pastry or chewy glutinous rice type outer wrappers. there are also versions of scallion pancakes replacing scallions and salt with brown sugar...very delicious. also, candied fruits...like the white sticks you see in chinatown that are candied melon otherwise, fresh tropical fruits.

slice up, soak in custard base and make bread pudding or french toast

Kerry, what about the "gelee" recipe from Torreblanca's book that i sent along to you? that might be the right vehicle for a light tea flavored thing without too much sugar or heat.

Michael, I knew you were up to (and way beyond) this challenge. Thanks again for taking this on during a totally hectic week. What a beautiful and I'm sure flavorful dessert!!! Great work! edited to add: i also love that it seems like a very "light" dessert. something that someone would order even if they didn't want dessert because it seems like a salad. the dish also has great visual appeal without seeming too busy on the plate.

they do have a separate line for some stuff. don't know if shakes are part of the "short line". but it doesn't seem to work because people can't be bothered to read...

what about surface tension and the ability to "overfill" a dry measure with liquid, particularly viscous liquids?

Michael, we completely understand with the timing, etc. I had wanted to postpone the challenge a week, but not everyone shared my view ...we are, after all, an international website. At any rate, I personally can't wait to see your creation because I know it will be phenomenal. Have a great turkey day.

I guess I don't want to change a thing about the gelee : it tastes fine, easily set up, nice colour... my question now is about assembling combinations to use it, as it has a really strong champagne flavour - easily goes with savory food, but not that easy with sweet/pastry items ← wait for dejaq's finished product...i'm sure he'll find a good blend of champagne with citrus that will give you some hints on how to use it for pastry/sweet preparations.

thanks everyone! my husband really likes the gingerbready fruitcake with the eggnog cream. i think that is what i'll be bringing along with me for thanksgiving dinner with family. i will post the recipes, but remember, i fiddled with good recipes and doesn't mean they are better now. i will have to ask for permission to put up the original recipes, but mine are so different i should be safe posting those.

Anna, trust me on this one: you'll always find defects on your stuff (we are our own harshest critics, right?) but...i went to one demo by jean-pierre wybauw and his stuff didn't all come out perfectly. even in books (like jpw's and by other famous pastry chefs), you'll see bubbles, some streaking, etc. your chocolates are lovely. as long as they come out of the molds, you're doing something right. and when you're making them for a hobby, enjoy the act of making the chocolates and the sight of your family and friends devouring them. those are the fun things!

marzipan has more sugar than almond paste up to around 50% my favorite method is to call up my local purveyor and order some! it is very difficult to get the fine texture of commercial paste using the tools that most of us have. if you don't mind it being a bit rustic, you can do it in a food processor.

^^^ Hey gfron1, great notice in your paper!

Here's a link to Iron Baker Round 9: dejaq.

And now for Round 9!!! I'm challenging dejaq, a.k.a. Michael Robert Porru, and I'm very excited about it. When he first started posting I wasn't sure where he was coming from...his avatar was at one point Neo from "The Matrix"...now I know what he's all about: GREAT DESSERTS, ALL THE TIME!!!! As a professional in the field and it coming up on a holiday, I know he's going to be very busy this week however he graciously accepted the challenge, so here it is: In keeping with the holiday theme and even though it is a bit early, I'd like for you to create a dessert that helps to ring in the New Year! When I think of celebrating the New Year, the first thing that comes to mind is CHAMPAGNE. In winter we have CITRUS FRUIT and not much else, it can be tough on a menu. Please use CHAMPAGNE, at least three different types of CITRUS FRUIT and just for kicks AGAR AGAR in a dessert. However, don't make the expected champagne gelee (that's why I chose agar because you have to boil your mixture and that won't taste as good). I know we were both responding to a post by Filipe about champagne and gelatin so this might sound familiar! Good luck, I know I can't wait to see the results! Here's a list of our previous challenges: Round 1 (Kerry Beal challenges Ling in Vancouver BC)- Take pineapple upside down cake and bring it into this century Round 2 (Ling Challenges Gfron1 in Silver City NM) - Make a dessert containing an animal ingredient or product other than lard or bacon Round 3 (Gronf1 challenges Mette in Copenhagen Denmark)- Create a deconstructed beer dessert Round 4 (Mette Challenges Shalmanese in Seattle WA) - Create a dessert tapas plate consisting of 7 items in 7 days, using local and seasonal flavours Round 5 (Shalmanese challenges Chiantiglace in West Palm Beach FL) - create a dessert involving smoke that evokes Autumn Round 6 (Chiantiglace challenges K8Memphis in Memphis, TN) - create a dessert using Southern Sweet Tea Round 7 (K8Memphis challenges SweetSide in rural CT) - create a desset using 5 kernels of corn representing the 5 blessing of the Pilgrims Round 8 (SweetSide challenges alanamoana in the Silicon Valley, CA) - take fruitcake out of the land of the misfits and show us the beauty that lies within

Yes, the sugar tower was thin enough to shatter and be eaten. Of course it is dependent on whether you live in a dry environment or not. There isn't any flavor to it, but I bet you could incorporate something (citrus salt or something like that). I'm not huge on using too much sugar when I know it doesn't add much to the dish, but I did this more for eGullet so you could see inside the dessert. I would probably make a container out of a nice thin buttery tuile dentelle or something like that if it was for a restaurant. Thanks everyone, this was really fun. You can get the rum at most high end liquor stores. It is about $30USD a bottle (more or less). And trust me, you don't need much to add flavor. I didn't really use recipes, so if anyone wants one pm me and I'll try to put them together.

dammit, the secret is out. it's not called procrastination when you're watching the entire boxed set back to back with extended versions and extra features is it?! just kidding, didn't even cross my mind, but now that you point it out...

I am completely agog!!!! Rachel blogging only days (okay, maybe weeks) after learning how to post images?! This is amazing, incredible, stupendous...alright, I know Rachel has many more and better words which convey her sunny outlook on just about every subject here on eGullet. I look forward to this week with you and can only imagine what a wonderful feast you'll have for us on Thursday.

There are a lot of things I'd do differently. I think this is a good basic concept for a fall/winter dessert. I had initially wanted to do ice cream as well. That's for another time, I guess. The great thing about the challenge is that it made me think beyond just fruitcake. It has started a chain reaction of ideas in my head. All of the things that I didn't make are still floating around in my noggin and might make their way out sometime soon. Please get ready for the next challenge. I will post it tomorrow morning. I do think that I was too easy on myself for this. I'm amazed at the amount of effort that everyone else has put into the challenges. It is so fun and what a great forum for everyone to post ideas and suggestions. The multi component desserts that everyone has come up with are amazing and humbling. I apologize if I didn't do enough. Maybe there's some extra credit I can work on after school? There's more, but I don't want to get mushy during an already sentimental time of year Thanks everyone. I'll post a link to the new challenge as soon as I put it up in the AM. Best, Alana

ooooookay... so here's the dessert - and another view, a bit blurry - The method behind the madness: I cooked some sugar with corn syrup to hard crack stage, avoiding any color. I poured a small amount on a silpat, warmed it up and rolled it paper thin. I trimmed off the excess and formed it around a square shaped object to make a clear tower. Most pros will recognize the style of Oriol Balageur (a Spanish pastry chef extraordinaire) in this. I layered the gingerbread version of fruitcake with an eggnog cream made in an isi whipped cream canister. The cream is made with this- I learned about Stroh Rum from my previous boss. I think the story is, his mother-in-law is Eastern European and uses this in every dessert she makes. It has a butterscotch-y aroma and as the label says...it is 80% alcohol!!! Strong stuff. Off to the side of the tower is the boozy fruit poundcake. I punched it out, panko-ed it and deep fried it. It is resting on a small bed of boozy fruit and is surrounded by a pulled sugar ring (I just used the extra sugar that I used for the tower and heated it up to give it some color so that when I pulled it, it would be golden). The sauce is just plain old chocolate sauce.