ludja

Silicon Valley may not spring to mind as a location for foraging but I've managed to find some nice things in the late summer and fall. There are very few spaces or lots without buildings on them right in the valley but there are woods and open spaces on the edges--near the Bay and in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Two things I picked this year are blackberries and walnuts. The walnuts come from trees that were part of orchards planted at the turn of the century which are now found in some open spaces with hiking paths. Gloves are an important accessory when walnut picking; the green outer shell will stain your hand a dark yellowish brown. There are not too many nuts on the ground as they are found by animals or may start to rot. We brought hiking sticks and knocked the nuts in the green hull off the tree. Nuts released from the green hull are difficult to see on the ground so you try to hit them enough to release them from the tree but not hard enought to release the brown nuts from the hulls. A closeup of the booty. It is a good idea to remove the green hull from the shells the same day to prevent molding. I then dried out the nuts in the sun for about a week covering them with screens on my balconey to prevent theft from my neighborhoos squirrels who were quite interested in them although there are not nut trees anywhere near my home! I need to go back in the spring next year to get some green walnuts to make nocino and pickled green walnuts...

Thanks for the detailed description, SethG. The saltiness intrigues me as I like Payday bars, etc. These will be on my list to try.

How much do you cook in that lovely kitchen? Do you typically help with the meals? The apple pie looks very nice... I also have to comment on the adorable photo of your little charge! Also looking forward to your travels later in the week. I hope you get to try some nice pastries and cakes in Budapest. We recently were discussing Hungarian Chestnut Cream torte on this thread and it has whetted my appetite for Hungarian/Austrian desserts.

It looks beautiful; and I'm glad it came out well and was met with approval! Thank you for the feedback as well; I will definately try the recipe. I'm thinking of making the Kastanienshnitten (Chestnut slices) that I mentioned above for a dinner later this week. I'll report back if I end up making them.

I haven't made this recipe yet, so I can't say how it performs in my hands or at sea level. As it is baked in a jellly roll pan I don't think the cake layers wlll be that high; just not sure if the sinkage you saw is expected. In case you want another shot at the cake before using the chestnut filling, here is a walnut sponge cake that I *have* made before as a roulade. It's from "Wolfert's World of Food". It's not a terribly 'high" cake either, as it is rolled to form a roulade.. Thinking about it, I guess the thickness would be less than an inch for sure. This cake is baked in the same size pan as the Lang recipe (ie. 11x17 in jelly roll pan. I haven't tried making it in round pans. The recipe differs from Lang's in that egg yolks are also used in addition to baking powder and there is no flour. 5 egg yolks 1/2 cup sugar pinch of salt 1 1/4 cup (5 oz) finely ground walnuts 1/2 tsp baking powder 5 egg whites at RT Here is how I make it: Preheat oven to 375 deg F. Line a lightly buttered jelly roll pan (~ 11x17) with wax paper and butter the paper. Beat egg yolks, slowly adding sugar and then salt. Beat until light in texture and light yellow in color. Whisk in ground walnuts and baking powder and then fold in stiffly whipped egg whites. Cook for about 15 min or until toothpick comes out clean. edited to add: A lot of Austrianand Hungarian tortes are not very tall. An example is a Sacher torte which is much 'shorter' than an American layer cake. I've had various chestnut cakes in Austria anyway but don't have a definitive view of exactly how this cake should be. Other input is welcome!

Hope the end result is good if not very tall! These cakes are a little tricky to make (flourless or nearly flourless nut cakes leavened with egg whites) and I would have no idea how to approach making it at 6000 feet elevation. Did you make any adjustments or do you think there are any to make for this type of cake?

Well, although it is somewhat different in style and richness compared to the recipe we were discussing above as Swisskaese pointed out, it does look like it has its inspiration from some Hungarian/Austrian/Italian chestnut cakes. I have seen some traditional recipes that use chestnut puree in the batter and in the filling. Other ground nuts, usually walnuts, are often used and here they sub ground pecans. Chocolate and rum are two other common flavorings used in conjunction with chestnuts; this recipe uses chocolate and bourbon. Thanks for linking to this!

But you can get excellent Gugelhupf's in Austria and Germany... It sounds like the pastry shops in Strasbourg, along with all the food, must be quite an interesting blend of French and German. I'll take your comments from experience on the Tarte Flambee though... The hotel in Champagne looks like something out of a dream idlyll!

Thanks, Shaya and Tweety69bird. The canned almond paste which I had on the shelf for a while had darkened a bit, so the cookies turned out darker. 8 oz canned almond paste 1 cup sugar 2 lg egg whites, lightly broken up with a fork Preheat oven to 375 deg F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Break up almond paste and blend with sugar in a stand mixer untl it is a finely textured and homogeneous. I don't have a stand mixer so I blended mixture using the plastic blade on my food processor. Add egg whites in four additions, blending for 1 min after each addition. The resulting paste should be very smooth. Pipe out 1 1/2 inch rounds onto the sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart. (They don't spread very much). Wet a wooden spoon and use the back of it to lightly press down and smooth and moisten the tops of the cookies. Rewet spoon as needed to prevent sticking. Sprinkle cookies with granulated sugar and bake for 15-20 min. Remove trays from oven and let the trays cool on a rack for a few min. Carefully lift parchment paper (with cookies attached) and lightly turn over so that the paper is facing up. Use a pastry brush to lightly brush the paper on the back of each cookie with hot water. Wait a min or two; then carefully peel back the paper to individually release each cookie. (This step produces a cleanly released cookie without leaving the soft center stuck to the paper.) Finish cooling cookies on a rack. You can make the pignoli variation also. After moistening and flattening the top of the cookies, lightly press pignoli onto the surface. No sugar should be added to the tops of these cookies. As most recipes for homemade amaretti mention, canned almond paste is the best for amaretti in terms of flavor and texture. Makes about 3-3/12 dozen cookies. This is adapted from Nick Malgieri's Great Italian Desserts.

Have a great trip and consider sharing some of your food adventures upon your return. We don't have much discussion of foods in "Elsewhere in Europe" and it would be great to hear what you encounter.

And I also thought of this thread on the KFC Famous Bowls... (Don't look torakris, it is truly hideous). I don't like "inappropriate" things slopped together. Appropriate is subjective, but I guess I'm not too picky. From childhood I still have a slight aversion to peas getting mixed into the mashed potatoes though... I just don't like the texture of peas in the puree.

How was the dish described on the menu? ← I woud assume that since it was served as an amuse geule, it wasn't listed on the menu, nor would it even be named when serving it... Did you name it anyway? Timh, was it served hot or cold? ← Ah, I missed the earlier reference to it being served as an amuse. I was just curious how it would have been described on the menu if it was listed there.

Looking through the link you gave for pronouncing the dishes in the book is a mighty good inducement towards purchasing it in addition seeing the excerpts above. What a great looking selection of recipes! Thank you for participating here as well.

Why not try the recipe using butter that is a less soft and/or subsequently mixing it a little less so that the dough isn't softened as much? Mayonnaise consistency butter definately sounds too soft for most cookies unless that is specified in the instructions. How long you soften the butter depends on the temp of your fridge, kitchen and whether or not you cut up the butter. The other way to over soften the butter too much is by overbeating. This rarely happens for me as I mix by hand... (I will get a KitchenAid one day, I hope.) I would just shoot for a consistency firmer than mayonnaise. If the dough uses baking powder, I guess would also check that it is not past its expiration date. I like the way the regular nestle toll house recipe comes out in terms of crispness, thickness, etc. However, here is a whole discussion on how to make chocolate chip cookies that are less thin and crisp if that is your preference:click

^Thanks, vadouvan. This sounds really good.

I don't have my own tried and true dinner roll yet, but another avenue is to use the search button at the very top of the eGullet page, "Search" in dark blue type. You can find a bunch of good existing threads for rolls of different consistencies, etc. Search roll or rolls by serching for "roll*", select "pastry and baking forum" and select search "titles" and report "threads". I had some delicious rolls made by a friend recently, the "Parker Rolls" from Bernard Clayton's baking book...

I had a can of almond paste I needed to use so I made some amaretti. Crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle; delicious and very easy.

How was the dish described on the menu?

Are there some popular ways to eat chestnuts/chestnut puree in desserts in Umbria? I see "dolce" on the menu but my Italian is pretty weak to decipher more. I've heard of the chestnut flour cake from Tuscany; castagnaccio. It looks like that was an offering at your festa also. edited to add: Is another word in Italian for chestnut, "Maroni"? In southern Austria, "Maroni" or "Kastanien" are used for chestnuts.

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Got some other ideas by googling a little bit: (I'm thinking of signing up to do this myself): coconut macaroons rum or bourbon balls Dense moist loaf cakes can be packed in tins: poundcake (someone mentioned sending this successfully but I'm not sure if the butter would be a problem) banana or zucchini bread (pumpkin bread?) fruitcake

Lebkuchen are more of a Christmas cookie, but they are spicy and so would invoke the flavors of fall or would be good for a Christmas package! They are typically aged or ripened for at least two weeks before eating and would be sturdy for shipping. Anolther German Christmas spice cookie that is also ripened and ships well is Pfeffernuss. These may be iced or not. I'm not sure how a powdered sugar glaze icing would stand up to the heat. I don't have my own tested recipes for these yet but there should be plenty of recipes on the net to try out if there aren't any on eGullet. Good luck, and please report back on those that you end up sending out! It will be good information for all.

And fun for someone that knows French and German. vinstub for Weinstube... I'm sure it's ok to slip in some observations of the town and people alongside the food... I'm sure you had plenty of other things to see, but did you have a chance to visit any food markets?

Interesting, I wouldn't have thought of the raspberry jam. I might like an approach more like this linked recipe: click It uses olive oil, red and balsamic vinegars, frozen raspberries, lemon and lime juice. Sugar is added to sweeten. I like that one can add the sugar to taste so that it isn't too sweet. It doesn't mention salt and pepper but I would probably test some on the side and see if that was an improvement. Any other ingredients planned for your salad besdies greens? Somehow I'm thinking of feta cheese... Welcome to posting! edited to add: It would be great to hear from those that have experimented with raspberry vinagrette. I imagine some would use raspberry vinegar as a base.

Thanks for this wonderful description; I'm not big on things that are too sweet with savory either but that maple butter sounds great. Good luck on finding a waffle iron! I wish I had my parent's old one (which I think was my grandparent's before that...) I have a newer one that makes one round waffle but I loved the old-fashioned one that made 4 (I think) square waffles at once.