Cocoa Meringue Mushrooms - Welcome December!

December is the baker's favorite month of the year for very obvious reasons! Fruit mixing, fruit soaking and Christmas cake-bake-talk is terribly infectious, making me look forward to the season even more.  I normally tend to procrastinate forever about my Christmas baking, end up huffing and puffing to put up a post here before the season is finally over. This year however, I seem to be a tiny bit more organized as I find myself having more than one Christmas bake to post! 

Here come some Cocoa Meringue Mushrooms I baked a few days ago. I will have to confess I made these more for the festive feel, as otherwise I find meringue too sweet, but fun nevertheless ! Crisp and sweet, these cookies make a charming addition to your Christmas cookie platter or to decorate your Yule Log. The bonus, these can be made way ahead and stored airtight for a few weeks.

This recipe for Crisp French Meringue comes from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cake Bible. She had baked a batch of meringue shells when a French pastry chef visiting her remarks that they are heavy. Torn between insult and curiosity, she learns from him that using superfine sugar and some powdered sugar makes for lighter meringue. She experiments to bake the lightest meringues! 

Ingredients: Halve the recipe unless you have an oven large enough. Remember to halve the ingredients as you follow the procedure.

Egg whites - 4 large - 120 grams 

Cream of tartar  - 1/2 teaspoon

Superfine sugar - 115 grams (please read note) 
Powdered sugar - 115 grams 
Cocoa powder : 2 tablespoons (optional)
Extra cocoa for dusting on top. 

Method : 

• Pre-heat oven to 100 C / 200 F. 
• Line a heavy baking sheet with parchment. 
• Sift the powdered sugar with the 2 tablespoons cocoa until uniformly blended, keep aside. 
• Keep a teaspoon of cocoa in a small strainer ready for sifting over the piped meringue. 
• Fit a pastry bag with number 3 round decorating tube. ( I have used my 1.5 cm plain nozzle) Poise it over a tall glass so it is easier to fill in the meringue. 
• Make sure the bowl, the mixer blades, the cups, spatula, the weighing bowl and just about anything you use here is really clean, free of grease and dry. 
• On low speed, beat the whites till frothy, then add the cream of tartar. Beat on medium speed while gradually adding 2 tablespoons superfine sugar. Do not rush adding the sugar. 
• When soft peaks form when the beater is raised, add 1 tablespoon superfine sugar and increase speed to high. 
• When stiff peaks are formed when the beater is raised slowly, gradually beat in remaining superfine sugar, beat until stiff and glossy. This reads like it will take a lot of but happens fast. So please do watch carefully as you beat. 
• Sift powdered sugar over the meringue, fold in using a slotted skimmer or a rubber large spatula. Fill the meringue into the bag. 
• Pipe domes in one tray and 'stems' in another. They don't need to look uniform or perfect (yay!). Smoothen any pointy tips with a wet finger or these may burn. 
• Sift the cocoa lightly over the caps. 
• Bake about an hour till dry and crisp rotating the pans halfway. I baked about 15 minutes more.  Do not open the oven door the first 3 quarters of the baking time to prevent cracking.
• The most reliable way to test doneness says Rose, is to dig out a small amount of meringue from the center with a sharp knife. If only slightly sticky, it will continue to dry at room temperature. 
• If not assembling the mushrooms right away, store them airtight. Can be stored 3 weeks at least. 

To assemble : Alice Medrich's way. Melt some dark chocolate (about 100 grams). Use a sharp knife to cut the tip of each 'stem' to create a flat surface. Place the caps flat side up on  a baking tray. Spread some melted chocolate, attach the stems. Allow the chocolate to harden and then store the meringue mushrooms airtight immediately. 

    

Please note : To make superfine sugar I have just processed granulated sugar till very slightly coarse. 

For making mushrooms and other figurines, Rose recommends using all superfine sugar ( 226 grams for the entire recipe) as it makes less fragile ones. I have used powdered sugar as mentioned above.

Do bake these if you love meringue or just for the fun of it!These indeed were light, but the meringue amateur that I am, can't say if they were light enough.

White meringue mushrooms look quite real in their imperfection. I took way more liberty and baked some really imperfect, rather unreal looking ones with cocoa! Just as I was about to begin, I realized the regular plug point I use wasn't working . With the bowl and my mixer finding just enough space between my wet grinder and the water filter, I was walking on egg shells as I went! Forgive me for not jotting down more details, but these should work fine even if they are not absolutely perfect. They will still be fairly light and festive of course.

So what are you planning to bake this season? Please do share your favorite Christmas recipes with me! 

Orange Poppy Seed Financiers

For once, financiers I would like to talk about! Trust me, I wouldn't even mention yawn-inspiring folks in dreary grey business suits, but I must when the financiers here are delicious little French cookie-cakes. Apparently these were created by a pastry chef in France whose shop was near the Paris stock exchange. Rich, elegant cookie cakes made with ground almonds, egg whites and browned butter - just right for his wealthy discerning customers. Cakes made in small rectangular molds resembling bars of gold probably gave them the name financiers. These are similar to Australian friands which are normally baked in muffin tins or friand pans (they make pretty cakes!). These are made with melted butter and are often topped with fresh fruit. 

With some almond meal in the freezer threatening to go rancid, financiers had to happen! Decided on this recipe from David Lebovitz as it is less richer than most recipes I came across. A touch of baking powder here makes for lighter cakes. So with black poppy seeds and a generous amount of orange zest thrown in, Orange Poppy Seed Financiers were out of the oven in no time at all. I love recipes like this! Top them with fresh fruit or chocolate chips or drizzle some citrus glaze on the warm cakes, you will like them all! Crusty edges, moist nutty interiors, these tender cakes are delightful freshly baked. 

The batter is ridiculously easy to put together - a matter of whisking in melted butter and egg whites into flour, sugar and almonds. Conveniently, the batter  can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days. 

Recipe from hereIngredients : To make about 12-15 mini cakes. Double the recipe if using a larger muffin tray. 

Ground almonds - 28 grams
Sugar - 50 grams ( I used powdered sugar, sifted)
All-purpose flour - 22 grams
Baking powder - 1/8 tsp
Black poppy seeds - 2 teaspoons
Orange zest - Freshly grated from one large orange, Microplane Zester* is the best tool for this.

Pure vanilla extract - 1/2 teaspoon
Egg whites -  62 grams
Unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (please read note) - 42 grams

Method: 

1.  Preheat the oven to 375F (190C).  I used a black mini muffin tray, so baked at 180 C / 350 F.  Spray the tin with with baking spray or grease and flour lightly but thoroughly.  

2.   Sift together the sugar, ground almonds, baking powder, salt and flour into a medium sized bowl.  Whisk in the poppy seeds. 

3.  Using a small whisk, whisk together the egg whites,  vanilla , zest and melted butter to incorporate well.  Whisk the whites mixture into the almond mixture in 2-3 additions.  Whisk gently but thoroughly.  This step is important as otherwise the butter may not get mixed properly making the cakes greasy.  The batter will be thinnish and of pouring consistency.  If not using the batter immediately, you can store it in the fridge for 3 days.

4.  Fill each cavity of the muffin tray 3/4 full.  Rap the muffin tin  on the counter once or twice to release any air pockets and level the batter.  

5.  Bake for 10-12 minutes  or until the financiers  feel firm when gently pressed with a finger (I did a tooth pick test too)  

6. Cool completely, then remove from the tin.  Please do eat some as soon as they cool.  Can be stored airtight for a couple of days, but the crusts will soften.

Please note :  I made 3 batches of these.  I used melted and cooled butter for one batch and melted and butter cooled slightly (about 125 F) for another batch wondering if that would make a difference.  I could not see a great deal of difference between the two . Either ways, the cakes taste great when really fresh. Only when they are kept for more than an hour or more, they taste a tiny bit too rich. Better to play safe, use butter cooled slightly,  serve the cakes fresh off the rack.

If you do have left over cakes, it may be a good idea to warm them for a 2-3 minutes at 180 C before serving. 

Variations : Omit the poppy seeds.  Use mini chocolate chips.  Do not stir the chips into the batter as they will sink and stick to the pan.  Top the batter with a few chips after you rap and bake.

Fresh fruit : If you like fresh fruit in your bakes, do absolutely use some. Most berries (not strawberries though), plums and cherries seem to work. 

Glaze : Make these plain with either orange or lime zest.  Drizzle some glaze over the cakes when they are still warm.

Am happy about this recipe as a start for me to get know these much loved cakes.  Looking forward to try more recipes and variations, fresh fruit, browned butter and more.  The things you need to do as a baker-blogger! 

Microplane Zester
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Flourless Coffee Almond Cookies

After staying away from baked meringue in general, I am finally coming to the conclusion that I may like it after all!  I had tried pavlova ages ago and had not taken much of a liking to it. Since then I have been paying little attention to meringue based recipes.

When I asked for a recipe for flour less cookies, the Google Gods directed me to Purple Foodie's Flourless Hazelnut Cookies. They looked so delicate and pretty! No butter, no oil, just whipped egg whites, sugar and ground nuts. Not intimidating like French Macarons, so not much to lose! Shaheen's description of their aroma makes you feel like scrounging around for some hazelnuts, but then good quality ones are not so easy (or cheap!) to find. So almonds it would have to be. If there are going to be almonds, can coffee be left far behind? 

It would weigh on my conscience if I did not mention that there is a possibility I may not got these the way they are meant to be. Having never baked macarons, I realized half a cup of almonds and a fourth of cup of sugar are quite a bit to be folded into the whites of one egg. Though you can't possibly fold in the nuts and sugar without deflating the whipped whites to some extent, am not sure how much of it is alright in these cookies. 

But I am going right ahead and posting these as I found the cookies quite light, nutty, tender-crunchy and delicious!  Even assuming my cookies are not quite there, the results you can get can only be better! 

Apparently, these Italian cookies are called Brutti Ma Buoni literally meaning, “Ugly But Good''!  

Below is half the recipe on Shaheen's blog.  Please do double the recipe if you can bake them all at one go.

Recipe from here, original recipe here .  

Ingredients: (made about 20 cookies or so)

Whole Almonds -  75 grams / 1/2 cup ( or hazelnuts, lightly toasted and skinned, you could also try walnuts, read note)

Granulated sugar - 50 grams / 1/4 cup / 4 tablespoons

Instant coffee - 1 1/4 teaspoons (or orange zest)

Egg white -  30 grams / 1 large white

Powdered sugar - 1 tablespoon

Cream of tartar - a tiny, tiny pinch (about HALF of 1/8 tsp)

Vanilla extract - 3/4 teaspoon

Flaked almonds - 1/2 cup

Method:

1. Preheat to 160°C/325°F. Line two baking sheets with Silpat or parchment paper.
2. Put the whole almonds in a plastic cover, close and bash with a rolling pin to break them into uneven pieces. This will help you grind them fine without getting them oily.
3. Pulse nuts, coffee (or zest) and sugar in a food processor or the smallest jar of your mixie until finely ground. Short 10-15 second turns, 2 times at the lowest speed will be good. Be sure not to overdo this as you need this to be like fine meal, not clumped up nuts and sugar. 
4. Make sure your bowl and beaters for whipping egg whites are squeaky clean.
5. Beat egg whites on low speed till you seem it foaming. Add the cream of tartar and beat on medium speed (3 on hand mixer) till you see traces of the beaters on the whites. This will look like shaving foam now. Add the powdered sugar slowly and continue beating on medium speed till stiff peaks form. When you raise the beaters slowly, the whites will stand up straight and not droop right away. If you are not there yet, continue and check after about 10-15 seconds. Be wary of over whipping as it will make the whites go dry.
6. Using a silicone spatula, gently fold in the nut mixture into the whites ( I added in two additions). If adding vanilla or any other flavoring, you can add now when you fold in the nuts.
7. The mixture looked quite heavy but foamy. Is this how it works in this recipe?? The moment of tragedy when my dreams of baking French macarons were completely shattered!
8. I made cookies with half tablespoon batter each leaving about an inch space in between the cookies. They spread as they bake. Gently drop almond flakes on top of the cookies. Rap the baking sheet a couple of times over the counter.
9. Bake for 22-24 minutes. The cookies will feel firm all over. If the center is softish, bake a couple of minutes more. Cookies which feel softish in the center will have chewy centers.
10. Cool the cookies on the tray for about 5 minutes. Store airtight. 

Please note: 

1. Blanched or un blanched almonds make a difference to the color of the cookies, since I have used  coffee I have used them as is.

2. If adding coffee or  zest, add all at one go when you grind the nuts. Repeated addition of flavoring and grinding repeatedly however briefly makes the nuts turn oily. 

3. Shaheen has reduced the sugar from the original recipe, I have added one tablespoon more and this was just fine with the coffee. Please alter the amount of coffee to taste. 

4. Reading recipes for French macarons, folding in nuts into the whites seems to be acceptable. So no concerns on that count. 

Pretty or not, perfect or not, I loved them the way they turned out, am making these again!

Cocoa Tuiles - Tuiles Love!

Guilty, guilty of making appearances so sporadic here! Summer vacations are just not my thing. Please say neither is it your favorite time of the year and make me feel better! I don't know if I have had enough of vacations or the kids have had enough of me, but neither of us can wait for school to re-open! Hang on, its just a week away, we keep telling each other!  And then a couple of things more not in my favor.  Out of the few recipes I managed to make in the mayhem, some recipes were not up to my expectations, some needing re-work ( exasperating I know!). Then a couple of good ones I want to share with you but turned out the pictures are terrible! I have never been proud of my photography, very honestly far from it, but this time my camera seems to be really avenging me for something! Thinking I won't have a single thing to post at this rate, am picking out a couple of recipes which I had put on hold for better pictures.  Please bear with me!

Here are some tuiles I had made sometime ago. Some super crisp, really chocolaty ones, they can be as addictive as potato chips, warns Alice Medrich! Great to munch on as is, but can you really resist playing around with these? Embellish them with nuts or drizzle them with some chocolate or use them to pipe in some coffee mascarpone / cream and berries to make desserts out of them.

As with all tuile batters, this is really easy and quick to make. You could make the batter and refrigerate it upto 3 days, make the tuiles in batches at your pace. Make sure you weigh your ingredients correctly as more flour can make your tuiles tough, more cocoa will make them bitter, less of it makes them sweet. I like them slightly sweetish with a bitter edge. I prefer trying out half the recipe first and then double it to suit my taste. 

Ingredients:

Unsalted butter, melted and still very warm - 56 grams approximately / 4 tablespoons (weigh or measure before melting)

Sugar, powdered - 100 grams / 1/2 cup (powdered after weighing)

Natural cocoa ( Nilgiris, Hersheys, Cadbury's) - 1/4 cup / 22 grams approx (sieve after measuring)

Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Egg whites - 60 grams / 2 large

All purpose flour - 10 grams / 4 teaspoons

Method: Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F. Line your baking trays with aluminum foil, smoothing any creases, taking care not to tear it. Grease lightly but very thoroughly with melted butter.

In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugar, cocoa and salt. Whisk in the egg whites. Add flour and mix only till combined. Let the batter rest for at-least 10 minutes or up to 3 days, covered and refrigerated.

Drop level teaspoons of batter 2 inches apart on the prepared foil. Using the back of a spoon, spread the batter evenly in 3 inch rounds or oval or other shape about 1/16 of an inch.  If using multiple trays, you could spread the batter and keep the trays in the oven one by one. If using the same pan for the next set of tuiles, make sure the pan is cool before you spread the batter.

Bake for 10 to 11 minutes. The time depends on the thickness of the cookies. Watch very carefully,  its tough to tell when they are baked and when they start burning because of the dark color! The edges will be ever so slightly darker says Alice, but it really is not easy to make this out. Rotate pans if using a large oven and multiple sheets. If the cookies are not baked thoroughly, they won't be completely crisp when they cool. A test batch must tell you the approximate baking time. I baked for about 11 minutes.

Remove the cookies sheets or pans from the oven and set them down. Keep your rolling pin / cup right beside the oven if you want to curve them or shape them into cups. You won't have time to turn, go to the table and then shape.You are supposed to slide a very thin metal spatula when the cookie is still hot and soft. Then shape it immediately into a curve or cigar and cool it on a rack. If the cookies harden before you shape, pop them back in the oven for a few seconds, they will soften, you can shape again. I normally let them cool and harden, then peel the foil from underneath the tuiles very gently taking care not to break the tuiles. After baking all of the cookies, I put one cookie at a time in the oven (the underside of the cookie facing up, so that when you pick up the cookie and shape it into a cone, you have the right side facing outward) on the sheet for 30-40 seconds till they became very soft and flexible. Then shaped them. They harden very very quickly as in a matter of 4-5 seconds, so its really important that you work very quickly.

With basic tuiles, coconut wafers and cocoa tuiles done (and loved much), you don't need to fear more tuiles appearing here...at least for some time!