Tales of a Frustrated Bilingual Baker

Tonight, I am flustered and frustrated over a seemingly easy recipe. 

Nutella Tart

A.K.A.

Tarte tiède au chocolat et au Nutella

I am the proud owner of two lovely choco-rrific books: Larousse du Chocolat and Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme by Dorie Greenspan. These books have lots of overlapping recipes... or so it seems.

My husband says my frustration is a little over the top, but I'm annoyed. 

The ingredient ratios are different. Not only that the "translation" of amounts is off. 

Example: according to Greenspan 3 1/2 ounces of butter = 7 tablespoons = 200 grams. I'm not buying it! A regular stick of butter is 8 TBS = 4 oz = approx. 113 g. 

la recette de Larousse du Chocolat

250 g de pâte sucrée (Sweet pastry dough)

150 g de Nutella 

150 g de chocolat à 55% de cacao (bittersweet chocolat)

150 g de beurre (butter)

1 œuf (egg)

2 jaunes d’œufs (egg yolks)

20 g de sucre en poudre (granulated sugar)

80 g noisette (hazelnuts)

The recipe of Chocolate Desserts

1 baked 8 3/4 in (22 cm) tart shell made from Sweet Tart dough

2/3 c. (200g) Nutella

4 3/4 oz (140 g.) bittersweet chocolate

7 TBSP (3.5 oz; 200 g.) unsalted butter

1 large egg

3 egg yolks

2 TBSP sugar

1 c (140 g.) hazelnuts

Oh but why should the differences stop there? They both say to melt the butter and chocolate separately. However, one asks you to whisk the sugar into the egg and then fold in the chocolate, then the butter. The other asks that you fold everything into the chocolate. YIKES! 

This is too much after a day of teaching little ones! 

I hope my tart comes out of the oven okay. Wish me luck! I mean I was the one brazen enough to make this for the first time for guests. LOL

Tarte aux Epinards et aux Oeufs / Spinach Egg Pie

My husband made dinner!! I was a little surprised that he chose to make this:

He chose a recipe from the January 2015 issue of Cuisine Actuelle. Yes, my friends, it looks strange, but it was actually quite tasty. It was cheesy and the golden, delicious, liquid egg yolk made it sing. We both agreed that this did turn out a little bland as is. If we make it again, I think a little onion or garlic added to the spinach would do the trick.  

Translated recipe:

Spinach Egg Pie

Serves 4, 30 min. prep time, 55 min. cook time.

1 refrigerated pie crust

250 g.(roughly 8 oz or 1/2 lb.)fresh, baby spinach*

4 eggs

50 g. of butter (about 1/2 stick)

30 cl. whole milk

125 g. (about 4 oz.) grated cheese**

2 tbsp. flour

salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oven to 210°C (~ 410°F). If your pie crust is the rolled kind, roll it out into your pie pan. Dock the dough with a fork several times and place it in the fridge.

Melt 30 g. of your butter in a sauce pan. Add in the flour and stir. Add in the milk, little by little stirring constantly until it thickens about 3 min. on low heat. Add salt and pepper.

Rinse your spinach and place them in a pan with a pinch of salt. Cook, covered about 3 min. or until wilted. Drain and squeeze out spinach. Give them a rough chop.

Place Spinach into the milk mixture. Mix in one beaten egg and the grated cheese. 

Pour this mixture into the prepared pie shell. Place it in the oven and cook for 20 min. Then, lower the oven temperature to 180°C (~350°F). Cook 15 minutes more. 

Remove the pie from the oven and top with the 3 remaining whole eggs. Return to the oven for about 7 min, or until the eggs reach the desired doneness. Salt and pepper the eggs to taste. 

*You can substitute 1 small pkg. of frozen spinach

**Pick a cheese you like. Usually in France, this would be Emmental. 

Crème Brûlée

Crème Brûlée

Ingredients:
1 qt. heavy cream
8 large egg yolks
1 cup (~6.5 oz.) white sugar
1 vanilla bean*

Preheat oven to 325°F. 

Split and scrape vanilla bean. Place vanilla bean, vanilla bean seeds, 1/2 c. sugar, and heavy cream in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Stir to incorporate. Scald, but do not boil. 

Meanwhile, whisk together remaining sugar and egg yolks. When the heavy cream mixture is almost at a boil, remove from heat and temper the yolks (add and quickly stir in a little of the hot cream at a time. Otherwise, you get scrambled eggs!) Until all your mixture is whisked together. If it won't fit into your bowl, pour tempered yolks into the pan and whisk together. 
*If you do not have a vanilla bean, substitute with vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract, but add them now, after the mixture has been removed from the heat.

If you are cooking ahead, you can stop here, cool and refrigerate the mixture up to 3 days before baking. 

Now, you are ready to finish your crème brûlée off in the oven. Place a tea towel on the bottom of a roasting pan or a 9x13 cake pan. Place ramekins on top of the towel. Carefully fill the ramekins with the custard mixture. Place any remaining mixture into the refrigerator. You can keep it for about 3 days. 

Next, you need to fill the pan with HOT water about half way up the side of your ramekins. THIS IS IMPORTANT! DO NOT GET ANY WATER INTO YOUR RAMEKINS. If you do, your beautiful custard will NEVER SET and all your work was for naught. :( 

I usually place the pan in the oven, then carefully ever so slowly add hot water to the roasting pan. Then gently slide it into the oven. The more shallow ramekins make this harder. 

Bake until set, but still jiggly. This takes about 20 min, but can be more or less depending on the ramekin size.

Refrigerate a minimum of 2 hours. Nothing says nasty like a hot crème brûlée. Just before serving, dust the top with some sugar and "brûlée" with a torch. FOLLOW SAFETY PROCEDURES! If you don't know how to do this, Alton Brown has a video. 

Cherry Creme Fraiche Ice Cream

So, lucky for those of you who have an ice cream machine, I'm going to translate this recipe for you!

You need:
300 g Cherries (about 2/3 of a pound)
250 g Sugar (roughly 1.5 c.)*
25 cL (1 c.)water
25 cl (1 c.) whole milk
25 cL (1 c) Creme Fraiche*
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Wash and dry your cherries. Remove the pits. In a sauce pan, combine water and 1 c. sugar. Bring to a boil. Add cherries. simmer for 10 min. Allow to cool. Remove half (or more) of the juice, blend partially with blender or stick blender. Leave some chunks for texture.
Combine milk, creme fraiche, vanillla and the rest of the sugar. Put this mixture in your ice cream freezer. When it is almost all the way frozen add your cherry mixture.
If you are impatient like me, and dump it in too early you get pink ice cream. Still yummy....
Enjoy!


*notes:
Sugar: I found this a little sweet. You may want to cut back the sugar a bit depending on the sweetness of your cherries.


Creme Fraiche: You could buy it, but it's easy to make it yourself: 1 part buttermilk to 2 parts heavy cream. Let sit covered at room temp for 24 hrs. in a sterilized jar then refrigerate. :) There I saved you 5 bucks.

UPDATE 7/23/2019: I have since discovered you can get a better produce with much less buttermilk. I use a pint of heavy cream + 3 tbsp buttermilk. Over night on the counter, then 24 hrs in the fridge. Thanks to Chef John!

about 1 pint (2 c.) of pitted cherries

Simmer cherries in syrup about 10 min.

Drain off some of the syrup & blend cherries. Leave chunky. This time, I placed this in the fridge to chill. Then, I made the ice cream.  I thought this would help keep the ice cream white with a pink swirl. Now, I think the only way to keep it from going all pink would be to alternate layers of ice cream and cherry mixture into a freezer container.

It's almost ready! It took about 20 min. to get to this stage in my ice cream freezer.

Génoise - a great basic homemade cake

Here I offer a translation of 750g.com Recette de Génoise.

Genoise

Génoise is a great base cake that you can use with many variations. It’s not as moist as a box cake, so don’t think you will get a cake like that or you will be disappointed. What I love about génoise is that is is a sturdy cake for decorating, and the cakes dryness is a perfect receptacle for a syrup of any flavor you choose. It's a base for a fraisier.

For a basic génoise you will need:

4 eggs
125 g. (4.4 oz.) sugar
125 g. (4.4 oz.) all-purpose flour
30 g. (1 oz.) melted butter, slightly cooled
*A cake pan that has been buttered and floured (I also place a piece of parchment paper cut to fit the pan, in the bottom.)

Preheat oven to 170°C (338°F precisely but we will go with a regular 350°F).  It’s important to have your oven ready because egg foam waits for no one! And this, my dear, is an egg foam cake. So have your pan ready and your oven ready before you proceed.  Have your ingredients measured out, too.

In the bowl of your stand mixer beat the eggs and the sugar to ribbon stage using the whisk attachment. (Yes, you can do this by hand or with a hand mixer, but it takes a long time.) Ribbon stage, means it falls onto itself and then forms a "ribbon". It will be much paler in color than when you started. 

Then, gently fold in your flour a little bit at a time. Then, fold in butter. You only want to fold until all the flour is moistened.

Gently scoop the mixture into your prepared cake pan and delicately smooth out the top. 

You want it to be even in the pan. Work quickly but gently repeat after me “Egg foam waits for no one.”

Carefully place the pan in the hot oven.  If you used an 8 in” round pan it may take up to 30 minutes. If you used a half sheet pan, it may only be 7 to 10 min. When it’s done it will be golden brown and you can do the good old toothpick check for doneness.

Remove from pan about 5 to 10 min. from removing it from the oven.

Okay... Now you are ready for the syruP:

Stir together 1 cup sugar and ½ cup water.  Only stir until sugar is dissolved then bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Add flavoring you desire. It may be ½ tsp. almond extract, 1 tsp. of vanilla bean paste, or a tablespoon of rum. Taste it… add more if you want a stronger flavor. With a pastry brush, apply this to the cooled cake. You can add as much or as little as you want. Allow it to soak in before you apply any frosting.  Enjoy!

*What size cake pan? It’s up to you. I’ve made it as an 8 in. round and as a half sheet cake. Obviously you will have to adjust cooking times. The thinner the batter is in the pan, the less cooking time that is required. 

Next: http://www.750g.com/recettes_fraisier.htm

Fraisier -- Strawberry Shortcake French Style

This was Jef's birthday cake:

You can watch a fabulous video on assembling it here. This was my take on putting it together. I didn't have everything they had in the video. (No time to make pistachio paste, for instance.) Also the recipe wasn't really written out, you have to just follow the video and guess on some parts. So, I made it (twice), and this is what worked for me:

You need:

One recipe génoise + syrup (I added rum and almond extract to mine)

A double recipe of crème pâtissier with gelatin added

Butter

7 oz. marzipan

a few tablespoons of strawberry jam/perserves

1 lb. + strawberries

Fondant très fondant au chocolat et sa crème à la vanille

A.K.A. really freaking good chocolate cake with crème anglaise!

Stats:
Source: adapted from Cuisine Actuelle, Septembre 2012 (n. 261)
Serves : 6 (although I would argue more… it’s very rich)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 60 min.
Ready to eat in: Several Hours if you prefer it chilled.

You will need:

For the cake:
250 g. dark chocolate (65% recommended)
250 g. softened butter + 20 g. butter for the pan
3 eggs
150 g. sugar
75 g. corn starch

For the Crème Anglaise:
100 g. sugar
50 cl. milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
6 egg yolks

Directions:
1. Heat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Cut out a parchment paper circle to fit in the bottom of a 9 in. (23 cm.) cake pan. Butter the pan using the 20 g. of butter. Place the parchment in the bottom of the pan and butter it too.  

2. Place the buttered pan into a larger pan. (Your cake will bake in a bain marie, a.k.a water bath. So, you may want to heat up some water now, too.

3. Break the chocolate up into small pieces and melt with the butter either in a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir to combine.

4.    Whip the eggs and sugar together until light in color. Fold in the corn starch. Then the chocolate/butter mixture.

5. Pour the batter into the pan. Place in the oven on the middle rack. Gently pour hot water into the outer, larger pan until the depth is half that of the cake pan.

6. Bake 1 hour. Let cool completely before turning out.

7. Make your crème anglaise: (Really you could do this while your cake is baking. I prefer to eat it chilled.)

If you use a vanilla bean: Place the milk in a sauce pan and heat almost to boiling. Then add in your cut and scraped vanilla bean. Let it steep for a minute or two. Remove the vanilla bean before serving.

If you do not use vanilla bean, just heat your milk to warm. You can add your vanilla extract at the end before serving.

8. Combine egg yolks and sugar in a heat proof bowl. Temper your eggs by whisking in a bit of the hot milk at a time. Place this over a pan of boiling water and stir continuously. You want to cook it until it coats the back of a spoon.

If you need a quick tutorial on the steps, watch this video. Yeah, I know it’s in French. Yeah, I also know he did not temper his eggs or use a double boiler to cook it. These are insurance against burning and cooked eggs. But hey, you're grown, do what you want.

 http://www.atelierdeschefs.fr/fr/techniques-de-cuisine/150-realiser-une-creme-anglaise.php

Cool your crème anglaise before you serve it for a better taste. (my personal opinion).

USA v. France

No, it’s not sports. It’s my version of what I missed and didn’t miss while abroad. I’ll try to make my rambling short & sweet (sarcastic comments included!).

What I missed:

1.  Public restrooms: If you’re going out and about in town, you better have change because they do have public pay toilettes, but the majority of stores don’t have one. Some places, like Carcassone, have public toilets, but no T.P.

2.    Toilet seats: If you are going on a road trip and you stop at an “Aire” (The US equivalent would be a truck stop), Ladies, get ready to squat. No toilet seats! Or even better you can use the “toilette turque.” Go ahead and Google it….

3.    Decent TP…. Most homes I visited had decent toilet paper, but the hotel I was in had really terrible paper….

4.    Air Conditioning or Refrigerated Air… I’m a Texan. I expect when it’s 95°F that the inside of a building should be 72… just saying…. Our hotel had A/C but it was not like it’s American equivalent.

5.    Midol…I forgot to pack mine. Went to the Pharmacy and tried to explain what I was lookin   g for and they tried to give me ibuprofen. So not the same thing.

6.    Stores that were open after 8pm…. Or on Sunday… or on Monday.

7.  Beef Jerky

8.    Corn Nuts…I didn’t eat any corn this time, but if I had, I would have added decent corn. The corn in the US is much more flavorful & sweet than what’s available in France.

9.    Giant cups of coffee. I did run across a Starbucks, but I was unwilling to part with 5€ for a drink. That’s insane.

10. Iced Tea… Although, they do have Nestea flavored iced tea in a can… Not exactly the same… but a peach tea will do in a pinch. I used to miss big cups of ice, but I guess I’m getting used to being asked if I want “Un ou deux glaçons?” (1 or 2 ice cubes).

11.  My iPhone… I don’t have service in France. Thank you, Verizon. But I was able to link in on the Wi-Fi from my hotel. Which I could add that I miss having multiple free, public Wi-Fi hotspots to choose from.

What I appreciated:

1.     The freshness of food.

2.    That when I walk into a store, I’m greeted by someone who works there.

3.    Markets

4.    The kindness of my new family.

5. Well-behaved children, and parents who weren't afraid to discipline when needed.

What I didn’t Miss:

1.     Fake cheese… you know what I’m talking about that plastic-like mass of orange goo that is passed off as “cheddar sauce”. We had a layover in DC and I ordered an egg & cheese breakfast sandwich. Took a big bite and “WELCOME TO AMERICA”… I got a mouthful of nasty.

2.    Fake coffee creamer. (See a pattern here?)… our plane from DC to Texas was with Delta. Asked for a coffee (Because I had missed it so…) and I was given “dairy fresh” brand non-dairy creamer… wtff? I’m going to blame jetlag on my forgetfulness to ask if the cheese and creamer were real….In France, I didn’t have to ask.

3.    My computer… I left it at home! It was nice to be partially unplugged for a while.

4.    Work… duh!

OK looking forward to your comments and questions. If you don’t have a blogger account, you can leave me comments on my facebook link to this post.

<3

Carambarmisù

From the Mai 2012 issue of Cuisine Actuelle: Carambarmisù
A made-up contraction of the words Tiramisu and Carambar

Carambar is a caramel candy from France with jokes on the inside like Laffy Taffy. They are for kids and are generally cheesy.

  My favorite (that I know would never make it on the inside of a Laffy Taffy for American kids to giggle over):

“Qu’est-ce qu’on donne à un elephant qui a la diarrhea?”
(“What do you give to an elephant with diarrhea?”)

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“Réponse: Beaucoup d’espace !”
(“Answer: Lots of Space!!!”)

Haahahahahahahahaaa

Ok, that's enough funny business! Back to the recipe! 

This is a change from the traditional tiramisu. Usually you take lady fingers, dip them in an espresso syrup, layer the custard and cookies and top with a dusting of cocoa.

Carambarmisu lets you chose the cookie you use and you drizzle them with the caramel syrup you make using the candy.

The recipe reads:

Beat 2 egg yolks and 50g of sugar. Incorporate 150g marscarpone, 1 tsp. rum, 2 egg whites beaten to stiff peaks. Melt 5 Carambar in 20 cl of cream. Alternate layers of cream, crushed cookies of choice, and the caramel in glasses. Serve chilled.

Yes,  a-straight-and-to-the-point, I-hope-you-know-what-you-are-doing recipe. Typical of the French. They expect that everyone knows what he/she is doing in the kitchen. Now, let's do an American version that clears it up a bit. Oh, and by the way, this recipe does contain raw eggs (That's traditional! Blame the Italians...). Don't eat it if you are not supposed to! ( i.e. you have a compromised immune system, you are very young, elderly, or pregnant) Make sure your eggs are fresh, and you shouldn't have any problems.

You will need:

2 eggs, separated

50 g (about 1/4 c.) sugar

150 g (about 5 ounces) mascarpone*

1 tsp. rum

About 50 g (about 1.5 oz.) of caramel candy

20 cl. (about 7 fl. oz) or cream (heavy cream or half & half)*

Step 1:

Separate your eggs while cold. Let come to room temperature.

Melt your caramel candies in the cream over low heat. Let cool slightly.

Step 2: 

Whisk together egg yolks, most of the sugar, the mascarpone, and the rum. 

+ I actually used 2 tsp of rum because I thought it needed it... then, I was bad and added in a splash of Kahlua, too. I used a hand held mixer to do all my whisking. 

Step 3:

Whip egg whites and remaining sugar to stiff peaks. Fold the whites into the yolk mixture.

+ Apparently, I don't like to follow directions, but I have a good reason. Since it is easy to over-whip egg whites, I reserved some sugar to whip along with it. I also threw in a small pinch of Cream of tartar. Another protection for the proteins in your egg whites. 

Step 4:

The Magazine suggests using individual glasses for serving, I didn't feel like it, so I made one big one. You decide on your container(s). I used an 8x8 square. It also doesn't tell you what cookies to use or how much. All it says is crushed.... Hmmm.... Room for creativity! This is caramel flavored so it could go with so many things.


+I wasn't sure what to chose, so I went for the classic: The Lady Finger. Well, I also didn't crumble the cookies. Why would I, they fit perfectly into my dish? I was also naughty and deviated from the recipe again and used up some left over coffee by mixing it with sugar and dipping the lady fingers in it as with the traditional recipe.... I liked it, but coffee is a strong flavor and it kind of overpowered the Carambar, so I am not sure that I recommend doing that. 


Step 5: Final step! Assembly! Place a layer of your cookies in the dish, top with the caramel cream you made, top that with some of the custard (egg mixture), repeat. You may chose to dust the top with cocoa... or not....You decide. Place in the refrigerator to chill thoroughly.... 

Voilà! You have Carambarmisu!

*Notes:

Mascarpone is a soft Italian cheese similar to cream cheese. It usually comes in an 8 ounce tub. In our grocery stores, it is over by the fancy cheeses like brie... not over by the cream cheese and cheddar ;)

The recipe says Liquid Cream... I thought immediately of heavy cream, but I didn't have quite enough on hand so I substituted the rest with half & half.


More info on Carambar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carambar