Posts tagged cake
The sweet taste of childhood – Pain d’épices or Spicy bread
Aug 26th
Douce sensation d’enfance – Pain d’épices
I decided out of the blue one day to make pain d’épices…I think last time I had one slice I must have been 10 years old. What is pain d’épices? Well it’s another one of those traditional French breads or cake that is popular in Alsace region. It’s literally translated into “spice bread”, simply because it has many spices. It could be an distant ancestor of the Ginger bread, but the French one has no ginger so, I would not even try to compare it to ginger bread.
Pain d’épices is made with honey and rye flour, and no sugar even though some recipes include brown sugar. Of course some recipes vary slightly from one to another; this version has no butter nor oil, so no fat and no eggs. Its consistency is very similar to the one I am used to eating in France…chewy, dense and very flavorful.
The origin of pain d’épices is traced back to ancient times (as far as the Egyptians) and was brought to Europe from China by the Crusades. They brought back the recipe and the spices, It was then spread over Europe during the middle ages, and the first Pain d’Epices called Lebkuchen was found in Germany in 1296. But it’s in Reims in XVII century that the Masters of Pain d’épiciers (Maîtres de pain d’épiciers) were officially recognized by King Henri IV as a specialty company. Reims remained one historical city linked to this bread. Nowadays there are two different kinds of Pain d’épices, the one from Reims made with mainly rye flour and the one from Dijon made with mainly wheat flour. Think that that we have a Museum on Pain d’épices in Alsace, called Musée du Pain d’épice et de l’art populaire Alsacien so that’s a serious deal!
In this recipe I use already packaged spices “épices pour pain d’épices” I bought during my last trip to France, but you can use loose ones, so I will give you the quantities for regular loose spices.
Pain d’épices can be served with savory dishes such as foie gras, or salmon…it can be eaten as is with a cup of hot chocolate, or as a toast with butter and jam, even prepared as a French toast, or combined with fruits in verrines (this will be on my next post). So as you can see its use is quite wide.
I was thinking that for someone with a savory tooth like mine, I did quite a good job with the sweets lately. The beauty of it is that I always share half of my sweet concoctions with my neighbor…otherwise I would break the poor scale. Unfortunately I am not among the lucky ones who can eat anything and remain thin…I have to work at it!! Oh well, maybe in my next life!
Ingredients for one loaf
- 4.4 oz (or 125 g) wholewheat flour
- 4.4 oz (or 125 g) rye flour (you can also use 250 g rye only)
- 7 oz (or 200 g) honey
- 1.7 oz (or 50 g) agave nectar
- 6.7 fl oz (or 200 ml) milk
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp star anise powder
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
- 1/4 tsp clove powder
- 1 tsp orange peel powder (see picture above)
Preparation
In a mixing bowl combine honey, agave nectar and lukewarm milk. Mix well to dissolve the honey. Add flours gradually whisking well to obtain a smooth and homogenous mixture. Add the rest of the ingredients. Place in a bread pan previously buttered and floured to prevent from sticking. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 365-370F for about one hour. Let it cool and serve warm or cold.
Nancy’s flavor – Wet bergamot cake
Feb 16th
Le parfum de Nancy – Gâteau mouillé à la begamote
This is the second cake I made with bergamot, simply because they’re hard to find. When I come back from Nancy (my hometown), I arrive in San Francisco with a head and mouth full of local flavors, and what most traditional than bergamot flavor? Les bonbons à la bergamote (bergamot candies) are a specialty from Nancy, and bergamot essence, oils, etc…are wildly use locally in baking. I was lucky enough to find in the store this bergamot, an amazing citrus that looks like a round lemon, but with an orange shape. Bergamot is supposedly the marriage of a bitter orange (orange amère) and a lime but it’s too bitter to eat like you would eat an orange, so it’s mainly used to make jams or as an aromatic scent in pastries, cakes and desserts.
What I like most about this cake is it’s moistness. I used the base of a recipe I found on a magazine called “Côté Sud/Ouest/Est/Paris” where instead of bergamot, lemon and lemoncino were the main character in this cake. You can use any citrus you like, and I am sure it would taste wonderful with oranges or even meyer lemons. Now…why do we call this “wet”? Simply because when the cake is baked and out of the oven, we pour extra bergamot juice on top to add moisture and of course flavor. If you are an Earl Grey fan, you will soon become a fan of this cake too.
Ingredients for 6 people
- 2 large bergamots
- 4.23 oz (or 120 g) flour
- 4.4 oz (or 125 g) unsalted butter
- 4.23 oz (or 120 g) granulated sugar
- 3.52 oz (or 100 g) powdered sugar
- 12 whole almonds, unsalted
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
Preparation
Wash bergamots under running water and zest the peel using a small zester. Squeeze the juice. Leave butter at room temperature and let it soften. In a mixing container, mix butter, add sugar and eggs. Continue beating until the mixture becomes soft and creamy. Add flour, half of the bergamot juice and baking powder. The batter needs to be smooth. Add 2/3 of the zests.
Butter a square mold and spread batter evenly. Place almonds on top, regularly and evenly, in order that when you’ll cut squares, each square will have an almond in the middle.
Cook in a pre-heated oven at 365F for about 35 minutes. If the cake browns too fast, just place some aluminium foil on top.
In the meantime, prepare the icing or the juice mixture. Mix sugar with the rest of the bergamot juice.
When the cake is cooked, remove from oven, and pour 2/3 of the bergamot juice mixture. Add the remaining zests to the juice and pour on top of the cake when the cake gets cold.
Cut in small squares with an almond on top.
To make traditions live – Chocolate cake from Metz
Feb 23rd
Pour faire vivre les traditions – Gâteau au chocolat de Metz
I doubt that anyone living in the US knows the city of Metz (pronounced Mess, even the majority of French people pronounce the “T” which is incorrect)…I know it because I went to school there and it’s located 50 km from Nancy where I grew up, and very close to the German border.
Basically, Metz and Nancy are rivals in almost everything, from their soccer team, to their opera house, to their architecture, their “green city” title, etc…They’re 50 kilometers apart and yet very different architecturally, each city is very unique, and has a different feel to it. The funny thing is that they hate each other, and Messins (people from Metz) and Nancéiens (people from Nancy) can argument that their city is much better than the other one with a violent passion.
In my opinion and without being biased, Nancy is brighter with its Art Nouveau, and École de Nancy style, Stanislas Square, Vielle ville (old town) etc…Now Metz has pretty architecture as well, very massive but more on the Germanic style, heavier, but very quaint and chic. One thing I love about Metz is their delicious specialty desserts, and this one is an example. Of course, growing up in Nancy I tend to defend my city. Is it wrong? Probably because Metz is somehow linked to memories about the time I was in business school which I hated, so I would on purpose miss the train in the morning, to go back home.
One day, I was researching on the internet the life our King Stanislas to somehow refresh my memory, and almost by miracle I found this wonderful blog called “Du Miel et Du Sel” a poetic cuisine and recipe blog, beautifully written by a talented food journalist and cookbook writer, Marie-Claire Frédéric. She also publishes recipes on Cuisine Actuelle magazines that are sold in the US as well. For the Francophone, her blog is a pure delight to read and her recipes simple, elegant or traditional but always incredibly delicious.
I wanted to feature this dessert that somehow intrigued me, not because it came from Metz, but because it looked so fluffy despite the absence of baking powder. Besides this is an ancient cake with no butter or oil, the fat comes from the cream so you won’t get a greasy heavy cake like our modern ones. This one is incredibly moist, so light and fluffy, you need to try it to believe it. I was doubtful first, but will make this cake again.
I have a friend from Germany coming for dinner tonight, so this gâteau au chocolat is perfect and might remind her of home too!
Merci Marie-Claire, le gâteau etait succulent!
Ingredients for 6-8 people
- 4.40 oz (or 125 g) dark chocolate, cut in small pieces or grated
- 4 eggs
- 5.20 oz (or 150 g) sugar
- 4.40 oz (or 125 g) flour
- 7.05 oz (or 200 g) crème fraîche (no heavy cream, it’s too liquid)
- powdered sugar for decoration
Preparation
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar for over 5 minutes until they triple volume. They need to become white and fluffy (like a Génoise technique).
Grate chocolate, I chopped finely chocolate chips so they will incorporate to the dough very well.
Add very carefully chocolate to the egg/sugar mixture, fold flour carefuly, then proceed with cream. You want to keep the mixture fluffy and light.
Butter a non-stick deep dish pan. Pour mixture and cook for about 40 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 370F.
Let it cool, remove from pan and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
My first American cake – Carrot and walnut cake with cardamom
Sep 26th
Mon premier gâteau americain – Gâteau aux carottes, noix et cardamome
This is an odd and very bright picture of the cake but I have so much light under my window with direct sun light to the table, that could not manage to shoot with a more subtle lighting. The picture is incredibly bright, you might want to put on your sun glasses if you look at the picture for too long, you don’t want to get permanent vision damage!! Sorry about the lighting.
I have never had carrot cake before I moved to the US, and at the beginning I found that weird. I thought Americans and their crazy ideas…using carrots in a dessert! I was horrified…So it took me a few years before I actually attempted to taste it.
I have to admit that coming to America, allowed me to be more open to new things. Europeans in general are a little more conservative (especially the French and Italians who have a strong gastronomy history) in terms of cuisine and tend to be more rigid about how things should be done. That’s why I really love Alain Ducasse, he is an amazing chef, he knows how to keep the traditions but in such an inventive and creative way that it all blends beautifully together. He does not combine too many overpowering ingredients in one dish, and focuses on one primary flavor enhanced with less strong ingredients. I think that too many complex flavors in one dish, mess it up, because you don’t know what you eat anymore and it gets confusing for your palate.
I do love traditions and traditional cuisine, that’s how I grew up, (but that’s why I moved in a certain way because the weight of traditions was somehow suffocating me as a young adult and I wanted some freedom to be myself). I also do enjoy new ideas and flavors in the kitchen. I think you can use the knowledge of traditional cuisine to develop new ideas and combinations. I certainly don’t want to get into politics but if you look at French politicians and presidents before the current president and unpopular Sarkozy, they really were like Museum pieces. The same old dinosaurs with the same old speeches who have been around for ages, and I think that’s scary. (Berlusconi is a different story that I will not discuss here). The French do not like changes and this is ingrained in their culture and I think Italians either. If I look at my family in Italy, they would not eat anything “non Italian” and even for Italian food, it needs to be prepared in a particular way. My Aunt would never use basil with a meat based sauce for pasta, she only uses basil on tomato sauce. My mother never ever uses lamb in her pasta sauce, whereas in Abruzzo they do, etc…so to each its own.
I know that the original carrot cake does contain cinnamon, and I substituted it with cardamom to get a different twist, and the cardamom flavor was quite subtle, you might want to add more if you like. If you like cinnamon, you can use it too. The cake turned out very moist, with such a beautiful deep orange. Now for the “purists” who want to keep their carrot cake traditional, they might think that this is too funky. It might be funky but it’s delicious nonetheless.
Ingredients for 6 people
- 2 eggs
- 300 g carrots (about 3 medium)
- 100 g white flour
- 100 g wholewheat flour
- 100 g butter, melted
- 4 tbs plain yogurt
- 70 g granulated sugar
- 40 g light brown sugar
- 10 g palm sugar
- 2 tbs almond meal
- 70 g walnuts, chopped
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- one pinch baking soda
Preparation
Beat the eggs with the different kinds of sugars until the mixture double its volume and turns white. Add yogurt, butter and vanilla extract and mix carefully. Add both flours and almond meal. Add baking powder and baking soda, then add cardamom and mix some more. Incorporate carefully carrots and walnuts to the mixture.
Bake in a non-stick pan for about 45 min at 370F.
A thought for my best friend – Cake of the crumb fairy for Chantal
Sep 18th
Pensée pour ma meilleure amie – Gâteau de la fée aux miettes pour Chantal
I woke up this morning with a text message from my best friend in France, Chantal. Her message was “Impossible de t’appeler pour l’instant – Pense a toi – Ta Bichette qui t’aime” literally translated by “Cannot call you right now – Think of you – Your bichette who loves you”. I think I am giving quite a lot of private info here (I tend to be somehow reserved to talk about that kind of stuff) but I really miss her, especially all the girlfriend stuff we use to do while in France. So I figured I would make something that reminds me of her and just for her. She never checks out my blog because she does not understand English even though she is a great cook and loves to eat. Whenever I go home, we always keep a night out to try a new restaurant. Our two last picks were bad ones, so it ended up as a laughing party. The chef came out of the kitchen to talk to the guests and was all dirty, looked like he had a mud fight with a cow, beside the food was lukewarm borderline cold but still served with a bell-shaped cover “cloche” (usually to keep the heat). That was kind of the joke of the evening. I think it was the first time I wrote a bad review, especially for a restaurant that calls itself a “restaurant gastronomique”.
Chantal and I met when we were 15 and in high school together. We had the worst laughing “Crisis” in German class, our teacher was just very uptight, not friendly and had no sense of humor…and Chantal and I were always kicked out of the class due to our non-stop laughing fits (crises de fou rire). She kicked us out once because my shell earrings were making noise when I would move my head. How silly is that? I think some teacher really lack pedagogy and should be more friendly, that would motivate kids to learn. Besides, when not very appealing and pleasant to look at, a double dose of pedagogy is a MUST.
Chantal offered me last December a wonderful dessert book (she knows I am not a pastry chef) “Desserts et Délices de Lorraine” “Desserts and Delights from Lorraine”, It’s a very unusual book, most of the recipes don’t have quantities, they say “same amount of this, or double the amount of that”. The recipes are traditional, peasant and very very ancient rustic recipes from Lorraine dating from before 1700 when we still had a king (not that I care). No pictures, just cute cartoons. she knows I love unusual books and she could not have found a better one. I have a friend Ute from Germany coming for dinner and since Lorraine is bordering Germany, that will make her feel somehow home, well thinking about it, I hope not since she hates Germany very much, and home is not the place she wants to be.
This dessert has a brioche taste, since the ingredients are similar to a brioche and made with compressed yeast, but the twist is that there are poached plums in it (I had to substitute poached plums to preserved mirabelles, local Lorraine plums since I had none) and the cake is topped with a crumbly mixture. So technically it’s not really a brioche. I love it, and guess what? It is easy and on ne peut pas le rater (you cannot spoil this cake). So I will certainly make this again.
I used compressed yeast instead of the granulated one, never saw that before I came to the US. In France or Italy we all use the compressed yeast (levure de boulanger or levure de bière) which is fresh yeast, we call it “Baker’s yeast” or “Beer yeast”, because bakers (boulangers) and beer brewers (brasseurs) use it in either bread making or brewing. I love its soft texture, its smell and you’ll get top results for bread making or other types of dough. If you can’t find this yeast, I would use the dry kind.
Also the original recipe calls for 1 tsp cinnamon, but considering my relationship with cinnamon, I used vanilla powder instead. I’m sure cinnamon lovers will enjoy that addition.
Ingredients for 6-8
For the cake
- 8.8 oz (or 250 g) white flour
- 1 egg
- 0.88 oz (or 25 g) granulated sugar
- 2.26 oz (or 70 g) melted butter
- 2.36 fl oz (or 70 ml) milk
- 0.5 oz (or 15 g) compressed yeast or 1 dose of dry yeast
- poached fruits such as plums, peaches, etc…
- vanilla extract
For the crumbs
- 1.76 oz (or 50 g) flour
- 0.88 oz (or 25 g) almond meal
- 0.88 oz (or 25 g) granulated sugar
- 1 oz (or 30 g) soft butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla powder or cinnamon
Preparation
Dissolve yeast in a little milk. In a mixing bowl, mix flour, egg, sugar, milk, melted butter, vanilla and yeast. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it turns into a nie a smooth consistency. Place in a container, cover with a towel, and let it rise in a warm area for about 30 minutes.
Bring a 2 cups of water to a boil with 2 tbs honey and add diced plums (1 1/2 inch pieces) for about 3 minutes. Drain.
In the meantime, mix all the crumb mixture together with your hands. Don’t make thick crumb like you would for a crumble, but thin instead.
Work the dough again, removing all the fermentation. Butter a deep dish pan, and spread dough with your hands in it. Add plums to the dough, making sure to press them down into dough and not leaving them on the surface. Add crumb mixture and let the cake rise again for an additional 30 minutes.
Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375f for 30 min.
Let it cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve lukewarm.
Simply orange – Orange cake with poppy seeds, blossom orange water and candied oranges
Sep 8th
Orange tout simplement – Gâteau à l’orange aux graines de pavot, oranges confites et eau de fleur d’oranger
Some days you just feel like a particular item no matter what…after a migraine from hell I had yesterday (seriously the worse migraine I had in my whole life), I was thinking to go to the Emergency room so that I could function. It’s over now but I still feel dizzy from yesterday’s nightmare, I am still in the mood for making/baking whatever …”ing” something.
I have no idea why but I woke up with an orange craving, a migraine along with a pregnant woman symptoms is not really the best scenario. Anyway, I was supposed to go to a wedding reception and since I am still struggling with the leftover migraine of yesterday, I decided to stay home and rest and play with oranges.
My mom makes this cake but instead of poppy seeds she uses chocolate chips, and it’s really a splendid cake, the chocolate and the orange are a perfect match. Since I had no chocolate chips, and a huge container of poppy seeds, I thought that would work as well…and it did. The cake ended up very light and fluffy. Actually, I was quite happy the way it turned out, and about my humble baking abilities, since I did not put too much thought into it, and that I am not a sweet tooth type of a person, besides everyone who ate it, loved it. I guess sometimes, the public is your best judge.
I am trying to figure out if I should measure in metric system then convert into imperial or vice versa. I really hate the imperial system of ounces and pounds. I still cannot figure it out and I think never will. So for this cake, I used the cups and converted into grams but I think it’s not really accurate in metrics. My scale just died so I used my cup measurer and not certain it’s that accurate, but the cake turned out great. My next purchase will be a new scale…and that will be today.
Ingredients for 6-8 people
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 (64 g) cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 (or 40 g) cup brown sugar
- 1 cup (or about 130 g) white flour
- 1/3 (or 40 g) cup almond meal
- 2 tbs poppy seeds
- 3 tbs heavy cream
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- Zest and juice of 1 orange
- 1 whole orange
- 2 tbs honey
- 1 1/2 tbs orange blossom water
- 1 tsp orange peel powder (optional)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Preparation
In a container mix eggs and sugars, add heavy cream and oil. Mix well. Add orange juice, orange zest, orange peel powder and orange blossom water. Add almond meal, flour and poppy seeds. Mix to obtain a nice and smooth batter. Add baking soda and baking powder. Mix again. Bake in a non-stick pan in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 30-40 minutes.
For the candied orange, slice an orange crosswise in thin slices. Bring water to a boil, and add orange slices for 3 minutes. Drain them. In a non stick pan add 2 tbs honey and cook orange slices in honey for a few minutes. Then remove and place in a 375F oven until they’re become dry, about 30 minutes.
Sprinkle cake with powdered sugar and place candied oranges on top.
A small je ne sais quoi – Ricotta cake with honey, raisins, cranberries, candied orange, and spices
Aug 15th
Un petit goût de pain d’épices qui me plait bien – Gâteau de ricotta au miel, raisins secs, oranges confites et épices
This has been something that arrived out of the blue after a crazy wedding weekend…ricotta is an ingredient I like to put everywhere, and I love it particularly in desserts.
On my last trip to France, I bought a pain d’épices spices mix. I have wanted to make pain d’épices for a long time, it literally translates to “spiced bread” and is a wonderful and spicy cake from Alsace, my neighboring region. The base of the cake is honey and lots of spices, it has a dark brownish color, and is quite sweet. Kids love it. Even though you can find many variations to the cake, the city of Reims has its own, the city of Dijon as well. In Alsace you can find a Pain d’épices Museum that retraces the history of that cake with all the tools developed for its fabrication.
I would certainly not call this cake a pain d’épices, but it does have a few important ingredients that pain d’épice has such as the spices and the honey, so there is an after taste of pain d’épices. The spice mix I used is composed of star anise, cinnamon, cardamom and clove. Since I don’t like cinnamon that much, I did not add too much, but I know that Americans are very fond of that spice, so whoever likes it can add more if desired. For those who won’t have the spice mix available, I would just use the loose spices powder.
The ricotta made this cake very moist and soft and the spices are not overpowering, so it turned out really well. To be enjoyed with a nice hot cup of tea a bowl of fresh fruits or whatever you feel like having.
I added Mirabelle liquor which is something I brought from France, my dad makes it with our mirabelle plums he grows in his garden. You can find it I think in some specialty liquor store in the US. You can use other fruity liquor as well, such as calvados, Grand Marnier, etc…
Ingredients for 6
- 3 eggs
- 4 tbs honey
- 6 tbs light brown sugar
- 1 cup ricotta
- 1 cup white flour
- 1/3 cup quinoa flour
- 5 tbs vegetable oil
- 1 tbs dried cranberries
- 3 tbs golden raisins
- 2 tbs candied orange zests
- 2 tsp pain d’épices spices mix or (1/2 tps cinamon, 1/2 tsp cardamom, 1/2 tsp clove, 1/2 tsp star anise powder)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- zest of half a lemon
- 1 tbs herbal liquor (I used Mirabelle, a liquor made out of plums)
- Powdered sugar to sprinkle on top
Preparation
In a mixing bowl, mix eggs, sugar, honey then add ricotta. Add oil. Mix well. Add liquor. Add flour and baking powder and baking soda. Mix well. Add spices, lemon zest, and dried fruits. Mix well to get a smooth consistency.
Bake in a non-stick deep dish, in a 375F pre-heated oven for about 45 minutes, check after 30 min. to see how the cakes comes along, and keep cooking or until the cake is cooked all the way through.
