This is a classic case of denial. For two minutes it smelled like caramel. Then it changed. I ignored my olfactory senses and plowed ahead. Put it in a nice mason jar. Put it in the fridge. Ate a spoonful later. Which tasted about as good as what you’d imagine scorched caramel to taste like.
Ugh I am so pissed off. I had it. It was golden and heavenly. And then that happened.
Five minute caramel my ass.
Was going to try making a better filled chocolate tonight after work. My caramel would have time to firm up in the fridge. If I had caramel. What I have is the reeking results of scorched sugar and a smoke detector freaking out and terrified cats. That’s what I have.
After I wound up with very malleable chocolate buttercream, I wondered if I could make a homemade Jos Louis. For the uninitiated, a Jos Louis is a Canadian pastry sold by Vachon; two layers of red velvet cake, filled with vanilla cream, covered in a milk chocolate coating. I’m not sure why they are so good, but: they are.
(Spoiler alert: yes, I can make them.)
I didn’t realize until I was writing this up that they’re made with red velvet, so I made another batch of devil’s food cupcakes. Oh well.
Was careful to avoid overfilling this time. ^^
After slicing horizontally, a thin layer of chocolate buttercream was applied. A real Jos Louis uses vanilla creme but I had no plans for this icing and the consistency was right so I went for it.
I melted more Callebaut Belgian chocolate and dropped one in. Whee!
Used dipping prongs to turn it around and set it on parchment paper for an hour.
I was lazy and didn’t temper the chocolate, so just stuck them in the fridge. And voila!
Verdict:
Definitely good. Not exactly a Jos Louis but not bad. Until reading up on Vachon’s website, I didn’t actually realize it was red velvet with a milk chocolate coating, I just knew I liked them. Now I’m curious how close I can get to a real Jos Louis.
After I get over this chocolate fatigue I’ll try this again and see what I can do. But not for awhile, I’m so over chocolate for August.
Playlist:
Nelly – Shake Ya Tail Feathers
So these were delicious, if not quite as expected. I’ve made these before and went for the double chocolate experience this time. I skipped most of the pictures for this one since I’ve done it previously.
The cake and frosting recipe are included in Good Housekeeping Chocolate!: Favorite Recipes for Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Puddings & Other Sublime Desserts which is available on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca and one day I swear I’m going to test every frosting recipe inside.
As usual, go big or go home. I used Callebaut Belgian chocolate for this.
Time required: 2 hours
Yields: hopefully 24 cupcakes
Cost per cupcake: $2.16
Total cost if you have none of the ingredients: $42-$52 depending on the quality of vanilla extract and the chocolate
Special kitchen implements I used:
Cake ingredients:
Frosting ingredients:
Cake instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 177°C / 350°F. Place cupcake liners in trays.
2. In a medium bowl combine: flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl at low speed, beat: butter, brown sugar, and white sugar, until blended. Increase speed to high: beat 5 min until it’s light and fluffy.
4. Reduce speed to medium and add the eggs one at a time.
5. Beat in vanilla.
6. Add the dry mixture and buttermilk alternating like so: half of the flour, all the buttermilk, and the rest of the flour. After each addition beat until just combined. Scrape the sides a few times and make sure the batter is smooth.
7. Bake about 18 minutes for full-size cupcakes or 14-15 min for minis. A toothpick inserted should come out clean.
UGH WHY!! Not again. What the hell is this? This is what happens when you use a small muffin tin instead of the right size pan. Ugh.
8. Let cupcakes cool in pan one minute before removing from pan and placing on rack. Cool before frosting. Judiciously select which ones to use in final photo.
Frosting instructions:
1. On low heat melt the chopped chocolate, stirring occasionally, then set aside to cool 5 min.
2. Beat together until smooth: icing sugar, butter, milk, vanilla.
3. Add chocolate and keep beating until well-combined. Beat on High about 2 min.
Scrape down the bowl every 30 seconds.
It lightens up quite a bit.
Verdict:
I love this devil’s food recipe, it’s delicious. There are lots of ways to frost it and this is my first go at chocolate buttercream. It tasted great. I was surprised how soft this frosting was, it’s not runny, but it’s not suitable for piping. It is delicious however.
I’m not sure what happened to my cupcake pans, must have misplaced them in the move. This muffin tin is too shallow. I was conscious of not over-filling them and they still went kaboom.
I’ve been toying with the idea of reverse-engineering a Joe Louis for awhile and this frosting consistency has convinced me I can do it. Stay tuned.
Playlist:
Type O Negative – Love You to Death
Finally! I have been to Tony’s Bistro & Pâtisserie, and it’s totally worth a flight to Moncton. My sister has been raving about it for months. After sampling the goods I completely understand. Let this sink in for a minute.
Tony’s is located at 137 McLaughlin Drive, Moncton, NB, E1A 4P4. It opened in 2013 and the owner/chef is Tony Holden, who has cooked for Queen Elizabeth II and Emperor Akihito. He has almost 30 years of experience and trained under French pastry chefs. Tony’s is a licensed bistro, with a varied menu, and a pastry display cabinet that will halt you in your tracks.
We had just eaten dinner with my family, so we ordered dessert; carrot cake, raspberry cheesecake, crème brûlée, chocolate mousse, lemon tart, and coffee. Yes I know. Totally sinful. It all looked so good and I couldn’t decide on just one thing.
What was it like? Firstly, the presentation was gorgeous. Someone takes pride in their work.
And everything was delicious. The mousse (paradise in a cup) was so creamy! The meringue is covering the lemon tart, which was exquisite. And the crème brûlée was impressive!
How do they get the sugar to glass like that? When I make it, my sugar topping does not look like that! It was like stained glass and you could hear the snap when you broke it with the spoon. I was intrigued to see a tray of the custards in the display fridge, as every recipe I’ve read for this dessert says don’t caramelize the sugar ahead of time or it will sink into the custard. Clearly there is a way to make this work! I must learn this.
The carrot cake and the cheesecake were both excellent as well. Oh, yum, so glad we went!
Review:
From the street, you really cannot tell what’s inside. I grew up 30 minutes from Moncton and Tony’s is not located in a neighbourhood that screams “delicious high-end food here”. The decor inside was pretty and spacious and bright. It’s a nice shock to find a place like Tony’s in that part of Moncton.
We visited around 6:30pm on a Wednesday. The server was pleasant and efficient.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the variety and quantity of desserts in the pastry cabinet. Some restaurants are pretty bare at that time of day, so it was really nice to see such a gorgeous display, and to get to try whatever I wanted.
The food was sublime, and reasonably priced.
I’ve decided on two new personal goals for myself. The first is that I shall visit Tony’s more often when I am in the area, just once was not enough! The second is that I shall become a person of international acclaim so perhaps Tony will cook for me. God, can you imagine?
I made Washington Pie for my mother’s birthday, which is a frosted yellow cake with a jam filling (shares traits with Boston cream pie). My Nanny used to make it and it’s been a long time since we’ve had it. I figured nostalgia would gloss over any technical errors on my part. This was served partially raw and uh, note the ratio of frosting to cake in the centre is not same on the outside edge? More on that later.
This recipe comes the red and white Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, but I’m not sure which edition, ours doesn’t have it but Mom’s did.
Working in a different kitchen is always weird. I got to use the Onyx Black KitchenAid, which is just as reliable as my precious Nemo (if not quite as beautiful). I’m not used to this oven and that may have contributed to one of the problems with this cake.
Time required: 2 hours
Yields: 12 slices
Total cost if you have none of the ingredients: $45
Cost per slice: $3.75
Kitchen implements I used:
Ingredients:
Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 176°C / 350°F. Grease and flour two 9″ rounds.
2. Separate the eggs, put the whites into the mixing bowl and put the yolks into a small bowl for later.
Beat the whites until soft peaks form (when you remove the beater they’ll sink down).
3. Gradually add ½ C sugar, beating until very stiff peaks form (you remove the beater and see little mountains of foam that stay upright).
4. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Having a second mixing bowl saves you a lot of time.
5. Add: vegetable oil, vanilla, and half the milk to the dry ingredients. Beat 1 min on Medium, scrap sides 3 times. (If I had a DeLorean, I’d have used the bowl with higher sides, since this led to a face full of wet cake and that is as vile as it sounds.)
6. Add remaining milk and yolks. Beat 1 min, scrape sides 3 times.
I always enjoy watching one of these in action. I realize they all do exactly the same thing but I will just happily observe for awhile.
7. Unless you made a colossal error you should have two bowls like so:
Gently fold the egg white mixture into 2nd bowl, turn the bowl and use a down, up, over motion
You don’t want to stir it like crazy.
You want it to look like this.
8. Divide batter into pans, bake 25 min.
9. Ask Spousal Unit to remove the cake from the oven and test. Believe that toothpick test was successful. Cool in pan 10 min before removing from pan and transferring to wire rack. Well damn. That’s not supposed to happen.
“Did you test the middle?”
“Yup, it came out clean.”
“Why is the middle raw then?”
“I don’t know.”
Throw back in for another 5 min and pray.
10. Cool one hour.
11. Speed to birthday party. Position one cake so that the rounded side is facing down and you have a flat surface. That was the plan anyway. This cake has no true flat surface.
12. Place a few tablespoons of jam in a glass bowl and microwave 40 seconds, spread warm jam over the flat cake surface.
13. Place the second cake on top (again round side down) so you have a flat surface to frost. What the hell went wrong here??
14. Cram frost with vanilla buttercream. I didn’t get a picture of the completed cake but the frosting hid the majority of the gaps. This picture is not the most appetizing but it was good. The centre of the cake was… not ideal, but the outer edge was bang on. See how much frosting is in the centre as opposed to the edge? Oh well. Good thing I love buttercream frosting.
Verdict:
Never trust someone else to take your cake out of the oven. That’s what I learned from this experience. At least Mom was happy and that’s what counts. Next time I’ll try lining the pans with parchment paper.
Playlist:
Buckethead – White Wash
After the disappointing results of Saturday I pondered for awhile and came home from work to try again. Behold! A puff pastry stuffed with fresh mascarpone and drizzled with hot fudge sauce.
Mascarpone. That hideously over-priced Italian dessert cheese used in real tiramisu. Difficult to find in the grocery store. Case in point, I checked 5 stores and when I finally found it:
Shocking!
Lately I’ve been uninspired in the kitchen. I was talking dessert ideas with my sister and asked if she had ever eaten something with mascarpone? Her response was to lapse into silence for a moment, before rapturously describing the best dessert she had ever eaten. I figure that anything which evokes that response is something I must learn how to cook with. I wasn’t sure what I even wanted to make with it, just the possibility of working with it got me thinking. Lo and behold, making it only takes 2 ingredients; heavy cream 36% and a lemon. Ah hah!
Recipe source: I’m not sure where this idea originated, I found it on Pastry Affair, and searched around, everybody seems to use the same method; heat the cream and lemon juice, strain and chill and voila (hopefully). It looks the same on Mother Would Know. I found some very good pictures of the process on Savory Bites.
Time required: 1 hour of work + 8 hours to set
Yields: uh, maybe about 2 cups?
Total cost if you have none of the ingredients: under $5 if cream is on sale
Kitchen implements I used:
Ingredients:
Instructions:
1. Heat the cream to 88°C / 190°F. Stir often. Note for next time, skip the heat diffuser.
2. Stir in the lemon juice, and heat mixture for 5 min, trying to keep temperature constant.
UPDATED JULY 26: after 3rd try at this, have determined 5 minutes it just not enough, I think other people might have a gas stove with consistent heat? It took about 25 min on a coil-top stove for rounds 2 and 3
Disclosure: it’s supposed to take 5 minutes. It took me 20. The temperature kept dropping. I was using a heat diffuser which I discarded. The cream should curdle and thicken a bit. I found this part strangely difficult.
3. Cool to room temperature, either 20 min in a cold water bath or 45 min on the counter should do it.
4. Dampen cheese cloth lightly with water and line strainer, 4 layers of cloth. Put bowl under strainer.
5. Plop the mixture into the centre of the cloth. Don’t push it down. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 8 hours.
This looks much different from the first attempt where nearly half the “cheese” ran through the cloth within one second. You don’t believe that, do you? Here, preserved for posterity.
If yours looks like that ^, go back to the drawing board.
Meanwhile, go make some pastry or something.
6. In the morning, cross your fingers and invert mass into container.
Peel off cloth. Ah hah!
Look at it, holding it’s shape and everything!
7. Stir well.
8. Spread into pastry and garnish. I made some hot fudge sauce the other night and figured why not.
Enjoy what you have wrought!
Verdict: Definitely good. Making it at home is much more sensible than buying a wee-sized container. If I had some fresh fruit I’d put that in a pastry but I’m out of fruit at the moment. You really need to make sure the cream thickens, something so simple was surprisingly easy to ruin. I declare making this yourself to be worth the effort.
Playlist: Halo – Mjolnir mix
Apparently making mascarpone is really easy. I was all excited to do it. You may have clinked on this link hoping to see how to make mascarpone. You would be mistaken.
“Some magician. You couldn’t turn cream into cheese!”
I let it sit overnight in the fridge but the centre is still liquid, I cooked it for the right time but lowered the temperature to avoid burning it and I think that was the problem, it’s supposed to cook at 190°F for the entire time. It wasn’t a total failure, you can see where part of it held it’s shape, will try again after work tonight.
Sing along in your best GLaDOS voice.
This was no triumph.
I’m making a note here;
HUGE SCREW-UP
It’s hard to understate my aggravation
I love coffee cake. Especially Starbucks’ coffee cake. I found this recipe and tried it out, and it’s delicious. I screwed it up and did it backwards but it still turned out marvelous!
Time required: 1 hour
Yields: uh, it’s hard to tell cause it’s round, a fair amount?
Total cost if you have none of the ingredients: $62
Kitchen implements I used:
INGREDIENTS:
Streusel topping:
Filling:
Cake:
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 176°C or 350°F. Line pan with foil and grease it.
2. Make topping; in a bowl combine sugar, salt, flour, and cinnamon. Add melted butter, stir and set aside.
3. Make filling; in a bowl combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder, and set aside.
WTF. Okay, next time check if your brown sugar has solidified. Toss a piece of bread in and hope for the best. We’ll come back to this later.
4. Make the cake; this is where I screwed up. You’re suppose to cream everything except the flour and eggs together. I put all the dry ingredients plus flour together first. Ooops. Then add the eggs one at a time.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the yogurt and milk till well combined, don’t worry if it’s lumpy.
6. Add half the flour (hah) to butter mixture, half the milk, repeat. Beat til just combined. Get a face shot of milk when the mixer goes crazy.
7. Spread half the batter into the pans. Shake it to even it out.
8. Sprinkle the filling on top.
9. Add the rest of the batter.
10. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.
11. Use a butter knife and swirl it through, don’t worry about being even.
12. Bake 55 min if using 2 rounds (or 55-60 if a 9 x 13).
When it’s done, if you lightly press on the top it will spring back up.
13. Leave in pan, place on wire rack for 20 min to cool before slicing.
Verdict: This was great. I didn’t realize how much sugar was in coffee cake. Also surprised by the high cost of ingredients. You could omit the coffee extract but I wanted to try it. I’d use more of that next time, and I’d check the brown sugar first and soften it ahead of time. Chipping out brown sugar like you’ve got a pickaxe is lame.
Playlist:
Corey Hart – Sunglasses at Night
“Boyfriend Unit? We’re invited to D’s birthday party. What does he like?”
“Meat.”
“Surely he likes other things than meat. What is he interested in?”
“Meat.”
“You’re a lot of help in gift planning. OK; wanna make him chocolate bacon, a big box of it?”
“If we make that I want to EAT IT.”
“Well you can’t. It’s a gift. You’re cooking the bacon.”
(Because dear reader, I don’t cook bacon. I don’t clean ovens either.)
“Wuah you didn’t clean the stove, I will have to photoshop it!!”
“Look. perfectly tempered chocolate!”
“What time is his party starting?”
“Uh, 7pm? 7:30pm? Lemme check… SHIT.”
“What??”
“It started at 5.”
“We don’t have enough time to temper the white chocolate.”
“Or the milk chocolate.”
“That’s ok, I can totally temper chocolate on the fly, watch this.”
(later)
“Happy birthday D! Here!”
“EVERYBODY BACK UP, IT’S MINE.”
(later)
“I’d say that was a success, wouldn’t you?”
SpatulaGoddess.com 