I’ve been couch-surfing with my dog since last August.  Once I left my apartment, I had to come to terms with putting most of my belongings (and all my kitchen tools) in storage.  Thus, the blog had to be put to bed.  Now that spring is here (and I’m finally moving) I figure there’s no better way than to welcome the season than with a fresh post. And how convenient that last week, my staff decided they really needed to digitally capture my weekly butter churning. Here it is folks, spring butter!  Disclaimer: Please bare with the less than ideal photo quality.  My camera is out of commission and I am left at the mercy of my iphone.
As featured onThe Brooklyn Kitchen‘s video blog:

bk Butter from ChimeraDactyl Studios on Vimeo.

Ramp Butter

Ingredients:
1/2 gallon good quality heavy cream
1 small bunch of ramps
1 tsp. lemon zest
Healthy pinch of kosher salt

Method:

1. Clean your ramps thoroughly. Trim the roots and separate the leaf from the bulb. Thinly slice the bulb and chiffonade the leaves. In a mortar and pestle, grind together into a paste: the ramps, lemon zest and salt. Set aside.
2. In a stand mixer (or food processor or blender), starting on low and gradually increasing speed, whip the cream until stiff peaks form, about 7 minutes. If you are whipping a lot of cream, do so in stages. The higher the bowl is filled, the slower it will take to whip.
3. When the stiff peaks begin to curdle, turn down the speed to medium. The fat and water will begin to separate. Whip about 1 minute more. The fat will form a dense mass and cling to your attachment, leaving the buttermilk behind.
4. On your counter top, knead the butter so that all the buttermilk comes out. Keep a cloth handy to wipe down the counter as the butter releases water.
5. When most of the water is gone, in stages, fold in your ramp paste. Salt to taste.
6. Roll up in a sheet of parchment paper and twist the ends closed. For long term storage, freeze in a ziplock bag. For immediate use, store in the fridge and use at will!

Journalist Harriet Van Horne said, “Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” I feel that way about summer too. Which is why I made this ice cream. For breakfast. (Well, I had it for dinner first- it was hot out!)

Folks often cite texture as a big problem when making fruit based ice creams. Fruit is full of water. Unless treated properly, all that excess water will turn your dessert icy. Fruit chunks crystallize and get, well, weird. The trick is to treat your fruit like another liquid ingredient, not as an add-in like chocolate chips or caramel, which is often folded into the custard right before (or after) churning. First, puree your fruit. A food processor or immersion blender works well. So do your hands or even a potato masher. Now strain the pulp. I use a colander lined with butter muslin, a very fine weave of cheesecloth. Allow to strain for at least a half hour. Then gather the ends of the cloth together and twist the top so it forms a sack. Press on the bag with the back of a wooden spoon to press any excess water out. The syrup left behind can be reserved for sauces, topping pancakes, swirling into yogurt or as a topping for more ice cream. For the amount of fruit puree used in your ice cream, swap out an equal amount of dairy.

The first time I made this ice cream, I did not use buttermilk. I also used strawberries from the Union Square farmer’s market. They were small and tart but ultimately not very sweet or ‘strawberry-y’.  In the custard, the fruit flavor was too subtle and the cream overwhelmed it.  The flavor of ‘strawberries and cream’ was good but didn’t do the summer strawberry justice.  I added a glug of my favorite balsamic vinegar. This vinegar boasts a grape-like and syrupy sweetness that tastes more like jelly than vinegar.  Just as I expected, it kicked the tart factor up a serious notch.  The second time I made the ice cream, I decided it needed more tartness still.  Nearly expired fresh buttermilk?  Bingo.

Strawberry-Balsamic Buttermilk Ice Cream

adapted from: my head
yield: 1 quart, appx.

Ingredients
1/2 cup (250ml) fresh buttermilk*
A heavy pinch kosher salt
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
1 1/2 cups (500ml) heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1 cup strawberry puree
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon (or to taste) good quality sweet balsamic vinegar

*Buttermilk, due to it’s lower fat content, will render your dessert on the icier side but does give it a nice tang. If you like your ice cream on the richer side, opt for whole milk and adjust the vinegar and/or lemon juice to taste.

Method
1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan.

2. Stir together the egg yolks in a bowl and gradually add some of the warmed milk, stirring constantly as you pour. Pour the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.

3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula. Strain the custard into the heavy cream.  Add the lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and the strawberry puree.  Add any additional salt to taste.  Chill thoroughly, and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.

Bourbon Basil Lemonade

yield: makes two drinks

Ingredients
4 ounces bourbon, such as Wild Turkey
2.5 ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 ounce triple sec (more lemon juice can be used instead)
3 ounces basil simple syrup**
Basil leaf for garnish

Method
1. Chill drinking glasses by filling with glass.
2. In the metal mixer of a boston shaker, fill with ice and, in this order: lemon juice, simple syrup, triple sec and bourbon. Allow to chill up to a minute.
3. Remove ice from drinking glasses and rim with superfine sugar. Re-fill with 2-3 cubes of new ice.
4. Shake drinks well. Strain and pour!

**Basil Simple Syrup

Ingredients
1 cup white sugar, super-fine or granulated
1 cup water
1 bunch or 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, rinsed well.

Method
Combine sugar, water and basil in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce to barely a simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Strain, pressing on the basil leaves with the back of a wooden spoon. Bottle.

Back to March. The morning after a particularly nasty Monday evening, (which could only be described like this) the only thing I wanted to do was curl up with a hot drink. I roast my own coffee 2-3 times a week and had some fresh beans in the fridge. However, the idea of being caffeinated and cooped up in the house was unappealing. I decided to call over a friend of mine, a chef who pens a great column for Eat Me Daily called ‘The Natural History of the Kitchen.‘ She recommended a cocktail. It sounded appealing but I had an appointment later that afternoon. So we compromised. (And what better way to spend a rainy afternoon than with a friend over boozy coffee and sugar?)

Irish Coffee

Yield: 2 8-oz. drinks

Ingredients:
3 ounces Jameson or any other Irish whisky
12 oz. fresh brewed coffee
6 tb. heavy cream or half and half, divided
1 tb. superfine sugar or to taste
Fresh grated cinnamon

Method:
1.  Brew yr coffee (notes on home roasting below) and set aside.
2. Combine coffee and whiskey in a larger mug. Stir, then divide between two smaller mugs.
3. In a very small saucepan (a turkish coffee pot works well) gently warm half of the cream. Using a frother or small whisk (or even a little mason jar with a tight-fitting lid), whip the cream to give it some lift. Set aside. Gently heat remaining cream. Add the warm milk to each drink, topping it off with the whipped cream and a dusting of fresh grated cinnamon.

Roasting coffee at home is incredibly rewarding as well as delicious. The Brooklyn Kitchen sells green beans from Brooklyn-based roaster Gorilla Coffee. A pound will run you about 9.99- almost half the price of the pre-roasted stuff.

You don’t need anything fancy to get a decent roast. The important thing is to keep the beans fairly hot and to keep them moving so they don’t burn. A cast iron skillet works great but only if you got the forearms to shake the pan for a good seven minutes. I personally like to use an old air popper for popcorn. The biggest advantage to using this popper is the nifty air chute that spits out the corn. When roasting coffee, your beans will inevitably shed a papery skin towards the end of the process (not unlike hazlenuts). The beans, being the denser of the two, will continue to whirl inside the chamber where the chaff will eventually separate and fly out the chute. This gives the popper a new convenience factor of 10.

Excellent instructions with pictures can be found here.

Roasting Coffee

Gear:
Green beans
Air popper
Long, slender wooden spoon or chopstick
Sheet tray or large metal bowl
Colander (for cooling the beans and halting the roasting process)
Dish towels or oven mitts

Method:

* Set up the popper in a ventilated place near a kitchen exhaust fan or window, if possible. It’s nice to have strong overhead light so you can look down into the popper chamber to accurately judge the roast as it progresses. Have all your supplies within reach.
* Put the same amount of coffee in the popper that the manufacturer recommends for popcorn. For the West Bend Poppery II (which is what I have), 4 oz. is the maximum, or 2/3 to 3/4 cup.
* Put the plastic hood in place, and a large bowl under the chute. I tend to use a sheet pan as it covers more surface area. The chaff really flies everywhere.
* Turn on the machine and immediately begin start stirring the beans. Continue for a good minute or so until the beans start to pop up themselves.
* Watch for fragrant smoke and the “first crack” of the beans in about 3 minutes. Wait another minute, then start to monitor beans closely for desired roast color.
* Total time for a lighter roast should be around 4 minutes, full city roast around 5, and darker roasts closer to 6.5 minutes. Roasts develop quickly, so be vigilant. You want to pour the beans out of the popper when they are a tad lighter than the color you desire, since roasting continues until beans are cool.
* Agitate beans in metal colander until they are warm to your touch.
* Coffee should be stored out of direct light (and not in a fridge or freezer) in an airtight glass jar, but with a fresh roast, wait 12 hours to seal the jar tightly; it needs to vent off C02.
* Warm, fresh roasted beans are wonderful, but the coffee attains its peak 4 to 24 hours after roasting. If you store it as recommended, we’ll call it fresh for 5 days. When you open that jar in the morning, you will know what fresh coffee truly is.

I’ll be honest. Kosher wine gets old. Fast. I’m not sure why Manischewitz (or otherwise) has become the default Jewish holiday beverage. New Years Eve gets champagne, Christmas gets egg nog. Rosh Hashanah? Wine. Passover? Wine. Yom Kippur? Um, nothing. Solution? Enter: the 11th Plague Bloody Mary (yes, Kedem in fact, makes K for P vodka).

Initially, making this drink was an excuse to use my mother’s homemade horseradish. But as I started throwing in the other ingredients, it became clear that this swift kick to the nose could be as educational as it was intoxicating. Tomato juice stands in for the first plague (blood), horseradish for the bitter herb and celery for the spring green. After a good churn in the cocktail shaker, the drink is served on ice with a salted rim. If you’d still rather dip parsley in a dish of saltwater, then you’re not invited to my next seder.

If there was ever a post that contained more brand plugs than actual recipe steps, this is it. Also, all of these ingredients can be purchased at The Brooklyn Kitchen. Just saying.

11th Plague Bloody Mary

Yield: appx. 8 cocktails

Ingredients:
1 large bottle tomato juice (any brand works, just not low-sodium)
1/4 cup McClure’s spicy dill pickle brine
1 1/2 tb. Baldwin’s worcestershire sauce
1-2 tb. homemade horseradish
1 lemon, juiced
1 lime, juiced
Sriracha chili sauce, a big ol’ squirt
2 tsp. Szeged fish rub or Old Bay seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

opt. 1/2 Tb. fresh chopped dill

Method:

1. Juice and strain your citrus.
2. Combine all your ingredients. Shake the hell out of it. Allow to chill over night.
3. Strain well, adjust seasoning and keep cold until ready to serve.

*Note: This tonic is best prepared the night before. Any vodka will work, though Absolut Peppar is a good one.

Passover Dessert Spread
Flourless Chocolate Cake, Mini Meringue Cookies, Sticky Coconut Macaroons

Chocolate Idiot Cake
One 9-inch (23 cm) cake
adapted from David Lebovitz

In Lebovitz’s words, “This cake is extremely rich, and tastes like the most delicious, silkiest, most supremely-chocolate ganache you’ve ever had. As mentioned, it’s equally good a few days later, and only an idiot could possibly mess it up.” Due to the number of ingredients, do yourself a favor and use a good chocolate. I used Valrhona 70%.

Ingredients:
10 ounces (290 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
7 ounces (200 g) butter, salted or unsalted, cut into pieces
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (200 g) sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Butter a 9-inch (23 cm) springform pan* and dust it with cocoa powder, tapping out any excess. If you suspect your springform pan isn’t 100% water-tight, wrap the outside with aluminum foil, making sure it goes all the way up to the outer rim.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler (or microwave), stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove from heat.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar, then whisk in the melted chocolate mixture until smooth.

4. Immediately** pour the batter into the prepared springform pan and cover the top of the pan snugly with a sheet of foil. Put the springform pan into a larger baking pan, such as a roasting pan, and add enough hot water to the baking pan to come about halfway up to the outside of the cake pan.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

You’ll know the cake is done when it feels just set, like quivering chocolate pudding. If you gently touch the center, your finger should come away clean.

5. Lift the cake pan from the water bath and remove the foil. Let cake cool completely on a cooling rack.

Serve thin wedges of this very rich cake at room temperature with creme anglaise, ice cream, or homemade whipped cream.

**I say ‘immediately’ because the batter will start to deflate as soon as you stop whisking. Since there is no flour or leavening agent, the longer your batter rests, the denser your cake will become. Since this cake has such intense chocolate flavor and texture, the lift becomes really important.

Storage: This Chocolate Idiot Cake can be wrapped and chilled in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.

The other day I filled my bicycle tires.  I greased the chain and tightened the brakes.  It’s still breezy at night but the air isn’t sharp and dry. It’s a little damp and, dare I say, balmy.  I’ve been drinking my cocktails faster, my beer slower.  It’s spring time, fools!  Ice cream time.  Tequila time.

I never used to be a fan of fennel (tequila is another story). In fact, I’m still fairly picky about it-that and anything else that falls into the licorice family. I associate fennel with people who eat things like a single hard-boiled egg, rye crackers and stinky cheese for breakfast. Once I house sat for an artist in Brooklyn who had gone to London for a week. She owned a stunning loft in East Williamsburg with floor to ceiling maple bookcases and a sliding ladder. Her studio had dusty windows with tarnished panes that stretched the entire length of the wall and nearly it’s height. The windowsill was littered with potted herbs, paintbrushes and notebooks. In her cupboards were rye crackers of every size and density. Her fridge was empty except for the butter drawer which was filled with various stinky cheeses, loosely wrapped in parchment paper in various stages of consumption. In her bathroom was a claw-foot bathtub and a tube of fennel toothpaste. I couldn’t get over how someone would choose to deliberately shove a concentrated paste of the stuff into their mouth, hold it for at least a minute, spit it out and then claim to feel clean afterward. What I mean to say is this ice cream changed all that for me.

Fennel Ice Cream

Adapted from Gourmet, 1997

Yield: 1 quart
Ingredients
1 2/3 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons fennel seeds, crushed
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar, divided
4 large egg yolks

Method

Bring cream and fennel seeds just to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan, then cover and let steep about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring milk, 1/2 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring.

Whisk together yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a large bowl, then add milk mixture in a slow stream, whisking.

Return mixture to medium saucepan and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until mixture coats back of spoon and registers 175°F on an instant-read thermometer (do not let boil).

Immediately strain custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl, then quick-chill by setting bowl in an ice bath and stirring occasionally until cool, about 15 minutes.

Strain fennel cream through fine-mesh sieve into custard, pressing on solids. Continue to chill in ice bath until custard is very cold, then freeze in ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, about 1 hour.

Note: Custard with fennel cream can be chilled, covered, in refrigerator up to 24 hours.

El Dorado [Spring Tonic]

Ingredients
1 tablespoons good, local honey
1 1/2 ounces lemon juice
2 ounces white tequila
2 parts chili powder and superfine sugar : 1 part sea salt
Orange slice

Method

Mix dry garnishing ingredients in a small bowl and prep your glass.

Build your drink in a cocktail shaker over cracked ice. Shake well. Strain over rocks into a Collins glass and garnish with an orange slice.

They are perfectly crumbly (too loud of a snack to eat during therapy, really) with a dry, sugary exterior and a center crammed with whole almonds, crushed anise seed and vanilla. A little bag of three bite-sized cookies (or more, if you go as often as I do) will cost you a buck-fifty. A fraction of what I pay my therapist with equal life-affirming qualities.  And I’ve been determined to replicate them.

That said, the biscotti I did make aren’t quite the ones from my beloved Italian bakery. But they’re close and pretty damn good. While the citrus isn’t overpowering, I think next time I’ll dial it down and up the anise- or use a combination of both whole anise seed and extract.

Almond Biscotti

Yield: 3 dozen
Ingredients
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon anise extract
1 tablespoon Fee Brother’s West Indian Orange Bitters
1 tablespoon orange zest*
1 cup whole, coarsely chopped or sliced almonds, toasted.

for brushing:
1 large egg white
Turbinado sugar

*I used the zest from one whole Navel Orange. Whenever directly using the skin or rind of a fruit or vegetable, it is important to use organic when possible.

Method

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl. Mix sugar, melted butter, 3 eggs, vanilla extract, orange liquer and zest in large bowl. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and stir with wooden spoon until well blended. Mix in almonds.

Divide dough in half. Using floured hands, shape each dough half into 13 1/2-inch-long, 2 1/2-inch-wide log. Transfer both logs to prepared baking sheet, spacing apart. Whisk egg white in small bowl until foamy; brush over top and sides of each dough log.  Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

Bake logs until golden brown (logs will spread), about 30 minutes. Cool logs completely on sheet on rack, about 25 minutes. Maintain oven temperature.

Transfer logs to work surface; discard parchment paper. Using serrated knife, cut logs on diagonal into 1/2-inch-wide slices. Arrange slices, cut side down, on same baking sheet. Bake 12 minutes. Turn biscotti over; bake until just beginning to color, about 8 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool.

Can be prepared one week ahead- store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Coming up with cocktail names is hard. Thinking of names for a teenage emo-punk band is easier. The name for this one was inspired by a conversation I had with a British friend last night. He was spending the night in a motel in a foreign city and feeling quite beside himself. I told him to look in the night-table drawer, “For the King James Bible.” I told him to find the Bible and then find the motel bar. “That is travel,” I said, “sweet and sour.” Hence the name for a cocktail made of bourbon and tobacco, leather and chocolate.

Motel Blues

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces Bourbon
1/2 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
Juice of 1/2 blood orange
1/4 ounce simple syrup
1-2 dashes orange bitters
2-3 dashes tobacco bitters

For Rimming:
1/2 tablespoon of black cocoa
1 pinch each of salt, cinnamon and chili powder
Whisk cocoa, salt, cinnamon and chili powder together in a small bowl then pulse in a food processor for about a minute. Having the ingredients the same size will help them adhere to glass better.

With this recipe, I will give you one warning: upon first bite, you will want a glass of milk. Resist. Because, while it feels/tastes all too perfect, you will not want to follow up that glass of milk with a glass of booze. Skip the dairy and go straight for the cocktail.  Once the warm spiced cookies melt in your mouth, you’ll be happy to have the bright citrusy cocktail near by to wash it all down. Between the sugar and booze, it’s just enough to perk you up on the spot and then put you to sleep a half-hour later.

Russian Tea Cakes
[a.k.a. Mexican Wedding Cookies]

Loosely adapted from Gourmet

Makes about 4 dozen

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar, divided into 1 and 1 1/2 cups
2 teaspoons vanilla extract*
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup pecans, hazelnuts or other nuts, toasted and finely ground**
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of cardamom
Pinch of nutmeg
Large pinch of salt

*An additional 1/2 tsp. of orange oil sounds nice too.

**If using hazelnuts, wrap in a dishtowel while still warm and roll about until most of the brown skins come off.  In this recipe I used sliced blanched almonds.

Method

Using an electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar, salt and vanilla; beat until well blended. Beat in flour, then nuts. Divide dough in half; form each half into ball. Wrap separately in plastic; chill until cold, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk remaining 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg in a shallow bowl (a pie dish works well here). Set aside.

Working with half of the chilled dough, roll 2 teaspoonfuls between palms into balls. Arrange balls on heavy large baking sheet, spacing 1/2 inch apart. Bake until golden brown on bottom and just pale golden on top, about 18 minutes. Cool cookies 5  minutes on baking sheet. Gently toss warm cookies in cinnamon sugar to coat completely. Transfer coated cookies to rack and cool completely. Repeat procedure with remaining half of dough. (Cookies can be prepared 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature; reserve remaining cinnamon sugar).

Sift remaining cinnamon sugar over cookies and serve.

Grapefruit Whiskey Sour

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces bourbon or brandy
1 ounce fresh lemon juice (about half a lemon)
1/2 ounce simple syrup
2-3 dashes grapefruit bitters
superfine sugar and lemon zest for garnish

Method
Simple Syrup
To make simple syrup, combine equal parts water and sugar. Superfine sugar works well as it dissolves the quickest but granulated white sugar will work fine. Bring mixture to a boil and reduce heat to very low. Allow to steep for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Pour into a bottle and store in the fridge for infinite use!

The Cocktail

Helpful Tools:
-Boston shaker
-Juicer/reamer
-Strainer or small sieve
-Jigger
-Hawthorne strainer
-Perfect cube ice trays

Fill a small bowl with a few tablespoons of superfine sugar for rimming the glass. Set aside.

Zest and juice your lemon. If using a regular reamer, be sure to strain your lemon juice after to remove any residual pulp and seeds.

With a paring knife, cut a small slit into a lemon wedge. Fit the wedge over the lip of the glass and squeeze gently while making your way around the rim. Turn upside down and spoon your garnishing sugar over the outside of the glass. Shake off excess sugar and fill with 2-3 ice cubes.

Place three ice cubes in your stainless steel shaker. Add, in this order: the lemon juice, syrup, liquor and bitters. A llow to chill for about half a minute. This is enough time to pour you and your buddy separate shots, make a toast and return to your cocktail.

At an angle, fit the pint glass over the shaker. You’ll want to give it a fair hit with the palm of your hand to create an airtight seal. Turn it over and shake the hell out of it. The harder you shake, the more you’ll break up the ice cubes and create an icy, even froth.

Turn the shaker over so the pint glass is on top. With the heel of your hand, smack the space where the two glasses gap. This will break the seal and the two glasses should easily come apart. Fit a hawthorne strainer over the shaker and pour your drink into a tumbler. Garnish with a twist of lemon. Grab some cookies.

Open whiskey.  Cue Bob Dylan (Track 2 on ‘Freewheelin’ is a good one.) Bake.  A cure-all. Really.

Tarte au Chocolat
Chocolate Tart

Adapted from Stephane Reynaud’s French Feasts
For 6 . Preparation Time: 15 minutes . Cooking time: 30 min. + 30 min. resting time

Ingredients
7 ounces rich sweet short-crust pastry
1/2 cup ground hazelnuts
5 ounces dark chocolate
1/4 cup salted butter
1 cup heavy cream
1-2 tablespoons whiskey

Method
1. Roll out the pastry and fit it into a round tart pan. Sprinkle the ground hazelnuts on top and bake in a preheated 350F oven for 30 minutes.
2. Melt the chocolate with the cream, butter, and whiskey. Fill the pastry shell with this mixture and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Note: The first time I made these tarts I used bourbon. The second time I used Irish whiskey. I like the latter. Feel free to up it to 1 1/2 tablespoons if you want more punch.

Pate Sablee
Rich Sweet Short-Crust Pastry

For 1 Tart

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ground almonds, toasted
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup superfine sugar
1 egg

Method

1. Mix the softened butter with the sugar and ground almonds; then add the sifted flour little by little.
2. Add the egg to obtain a very smooth dough (add a little water if the dough is too dry.) Chill before using.

Note: For the almonds, I bought a sack of blanched slivered almonds (sliced will work too, even though they have some of the skins still on.) Toast them in a dry cast iron skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly until fragrant. About 3-5 minutes. Superfine sugar can be purchased as is, or created by putting granulated sugar through a food processor for a minute or two.

Any leftover dough can be frozen or rolled out for other treats. I made owl-shaped linzer cookies. Yumz.

Sourdough class at The Brooklyn Kitchen

All-purpose flour is a fundamental kitchen staple. But what if that’s all you have and your recipe calls for cake flour? Does it really matter? And besides, who has room in their NYC freezer to store separate flours for: pastries, cakes, bread, pizza and wait- didn’t you see that the Union Square Farmer’s Market has local flour? So wouldn’t it make sense to use that all the time? Does it matter? Really? Well, yes. Sort of.

Three important characteristics affect the categorization of wheat (and therefore your recipe): strain, protein content and processing method.

Protein Content:
Different types of wheat like to grow in different areas of the country. Each strain has it’s own unique makeup, making it more (or less) adaptable to different recipes. The big factor here is protein content. Higher protein percentages = heartier wheat. Bread flour has the highest protein content at about 14% whereas cake flour falls around 8%. Southern brands of bleached all-purpose flour have a lower protein content (8%) as they are made from a soft winter wheat.  Even all-purpose flour can vary in its protein content not only by brand but also regionally. The same brand can have different protein contents depending on what area of the country in the United States you are buying it.Hard, brownish, mellow high protein wheat used for bread, hard baked goods and as an adjunct in other flours to increase protein in pastry flour for pie crusts. Some brands of unbleached all-purpose flours are commonly made from hard red winter wheat alone.

Common Strains of Wheat:
* Durum —Very hard, translucent, light colored grain used to make semolina flour for pasta.

* Hard White —Hard, light colored, opaque, chalky, medium protein wheat planted in dry, temperate areas. Used for bread and brewing.

* Soft White —Soft, light colored, very low protein wheat grown in temperate moist areas. Used for pie crusts and pastry. Pastry flour, for example, is sometimes made from soft white winter wheat.

* Hard Red Winter- Hard, brownish, high protein wheat used for bread and hard baked goods. Bread Flour and high gluten flours are commonly made from hard red spring wheat.

* Soft Red Winter – Soft, low protein wheat used for cakes, pie crusts, biscuits, and muffins. Cake flour, pastry flour, and some self-rising flours (those with added baking powder and salt) are made from soft red winter wheat.

Processing:

Bleached vs Unbleached
The history of bleaching: Flours treated with bleaches and improving agents generally show higher loaf volume and finer grain. Chlorinated cake flour improves the structure forming capacity, allowing the use of dough formulas with lower proportions of flour and higher proportions of sugar which is why you will more often see cake and pastry flours that are bleached.

Harold McGee (aka The Boss) says in his book, On Food and Cooking, “After flour has been ground and blended to the desired mix of particles, it is treated chemically to accomplish in a matter of minutes what otherwise takes weeks. Bleaching removes the light yellow color caused by xanthophylls, a variety of carotenoid also found in potatoes and onions. The color has no practical or nutritional significance and is oxidized simply to obtain a uniform whiteness. Bleaching does, however, destroy small amounts of vitamin E in flour, which probably accounts for its bad reputation in some circles. For historical reasons, yellow coloration is valued in pasta, and so semolina is never bleached.

“Bleaching is often accomplished with the same gas, chlorine dioxide, that is used to age or “improve” the flour. But even unbleached flour has been aged with potassium bromate or iodate. Aging has important practical results. It has long been known that flour allowed to sit for one or two months develops better baking qualities; hence the practice of letting flour age before use (during this period, it is also naturally bleached by oxygen in the air). But done in this way, aging is a time- and space consuming, somewhat unpredictable procedure. Hence the use of chemicals both to accelerate and to control flour improvement. Aging effects the bonding characteristics of the gluten proteins in such a way that they form stronger, more elastic doughs.”

I guess the downside to bleaching flour, is that it can, to some, impart a slightly bitter aftertaste. And there have been studies to show it might be not all that fantastic for your health. They also said that about Sweet & Low. So take everything with a grain of salt, I guess.

Types of Flour:

Rye Flour
Rye flour comes in different grades: white/light, medium and whole/dark. Nancy Silverton of La Brea Bakery described it best in her book, “Breads from La Brea Bakery.” Rye flour contains more starch and has a poorer gluten quality than wheat flour, which means rye flour doughs can’t be left out to proof as long as wheat flour doughs. Baking a dough made mostly with rye flour is a lot like baking a hunk of oatmeal. This is why most rye breads actually contain a combination of rye flour and white flour.” Dark rye flour, which is actually hard to find, is used in very dense pumpernickel loaves. Because it has so little gluten, it creates a very wet and sticky dough. On the other hand, a few tablespoons of dark rye flour is excellent for dusting proofing baskets. Besides its lack of gluten, rye flour will absorb far less moisture than wheat flour and therefore will not contribute any additional weight to your bread dough when used on work surfaces. Any grade of rye can be substituted for another in a bread recipe but your resulting bread will be very different in those instances.

Spelt Flour
Spelt flour is one of the most popular and widely available non-wheat flours. Spelt flour has a nutty and slightly sweet flavor similar to that of whole wheat flour. It contains a moderate amount of gluten and so is not suitable for folks with coeliac disease but remains a popular wheat substitute for those with wheat allergies.

Buckwheat Flour
Buckwheat Flour is gluten-free which makes it a good choice for anybody with gluten sensitivities or coeliac disease. It is packed with nutrients, readily available, easy to work with and has a nice nutty flavor.  This is what soba noodles are made from!

All-Purpose Flour
All-purpose flour has a 10-12% protein content and is made from a blend of hard and soft wheat flours. It can be bleached or unbleached which are interchangeable.

Cake Flour
Cake flour has a 6-8% protein content and is made from soft wheat flour. It is chlorinated (bleached) to further break down the strength of the gluten, resulting in a smooth and velvety texture. This flour is good for making cakes (especially white cakes and biscuits) and cookies where a tender and delicate texture is desired. To substitute cake flour for all-purpose flour use 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour for every cup of all-purpose flour. Make your own – one cup sifted cake flour can be substituted with 3/4 cup (84 grams) sifted bleached all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (15 grams) cornstarch.

Pastry Flour
Pastry flour is similar to cake flour, although it has not been chlorinated, with an 8-10% protein content and is made from soft wheat flour.  To make two cups of pastry flour, combine 1 1/3 cups (185 grams) all-purpose flour with 2/3 cup (90 grams) cake flour. Good for making pastry, pies and cookies.

Self-Rising Flour
Self-Rising flour has 8-9% protein and contains flour plus baking powder and salt. I do not use this type of flour because I prefer to add my own baking powder and salt. Also, if the flour is stored too long the baking powder will lose some of its strength and your baked goods will not rise properly.

Bread Flour
Bread flour has a 12-14% protein content and is made from hard wheat flour. The high gluten content causes the bread to rise and gives it shape and structure. Comes in white, whole wheat, organic, bleached and unbleached. Good for making breads and some pastries.

Tips
Store your flour in a cool dry well-ventilated place for up to six months. To prevent insects you can store flour in the refrigerator or freezer making sure the flour is defrosted before using.

Flour is sometimes labeled pre-sifted. This means that the flour was sifted before packaging but it compacts during shipping and handling and therefore is no longer sifted by the time you get it home. So if your recipe calls for sifted flour make sure you sift it again. (If your recipe calls for “1 cup sifted flour” this means you sift the flour before measuring. However, if the recipe calls for “1 cup flour, sifted” this means you sift the flour after measuring.) Sifting flour removes lumps and aerates it so that when liquid is added the dry ingredients will be fully moistened.

Proper measuring of your flour is important, as too much flour will result in a tough and/or heavy product. When measuring flour spoon your flour into a measuring cup and then level off the cup with a knife. Do not pack it down. As stated above, flour gets compacted in the bag during shipping, so scooping your flour right out of the bag using your measuring cup will result in too much flour.  Or, to avoid any/all confusion, use a scale.

Flour, when packaged, has about a 14% moisture content. When stored, however, its moisture content will vary. In general, the longer flour is stored the more moisture it loses. This is why on a dry day using old flour your pastry will require more water than on a wet day using new flour.

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Useful Substitutions:
1 cup + 2 tbsp sifted cake flour = 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup minus 2 tbsp unsifted flour = 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs = 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour

Whole-wheat flour usually can be substituted for part or all of the all-purpose flour in most recipes. If a recipe calls for two cups flour, try one cup all-purpose and one cup whole-wheat. When completely substituting whole-wheat for white, use 7/8 cup whole-wheat for one cup of white flour.

Measurements:
All-Purpose Flour:
1 cup = 140 grams
1 cup sifted = 115 grams

Cake Flour:
1 cup = 130 grams
1 cup sifted = 100 grams

Whole Wheat Flour:
1 cup = 150 grams
1 cup sifted = 130 grams

Bread Flour:
1 cup = 160 grams
1 cup sifted = 130 grams

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Conversions

homemade chevre - made with raw goat's milk and a moderate amount of rennet

Here is a breakdown of what we carry and how to use it:

Ingredients

Starter
A starter is a culture of bacteria that is added to milk to assist in the process of cheese making. Every cheese can attribute it’s unique flavor and texture to particular strains of bacteria. Currently we direct set cultures. These are packets of freeze dried bacteria and rennet and are added straight to the milk.

Cheese Cultures

Chevre: Makes a rich and creamy goat’s milk cheese. One packet sets two gallons of milk and makes about one pound of cheese.

Creme fraiche: Add to light cream for a delicious, spreadable fresh cheese. Drain overnight for homemade Mascarpone!

Fresh cheese starter: Used in producing cottage cheese, pot cheese, neufchatel and other soft cheeses. Unlike our other cultures, it comes in one package and a mother culture must be incubated.

Fromage blanc: This starter culture is so simple to make, we recommend it for kids! Similar to cream cheese with a rich flavor, it can be used in cooking or spread on a morning bagel.

Fromagina: Creates a creamy blend of fromage blanc and mascarpone. Delightful for dessert, cooking, or spooning on granola in the morning.

Kefir: Produces a rich and creamy probiotic drink with a bubbly effervescence which can then be sweetened with honey or maple syrup. An added bonus, this culture can be used with cow, goat, or even soy milk! Perfect for the vegans in your life.

Mesophilic: Used in making a variety of hard, moderate temperature loving cheeses including Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Stilton, Edam, Gouda, Muenster, Blue, and Colby.

Thermophilic: Produces Parmesan, Romano, Swiss, and a variety of other hard Italian-style cheeses.

Sour cream: All you need is this culture and a thermometer to turn a quart of cream into delicious, thick sour cream. Can be used with reduced-fat milks for a healthy alternative.

5 gallons of raw goat's milk delivered to my door

Milk!
1 gallon of milk = 1 pound of hard cheese or 2 pounds of soft cheese.
1 quart of milk = 1 quart of traditional yogurt.  The yield will be less if preparing strained or Greek-style yogurt and/or labneh.
1 pint cream =  1 cup of butter and 1 cup of buttermilk. 1 cup of butter is 2 sticks or half a pound.

Acids
Although rennet* is used to aid coagulation of most cheeses, various acids may also be used for this purpose when making soft bag cheese. Acidifying agents include vinegar, citric acid, tartaric acid, and lemon, lime, and orange juices.

*Rennet is a substance used to coagulate milk. It contains enzymes that act on the milk protein casein, separating the milk into curds (solids) and whey (liquid). We carry both animal and vegetable derived rennets.

Water
Because chlorine can destroy the action of rennet, you must use unchlorinated water in your cheese making.

Salt
Salt enhances the flavor of cheese. Salt also draws moisture from the curds, helping the whey to drain by causing the curds to shrink. Cheese salt is available from cheese making suppliers but plain old Diamond Crystal kosher salt works just as well! Do not use iodized salt. Iodine inhibits the growth of friendly bacteria and will slow the aging process.

Calcium Chloride
Calcium Chloride is salt solution used to restore balance to the calcium content of milk that has been heat-treated. This is especially important when rennet will be used. The heat used in pasteurization decreases the amount of calcium in milk and has an adverse effect on its clotting properties. Ricki Carroll recommends using calcium chloride with store bought milk and especially goat’s milk which is naturally homogenized. I have made goat cheese a number of times, each time without using calcium chloride. The first round was done with raw goat’s milk and the second with store bought (from Fairway but I’ve also seen it at the Key Foods on McGuinness in Greenpoint.) The first batch was heavily salted and used a fair amount of rennet which gave my cheese a nice crumbly texture. The second batch had very little curd separation but was relatively silky and quite creamy, a lot like cream cheese. I am excited to give the calcium chloride a try though, especially with basic farmer’s cheese from store bought cow’s milk.

Gear

Cheesecloth
This cotton cloth is used to drain curds and line molds for hard cheeses.

Butter Muslin
This cloth has a slightly closer weave than cheesecloth and is used for draining soft cheese. Butter muslin is a must; you don’t want to lose the curds down the drain!

homemade chevre made with pasteurized goat's milk

Colander
Use this for draining curds. Any type will work fine, because you’ll line it with cheesecloth.

Curd Knife
A curd knife has a bladfe long enough to reach the bottom of the pot without immersing the handle. The blade’s end if flat rather than pointed. I use my straight cake spatula.

Dairy Thermometer
The temperature range of a dairy thermometer is 0 to 220F. The convenience of a dairy thermometer is it’s long stem and base clip so it can be attached to the lip of your pot. I used my digital probe thermometer for a long time but had to rig the cord of the thermometer needle to balance in the pot which got pretty annoying. Now I have one of these guys! They’re cheap too.

Molds
Molds, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes, are used to contain the curds during the final draining period. The mold determines the shape of the final cheese.

Skimmer
A skimmer or perforated ladle is necessary to transfer the curds of some cheeses into your mold or cloth lined colander. As with all utensils, stainless steel is best.

Pots
Use stainless-steel, glass, or unchipped enamel pots that are large enough to hold 1 to 3 gallons of milk, depending on the recipe.

Ignore the giant jar on the left. That's ophelia, my sourdough starter. Goat milk purchased at Fairway.