The Perfect Black and White Cookie

I have finally found the perfect black and white cookie recipe thanks to Baking Illustrated.  The cookie is just lemony enough, just cakelike enough, and just moist enough.  The icing is sweet with great texture.  For the cookie, I used a #20 portion scoop placing the second scoop of dough directly on top of the second scoop and pressing down with the second scoop to flatten the dough mound.  The cookies baked for 16 minutes.  I probably could have baked the cookies for 14 or 15 minutes.  I had some kissing cousins, so next time I'll have to better account for the cookies' spread. 

I didn't thin out the icing enough, so it was stiff to apply to the cookies and didn't flow together after it was applied...at least not as much as I would have liked.  Next time I will add a little more water.  I even added more water than the recipe called for, but it was not enough. 

The chocolate icing was a very brown chocolate color when I first made it.  After adding cocoa and powder and baking soda the color of the chocolate icing did not darken as much as I would have liked. So I added a small amount of black food coloring.  The final color of the chocolate icing is the color of dark chocolate.



I used a small offset spatula to apply the icing, and using the small spatula allowed just enough icing to be placed on the cookie.  I'm happy with the amount of frosting that went on the cookies. 

Hooray for Baking Illustrated!

French Buttercream for Birthday Cake

Tomorrow we have a practical exam on assembling and decorating a birthday cake.  The cake will be three layers of chocolate sponge cake.  The frosting and decoration is french buttercream.  So to prepare for the exam, I made some french buttercream (very rich and sweet!) and practiced decorating an upside-down cake pan.

The buttercream has a very soft consistency compared to simple buttercream or italian buttercream which we have worked with before in class.  This sticky consistency works well for the orange flowers because the petals stick to the cake.  The green buttercream leaves also stick and pipe better when the icing is very soft. 

The orange flowers were supposed to be Gerber daisies, but I couldn't get the flower petals flat enough.  But I looked up flowers that resemble the one that I made (I know it's a little backwards) and they resemble Blue Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium Monta), Prarie Star Flower, forget-me-nots, Harlinger, Verbena, Caltrops, or Alyssum.  I think forget-me-nots or Verbena are the closest, although I think forget-me-nots are only blue.  I really wish I could make a  buttercream Gerber daisy.

Albright-Knox Art Gallery 4.23.11

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY

Zhan Wang (Chinese, born 1962). Urban Landscape Buffalo, 2005-10. Stainless steel pots, pans, and kitchen utensils, 67 1/2 x 197 x 393 5/8 inches (171.5 x 500.4 x 999.8 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery. George B. and Jenny R. Mathews Fund, by exchange, 2010

I liked the mini brioche molds in this art piece in the Surveyor exhibit.  Here are some closeups. 

For a better wide shot see the gallery's website http://www.albrightknox.org/exhibitions/exhibition:02-18-2011-surveyor/.  Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the picture of this piece.

Dessert Deli at Prosit Restaurant 4.23.11

Dessert Deli, 716 Maple Road, Buffalo, NY

We did eat an excellent German Chocolate cake from Dessert Deli.  It was delish! And I'm not really a fan of coconut. It was chocolately and wonderful, but not too rich.  At least I didn't feel like I was going to die from eating the cake right after a super filling dinner of wienerschnitzel.

Chocolate buttermilk cake, coconut/pecan carmel mixture filling, chocolate buttercream icing

Prosit Restaurant, 5428 Main Street, Williamsville, NY

We went to this polish restaurant for Elsa's birthday.  On the dessert menu they had chocolate genoise with kirsch.  There were other elements which I recognized as well.  I remember being happy that I could identify each of the ingredients.  Most of the terms I didn't know 4 months ago.  I try to take note of what's on the dessert menu, even when I'm not eating the dessert.

Bistro Europa 4.22.11

Bistro Europa, 484 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY

No pics because I was so excited to eat the desserts, I forgot to take pictures before we devoured them.  We ordered the Europa Ho Ho with balaton cherry and the Apple/Pear Pie with Quark Ice Cream.  There may have been an allspice creme anglaise on the pie. I didn't taste any cheese flavor in the ice cream.

One of the most interesting things about this restaurant is the announcement on their website (this special was not available when we went) which I've copied below.

"Bistro Europa will now be offering 1/2 or whole roasted T-Meadow Farm pig’s head."

A Wedding and a Shower

The Grandview, 176 Rinaldi Boulevard, Poughkeepsie, NY (4.15.11)

My brother got married last Friday!  The wedding cake which the bride and groom selected was provided by the Grandview's banquet services.  The banding around the bottom of each tier is black.  It looks black in the pictures, but in the ballroom it looked a different color.  I suspect the cake portions that were served at the wedding were not from this exact cake since the cake was not removed from the ballroom early enough for cutting.  

The served dessert plate (which I don't have a good picture of) was titled something like Grandview cake sampler.  I actually tracked down a picture of the menu from the reception, but the menu card was enveloped in the dinner napkin, so you can't read the bottom line describing the dessert.  By the way, the cake tasted great (it was some kind of layer cake, possibly with chocolate) was awesome and was accompanied with  a blondie cookie which for me was the best part.

The Rye Grill & Bar, 1 Station Plaza, Rye, NY (4.17.11)

Just for decoration-- I was at the Rye Grill & Bar for Nicole's wedding shower.  I'm not sure who made this cake, but it is made from rolled towels, mesh, and silk flowers.

Here's the edible cake from the shower. It was strawberry shortcake and incredibly delicious.   It was brought from an outside place, but I didn't find out where.  There was also an incredible petit four cake sampler at each table (I regret not getting a picture), and had the most amazing red velvet and carrot cake pieces.  (And I don't like carrot cake).  But the petit fours were super fresh and moist.  Just delicious.

Mint Creme Anglaise

I have organic raspberries, and oh how a mint creme anglaise would be just perfect with that.  We have a practical on creme anglaise tomorrow, so I thought I would practice.  We'll probably just put vanilla extract in our custard tomorrow, but for some reason I wanted to try mint flavoured creme anglaise.  I made such a small amount (12 oz) that I couldn't temp the custard with my bimetallic stem thermometer, so I hope I cooked the custard correctly.  Here is a picture of how the custard coats the back of a metal spoon.

To infuse the mint, I used an unused, empty tea bag and filled it with 1 teaspoon of dried mint leaves.  Initially I was going to use fresh mint leaves, but I couldn't find any at my local Shaw's (to my suprise).    I put the mint leaf bag in the warm custard (after it was cooked) for about an hour.  After tasting, I think it gave the custard the perfect amount of fresh mint taste.  I also think there is a slight paper taste, so next time I'll try using my metal tea infuser instead of the paper bag.  Here's the mint leaf bag after I removed it from the custard.

I'm planning to buy a chocolate desssert from the local bakery tomorrow and plan to plate that with the creme anglaise and the raspberries. 

Elephant Walk 4.2.11

Elephant Walk, 2067 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

I've been dying to go to Elephant Walk since I went there for dinner a while back in Waltham.  There are three locations:  Waltham, Boston (Beacon St), and Cambridge.  This time I tried the Cambridge location since it's closer to my home.

Mousse aux Fruits de Passion
Refreshingly tart and sweet passion fruit mousse served in an almond lace cup; garnished with fresh pineapple macerated in dark rum, sugar and lemon juice

I've actually already had this dessert the last time I was at Elephant Walk.  However, it was plated differently.  But it was just as delicious, and with a very accurate description on the menu.  The mousse is very tart.  I didn't notice the pineapple tasting anything unlike fresh cut pineapple.  The almond cup was sweet and sticky.  For some reason I expected it to be crunchy, but it was flexible.  Maybe a little flexibility is good because it didn't shatter into a million pieces when you started eating the mousse.

Le Peche au Chocolat
A rich, creamy, chocolate truffle cake perfectly paired with raspberry sauce

Very rich, but very good.  Raspberry sauce was deliciuos too.  Interestingly, the cake dessert was set with the sauce towards the customer, while the mousse was placed in front of me with the sauce at 12 o'clock.