Monday, October 24, 2005

Cherry Clafoutis

Made Cherry Clafoutis from Michel Roux's Eggs with my pastry friend Will. I didn't take any picures until afterwards, but it was surprisingly straightforward... stir, pour, bake. Hard to describe, though. Not quite a cake. Not quite a tart. Maybe a sweet, fluffy, waffley, quichey kinda thing. I'd never had one before.

Cherry Clafoutis 1 Cherry Clafoutis 2

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Chocolate Cupcakes with Coffee Meringue

Had the urge to make cupcakes for a little while now, so I used my section's turn to bring snacks to chorus tonight as an excuse to make some. I used the Essential Chocolate Cake Recipe from Dede Wilson's Wedding Cakes You Can Make; basically the same recipe I used for the wedding cake last year. I also wanted to try using a meringue instead of a buttercream as the frosting. I used an italian buttercream recipe, melted sugar poured into whipped egg whites, and just left out the butter. Also added some instant coffee for a flavor I thought would complement the chocolate cake well. The meringue looked really good piped into a swirl on the cupcakes. I used my little culinary torch to toast the outside a bit, like you'd see on a lemon meringue pie. After 24 cupcakes, I still had quite a bit of meringue left, so I piped it into swirls on a baking sheet and popped it into the oven to make meringue cookies. Crispy.

Chocolate Cupcakes Chocolate Cupcakes with Coffee Meringue Chocolate Cupcakes with toasted Coffee Meringue Coffee Meringues going into oven Coffee Meringues

Monday, October 03, 2005

Teiglach

For a Rosh Hashanah dinner tonight I made teiglach, a traditional Lithuanian Jewish dessert. It's basically bits of dough cooked in boiling honey with ginger and lemon zest, then tossed with walnuts. When I called them to ask about teiglach, my family knew exactly what I was talking about, but I can't recall ever having actually eaten it myself. Thus, I am still not sure whether it turned out like it's supposed to or not. It looks pretty. The bread bits are... a little tougher than I would have liked. Maybe that's the intent. Let's assume so.

The recipe I used was from Claudia Roden's The Book of Jewish Food.

Teiglach ingredients Teiglach - mixing Teiglach - kneading dough Teiglach - shaping and cutting dough Teiglach - cooking in honey mixture Teiglach - honey simmering Teiglach