What's Baking?: Cassatedde

It's time for another What's Baking? entry!  This month, Ali from Sparks from the Kitchen challenged us to make a dish celebrating our heritage.  The largest part of my background is Italian, so that's where my mind immediately went.  Plus, I mean, there's a huge list of delicious Italian pastries to choose from!  I've already made pignoli, tiramisu, amaretti, and pasticiotti, so I obviously like Italian desserts...the trick was finding one that I haven't made before!  I was perusing Cooking With Nonna to get some ideas, and cassatedde jumped out at me.  They looked like cannoli, which I love, but without the need for cannoli forms, which I don't have.  Now, as it turns out, they're rather different from cannoli, but still very delicious!  A flaky pastry is filled with a slightly sweetened mixture of ground almonds and ricotta...how could it be bad?!  If you're looking for an Italian pastry that's a little bit different, I highly recommend cassatedde.

Cassatedde (adapted from Cooking with Nonna)

• 1 lb. flour
• 2.5 oz. shortening
• 5 oz. sugar, divided
• 1 egg plus 1 yolk, divided
• 3/4 c. white wine
• 1 lb. ricotta
• 1/4 lb. almond flour (you can substitute 1/4 lb. of almonds ground in a food processor, but the filling will not be as smooth)
• Splash of almond extract

In a stand mixer, mix the flour, shortening, 2 oz. sugar, 1 egg yolk, and white wine until a dough forms.  You may need a tad more than 3/4 c. wine.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and let it rest for at least 1 hour.

Meanwhile, combine the ricotta, almond flour or ground almonds, almond extract, and remaining 3 oz of sugar.  Refrigerate the filling until it is needed.  Take the remaining egg and scramble it with a little bit of water.

Roll the dough out to about 1/16" thick--it needs to be pretty thin.  Cut out 3" rounds.  Brush the edges with the egg wash, and fill with about half a tablespoon of filling.  Fold it over, and seal the edges.  An empanada press works great for this.

If baking the cookies, brush with canola or spritz with cooking spray, and bake at 375*F for 7-10 minutes, or until crispy.  If frying, fry the cookies at 375*F for 3 minutes or until golden brown.  If desired, dust with powdered sugar when cool.  As written, the recipe makes about 5 dozen cassatedde.

Eat, Pray, Love Party: Italy

As promised, here is part 1 of my Eat, Pray, Love party series...Italy! For the Italian food, I made meatballs in spaghetti sauce (both TOP-SECRET family recipes), bruschetta (add some balsamic vinegar and garlic to the topping, and just toast the bread by itself, then top with raw topping), and amaretti cookies. These little guys were quite the hit! And the whole recipe is made in your food processor...it really doesn't get any easier than that! Check out the recipe below...


Amaretti Cookies (from Simply Recipes)

• 2 1/2 c. almond flour
• 1 1/4 c. granulated sugar, plus more for dusting
  
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. almond extract

In a food processor, pulse together the almond flour and 1 1/4 c. sugar until combined. Add the extracts, and pulse a few more times. Add in the egg whites, one at a time, processing until the dough is smooth.

Scoop out the dough (I used my smallest cookie scoop--about 2 tsp.) onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Sprinkle with additional granulated sugar. If you like them in pretty little balls, leave as-is. If you prefer a flatter cookie, now would be an excellent time to flatten them out a little. Bake at 300 degrees for ~25 minutes.

Note: the original recipe says to bake until golden brown...which I did, and it ended up being closer to 35-40 minutes, and my cookies were severely overcooked and somewhat dry. Blah. So, I recommend sticking to the 25 minutes, whether or not they're golden brown!

Pignoli

I had some friends over for dinner yesterday...they love Italian food, so I was excited to be able to cook for them, especially since it meant I got to try out a few of the Italian recipes I grew up on! This is not one of them. It's a classic Italian cookie, but not a family recipe. It is, however, one of my all-time favorite cookies, and now I know how to make them at home (which is excellent, since the nearest Italian pastry shop is a solid 2 1/2-hour drive away!). I will not be making them on any regular basis, however, since these delectable little morsels are not cheap. Between the almond paste and the pine nuts, they cost a pretty penny to make...but they're well worth it! Just don't make them for a crowd!


Pignoli (recipe from Allrecipes.com)

• 8 oz. almond paste (the kind in a can, not a tube)
• 1 c. white sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 3/4 c. pine nuts

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Meanwhile, pulse together the almond paste and sugar in a food processor--the goal is to form a crumbly mixture. If you process for too long, or let it sit for too long after processing, it will glob up into a big ball that is difficult to work with. So, as soon as the almond paste and sugar are in crumbs, add them to the whipped egg whites. Carefully fold the mixture together until it is well-combined.

Drop by rounded teaspoon (or by your smallest cookie dough scoop) onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprayed with cooking spray. Top each cookie with a generous sprinkling of pine nuts. Bake at 325 degrees F for 18-20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown around the edges (note: the original recipe says to bake for 10-12 minutes, but mine were nowhere near done at that point). Let cool on the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack. Yield: 2 dozen cookies.

Ganache is Good Nosh

Ganache is a pretty awesome combination of chocolate and cream.  And with those ingredients in the right proportions, it's pretty hard to go wrong.  Here are three (semi-)recent recipes:


Chocolate Truffles
Full credit to Alton Brown on this one

• 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine (I used dark chocolate)
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Heat the corn syrup and cream (microwave, stove, your choice) until small bubbles appear.  Pour over chopped chocolate & butter and walk away.  Don't stir.  Come back 5 minutes later, and stir just until the mixture comes together.

Now the fun part--add the booze of your choice...Alton says 1/4 cup for the whole recipe; I'm pretty sure I used closer to 1/3, as I divided the ganache into 4 flavors (banana, mint, raspberry, and Irish cream.  Irish cream and banana were my favorites!).  Stir until it incorporates, and then chill as long as possible.

Banana ganache in a white chocolate heart

Here's where I take a detour from Alton.  You've got a ridiculously delicious (and alcoholic) chocolate ganache, and I think hand dipping truffles is a pain in the butt--you need to coat them several times to get any sort of a shell, and you get it all over your hands, so more goes in your mouth than in the truffle (I mean....).  My solution?  Make shells, fill with ganache, and you have truffle-esque creations with much less headache.  If you're really lazy, you can fill two shells and stick them together, as opposed to pouring on a chocolate lid.

Side note: I also made mango truffles, signified by the "M," as we had an overripe mango to use.  I pureed it, processed it with about half a box of cream cheese, and added a few dashes of cinnamon. This went into chocolate shells.  Mmmm mmmm good, sort of like a tropical cannoli cream.

Four Tiers of Chocolate Bliss
Partly family recipe, part Wayne Glissen's Baking, and part inspiration

-Your favorite chocolate cake, prepared in tiers (or not)

-Chocolate ganache (1 pound of finely chopped chocolate (I used dark), 1 cup of scalded (heat until small bubbles) cream.  Mix as before.

-Super-stable & workable chocolate buttercream (healthy folks, run away)

Combine 2 sticks softened butter with 1/2 cup shortening (this amount won't affect the taste but will stabilize the frosting like no other).  Beat with electric mixer until soft.  Add 3 3/4 cup (1 pound) powdered sugar.  Beat in EITHER 1 pasteurized egg white (if your grocery miraculously has them) or 1/8 c. egg beaters.  Melt 3 oz. chocolate and cool to room temp.  Beat into frosting, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Layer cake with ganache, being careful to not spread ganache past edge of next tier.  Frost with chocolate buttercream.  Pipe rosettes/decorations as desired.  I added in sugar pearls (100% edible).


Macarons!
Full credit to Joe Pastry's most excellent blog

So, what do you do if you still have leftover ganache?  This was my conundrum yesterday evening.  I had about a cup of ganache, and a surplus bag of almonds.  And, of course, Joe Pastry's blog.  So I made macarons, NOT to be confused with macaroons.

Joe's recipe, with my edits based on convenience:
-4 ounces blanched almonds
-7 ounces powdered sugar
-3 egg whites (you're supposed to age them; I didn't--this was a last-minute baking decision so I didn't have the time)
-1.75 ounces granulated sugar

Pulverize the almonds in a food processor.  If you do them alone they get granulated, but if you process them with the powdered sugar they become a very fine powder.

Whip the egg whites (with any desired coloring) to soft peaks, add the granulated sugar and whip to stiff peaks.  Stir in the almond-sugar powder, then fold until you see the mixture start to become looser.  Drop a test dollop onto parchment--it should settle down into a smooth (but not liquefied) coin.  If it's too thick (peaks remain), stir a bit more.  Plop or pipe equal-sized drops onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment.  Let them sit on the sheet for 30ish minutes, until they've formed a bit of a skin.  This is a positive attribute; trust me.

After they've rested for 30 min, bake at 300 degrees for 12 minutes, and delight in the gorgeous little feet that your macarons have developed.

Let cool, remove from sheet, and fill with any manner of anything spreadable...especially ganache.

Here's the cake again, just because I'm rather proud of my first-ever tiered cake!

4th of July Treats

So, I was not feeling a fruit pizza, Jello, or a trifle...and cupcakes are not exactly my forte...but I still wanted to make something fun and 4th of July-themed for the bbq my dance instructors were hosting. If that's not a challenge, I don't know what is. So, I asked the What's Cooking board on The Nest for some inspiration...and, lo and behold, I found it. I bring you...Strawberry and Blueberry Cream Puffs and Honey Cream Cheese-Stuffed Strawberries. Apologies in advance for the poor quality of the pictures...I snapped them at the last second at my gracious hosts' house.

Strawberry and Blueberry Cream Puffs (recipe from Brownie, who adapted it from Le Cordon Blue's baking textbook)

Dough

• 1/2 c. water
• 1/2 c. skim milk
• 9 Tbl. butter
• 1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 5 eggs
• 1 egg yolk

Heat milk, water, and butter together in a saucepan until it comes to a full boil. Remove from heat and pour in flour all at once. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan.
Transfer dough ball into the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix in eggs and yolk one at a time, waiting until each one is thoroughly incorporated before adding the next.

Pipe cream puffs onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 25 minutes (depends on size of cream puffs, but that's what worked for me), or until golden brown and full puffed. Turn the oven off. Poke a small hole with a toothpick in each puff, then return puffs to the (turned off!) oven--leaving the door ajar--for 5 minutes to let the puffs dry out.

A few notes...1) according to Brownie, don't lick the spoon, because it's called "paste" for a reason. 2) According to me, if you forget to poke the holes in your puffs, they will deflate and not be as puffy. 3) If your oven mysteriously turns itself off between batches, and you put the piped dough in a cool oven, the puffs will not puff in the first place. And, 4) If you completely forget about the drying out step for both batches, it will probably also negatively affect the puffiness of the final product. So my cream puffs weren't very puffy. However, that didn't stop me from trying to stuff them with pastry cream anyways!

Pastry Cream

• 2 c. skim milk
• 12 Tbl. sugar, divided
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 egg
• Rounded 1/3 c. cornstarch
• 2 Tbl. butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2-3 Tbl. strawberry wine or mead
• 2-3 Tbl. blueberry wine or mead

Combine milk and 6 Tbl. sugar in a saucepan, and bring just to a boil over medium heat.

Whisk together 2 egg yolks and 1 egg until light in color. Whisk in a rounded 1/3 c. of cornstarch and remaining 6 Tbl. sugar.

Temper egg mixture by adding in about 1/3 of the hot milk mixture in a SLOW, STEADY STREAM, WHISKING CONSTANTLY. Hint: use a measuring cup to accomplish the transfer, rather than trying to pour from the saucepan using only one hand. Add egg mixture (that now contains some of the milk mixture) to the saucepan of milk, and whisk constantly until mixture thickens.

Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla extract. Pour through sieve into two separate bowls. Add strawberry wine to one and the blueberry wine to the other, and stir to combine. Cover with plastic wrap (make sure to press it down against the surface to prevent a skin from forming!), and refrigerate overnight.

Notes...1) If you're just making vanilla pastry cream (and therefore not adding additional liquid at the end), just use 1/3 c. cornstarch, rather than the rounded 1/3 c. 2) Feel free to substitute your favorite liqueur or fruit puree or whatever for the strawberry and blueberry wine. 3) I used strawberry and blueberry melomel from Hill Top Berry Farm and Winery, one of my favorite vineyards in Virginia!

To assemble

Pipe pastry cream into cream puffs. If you're really good, you can do this without having to split the cream puffs, so they look prettier. If they happen to be not very puffy, you will have a lot of pastry cream leftover...but that's ok, because it tastes good on its own. You'll want to use a piping tip that's small enough to pierce the cream puffs easily and won't mar their appearance too much, but big enough for the pastry cream to pass through relatively easily.


Honey Cream Cheese-Stuffed Strawberries (adapted from Food Network)

• 2 lbs. fresh strawberries
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  
• 1/4 c. powdered sugar
• 2-3 Tbl. honey
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. almond extract
• Blue candy melts
  

Wash strawberries, and cut a circle around each stem...the top of the strawberry should then easily pull off, revealing a lovely hollow area inside the berry that is perfect for stuffing with cream cheese.

Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, honey, and almond extract in a bowl. I used about 3 Tbl. of honey and 1/4 tsp. of almond extract, and the honey flavor overpowered the almond flavor more than I wanted, so taste as you go, and adjust the balance of these two flavorings to your taste!

Fill each strawberry with cream cheese mixture (a piping bag makes quick work of this). Melt the blue chocolate melts (you won't need many), and drizzle over the strawberries. Or, if your chocolate craving is a little more insistent, dip the strawberries into the melted blue chocolate (be sure to leave some of the red strawberry showing so you've still got your red, white, and blue!).

Toasted Almond Cheesecake

It was my friend Anita's birthday today, so, naturally, I offered to make her the treat of her choice. She picked cheesecake. I needed more inspiration than that, so I turned to the source of many good and bad ideas--alcohol. She informed me that her favorite mixed drink is called a "toasted almond," which appears to be equal amounts amaretto, Kahlua, and cream...in other words, the perfect flavors to incorporate into a cheesecake.

I recalled my family's Easter dinner celebration, when my father (if I'm Blondie, and Syracuse is Brownie, then my mother would be Reddie, and my father would be Blackie--I'm a biologist, and I'm still trying to figure out how that's genetically possible) made this cheesecake from Giada De Laurentiis. It seemed like an excellent base recipe, and thus, the Toasted Almond Cheesecake was born...

• 1 c. slivered almonds, lightly toasted
• 2/3 c. graham cracker crumbs
• 3 Tbl. sugar
• 4 Tbl. unsalted butter, melted
• 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 (8-ounce) containers mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. Kahlua
• 1 Tbl. almond extract
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, room temperature

Crust
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 9-inch diameter springform pan with parchment paper. Finely grind the almonds, graham cracker crumbs, and 3 Tbl. sugar in a food processor. Add the butter and process until moist crumbs form. Press the almond mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pan (not on the sides of the pan). Bake the crust at 350 degrees until it is set and beginning to brown, about 12 minutes. Cool.

Filling
Decrease the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.

Cream together the cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, and sugar in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in the almond extract, Kahlua, and vanilla. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

Pour cheesecake batter over cooled crust. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hr and 5 min, then turn off oven and leave cheesecake in the oven one hour longer. Center will still be jiggly. Refrigerate 8 hrs to 2 days.

I put a pan of water on the lower rack for the whole cooking time (no patience for things like water baths). The cheesecake cracked a little around the edges, but as it cooled, this became less noticeable. The almond flavor was great, but it overpowered the Kahlua--fine by me, as I'm not the biggest coffee fan, anyways, but for a more authentic "Toasted Almond" flavor, I'd recommend 2 tsp. almond extract and maybe 5-6 Tbl. Kahlua. I would have used amaretto and Kahlua, but I was nervous about adding too much liquid, so I decided to stick with the more concentrated almond extract to get that flavor. The texture was firmer toward the edges (more New York-style) and delightfully creamy in the center. All in all, a rousing success. And yes, I used canned whipped cream to decorate it. So sue me.