L-L-L-Luscious Lemon Cake

Today I bring you a very special guest post from the lovely Miss Susie-Q. Susie is quite the accomplished baker and was kind enough to make the PHENOMENAL cake we all enjoyed at my birthday party. I can't thank her enough still (for the cake and for helping wash the dishes after I sliced open my hand). Today is officially my last birthday related recipe so let's all sit back and enjoy a little cake.



If you ask me, cake is nature’s most perfect food. Okay, so maybe it leaves something to be desired from a nutritional standpoint, but whatever needs it fails to satisfy in the body, it more than makes up for with its ability to feed the soul. I do know people who dislike cake, but I am suspicious of them, in much the same way I would be suspicious of someone who doesn’t like birthdays or rainbows. Cake is celebration food. The point is not nutrition, but indulgence.

I have been baking for a long time. As a kid, my best friend would come over and we would pour over my mother’s cookbooks and after much deliberation and more than a little bickering, we would pick a recipe and spend the rest of the afternoon making it, then stuffing our faces. It should come as no surprise that I had a rather chubby adolescence. But as we entered different high schools, and drifted apart, I fell away from baking.

Then one foggy summer day, everything changed. I was working as a swim instructor. Berkeley doesn’t get real summers. It is typically terrible until about two in the afternoon, so I had essentially spent several hours trying to convince small children that they wanted to swim as they turned an increasingly unnerving shade of blue. And then there was cake. It was a coworker’s birthday, and they had picked up a sticky chocolate confection from a nearby bakery, and after the cold, uncomfortable and generally unpleasant morning, that cake was the best thing that could have possibly happened to me. I was hooked on cake. Every Thursday, for the next year, was Cake Day. I would come home on Wednesday evening to bake, and drag the cake around with me the following day, offering it to any and all takers until it was gone. There were chocolate cakes, pound cakes, a snickerdoodle cake, and as time went by, the recipes got more complex.



I’ve always felt that baking a cake is a great way to tell someone “hey, I like you.” So I was thrilled when Maya asked me to bake her a birthday cake. She had some very specific instructions: lemon cake, with lemon curd, and she didn’t like typical frostings, so it would have to be French meringue or whipped cream. I found a very highly rated lemon cake on epicurious.com, which was gluten-free (not necessary here). I found a recipe for whipped cream frosting, which needed to be stabilized. And I can’t eat eggs in any significant amount, so the lemon curd would be tricky. But all of those problems solved themselves. I made a substitution of both cake and regular unbleached flour for the rice flour and xanthan gum, figured out a good way to get the cream to keep its fluff, and Maya located a solid recipe for egg-free lemon curd, which I fixed up a smidge with some real butter for authenticity.

And so, after years of baking, and years of experimenting, I created my first original recipe. You won’t find it anywhere else, and it’s pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. Which I do.


I heartily concur.


Susie’s Lemon Cake

Cake:
1 cup canola oil
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 9 inch round pans. Line bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or wax paper, then grease paper.

Whisk together flours, salt, and baking powder until combined well. Stir together milk, canola oil (1 cup), vanilla, and zest in another bowl.

Beat together sugar and eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed just until combined, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour and milk mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until just combined.

Divide batter evenly between cake pans, smoothing tops, and bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of each cake layer comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.

Cool cake layers in pans on racks 10 minutes. Run a thin knife around edge of 1 cake layer and remove from pan, placing on rack. Cool layers right side up. Repeat with second layer. Cool layers completely. Remove paper before frosting.


Lemon Curd:
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbs Cornstarch
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
Pinch of salt
1-2 tbsp butter

In a saucepan, whisk together water, sugar, cornstarch, and salt until cornstarch is dissolved.

Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. When mixture thickens.

Reduce heat to low and cook for another minute, stirring constantly.

Pour mixture into a non-metallic bowl and add lemon juice and zest, mixing well. Add butter, mix.

Allow to cool and thicken at room temperature.

Can be refrigerated, covered, for several days. Before serving, beat thoroughly to a smooth, spreadable consistency.


Frosting:
1 tsp unflavored gelatin
4 tsp cold water
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp lemon extract
zest of one lemon

Combine gelatin and cold water in small saucepan. Let stand until thick. Place over low heat, stirring constantly just until gelatin dissolves. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Whip cream, sugar, lemon extract and lemon zest until slightly thickened. While beating slowly, gradually add gelatin to whipped cream mixture. Whip at high speed until stiff.

Assembly
Cut cake layers in half, and spread lemon curd on bottom half, cut side up. Replace top half (cut side down).

Place one newly reassembled cake on cake plate, and spread generous amount (1 cup or so) of whipped cream frosting almost to edges.

Place second cake on top of the first, and mound remaining whipped cream on top.

Dig in.

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The Heart of Darkness

I love mole. I mean I REALLY love mole. I love all kinds of mole - red, yellow, black, sweet, savory, spicy whatever. I would consider bathing in mole if possible. I bet it would be great for the skin, if you didn't mind being slightly orange I mean.

As with most things in my life, I prefer not to settle when it comes to my mole. I'll give most restaurant's "mole" a try once, sure. But I'm not going back for seconds if it doesn't pass muster. When it came down to what to have for my birthday dinner I knew it was going to be mole, and I knew I was going to have to make it myself.



I have made mole only once before and it required a small army of assistants and an ENTIRE day. It has taken almost 5 years to take it on again, not necessarily because I was intimidated, but because if a sauce, not even a whole dish but a sauce, takes that much effort you need a pretty good reason to make it. I think my own birthday is reason enough, and this time I am older, I am wiser, and I have a lot more practice. With Chef Rick Bayless behind me I decided I was ready, and this time I was going to be going it alone.

I am not going to lie, this is by no means a "simple" recipe. This isn't even the REALLY involved Oaxacan black mole (some with upwards of 28-30 ingredients), it is only a mole rojo - a comparatively "easy" variety with only 18-20 ingredients. It is not, however, a very difficult recipe. Time consuming, maybe, but not difficult. I promise if you read it through, break it down, and take it slow, it can be done.

And it will be worth it.



Mole Rojo Clasico
Classic Red Mole
Adapted from Rick Bayless' Mexico One Plate at a Time

10 ounces (5 medium or 3 large) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1 1/3 cup (about 6 1/2 ounces) sesame seeds
1 cup rich-tasting pork lard or vegetable oil, plus a little more if necessary
6 ounces dried mulato chiles, stemmed, seeded and torn into large flat pieces
8 ounces dried pasilla-ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded and torn into large flat pieces
8 garlic cloves, peeled
1 1/4 cup (about 5 ounces) whole almonds, with skin
1 cup (about 4 ounces) raisins
1 teaspoon Mexican canela, or regular cinnamon, ground
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, ground
1/2 teaspoon anise seed
1/4 teaspoon cloves, ground
1 bolillo or firm white roll, darkly toasted and broken into several pieces
2 ounces (about 2/3 of a 3.3-ounce tablet) Mexican chocolate
3 quarts chicken or vegetable broth (I only used 2, but good to have the full amount)
Salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup brown sugar

Prep the Ingredients
1) Measure out and prepare all your ingredients. I cannot stress this enough.

2) Stem and deseed the chiles and tear into large pieces if not already complete.

3) On a rimmed baking sheet or small baking pan lined with foil, roast the tomatillos 4 inches below a very hot broiler until splotchy black and thoroughly soft, about 5-10 minutes per side depending on size and broiler temp. Scrape into a large bowl.

4) In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds, stirringly continuously, until golden, about 5 minutes. Scrape half of them in with the tomatillos. Reserve the remainder for sprinkling on the chicken.

Brown and Soak the chiles
Turn on an exhaust fan or open a kitchen door or window for this part.

5) Fill a kettle with water to its highest level and put on to heat.

6) In a very large soup pot (I used a 7-quart enamel cast iron pot), heat your fat over medium.

7) When the oil is hot, fry the chiles, three or four pieces at a time, flipping them nearly constantly with tongs until their interior side has changed to a lighter color, about 20 or 30 seconds total frying time. Don’t toast so darkly that they begin to smoke—that would make the mole bitter.

8) As they’re done, remove them to a large bowl (not the tomatillo bowl), being careful to drain as much fat as possible back into the pot. Cover the toasted chiles with hot water from the kettle and let rehydrate 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to insure even soaking.

Brown the Other Ingredients
9) Remove any stray chile seeds left in the fat. With the pot still over medium heat, fry the garlic and almonds, stirring regularly, until browned (the garlic should be soft), about 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove to the tomatillo bowl, draining as much fat as possible back into the pot.

10) Add the raisins to the hot pot. Stir for 20 or 30 seconds, until they’ve puffed and browned slightly. Scoop them out, draining as much of the fat as possible back into the pot, and add to the tomatillos.

-Set the pan aside off the heat.

11) To the tomatillo mixture, add the cinnamon, black pepper, anise, cloves, bread and chocolate. Add 2 cups water and stir to combine.

Blend, strain, cook
12) Into a large measuring cup, small stockpot, or pitcher, tip off the chiles’ soaking liquid. Taste the liquid: if it’s not bitter, reserve about 6 cups of the liquid. (if you’re short, add water to make up the shortfall). If bitter, pour it out and measure 6 cups water.

13) Scoop half of the chiles into a blender jar, pour in half of the soaking liquid (or water) and blend to a smooth puree. Press through a medium-mesh strainer into a large bowl; discard the bits of skin and seeds that don’t pass through the strainer. Repeat with the remaining chiles.

14) Return the pot to medium heat. When hot again, pour in the chile puree—it should sizzle sharply and, if the pan is sufficiently hot, the mixture should never stop boiling. Stir every couple of minutes until the chile puree has darkened and reduced to the consistency of tomato paste, about a half hour.

15) In two batches, blend the tomatillo mixture as smoothly as possible (you may need an extra 1/2 cup water to keep everything moving through the blades), then strain it in to the large bowl that contained the pureed chiles.

16) When the chile paste has reduced, add the tomatillo mixture to the pot and cook, stirring every few minutes until darker and thicker, 15 to 20 minutes.

Simmer
17) When the chile/tomatillo mixture has reduced, add the broth to the pot until it is the thickness of “cream soup.” Briskly simmer the mixture over medium to medium-low heat for about 2 hours for all the flavors to come together and mellow.

-If the mole thickens beyond the consistency of soup, add in more broth. If more liquid is needed to retain consistency, add water.

18) Taste and season the mole with salt (usually about 4 teaspoons) and the sugar.

Serve
Pour over cooked chicken or turkey (I used shredded chicken to make it more party friendly/taco ready) or you can cool, cover and refrigerate until you're ready to use. When you're ready to use the mole, rewarm over medium-medium-low heat.

*This recipe can easily be adapted to be vegan/vegetarian by using vegetable oil/vegetable broth. Serve over Tofu, seitan, or your protein of choice.

**Rick suggests using a splatter screen to prevent some of the clean-up. I don’t have one, but I can heartily agree with his suggestion – I am still finding errant splatters of chile more than a week later.

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It's My Party and I'll Die if I Want To

Mi casa es su casa on Sunday, May 16th, for a low-key and informal celebration of my 25th birthday. There will be food. There will be music. There will be drinks. There will be board games. There may even be cake.

Please bring yourself, your empty stomach, and something to share.

Yes, that is correct, I recently had a little birthday and Sunday was my party. There was food, games, laughter, and a minimum of bloodshed (more about that next time). It was an intimate gathering of friends and exactly what I wanted. A BIG thank you to all my friends who were there and there in spirit.



















It was a great fiesta and I got to do two of my favorite things - cook, and feed people. Look for the slaw and mole recipes later this week.

*All photos of people courtesy of J. Buchleitner (because I forgot to take pics after we ate). Opening picture is a found image - I cannot seem find this image again or its owner. If this is your image please let me know if you would like me to take it down, if it is okay to leave up please let me know how to credit you!

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A Post that IS About Pie

As of Saturday, Spring has sprung. It seems like the start of the season has geared me up for some serious baking. Winter was all about braises, chiles, and soup, but so far Spring is all about butter and flour.



It started innocently enough with pie for a friend's birthday. I'll call this the mystery caramel apple pie, mostly because I never actually had any and therefore it is a mystery to me as to how this pie turned out. I decided to fill that sweet void by baking some cookies, then a few microwave cupcakes, a pie for pi-day, and suddenly last weekend I was on my third pie (and third pound of butter) this month.



This latest pie actually brings us right back to where we started, a birthday pie! This pie was not a mystery caramel apple pie, but it was a blackberry Asian pear surprise pie. This pie was a surprise in that it was a surprise as to whether it would actually taste good. Prior to making this pie, I had actually never eaten an Asian pear.



It started as a Strawberry Rhubarb pie, with an olive oil crust and an oat crumble to make it more "healthy." Unfortunately I could find nary a stalk of rhubarb, and when I went to the store the were sold out of strawberries (seriously, who sells out of strawberries?!). So I grabbed what was on sale/in-season which happened to be Asian pears and blackberries. If the 14 diners who inhaled it on Saturday night are any indication, I think it it worked out.




Blackberry Asian Pear (Surprise) Pie
Crust
1 cup AP Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1/2 cup COLD water

Filling
2 Asian Pears, Aprox 3 cups of fruit, 1/2 inch dice
12 oz of Blackberries
1/4 tsp ginger powder
2 tbs sugar
zest of one tangerine
juice of 1/2 lemon
4 heaping tbs of flour

Crumble Topping
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
6 tbs butter

Prepare the Crust
1) Prepare a 9" pie pan by lightly greasing it with olive oil. Or if you are me and are missing your pie pan, line a 9" cake pan with parchment and hope for the best.
2) Combine the flours, salt, and sugar in a medium sized mixing bowl.
3) Add the oil and mix it in with a fork.
4) Add the water, mix with the fork until it is absorbed, then knead lightly (I do this with just one hand, in the bowl) until the dough comes together into a ball.
5) Turn the dough out on a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle a little flour on the ball of dough and on the rolling pin, and roll the dough out into a circle large enough to fit your tart pan. Turn the dough by 45 degrees (8 turns to a circle) every time you roll the pin forward and back, adding a little more flour underneath and on the dough if it seems on the verge of becoming sticky. Be quick and sure of yourself, try not to overwork the dough.
6) Transfer the dough carefully into the prepared pan and line it neatly. Trim the excess dough (delicious baked with a little cinnamon and sugar), and place the pan in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

While the crust is resting...

Prepare the filling
7) Place all of the ingredients except the flour in a large bowl. Carefully mix the ingredients mix ingredients together with a folding motion and either a large spoon or spatula. Mix just enough to distribute the spices and citrus.
8) Sprinkle the flour over the mixed fruit and mix gently to combine. Try to keep the blackberries whole.

and...
Prepare the Topping
9) Use a fork to combine the crumble ingredients, if you are having difficulty incorporating the butter, melt until softened but not liquefied (aprox 15-30 seconds)

then...
Put it All Together
10) Blind bake the crust - take the crust out of the fridge, prick it repeatedly with a fork, and bake at 400 degrees for 7-10 minutes. Just to dry the surface to the touch.
11) Gently fill the crust with the pie filling, and evenly top with crumble topping.
12) Bake at 400 degrees for an additional 15-18 minutes (until lightly golden brown), then lower the temp to 350 and bake until the crust is cooked and the topping is a deep golden brown, about 15 minutes depending on the oven and how long you cooked prior to the final bake.

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