pistachio madeleines

in combination with the pistachio doughnut making i had a few weeks ago and my induction to madeleine cookies, i decided that at some point i would make pistachio madeleines. since some friends from boston were hosting a lovely hot pot dinner during their return to nyc for president's day weekend, i figured it was a perfect occasion to attempt baking these cookies and seeing what everyone thought.

using a brown butter madeleine recipe taken from my new york times dessert cookbook, i adapted the recipe a little bit by adding some finely grounded pistachio nuts. i found however that the recipe's call for the zest of a whole lemon really overpowered the flavor of the pistachios and in the end tasted more like lemon madeleines. although it was still very good, i've adjusted the recipe to omit the lemon zest and instead added 1/4 ts of vanilla extract.

pistachio madeleines

adapted from nytimes dessert cookbook "two-day madeleines with brown butter"

yield: 24 lg cookies or more for a smaller madeleine mold

7 tb unsalted butter

5 lg eggs

1/2 c. + 3 tb sugar

1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

lg pinch of sea salt

1 ts baking powder

1/4 ts pure vanilla extract

1/3 c. pistachio nuts, finely ground

additional butter and flour for dusting

• in a small pan, melt butter over medium heat. be sure to stir the butter and scrape bottom of pan to keep the solids from sticking and burning. once the butter has browned and smells nutty remove from heat. i like to keep the brown bits in the cookies but you can use a sieve and strain the bits out. keep the melted butter someplace warm.
• using a hand mixer, beat together the eggs and sugar until fluffy and light. sift flour, salt and baking powder over the egg/sugar mixture and and fold together with a spatula until just combined. then pour in the melted butter, vanilla extract and pistachio nuts into the mixture, fold together until combined. cover the bowl and place the mixture into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
• preheat the oven to 375 degrees. *butter generously and flour the madeleine pan and using a pastry bag, pipe the mixture into the molds (about 3/4 full). bake the madeleines until a hump forms and the edges are browned, depending on the size madeleine pan you have, this can take from 6 to 8 minutes. once the pan is removed from the oven, bang the pan onto a counter to release the cookies from the molds. carefully remove any that stick. repeat from * until all the batter is used up. 
• keep warm in a napkin and serve immediately or once cooled, place in an airtight container for up to 4 days. 
  

homemade vanilla-blueberry ice cream

not only did i get an awesome dessert cookbook for my birthday.... i also got a cuisinart ice-20 aka ice cream maker! ahhh!!! i confess that i'm not the biggest ice cream fan, but the idea that i can make my own ice cream, at any time, and any flavor makes me giddy! mind you, the cuisinart ice-20 isn't limited to ice cream making only, one can certainly make sorbets, gelato, and (according to the recipe booklet it came with) frozen drinks. 

the process of making ice cream is pretty easy, it just requires a little thinking ahead - the "bowl" requires at least 12 hrs of freezing time and the mixture needs some time to cool down. but once you had those put together, you dump all the ingredients into the bowl and the machine does the rest. since i've never made ice cream before, i did some reading and it seems like different mixtures respond to different makers (that is the ratio of sugar to liquid to fat) can turn out a different texture (soft-serve, icy, creamy, etc). i found a really nice recipe for vanilla ice cream on david lebovitz's blog. limited to only a few ingredients, it seemed like the right one to start off with. i didn't want to go crazy just yet (note the candied bacon ice cream also on his site) and thought something simple would help me get myself acquainted. i also had some fresh blueberries on hand that were about to go bad and thought they would make a nice addition to the ice cream. 

the whole thing took no time to get together, once the custard had cooled, it was easy to just pour the mixture in and let the machine do its thing for 20 minutes. about 15 minutes into the mixing process i threw in the blueberries which i had frozen ahead of time - i was concerned if the blueberries would break down too much while in the mixer, it'd turn into a purple mess. however, a few broken pieces of blueberries would have been a nice addition for texture. even so, the final product was really rich and creamy vanilla ice cream. the slight tartness of the blueberry bits cut into the sweetness in the ice cream which for me can occasionally be a little too much. 

keep that head o' yours warm

after knitting up my own hat not too long ago, my buddy mr. a, requested i help him keep his head and ears warm for the winter and knit him a hat. good thing i handed the finished hat over to him last weekend cus this weekend has just turned brrrrr after a near perfect week of 50-60 degree weather!

following the directions from dropped a stitch i used the same yarn, plymouth encore worsted in #45 (olive), and found that knitting the hat went really quick. i followed the pattern for the adult m-xl size figuring it would be ok for mr. a's noggin'. surprised at how quickly the project was going, my carelessness skipped over the "knit 1 inch plain" step so i went from the ribbing portion straight into decreasing (d'oooooh!!). i knew something was "off" about the way the hat was looking but kept on going. of course once it was done, it was a weird, stumpy skull-like cap that just seemed really really big (i've got a pretty large head and it was really loose on me). 

ripping the whole thing apart (d'oooooh!!) to restart the project, i read through the directions again and of course i noticed that i had to knit at least 1" before decreasing, taking that into account, i also decreased to the child's size and casted on 88 stitches instead of 96. the plymouth yarn was really stretchy and figured decreasing the stitches would be fine - i also decided to knit 2 strands together since i really wanted some thick and warm (the 1 strand hat was nice but i worried wouldn't be warm enough). so i restarted the hat and in the end still felt that the hat would be too big (the 2 strands sorta "stretched" it out a bit more). this time i was able to have mr. a try it on. i was right. the hat was waaaaaay too loose on him and it was also not long enough (it didn't really cover his ears). arrrgh!

ripping the hat apart... aaaagain (d'oooooh!!) this time around i casted on 72 stitches and increased the plain knit to 1 1/2 inches (i knew that once i started decreasing, the rows would go really quick since there were less stitches casted on originally). lo' and behold - 3rd time's a charm because it definitely fit the way it should! mr. a was thoroughly pleased as i handed him the hat over our brunch at joedoe in the east village. 

the completed hat modeled by mr. a himself. schnazzy!

bittersweet chocolate and pear cake

invited over for a potluck dinner last saturday, i was concerned that the other person on "dessert duty" might bring cupcakes. then luck would have it, smitten kitchen posted up this recipe for a bittersweet chocolate and pear cake - chocolate is pretty much a fan with anyone but since i prefer desserts that are not predominately chocolate, i thought this would be a really nice to make. luckily i made the right choice because the other guest made chocolate vegan cupcakes that were really tasty. thinking back now i wish i had asked for the recipe (apparently it's an old family recipe from the depression era... how cool is that?)

back to the cake! prepping the ingredients were really easy and took no time to assemble. i particularly loved the part when i threw the browned butter in the batter... there was a smell that was unbelievably intoxicating - a hint of the goodness to come!

so once the cake was baked, cooled and transported to bed-stuy - i reheated the cake a little bit and served it up with some almond-cinnamon whipped cream. super yummy and a nice balance of chocolate and fruit. the pear held up really nicely (not mushy) and the choice of bittersweet chocolate was just enough that it didn't overwhelm the cake which yielded a hint of buttery-nuttiness that was just perfect. unfortunately i didn't get to photograph a slice of the cake but it's not how it looked but how it tasted... and it's definitely a keeper!

**update: i added a picture showing the inside of the cake (of course that means i baked this cake again, cus it's that good!)

a happy bday to me... 6 days later

a few months ago, i happened upon the metropolitan opera house website and saw that my favorite opera which is based on the greek mythology, orpheus and eurydice would be in production right around my actual birthday. not the biggest fan of celebrating birthdays in general (many disappointed birthdays past) i thought going to see gluck's orfeo y euridice would be a nice gift to myself. 

i was able to round up a few interested parties (including an opera newbie! whoo hoo!) to join me for the jan. 28th performance. we started off with a quick bite at bouchon bakery at the time warner center, remarked on the excellent sweet butter served with the rolls, discussed my celery root conundrum, finished with a single (or double shot) of espresso and headed off to the opera house. the walk was quick, the air was crisp, and we were ready for some opera. this production which was choreographed by mark morris and costumes designed by isaac mizrahi was contemporary and really enjoyable for 90 minutes (without intermission).

a picture of our view, the orchestra and people sitting below.... before i got yelled at by a security guard to not take pictures. bagh!

i have to admit that i had mistaken my operas... not at all an expert or entirely familiar with operas in general, the first time my ears perked up to any kind of opera was in my (mandatory) music humanities course in college. we were listening to monteverdi's l'orfeo in class and i found myself having to go the library to listen to the entire recording. i just sat there amazed and totally feeling my guts in my throat the entire time... some background info: this opera was written in 1607 (no typo there - 1607)... it's considered to be possibly one of the first operas ever written and essentially the model to which other operas aspire to achieve. undeniably heart-wrenching and beautiful, i can absolutely understand why.

so why do i bring this up? well to credit my earnestness - upon seeing that the met was staging a production of "orfeo y euridice" my mind immediately leapt to monteverdi's version with no familiarity to gluck's opera. let's just say.... they're completely different, but not in a bad way. it was just different than from what i had been expecting. as someone totally uneducated to the nuances of operas (aria, rondo form and all those fancy words) - in plain speak, gluck's story is "loosely" based on the greek mythology and the pace of the opera felt quick in a sense that once orfeo looks back, euridice is immediately taken away and after a brief threat to kill himself, euridice is quickly returned to him. it felt abrupt and i think left me a little "oh, and that's it?" sorta of feeling whereas the opera developed by monteverdi is longer (usually running about 2-3 hours) making the tragedy just ever so much longer... but regardless of the opera's length the performances were amazing and the range in voices left me undeniably in awe. 

the lobby of the met which apparently was ok to take pictures of...

a quick note regarding the costumes, i definitely felt like i was watching a gap commercial whilst the mark morris dancers moved around in their very "casual" street-clothing costumes. it isn't a bad thing - they all still looked great, and the choreography was beautiful but the combination of the clothes with the dancing was definitely reminiscent of the gap commercials a few years back when they were promoting their khakis... 

either way, i'm still a sucker for monteverdi's version, it just seems more tragic even with a happy reunion in the end (slightly different than gluck's). i mean, who just doesn't love a tragic opera? anyhoo, for those of you who might be curious and have about 2 hours around the house, you can check out a recording of it posted up on npr's website: Monteverdi's 'Orfeo' From the Netherlands Opera

madeleines w/ orange confit & honey

several weeks ago, my good buddy amy gave me the new york times dessert cookbook as a birthday gift - it's a lovely and comprehensive book on several different sweets and their recipes compiled by a food writer for the times. amy made an excellent choice because this book is chock full of interesting desserts that run the gamut from ice creams/sorbets to cakes, pies, tarts and cookies. now, i've made many a cookie in my day but i've never ventured into madeleine territory and nicely enough, this handy book came with several madeleine recipes including this one with orange confit & honey.

fairly quick to make, it first starts off with making the orange confit - this is where orange pieces (in this case thin slices) are cooked in a water/sugar mixture until it is soft and this process pretty much gives it its fancy confit name. after cutting the confit into tiny bits, preparing the batter was pretty easy although it does require sifting the dry ingredients, separating the eggs, and beating the whites until they're fluffy, which is really no different than preparing any other type of baked good. it took me about the 3rd tray in to get the right baking time for the madeleines, i wanted to give the cookies a nice golden hue to their shell-like texture.

straight out of the oven, these cookies are unbelievably good! something about them warm and crusty around its edges can easily make this a treat that i could eat non-stop. i should have kept on eating because i left these in an airtight container during the next few days and although they remained moist, the crispy edges had disappeared. slightly disappointed by that, it was no matter - they were still really solo or with a nice cup or earl grey tea.

pumpkin seed brittle

there's something that i love quite a bit (all right, a lot) but is just possibly the worst thing for my already cavity prone teeth. that's brittle. when i was making up some pumpkin cupcakes (which i failed to photograph) i found this recipe for pumpkin seed brittle. since i had a container full of the raw little seeds lying in the pantry, i figured it was a great way to use some of it up. first time around i followed the directions as is - and rolled out caramel mixture as thin as possible. delicate and melt-in-your-mouth this went well as a decorative addition to the pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese frosting i made. the taste was reminiscent of the hard candy made entirely of sesame seeds that my mom used to buy. 

the second time around, i wanted to serve this brittle up with some vanilla ice cream. since i did not want a really thin brittle, i went with a thicker version by patting out the mixture between parchment paper with an oven mitt (cus that mixture was effin' hot!). the slightly thicker brittle lent itself as a nice "spoon" to the ice cream so that the actual spoon was pretty much an obsolete item in this whole scenario. 

although it does take a little while to get this brittle going in terms of its temperature and the right color before it's ready, it's more than worth it! the result is just a great nutty sweet snack that is hard to resist from eating up - i just have to remind myself i don't want another 16 cavities and more visits to the dentist to keep myself from eating up the suckers...