Strawberry-Almond Salty Shortcake With Spinach-Basil Sauce

I got pretty excited when Jeanne announce that she will be hosting "waiter, there's something in my...." event, which sounded quite challenging to me. I told her that I would try to participate. Her idea was to create something "sweet/savory swap". I was a bit discourage by the theme, but when  she gave an example, like tart Tatin using tomatoes instead of apple, I thought I could do this. Voila, I found the perfect (I think) recipe! But, to go with the theme "sweet/savory swap" I had to convert the original recipe by reduce the amount of sugar to 2 tablespoon, add lemon juice, and increased the amount of salt to 1 tablespoon. There you go Jeanne,  I swap the sweet dessert into a savory dessert! 

The Stawberries and the spinach-basil sauce with touch of aged balsamic, I thought it matched the theme, no? I hope so....

Recipe adapted from Charlie Trotter "Dessert" 

Serve 6

1 cup unsalted butter

2 tbs sugar

1 cup whole toasted almond, skin on

2 cups of flour

1 tbs  salt

2 tbs lightly toasted slice almonds, skin on

2 cups strawberries, cut into wedges

1 tsp lime zest

2 tbs  lime juice

½ cup crème fraîche

1 cup heavy cream

Pulp of ½ vanilla bean

2 tbs aged balsamic vinegar

Spinach-Basil sauce (recipe follows)

2 tbs tiny fresh basil leaves

For the salty shortcakes:

• Cream butter with sugar and salt until light and fluffy.
• Grind the almond until very fine. Add to the butter mixture, mix just until combine.
• Roll the dough onto 2 sheets of plastic wrap to ¹⁄₈" thick. Lay the dough onto a baking sheet. Refrigerate (with the plastic) for 30 minutes.
• Remove the plastic wrap, transfer the dough onto cutting board. Cut 1½ inches  by 2 inch rectangle.
• Place on a parchment lined baking sheet, lightly press 2 or 3 almond slicesinto each rectangle.
• Bake at 350⁰F for 15 - 20 minutes, or until golden brown 

To prepare the strawberries:

• Toss the strawberry wedges with 1 tbs lime juice.

To make the cream:

• Whisk the crème fraîche, heavy cream,  and the vanilla pulp until soft peak.

To Assemble:

• Arrange some of the strawberry wedges in the center of the plate. Drizzle with some balsamic vinnegar, and the spinach-basil sauce.
  
• Layer the almond squares with the cream mixture, so that you will have 6 separate stacks of 5 almond squares.
• Set the stacks sideways on top of the strawberries and sprinkle with the basil leaves.

Spinach-Basil Sauce:

Yield about ½ cup

½ cup fresh basil

¼ cup spinach

1 tbs lime juice

pinch of salt

• Blanch basil and spinach in boiling water for 10 seconds. Remove from the pan and put them immediately into ice water.
• Squeeze as much water as possible from the leaves and coarsely chop. 
• Puree with the lime juice and the salt for 3 minutes, or until bright green. Strain through fine mesh sieve. Store in the refrigerator until needed. 

Note:

The taste? Not bad! 

Will I make it again? Nope, I mean...I'll make the original one with sugar!

Tuiles With Poached Forelle Pear & Pear-Cognac Anglais

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Baking Soda and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf.

They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

For this tuiles, I use the recipe provided by the hosts, but only used  about 2½ tablespoons of flour, and omitted the eggs, I also skipped the chilling process that required on the original recipe.  

I served the tuiles with poached Forelle pears and Pear-Cognac anglais. The recipe was from my favorite and the only one chef out there that I really adore, Charlie Trotter from his "Dessert" book. 

If you'd like to make the original recipe provided by the Daring Baker's host of this month, please follow the recipe below.

The following recipe is taken from a book called “The Chocolate Book”,
written by female Dutch Master chef Angélique Schmeinck.

Recipe:
Yields: 20 small butterflies/6 large (butterflies are just an example)
Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour
1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

• Oven: 180C / 350F

• Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not over mix.

• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the bakingsheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.

• Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from bakingsheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). 

• Or: place a bakingsheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.
  

*If you don’t want to do stencil shapes, you might want to transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip. Pipe the desired shapes and bake. Shape immediately after baking using for instance a rolling pin, a broom handle, cups, cones….

I love the combination of Forelle pears, pear-Cognac anglais and tuiles, the flavor and the texture are just perfect to serve in one plate. They really compliment each other, sweet crunchy bite from the tuilles, combine with slightly soft, sweet and tangy poached Forelle pears. The sweet hibiscus sauce and pear-Cognac anglais complete the pleasure of eating this dessert without feeling too  much of a guilt (eventhough the Cognac-anglais contain cream, you only need very little of it, about 1 - 2 tablespoons for each serving)

Forelle Pears With Medjool Dates And Tuiles

Recipe from: Charlie Troter's "Dessert" book

For the Poached Pear

9 Forelle pears, peeled, cored, and quartered

1 cup simple syrup*

½ cup freshly squished lemon juice

1 vanilla, scrape of the beans from the pod

• Cook the pear with the simple syrup, lemon juice, and the vanilla until tender, but not too soft for about 10 minutes over medium heat. Set aside.
  

For the Medjool Dates:

6 medjool dates, jullienned, plus 3 chopped, plus 2 tbs chopped for garnish*

⅓ cup freshly squished orange juice

¼ cup water

• Warm the jullienned dates with orange juice. Remove the dates from the liquid. Place 3 chopped dates in the blender with the water, and the liquid that you use for warming the dates. Puree until smooth. Set aside

* I substituted Medjool dates with dried hibiscus, I didn't really like it that much. Next time I will stick to the recipe.

Pear-Cognac Anglais

¼ cup sugar

½ cup cream

½ ripe pear 

2 tbs Cognac

• Dissolve the sugar and the creme over medium heat. Add the pear and simmer until the pear is softened, about 5 minutes. Puree the mixture in a blender, strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Stir in the Cognac. Re-blend just before serving.

To Assemble:

Arrange equal amount of pears, julliened medjool dates, and the tuiles. Spinkle some diced Medjool dates on the plates, and drizzle with the dates puree. Spoon some of the Pear-Cognac anglais around the plate.

Forelle pears are perfect for this dessert, as they are smaller then the regular pear and they look prettier. For me, food has to be good but also visually appetizing!

So what was the most challenging part for this month event? 

I admit I only made this tuiles the day before it was due. I was a bit nervous how my tuiles would come out. It turned out, I was able to tackle the challenge pretty well, though I ended up went to bed pretty late. 

So what was my  challenge again?

Oh ya, for me it was to shape and spread the tuiles as thin as possible, not the difficulties of the actual work, but the time that it took for shaping of each tuiles into a very very thin cookies. Other then that, everything went smoothly. 

For Karen of Baking Soda and Zorra of 1xumruehren bitte aka kotchtopf, I thank you both for hosting this month challenge, apart from trying to make tuille as thin as possible which was very time consuming, the result  was really rewarding at the end. Thank you!

Please don't forget to visit other fabulous member of The Daring Baker to see their beautiful "tuiles" creation!

Peach Tart

Very so often I will have a nice surprise visit from a friend or friends during the week. I would make some tea and serve simple pastry to nibble with it. So, when my friend called in the morning and asked if she could stop by my house, I was pretty excited. Quickly I made the pastry dough, which was literally only take less then 10 minutes to make, then popped it in the refrigerator to rest for an hour. And I still had time to take my dogs for their routine walk. By the time she came in the afternoon, my tart was cooled completely and ready to be served.

I made a very simple thin crust peach tart. Peach, now? yes, I know... but, living in California, I am bless with fresh fruits and vegetable, even if not a local and seasonal produce. I always surprise that I am able to find summer fruit in my grocery store. Of course they don't taste that good. But that's okay (I'm not a purist), I just use it for my dessert instead.

Ingredients:

1 recipe for simple sweet pastry

2 - 3 simple poached peaches*, sliced

• Preheat oven to 373⁰F
• Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured counter top into a 9 inches circle with the thickness about 2 mm. Transfer onto a baking sheet.
• Arrange the sliced peaches about 1 inch from the edge, working in circular pattern and slightly over lapping them. Depending on how closely you overlapping the peaches, you might need more peaches ,or have some leftover.
• Bake in the middle rack for 35 to 45 minute until nicely brown, and the peaches slightly caramelized.
• Cool completely before serving.

*for this recipe, I only use sugar and water to poach the peach. You can add vanilla, or orange flower water if you wish. You can also substitute peach for apricot, or plum.

Simple Poached Pear

What will you serve for dessert,  if your guests are allergic to all kind of wheat and dairy, and any kind of nuts? 

What else? fruit of course! This poach pear is a good example, how a simple thing can be delicious. If you not too concern about dairy product (or, your waist line), serve them with a scoop or two good vanilla ice cream. Or, how about lavender infused crème anglais?  

The other good idea I like is,  to surprise my guests with chocolate moose hidden inside the pears. To do this simply cores and scoop out the bottom of each pear, then fill with chocolate moose, arrange back (standing) on a serving plate. They'll never guess!

Those delicate  stripes that you see on each poach pear is actually pretty easy to do. You just need a blow torch to brown them a little bit. I steal the idea from Keiko, that I am very much inspired by her ability to capture the beauty of her baking with stunning photographs. 

2 cups dessert wine* 

4 - 6 Bosch pears, peeled

1 vanilla bean, split in half - scrape the beans

4 cups water

• Put the wine, water, and the vanilla , stir, add the pears. Poach on low heat for 45 minutes to an hour, until the pears are tender but not too soft. Transfer to a plate. Serve warm or cold.

* you can also use white wine for this recipe, but add about ½ cup of sugar to the poaching liquid.

Sweet Potato Bread

I am sending this to Yeast Spotting event created by Susan from Wild Yeast. To join this event is very easy, here is how:

• Bake with yeast (wild or baker's) or make a dish starring bread.
  
• Post about it. Please include a recipe/formula, or a link to one, or some indication of how the bread was made. Also please include the word "YeastSpotting", with a link to this page.
• Submit your post here. Please submit it during the same week it was posted.

Since this recipe has sweet potato as one of the ingredients, this will also be my entry for monthly Potato Ho Down event, created by Cathy of Noble Pig and Krista of Evil Chef Mom. The host for this month is Christie over at Fig & Cherry. If you have any potato recipe and like to share it with us, you can submit your entry before January 19th. Any questions can be e-mail to christie[at]figandcherry[dot]com. Check here for rules and how to submit your recipe.

Recipe adapted from "Sweet Potato Sourdough With Pumpkin Seeds"

by: Susan @  Wild Yeast 

yield 2 medium size bread.

Ingredients:
400 g  high extraction flour (I used unbleached all purpose flour)
177 g water
533 g ripe 100% hydration sourdough starter
14 g salt
200 g mashed baked sweet potato pulp (cooled)
133 g toasted pumpkin seeds (I used pecan, roughly chopped)

• In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix all ingredients except the toasted the pecan on low speed until combined, about 5 minutes. Adjust the amount of water to give the dough a medium consistency. Continue to mix on low or medium speed for about  5 minutes, until the gluten is well develop.
• Add the toasted nuts and the cranberries, mix on low speed just until they are well distributed. Transfer the dough to an oiled container. Ferment at room temperature for 2.5 hours, with folds at 50 and 100 minutes.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Divide the dough in half. shape into a boule, or  into batard, place them onto bannetons, seam side up. Or  onto a baking sheets that has been sprinkle with corn meal, the seam side down. Cover with clean kitcken towel. Proof at room temperature for 2 - 2½ hours. 
• Place the baking stones on a lower rack in your oven, preheat oven to 425⁰F. When the oven reach the desire temperature, quickly spray it with water, shut the oven door quickly to trap the moisture. 
• Transfer the dough onto a baking peel (don't forget to put enough corn meal on your baking peel), slash the dough with sharp serrated knife, transfer to the baking stone, and bake for 5 minutes, give  the oven another quick spray and shut the oven door quickly. Or, follow Susan's technique for steam, here! It's pretty cool how she explain the steaming process.
• Continue to bake for 35 - 45 minutes until the bread is brown nicely, and it sounds hollow when lightly tapped. If you don't have baking stone, bake the bread in a cookie sheet that you use for your last proofing. 

Rosca de Reyes

This is my entry for Zorra @ Kochtoph for her invitation - to make your own KING Cake for Epiphany day. Please visit her blog for more information about this event. Don't be shy to participate, you still have until January 8 to submit your King cake or bread.

The Mexican celebrate Epiphany  by having a merienda (it's like a high noon tea, but with hot chocolate and Rosca de Reyes). It is also the time for the children to get their present. The children will be excitedly putting their shoes at the entrance and hope to find a present inside the shoes. Sounds like fun, because all children love present!

Since I have made Pithiviers last year (though I didn't make it on Epiphany day) I thought I'd try something different. This year, I made Rosca de Reyes, a sweet celebration bread made during the Epiphany in Mexico. At this time, every household in Mexico will bake or buy Rosca de Reyes, a wrath shape sweet bread filled with small baby Jesus porcelain decorated with dried glaze fruit, spinkle with sugar on top. A person who is lucky to found this doll, will then has to give a party "Candelaria" on the second of February. He or she will be responsible to make a "Ropon" or christening gown for the baby Jesus. And, tamales dinner will normally serve for this celebration. 

Recipe Adapted from:

My Mexican Kitchen, Techniques and Ingredients

Written by: Diana Kennedy

The Starter:

450 g all purpose flour

1¼ tsp salt

60 g sugar

20 gr crumble fresh yeast

125 ml  plus 2 tbs water

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

unsalted butter, for greasing the bowl

• Butter a clean bowl, and sprinkle well with flour. Set aside.
  
• Put flour, sugar, salt, sugar, and the yeast in a large bowl, gradually beat in the water and the eggs. Transfer to a mixer bowl, process with the dough hook for about 5 minutes until elastic and shiny. The dough should be a little sticky. 
• Form the dough into a boule (ball), transfer to buttered bowl. Cover the bowl with clean kitchen towel, and let the dough rest in a warm place for 2 hours, or until it double in volume.

The Dough:

The starter above, tear into pieces

225 g sugar

200 g unsalted butter, softened

450 g flour

8 egg yolks. lightly beaten with 2 tbs water

65 ml water

1 tsp orange flower water

Orange zest from 1 orange

Topping:

Candied Orange peel, check here my quick recipe 

Candied figs

¼ melted butter

Granulated sugar, for sprinkling

Glaze: mix together 2 egg yolk  plus 1 tbs milk

• Put the starter, sugar, and the butter into a mixer bowl, mix well with the hook. Gradually beating in the flour alternately with the yolks. Beat in the water, orange flower water and the zest. Beat until smooth, shiny, and the dough a little sticky. Form into a boule (ball). Transfer to a clean greased bowl. Cover with clean towel and let the dough rest in a warm place until its double in volume, about 1½ to 2 hours.
• Divide the dough into 2, roll each dough into a log shape about 7½cm (3 inches) thick, and joint the end together. If you want to do it in a traditional way, don't forget to insert one  fava bean or any bean. Or if you able to find a fine porcelain baby Jesus, go ahead (optional). Brush with little water if they don't want to  stick together. 
• OR, divide the dough into 2 boule (balls), and make a hole in the middle with your fist and stretch until you have an opening about 15 cm (6 inches) across.
• Transfer them into well greased baking sheets. Decorate with candied orange peel and candied fig. Cover with clean kitchen towel. Set aside to rest in warm place until they double in size.
• Preheat oven to 375⁰F.
• Brush the dough with the egg glaze, bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Turn the heat off, open the oven door, and let the bread sit for 5 minutes.
• Transfer the bread into a rack, brush with melted butter, and sprinkle well with granulated sugar. Cool completely before serving.
• The bread will keep soft for several days, and it will improve in flavor.

This was the "Gallette de Rois aka Pithiviers" that I made last year, it was a hit among my family and friends. Please visit here for the recipe.