COOKBOOKS Going back to school can be a sweet treat
Tormented by all those grand photos in high-end books? Not to worry. Just relax and give it your best shot.
By BARBARA ALBRIGHT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Home cooks who take dessert-making very seriously, even if it's just to bake super cookies for the family, may get inspiration and dazzling glimpses of far higher achievement, as I did recently, from two books written by great professionals.
The first can prepare you to think like a pro and feel ready to tackle any dessert emergency. "Dessert University" by former White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier (Simon & amp; Schuster, 2004, $40.00) offers "more than 300 spectacular recipes and essential lessons" and has much to teach the home cook.
The book, co-written with Lauren Chattman, has 545 pages filled with more than recipes, and shows how the component parts come together to make show-stopping desserts.
This technique is a skill that many top-level pastry chefs use. At any given moment, they might have some ganache on hand, or maybe a bit of sweet pastry dough, a couple of cake layers in the freezer, or a little chocolate mousse. Armed with these, it is hardly any effort for the pros to turn them into something fabulous.
For the home baker it takes quite a bit more effort, and big pastry books with their lavish examples can be a little overwhelming, unless you relax and enjoy them for what they can show you.
Position of power
Through a series of presidencies from 1979, when Mesnier was hired by first lady Rosalynn Carter, until he retired in the summer of 2004, he made sure residents and guests at The White House never wanted for something to satisfy a sweet tooth.
I first met Mesnier about 15 years ago when I was editor-in-chief at Chocolatier magazine and he was teaching a class at a professional conference. He was a fabulous teacher, always sharing bits of wisdom about making perfect pastry; I was also struck by how delicately and precisely this largish man could place sliced almonds on the side of a cake.
Now that he has left his "power" position at the White House, I am delighted to see Mesnier has written this very complete book covering all aspects of dessert-making, ranging from cookie-jar cookies to grand finales with spun-sugar decorations.
Mesnier, a native of Bonnay, France, also worked in London and Bermuda before coming to the United States. He was teaching dessert seminars at the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Va., when he was hired for the White House.
But he points out that whether he was serving the first family alone or a cast of thousands, he always thought of it as home cooking. And in the book, far from the style of formal banquet desserts, I found the following two recipes that went down especially well with my family.
Reasons for everything
I asked Mesnier about some details of his delicious recipe for chocolate chip cookies. The addition of molasses to the batter and that he baked them at 400 degrees intrigued me.
He said he uses the molasses to keep the cookies chewy for more than a day, and that it also gives the cookies a more intense brown sugar flavor. The high heat browns the outside of the cookies and keeps the inside "moist and almost gooey," he added.
I enjoyed imagining a president roaming down to the kitchen, looking for something to eat as he pondered what to do about world peace, and finding Mesnier's cookies and milk. What a great combination to eat while solving a global crisis! These cookies have a fairly robust flavor with the addition of the molasses and I love their chewy texture.
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
3 cups plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup molasses
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups (one 12-ounce bag) chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until thoroughly combined. Beat in the eggs, molasses and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary. Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Then stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Place the bowl in the refrigerator and allow the dough to chill for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat pads.
Drop heaping tablespoons or No. 40 ice-cream scoops of the dough 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets, flattening them slightly by hand. (Balls of dough may be placed next to each other on parchment-lined baking sheet, frozen, transferred to zipper-lock plastic bags, and stored in the freezer for up to 1 month. Place frozen cookies on prepared sheets as above, and defrost on the counter for 30 minutes before baking.)
Bake until just light golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheets before using a metal spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Chocolate Chip Cookies will keep in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days.
Makes about 70 cookies.
(Recipe from "Dessert University" by Roland Mesnier with Lauren Chattman, Simon & amp; Schuster, 2004, $40.00)
Divine decadence
A second recipe we enjoyed is the one for these Walnut Squares. This was an easy and satisfying recipe that one could make up to always have on hand in the freezer.
The recipe instructs you to cut the squares 1/4-inch thick. Make sure that you follow this directive as they will taste much better than if they are cut thicker. (On one test I was lazy, and the thicker cookies tasted a little doughy.)
WALNUT SQUARES
11/2 cups walnut pieces
2 large egg whites, in separate bowls
14 tablespoons (13/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
11/2cups confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
Place the walnut pieces in a medium bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon of one of the egg whites, just moistening the nuts. Discard what is left of the egg white.
Combine the butter and confectioners' sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and cream together until light and fluffy. Stir in the remaining egg white until well combined. Stir in the cinnamon and salt. Stir in the flour until the dough just comes together. Stir in the walnuts.
On a lightly floured surface, shape the dough into a rectangle measuring 12 by 3 inches, about 1-inch-thick. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest for 2 hours in the refrigerator. (The dough can be frozen for up to 3 months and thawed briefly on the countertop before using.)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat pads. Cut the dough rectangle into 2 pieces, each one measuring 12 by 1 1/2inches. Slice each piece into individual cookies about 1/4-inch-thick. Bake until the cookies just begin to color around the edge, about 10 minutes. Slide the parchment onto a wire rack and let the cookies cool completely. Walnut Squares will keep at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Makes about 80 cookies
(Recipe from "Dessert University" by Roland Mesnier with Lauren Chattman, Simon & amp; Schuster, 2004, $40.00)
Kick it up a notch
For those who want to create cakes with WOW appeal there's one artist, Colette Peters, a designer who reigns supreme, an inspiration to home bakers and professional chefs alike.
Peters, formerly a designer of china at Tiffany & amp; Co., made the cakes featured in the books, "Tiffany Taste" and "The Tiffany Wedding." In her new book, "Cakes to Dream On" (Wiley, 2004, $40.00), Peters delights and dazzles readers with her latest series of appealing and whimsical cakes, beautifully photographed in glossy color.
Peters had wanted to be an artist since she was a child, she writes in her introduction. It came as no surprise to me to learn that in art school in her sculpture class, she turned a piece of marble into a wedge of Marble Cake, complete with thick, brown acrylic paint for frosting.
In graduate school, she says, she frequently created paintings with thickened acrylic paints, using ketchup squeeze bottles to pipe the mixture onto canvases. And even as she continued to pursue painting as a career, she also made cakes for family and friends.
Besides being structurally appealing, Peters' cakes are full of fun. She likes to add humor to them, with what she describes as "some sort of pun, play on words, subtle joke, or gravitational twist."
For instance, in this book Peters includes her Counting Sheep (cakes looking like iced mattresses are asymmetrically stacked, while "bride and groom" sheep are leaping over the top of the cake). There's also her Cake-a-Roni (the tiered cake is textured to resemble different shapes of pasta, including polka-dot ravioli), and the glitzy Variations on A Tiara.
Peters' book is full of such creative and playful cakes, and you may just sit back and enjoy the illustrations as art. But keep in mind that the book also has recipes for making the component parts, including white cake and carrot cake, meringue butter cream, royal icing and white modeling chocolate, along with how-to drawings to encourage you, too, to become a confectionery artist in your own kitchen.
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