Veronica's Test Kitchen

Bouchon Redux

There are recipes you make once and then there are those that you couldn’t leave well enough alone. When I first made Thomas Keller’s chocolate bouchons, all I had were big 3-ounce timbale molds from Sur la Table. This chocolate number, despite its size, was pretty heavy and a couple of bites were more than enough to satisfy even the most ingrained chocolate lover. My desire to look for smaller molds intensified when I actually had a divine taste of these little gems at the eponymous Bouchon Bakery at Napa Valley.  They actually used silicone molds, available at J.B. Prince, but they come only in full sheet sizes. I asked customer service if I could cut it in half but the lady I spoke to replied “ You could, but I do not recommend it.” Helpful, huh?

They also had the individual 1.5 ounce molds.  I heed and hawed about buying them – for a couple of reasons - they come out to be more expensive, are more trouble to wash and store. And I do not need more baking dishes!

Oh well, I eventually gave in. Resistance was futile once the image of cute little bouchons started dancing in my head. So here it is - a replay of the bouchon recipe. I am happy to say that they look and taste pretty darn close to the original!

Cooking Notes:

I actually remembered to cool the bouchons upside down in their molds this time around. This step helped keep its cork-shape perfectly. With the smaller mold size, cooking time is around 18 minutes in a 350F oven.  I used 1/2 tsp of salt compared to the 1 tsp the recipe originally called for. Also, I was more mindful of how I chopped the chocolate and did not have problems with the pastry bag this time. They also make great dinner desserts because you can make the batter a day ahead. The bouchons are also darker for this batch because I used Valrhona unsweetened cocoa instead of Scharffenberger. As usual, the best part is the melted chocolate speckled throughout its interior.

When the wind blows...

The wind has been blustery today in Richmond, Va. Gusts up to 55 mph have me cowering at home, almost believing that something was going to fly into the window any minute.

Not to mention that it had been raining all morning, pretty heavily at times. But I think I prefer the wet weather to this rafter-shaking kind.

As I listen to the wind chime’s melody, my thoughts took me back to the days when I was a student. We do not have hurricanes in the Philippines- we had typhoons. Our city was equipped with a huge siren that can be heard all over. Whenever there was an impeding storm, I would lie awake at 6am waiting for the storm signals. Two wails by the sirens meant that classes were suspended. These were the days when I become so excited - the days when I could sleep late snuggled cozily under my blanket. Because we lived in a solidly built concrete building, I loved hearing the wind howl away then. We would watch store signs flap crazily in the wind until it would hurtle down the street or be carried away by strong water current. Of course, one time it was our own restaurant sign that got torn apart by the vicious storm and that was not fun to watch. In some strange way, I even looked forward to the loss of electricity (maybe because I knew it was inevitable).

This meant playing cards by candlelight, or swapping ghost stories, but the most enjoyable part is that bowl of Filipino chocolate rice pudding we call champorado that tasted the best during  days like this! It tastes great as breakfast but I loved it more as an afternoon snack.

The recipe I have here is not champorado but is quite similar. It is a simple recipe but takes a while to cook.  Be sure to use bittersweet chocolate!

Chocolate Risotto Pudding

·         3 cups milk

·         ½ cup sugar

·         2 tbs. butter, divided

·         1 tbs. vanilla bean paste (or extract)

·         1 cup Arborio rice

·         2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

·         1 tbs. chopped hazelnut

·         small piece white chocolate, shaved for garnish

Bring milk, sugar and vanilla to a bare simmer and keep it hot.

Heat a tablespoon of butter in large saucepan over moderate heat. Stir in the rice and cook, stirring until the rice is hot about 1 minute. Begin adding the hot milk 1 cup at a time, stirring often. Continue adding the milk until the previous addition has been absorbed. Adjust heat to maintain a nice simmer. It will take about 20 minutes for the rice to be tender and al dente. It is possible that you may not need all the milk. Remove the risotto from the heat and stir in the remaining butter and chopped chocolate. Sprinkle the chopped hazelnut and shaved white chocolate for garnish.

Cooking Notes:

It took about 30-35 minutes for my Arborio rice to become al dente. It looks like risotto does not soften as quickly with milk as it does with broth. I skipped the white chocolate preferring a splash of heavy cream instead to garnish.

Brownie Points

It has been more than a year since I literally drowned in brownies here. Then, my quest was for the best tasting concoction that would not taste like it was made from a box. During my trip to San Francisco last August to take a chocolate techniques class from Alice Medrich, she had to rock my comfort zone by making available MORE recipes for brownies. Apparently she was constantly tweaking what were already the best brownies ever.

Luckily for my sanity, most of them followed the same number of ingredients and technique. My interest now was more peaked than ever about using different percentages of chocolate to come up with relatively the same textures and qualities for all batches. Alice used a lot of Scharffen Berger chocolate in her tests. Since this chocolate had vanilla in its flavor profile she suggested skipping the use of any vanilla extract. I wanted to use my favorite Valrhona Equatorial in the 55% chocolate category because I felt this was a well-balanced semi-sweet chocolate. In her new version of her brownies, Alice labeled them 8.07 - one of them was now known as Robert Steinberg’s recipe which is labeled 8.07 RS ( I think this recipe is also in The Essence of Chocolate). What I noticed with her new versions is that she uses less flour so really you’ve got a very fudgy chocolate brownie with a nice crackle in the outer layer. The 55% recipe is from her Bittersweet book that I have not tried in my original brownie experiment.

	Valrhona Equatoriale (55%) original	Scharffen Berger (62 %) 8.07	Scharffen Berger (70%)  8.07 RS
chocolate	10 oz	11 oz.	8 oz.
butter	5 tbs.	3 ½ tbs	6 tbs.
sugar	2/3 cup	2/3 cup	1 cup
vanilla extract	1 tsp.	*	*
salt	¼ tsp.	¼ tsp.	¼ tsp.
cold eggs	2	2	2
all-purpose flour	½ cup	1/3 cup + 1 tbs.	1/3 cup + 1tbs.

Directions: (for all recipes)

Position a rack in the lower theird of the oven and preheat to 350 °F.

Place chocolate and butter in a medium heatproof bowl set in a wide skillet of barely simmering water. Stir from time to time until the chocolate is melted and the mixture smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger quickly after dipping it to test. Remove the bowl from the skillet. Mix in the sugar, vanilla (if using) and salt. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring until the first one is incorporated before adding the second. Add the flour and stir vigorously until the mixture is thick, smooth and glossy, and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl, about one minute. Spread evenly in the lined pan. Bake until the batter just begins to pull away from the edges of the pan and small cracks appear on the surface, about 30-35 minutes. A toothpick plunged into the center will emerge with moist crumbs clinging to it. Cool on a rack. Lift the edges of the parchment or foil liner and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares. Brownies can be stored, airtight, for 2-3 days.

Cooking Notes:

Among the three recipes, I preferred the one made with Valrhona Equatoriale, 55%. And so I wouldn’t be biased I asked the “Hungry” hubby to taste it as well and he agreed that the 55% one produced a brownie that was intensely chocolatey with a smooth finish (brownie tasting can almost be like wine tasting you know). With a higher percentage of cocoa butter the batter is a lot stiffer. My least favorite was the one made with Scharffen Berger 62%. I was most disappointed with this because I had high hopes for it being the middle percentage. I suspect that the chocolate needed to be reduced because at 11 ounces it does seem extremely high. This brownie had a bitter catch on the palate which I found disconcerting. The 70%, as always, was a pretty good bet if you want a deeper chocolate punch.

There are two important aspects that need to be pointed out in the directions of the recipe. Noticed that you melt the chocolate and butter until when you dip your finger in it, you want to immediately take them out. Now this may be a tolerance-dependent factor but for me that temperature is between 140 °F to 145 °F on an infrared thermometer. It is also important for the mixture to be this hot when you add the sugar because that is what makes the crust crackle and become shiny.  The second point is beating the flour in just right. It is interesting to watch the batter transform from a cake-looking batter to a homogenous shiny blob that pulls away from the sides of the bowl and just drops into your prepared pan with no problem. For the Valrhona Equatoriale, I must say my arm almost fell off from the stiffness of the batter.

This was a fun experiment - one that I have longed to try for quite sometime now. I made four batches all in all because I made the 62% twice just in case I made a mistake in my measurement the first time. I still came out with the same result. I would try to reduce the 62% chocolate to 9 oz next time, just to see if that was an anomaly in the recipe. In the meantime - brownies anyone?

Also, the nice folks at Foodie View asked me to write their recipe roundup this week. Since this month is the month of love, I thought it most appropriate to talk about For the Love of Chocolate .

Torta Cioccolata

This was one of the recipes Alice Medrich demonstrated in her class at Citronelle. In her book Pure Dessert, she described it as the soul of simplicity and was inspired by Claudia Roden in her book Book of Jewish Dessert. It was so easy to make , I was able to get it done in between making my apple pie and No-knead bread 2.0 (stay tuned for both in upcoming posts) . Just remember to have your egg whites at room temperature or you can warm it up quickly over a pan of simmering water. Note that the unsweetened chocolate is roughly chopped and further grounded up with the almonds, this gives it a very interesting texture. I made mine on a ¼ baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. That way you can lift it out and cut it up like brownies.

Oh, and if you haven’t signed up for the Cookbook giveaway for Pure Dessert yet you can do so here. The contest closes on Thursday, Dec 13^th at 6pm.

Italian Chocolate-Almond Torte

From Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert

1 cup (5 oz) unblanched or blanched whole almonds

7 ounces good quality unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped

1 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

7 large egg whites (1 cup)

¼ tsp. cream of tartar

Optional:

Powdered sugar or unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting

Sweetened whipped cream for serving

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 °F. Grease the sides of a springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Combine the almonds, chocolate, ½ cup of the sugar , and the salt in a food processor and pulse until the almonds and chocolate are very finely chopped but not completely pulverized. Set aside.

In a clean dry bowl of a stand mixer or using a hand-held mixer and a large bowl, beat the egg whites with cream of tartar until soft, moist peaks are formed when the beaters are lifted. Gradually add the remaining ½ cup sugar and continue to beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry. Add one-third of the nut mixture to the egg whites and fold in with a large rubber spatula until nearly incorporated. Fold in half of the remaining nuts , then fold in the rest of the nuts. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Bake until the torte is risen and golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, or with a little melted chocolate, 25 to 30 minutes. Set the pan on a rack to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the sides of the pan and invert the cake onto the rack. Remove the bottom of the pan and then the parchment liner. Turn the cake right side up and cool completely. Cover or wrap tightly, and store for up to 3 days at room temperature.

To serve, transfer the cake to a serving plate . Dust with powdered sugar or cocoa, and serve slices with a dollop of whipped cream, if desired.

The Macaron Chronicles Part II

Macarons can inspire an obsession that cannot be easily shaken off. Your best is seemingly not enough. You want to master the recipe - but to what extent? Obviously, I am hooked. I developed a fascination for these petite confections after, curiously enough, a failed experiment where these little beauties ended up looking like flying saucers. Had this experience plagued me so? Was it some form of post-traumatic stress disorder? I’d like to think that I was just duly challenged –that thought was less disturbing.

Right after this debacle, I headed out to San Francisco where I made it a priority to sample as much of these delicacies as possible at Miette and Bouchon. Breakfast, mid-afternoon snack or late evening  munchie – these little gems were such a treat. I took back with me the memory of sublimely crisp yet slightly chewy cookies and sinful buttercream fillings.

So, I decided to do some research on how to make the perfect macaron because I just couldn’t deal with another failure. Through googling, I was able to amass some very useful information: like measuring your ingredients carefully as well as sifting dry ingredients twice. I used mostly weight measurements (grams) because they were more accurate. And most importantly, the way you fold your dry ingredients with your meringue can spell success or doom for your excursion into macaron land. Folding too little, and your batter becomes too heavy, you develop high-domed footless wonders; too much and you might end up with a runny mixture that will probably bake into malformed, sunken disks.

Apparently chocolate macarons are the hardest to make. I have not quite determined why –none of my readings explained this. But I suspect the addition of cocoa and its acidity might be interfering with the inherent structure of the macaron. But I am getting ahead of myself.

I’ve also read that leaving the egg whites out for 48 hours makes for a better end product– this idea could strike an “eww” reaction in most people but it looks like egg whites have natural anti-bacterial properties - besides I am desperate.

So one weekend, I separated around 12 eggs and let them sit for at least 24 hours. The “Hungry” Hubby started kidding me that my egg whites would crawl off the counter pretty soon.

The day couldn’t have been more cooperative - perfect dry fall weather. Humidity can plague the quality of your macarons but I guess the Meringue Gods had taken pity on me.

TEST I: Almond macaron recipe with 24-hour aged egg whites.

I started with a simple almond macaron recipe from here. I think I must have measured my powdered sugar wrong because it was extremely thick almost like a brownie batter ( I used a measuring cup and was not sure how I was supposed to measure powdered sugar – packed or scooped-swept). I wanted to throw out the mixture and start all over again but I did not want to waste my precious ground almonds so I thought –“What the heck, let’s see what kind of cookies I get out of this!” As I piped out each mound, I noticed that, although they spread out a little, most of them settled quite nicely into a neat round shape. After letting them sit for 30 minutes to dry out the tops – necessary for attaining that smooth shiny crown - I popped the tray (okay I set it carefully) into the oven at 310 °F. And then, I waited. After 5 minutes, I saw the beginnings of the requisite “feet”. I quickly hollered to HH and started prancing around the kitchen. “They’ve got feet, they’ve got feet!” I enthused gaily. I took the tray out after 11 minutes of baking and I couldn’t be happier with how they look.

            

TEST II: Pistachio Macarons with 24-hour aged egg whites.

Empowered, I proceeded immediately with the second recipe: the Pistachio Macarons from the lovely Tartelette. Jenny from All Things Edible had great success with it , so I was eager to try it out. I was not able to ground my pistachios perfectly so I knew I was going to get some bumps on the shiny caps. Again, I carefully mixed the dry ingredients to the meringue but the batter was a bit runnier than my first set of macarons; however they piped quite easily without the batter dripping from circle to circle. They also developed feet! Enthralled by two successive baking experiments with two different recipes I concluded that aside from having great recipes to work with, it must be the aged egg whites. I made chocolate ganache fillings for both.

           Between the two recipes I tried, the Pistachio Macarons were better tastewise and formwise. Lightly domed top (not totally smooth but I explained why), crisp skin, nice chewy center, dainty feet and the distinct pistachio flavor came through so addictively. I was so happy, I did a quick mini-post here.

TEST III: Chocolate Macarons with 48 hour-aged egg whites

    I had some egg whites remaining so I decide to be brave and try the chocolate macarons the next day – it would also mean that I would be aging them for the full 48 hours. I was debating on which recipe to use. I saw one on David Lebovitz blog, but I ended up using Sherry Yard’s recipe in her new book Desserts by the Yard (I could not reveal the recipe since it is still an unreleased book – but if someone reminds me in November I will update this post with it)

    I had a bumpy start. I accidentally measured the amount of ground almonds twice and it was hard to simply scoop them out because I spooned them directly on top of the powdered sugar. I had the stiffest batter yet, I almost couldn’t pipe it out through a 12 pt tip to 1 ½ inch circles. My wrists were tired after all that squeezing and I wondered what results I would be getting.  Since they were bigger, I left them in about 2 minutes longer - around 13 minutes actually. Again, perfect feet, perfect domes, perfect macarons.

It looked like no matter what the recipe was (or how much I messed up) the stars were aligned to make macarons. This time I decided to make a macaron vanilla ice cream sandwich. This was how Sherry served her macarons in her book, although the ice cream flavor was different, I thought it was equally scrumptious in vanilla ice cream. Initially the chocolate macarons were cakey inside but the chewiness and chocolate flavor developed the next day.

            All three batches of cookies were easy to remove from the parchment paper with a flexible spatula. I also had read that it was important to rap the sheets on the countertop prior to baking to encourage the development of feet. Since I had two trays at a time, I decided to rap one and not the other. There was no effect at all.

Sooo … end of macaron experiment, right? Wrong.

I wondered what would happen if I used eggs that were aged less or eggs that were freshly separated the morning of baking. In addition to this, I really would like to over-beat some of the batter just to see what happens.

To keep most of the parameters the same, I used the same recipe for all of them. Also, I kept the resting time after piping, constant, at 30 minutes. To have an accurate test about the effects of over-beating; I divided one batter in two and folded it to the correct “perceived” viscosity; the other half I just beat for as long as I could (until my arm was tired).

But I had no control over the humidity that day and boy was it humid!

Basic Almond Macaron Batter

• 125 grams almond flour
• 225 grams powdered sugar
• 100 grams egg whites
• 25 grams sugar

Pinch cream of tartar.

Preheat oven to 300 °F (I used 310°F to compensate for opening and closing the oven door).

Run the almond flour and powdered sugar through a food processor and sift twice.

Add the cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat at medium speed. Slowly add the granulated sugar and continue beating until the whites attain medium-peaks and are glossy.

Add your dry ingredients slowly to the meringue taking about six additions all in all. (See folding requirements below)

Pipe the batter to a diameter of an inch. And let rest for 30 minutes before baking.

Bake for about 11 minutes or until done, turning the sheets halfway through.

Folding requirements:

Test IV: Overnight egg whites on the counter. Beaten to “flows like magma” consistency.

Test V: Overnight egg whites on the counter. Beaten senseless.

Test VI: Morning-of egg whites. Beaten to “flows like magma” consistency

Test VII: Morning-of egg whites. Beaten senseless.

RESULTS. I noticed that the quality of the macarons weren’t as good as the ones I made with the 24 hour and 48 hour aged egg whites. For one thing, the domes tended to sink into the “feet”; more so if the batter was over-beaten. When the eggs were fresher (separated on the morning-of) the crust appeared to be thinner and more fragile. It was also obvious that they couldn’t hold their nice circular shape after piping and got deformed (as evidenced by the pictures).  For mixtures that received more folding it still developed “feet”, but the feet had bigger holes and the tops tended to separate and curve unappealingly inward like mushroom caps. 

Unlike my first three tests, these last four batches were difficult to remove with a spatula, I noticed that the bottoms were not crusted over which could have made them easier to detach. They were still gummy and I had to peel the parchment away from the macarons rather than the other way around because their tops would crack infuriatingly or worse get dismembered – feet and top totally separated.

In summary of what I’ve learned so far (or to spare you from my ramblings above):

1.      Make sure to measure and sift your ingredients properly. I’m not yet too fanatical about sifting because I do have problems grinding my nuts to powdered form – but I do make sure clumps of powdered sugar are broken up. I started measuring my ingredients accurately to the last gram after my first test yielded an amount of powdered sugar that was suspect.

2.      Fold in your dry ingredients in at least 4 additions. Do not dump the whole thing into the beaten foam or you might end up with a runny batter.

3.      I used a circle template by drawing them on the reverse side of my parchment paper. Resist to the urge to follow the outline with your tip, just keep your tip positioned about ½ inch above and in the middle of the round guide, the batter is going to spread out more evenly into the circle you want. If you have trouble controlling the flow of your batter and it keeps linking to two mounds together as you move about piping, chances are you’ve got an over-beaten mixture.

4.      Rapping the sheet pan before baking had no effect on your end product. They do get rid of bubbles if this develops in your mixture.

5.      Fresh egg whites develop thinner, more fragile skin which tends to break easily when you try to remove the macarons from the parchment paper. If your macarons stick, peel away the parchment paper rather than force the spatula to lift the macarons out. However, with the 24/48 hour aged-egg whites, the spatula slid easily under the macaron to detach them with no problem at all.

6.      Moisture plays a vital role in macaron making. Whether in the egg whites, or in the air it definitely affects the quality of these French cookies. My initial conclusion as to why the aged-egg whites yielded almost invincible macarons was because they had less moisture content due to evaporation but still have the same amount of protein bonds. That was probably why I have seen macaron recipes that called for some dried egg white powder to be mixed into regular whites.  Meringues have a tendency to weep, so even if you have beaten your batter to the right viscosity, your mixture might still get runny if the protein bonds break down – but if you have less moisture to begin then it would not be a problem. I figured the large holes and sunken caps of macarons from the “deliberately over-beaten batter” were because the protein bonds were not as dense and they were separated by water that would evaporate leaving those gaping holes.

Addressing the safety of egg whites left out for more than 12 hours. I have researched this topic in Harold Mc Gee’s book. Though he did not specifically say that egg whites can be safely left at room temperature for a long period of time, he did mention interesting information about its composition. There are three proteins effective in maintaining the integrity of the egg white. First, Ovotransferrin, binding tightly to iron, makes the white less hospitable to bacteria that thrive on it. The second protein, Lysozyme, digests bacterial cell walls. And third, the protein Ovomucin inhibits the growth of viruses. The paradox of the egg which looks so simple is in fact a very complex structure that never ceases to amaze me in its many uses. But going back to the safety of using aged eggs in macarons; I think the fact that they are baked at a temperatures of over 300 F – every type of bacteria would most likely be incinerated.

So is there a doubt that egg whites kept out for at least 24 hours produce the best macarons? Sadly -yes, I could not overlook the role that the humidity played during my last four experiments so I cannot say without a shadow of a doubt that my first three experiments would have had the same results on a humid day.

I have heard of a different method that uses Italian Meringue where the sugar syrup is poured in while the egg whites are beaten at high speed. I dread this method because most of my syrup ends up on the walls of the mixer bowl. But if consistent results are what I am after in my macaron tests then I’d have to just deal with it. I might also have to ask a certain French pastry chef to hold my hand on this one.

Oh, I think it is also time to explore different buttercream fillings and fruit jams to fill up these beauties with, don’t you think?

Stay tuned for this ongoing saga in The Macaron Chronicles!