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Gail Watson

Warm Chocolate Pudding Cake with Caramel Creme Anglaise, Day 4: Irene’s Beans

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Heading home today from my time in Guatemala- the land of chocolate and coffee. It has been a fantastic time brushing up on my crusty rusty Spanish, exploring a new place, and making new friends. Unfortunately I’ve managed to develop a wicked head cold that is making me foggy minded and a big goofy, so forgive the lack of chit chat, it’s onward to an amazing cake and delicious coffee.

This cake is super moist with a slightly mousse-like texture. It’s delightfully not sweet, which is fantastic since it then calls out for some sort of topping. The caramel Creme Anglaise is perfection. The milk creaminess is so wonderful and the caramel brings out the chocolate. The Creme Anglaise needs to be made in advance and cooled, if you don’t have the time, sweetened whipped cream would not be a hardship nor ice cream.

The coffee pairing for this is the French Roast. OK, one little bit of a chat. Amongst my close friends it is well known that I am really not so much a coffee drinker, but an espresso drinker. In fact so much so that I am teased mercilessly for it- mostly as a result of one rough morning in a New Orleans Supermarket when I was asked which coffee I would like for the apartment we were sharing with friends. No coffee, only espresso. La-di-dah! (Sorry Mary!) What can I say? A girl knows what she likes.

This cake is at it’s best warm, but seriously, cold is quite wonderful too.

Warm Chocolate Pudding Cake with Caramel Creme Anglaise
serves 8
 
5oz bittersweet chocolate
6T unsalted butter
1T olive oil
3T sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
4T all purpose flour
1/8t baking powder (eye it)
large pinch of salt
 
Preheat oven to 350˚ and boil a large pot of simmering water. Grease and line a 6″ baking pan. You will also need a larger baking/roasting pan to set the cake pan into.
 
Over a double boiler, melt the chocolate and butter together. Stir in the sugar and salt. Allow to cool until warm to the touch then thoroughly stir in the eggs and oil.
 
In a small bowl combine the flour and baking powder. Gently stir into the chocolate mixture.
 
Pour batter into the prepared pan, then set pan into the roasting pan. Add enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the cake pan.
 
Place the whole magilla into the center of the oven and bake for 30-35mins. Trend toward under baking rather than over baking.
 
Remove from oven and remove cake from water bath. Allow to cool for a few mins then remove from the pan and allow to cool another 5mins before serving.
 
Caramel Creme Anglaise
makes 1.5c
 
1c whole milk or cream
2t vanilla
4 egg yolks
4T sugar
2T water
 
In a heavy saucepan combine the water and sugar and place over medium high heat. Watching closely, boil the sugar until it caramelizes. Remove from the heat one shade lighter than you would like as it continues to deepen quickly at this point.
 
Pour in the milk or cream. It will steam and create a cold hard sugar lump on the bottom of the pan. Just ignore all that, but be careful about the steam.
 
Stir in the yolks and vanilla and gently warm again over a medium low heat. The sugar will dissolve into the sauce and it will slowly thicken.
 
Warm until the sauce is a thick heavy cream. It should coat the spoon. Be gentle with this, overheating will cause it to break.
 
Once the sauce has reached the desired consistency remove from the heat immediately and strain through a sieve into a bowl.
 
Cool completely.
 
 

Incredibly Easy and Twice as Delicious: Almondine Cookies- Day 3 of Sweets with Irene’s Beans

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You are either going to love me or hate me for this recipe. These Almondines are so crazy easy to make, and the crunchy and yet chewy texture of the cookies are frighteningly addicting.

This past Mother’s Day I was delighted to celebrate in my new apartment. It was the first time that I had my Mother over to see the new place and I looked forward to entertaining her. It was a beautiful day spent with my three children and my Mom. The weather was warm and sunny in NYC, warm enough for us to take a walk along the river in Riverside park after we shared a cold lunch that I had prepared: Cold poached lobster served on green sauce, Shrimp ceviche with melons and mint (similar to my previous post), Israeli cous cous salad with heirloom tomatoes and cumin and a romaine salad with bleu cheese dressing and bacon bits. I’m sorry that I didn’t take a photo, but sometimes guests need full attention and Mother’s Day was a day that I got to indulge myself in them.

My “children” are all adults now, so gathering them all together in the same space and time gets harder and harder. The beautiful thing is when they do end up in the same room, it’s back to the old antics from their younger years. Seriously, I believe my children can take their “act” on the road. When they were younger I referred to them as The Flying Walendas. They are a three ring comedy act, and they move in sync without missing a beat. As a mother who was always in the kitchen, listening to my children play in the background (I had strategically placed doors and mirrors so I could keep an eye on them at all times), the raucous laughter brought back memories of those earlier days. They joke and tease, and break into song and little dances to punctuate a story, that to me is poetry in motion.

I’ve often thought of raising children as the same as enjoying an ice cream cone on a scorching hot day. There is so much effort spent on managing the drips, and then it’s gone before you can fully enjoy it as much as you should.

The years certainly have zipped by, and with three kids and a demanding business, I managed too many drips. So naturally, I feel blessed when I can recapture some of those moments.

My eldest, Olivia, brought us some apple hand pies (that being the hands of Paul Bunyon, they were huge and gorgeous!). Before we headed out into the sunshine, I made a quick batch of these cookies. They cooled while we strolled in the dappled sunlight and walked off a bit of the lunch. When we returned, I warmed the apple pies and served chunks of the pies with some ice cream with the Almondines on the side, while the coffee brewed.

With this sweet I paired Irene’s coffee from Papua New Guinea. The coffee has a caramel-y, nutty note, not too heavy to suggest an added flavoring, with a tinge of earth and smoke. A great coffee for any time of day and lovely with these cookies or not.

This is a great recipe to keep in pocket. Only 3 ingredients and 2 minutes to throw together. The only hard part is to keep an eye on them so they don’t burn. The sugar and the egg whites make for a slightly chewing cookie, and the almonds give it some crunch and depth of flavor. I pulled it directly out of Ottolenghi: The CookBook, so I am sorry, I cannot, and will not, print the recipe- but I can attest, that the cookbook is well worth owning, if you don’t already.

These cookies are a bit of a metaphor for this next stage in my life. Keep it simple, keep it sweet, make it delicious, and share with the ones you love.

 

Rosemary Orange Polenta Cake: Day 2 Irene’s Beans

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So glad everyone liked the donuts! Thank you for all your comments and tweets! The second installment is a delicious coffee cake, that takes no special ingredients and only minutes to get into the oven. Then once in the oven it fills the kitchen with a beautiful aroma of orange and rosemary.
For a little added texture I used a coarse cornmeal. This renders a hearty crunch to the crumb of the cake, and the sugar/rosemary topping adds a sweet crunch to the top. It might seem a bit rustic for some, but I like to sink my teeth into a good coffee cake, and the balanced flavors gives it some grace.
I used fresh rosemary from my window box, but dried would work fine here too. Rather than add rosemary into the batter, I left it for the topping, which infused the cake with the aromatic without overpowering it- allowing the zesty orange to shine through.
The coffee pairing for this (sounds like a wine pairing, doesn’t it?) is Irene’s Barundi Yandaro. It’s a medium bodied roast that Irene describes as having chocolate notes with spice, I sensed it as an earthier robust with spice and some sweet high notes. These beans come from East Africa where the coffee industry is emerging and taking itself very seriously. You can count on quality beans and a rich robust flavor.
The rosemary is a nice compliment to this coffee and the orange zest in the cake gives the sprightly lift it needs to highlight the top notes.
And for the record- if all this nuancing of flavors has you holding your head- forget about it! Enjoy the coffee, enjoy the cake- and have another slice on me.
Rosemary Orange Polenta Coffee Cake
10-12 slices
 
.5 c neutral olive oil
2 large eggs, room temp
1c sugar
zest of one orange and it’s juice
1.5c all purpose flour
.25 c coarse cornmeal
2t baking powder
1t salt
 
2T rosemary
4T sugar
mini pinch of salt
 
Preheat oven to 350˚ and prepare either an 8″ cake pan or 4″ wide loaf pan. Grease pan with oil and line with parchment paper (I used a paper bag) and grease that too.
 
In a large bowl, combine the flour, zest, cornmeal, bp and salt. Stir thoroughly.
 
In separate bowl whisk together olive oil, eggs, sugar and orange juice.
 
Pour the egg mixture into the dry and gently but thoroughly mix batter.
 
Spoon into the prepared pan and distribute evenly.
 
On cutting board combine the sugar and rosemary. Mince the rosemary with the sugar. This is why the fresh is so lovely, it will impart some of it’s oils and aromas directly into the sugar. Sprinkle this mixture over the top of the cake.
 
Bake in the center of your oven for approx 40 mins until the center of the cake springs back to the touch or a tester comes out dry.
 
Cool for 5 mins then gently, so as not to mess the sugar topping, remove the cake and cool on rack until ready to serve.
 
When I stored my leftover cake I simply wrapped foil around the sides, leaving the top exposed. The cake may stale a little overnight, which is fine for a coffee cake, but more importantly, it preserves the crunch of the topping, which is definitely the best part.