Christmas Cinnamon Rolls

Watching my assistant, Whitney, make brioche yesterday for her Christmas cinnamon rolls inspired me to make a batch for myself and thank goodness she did because having a good, I mean really good brioche recipe makes life better and way more delicious.

Deciding to follow in her footsteps and make cinnamon rolls with brioche, however, does make me a little dizzy and fell just a tad bit guilty. To begin with, this dough is ridiculously rich, soft and tender all on its own. It has a lot of butter. A lot. But that's why it melts in your mouth and taste so damn good.

Then to make cinnamon rolls you have to add more butter. Yes, this is absolutely necessary, well maybe not absolutely, but worth it. I mean, come on, how else would the brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans stick to the dough.

Then, just before baking, a tad more butter, just a little I promise. A quick brush over the tops. No big deal.

By the way if you don't like butter I suggest you stop reading because we haven't even gotten to the brown butter glaze.

Oh yes, the glaze. Now, this is absolutely necessary because you certainly cannot have cinnamon rolls without glaze. Believe me, people would notice this and wonder why you cheated them out of this very important part of their cinnamon roll eating experience.

Using the brown butter glaze was Whitney's idea so blame her if you have some weird aversion to butter or are one of those people who think it's bad for you. Nonsense. Complete and utter nonsense. Butter makes the world a better, happier place to live, and it smells really good.

Anyway, she suggested it and I agreed that this was a perfect idea. YUM!

I suggest eating as many as you can, or until you have a stomach ache from all the sugar and butter and happiness. No not really, actually all you need is one. I promise your life will be richer and you will smile before it even gets to your mouth. Happy Christmas!

brioche

from the bread baker's apprentice

Sponge

2.25 oz bread flour

.33 oz (1 Tblsp) instant yeast

4 oz whole milk, luke warm

Sprinkle yeast over warm milk. Whisking to dissolve. Place flour in bowl of standing mixer, add milk mixture and (using paddle) combine well. Let sit for 20 minutes.

Dough

8.25 oz eggs, slightly beaten

1 lb bread flour

1.25 oz sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 lb butter, room temp.

Add eggs to sponge and mix well with paddle. Stir together the flour, sugar and salt and add to sponge/egg mixture. Mix on low speed for about 2 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes. Add butter a quarter at a time. Wait until butter has been mixed in before adding more. Be patient this will take a little while. After all of the butter is incorporated knead brioche with paddle for 6 minutes. This dough is very soft and sticky.

Scrap dough onto a lightly greased baking sheet and form a 6"x8" rectangle. Cover with a greased piece of plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. (I let my dough rest for 4 hours then I rolled it out filled it, rolled it, cut it and let the raw rolls sit refrigerated overnight in a covered buttered baking dish.)

While dough is still cold roll out on lightly floured wooden surface to approximately 12"x16". Brush with melted butter, sprinkle generously with brown sugar and a touch of cinnamon. Finish with chopped pecans. Starting with long side roll tightly and cut into to 12 pieces. Place in butter baking dish (I baked 2 pans of 6). Let rise to double, brush with butter and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown and bubbling.

To make the brown butter glaze: When the rolls are almost done cook 4 oz. butter until it is golden brown. Stain through a fine sieve or cheese cloth immediately into a medium bowl and let cool until it's still a bit warm. Sift powdered sugar, starting with 1 cup, over butter. Whisk to combine. Add more or less sugar to taste. Add milk 1 tsp at a time if you want your glaze to more liquid like. I like a thicker glaze, omitting the milk, and use a small off set spatula to spread it over the warm rolls. Save any left over glaze for toast, pancakes or cupcakes. Reheat it over a water bath to soften. Enjoy!

Passion Fruit Part 2

When you make passion fruit pate de fruit, I promise you will draw an audience. People may not know what exactly it is that they smell, but the fragrance is intoxicating and will definitely spark the curiosity of anyone nearby. While I was making the pate de fruit a couple of days ago, Pete, a co-worker of mine asked me what I was doing. As soon as I said the words passion fruit his eyes lit up and he actually stopped what he was doing to tell me about tasting a passion fruit for the first time just the night before. He cut the fruit in half, and cupping his hands to his mouth, showed me how he sucked the shocking pulp out of each half without reserve or expectation. His excitement was catching and even I began to feel like I too had only just experienced the fruit for the first time.

Passion fruit is intense on its own and I know very few people who eat the pulp alone. Most like the juice strained and sweetened. But if you have never cut into the fruit, scooped out the pulp and seeds as is, I suggest you try it simply for the strength of the flavor.

We're lucky in southern California because passion fruit grows everywhere. But don't discourage yourself from making the pate de fruit if you don't have access to the whole fruit. Puree works wonderfully and can be ordered here. I use the puree at work throughout the winter for dessert buffets and holiday gifts. Once sugared the small jellies sparkle and look absolutely romantic.

pate de fruit

550 grams passion fruit puree

62 grams sugar

17 grams apple pectin

555 grams sugar

112 grams corn syrup

Have all ingredients measured and ready to go.

Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the inside of a small cookie sheet or baking dish. I like to use a quarter sheet pan. Lightly butter the bottom of the cookie sheet and line with the cut piece of parchment paper. The butter will keep the parchment from sliding around.

In a heavy bottom pot warm fruit puree over a low flame. Whisk the first measurement of sugar and pectin together with a fork. Whisk pectin/sugar mixture gradually into puree. Continue whisking and turn the heat up to med high and bring to a boil. Add second amount of sugar and corn syrup. Return to a boil and cook whisking constantly until mixture reaches 224 degrees. Remove from heat and pour mixture into the prepared pan. Let cool for at least 1 hour.

To cut the pate de fruit remove the entire piece from the pan and flip over on a wooden or plastic cutting board. Peel off the parchment paper and cut into desired size. 1"x1" is nice. Toss in sugar and eat. If you are not serving right away store the cut candy in an airtight container at room temperature and sugar just before serving.

Passion Fruit Part 1

I'm not what you would describe as a spontaneous person. I like the idea of being spontaneous and even envy those who are, but that's about as far as it goes. I take comfort in being organized. I love making lists and having a plan, at least a general plan. I find that I always get myself into some sort of debacle without at least a general plan. But, there are always those few occasions in which I fool myself into thinking that I can deal with spontaneity. That it will be good for me, that I will grow as a person and learn not to be so serious and so organized. And then I come to my senses and realize that I must have had some sort of out of body experience when I was making those spontaneous decisions. I'm just not that relaxed, spur-of-the-moment kind of person that a small part of my personality would like me to be.

My last trip to the farmer's market was one of those few occasions in which I acted on pure impulse. Not that I didn't have a plan, I did. The plan was to buy figs and make fig jam turnovers. Such a nice, simple plan. The morning was beautiful, as most of them are in southern California and Ryan and I, with coffees and cash in hand, were ready. We spotted the figs, lots of figs. A little over ripe, on sale and perfect for jam. I should have just filled my bag, paid the lovely farmer and went on my merry way.

But I didn't. I couldn't. As soon as I saw the baskets full of passion fruit I just couldn't stick to the plan. I got excited and decided to hell with the figs, I wanted those passion fruit. For those of you who have never seen a passion fruit, well, I'm sorry. Truly sorry. They're not the most attractive fruit, but definitely one of the most delicious. They have a tough, purplish skin that wrinkles as it ripens and a very fragrant, tart orange pulp/juice inside with small, crunchy black seeds that are absolutely edible and delicious. I say this because some people don't eat the seeds. I think that's crazy. Most of the time I juice them and make ice cream, pate de fruit or mousse, but I highly recommend scooping out the inside, adding a little sugar and just a bit of lime juice and pouring this over vanilla ice cream. It's tart and creamy and sweet and crunchy.

So back to my passion fruit adventure....

I decided then and there, standing in front of hundreds of passion fruits that I would make floats. Passion fruit juice and vanilla bean ice cream floats. I love making floats and have one or two for every season. Pomegranate with milk sorbet is my favorite. I explained the change in plans to Ryan and he was cool with that. He's much more relaxed than I am. With passion fruit in hand we laid out our next bit of business. Well, let's see, we decided that it would be nice to buy some fun, new glasses for the floats and of course we needed an ice cream scoop, a small one, because the one I needed was at work. We also had to go to the store because I had the ingredients to make turnover dough not vanilla ice cream. So we buy our glasses, very adorable, the ice cream scoop, the cream, milk, and eggs and feel pretty good about our new plan. On Sunday I made the ice cream, let it chill for about 8 hours, freeze it and the next day we're all set to go, right? Right. Monday morning: wake up, drink coffee. At this point we're still feeling pretty good. Ryan made the simple syrup I needed and got his cameras ready. I juiced the passion fruits. Cutting them in half, scooping out the pulp, and pushing the juice through a fine mesh strainer. (Side note), it takes quite a few passion fruit for a small amount of juice but a little goes a long way.

Juice is ready, ice cream is ready and cameras are ready. And go!

Did I mention that it was really hot outside and that we don't have air conditioning.

The method goes like this: scoop the ice cream into our lovely new glasses, pour sweetened passion fruit juice over the ice cream and top off with club soda. The bubbles are awesome and give the whole float life.

And this is what I did. Exactly. Ice cream scoop number one, success. Ice cream scoop number two, not at all successful. The ice cream scoop breaks, it breaks! I realize that the ice cream may have been a little too frozen but come on, the second scoop! It's the spring loaded, stainless kind. I continue to use this broken scoop and start to feel the creeping anxiety that I often experience when I haven't properly planned. I think to myself, I should have two scoops, maybe three. I start scooping the ice cream with another scoop that's way to big and the ice cream is not round and smooth but rather rustic, which is okay too, but not for going inside of a narrow french glass that is going to be photographed. I'm sweating now and the ice cream is melting and the floats that I do manage to put together look like, well, not how I planned for them to look.

But, they tasted absolutely divine. Refreshing and soothing and if I had not been so ridiculously irritated I would have probably enjoyed them a whole lot more than I did. But we continued refilling the glasses, taking more photos and praying we'd get a least one good shot.

We did not! Not one decent shot of the float. I was beyond frustrated and then had to give myself that all-is-not-lost-thankful-for-the-learning-experience pep talk. I felt better for about 10 seconds and then realized that my kitchen was a screaming mess and I had very little to show for creating such a disaster.

Live and learn, right?

On the bright side, we did manage to get some beautiful photos of the fruit and I will definitely share those with you in my next post. I'm quite determined that passion fruit part deux will be successful and satisfying. Stay tuned!

Mariposa Plum Crisp and Farmer Dan

Dan Lammers grows fruit. For thirty years he's been growing fruit. Apricots, asian pears, quince, jujube, mulberry, persimmons, grapes, perfect anna apples and plums. He grows the best plums I have ever, ever eaten. Green gage, santa rosa and mariposa plums. The first time I met Dan he brought me anna apples and mariposa plums. It was late in the summer and the plums were sweet, concentrated. The apples were small, young and crisp. I remember thinking that you shouldn't do a thing to this fruit. You shouldn't do a thing to it except eat it as soon as possible. Eat it while the warmth of the sun is still in its flesh. While the skin is bright and smooth and tart. While it's still an honest and alive piece of food.

And I did. I started serving the plums whole to customers on small platters, before dinner, after dinner, for breakfast. They began asking me where I found them? Where they could get them? Who is Dan Lammers?

When I had too many plums to eat out of hand I began making mariposa plum and anna apple crisps. Innovative? Not really. Comforting? Completely. Each night we'd usually sell out. I even had a women ask me a few months later if I was going to make the crisp again when the plums and apples became available. This is no praise for me and my ability to make a simple crisp, anyone can make a crisp. But you can't make it as good without Dan.

And after the plums disappeared I spent the fall making anna apple butter, apple fritters and caramelized apple crisps. Dan even separated the fruit for me depending on what I was using it for. Setting aside the very ripe apples for apple butter and the younger fruit for crisps or a simple snack.

During the winter I enjoyed his jujube and asian pears, but nothing compares to his stone fruit and I couldn't wait to taste them again the following summer. I was smitten.

Unfortunately, the following fall Dan's farm went black. He lost his home of thirty years, his packing shed, irrigation system and about a third of his fruit trees to a devastating wild fire. I found out from my egg rancher and neighbor of his, Bernice, that he and his wife were staying with family and would be back as soon as they could. And they were. It was absolutely unbelievable. He said that even though they lost so many trees there were still 400 that needed their help. He said they were like his children and he couldn't just abandon them.

Nine months later when Ryan and I went to see him, he already had a new foundation laid in the exact spot of his previous home, only this time a little bigger and with a better terrace. He took us on a tour of his property and we eat anna apples from the tree and finished the evening sitting in his trailer, his temporary home, listening to the story about how he met his wife.

It's true that his harvest after the fires was minimal. Some of his trees are gone forever and some need more time and care, but some are still feeding us and that makes me so happy. We should all be so lucky to find and know people like Dan.

And we should all be so lucky to eat the food he grows.

mariposa plum crisp

streusel

6 oz. butter, cubed

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup rolled oats, not quick oats

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/8 tsp. ground allspice

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine dry ingredients. Add cubed butter and cut in to form medium crumbles. Set aside.

Yields 4 cups

plum filling

2# (approx. 10) mariposa plums

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tblsp. cornstarch

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1 Tblsp. honey

Slice plums into wedges and put in a medium bowl. Add remaining ingredients and combine to coat fruit. Let macerate for 15 minutes.

Yields 3 1/2 cups

Divide plum mixture amongst 4 oven proof bowls. Top each bowl with 1/2 cup (more or less to taste) of the oatmeal crumble. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown and juices bubble. Serve warm or at room temperature with creme fraiche or vanilla bean ice cream.

You can bake the remaining crisp topping on a sheet pan, let cool and use as a topping on your favorite yoghurt or ice cream.

Spanish Peach Preserves, Ricotta and Tea

My dear friend Rocio goes home to Spain at least twice a year to visit her parents and three brothers, and she always brings me back something simple and very, very delicious. This year it just so happened to be my birthday upon her return so the gift of small treasures was received with even more delight.

Amongst a tiny bottle of olive oil, which was perfect for a recent picnic, saffron and pimenton de la vera were two beautiful jars of preserves. Peach and blackberry.

The olive oil is gone, the saffron is still tucked away for something special and the pimenton continues to give our steaks, chicken and vegetables much more character and depth.

The preserves, however, I let linger in the fridge. I love, absolutely love a really good jam on a very crusty piece of toasted bread with a generous amount of butter separating the two. I find it as delicious and satisfying as any dessert. This simple snack is one of my most cherished meals and is even better with warm tea.

On this particular day my kitchen is void of butter, strange I think for a pastry chef, but any how I have ricotta and my Spanish peach preserves, my favorite tea and a quick grind of black pepper and I'm happy.

No recipe today, only a suggestion to take a little time for bread and tea.

Blueberry Corn Muffins

Blueberries are one of my favorite things about summer and instantly remind me of my family. As children, my brothers and I were lucky enough to eat what seemed to be an endless supply of local Amish berries. One bowl sprinkled with sugar after supper was perfect and delicious and memorable. We sat outside at dusk with dirty toes and sticky fingers, oblivious to the mosquitoes, eating our dessert waiting patiently for the lighting bugs and crickets.

I miss the fresh blueberries from my childhood. Firm, thin skinned with creamy, not too soft centers and a sweet, tart bite. It's hard to find the same here in southern California even though more blueberry farmers are popping up all over the state. The berries are often overripe because of the heat, not to mention expensive. However, once in a while you can find a good pint, and if can keep yourself from eating them out of hand, use them for tender buttermilk pancakes, delicate pies or my favorite corn muffins.

I find it odd that I've had this recipe for years but only recently started adding fruit and streusel. It's quite delicious all on its own, the honey, melted butter and tangy buttermilk make this bread tender, slightly sweet and rich.

The muffins are equally delicious with raspberries, blackberries or diced strawberries. Alternatively, adding fresh corn kernels and black pepper make it a perfect bread for winter soups and stews.

corn muffins

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. cornmeal

2/3 c. sugar

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 Tbsp. honey

2 ounces melted butter

1/3 ounce canola oil

2 eggs

1/4 cream

1 c. buttermilk

1 c. fresh blueberries

streusel

1/4 c. all-purpose flour

1 1/4 c. sugar

2 ounces butter, soft

Combine flour and sugar. Rub in butter until mixture is crumbly. Set aside.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour muffin tins or use muffin papers.

Sift dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk honey and melted butter together well. Whisk in canola oil in a slow, steady stream. Whisk in eggs one at a time until mixture in combined. Whisk in cream and buttermilk.

Add wet ingredients to dry and fold together gently and quickly just until combined. Be careful not to over mix.

Fill muffin cups almost to the top and sprinkle with streusel. Or bake in a loaf pan that has been buttered and floured.

Bake muffins until they are golden and spring back.

Small Bites

Chocolate truffles have always been one of my favorite things to make. I adore their size and subtle sophistication, actually I love all things that are petite and sweet.  Creamy centers of soft chocolate ganache wrapped in dark chocolate that cracks at first bite and then melts slowly, it's satisfying and comforting and we should all eat more truffles more often.  

My favorite truffle, presently, is milk chocolate vanilla bean.  The ganache sets up soft and creamy, delicate and smooth with a quiet vanilla background that gives it an addicting quality. I find it a little strange actually that I love this ganache so much because in general I'm not a huge fan of milk chocolate.  I prefer very dark chocolate, and usually on its own.  However, once rolled and dipped in dark couverture and rolled in toasted coconut, sesame, cocoa or your favorite nuts, this sweet and silky ganache makes people like me love milk chocolate.

For those of you who already crave milk chocolate above all others, add this recipe to your repertoire for cake fillings and tarts and of course truffles.  The possibilities are endless as are the "dress" you chose for each truffle.  I love toasted coconut.  It's a bit typical, chocolate and coconut, but none the less delicious.  

milk chocolate vanilla ganache

1 pound milk chocolate

6 ounces heavy cream

1 ounce unsalted butter

1/4 vanilla bean

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of sea salt (or more to taste)

Chop chocolate and butter into small pieces and put them into a medium size bowl.  Bring cream, scraped vanilla bean and pod, extract and salt to slight boil.  Remove from heat and let steep for 15 minutes.  Strain.  Reheat cream, then pour over chocolate and butter.  Stir gently with a wooden spoon or spatula, but not a whisk.  

Once the chocolate is melted and you have a smooth ganache pour it into a shallow dish. Cover with plastic wrap.  Let the ganache come to room temperature then refrigerate overnight.  

The next day scoop the ganache with a small scoop, I use a 100 size scoop.  Cover and refrigerate until the ganache is firm.  Set aside small bowls or cake pans with your favorite "dress".  Toasted coconut, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, chopped nuts, toasted sesame etc. 

Melt, or temper, dark chocolate and set aside, being careful so as not to get the chocolate too hot.  Roll truffles to form small balls.  Dip each truffle in the melted chocolate and roll in chosen garnishes.  

Let the chocolate coat harden slightly then remove truffle and place gently in paper candy cups, in a bowl or on your favorite platter. Store any leftover truffles in the refrigerator or a very cool place. Enjoy.