Chocolate espresso dacqoise (gluten free), and science of egg whites!

Valentine's Day Menu

Lots of things are happening. My rank list is in. Tyler and I are going to Peru this week with a tenuous plan at best. Formation came out and I loved it. Hillary Clinton is running for president and is BOSS. Oh yeah, and I finished my last clinical rotation in medical school. It's weird -- it's almost like yesterday when I stepped on the wards for the first time, with a clean white coat (it's an odd shade of yellow-brown-white now), a stethoscope around my neck (which has since been replaced after losing it), and a pocket full of snacks and books (still there). I started on the Heart Failure service on my medicine clerkship with my "cohort" for the clerkship being Dave Cholok, Jason Kung, and Kira Masco, people I had never really talked to much or thought about much before the start of third year. My first presentation was...not good...and I spent at least 45 minutes preparing it. And now my next patient presentation will probably be as an intern, hopefully a little better than it was two years ago.

We'll see.

Look at all those layers!

Anyways, I made a dacqoise for valentines dinner! It's a french dessert made with almond and hazelnut meringue that seems super complicated to make, but it's really not. I made it, I know the pitfalls, now I can share them with you! And realistically...my future self. Anyways. It's simple. It's meringue, buttercream, and ganache. It just takes a full day mostly because you have to rest it and allow it to soften. Then at the end of the day, or the next day, you have a delicious, delicious cake. Arguably the best cake I've ever had.

Some science: Beating eggs

What is Cream of Tartar? 
It's an acid. It is the salt of tartaric acid. There are a few definitions for an acid two of which are that acids can be a proton donor, or an electron acceptor -- but this is a little too detailed to matter right now. What you need to know is that tartaric acid has a bunch of protons in it (or that it can accept a lot of electrons).

What happens when you beat eggs? 
You agitate it with a whisk enough that you (A) incorporate air bubbles that have water on their surface and (B) denature the proteins, meaning you make then go from gooped up blobs to unraveled. The proteins, since they are made up of a bunch of different atoms, start attaching to each other. Particularly, the sulfur ions that help stabilize the structure of the proteins start attaching to each other. These bonds surround some of the air bubbles, and "squeeze" the water off the surface of the air bubbles. This is why when you whisk egg whites sometimes you get that pool of water at the bottom if you let them sit for a minute.

What's the point of adding Cream of Tartar to egg white when you beat them? 

They "stabilize" the proteins. What that means is that the acid (protons) in the Tartaric acid bind to the sulfur ions and prevent them from bonding too tightly and keep them in an "open" loose formation. They keeps the water in the meringue for the most part and keeps your egg whites from deflating.

What does this mean?

This means that you can add any acid and achieve similar results! Lemon juice, etc. The upside to the tartaric acid is that (A) you don't add liquid volume and (B) you don't impart (much) flavor other than the tang of the acid if you add too much...which I've done before.

So wait...it doesn't increase the volume of the egg white?

Nope, beating it just does that, cream of tartar just stabilizes the proteins by donating a protein (or accepting electrons!). Another thing you can do to make your egg white beating go faster is not add sugar at the beginning.  This is because sugar attracts water (hygroscopic) and the crystals can get in the way of the egg proteins unravelling and finding each other. So if you add the sugar part way through, it can help keep the water in, and won't slow down your egg white beating.

Whew, now that we're done with the science...on to the delicious!

Chocolate-espresso dacquoise
Modified from Treats-SF

My advice when starting this --

• read the directions for each component first and get your mise en place (ingredients ready to go). 
• Actually put everything in the fridge for the resting times. 
• Really make sure your meringue has a smooth top when you put it in the oven, it really makes life so much easier when you are putting the whole thing together later. For reals. FOR REALS. 
• All components can be made ahead of time up to two days. Even the whole cake can be made a whole day ahead of time. 

Meringue

• 4 egg whites (save the yellows, you need them for the buttercream) 
• 3/4 cup almond meal
• 1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted
• 3/4 cup plain white sugar
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/8 tsp salt 

Preheat oven to 250F 

Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Measure out a rectangle of 10x13inches and draw it in with a pencil. Then place the pencil side down on the baking sheet. This is important because it'll let you make a perfect rectangle, which will help with the dacquoise. You can get your parchment paper to stick by spraying the bottom of your baking sheet and then putting the parchment paper down.  

In a food processor, pulse 1/2 the sugar, all the hazelnuts, almond meal, cornstarch, and salt together into a fine texture. In the bowl of stand mixer, put the eggwhites and cream of tartar in the bowl, put it on low-medium and with whisk attachment, and whisk until foamy. Then turn up the speed to medium-high and slowly add the other half of the sugar. Keep beating until stiff peaks form. It took me 4-5 minutes. Then fold in the almond meal-hazelnut mixture in two batches. 

Spread it evenly on the parchment paper and make sure the top is as level as you can get it. Trust me, I didn't, and this step is important. 

Pop it in the oven for an hour and a half. Then turn the oven off without opening it (you don't want the heat to escape) and keep it in the oven for another hour to hour and a half to harden. Then pull it out and let it cool. 

German Buttercream 

• 4 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1.5 tsp corn starch 
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 sticks butter (16 tbsp) 
• 2 tbsp amaretto mixed with 1.5 tbsp instant espresso or coffee

Basically a german buttercream is a pastry cream mixed with butter. It gives it a creamier texture. So you make the pastry cream first. Mix the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch in a medium heat proof bowl. In the small saucepan, heat up the milk until it's simmering, turn off. Then, while constantly whisking slowly mix half the milk into the egg yolk mixture. This tempers the egg yolks and prevents them from scrambling which is what would happen if you added them in right away. Then pour the whole shebang back into the saucepan and turn it back on, whisking constantly until it's thick like pudding.

Put it in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour to cool down. 

After 30 min, in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment beat the room temperature butter. In three separate batches add in the pastry cream, scraping down the sides to make sure everything is well incorporated. Then add in the amaretto-coffee mixture. Turn it up to high and beat the crap out of that butter until it increases in volume and starts to look like a butter cream. 

You can store that covered in the fridge.

Ganache 

• 6 oz bittersweet or dark chocolate
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream 
• 2 tsp corn syrup

Put the chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Heat up the heavy whipping cream and the corn syrup in a small saucepan until simmering. Pour over chocolate, and whisk it to incorporate. Donnnne. That step is easy. Oh yeah, and let it chill in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes until it's still liquid, but not hot. 

Okay, so with the meringue, cut it down with a serrated knife so it's 10 x 12 inches. You want to do this slowly, so you're using the weight of the knife to cut it. Then, make a mark/nick in the meringue to divide it into four equal parts. These will be your layers. Cut them length-wise gently. If it breaks...oh yeah, you can glue that back together with the butter cream/ganache, but try to keep them in one piece. 

Then lay them out on a baking sheet. Put 1/4 cup chocolate ganache on three out of four layers. spread it, save the remaining chocolate. Put it in the fridge for 20 minutes. Then pull it out, and but 1/2 cup of the buttercream on the layer that does not have chocolate. Then place the buttercream side down on top of a chocolate layer, so the buttercream and the chocolate are touching, and you're making a meringue-chocolate-buttercream-meringue sandwich. Then put more buttercream on the top of the sandwich (another 1/2 cup) and put a chocolate piece on top of that, adding to the sandwich. 

By the end of it, you should have a clean (no chocolate,no ganache) top, and a four layer sandwich going on. Then you want to coat the outside in whatever buttercream you have left. The most important part is the top, the sides can be coated kind of mehhh...but the top should be smooth and flat. 

Then refrigerate it for half an hour to an hour. I skipped this step, and boy did I pay for it. My stuff still turned out tasting amazing, but I mean, it was defffinitely not as pretty as it could have been. When you're about to pull out the dacquoise, pop the remaining chocolate in the microwave for 10 seconds to melt it so it's pourable but not hot. 

Pull out the dacquoise. Pour the chocolate on top, and quickly spread it over the top into a smooth layer. Then spread the chocolate that dripped on the sides. 

Almost done...

Topping

• Hazelnuts
• Toasted slivered almonds

Then you want to coat the side of the dacquoise in almond. You can do it with it sitting on a tray, or you can lift it up if you're so bold (I did, it's no big). Just press the almonds into the side. 

Then use the hazelnuts on top. You can line them up in a row to "mark" the pieces so it is easier to eyeball pieces when you cut. I put the slivered almond on the entire dacquoise because I wanted to...but you don't have to. 

Then refrigerate for hour or two before slicing. Or you can let it sit over night. Stays good for 2-4 days covered in the fridge. 

Best. cake. ever.

This. Almond. Tart.

I just finished eating a slice. It is so good. Simple, not too sweet, not overwhelming. Just the cookie-like crust, the slight tang of the jam and the wonderful flavor of the almonds. My words of advice: if you don't have almond meal, you can make it easily by pulsing whole almonds in a food processor. Pulse them because you want almond meal, not almond butter. Please don't skip out on the layer of jam on the crust, it add to the flavor. Pick a jam that isn't too sweet and has a little tang...it'll go a long way. I'd go with apricot, or sour cherry. Enough with the words, on to the recipe.

Almond Tart 
Slightly mdified from Cooking with Manuela

Tart Crust

2 egg yellows (save the whites for the filling)
0.33 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp milk / heavy cream (I used heavy cream)
1.5 sticks butter, cubed
2 cups all purpose flour
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a food processor or with a hand mixer or even in a stand mixer, beat the egg yellows and sugar together until well combined. Then add the vanilla, heavy cream/milk, salt, and mix. Then beat in the butter until it's mixed thoroughly with the liquid (it doesn't have to be smooth, just mixed). Then, mix the flour in a 1/2 cup until it comes together. Since this is a tart dough, it'll be wetter than usual crust, and that's okay. Transfer the dough into a pre-buttered and floured tart part, sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough, and press it out thinly into the pan. You want the tart crust to be thinly spread because it will rise, so you can peel off any excess. Poke holes in the base with fork tines so that no bubbles form during the baking process and put it in a 375F oven for 20 minutes.

While it's baking you can make the filling:

Filling
0.25 cup jam (tart and sweet, but not too sweet -- apricot, blackberry, cherry. I used a jam from my friend Laurie over at Laurie's Little Kitchen)
5 egg whites
0.33 cups sugar
2 cups almond meal
Slivered almonds for topping

You can either buy the almond meal or make it yourself (see above text prior to recipe). Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Add in regular white granulated sugar, and fold it in by hand. Then add in the almond meal, and fold in well. You'll see the egg whites deflate a little, but that's okay, just make sure you're folding, rather than stirring the stuff in.

Now...to assemble the tart! After the shell comes out of the oven, turn your oven down to 350F. Pour the jam filling into the tart and spread it out, creating a thin layer. Then pour the filling into the tart and spread it out with a spatula/spoon. Top with silvered almonds. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the top is slightly brown.

Jam!

Pre-baking

Pull out, let cool, and serve with powdered sugar dusted on top, or by itself.

So good

Immediately post-baking

Brown Butter Frosted Rosemary Corn Cake

I always get turned off by desserts with more than 4 words in their name. It gets complicated with so much stuff going on. Salted Caramel Brownies. DONE. I can make that. Oreo cheesecake? Yes please. Cherry-Vanilla-Almond Cupcakes. Thank god cupcake is one word, because I can make that. 

But bear with me (I just looked up whether it was bare or bear...it's bear), this is legit. And delicious. And amazing. 

I don't like frosting, but brown butter frosting has got me hooked here. 

Fair warning, the corn bread cake is a olive oil cake and a bit "rustic" if you use not super fine cornmeal like I didn't. I like it, but if you like your corn bread smooth, get a smooth corn meal. 

It's not too hard to make and you'll wow people because you made something with more than 4 words in the name. 

Brown Butter Frosted Rosemary Corn Cake
From adventures in cooking
Cake
3 cups flour
0.75 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp salt
2.25 cup sugar
6 eggs
1 cup olive oil
0.33 cup apple cider
1 tbsp vanilla extract
0.25 cup fresh rosemary, chopped (don't use dry) 

Frosting
1.33 cup butter
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp honey

Make the frosting first by browning the butter. Basically put the butter in a saute pan over medium heat and let it melt down. In about 5-7 minutes it will caramelize/turn brown. It will start to smell nutty, and caramel-y and delicious. That's when you know it's done. Be careful though, it can burn pretty fast, so you want a caramel color, not a black color. 

Here's a useful video for how to brown butter in the microwave, which is a lot less likely to burn. 

After it's done browning, put it in a heatproof container in the fridge and let it cool and harden. While it's hardening, make the cake! 

Preheat the oven to 350, and line/butter/flour 2 9-inch round cake pans. Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl. In a cake stand mixer, or by hand, mix together the eggs and sugar until well-blended. Then add olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture in thirds, mixing well after each addition. Add in the fresh rosemary and mix by hand to prevent over mixing. Evenly distribute the cake mixture between the 2 cake pans and bake it for 35-40 minutes. When they are done, pull them out to cool. When they're cool, cut off the top of each cake so that you have an even base on both cakes (it makes it easier to frost).

While the cakes are baking, you can make the frosting. Pull out the cooled and hardened browned butter. Put it into your cake stand mixer (including the brown bits...they'll add color and be pretty), add in the powdered sugar and honey and mix together in your stand mixer until they are frosting-like. 

When the cake is definitely cool (or else the frosting will melt and be a tasty puddle), frost it. 

 

Torta di Rizo

If you break it down, it's just a rice tart. I know, it seems a bit weird to put rice in a tart shell, but it's great. It's like a sweet risotto in a pie. What else could you want? Oh yeah, nutella and plump raisins on top. 

In other news, we have all our plan trips in order for Paris this summer...I'm quite excited! My big discovery of this process has been Airbnb. It's a website that blows my mind--it has listings of all the places, other than hotels, you can stay basically everywhere. So if Tyler and I wanted to travel to London, or even Alabama, we could find a nice little apartment to stay in for 2 days with a kitchen and laundry machine for basically cheaper than a hotel. Try it out for your next vacation, they're pretty good. 

Torta di Rizo (Rice Tart)
adapted from Jamie Oliver's Italy




For the crust -- I used myvanilla scented crust recipe. You can replace the whole wheat flour with all purpose while making this if you want. 


Filling


4 tbsp. butter
2 vanilla beans sliced in half, with the seeds scraped out
1.5 cups arborio rice
5 tbsp. granulated white sugar
zest of 3 lemons or oranges
0.75 cups white wine, I used pinot grigio. Whatever you use, just make sure it's something you'd drink
3.5 cups whole milk
2 eggs, whisked
2 extra tbsp. granulated sugar for the top


Preheat oven to 350F.


In a large saucepan melt the butter over medium heat and add in the seeds. Stir it around for 1-2 minutes. THen add in the rice, sugar, and zest. Saute the rice in the butter for about 3 minutes. Then add the wine. Stir the rice occasionally until most of the wine has burned off. 


Stir in the milk slowly. Stir the mixture over low heat for about 15 minutes. Most of the milk will be absorbed, but it'll still be liquidy, and the rice will definitely not be cooked--don't worry, it'll cook in the oven. 


Allow the rice mixture to cool for about 10-12 minutes, and then whisk in the two eggs, making sure to stir continuously so the eggs don't scramble. Then pour the mixture into the tart pan, and top with the extra sugar, and then bake for 20-25 min. 


Allow it to cool when it comes out, I topped it with raisins and and but of warmed up nutella. You can top it with any kind of dried fruit, and something tart--perhaps a jam that you've warmed up? Maybe some lemon curd? Let your imagination work! :-) 

**This can easily be made gluten free by using a gluten free pie crust**

Spring Break + Avocado Cream Pie

March 12th - March 16th, Spring Break 2012. Now, you may think this will be another post about a week on the beach in Galveston...but you'd only be partially correct! This year, the stars aligned, and all of my family had time off at the same time. This seems easy to accomplish, but with my brother and his wife in their medical fellowships, they basically never have time off. So we decided: Family Vacation!! 

The fam minus dad, on a hot air ballon ride

We packed our bags, including little Krinkle, left behind Jacques in the care of our awesome neighbor, and trekked over to San Diego! We spent 3 lovely days in a beach house, over looking the ocean, with a jacuzzi, and a grill! FYI, when vegetarians see a grill, we go CRAZY. I mean...crazy. I think it's the need to break the stereotype that vegetarians don't grill (we, my family, don't). So we immediately began thinking of stuff we could grill! (Shish-kebab Tofu anyone?) Actually, it was pretty amazing, we grilled asparagus, avocado, tomatoes, onions...well, I digress. 

Grilled Asparagus!!

More grilling!

Anyways, the last day of spring break is today. Last year, I went to Galveston with my BFF Sam and my not so hubby at the time, Tyler. This year, San Diego. I was very thankful to be able to spend time with my whole family. It's a completely different dynamic when everyone is there:


Sonali and I putzing around with food, and getting excited! Getting lost in a grocery shop...
Mom, me, Sonali, and Tyler going on a hot air balloon ride(!!)
Bhai, my father, and Tyler riding around on segways on the beach!
My mom and I reading on beach chairs over looking the ocean...
All of us in the jacuzzi, complaining how overly hot it is (it was turned up to max)
Grilling anything and everything we could get our hands on
Playing monopoly and me, as usual, getting overly competitive 
Watching True Lies and reciting almost every line

The view!!

The hot air balloon

Me and the ocean!

There are so many memories...and it just reminded me how thankful I am to be able to go back to Boston in a few months and have part of my family near by. One of the hardest things about living in Texas, or really any state besides California, Massachusetts, or Arizona, is that I don't have family nearby. I never really realized that until I moved to Texas, and it made me even more thankful that I had Tyler with me. Someone who knew me inside out, and loved me. Anyways, I know that in medical school I won't have a ton of time to spend with them, and most of my "free"time will be spent with Tyler or with myself, knowing that they are there, being able to see them once or twice a month, will make me incredibly happy. 

So! To commemorate spring break this year, I decided to try out a recipe of my own...Avocado Cream Pie...and boy was it good. With avocado season in full swing, I figured it would be a good idea. The crust is a take on the vanilla-scented crust, with whole wheat. The filling is made with avocado, greek yogurt, and cream cheese. The whole sha-bang is smooth, creamy, pretty, and with a subtle avocado flavor. I loved the color too, light green. It's a great introduction to spring. Be adventurous...try it!


Avocado Cream Pie


Vanilla-Scented Crust (part whole wheat)


0.67 cup all purpose flour
0.33 cup whole wheat flour
0.5 cups melted butter
0.25 cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F
In a bowl, mix together butter, powdered sugar, and salt. Then mix in the vanilla and the flour. With a rubber spatula, mix the dough together. Press it into a tart pan or a spring form pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Pull it out and let it cool

Crust coming together

Avocado Cream Filling


1 ripe avocado
5 oz. cream cheese
0.25 cup white sugar
0.5 cup greek yogurt
2 eggs


Lower oven heat to 250F


In a stand mixer, blend together avocado and cream cheese until smooth.

Add in the sugar, and make sure it's well mixed. Add in the greek yogurt, mix in well. 

Then add in the eggs one by one, making sure to mix well after each addition. Pour the filling into the cooled crust. Make sure it's cooled, otherwise the eggs will cook as soon as it hits the tart crust, and you'll have a scrambled eggs in your pie...bleh. Bake the pie at 250F for 20-25 minutes, or until the pie is still jiggly, but more firm than liquid. Let it cool, and serve it with an avocado slice as a garnish!

Chocolate Tart

It's December already. I feel like it was yesterday I was setting up my classroom for the beginning of the school year...preparing myself for a whole new set of students, a whole new set of stories, and feeling just slightly more ready than I was last year. It's an odd feeling to know that in two weeks it will be holiday break, and I'll be starting a brand new semester after that. 


It's also mildly unsettling how much grading needs to get done between now and then. But why think of that? 


Instead, I'm going to think about smelling the roses. It's something my mother always says, that it's important to stop and smell the roses. It's something I thought about today. We move through life so fast, constantly trying to figure out what's next, always looking to see how we can get better, or what we can do to move higher in our career paths, that we lose sight of the small things going on around us. 


The perfect spot on your partner's shoulder where your head fits (almost) perfectly. 


The pretty winter lights that are up, with the laughing Santa's and little elves that move in an awkwardly mechanical but nonetheless cute way. 


The rain smell that mixes with garbage, dirt, asphalt, and car exhaust to somehow be pleasant. 


Anyways, all these things are small, but things I noticed today that I hadn't taken the time to fully noticed before (although the rain thing was probably because it's been a painful low-rain year in Texas). This isn't an argument for mediocrity, it's important to always have one eye set to the future, but the other eye should be set to the present--to remind you that there is a now, and that it's important to enjoy it, because you never know what actually will happen next. 


And what better way to enjoy the present with a Chocolate Tart? No seriously. There isn't. I got this recipe from David Lebovitz, an amazing food blogger, cookbook author, and generally interesting guy. 

The crust is cookie-like, but not too sweet or overpowering, and pairs very well with the chocolate filling. 


The filling though...oh wow, it's amazing. You start off with caramelized sugar, add chocolate, eggs, butter, flour, and salt to that, and you have something beautiful. Not just delicious, but beautiful. 


Don't get scared by the sugar caramelizing part, it's easy. Seriously, it's not hard. Just be careful, sugar gets REALLY hot when you cook it, so make sure you don't touch it, and you're careful not to get it on your finger by accident (like me...). 




Chocolate Tart
modified from David Lebovitz

French Tart Crust


3 oz. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tbsp. canola oil
3 tbsp. water
1 tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
5 oz or 1 cup of all purpose flour. 


Preheat oven to 410 degrees 


In a pyrex bowl, combine butter, oil, water, sugar, and salt. Put them into the oven in the bowl for about 10 minutes, or until the butter is completely melted and turning slightly brown on the sides. 


Pull out carefully, and add the flour to the bowl, and stir immediately until the dough comes together. When it does, dump it out into a tart shell or 9-in pie tin. I used a pie tin. 


The dough will be warm, and feel very buttery, that's okay, that's normal. Just push it out and spread it into your tin, reserving a small portion of the dough to cover up any holes or tears that might form. Put it in the oven and bake it for 10 minutes. 


When it's done, pull it out and let it cool before filling it. 


Chocolate Filling
1.25 cups sugar
6 tsp. warm coffee or 1 shot espresso
4 oz. unsalted butter (1 stick)
pinch of salt
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate**
2 large eggs
0.25 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract


**You can use any mixture of 6oz of bittersweet to unsweetened chocolate depending on how sweet you like things. I only had bittersweet chocolate on hand, so it's what I used, but you can use 3 oz. bittersweet, and 3 oz. unsweetened. Just whatever you do, use a high quality chocolate (I used ghirardelli)...it really makes a difference. 


Preheat oven to 350 F


In a heavy, metal saucepan or a dutch oven, or a cast iron saucepan, spread all the sugar evenly over the bottom and heat it over medium heat. 

Within 2-3 minutes, the bottom layer of sugar will start to melt, you can start to mix in the sugar from the top. You will have to do this for about 5-6 minutes until all the sugar is completely melted and starts to smoke a little (there should be no burning smell). 

When this happens, turn the stove off and mix in your coffee. The pan will sizzle, and smoke, so be sure to look away. Stir in the coffee completely, then add in the butter and salt. If the sugar is starting to get hard, no problem, just heat it over low heat until it melts and is easy to stir again. 


Then add in the chocolate and mix it in until completely incorporated. After that, add in the two eggs, and stir until completely incorporated, and then add in the flour and vanilla, and again mix until incorporated. 


When it's done, carefully pour it into your tart/pie shell. 

Put it in the oven and bake it for 15 minutes...the center should still be jiggly when you take it out. 


Make sure you let it cool completely before cutting into it, otherwise chocolate will ooze everywhere! 

Enjoy! 

Pumpkin Pie Bars with a Hazelnut Almond Shortbread Crust (Gluten Free)

One excellent thing about being at home--I get to try out all kind of gluten free recipes. My dearest mother does not partake of gluten or any wheat product, and a lot of what you and I think of as "regular food" isn't so regular for her. 

It was too tasty for me to pause and take picture

So I love to try out different recipes that are typically gluten-ful, and turn them into gluten free! One such recipe: pumpkin bars. 


Pumpkin pie bars are exactly what they sound like, pumpkin pie...in the form of portable lovely bars. 


By the way, as a side note, I must say I am quite happy that it's fall/winter season and pumpkin is back. I missed it so much, and I always forget because by the end of the holiday season, I'm pumpkined out. 

Anyways, usually pumpkin pie bars are made with a regular shortbread crust, so instead, I made them with the hazelnut-almond shortbread crust. Super easy, totally gluten free. 


So, if you're having someone at your Thanksgiving table who is gf, then try this on for size. 


Pumpkin Pie Bars w/ Hazelnut-Almond Shortbread Crust
modified from joyofbaking.com


Crust


1 cup almond meal
1/2 cup raw, hazelnuts (filberts) 
0.25 tsp. salt
0.5 tsp. vanilla extract 
0.5 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 
0.5 cup light brown sugar


Filling


1 15-oz. can of pumpkin puree (2 cups) 
2 eggs
0.74 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
0.5 tsp. ground ginger
0.125 tsp. ground cloves (0.125 = 1/8)
0.5 tsp. salt
1.5 cup heavy cream


Preheat oven to 350F 


Place the hazelnuts on a bakeware tray and put them in the oven to toast for about 10 minutes, or until they are fragrant. 


After that, pull them out, put them in a bowl, and cover them with another bowl completely. Leave them their to steam for about five minutes. To get the peels off, just hold the two bowls together and shake 'em up. Hold them pretty tightly, and they'll be mostly peeled, and that's good enough. 


Then toss them in the food processor, and process them until they're relatively fine. Then add in the sugar, salt, and the almond meal, and mix it until it's well mixed. 


Then add in the room temperature butter and vanilla. Process until it's well-mixed, and wet-ish. Put it in a 9x13 inch parchment papered pan, and spread it evenly. Bake it for 12-15 minutes,  or until the edges are browned. Pull it out and let it cool when it's done baking.


While it's baking, in a food processor, bowl, or cake mixer, mix 2 eggs well. Then add in the sugar, salt, the pumpkin puree, and spices, and mix well. Then slowly add in the heavy cream, you want to make sure that it's slow so that it doesn't get too frothy. 

Pour the filling on the cooled crust, and bake for 30-35 minutes. When it's done, allow it to cool before cutting it into bars or it will be too messy. Serve with whipping cream! 

Chocolate Lemon Layer Cake and Austin City Limits

A few weeks ago, my lovely husband took me too Austin City Limits. It's this super awesome, and super huge annual music festival in Austin with huge names like Arcade Fire, Joseph Arthur, Jack Ingram, and more. 

When I say took me, I mean actually took me. Let me be real for a second, sometimes I can be a serious "Debbie Downer." No joke. I'll whine, I'll complain, I'll say I'm too tired to drive to Austin, even though he's the one driving. 


I'll say I have too much work to do, even though I've finished most of it, there's an endless pile that I can just keep working on. I'll say I just plain old don't want to go even though we bought the tickets.

But luckily my lovely husband knows me. He sighs, waits till I'm done whining like a small, spoiled child, and says, "I think you'll have a lot o fun" and then waits for the second round of whining complains. This cycle continues till I sigh and give in.


Invariably I always have fun, and feel like a total tool for whining about it in the first place.


Anyways, it was awesome. Full of people, like 5 different stages with different types of music playing! We laid out on a blanket in the sun, munched on an over-priced soggy burrito, and rocked out. I even brought a new book I was reading, and bopped out to the music while reading.


People judged me. But not my lovely husband, who sat with his lovely head in my lap, and just relaxed while I scratched his head. 


How did I get so lucky? 


Anyways, I digress. On the way home, I had a huge craving to just EAT a lemon. But instead of having lemon inside, I wanted chocolate. Ergo, this layered chocolate cake came forth. 

It's chocolate-y, with a lemon kick and it's tasty. 


Chocolate Lemon Layer Cake


2 cups all-purpose flour
2.5 cups sugar
0.75 cup unsweetened Dutch cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup canola oil
1 cup greek yogurt or sour cream
1.5 cups water
2 tbsp. distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs


Preheat the oven to 350 F.


Mix all the dry ingredients together. Then whisk in the canola oil, and yogurt or sour cream slowly. Then add in the vinegar and vanilla. When that's completely added, whisk in the two eggs. Make sure everything is well incorporated. 


Butter, line with parchment paper, and dust with cocoa powder two cake pans. 


Divide the batter equally among the two pans, and bake for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. 


While it's in the oven, make the lemon curd. I've posted this before, so I'm reposting a doubled recipe.


Lemon Curd


0.67 cup lemon juice
1.5 cups sugar
2 tbsp. lemon zest
6 eggs
6 tbsp. butter 


Mix the sugar, lemon juice, zest, and eggs. Put them on a double boiler, and stir with a whisk constantly for 10-15 minutes. Two things: 1. Make sure the bottom of the double boiler doesn't touch the boiling water, or lese you'll have lots of scrambled eggs...ugh. 2. Make sure you whisk constantly, so the eggs don't scramble, but rather incorporate nicely.


After it thickens, pull it off, and whisk in the butter. Then strain it to get out any tiny pieces that did scramble. 


After the cake is done, pull it out, let it cool for 30 min.


When it's cool, pop it out carefully, and cut each cake in half. Place the bottom half on the cake stand or plate, or whatever you're planning to frost it on. 


Reserve the prettiest layer of cake for the top. 




Then pour 1/3 of the lemon curd on and spread it to the edges. Put the next layer of cake on, and pour another third of the lemon curd on and spread it around. Put the next layer on, and do the same. Put on the last layer as the top, and dust with some powdered sugar to make it pretty.  :-) You can also put slices of lemon on top if you are serving it that same day!