Pastry

59/365: National Chocolate Souffle Day

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Midwest Mark

We rose to the occasion today in order to celebrate National Chocolate Souffle Day: Tara and I decided to have a chocolate souffle bake-off. Keep in mind, neither of us had ever made a souffle of any kind. We’ve watched enough cooking shows over the years to know that souffles have tripped up many a good chef before, so I’ll admit it: I was apprehensive going into the challenge. How’d we fare? Read on!

Souffle is French for “gonna collapse on your ass.” They can be either savory or sweet, and are traditionally baked in ramekins. European cooks during the Renaissance often used whisked egg whites in desserts, but it wasn’t until the invention of meringue that the souffle was perfected. The secret to a good meringue is to whip it. Whip it good. Famed French chef Antoine Beauvilliers (once the personal chef of none other than Louis C.K. – oops, got that wrong, King Louis XIV) – is believed to have served the first souffles at his restaurant, La Grande Tavern, in the late 18th century; he later published a cookbook, L’Art du Cuisinier, that featured souffle recipes. Another cookbook published in 1841, Patissier Royal Parisien, devoted so much attention to proper souffle technique that it’s obvious chefs for centuries have had problems with souffles collapsing on them.

Needless to say, none of this instilled confidence in my own souffle-making skills, but (understatement alert!!) Tara and I tend to be a tad competitive, so without further ado it was game on.

It was game on in front of a live audience, by the way.

Earlier in the day, a couple of our Facebook followers urged us to stream the competition online using a service called UStream. I had never heard of UStream before, but decided to swallow my pride and give it a go. So there we were, whipping up our souffles in the kitchen while simultaneously chatting live with a few viewers. It was a nerve-wracking and humbling experience, at least for me. And might have affected my cooking abilities. I’m not sure…maybe that’s just an excuse, because the winner of the challenge was…drumroll, please….

TARA!

By a country mile. Her souffle turned out light and airy. It rose perfectly and did not collapse. And most importantly of all, it was DELICIOUS! Mine, on the other hand? Well, it was darker. So there’s that.

Either way, we had a blast!

Chocolate Souffle

Tara’s winning souffles!

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54/365: National Banana Bread Day & Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day*

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Midwest Mark

February 23rd is an a-peeling day: we celebrate banana bread! We also have it ruff, too: in addition to National Banana Bread Day, it’s National Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day. Because it’s the weekend and we were feeling adventurous, we celebrated both holidays!

And, no. We do not own a dog.

The first recipe for banana bread appeared in a Pillsbury cookbook in 1933. When baking soda and baking powder became popular in the ’30s, they gave rise (ha-ha, a little baking humor for you!) to quick breads that didn’t require yeast. The use of these ingredients makes banana bread more like a cake than a loaf of bread: it’s moist and sweet. Banana bread’s popularity skyrocketed in the ’60s (ha-ha, a little “space age” humor for you!) when home baking became all the rage. Cookbooks of that era featured many different bread recipes made with fruits and nuts, and banana bread took off like John, Paul, George, and Ringo (ha-ha, a little Fab Four humor for you!). It quickly became a staple at bake sales. It’s also a very popular breakfast entree in Australia, where hungry dingo hunters often stop in at cafes for a cup o’ joe and a slice o’ banana bread.

Banana BreadBanana bread is one of those baked delicacies that is so easy to make, even I can do it! And I wanted to, because every challenge so far that has required baking, Tara has done. So I did the banana bread. Used a new recipe out of Bon Apetit magazine, and it was pretty basic, but I added crushed macadamia nuts to give it a Hawaiian flair. It turned out really good!

Treats for dogs have existed since as long as dogs have been domesticated, but often included stale, moldy bread and rotten leftovers. That’s an arf-ul way to treat “man’s best friend!” In the mid-1800s James Spratt (no relation to Jack) was traveling abroad and felt sorry for the stray dogs in England scavenging for leftover food, so when he returned home to America he was inspired to create “Meat Fibrine Dog Cakes,” hearty treats consisting of meat, grains, and vegetables. Dogs everywhere howled with approval. In 1908, the F.H. Bennett Biscuit Company in New York developed a crunchy, bone-shaped biscuit for dogs, made with milk, minerals, and meat. They called it the Milk Bone. The rest is canine history.

Not the greatest thing I've ever tasted.

Not the greatest thing I’ve ever tasted.

Now, I suppose this holiday is for the dogs. Literally. But we are also nothing if not literal, so Tara and I stopped by a pet store, where we bought a couple of dog biscuits. And proceeded to eat them ourselves.

Oh, yes we did.

PetCo sells a variety of dog biscuits in bulk. They’re set out in bins and come in a pretty big selection of flavors. Some of them resemble chocolate chip cookies (and actually taste like chocolate chip cookies). There were also pretzel varieties, cinnamon cookie flavors, etc. But I wanted a couple of plain, old-fashioned dog biscuits. Boy oh boy, I don’t know what I was thinking. They tasted horrible. Hard and chewy and dry and grainy. It took every last ounce of willpower (and a big glass of milk) to choke mine down. And then, Tara followed suit. Pretty bad stuff…definitely my least favorite “food” in this challenge. Then again, they were never meant for human consumption! But that just goes to show you the lengths we are willing to go to in the name of fun.

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52/365: National Sticky Bun Day

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Midwest Mark

February 21st is National Sticky Bun Day. I’d always assumed sticky buns and cinnamon rolls were the same thing, but Tara informed me that they are actually different. Both are decadent, both contain cinnamon, and both are pastries made with leavened dough that is topped with sticky, sweet icing. But the similarities end there.

I think. Sticky buns usually include nuts. But otherwise…well, I don’t see much difference myself. Let’s ask Tara!

Cinnamon rolls have a mixture of butter, cinnamon, and sugar spread onto dough that is then rolled up and cut into sections.  It’s topped with cream cheese frosting or icing.

Sticky buns are like cinnamon rolls, except they are topped with a caramel sauce and pecans.  When I was a baker at JB’s Restaurant in Idaho Falls (holy crap…was that really almost 20 years ago?!?!?) we would use a small round pan, pour in the caramel sauce, add pecans, and then place a section of the cinnamon roll on top.  After rising it would be baked and then while still warm, turned out on a plate.

Yum! Sounds delicious, babe. Thanks for the clarification.

Sticky buns originated in Germany, where they were called “schnecken” (German for “snails”). Luckily, this referred to their shape, rather than their flavor or ingredient list. The only country that can get away with actually cooking snails is France, dammit! German settlers immigrating to the United States in the 17th century brought schnecken along with them, and when they settled in and around Germantown, Pennsylvania (homesick much?), sticky buns became a popular local treat.

At Camp Walden, an all-girl’s summer camp in Maine, a longstanding tradition involving schnecken continues to this day. It is served every Sunday morning for breakfast, along with eggs, oatmeal, cereal, and yogurt. The Girl Scouts have their cookies, and Waldenites (as they refer to themselves) have their sticky buns. I’m not sure what Boy Scouts have, other than outdated moral principles.

Ooh, slam.

Tara picked us up a sticky bun from Shari’s last night, which we shared this morning for breakfast before work. It was sweet and decadent, and included a topping of pralines, which – according to my fountain-of-knowledge fiance – are caramelized pecans. Hmm. I had no idea! All I know is, the sticky bun was deliciously satisfying.

Schnecken

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30/365: National Croissant Day

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Midwest Mark

We would be pretty flaky if we failed to celebrate today’s food holiday, National Croissant Day!

Most people associate croissants with France. But unlike the Eiffel Tower, escargot, and Gerard Depardieu, croissants actually originated in Austria. The hills were alive with the sound of croissant bakers perfecting their craft as far back as the 13th century! It was called kipferl then, and came in different shapes and sizes, but the concept was the same: pastry dough layered with butter, rolled, and folded. The result is a flaky, buttery, layered pastry that can be either sweet or savory (whereas Mr. Depardieu is merely unsavory). Various legends state the croissant was invented in Europe in 732 to celebrate the defeat of the Umayyad forces by the Franks, with the shape representing the Islamic crescent; by the Viennese in 1683 to celebrate the Christian victory over the Ottomans in the siege of that city, the crescent a nod to the Ottoman flag; and by Gerard Depardieu, hungry for a snack that looked like a smile after yet another public relations disaster. Nobody knows the true source, but this much is clear: in 1839 August Zang, an Austrian soldier and baker, opened a bakery in Paris and introduced the City of Light to the crescent-shaped pastry. It was a match made in heaven.

I love croissants. Other than bananas, they are the only food that resembles a sliver of moon…and that makes them out of this world! (Insert canned laughter). Because a warm croissant for breakfast would have been too easy (and Tara and I are proving to be loathe to go the easy route, which may be to our own detriment as the year rolls on and these challenges pile up – even our East Coast culinary consultant, John, advises us to keep it as simple as possible), we decided to up the ante and order a croissant sandwich for lunch!! We are rebels, she and I. So we met up at Panera a little after noon. I laughed when I saw their menu advertising a “French croissant.” But then I remembered that, up until this morning, I too thought that croissants were French. This experience has been an eye-opener, that’s for sure.  I ordered a turkey avocado BLT and had them make it on a croissant instead of the usual bread. It was, as the French say, “c’est magnifique!”

No idea what they say in Vienna…

Turkey Avocado BLT on a croissant

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