New Cakes - late May 2009

Pasta Class - April, 2009

In late April, a group gathered at the Bakery to work on our pasta making skills. The recipes all came out incredibly delicious and we thank everyone for their good workmanship and great attitude! The standout recipe was the Handmade Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Sauce. Here's the recipe:

Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Sauce

Gnocchi:

Gnocchi Dough:

Kosher Salt

2 pounds Russet Potatoes

6 - 8 Egg Yolks

1 C Grated Parmesan Cheese

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Pepper

2 C Flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Spread a layer of kosher salt on a baking sheet and arrange the potatoes on top. This allows the heat of the oven to circulate all around the potatoes. Bake until a bit over cooked, about 1 hour. Let sit until cool enough to handle, cut in ½, and scoop out the flesh.

Pass the potatoes through a potato ricer or sieve. Alternatively, grate them on the large holes of a box grater. You should have about 4 C. In a large bowl, whisk together 6 of the yolks, the cheese and spices. Add the potatoes and mix well. Sprinkle 1 C of the flour over the potatoes and, using your knuckles, press it into the potatoes. Fold the mass over on itself and press down again. Sprinkle on more flour, little by little, folding and pressing the dough until it just holds together.

If the mixture is too dry, add another egg yolk or water. The dough should give under slight pressure. It will feel firm but yielding. To test the dough consistency, roll out a piece of dough into a ½” thick rope. If it holds together, it is ready. If not, add more flour, fold and press then test again.

Keep your work surface lightly floured. Cut the dough into 6 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope, about ½” diameter. Cut into ½” long pieces and lightly flour the gnocchi as you cut them.

To give them their characteristic shape, roll the pieces against the back of a fork. Take each piece and squish it lightly with your thumb against the board while simultaneously pushing it away from you. These grooves hold the sauce and help the gnocchi cook faster.

As you shape the gnocchi, dust them lightly with flour and scatter them on baking sheets lined with parchment. Cover with a kitchen towel and set-aside until ready to cook, up to several hours. When ready to cook, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Drop in the gnocchi and cook for about 90 seconds from the time they rise to the surface. Remove the cooked pieces with a skimmer, shake off the excess water and serve with the sauce.

Sauce:

½ C chicken stock

½ C heavy cream

4 Tbsp unsalted butter

Black pepper & salt

4 oz Gorgonzola

1 C grated Parmesan

1. Bring the stock, cream and butter to a boil in a skillet over medium heat. Season lightly with salt and pepper and boil until the sauce is lightly reduced, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the gorgonzola until dissolved.

2. Boil the gnocchi until it floats. Strain the gnocchi out of the boiling water and add directly to the sauce in the skillet.

3. Bring the sauce and gnocchi to a boil, stirring gently to coat the dumplings with sauce. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Check the seasoning, adding salt if necessary. Serve immediately in warm bowls.

Blackmarket @ Newport Beach Film Festival

Last night the bakery "represented" at the Swedish afterparty at the Newport Beach Film Festival. The setting: Design within Reach in Atrium Court. The guests: volunteers, film-buffs, film-makers and supporters of the festival. The menu: Mini Basque and Black Widow tarts, Florentines, Brownies, Passion Fruit Marshmallows, Russian Tea Cookies & Cranberry Shorties.

We had a fabulous time (as you can see here) and would like to give a big sugary thank you to Greg and his minions at the Festival! See you next year!!!

And coming up this Saturday, you can find Blackmarket Bakery at the Black Market at Bat's Day.

Breakfast Breads a la Carolyn!

I recently pulled out the recipes from the breakfast breads class. I decided to make the Pecan Sticky Buns although I did not have any pecans so I made some as directed without nuts. But the recipe made so much dough that I was inspired to use it up in different ways after taking the laminated doughs class and learning that the same dough can create many different things.

I did have some sliced almonds. I made the honey/brown sugar/butter filling and put it into the bottom of a greased tube pan. I sprinkled some sliced almonds over the filling and then put the cut rolls tightly in the pan. I let them rise and then baked them. After I removed them from the oven and let them cool slightly I inverted the pan and had created a lovely almond caramel coffee cake ring. But I still had more dough! So I looked in my cupboard and did not have any more muffin tins but I did have a popover pan. So I put the cut cinnamon rolls in the pan and baked. When they came out they had tall bottoms and when "frosted" actually looked like cupcakes. I made a cinnamon frosting by mixing 1 C of powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of cream and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.

Blackmarket hands on classes are wonderful. You really learn how to tell when something is ready and what to do when things don't look quite right. I enclosed photos of the ring as it was rising, the finished coffee cake and the cinnamon buns baked in the popover pan before and after icing them with the cinnamon frosting.

Thanks for the lessons!
Carolyn

Easter Egg Salad on White - by guest writer Jen.

At our house, Easter eggs are usually elaborate affairs. We chip tiny holes on the ends, blow out the centers, and spend hours creating works of art to keep forever. This year, I had a cold, and so it was decided that my germs would render the eggs inedible. Hence, we had to boil the eggs to be dyed, and then broken soon thereafter for egg salad. So we did a simple dye job. After hiding and hunting, the eggs returned to the refrigerator. Knowing egg salad would call for sandwich bread, I baked a loaf:

This is a delicious -- and foolproof! -- recipe that takes 2 hours from start to finish, including rising and baking times. I've made this four times, messed up the rising temperature, mismeasured the yeast, and still the bread turns out delicious. I didn't make any mistakes this time. It baked up soft, fluffy, and flavorful. I could eat the whole loaf plain! But I didn't (this time).

And voila! Egg Salad with Radishes, Green Onions, and Fennel. Easter Bunny Approved.

American Sandwich Bread
Makes one 9-inch loaf from The New Best Recipe

3 3/4 C (18 3/4 oz) unbleached AP flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
2 t salt
1 C warm whole milk (about 110 degrees)
1/3 C + 2 T warm water (about 110 degrees)
2 T unsalted butter, melted
3 T honey
1 envelope (about 2 1/4 t) instant yeast
1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat the oven to 200 degrees. Once the temp reaches 200 degrees, maintain the heat for 10 min, then turn off the oven.
2. Mix flour and salt in food processor. Mix milk, water, butter, honey and yeast together and pour slowly through feeding tube. Process until a rough ball forms, 35 seconds. Turn the dough onto lightly floured work surface and knead by hand until dough is smooth and satiny, 4 to 5 min.
3. Place the dough in a very lightly oiled large bowl, rubbing the dough around the bowl to coat lightly. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the warmed oven until the dough doubles in size, 40 to 50 min.
4. Gently press dough into an 8” square that measures 1” thick. Starting with side farthest away from you, roll the dough firmly like a jelly roll, pressing with your fingers to make sure the dough sticks to itself. Turn the dough seam-side down in a greased 9X5 loaf pan and press it gently so it touches all four sides of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap; set aside in a warm spot until the dough almost doubles in size, 20 to 30 min.
5. Keep one oven rack at lowest position and place the other at middle. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place an empty baking pan on the bottom rack. Bring 2 C water to boil and pour into empty pan on the bottom rack. Set loaf on middle rack and bake until thermometer reads 195 degrees, inserted at an angle from the short end just above the pan rim, 40 to 50 min. Remove from pan, transfer to wire rack, cool to room temp. Slice and serve.

Egg Salad with Radishes, Green Onions, and Fennel
adapted from The New Best Recipe
6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and diced
1/4 C mayonnaise
3 minced radishes
2 T finely chopped green onion
1 T minced fresh fennel
1 celery rib, chopped fine
2 t Dijon mustard
2 t lemon juice
1/4 t salt
ground black pepper

Mix everything together and add pepper to taste.

Marshmallows - why not?

Marshmallows are sticky, sweet and just plain ridiculous. But they're also fun to make and eat, so here's our bakery marshmallow recipe.

You will need a candy thermometer, a brownie pan (9" x 13"), and a kitchenaid mixer with a whisk. If you want to flavor your marshmallows, you can either add an extract at the end of mixing (with some food coloring if you choose) or you can substitute 1/2 or less of the water that the gelatin blooms in with another liquid (like fruit puree or fruit juice).

Just watch out for using tropical fruits like pineapple, mango, kiwi because they contain an enzyme that causes the gelatin not to set. Otherwise you would have marshmallow fluff...

Vanilla Marshmallows

Cold Water 4 oz

Gelatin (powdered) 2 Tbsp

Water 4 oz

Corn Syrup 7-3/4 oz

Sugar 16-1/4 oz

Salt ¼ tsp

Vanilla 2 tsp

Need: Greased Brownie Pan, lined with plastic & greased again, Powdered Sugar for dusting, Ice Bath, Candy Thermometer

Directions

1. Thoroughly dissolve the gelatin in the cold water in the bowl of a standing mixer, fitted with whisk attachment.

2. Pour the water, corn syrup, sugar & salt into a saucepan fitted with a candy thermometer, in that order. Bring to a boil, without stirring, and then cook to 240 F. Take the pan off the burner. Leave the thermometer in the pan and shock the bottom of the pan in a bowl of ice water to stop it cooking. Allow the syrup to cool in the saucepan until the temperature is 210 F.

3. Pour the syrup over the bloomed gelatin in the mixer bowl. Begin mixing at medium speed. Once the marshmallow thickens, you may increase the mixer speed to high. Whip the mixture for 5 – 10 minutes, until the marshmallow is fluffy, very thick and still warm. By the time it is done, the mixer should be laboring. Pour in vanilla to taste and whisk until just combined.

4. Transfer the marshmallow to the lined, greased pan. Cover with a second piece of greased plastic wrap and press out to even the top. Allow to cure for several hours or even overnight.

5. Sift powdered sugar onto a cutting board. Remove the plastic wrap and flip the marshmallow slab onto the board. Sift sugar on the top.

6. Cut the marshmallows with scissors or a knife dipped in powdered sugar. Roll the cut edged in more powdered sugar. Store, in a container indefinitely.