Old Fashioned Beauty

There are really no words to express how satisfying it feels to be able to replicate something I have so loved since childhood.  Each ring of dough I watched float to the top of the bubbling oil kept me in awe.  As those signature cracks revealed themselves and blossomed, I could only keep repeating, "Oh my God, these f*ing rock!".  To glaze them and see them all lined up on the rack, looking perfectly imperfect, was an otherworldly joy.  To eat them was to transport myself back to those wonder years, when an "old-fashioned" could cure all ails.  It was as if I had just found something I'd lost, but didn't realize how much I had missed it until it appeared again.

All sappy sentiment aside, these old-fashioned's are everything you want and need in a doughnut : soft, cakey, tender, light and sweet.  The first couple frys didn't yield the flowery crevices I was aiming for, so I figured a couple slashes with a razorblade would facilitate the blossom effect.  Yes!  It worked!

Please try it for yourself.  They are just as good eaten the morning after they're made.. trust me, I know!

Old Fashioned Doughnuts

About 20 doughnuts with holes

540 g  cake flour

10 g  baking powder

6 g  salt

200 g  sugar

60 g  butter

zest of a lemon

seeds from 1 vanilla bean

80 g  yolks

340 g  sour cream

Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, salt, in a bowl.  Set aside.

Cream sugar, butter, zest, and vanilla together until sandy.  Add yolks and sour cream.

Add dry ingredients.  Wrap into a flat square block and chill for at least an hour.  Even when chilled, the dough is very soft.

Roll to 1/2" thick on a well floured bench.

Cut out 3" circles with holes and hold them on a sprayed plastic tray (or tray lined with Silpat) until ready to fry.

Make 3 slashes with a blade on the surface of dough (see picture below).

Fry at 325F and flip often to help the cracks expand.

Drain on paper and allow to cool.

Glaze.

I don't have a recipe for the glaze, but I started with a bowl of 10X, zested in a lemon and orange, along with their juice and seeds of a vanilla bean.  I splashed in some bourbon and whisked in enough skim milk to make a liquid glaze consistency.  Dip the cooled doughnuts into glaze to cover both sides and shake the ring well to let the excess fall back into the bowl.  Allow the glazed doughnut to dry on a rack.

Bread Together

Yes, this post is about bread; but it's also, and more importantly, about the wonderful pastry chef community that I have so luckily dropped into.  Gone are the days of secret recipes and guarded ideas.  I know I for one could not be as creative were it not for the unselfish brainstorming I've had with other chefs, and I hope vice versa.

We don't like to waste at the restaurant, especially waste our own bread which we lovingly shape and bake everyday.  One Saturday, we produced WAY more bread than we needed, so come the following Monday I was a little stumped as to how to use all of it up in a more creative fashion than the standard bread pudding.  In these situations, I've lately been turning to the Twittersphere, picking the brains of some very talented chefs & foodies.  The response was so prolific, I almost wondered if all my leftover bread would even be enough to try all the suggestions that were coming to me.  More than a couple chefs responded with a genius notion to grind the stale bread into a "flour" and use it as per a normal flour.  Now this idea was more useful than any recipe that could have been given to me, opening up an infinite number of possibilities and usages, allowing me to adapt this "flour" to anything containing real flour.

My first attempt to utilize this new flour is shown above.  A bread macaron shell, sandwiching a filling of salted peanut butter and a honey banana jam.  The Elvis Macaron, as it were.

Other suggestions widely varied, but so many of them were helpful and inspiring:

• Panzanella (Bread Salad)
• French Toast / Bread Ice Cream
• Charlotte Russe
• Summer Pudding / Trifle
• Toast Panna Cotta / Mousse / Flan
• Toast Oil
• Buttery Bread Crumb Coated Cheesecake
• Bread Pound Cake

Thank you to everyone who chimed in: @bttrlovehardwrk, @shunafish, @SwtProvocateur, @PhilipSpeer, @sugar_fairy, @Joe_theBaker, @gaipan, @solarfish30
And to those who followed the stream silently, I hope these ideas inspired you too.

Green Tea Trifle

I've been having fun with desserts in a glass lately.  The latest version is a light and fruity green tea trifle.  We start with a layer of chiffon sponge at the base, modestly soaked in vanilla syrup.  A layer of sweetened azuki beans lies between the sponge and an ever so light matcha green tea mousse.  A disk of matcha marbled white chocolate adds a layer of texture, and fresh pomelo lends its bitter & bright juiciness. 

I'm not sure if the concept of sweet beans has really reached the masses of the western dessert world, but

I grew up enjoying different incarnations of the stuff; like gooey rice flour pancakes stuffed with red or yellow bean paste, mini tapioca suspended in a warm red bean soup, or whole beans atop a "halo halo", the Phillipino take on a snow cone sundae.  I believe applying this ingredient in a more accessible form, like trifle, creates a gateway for our guests to try something new without feeling like they are taking too great a risk.  So far, the response has been positive!

Nice Buns

To quote a Madonna lyric, "I'm not religious, but I feel so moved...", pretty much sums up my urge to make my first batch of hot cross buns since pastry school (i.e. a very long time ago).  With Easter approaching, shops have been lining their windows and shelves with all things buns, bunnies, eggs, and chocolate.  Admittedly, I don't celebrate Easter as a religious holiday.  Much like Christmas, I see it as a vehicle to bestow sweet goodies onto the kitchen crew, as well as bring something nice home to the hub.

Seeking a little help and advice through my ever so reliable Twitter universe, I was led to quite a few different recipes, all of which sounded delicious.  I finally settled on one given to me by @SwtProvocateur, and I'm glad I did.  Original hot cross bun recipes call for currants, but I subbed dried cranberries and apricots instead. 

Granted, they could've benefited from another half hour of rising, but I honestly was so eager to taste one, I just put them in the oven anyway.  A brushing of syrup while still hot gives them an enticing shine.  A single bite of these buns will punch you in the mouth with yeasty, zesty flavor, with cognac soaked fruit to linger long after chewing.  Even the embedded cross is tasty, and lends a beautiful crunchy contrast to the soft, chewy bun.

Thanks to @TheFirstCourse, @stirthepots and @studiokitchen for additional help and support!

C'mon Spring!

Although this winter has been the mildest I've experienced in my six New York years, spring cannot come soon enough for me.  And I cannot wait to put this dish on the menu!  This neon blast of color comes in the form of a spritely rhubarb consomme surrounding a snowy island of greek yogurt granite and petits pois ice cream.  This is a flavor combo I've been thinking about for a while, and was never really sure if it would work.  Now I think, "why wouldn't it?".  Peas and rhubarb both thrive in the same season, and their inherent flavor characteristics should quite complement each other.  Rhubarb's natural sharpness cuts beautifully through the pea's starchy creaminess.  The tangy yogurt and crystallized mint rounds bring balance and texture. 

My only concern now is how people will respond to it.  Would the average diner really feel comfortable ordering a dessert with peas in it?  And if they did order it, would their palates "get it"?  There's only one way to find out.