Archives Under "plated dessert" (RSS)
Faithful Readers.
7 May 2009 | blog, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, plated dessert, shameless self promotion | 6 Responses
For those five or six people that actually read this shit allow me to elucidate, you are not alone! faithful readers are out there, and they’re making dessert. This photo here is a version of the Dessert of Last Year; a chocolate flourless cake made by Ms. Jessie Badley, a culinary student and faithful reader. Apparently the dessert is offered at her cooking college’s restaurant, where it is maued upon with much gusto. It gives me great pleasure to know that someone is out there among the interwebs reading my screwy ideas and bullshit ramblings. So pleasured am I in fact, that I will now publish her email without her permission! Thanks Jessie!!
Hello! I recently found your site online and have become somewhat obsessed. I’ve looked through all your plated desserts and they are beautiful! I am currently enrolled in culinary school as a prospective pastry chef and found your recipe for the chocolate whiskey cake! I am actually making this at school right now for our plated desserts in the restaurant on campus (inspired by your post.) I just wanted to let you know that its genius. I switched out makers mark for Evan Williams (sour mash) and it tastes amazing! So I guess I’m writing to thank you for having an awesome blog and such in depth directions and whatnot. not only do I get a giggle out of your words, but I’ve learned a lot! Keep it coming!
Devil’s Food Cake with Dulce de Leche Mousse.
27 April 2009 | Ten 01, chocolate, creative presentation of the week, delicious, faithful readers, pastries, plated dessert, recipe | 8 Responses
in possibly my best effort in plated dessert design to date, I give my faithful readers this fucking thing. Hopefully, the plate exudes a clean elegance, peppered with a touch of how’ did he do that? Well, I’ll tell you. The sponge cake base is a classic Devil’s Food cake recipe that I found in one of my new favorite cookbooks, Dessert Fourplay by Johnny Iuzzini. The recipe calls for mayonnaise, which tickles me, and keeps the cake super-moist. The science of that is kind of obvious: cake batters have eggs and oil, mayo is eggs and oil emulsified. On top of the sponge cake I pipe a chocolate icing that I found the recipe for on the best food site ever, IDEAS IN FOOD. The icing calls for sweetened condensed milk (like the dulche,) and balsamic vinegar to blend with dark chocolate. The sticky icing has a nice subtle acid note, a quiet personality. On top of the icing is a thin piece of tempered chocolate, a nice thin snappy-crunch. I’ve seen garnish this used a lot; especially in Parisian pastry shops. With the help of my ChocoBot, some marble slabs, and some precise cuts, this process proved to be quite easy. Just like Salted Caramel Sauce, easy peasy-smack-a-jeezy. Really, the only semi-difficult element to this dish is the dulce de leche mousse. The recipe it self is no brain-tease; just a spin on a white chocolate mousse. In fact, I was originally going to use caramelized white chocolate, but decided the laborious process wasn’t worth the taste. It tastes like dulce, so why not just use dulce? Making dulce de leche is not hard, just kinda weird. Take a few cans of sweetened condensed milk, place them in a large pot (yes in the can.) Fill the pot with water, be sure to cover the cans by a few inches. Bring the water to a boil, and keep boiling for 3 to 4 hours. Keep a bucket of water nearby to refill the water as it evaporates. After 4 hours, kill the heat and dump out the water. Cover the cans with ice to cool them off. When cooled, open the cans and enjoy the dulceness. I know this sounds strange, but it’s way easier than the traditional method. So here’s the hard part, molding the cylinders. Not really hard I guess, just time consuming. I’ve seen Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin make cool cylnders on his blog, and always wanted to try it. After a month of experimenting, I have a process. There’s got to be a better way, but here’s how I do it. Take your cannoli forms and line one side of each mold with tin foil. Stand them upright in a six pan or secured with a rubber band on a sheet tray. Line each mold with acetate, the thin clear plastic stuff. When the mousse is ready, pipe it into the molds. Freeze them shits rock hard, at least 3 hours, better to do it overnight. \Demold the mousse and plate while frozen, and thaw in the fridge on the plates. Serve with desired components. Or wrap them shits.
Dulce De Leche Mousse
4 1/2 sheets of gelatin.
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 lb 5 oz Dulce de Leche
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1. Bloom the gelatin in cold water.
2. Weigh the dulce de leche into a bowl. Bring the first measurement of cream to a boil, and then pour it over the ducle. Drain and add the gelatin. Whisk to combine. Or use an immersion blender.
3. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, whip the second measurement of cream to soft peaks.
4. Fold in the cream gently. Pipe into desired molds, or just into a martini glass. Chill until set and enjoy.
Milk Chocolate Cheesecake: BAM!!
30 March 2009 | Ten 01, cake, chocolate, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, plated dessert, recipe | 3 Responses
As my faithful readers may guess, I hesitate to utter or type the word “bam,” let alone “BAM!” I find it appropriate here however because of two things. Firstly, I stole this recipe from none other than the “bam-man” himself, Emeril Lagasse. Second this cheesecake hits you like so many extra handfulls of whatever it may be, BAM! Leaving the audience (you,) asking for more. At first glance, any pastry minded person would wonder at the food processor method and the addition of flour for this cheesecake. Also, no water bath while baking? My employer Adam mused that it was no doubt some kind of shortcut or compensation for poor technique. The likelihood of him being correct doesn’t change the silky texture and pure indulgence of this tangy chocolately treat. The only thing did I differently was to increase the milk chocolate by 2 ounces. I use a water bath, too. I just have to. I also use a milk-chocolate feuillitine crust after baking and chilling and an oreo cookie round when it hits the plate. I make the milk chocolate crust by melting the chocolate over a double-bloier, then mixing in enough feuillitine to have a fluid but crunchy texture. I bet you could use chopped cereal flakes and have similiar results, if you’re having trouble finding the feuillitine. I hate soggy graham cracker crust. At first I baked it in a square and cut rectangles, but soon switched to the demisphere, which due to gravity actually bakes things into truncated domes. I glaze them in dark chocolate and pipe the cute little milk chocolate lines. For sauce I use a blood orange caramel, which balances with he milk chocolate nicely. When I sauce the plate, I envision the mask of Rorschach from Watchmen, because I’m a silly dreamer.
Emeril Lagasse’s Milk Chocolate Cheesecake
3 pounds cream cheese, softened
2 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup bleached all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
10 ounces milk chocolate, melted
Beat the cream cheese in a food processor until smooth. Add the sugar and process. Add the eggs 1 at a time, running the processor in between each addition. Add the heavy cream, flour, salt, and vanilla and process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. With the motor running, add the chocolate in a steady stream. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake (in a water bath) until the center of the cake sets, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Oreo Cookie
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
8 oz soft butter
1 tsp salt
1 tblsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups A.P. Flour
Cream the butter, salt and sugar well, but not to light and fluffy
Sift in the flour and cocoa powder, then mix to form a dough
Cover with plastic and chill at least one hour before rolling on a floured surface and cutting out cookies
Bake at 350 for 12 minutes
Weird Desserts.
22 March 2009 | Ten 01, chocolate, creative presentation of the week, delicious, dessert, jack yoss, plated dessert | 10 Responses
In my exploration of flavor combinations, I’ve made up some weird desserts. I mean, for awhile, all I made was weird desserts. I liked things that were different, that made people think! At Carlyle I tried to deep fry bread pudding. It was good. People didn’t get it. I put a doughnut on the plate with poached pears. People didn’t get it. At ten-01, I’ve refined my style a little bit. I did less weird, but still unusual. Twists, if you will. Well, you can sell that shit to the fucking tourists; people still didn’t get it. Chef Jack taught me to write menus that sounded as good as they tasted. Chocolate Whiskey Cake with Brown Butter Caramel and Dulche de Leche Ice Cream sounds pretty fucking good. I have to cook for your demographic. I have to make desserts that people don’t think about, they just buy. The average Portland diner isn’t a jaded big city type; used to everything from fried mayonnaise to “weird fish.” Sure they got behind grassy sage ice cream, but they seem to want desserts well inside the comfort zone. Vanilla Creme Brulee. Pear fritters. I sell more ice cream then anything else. I’ve got a new cheesecake; which is going over well, but I find my plating skills have hit a plateau. At least dessert of last year is off. I’ve enjoyed some banquet dessert success as well recently. I need some input…some inspiration. Fuck, I need some fucking berries already!!
When the Waffle Fucked The Doughnut…
25 January 2009 | Ten 01, creative presentation of the week, custard, delicious, jack yoss, plated dessert | 7 Responses
I’ve been through a lot with this bread pudding recipe. I’ve done about ten different versions since I’ve been at Ten-01; and until a recent mishap, was about to give up on it. I was trying to bake the pudding in a dome mold, trying to coax a new plate design out of this tired old custard soaked bread. The flexible silicon molds produced perfect little domes, but they were all custardy near the top. Also, the crusty upper region, the best part, was now on the bottom. I fed one to Chef and he was not into it. It got me thinking. Like I said, the best part of this pudding is the top inch or so of dark brown crustiness. So I cut off the part that was soggy custard, ending up with perfect round disks, perfect for sandwiching something. I bet could achieve that same result by baking it in a thin layer in a sheet pan. Hmmm…..I went back to the recipe’s roots to start a flavor profile. When I learned it from Tony, it was Bourbon Bread Pudding. Maker’s Mark glug-glugged it’s way into the custard once more. I had made Butter Pecan ice cream the week before and it’s salty richness held up the bourbony pudding nicely. Salted Caramel sauce also fit in well. I’ve been experimenting with different tuile cookies lately, and Lace Tuile made it into this presentation because of it’s simple light crunch. I learned some new things with this dessert. Firstly, that I can bake bread pudding in a thin layer and get great results. Second, I can form freshly spun ice cream into a sausage and slice it at service, for a nice clean portion. At first I made a plastic wrap tube a la Michel Richard, but after a quick chat with John our sausage maker, I was using collagen casings for my ice cream logs. This dessert is selling like crazy, and is making the Chocolate Cake look so last year. On the menu it reads Ice Cream Sandwich, and I think that really sells it. It recalls childhood, a whimsical peek at the past. Soaked in bourbon. Learn how to make bread pudding here. Make Butter Pecan Ice Cream and Lace Tuile with the recipes below. Add salt to your favorite caramel sauce recipe. Enjoy delicious sweets.
Butter Pecan Ice Cream adapted from Ben&Jerry’s Ice Cream Book.
8 oz butter
2 cups pecan pieces
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
1.Saute the pecans in the buuter until the butter begins to browm slightly. Sprinkle in the salt. Strain off the butter and reserve. Spread the pecans on a sheet tray to cool
2.Whip the eggs in a stand mixer until light and frothy, then add the sugar. Whip on high to ribbon stage (4-5 minutes?)
3.Reduce the mixer speed to it’s lowest setting and pour in the milk and cream.
4.Transfer the mix into a blender and with it running, pour in the butter to emulsify. I like to puree in some of the toasted nuts at this point as well.
5.Spin the mix in your ice cream machine, adding the nuts a few minutes before the ice cream is done. Eat some immediately. Using a pastry bag, pipe it into a sausage casing and freeze if desired.
Lace Tuile
8 oz butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 oz honey
1 oz brandy
2/3 cup flour
pinch of salt
1. Cream the butter and the sugar in a stand mixer.
2. Add the honey and brandy and mix to combine.
3. Add the flour and salt and mix to form a smooth paste. Spread thinly onto a non-stick baking mat and bake until golden brown in a 350 degree oven. Mold while warm over a rolling pin.
My buddy David, a server at the restaurant, told me one day how he loved my bread pudding. He told me it was as if a waffle had fucked a doughnut. I don’t think he was pleased with my reaction to his verbal description, so he took it a step further and drew this illustration. Thanks Dave, I’m glad you like it.
Here’s an Easy One.
1 November 2008 | Ten 01, delicious, dessert, plated dessert, recipe | 5 Responses
I love deep frying. As long as I’m creating dessert menus, there will be a fried item included. Customers seem to love them, too. I still have people asking me about the Olive Oil Beignets. Not every fried dessert I’ve tried has been a huge success. The funnel cakes turned out to be just OK, and the brown butter beignets straight didn’t work. I mostly base my doughnut ideas on pate choux, because I can pipe them, freeze them and fry from frozen. This system works well because I normally have to make the batter only once a week. A simple dipping sauce of creme anglaise or fruit coulis made it a no-brain pick up. With the lackluster reception of the funnel cakes, I wanted to try something different. I turned my Googles upon the humble fritter. The simple, basic recipes I found reminded me right away of pancake batter. Milk or water, eggs, flour, chemical leavener, flavorings. I tried a couple of “meh” recipes before choosing the most simple. A no frills apple fritter formula I found God knows where at God knows what wee hour of the morning through bleary search-engine eyes. I thought this recipe was the most tweakable, and slightly tweak I did. The original recipe called for milk as the liquid, and apples for the fruit. I wanted to use pears, because I originally had bleu cheese in mind for the sauce. I ended up using pear puree for half of the liquid volume (instead of all milk,) because the fruit flavor was faint at best. I also tossed the diced pears in more pear puree, just to seal the deal. These steaming balls of fried tree fruit batter are delicious. Hot from the fryer they get tossed in cinnamon sugar, the smell is heady, as in it turns heads in the kitchen. At this point, I started working on the sauce. My first idea was a honey-roquefort creme anglaise. Blue cheese and pears are thick as thieves, right? A famous pearing pairing. I bounced the idea off of Chef and he suggested I use Gorgonzola Dolce. I put together the simple custard based on David Lebovitz’s ice recipe in The Perfect Scoop. Spooning the warm cream into my mouth I almost puked. The funky foot taste filled my sinus and the too sweet eggyness turned my stomach. I stashed it in my low boy. Somebody was getting got with that stinky mess. It turned out to be Perez. I called him over once the sauce was cooled to have a taste. The look on his face was priceless. Slowly nodding his head and trying not to grimace, he looked like as if he was going to spit it out, but didn’t want to offend me. I burst out laughing in his face. I love cooking. Even the failures prove to be somehow useful. This is my second experiment with stinky cheese in a dessert, and the second not so good result. I decided to go with a pear brandy caramel, using local a Clear Creek Distillers product. Anyway, here’s the recipes. To fry these babies, spoon the batter into a 350 F deep fryer. When they float to the top, note how they look like The Guardian from Big Trouble in Little China. Fry until golden brown and a knife comes out almost clean. And watch out for Lo Pan.
Pear Fitters
makes one deep 6 pan
4 eggs
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup pear puree
4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 oz salt
1 oz baking powder
4 cups diced pears
pear puree to coat pears
1. Whisk the eggs together with the milk and the pear puree in a large bowl.
2. Sift the dry ingredients into the bowl and mix to combine with a wooden spoon.
3. Dice the pears into a seperate bowl and toss them with enough pear puree to generously coat.
4. Fold the pears into the batter and either fry at 350 F until golden brown, or refigerate up to five days.
Pear Brandy Caramel
1 lb 8 oz sugar
10 oz corn syrup
10 oz butter
3 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup Clear Creek Pear Brandy (don’t sub the cheap shit)
1. Caramelize the sugar and the corn syrup to a rich amber color.
2. Whisk in the butter, take care with the bubbling and frothing.
3. Whisk in the cream and return to a boil.
4. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature, then whisk in the pear brandy. Serve warm or store up to 1 month in the refigerator.
Dessert of the Year.
15 October 2008 | Ten 01, creative presentation of the week, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, jack yoss, plated dessert, recipe, shameless self promotion | 9 Responses
This is a variation of one of my older recipes, literally the first dessert I made at ten-01. I learned this one from Tony, of course, and I’ve been tweaking it ever since. If you review the earlier version, you’ll notice a few changes in the recipe below. Firstly, the weights have changed. Somewhere along the line, while converting it for various applications, I skewed the amounts. The newer proportions reflect just how many times I’ve made this recipe, how many times I’ve observed it’s subtleties. Chef actually improved upon its technique by mistake while I was in Europe. Anyway, here’s whats changed and why.
This recipe contains all my favorite ingredients; butter, chocolate, eggs, sugar, and booze. I was taught to melt the butter and chocolate over a double boiler Then whisk together the sugar and the eggs. Then, when the chocolate was melted, everything was whisked together with the booze and baked in a water bath in ten inch cake pans. When baked and thoroughly cooled we glazed them with a one to one ganache and sliced them in 16 portions. Onto a marble and out to the buffet. Simple and decadently effective. The main trick then (and now) was knowing when to pull them from the oven. They never really look baked, all loose and jiggly. It’s still a kind of leap of faith for me when I pull them. I find myself touching them every five minutes until they cool and solidify.
At Carlyle this recipe started to evolve. The original recipe, just cut in half, was giving me some great results. I realized at this point how similar this cake was to cheesecake, and I treat cheesecake like a custard. I started baking it at a lower temperature, and turning off the oven for the last half hour of baking. A thick, fudgey texture was my reward. I started trying different molds, and building up creamy layers. The best version at those times was with passionfruit, I wanted to call it Sexual Chocolate.
For my tasting at ten-01, I baked the cake in a small ring mold and served it with brown butter ice cream. It was over the top rich and showed I wasn’t afraid to knock people unconscious with chocolate. At least that’s what I kept telling myself as they ate it (”They don’t hate you, they don’t hate you, they don’t even KNOW you, man!”) I got the job, needless to say, and the cake ended up on the first menu. I started to bake it in frames around this time, and that marks the first change in the recipe’s proportions. Every time I pulled the 1/2 sheet cakes from the oven, the tops were just pooled with butter. I think this happened because the cakes where to big to cook through before basically breaking. I tried varying oven temperatures, mixing techniques, and finally ended up just reducing the amount of butter. The cake had a slightly more crumbly texture but was still dense and fudgy. Chef suggested I started serving the cake at room temperature. Chef knows a lot about food. Much like cheese, the cake was way better at room temp. He actually improved upon the recipe by mistake, confusing the bread pudding technique with this one and whipped it on high speed for over 15 minutes. The cake melted in the mouth, inducing groaning. This version of the cake sold really well. It seemed like it was around forever. I started to get bored with it. I replaced it with another Tony Classic and tried to forget about it.
Fast forward three or four menus. The servers are clamoring for a rich, knock-out chocolate dessert. The stupid Guinness brownie thing just wasn’t working. Marble Cheesecake? Yeah, kind of, but not quite. Scouring the internet for ideas, I came across this. The tenth item on McCormick’s 2008 Flavor Forecast was rubbed sage and rye whiskey. Things started to click into place in my mind; the hamster running in its wheel turned the lock’s tumblers to open my mind on a new idea. I knew whiskey and chocolate worked. Would I use whiskey in the cake or in the sauce? I knew how to make a kick-ass mint ice cream, would it work with sage? And would it go with the rich fudginess of the cake? As it turns out, it does. Famously. I remember standing in the walk-in waiting for the ice cream base to cool down enough to spin. I had some whiskey caramel left over form the Guinness brownie. I spooned the caramel into my mouth followed by the sage base. Closing my eyes, nodding, I reached to the top shelf for a beer…it was time to celebrate.
“Oh wait…” I thought, “…it’s only 6:30.” I started straight away making a batch of flourless chocolate cake. Scanning over the ingredients, I encountered a problem. I’ve only made this recipe with alcohol. It’s always been whiskey, or Grand Mariner or Bailey’s or something. I knew this recipe really well and just knew that I had to come up something to use in the place of whiskey, 3/4 of a cup of what, dammit, air? Suddenly it hit me. Water.
This batch of cakes, baked in my handy new flexipans, was one of the best I’ve created. Fudgy, of course, but the main flavor was chocolate. Not booze, but chocolate. Water made this possible. Having worked in pastry for a few years, this really struck me. Water, the arch-nemesis of chocolate, was helping me showcase chocolate in this recipe. Sometimes when things seem weird at first, proper handling can produce fantastic results. Water is now my new favorite ingredient. Even chocolate isn’t scared anymore. I even used the two together it in the mirror glaze. Anyway, enough of my jawing, here’s the recipes for my faithful readers, and also for the readers of the Willamette Week, who will find this cake in the October 15th Restaurant Guide.
Chocolate Flourless Cake
1 pound 14 ounces chocolate (64%)
1 pound 8 ounces butter
15 ounces eggs
15 ounces sugar
3/4 cup water
1. Pre-heat your convection oven to 200 F.
2. Weigh the chocolate into a bowl and set aside.
3. Weigh the butter into a sauce pot, and bring it to a boil.
4. Weigh the eggs and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and whip light and fluffy.
5. Pour the boiling butter over the chocolate, give the bowl a shake and a spin and let stand two minutes.
6. Whisk the chocolate until smooth.
7. Fold the whipped eggs into the melted chocolate, then fold in the water.
8. Pour the batter into the flexipans and bake in a water bath until set, about 30 minutes.
9. Cool properly and chill thoroughly before demolding and glazing.
Mirror Glaze
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
9 ounces chocolate
enough hot water to reach desired consistency
1. Weigh the chocolate into a bowl.
2. Measure the corn syrup and heavy cream into a sauce pot and bring to a boil.
3. Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate, give the bowl a shake and a spin and let stand two minutes.
4. Whisk the chocolate until smooth.
5. Whisk in enough hot water to make the glaze loose and pour easily.
Assembly- Set the de-molded cakes on a glazing rack and ladle the hot glaze over the cakes. Chill the cakes and apply a second coat. Serve at room temperature with Sage Ice Cream and Whiskey Caramel.
Caramel Mousse Cake.
27 August 2008 | Ten 01, creative presentation of the week, custard, delicious, plated dessert | 1 Response
I ran this dessert as a special last weekend and it sold pretty well. With milk chocolate sauce and hazelnut praline, it looked sharp and tasted delicious. The chocolate base is Tony’s truffle sponge, almost a brownie but with egg whites folded in. The central crunchy layer was a caramel candy filling, which I augmented with a little milk chocolate and feuilletine. The mousse was a new recipe, one I found on Cuisine French. The recipe caught my eye because it assumed a certain level of knowledge and technique. For example, step three in the recipe states “prepare a custard with the milk, sugar, constarch, and egg yolks.” That’s my kind of recipe. The praline garnish, I’m embarrassed to say, is isomalt. This synthetic sugar always makes me feel like a cheater, a corner-cutter and a hack. It is a beautiful garnish however, so I guess it’s OK. I learned how to make those over ten years ago now. Hmph….I’m getting old. Meanwhile, it’s business as usual at the restaurant, things have been picking up. The Oregoinian released an excellent review of us last week, and we’ve been seeing increasing numbers. I couldn’t find the review online…even without mention of the desserts-it was a good one. 
The Latest Dessert Menu.
30 July 2008 | Ten 01, delicious, dessert, plated dessert | 3 Responses
So I took the chocolate flour-less cake recipe that I used for Chocolate Whiskey Cake, and I piped and swirled some NY Cheesecake batter into it and I’m calling it Marble Cheesecake. I discovered this process by mistake at Carlyle, where I had the two batters ready at the same time. Funny how stuff comes together sometimes. I learned one recipe from Tony, and one from Mark, it’s as if I delivered their bastard child. The creaminess of the cheesecake flirts with the fudge-like chocolate, blackberry coulis and delicate horseshoe chocolate garnish sells it. Pretty cool looking I thought, and hell of decadent. I used this cake for a recent off-site event, and it was well received. Some people even want it for their birthday. Right now Bramble-type berries are so good in Oregon, and these blackberries are no exception. Viridian farms delivers, and the berries don’t disappoint. Take for example their blueberries, which are an integral part of the Lemon Blueberry Tart, below. This is an extremely simple dessert, pate sucre, lemon curd, the blueberries and coulis, a bit of chantilly. It’s selling well. I didn’t know how it was going to work until I had it on the plate. Simple and delicious. I’m also using their raspberries for the new Bread Pudding set, with raspberry caramel ice cream, a different but delicious frozen treat. Also new this menu is Funnel Cakes. I wanted to try these again to see if I could actually produce them, instead of just piping a few like I originally did. I can. I can also serve it with roasted banana anglaise and call it a day.
NY Cheesecake…Kind Of.
4 June 2008 | creative presentation of the week, delicious, dessert, faithful readers, plated dessert, recipe | 1 Response
People go nuts for this dessert. Eyes pop out of people’s heads. It changes worlds. Even Chef cleaned his plate and he rarely does with sweets. So it’s this month’s Creative Presentation of the Week. Just a little New York Style Cheesecake with Balsamic Strawberries and Hazelnut Scone. As I look at the plate now, I marvel at how I put TWO leaves of mint. C’mon dude! It’s a basic cheesecake recipe I learned from Mark Metzger at the Vail Cascade. I used it also at Carlyle for the cheesecake three ways. Thanks Mark!! The balsamic strawberries were Chef’s idea, and after some tinkering we reproduced them. Look at those babies! All glistening and shit. The “crust” on this cheesecake comes form of scone. I always liked scones for strawberry shortcakes and this dish had strawberries so I thought, what the F. Toasted hazelnuts and sugar crust it up. It’s a little weird, sure, but damn yummy. My faithful readers need these recipes. So…here:
Metzger NY Cheesecake
1 1/2 # cream cheese at room temp
6 oz sugar
Pulp of 1 vanilla bean
3 eggs
1. Preheat the oven to 250 (200 for convection.) Place the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla pulp in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle. Beat on low speed for 5 minutes
2. Scrape the bowl thoroughly with a spatula.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time scraping thoroughly between each addition. The more careful you are here, the better your end product. Add and scrape!! Visualize that nipple in the bottom of the mixing bowl, and scrape it well!!
4. Transfer the batter to a square flexible mold.
5. Bake in a water bath for 25 minutes, then rotate the pan, and bake for another 15 minutes.
6. At this point, the cheesecake should be set on the outsides, and slightly jiggly in the middle. Open the oven door for a sec, then close it and turn the oven off. Set a timer for 45 minutes. I finish all of my custards this way, it works really well. Thanks Alton.
7. Chill the cake for at least 3 hrs before attempting to de-mold and slice. I usually flash mine in the freezer for about 25 minutes to get a clean square.
Balsamic Strawberries
3 cups balsamic vinegar
1 cup honey
granulated sugar to taste
2 vanilla beans scraped
2 pods toasted star anise
2 1/2 - 3 cups hulled local strawberries
1. Measure the balsamic and honey into a pot and whisk to combine. Whisk in the the sugar 1/2 cup at a time until you reach the desired sweetness. Remember the strawberries have a good sweetness as well.
2. Scape the vanilla pods into the pot and bring the mix to a boil.
3. Add the berries and kill the heat. Cover and steep for 25-30 minutes until berries are tender but still slightly firm. They will carry over, so…
4. Create an ice bath with water, ice and two vessels. Stop the cooking process.
5. Carefully pour the steeped berries and liquid into the ice bath. Try not to agitate the berries as they cool, they become very fragile.
Scones
I left the scone recipe at work. Eat your fucking cheesecake. Here’s a good scone recipe for you. And here’s a picture of some ice creams.
