Alpha Bakers: Black and Blueberry Pie

For Christmas, my husband surprised me with several things from Anthropologie home/kitchen section. One of them was the rolling pin in the above photo. When I opened the nicely wrapped rolling pin on Christmas morning, I hold the handle on each hand and made the motion in the air as if I'm rolling a dough. He looked at me and said in a serious tone "I didn't intend for you to use it for baking. I thought you can use it for pictures." Well, he is right, the pin is made from ceramic so I suppose pressing on it is probably not a good idea, :).

I am not very excited about pie but I love Rose's cream cheese pie crust. I think it's the best pie crust. I have made other pie crust (Rose's flaky pie crust and also recipes from other authors). The cream cheese pie crust wins every time. So even though I am not a huge pie fan, I am looking forward to this because of the pie crust. Also, I get to use my new 4 inch ruffled pie pan and take photos of the new for-photography-only rolling pin.

I made 1/4 recipe of this pie. This time I remembered to measure in volume my 9 inch pie pan vs. the 4 inch pie pan. By volume the 4 inch pie pan is 1/4 the 9 inch. So all set to divide everything by 4.

Alpha Bakers: English Dried Fruit Cake

I thought I wouldn't have much to say about this cake. It is one of the recipes in the book I am not excited about. When I saw the title of the recipe, I remembered the Fruitcake Wreath I baked and didn't like from Rose's Heavenly Cakes. But to my surprise (eating my second slice while typing this post), I really like this fruitcake. The crumb has a good texture - even with the mistake I did of forgetting to drain the dried fruits. I like all the fillings in it, the pecans add a nice crunch to the texture and variation to the softness that the dried fruits give. And unlike my experience with the Fruitcake Wreath, this cake has enough rum!!!

I like how simple this recipe is. I did not have much time coordination on Saturday, when I bake this. We decided to try out a new restaurant in the nearby mall, never considering the fact that it is December, less than 3 weeks before Christmas. The mall is a quick 7 mile drive from home and it took us 45 minutes to get there and find parking. By the time we got home it was 2:30 in the afternoon and we were tired from just going to eat. So it is a good thing this cake requires very little preparation time. If it had been a 5 page recipe, there would be lots of cussing in the kitchen.

Fruit-filled Jam Thumbprint

This is fruit-filled jam thumbprint from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Bread Every Day. I made 1/3 recipe.

TCB: Ethereal Pear Charlotte

This is a Special Edition Knitty Baker post, featuring The Ethereal Pear Charlotte from The Cake Bible. Why, you might ask, is it a special edition? Because, lovely readers, for once, I am going to post step-by-step pictures.

Before we get started, let me first say that I applaud you people out there who take step-by-step pictures. Man, it is time consuming to do this! Not only do I have to stop what I'm doing to take pictures, but also I had to wash my hand every single time. Maybe some of you don't necessarily wash your hands before you touch your camera. But my camera is 5 months old, it's my baby, and it's still pristine (I haven't even dropped it yet).





I thought you guys would like a peek of my messy work station. See on the corner the flours and cornstarch are sifted and thus ready to go.

Moving on to the actual posting, :). Here are the Red Bartlett pears. I am making 1/2 recipe so technically I only need 1 pear, but I like poached pears so I figured the more the merrier. We can always use extra poached pears for munching.

The pears are halved, peeled, and cored and are sitting (or laying) happily in their poaching liquid.

Next, I made the biscuit roulade. Here the yolks and eggs with sugar, ready to be whisked into submission.

My lovely red KA mixer in action!

Whisked eggs with sifted flour and cornstarch.

After the flour is folded, next up is egg whites.

The biscuit in the oven.

 The biscuit, measured and cut.

About 3 hours later, I took the stacked biscuit out from the freezer. 3 hours in the freezer is not enough to freeze the whole thing until solid - as prescribed by Rose - but at this point I was pressed for time.

The Charlotte mold ready for use.

And this is the part where the step-by-step picture ended. Why? Read on and you shall find out!

At this point I proceeded to make the custard for the Pear Bavarian Cream. I whisked the egg yolks, sugar, and gelatin together. Then whisked into it, the boiled poaching syrup from the pear. Next the whole thing is heated up until almost boiling and supposedly the mixture will thicken to be like heavy cream. Well, 10 minutes and counting, it is still liquid like mild. By the 15 minute mark, I gave up and strained it. And then I saw why it never thickened. I had a lot of egg yolks coagulation happening - so my whisking the poaching syrup into the egg yolks wasn't swift enough. SHIT (yes people I do curse sometimes. It takes a special event to have me curse, and this one totally qualifies!) At that time it was 5.30 PM, I still have loads to do in the kitchen and I do not want to start over!

While musing on what to do next, I whipped the cream and started on the Italian meringue - boiled the sugar syrup and whisked the egg whites.

And then an idea came to me. What if I added an extra yolk to the Bavarian cream, with some poaching syrup, and gelatin. It is risky, but technically it should work, and then at least I don't have to throw away all those egg yolks and it's not really starting over.

So dear readers, that's what I did. I took an egg yolk, 1 tsp of sugar, 2 tsp of poaching liquid. All these measurements are approximate. I didn't even bother to look at the recipe. In hindsight, that was pretty crazy and gutsy of me and I probably won't do it again. Anyway, I whisked the egg mixture real good. Heat up the liquid-y custard until hot then whisked it into the 1 egg yolk mixture. Next I heat everything up and in like 3 minutes, voila, the whole thing thickened like heavy cream. YAY!!! VICTORY!

And it was at this point that I realized I had forgotten to take pictures. Oops.. oh well, next time maybe :).

While the custard was cooling in the water bath, I did a victory dance around the kitchen area. And no, for those of you wondering, there is no picture or video of that one (and there will never be LOL).

The completed Bavarian cream, inside the Charlotte. To the fridge it went so the cream can set.


After 1/2 hour, it's time to slice the pears. The pears turned out a bit on a softer side, so it was a little hard to slice them evenly. This is when I was glad I had extra pears.

After two hours refrigeration, I un-molded the Charlotte for this photo shoot.

Tasting impressions:

Hmmmmm........... mmmmmmmmm.... mmhmmmm..... this is soooo goood! Again, my love for sponge cake is re-newed. I do like the Apple Caramel Charlotte better - because of the apples and the caramel-based Bavarian cream. But this one is really a close second. Now excuse me while I go have another piece.

FFWD: Marie-Helene's Apple Cake

This is Marie Helene's Apple Cake from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.

I made 1/2 a recipe and baked in a 7 inch pan with removable bottom. I used 3 different kinds of apples (Jonagold , Honeycrisp, and Golden Delicious). I know for 1/2 a recipe I should have used only 2 of them but I want to get a lot of variety in the mix.

This cake is super easy to make, probably one of the easiest cakes I've made. I don't even have to crank on the KA mixer and that's saying a lot.


Tasting impressions:
Hubby gave it a thumbs up and said it's really good. As for me, on the day of baking, I thought the cake was good but not special. The next day, the taste improves and I am changing my verdict. It is really good. I love that there are more apples than dough in there. The dark rum definitely adds a dimension to the taste. This one will be repeated for sure.

PPB: Marionberry Turnover

This is Marionberry Turnover from the Pie & Pastry Bible. The crust is Rose's yummy-licious Flaky Cream Cheese Crust. In the book, Rose gave the option to use apples, cherries, raspberries, blueberries for filling. But I thought I'd try to use the yummy marionberry.

I made 1/2 recipe which was supposed to yield 12 mini turnover. I ended up with 15 :). Something's wrong with the math there but no one's complaining though, as these are so good.

Now for next time, I might actually follow the instruction and make one with apples, or blueberries. The possiblities are endless!

HCB: Marionberry Shortcakes

Shortcake... sponge cake... who wouldn't like them?

Add that to the fact that this one has beurre noisette in it. I know by now that Rose's cakes, when it has beurre noisette in it, is simply pure bliss. Add fruit to that and I'm sold.

I didn't find marionberries at Whole Foods, but at Vitamin Cottage. While it is thawing in a bowl, I made the beurre noisette. So far so good. Since it's 1/2 recipes, I didn't see a point of using the stand mixer to whip the warm 1 egg + 1 egg yolk. I used my handheld mixer, and quickly regretted it. It is not fun standing in the kitchen for 10 minutes holding handheld mixer. Yes okay I could sit down and do this but still no fun. See how I've become very spoiled with my stand mixer :).

Once the egg mixture has become airy and lovely and spongy, I sacrificed part of the egg mixture onto the beurre noisette. Then folded into the egg mixture, the sifted cake flour cornstarch mixture. Then folded in the beurre noisette.

These lovely batter is then distributed evenly onto 3 corningware ramekins. Then baked in the oven for 15 minutes.



Next, the liquid from the strained marionberries are reduced, cooled, and combined with Chambord. I think I reduced the sauce too much, so I added 2 Tbsp of water.

Rose said to make a small cavity onto the cakes for the berries, so that's what I did. There's quite a bit of scooped up shortcake, enough to make a mini marionberry shortcake trifle :).



Tasting impression:
Oh boy oh boy oh boy... This is one of THE BEST cakes from RHC. Light, moist, and tender. The berries added a wealth of flavor - sweet and slightly tangy. I don't know if I'm still giddy from finding frozen marionberries or it's the chambord talking. Maybe it is the beurre noisette - and I know that Raymond would agree with me. Whichever reason, this is really so good that I regretted making 1/2 recipe! Maybe I'll make this again for the free choice week next month.

TCB: Genoise Classique with Strawberry Mousseline

I made Genoise Classique last weekend - recipe from The Cake Bible. Initially, I split the recipe in half and baked in a 7 inch pan. The genoise turned out so beautifully - not disasterously as it was a couple of weeks ago - that I couldn't resist baking another half recipe.



I truly think there's something amiss in the beurre noisette that I made last time. I think I cooked it too long. As soon as I sacrificed the egg mixture into it, it started bubbling up, even though the beurre noisette was only a bit warm.

Well, no such thing happened this time. When I mix it with the egg, no bubbling or any strange reaction happened. They blend together like they are meant to be!



Mousseline is my favorite buttercream so far. I love the taste, it's so light I don't feel I'm eating a stick of butter. And I thought since I've made it several times, I got it down. This is what happened people, when you got comfortable and you thought nothing will go wrong. You get failed mousseline. It didn't turn out to be silky smooth but grainy.

I've never made mousseline in the summer, so I am blaming the hot weather. Somehow baking and hot weather doesn't work for me. Maybe I should just stick to cooking for now and taking pictures with the new camera LOL!

Though it's not a success, I tried to decorate the cake. I was grateful that the buttercream hold it's shape and it tasted good. The grainy-ness is not noticeable when we eat it, it just looks funny. We ate half the cake already. It is flavored with strawberry sauce recipe from The Cake Bible as well and boy oh boy, I can tell you the strawberry sauce is a killer!