A different approach to ganache

I actually started playing around with this post earlier in the year and realized that it’s been sitting as a draft all this time. As I recently began work on a FAVE post on scones which may take me a bit of time, it seems fitting to share a quickie with you. Even if you’re in the midst of heat and humidity and don’t want to turn on your oven, these recipes can be done on the stove top. Plus you can freeze your end result and be ready for those wonderful autumn days when French macarons might be on your to do list.

While I have plenty of baking and pastry books in my home library, I love browsing the shelves at our local libraries. Not only do they often have newer books available that I can peruse before I might consider a purchase but also many that have been around for some years. One of those is François Payard’s book “Payard’s Cookies”, coauthored with Anne E. McBride and published back in November, 2015.

As I paged through the book I was drawn not so much to the cookie recipes but to some of the other components that might go into a cookie project - things like nut pastes and ganaches. Hmmm . . . I should try a couple of these.

Payard includes recipes for making your own nut pastes (almond/hazelnut, pistachio) which can be made ahead and then incorporated into a ganache or other filling. He offers two ganache versions - “fruit” when using fruit purées and “dry” when using ingredients like extracts or nut pastes.

Raspberry ganache centers surrounded by white chocolate raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Here’s the recipe PDF for both fruit and dry versions.

First fruit . . . . .The primary ingredient in fruit ganache is 100 g fruit purée along with 30 ml heavy cream (or you can leave out the cream and use 130 g fruit purée). Additionally there’s 56 g / 2 oz white chocolate, 40 g / 1/4 cup minus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar, 10g / one heaping tablespoon cornstarch and 75 g / 5.5 tablespoons unsalted butter.

The mise

Place white chocolate in a medium bowl. Whisk together sugar and cornstarch in a small separate bowl. Place cream and fruit purée (in this case raspberry) in a saucepan and have diced butter ready on the side.

Bring cream and purée to a boil, whisking to avoid sticking. Then whisk in sugar/cornstarch, return to a boil and whisk 2-3 minutes until it thickens.

Pour the fruit/cream mixture over the white chocolate and blend until melted.

Add butter and blend until smooth.

Press plastic wrap directly on the surface and refrigerate an hour or overnight until set. It should be pipe-able.

Being in macaron mode I was already planning to use the raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream in my freezer for a batch and thought . . . . . hmmmm . . . how about a center dollop of raspberry ganache to compliment that? Why sure!

I added vanilla speckles to the shells - Yummy!

The dry ganache is essentially the same as far as ingredients other than using 140 g heavy cream and 20 g of nut paste to replace the cream and fruit purée in the fruit version. Here’s the recipe again.

As an aside: what you’ll have to decide is whether you wish to make your own nut paste(s) a.k.a praliné - essentially caramelized nuts that are ground into a paste (a entirely different topic!). It’s a process that you may not want to pursue.

But if you do, here’s the recipe for praliné shortbread that includes how to make the paste itself. If you go for it, remember the paste can be made ahead and keeps for some weeks in the fridge.

The good news is you have the option of buying your nut paste(s) from various sources such as well stocked bakery supply sites, nut vendors or Amazon. There are lots of choices out there, particularly for pistachio paste due to the recent popularity of Dubai chocolate bars.

OK - on to the dry ganache. Cream and paste go into the saucepan - then the steps are the same.

The mise

Almost there

All blended up

For this macaron project I used the pistachio ganache as the center and piped a ring of strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream to fill the vanilla shells. Not bad my friends.

And so it goes. Until next time.

In the holiday cookie kitchen - pocky and a few more!

This is the time of year when many bakers and pastry chefs turn to cookies. What is it about Christmas cookies anyway? I certainly remember decorating the traditional sugar cookies that many moms made during our childhoods. Since then there have been so many variants thrown at us during this lead up to the December holiday time, including magazines devoted solely to holiday cookie baking. Snowballs, rugelach, pfefferneuse, ricciarelli, gingersnaps, thumbprints just to name a few - cookies from all corners of the planet. Pretty amazing.

Pocky is a new one for me. I came across small boxes of these traditional Japanese stick biscuit cookies in the checkout line at a local craft store. Who knew? Coincidentally I became aware of a recipe for the homemade version of these intriguing cookie sticks through NYT’s holiday cookie recipes. I had to give ‘em a try.

The dough is easy to put together - you can do it by hand or in a food processor or in a mixer - you decide. I used the stand mixer approach.

Combine 160 g/1.25 cups all purpose flour, 45 g/3 tablespoons cane sugar, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt in the bowl of a stand mixer; add 56 g/2 ounces cold diced unsalted butter and mix on low several minutes to coarse crumbs (or sand in by hand); add 45 ml/3 tablespoons whole milk mixed with 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract and mix on low to bring the dough together.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it out to form a 5.5”x8” rectangle about 1/4” thick. Wrap in plastic and chill at least an hour or up to several days.

When ready to proceed, heat the oven to 350ºF.

Cut the chilled dough into 1/4 inch thick strips about 5.5” long.

With the palms of your hands roll each strip out to about 7-8 inches long. For me it took a bit of time to get a feel for how this dough wanted to behave. Bottom line - use decisive, firm pressure to keep the dough compacted while rolling it out, doing your best to keep the pieces straight. Pop your pans into the freezer for 10 minutes or so before baking.

Bake about 15 minutes until golden brown. Cool on wire racks.

Some of mine were a little curvy but in general these baked up into rustic looking sticks with a certain charm. They taste to me like the animal crackers we used to eat as kids or some kind of teething biscuit - the Brits might call them a digestive biscuit. The flavor is good - simple and straight forward.

I’ve never tasted the Japanese massed produced version, but I’ve looked at the ingredients and have to say - nuh uh.

For decorating I went with microwave melted, tempered white chocolate, raspberry dust and chopped lightly toasted pistachios . . . . .

and dark chocolate with chopped pecans.

Let’s just say that making pocky is something good for a day when you have little else to do and don’t feel rushed. Puttering with chocolates, nuts or whatever you decide to use to make your own version is good for the creative spirit. Calm and patience - that’s it.

Next up - white chocolate chai buttons using one of my favorite base shortbread recipes. Blend 75 g cane sugar with 200 g room temperature unsalted butter; blend in 250 g all purpose flour, a tablespoon chai spice mix and 56 g/2 ounces finely chopped white chocolate until the dough comes together. Wrap and chill before rolling/cutting shapes of choice or portioning out with a scoop.

For a more nutty/caramel-y taste change the dough up a bit by subbing in dark brown sugar or coarsely ground raw sugar for the cane and sub 50-60 g of whole wheat pastry flour (one of my FAVE ingredients!) for that amount of all purpose. You’ll like the result.

I made my chai mix with a teaspoon each of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and coriander plus a few grates of fresh nutmeg and some grinds of black pepper. There are different DIY chai mixes out there - some might also contain allspice or star anise or cloves. When making your mix, ramp up the quantities to 3 or 4 times the base so you’ll have plenty on hand for next time. Plus you can add it to other things like cakes, butter creams, ice cream base or your own chai beverage.

Heat the oven to 325ºF. Scoop out tablespoon sized rounds and bake on parchment lined sheet pans for about 20-25 minutes until nicely browned. Some of my cookies spread at the edges just a tad so I cleaned them up with a round cutter while still warm just out of the oven. I like things to be neat - it’s how I operate.

Once cooled give them a drizzle of white chocolate and let set.

Here’s a sampling of some of the other cookie treats I’ve been making this month. I’m pretty sure many of you have your favorite holiday recipes plus there are sooooo many to be found out there in books, magazines and online. Pretty overwhelming actually.

These are always a favorite - almond thumbprints!

For gift boxes for a nearby independent/assisted living facility I made cinnamon sugar kids . . . . .

and cocoa trees with a bit of raw sugar crunch and a sprinkling of granulated sugar for that oh so natural woodsy look.

Lots of cute packages for the residents!

Here’s another boxed assortment I put together for the assisted living residence where my mom lives. I like to drop treats off there every now and then to say thanks to the staff, particularly with all they have to do to keep everyone safe during the pandemic. My hat’s off to all of them.

In addition to thumbprints, chai buttons and pocky I added my classic shortbread flavor assortment (to the left of the pocky) of vanilla bean, sea salt caramel, butter pecan and tart cherry. In the forefront are chocolate dipped Earl Grey shortbread made with ground Earl Grey tea, all purpose and hazelnut flour and added orange zest. Chocolate and orange is such a great combo.

Even though Christmas is arriving soon, I may have a few more cookies up my sleeve for this holiday time. Perhaps more gift boxes to hand out to folks for the New Year. Why not!

I’ll leave you with this floral image. We received this orchid from cousin Jen and extended family nearly two years ago after my Uncle John died. It is now blooming for the FIFTH time since then. This time it’s the most prolific with 10 flowers and continues going strong after four months in it’s current bloom. It gives me peace and joy.

May you feel the same as we look ahead to a new year of stability and health for our world.

A merry season to all

Caramel almond moelleux chocolat

Blogging has taken a back seat due to December’s whirlwind of activities from teaching and baking to selling my 92 year old mom’s condo and moving her into a new apartment. Whew!

As was true during my days working in emergency medicine, baking continues to serve as a respite for my heart and soul. The feel of the dough, the lovely aromas wafting from the kitchen and the taste of that oh-so special treat - you can’t beat it!

To help say adieu to 2019, I’d like to share a few of the goodies I’ve been baking of late.

Pecan twirls, almond croissant, ham and cheese spirals

Orange financier with salted caramel buttercream

Pumpkin pecan crunch brioche

White chocolate raspberry crispy rice almond bark (now that’s a mouthful!)

Sending warm holiday greetings to all and may the upcoming year bring you many good things.