Thanksgiving | (Part 2) Apple Rose Tarts & Pumpkin Cake Tarts

 

Continuing with my theme of using ingredients I had on hand, I also made apple rose tarts and pumpkin cake tarts for Thanksgiving (for co-workers, Friendsgiving and the actual family get-together). Although quite simple in theory, the apple tart in particular can be labor intensive if you hand slice your apples like I did. I think I told myself I was practicing my knife skills . . . but I would recommend using a mandolin slicer if you've got one!

The apple tarts are inspired by my baking friend Anjali, who in turn was inspired by a Pinterest post. The crust is a Pâte Brisée, and the rose is made from thin slices of Gala apples, coated with some sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and melted butter.

I also added an apple compote (using Golden Delicious apples) underneath the rose to add flavor and moisture, which I think makes a big difference. After baking, I brushed with some apricot nappage for a glaze.

 

 

The pumpkin tarts use a Pâte Sucrée crust, baked with the same pumpkin brown butter cake batter I used for my Thanksgiving cake.

 

 

After baking, I leveled the top of the tart-cake, brushed on the brown sugar simple syrup, and then topped with mascarpone mousse.

Both were tasty treats and great for gifting. My personal favorite is the apple tart!

Thanksgiving | (Part 1) Pumpkin Brown Butter Cake

For Thanksgiving this year, I made a pumpkin layered cake, inspired by . . . ingredients on hand. I recently moved, and while I am excited to have a more functional oven and kitchen, I haven't had time to organize the pantry or find all of my tools. Looking at what I had (canned pumpkin, nuts, butter, sugar, mascarpone mousse for Friendsgiving tarts), I decided to make this cake with brown butter sage pumpkin layers, butterscotch pecan filling and mascarpone mousse frosting, with white chocolate leaves and cake crumbs for decoration.

The brown butter sage pumpkin cake comes from Martha Stewart, the butterscotch pecan filling comes from annie's eats and the mascarpone mousse is one of my favorites from Extraordinary Desserts that I've used multiple times.

Brown Butter Pumpkin Cake with Butterscotch Pecan Filling

Makes one 9" cake, or 12 cupcakes

Filling: 

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• Small squeeze of fresh lemon juice (optional, helps prevent crystallization)
• 1¼ sticks (5 oz.) unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup chopped toasted pecans

 Cake: 

• ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup fresh sage (chiffonade)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs

Also make mascarpone mousse (or any other frosting such as buttercream) and a simple syrup (try brown sugar).

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Make the cake: Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add sage strips and cook until butter turns golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer mixture to a bowl; let cool slightly. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together pumpkin, brown sugar, eggs, and sage-butter mixture. Add flour mixture; whisk until incorporated. Pour batter into floured pan; smooth top with an offset spatula. Bake until done (about 60 minutes, or when a cake tester comes out clean). Cool, wrap and chill in refrigerator or freezer.
3. Make the filling: Warm heavy cream in a small saucepan (do not boil). In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and lemon juice and stir with a whisk to combine (add water as necessary to resemble moist sand). [Note: If you're comfortable making a wet caramel, consider skipping the lemon juice. I added too much and ended up with a citrusy filling instead of a true butterscotch flavor.] Heat until sugar caramelizes into a golden amber color. Remove the saucepan from the heat and carefully add the heavy cream slowly, whisking constantly to incorporate. Whisk in the butter, a couple cubes at a time, stirring to incorporate completely before adding the next portion.
4. Cool the butterscotch in the refrigerator at least 45 minutes, until the mixture is no longer warm and has a slight chill.  Place the chilled butterscotch in a stand mixer bowl and beat for about 2 minutes, until it has thickened and lightened. Fold in the chopped pecans.
5. Cut cake into 3 layers. Brush cake layers with brown sugar simple syrup, spread filling, repeat, and cover cake with mascarpone mousse. Freeze until ready to decorate and serve. 

Baby Shower | Congrats Amy & Tim!

I've had the pleasure of knowing Amy since elementary school, and her husband Tim since they began dating in college. I think I speak for all of their friends when I say, I can't wait for mini-Amy to arrive in November!!

To celebrate their upcoming baby girl, I made cake pops (a first for me) and cupcakes as party favors for guests to take home.

The cake pops are a browned butter pistachio financier, made with ground pistachios, flour, egg whites, and browned butter.

I brushed the cake with raspberry simple syrup and coated with white chocolate coating chocolate. It turns out you can make the spherical shapes of cake pops either by baking in a spherical mode, or pressing cake pieces into that shape. The latter results in a fudgier texture, and I might have gone that route if I had such a pressing mold. For these, I figured the financier would have sufficient density and texture.

It's a bit tricky to put the right amount of batter in the mold to make sure it fills the full sphere when baking but not push the molds apart. Fortunately I had enough successful pieces to meet the guest count :)

The cupcakes are a play off of the Beau Soleil cake I made recently.

For the cake, I made a cinnamon swirl sour cream cake, brushed with orange simple syrup, filled with peach curd, and topped with mascarpone mousse.

Then I drizzled with honey and sprinkled with some praline. Although it used many of the same ingredients as the cake, it was delicious in its own way.

Birthday | Turning 30 Is Just Peachy!

For my friend's 30th birthday, her husband requested a peach cake, since peach is one of her favorite fruits and something that the couple consumes by the Costco-flat per week. Unfortunately, the birthday fell on the week of the nationwide peach Listeria contamination scare when all Costco peaches got recalled. Fortunately, Safeway had (presumably) non-contaminated fruit in stock.

I made this cake based on the Beau Soleil cake in the Extraordinary Desserts cookbook. Readers of my blog already know how much I love Karen Krasne and her cakes, but in case you're new here, I love Extraordinary Desserts in San Diego!

This is a 10" cake with hazelnut joconde (sponge cake) layers, soaked with orange simple syrup and filled with mascarpone mousse, peach curd, whipped cream, and some hazelnut praline (for crunch) and drizzled honey.

The mousse is a French style one with an egg yolk base, mascarpone cheese, whipped cream and vanilla beans (which make everything better).

The peach curd contains some peaches sauteed with brown sugar, and folded into the remainder of the pureed and gelatinized fresh peaches.

The outside is coated with the mousse and a thin layer of whipped cream. The sides are covered with the hazelnut praline, and the top is decorated with thinly sliced fresh peaches. The vibrant color and floral pattern make this cake aptly named Beau Soleil (beautiful sun).

I didn't have a big enough box handy for this cake, so the sides got a little smashed when the wait staff took the cake out of the box for slicing. But, it was still delicious! I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to both make this cake and eat it too :)

Pumpkin Chocolate Mendiant - Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving this year, I decided to present something along the lines of individual plated desserts versus a single cake. It was a lot more work, but a fun way to make use of my pastry school education. Plus, I needed to make up for the time that my pumpkin chocolate tiramisu failed to make it to the holiday gathering (in retrospect, that recipe I used was all sorts of wrong).

This dessert has a base disc of flourless hazelnut chocolate cake, a layer of pumpkin pastry cream, a layer of pumpkin-chocolate crème légère (basically the pumpkin pastry cream mixed with melted chocolate, frangelico and whipped cream), and a topping of mascarpone whipped cream. On the side is a cranberry compote, made with whole frozen cranberries, sugar, lemon juice, frangelico and a little corn starch to pull it together.

The dark chocolate cage was the most involved step. Fortuitously, my dad had 3" PVC pipe lying around, so we sawed that into short rings for holding the cylindrical shape while the tempered chocolate set. Family teamwork!

I'm only calling this a mendiant because that is the name of a similar dessert we made in pastry school. Obviously it is not the same as the chocolate confection also known as the mendiant, but I have yet to figure out a better name.

Tortamisu and Vallarta Torte - Office Baby Shower

This is a very belated post, but a couple months ago, I made two cakes for an office baby shower! One with espresso for a pick-me-up, and one with tequila for a bit of relaxation. Neither of which were soaked enough to have any of those effects of course, but I was amused when someone pointed this out to me.

The first is a Tortamisu, from Extraordinary Desserts. According to  Extraordinary Desserts' website:

"Our unique version of Tiramisu consists of espresso soaked ricotta cake layers and Italian mascarpone rum cream. This house favorite is finished with whipped cream and dusted with cocoa."

I didn't have chocolate paillettes, so I simply coated the sides with toasted cake crumbs, and then chocolate jimmies. I would have preferred real chocolate, but the jimmies still did the trick, at least as far as texture goes. This cake was delicious and decadent but not too heavy or sweet.

 

The second is the Vallarta Torte, also from Extraordinary Desserts. I don't think this cake is currently available in store, so I don't have an official website description of it, but it is made of sponge cake layers soaked with a tequila simple syrup, and filled with layers of lime curd and lime curd pastry cream.

The outside is coated with lime curd whipped cream and toasted coconut chips. My execution of this cake wasn't stellar, but fortunately the whipped cream and coconut chips covered the imperfections! This cake was light and refreshing, and a great contrast to the Tortamisu.

Each of these cakes was quite an undertaking, and the two of them together resulted in a pretty late night, but I'm happy I was able to pull them off.

Pumpkin Chocolate Tiramisu - Happy Thanksgiving!

This three-layer tiramisu is a holiday variation of the traditional tiramisu, using pumpkin, chocolate and amaretto instead of espresso and rum. Based on a Cook's Illustrated recipe, and inspired by a Martha Stewart recipe, the mascarpone layers are flavored with pumpkin puree, with the middle layer additionally flavored with melted chocolate. The ladyfingers are brushed/dipped with cocoa and amaretto. The top is dusted with cocoa and cinnamon, with chocolate decorations.

This recipe creates a very light and soft mascarpone layer. For a denser, thicker cake, use less whipping cream.

Pumpkin Chocolate Tiramisu
Serves 10-12

Ingredients

* 9 tablespoons amaretto
* 6 large egg yolks
* 2/3 cup sugar
* 1/3 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 lbs mascarpone cheese (about 3 8-oz. tubs)
* 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
* 36-48 ladyfingers
* 1 to 1 1/2 cans pumpkin puree (15-22 oz.)
* 6 oz. semisweet chocolate
* 3 tablespoons cocoa + 1 tablespoon for dusting
* 1 cup hot water
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon for dusting

Directions

1. Stir hot water, cocoa and 5 tablespoons amaretto in bowl until cocoa dissolves; set aside.
2. Beat egg yolks in a standing mixer (whisk attachment) until just combined. Add sugar and salt and beat at medium-high speed until pale yellow (1.5-2 minutes), scraping down the sides. Add remaining 4 tablespoons amaretto and beat until just combined (20-30 seconds). Add mascarpone and beat at medium speed until smooth (30-45 seconds). Transfer to a large bowl.
3. In the same mixer bowl, beat 3/4 cup heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Fold into mascarpone mixture. Fold in pumpkin puree.
4. Combine chocolate and remaining 3/4 cup heavy cream, and microwave until chocolate is melted. Stir until smooth. Transfer 1/3 of the pumpkin mixture into a separate medium bowl, and fold in chocolate mixture.
5. Cover bottom of pan or baking dish with ladyfingers dipped in cocoa-amaretto mixture (dip each side very quickly). Top with pumpkin mixture. Add another layer of ladyfingers, and top with pumpkin-chocolate mixture. Add another layer of ladyfingers and finish with remaining pumpkin mixture. Combine 1 tablespoon cocoa with cinnamon and dust over top.

Unfortunately, the tiramisu did not survive heavy Thanksgiving road traffic and accidents. Fortunately, we made pumpkin cookies with brown butter icing as back-up!

UPDATE: I've been asked about my pumpkin cookie recipe, so here it is. I arrived at this recipe through experimentation after tweaking a couple other recipes. Hope it works well for you all!

Rolled Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing
20-24 cookies

Ingredients

* 2 3/4 cup flour
* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon cloves
* 1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
* 1 cup brown sugar (packed)
* 2/3 cup canned pumpkin puree
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 egg

For the icing (makes 1 cup) - from Martha Stewart:

* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
* 2 cups confectioners' sugar
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Beat together butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add egg and continue beating until incorporated.
2. Sift/whisk dry ingredients together in medium bowl. Then add flour mixture to butter/sugar mixture in two to three portions, beating after each addition until just incorporated.
3. Fold in pumpkin puree. The cookie dough should still be thick.
4. Divide the dough into two portions, wrap in plastic wrap, and flatten into discs. Chill dough overnight or place in freezer for at least a couple hours.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.
6. Remove chilled dough from fridge/freezer, roll out to 1/8-1/4 inch thickness, cut into desired shape with cookie cutter, and place on lined, non-stick baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. The cookie will not brown much at all, but should spring back slightly when pressed with finger.
7. As the cookies are cooling, prepare the brown butter icing: Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling occasionally until nut-brown in color (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat, pour butter into bowl, leaving any burned sediment behind. Add sugar, vanilla and milk to brown butter, stirring until smooth.
8. After the cookies have cooled, dip and twist the surface into the icing. Allow the icing to set -- it won't quite harden, but it will develop a dry surface.

Tips for success:

• Work quickly, and keep the unused half of the cookie dough chilled while working with the first half. 
• When rolling out the dough, place the dough between two sheets of waxed paper dusted with flour. Sandwiching between wax sheets helps prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin and otherwise making a mess. I would also suggest dusting the dough disc with flour. Also, consider taping the bottom sheet of wax paper to the table to avoid slipping and sliding. 
• Use non-stick foil (my recommendation) or parchment paper to line the baking sheet.
• Be liberal with the spices.
• Consider doubling the icing recipe to make the icing dipping process easier.
• The icing may separate -- stir to re-emulsify, and add a little extra milk if necessary to thin the consistency.