Savory cheesy quick bread

This one is thanks to my French teacher here in Grand Rapids, Rita Selles. Even though I have’t taken classes for awhile now, I certainly enjoyed our group sessions, learned a lot and still do my best to practice speaking en Français with myself when I’m out for my daily walks.

A few years back, at the end of our fall session of classes, we all brought something to eat as a mini holiday celebration. Rita provided this savory cake (is it bread or cake?), and I immediately asked her for the recipe. It’s one that you can suit to your own tastes using different veggies and cheese.

I opted for Rita’s suggestion of diced, sautéed zucchini, a vegetable I don’t often use. Truth be told Steve and I are avid broccoli/cauliflower fans pretty much all year long but also rejoice at the fresh green beans, juicy tomatoes and succulent sweet corn that we’re able to acquire at our local Fulton Farmer’s Market each summer.

For my loaf pan I used my mom’s longer/narrower aluminum Mirro brand pan that she’s had for beaucoup years (click the link for Wikipedia’s interesting history of the company, now defunct). I love the shape compared to a standard, wider 8 or 9 inch loaf pan - it reminds me of what might be called a “tea loaf” pan. Now that she’s living in her lovely apartment at Pilgrim Manor, her meals are provided and her baking days are a fond memory for all of us. Those blueberry and apple pies - man oh man! But I digress.

Lightly butter the loaf pan, line with parchment then lightly grease the paper as well. Heat the oven to 400ºF.

For your mise en place weigh/portion out 250 g / scant 2 cups all purpose flour; 8 g / ~1 tablespoon baking powder; 120 ml / 1/2 cup heavy cream; 60 ml / 1/4 cup milk (whole, 2% or !% all work) OR, as in my case, I used whole milk ricotta instead; 3 large eggs; 140 g / 5 ounces cave aged gruyère; one medium zucchini; 1 teaspoon herbes de provence (or herb of choice); pinch of sweet paprika; salt and pepper to taste.

Grate the gruyère and set aside. Dice up the zucchini, heat a bit of olive oil in a sauté pan and stir fry it for several minutes to soften and brown it a bit. Let cool.

Mix the flour, baking powder, paprika, salt, pepper and herbes de provence in a medium bowl. Add the eggs, cream, ricotta and blend then stir in the cheese and zucchini. Pretty straight forward.

Transfer the thick batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth. I grated some extra cheese on top too.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until the top is golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Ooooh -eee look at that cheese!

I let it cool for 10-15 minutes, then turned it out of the pan onto a wire rack to finish that process.

Once cooled, Steve and I did our requisite taste test - yup it’s good all right!

We enjoyed a few slices with a hearty, bean-y chili that evening. For another meal Steve toasted a couple of slices up, put ‘em in the bottom of a shallow bowl and topped them with another tomato bean concoction with some pieces of grilled pork. Perhaps you don’t know this, but he is THE leftover king of the house!

The bread kept well wrapped for 2-3 days as we nibbled our way through it. Warmed a bit with a schmear of ricotta and some chopped roasted tomatoes for lunch wasn’t too shabby either.

As Rita suggests, try your own version with different sautéed or roasted veggies, add some chopped black olives, take it up a notch with some crisp bacon bits or sub in your favorite grating cheese. How about some toasted and chopped nuts like pecans or pistachios? I’m liking this. I hope you will too.

As usual during these times in which we find ourselves, stay safe, be well and enjoy the simple things. And remember - spring is coming!

Sablés au parmesan et pecan

Cheese and nuts - mmmm, mmmm good!

Here’s the question: how about the real deal Parmagiano-Reggiano from The Cheese Lady along with toasty pecans combined in a luscious shortbread cookie, one of my favorite baked treats? A big YES from this corner of the planet.

Over the years I’ve made the occasional savory shortbread, a couple of my favorites being honey herbes de provence and nutty rosemary. Such wonderful marriages of sweet, salty and herby all rolled into one. So when I was presented with another savory take on the buttery, crumbly cookie I love so much, I had to give it a go.

This one comes from La Cuisine de Mercotte , a blog I was first made aware of several years ago thanks to Parisian friend Valerie, a classmate of mine (and a translating life saver in the practical kitchen!) during the basic pastry course at Le Cordon Bleu back in 2006. Val, an engineer by profession, had previously lived in Las Vegas for 5 years and speaks English like an American, so I was often able to turn to her for language assistance during those early days of incomprehension.

The blog is orchestrated/written by Jacqueline Mercorelli, (a.k.a. Mercotte) a well known French food critic, blogger and gastronome. Full of recipes, tips and techniques, it’s available in English too!

This Mercotte shortbread recipe calls for parmesan and black garlic, something I didn’t even know existed. Since I didn’t have that particular ingredient, why not use pecans instead!

Nothing fancy or difficult about this one folks. Make the dough, divide and log it up, wrap/chill then slice and bake when you’re ready. I had planned on baking these for a March 20th appetizer event, but since that was canceled due to the current health crisis, the logs went into the freezer to be baked at a later date. They’ll keep a good 3-4 months.

Get started by doing your mise en place: 160 g / 11.5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and softened; 250 g / scant 2 cups all purpose flour; large pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper to taste; 150 g / 5.2 ounces grated Parmagiano-Reggiano; 60 g / ~1/4 cup lightly toasted pecans, cooled and finely chopped; have on hand a splash of heavy cream and 2 teaspoons of water..

Once you have everything ready to go (don’t forget to grate that cheese and toast/cool/chop those nuts!), place the butter, flour, salt and pepper in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Blend on low, adding the parmesan and pecans soon after and continuing to blend.

As the dough becomes more crumbly, stop the mixer, pick up a handful and see if it holds together. If still pretty crumbly, add a splash of heavy cream and 2 teaspoons of water. Continue to blend for a minute or two and test again. The dough should hold together. NOTE: after making this dough a couple of times, going forward I plan to routinely use the cream and water - it works!

Divide the dough into four portions and form each into a compact log about one inch in diameter (or a bit larger if you’d like) and about 7-8 inches long. Wrap snugly in plastic wrap and chill for several hours or overnight. Remember you can freeze them too!

The recipe yields about 65 cookies, depending on the diameter you choose.

When ready to bake, heat the oven to 400ºF. Line a half sheet pan (or two if baking all the dough in one go) with parchment paper. Slice the log(s) into 1 cm slices and place on the prepared sheet(s).

Bake 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Cool and enjoy.

Set out your own appetizer platter with toasted nuts, assorted cheeses and jams to go along with these buttery gems. I think you’ll like them!

Stay safe, shelter in place and be well.

Orange pecan crumble pull apart rolls

This one is great fun! Add some spices to your favorite sweet roll dough, let it rise, roll it out, spread with an orange zesty sugar/butter filling, cut it into squares and create your own pull-apart shapes. Top it off with a nutty pecan crumble and you’ll be happy you did!

The dough I used is easy to work with, soft and pillowy and quite delicious. The yield is either 7 or 9 rolls depending on how many squares of dough you use per roll to create your version (as you’ll see coming up). Note - the images below show ingredients and steps for my base recipe test batch with a 9 roll yield.

Base recipe: put 120 ml / 1/2 cup whole milk in a microwaveable container (a 2 cup Pyrex measurer works well here), heat just to boiling then add 56 g / 2 ounces cubed, unsalted butter to the milk. Stir to melt the butter and let the mixture cool to tepid ( ~105ºF).

Now add 1 lightly beaten large egg and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract to the milk/butter mixture and keep it on standby.

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine 130 g / 1 cup all purpose flour, 130 g / 1 cup bread flour, 50 g / 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar, 5 g active dry or instant yeast, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, a pinch (or more to taste) of cinnamon and, in my case, I threw in some vanilla powder that I had made by grinding down and sifting some dried vanilla beans. Even though there’s vanilla extract in the dough, I figured a dash or two of the powder would only enhance the flavor.

Stir in the milk mixture and mix with either the paddle or a large spatula or wooden spoon until combined.

Fit the mixer with the dough hook and knead on low speed for about 6-7 minutes until smooth and elastic. Or knead by hand for about 12-14 minutes.

Place the dough in a lightly buttered bowl . . . .

cover with plastic wrap and let rise for anywhere from 45 minutes to a couple of hours depending on the ambience of your room. You’re looking for about double in size.

While the dough is rising make the filling by blending 66 g / 1/3 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons orange zest, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt and 42 g / 3 tablespoons soft unsalted butter.

For this test batch I wasn’t sure what pan/form would be best for what I had in mind, so I did some comparisons with standard muffin tin, individual cake pan and panettone paper.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, gently de-gas then roll it out to a 9”x9” square. Spread the filling over it then cut into thirty-six 1.5” squares.

Stack 4 squares together (for a yield of nine rolls) and tuck ‘em into buttered and sugared pans (FYI - no need to butter and sugar the panettone paper).

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let them rise for about an hour. About 30 minutes before you plan to bake, heat the oven to 375ºF.

Top with pecan crumble before baking.

Note: for the crumble combine 60 g all purpose flour, 60 g sugar and 60 g cold, diced butter. Sand the butter into the dry ingredients to achieve coarse crumbs and add in anywhere from 30 - 60 g toasted, then chopped pecans, depending on how nutty you like your topping. I usually double or triple any crumble I make so I can stash the rest in the freezer for another time. Nothing like planning ahead.

Bake from 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Each form yielded a slightly different end result. Not being rigid, the panettone paper roll skewed into an oblong pull apart, while the individual cake pan held the dough nicely in place.

The standard muffin tin, being more shallow than the cake pan, allowed for more rising and flaring out of the dough, kind of like one of those wide curved balloon-y kind of kites that billow out into a big, rippled rectangle.

Once out of the pan, they almost pulled themselves apart!

The taste test received a big thumbs up from both Steve and myself, and I knew I wanted to make these again.

This time I doubled the dough batch (here’s the recipe PDF) and rolled out each HALF of the dough into the 9”x9” square, spread on the filling and cut the thirty-six 1.5” squares. NOTE: I found it easier to work with the 9” square portions then a full double batch of dough.

I had done a bit of calculating and decided to use 5 pieces for each pull apart (for a yield of 7 rolls per dough half or a total of 14), arranging them more as a flower than a rectangular stack. I buttered and sugared my individual cake pans and tucked the pieces in an overlapping, rough swirl fashion. Having a couple of extra squares of dough, I tucked those in where they seemed to be most needed.

Since I own only 12 of the aluminum Fat Daddio cake pans (which I LOVE!), I used 2 ramekins to fill the bill.

After the rise they also received the pecan crumble top . . . .

and baked up like a dream.

After 5-10 minutes of cool time I gently loosened the edges with an offset spatula and popped them out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Boy are these babies good! I made these as part of a pastry assortment for a neighbor’s Saturday morning gathering, and the followup reports were A+. Steve and I enjoyed some of the extras, plus a few went into the freezer for later. They kept well for a day or two in a covered container and were even better with a few minutes warm up in a 325º oven.

Love that pull-apart feature! I’m already planning another round soon.

In the meantime Steve and I are wishing everyone calm days and peaceful nights as we continue to try to understand what’s happening in our world day by day.

Saint Angel tart

Along the lines of the tarte au fromage blanc that I made during the summer of 2018 as part of my baking with cheese series, this Claudia Fleming inspired tart is reminiscent of a soufflé, using a pastry cream base to which is added triple crème cheese and a lightly whipped meringue. Yum!

In preparation for this project I returned to our favorite cheese shop, The Cheese Lady, here in Grand Rapids. Steve and I never turn down an opportunity to drop by to chat, taste and buy (and they sell some great wines to boot). Love it!

After tasting a few triple crème options I went for Saint Angel, a creamy cow’s milk cheese from the D’Affinois group. It has a lovely, slightly nutty taste with just a hint of salt - perfect for a tart just like this one.

I used my favorite pâte sucrée d’amandes with the addition of ~ 60 g of toasted and coarsely chopped hazelnuts (following Claudia’s lead) for the crust. Below is the lined tart ring before blind baking.

By the way, the base dough recipe makes enough for two 9-inch tarts so I simply wrapped and froze the portion I didn’t use. Nothing wrong with that!

The tart shell can be blind baked at 325ºF and set aside for several hours before filling or even frozen a few days ahead to give your project a jump start before the day you wish to serve it.

With your blind baked shell at the ready, heat your oven to 350ºF.

For the filling I prepared a HALF recipe of my basic crème pâtissière using 3 large eggs, divided - yolks for the crème and whites placed into the bowl of a stand mixer and set aside. Once the crème has cooked and thickened, blend in 283 g/10 ounces Saint Angel cheese (rind removed and cut into pieces), then strain into a large bowl and set aside.

Using the whisk attachment, whip the 3 egg whites on medium-low speed until foamy then slowly shower in 150 g/3/4 cup granulated cane sugar. Once all of the sugar is added, whip on high speed until medium stiff peaks form.

Gently fold a third of the beaten whites into the triple crème mixture, then fold that mixture back into the remaining meringue in two additions.

Transfer the filling into the baked tart shell . . . .

and bake for 20-25 minutes until puffed and golden.

You can certainly plan to serve this soon after baking, yet knowing full well that it would collapse, I opted for letting it do just that, cool down and then give it a try.

Delicious, light, creamy, a hint of salt and a sublime taste treat indeed.

Thinking about accompaniments to a good triple crème cheese, I tried a dollop of cherry jam on top - not bad although Steve wasn’t a big fan. Otherwise toasted nuts, a drizzle of honey, roasted fruits/fruit compotes, berry sauces or coulis would be deelish too! Give it your own spin.

Good news! The tart held up well in the fridge (covered) for the next couple of days. Hurray!

Here’s to everyones health, safety and getting through the uncertainties in today’s world. Take care all of you.