Autumn update

Morning pastries

As we head into official autumn (calendar-wise), I wanted to share a few things I’ve been baking lately - scones for my mom’s assisted living facility; pastries for a neighbor’s morning gathering; French macaron trials for classes I’m teaching through our local school district’s adult enrichment program; late summer fruit torte - all good stuff!

Cinnamon oat crunch scones

Sometimes it’s nice to simply show you what I’ve been up to without all the steps and recipe details. I know we all like to experiment and see how things go. That’s me for sure. I’m always here to answer any questions you might have and share tips and techniques. All you have to do is ask.

Don’t forget to check out my recipe page for all kinds of base recipes to get your creative juices flowing. Or set up a class for yourself and a few friends.

One important baking project was spurred on by a neighborhood cookout to celebrate Carla and Jay’s recent marriage. Carla’s husband Daryl died suddenly 2 years ago and Jay’s wife had died 7 years ago. C and J met a year or so ago and realized that they should be together - and so they are. Congrats to Jay and Carla!!

I made my favorite financier cakes with a mini tiered/roasted strawberry butter-creamed affair surrounded by individual petite cakes and fresh Michigan blueberry garnish. Yummy!

For another neighbor’s morning pastry request I went with almond blueberry Danish, tart cherry feuillitées and orange pecan crumble pull-apart buns. Triple yum!

Almond cream blueberry Danish

Tart cherry filling in puff pastry, topped with oat crunch

Orange pecan crumble pull aparts

Here’s another one - I needed to use up some laminated dough in my freezer before it was too late. That yeast doesn’t last forever you know. Using half a batch of dough (the other half became another Danish-y cream thing), I rolled it out to about a 10”x10” rectangle, spread it with a mixture of 2 tablespoons (28 g) soft butter, 70 g brown sugar, a couple of ounces (~60 g) of toasted ground walnuts and 2 teaspoons espresso powder, rolled it into a log, then sliced ten 1-inch slices. I baked them in buttered/sugared individual 3-inch cake tins/ramekins and then rolled them in espresso sugar (mix espresso powder into granulated sugar to your liking) once out of the oven. Pretty tasty I’d say!

Espresso walnut buns

In preparation for some upcoming French macaron classes I’m teaching, I wanted to do a couple of test batches. I’ve been tweaking my recipe and hope to share it soon. I’ll admit that macaron making has been out of my baking life for awhile. Dough is my passion, but I feel challenged to jump back in and get it juuuuuuust right! So many variables.

These are a pistachio version with an apricot honey Swiss meringue buttercream filling and a central dot of reduced raspberry purée. Yup.

Another version with roasted strawberry buttercream and a center of dark chocolate ganache. Double yup.

Isn’t baking wonderful?!!

Oh - and one more. A peach blueberry version of Marian Burros’ classic plum torte.

Ready to bake

All baked up

Talk about delicious! We enjoyed this torte for dessert topped with vanilla ice cream at cousin Jen’s recently. Triple yup.

Autumn is all about spices, nuts, pears, pumpkins, apples, maple, chocolate, custards and more - get into that kitchen and bake up some goodness!

Bacon cheddar corn scones

So much sweet corn this year - gotta try something a little different. Why not savory scones!

Steve’s been buying up batches of ears, cutting the kernels off and freezing a lot of it, but he’s also grilled some ears and cut off the grilled kernels for adding to stir fries, frittatas, fried rice, corn chowder - you name it!

I went with a slight variant of my cheddar scone recipe and added grilled corn kernels and bacon bits to the mix. A small pinch of cayenne gives it the right hint of heat without being overwhelming (you can always add more if you’re into the heat factor). If you’d like to make these, here’s a PDF of the recipe fully written for this particular project.

Remember - cold butter and cold cream/egg, work quickly and efficiently to bring it all together.

Place dry ingredients into a large enough mixing bowl to accommodate your hands; work cold butter into the mix by flattening the butter between your fingertips and “flaking” the butter into the flour mixture. Leave visible pieces of butter which will help achieve a light and tender crumb.

Place grated cheese (I like a combo of gruyère and cheddar), corn kernels and bacon on top of the dry ingredients. Pour the cold cream/egg mixture into the center and toss it all with a fork to moisten. Bring everything together quickly with a bowl scraper then turn out onto a lightly floured work surface to gently knead a few times to incorporate any dry bits.

This recipe yields about 900 g of dough. I divide it in two, form each half into a 5”-ish round about 3/4 inch thick and cut into 8 wedges for a yield of 16. I happen to prefer the petite sizes, but if you’d like larger scones, cut each round into 6 wedges (yield 12) or even 4 (yield 8) for a pretty generous sized serving. It’s all up to you.

Once the scones are placed on a parchment lined sheet pan, brush with a little milk and sprinkle more cheese on top.

I pop the tray into the freezer and place a second sheet pan in the oven while heating to 400ºF.

Place the scone pan onto the heated sheet pan, bake 10 minutes, rotate trays and bake another 10 minutes until nicely browned. Reduce oven temp to 375ºF half way through if browning too quickly. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times - all ovens are different!

Enjoy slightly warm or cool fully before serving. Hint - a drizzle of honey adds a nice touch.

Crispy outside, moist and studded with goodness inside. You bet.

Work your own wonders with fresh sweet corn. Time’s a wasting!

Happy autumn!!

Peach melba crêpe cake

Happy September everyone! Autumn is my favorite season and the bounty of summer is still with us - peaches, blueberries, corn, tomatoes and more. Gotta love it.

On the heels of a savory crêpe making demo at a nearby independent living facility, my mind started thinking about a crêpe cake using late summer fruits - peaches and raspberries to be exact.

I was spurred along by both the memory of a chocolate crêpe cake I made back during our Providence days as well as dessert planning for a family meal at cousin Jen’s. Peach melba crêpe cake it is!

Many have written about the story of peach melba - classically vanilla ice cream, lightly poached peaches and raspberry sauce - a match made in many heavens if you ask me. It was created in the late 1800s by Auguste Escoffier in honor of the Australian soprano Nellie Melba. And the rest is history as they say.

As I planned my creation, along with the obvious crêpes, I went with peach caramel mascarpone cream and raspberry coulis for the assembly. Here’s the full recipe for the dessert - I’ll take you through the steps now. You can prepare the components ahead and assemble it all either the day before or the day of serving.

I did my crêpe cooking a couple of days ahead and held them wrapped in the fridge. I prefer these French pancakes nicely browned unlike some who claim they should be light in color. Nuh-uh - not me.

A friend had gifted me one of those cool wooden crêpe tools that help spread the batter out thinly with rounded (sorta) edges - it takes a bit of practice. It took a couple of tries to get the wrist motion just right, and it worked nicely on the non-stick pan I used. Actually I ended up trimming the thin pancakes to 8-inch rounds for stacking so I didn’t really care if my edges were goofy.

The peach purée can be made a couple of days ahead as well. Here I peeled, stoned and sliced 3 medium-ish Red Havens (the BEST Michigan peaches!), mixed with a couple of tablespoons sugar, a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice.

I blended it all up with my immersion blender then brought it to a boil over medium heat to dissolve the sugar. Simmer for 10-15 minutes to reduce by about half.

Reducing

Well on the way to concentrated flavor

The initial weight of the un-prepped peaches was about 500 g and in the end, after peeling, pitting, slicing, cooking and reducing, the purée yield was about 200 g.

In a similar vein, to create my raspberry coulis I puréed about 400 g raspberries, pressed the mix through a sieve to separate the seeds, leaving me with about 200 g of lovely-ness. Once I’ve puréed and strained fruit, I typically add about 10% by weight of sugar (in this case about 20 g), a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar then either cool and refrigerate for later or reduce it down a bit for flavor concentration.

My 8-inch open tart ring worked like a charm to trim all the crêpes to 8-inch rounds, and Steve and I snacked on the trimmings!

The mascarpone cream is a combo of 8 ounces mascarpone, a cup of heavy cream, 1/4 cup of caramel sauce and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Whipped up to medium soft peaks, it’s a delicious layering and garnishing cream. I finished it off by blending in about 120 g of my peach purée. Yum.

Let’s assemble! One crêpe down on the plate, a layer of mascarpone spread over, a drizzle or dotting (artistic license here) of raspberry coulis and repeat, repeat, repeat . . . .

I had just enough cream for 18 layers of crêpes as well as a top coating.

Making progress

As you layer this kind of tower, it helps to use your flat palms to press gently on each crêpe layer (before you add the next spread of cream) to try and keep things even. Mine ultimately came out a bit tilted but it still tasted wonderful.

I used my handy small offset spatula to clean the sides up but you don’t really have to do that since this is a rather devil-may-care process for a rustic finish.

Once assembled, refrigerate it at least a couple of hours before serving. Alternatively you can have it ready a day or even two ahead of time.

Dessert time! A pool of raspberry coulis on the plate, a slice of cake topped by fresh peach chunks.

The group loved this! The tart raspberry sauce and just-sweet-enough juicy peaches gave a perfect balance to the creamy crêpe layers. Yes.

And the leftovers weren’t too shabby either!

As we move through September and beyond don’t forget to appreciate the beauty around you. There’s something about petite sweet peas poking out of the undergrowth that always makes me smile.

And you can’t beat this gorgeous contrast! Here’s to autumn!