Fondant Class at The Brooklyn Kitchen

I took at fondant class at The Brooklyn Kitchen last night, where this month is "cake month". (Quite a nice theme, don't you think?) I was far too intent on learning the steps for covering a cake in fondant to be able to take pictures of the process, aside from the fact that I wouldn't have dreamt of slowing the class down for something like that. But I learned a ton, and the hands-on practice was so worth it. Below, I've written out some general tips I picked up, as well as the steps for covering a cake and some links from the web. These things may prove to be more useful for me than for you, but if you have a little fondant experience, perhaps they'll help to refresh your memory.

You can see that there are several imperfections in my little cake, but I like to think that most of them occurred getting the thing from Brooklyn to upper Manhattan on the subway (for example, that indentation on the bottom was caused by my thumb when I was trying to get the cake into the box for transport). For a first try, though, I'm more than satisfied. I can't say I went with any theme for this one. I was just practicing making different things, which I then kind of haphazardly stuck to the cake. And yes, I am aware that my little bluebird has googely eyes. But we preach tolerance around here, so don't judge him for being different.

General Tips:

* Use a mixture of confectioners sugar and corn starch to prevent sticking, the way you might use flour when kneading and shaping bread.

* Before using your fondant, you must kneed it on a surface lightly sprinkled with the sugar/corn starch mixture until it softens and relaxes enough to be rolled and shaped.

* Keep the fondant you are not working with wrapped in plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out.

* To color fondant, simply kneed in a few drops of food coloring. You don't need much, so be judicious when adding.

* Always use buttercream as the insulating layer between the fondant and the cake. Things like a cream cheese based frosting can eat away at the fondant.

* A rotating cake stand is pretty much indispensable, both for getting a smooth finish on your buttercream layer and for cutting away excess fondant.

* To add fondant decorations, moisten the back of the decoration with water so that it adheres and simply press on.

* Fondant can be molded pretty much like clay. If you can make it out of playdough, you can make it out of fondant.

To lay fondant over a round cake:

* Roll out the fondant to a thickness of about 1/4"

* The fondant should be in a circle quite a bit larger than the cake itself so that it can drape below the cake

* Carefully place the fondant on the cake, starting by laying it on one side so that it touches, and draping it over the other.

* Now, using your paddle tool, smooth and seal the top of the cake

* Using your hands, cup around the top edge of the cake to smooth and seal the fondant on.

* Begin to move down, using your hands, smoothing and sealing the fondant on.

* Smooth out any imperfections

* Using the edge of your paddle, gently push down on the fondant on the bottom of the cake to make a kind of crease between the fondant on the cake's edge and the leftover fondant surrounding the cake.

* Take care not to put too much pressure on the fondant, you don't want it to tear on the top edge of the cake.

* Using a pizza cutter, cut away the extra fondant.

* All of the above steps should be done with the cake placed on a cardboard round the exact size of the cake, which should then be placed on your rotating cake stand.

* Remove the cake from the cake stand and hold it up by the cardboard circle so you can round the bottom of the cake, covering the cardboard circle with the fondant and achieving a smooth edge.

More resources for fondant:

* Chart for how much fondant to use based on the size of your cake from Wilton

* Wilton's step-by-step guide to covering a round cake with fondant, with pictures (although with slightly less detail)

* Guide for covering shaped cakes

* Wilton's guide for adding color and flavoring to fondant

* Recipe for marshmallow fondant that has gotten great reviews, although I haven't tried it

* The brand of pre-made fondant that our teacher recommended is called Carma, and is available here

UPDATE: I took this class in order to be able to make my own wedding cake. Well, it's done, and if you want more detailed instructions for fondant and for constructing a tiered cake, see this post.

Why do YOU cook, Garrett McCord?

Photo credit Garrett McCord
Garrett McCord is a fearless cook. He can be wildly creative at times, but mostly I am fascinated by what intrigues him and what challenges he is willing to take like making chocolate truffles with bacon or elderberry syrup. I first got hooked on his writing when he was blogging about his crazy out-of-the-box cupcake creations. His blog is Vanilla Garlic and he is also a contributor at Edible Sacramento and Simply Recipes.

"These days I find my life completely consumed by work and graduate school. More than once have I had to resort shoving fast food down my craw for fuel so I can continue researching or writing. Still I do my best to find time to cook. It's a basic human practice to try and find pleasure in satisfying hunger so cooking acts as a source of joy. Cooking becomes my respite and study break. Brewing up a batch of preserves and making a batch of cookies allows me to work with my hands and exercise a different part of my brain. It's a therapy session, mediation, and play all wrapped into one."

New Blogging Event: Monthly Meal Inspiration

The month of May seems to bring on all sorts of inspiration, including the culinary blogging sort that I was sadly lacking a while back.

The new month has even encouraged me to create a blogging event of sorts: "Monthly Meal Inspiration."

The best part about this event is that even if no one else participates, I can still do it all by my lonesome!

Here is the idea -- it's perhaps a little early to talk about rules. The event will be fine-tuned as time goes on.

1. During the first half of the month, scour your favorite blogs for recipes or other posts that inspire you to cook something new, especially "everyday" dishes that can actually be prepared by people with jobs. Seasonal dishes are a plus.

2. Send me the link to the post, either as a comment here or by email (see my profile) by about the 15th of the month.

3. You don't need to have actually cooked the recipe -- the objective is for all of us to get new ideas without being discouraged by the immensity of "what's out there." We can use the second half of the month to try out the recipes.

4. Shortly after the month's midpoint, I will publish a summary of the "Monthly Meal Inspiration" ideas. I'll put the posts in categories and may limit the number of posts presented -- that is if response is overwhelming (right...)

Remember, this does not involve writing a post on your own blog and then sending me the link to it -- although if you have an especially spiffy and inspirational cooking post, you can always submit it. It's more about doing something with all of those bookmarked cooking blog recipes that somehow never get cooked in our own kitchens.

Ready? Set? Go!

Lefse, or Norwegian Potato Flatbread

Okay, so I have to admit that I kind of cheated with this recipe. I say that only because all of the other recipes I used for this event were from Norwegian cookbooks actually from Norway, or from family recipes given to us by my husband's sister. However, I don't think I quite grasped the undertaking I was getting us into, and for some reason the thought of making lefse from a traditional Norwegian recipes scared the crap out of me. Perhaps it was the measurement conversions I would have had to do, or the different way they have of explaining some things, but I just thought I'd have more confidence with an American cookbook. So I used one.


Lefse is a traditional Norwegian flatbread, usually made out of potatoes with milk and flour and cooked on a griddle. Browsing through my Norwegian Cooking Bible, Norwegian National Recipes, I counted 24 versions, some with buttermilk and golden syrup, some with barley, rye or whole wheat flour. Some served with spreads made from brown cheese, spreads made from fish, and spreads made from sour cream, sugar and butter, and some spiked with cardamom. Some were meant for weddings, some meant for Sundays and some meant for country eating.


I also discovered that lefse from scratch is a labor of love. Or a labor of pig-headedness and an unwillingness to throw half the batter away to keep from having to stand over a hot griddle for 2+ hours. Because that's about how long it took to bake these off, one at a time, rolling each out to a paper-thinness and quickly transferring each to the waiting griddle.


To make lefse, you'll need a few specialized things. First, a cloth rollingpin cover, a pastry cloth on which to roll the dough out, and some kind of lefse stick or two spatulas for the transfer from cloth to griddle. I bought my rollingpin cover and pastry cloth on Amazon, and they worked perfectly. I am, however, not the owned of a lefse stick, and simply used two very thin spatuals for moving. I used a 10" round griddle, which dictated the size of my lefse anyway, but found that all I could manage was about 1/4 cup batter per lefse. Too big and they became too difficult for me to move in my lefse-making infancy. Just a couple more nots: you'll need a ricer or food mill to rice the potatoes, and the batter must be started the day before so it can rest overnight.

Lefse
From Greg Patent's A Baker's Odyssey

5 pounds red-skinned potatoes (they aren't as watery as some other kinds), scrubbed
12 tablespoons salted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces, at room temperature
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour, and more for rolling.

Put the potatoes in a part large enough to hold them all and cover with water by 1 inch. Bring the water to a boil, cover and boil gently until they are very tender. This will take about 30 minutes. Drain the potatoes in a collendar and when they are cool enough to handle, peel them.

The potatoes should still be warm. Using a food mill or a ricer, rice them into a bowl, adding the butter to the ricer/food mill as you work so that it gets combined into the potatoes. Beat the mixture with a wooden spoon until smooth (you can count this as your workout for the day). Add the milk, sugar and salt and continue to stir well. Cool the potatoes uncovered until they read room temperature, then cover them and refrigerate overnight.

The next day: gradually mix in 2 cups of flour with that same wooden spoon until you have achieved a stiff dough. It will be tacky, but it shouldn't be overly sticky. You can kneed in aditional flour if necessary.

Preheat your griddle over medium heat (400 F if using an electric one). Work with one quarter of the dough at a time, keeping the rest of the dough in the refrigerator as you go. For a 10" griddle, use 1/4 cup of batter per lefse. Generously flour your pastry cloth, and your coth covered rolling pin. Toss the 1/4 cup dough ball all over the pastry cloth so that it's well-coated with four. Then press it into a disk 3 to 4 inches in width. Roll it from the center very gently, keeping most of the weight off of the rolling pin so you don't mash the dough into the pastry cloth. Don't turn the lefse as you roll, and don't roll over the edges. Once it's rolled out very thinly, as thin as you can get it, it's time to transfer.

Slip one spatual under one edge of the lefse, and the other spatula under the other edge. Carefully transfer to the waiting and pre-heated griddle (I didn't grease my griddle, by the way). Cook for 1 or 1.5 minutes on the first side, then flip like a pancake and cook for about another minute. When the lefse is cooked, transfer it to a towel to cool. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Serve with a delicious herring salad. May I suggest this one?

Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Book review

If you are looking for a book to take on vacation, to the beach, or on a plane, you couldn't ask for a better one than Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone. It's a compilation of essays and stories by a wide range of writers. The title references a piece written by Laurie Colwin, one of my all-time favorite food writers. Other writers include Ben Karlin, Nora Ephron, Steve Almond, M.F.K. Fisher, Marcella Hazan, Paula Wolfert and many more.

A reporter recently asked me why food plays such a central role in a couple's dating life. My response was that we are naturally social animals and eating is one of the most social experiences we share with others. It's a chance to relax, talk and connect. But at sometime or another we all end up eating alone. It might be by choice or necessity. We might love the experience or we might hate it. Because eating alone is a private affair, we might just give in to secret obsessions or desires.

All of this secrecy makes for something akin to peeking in your neighbors medicine cabinet. It's voyeuristic to be sure. But in this case, a lot less unethical! I particularly liked discovering some voices that were new-to-me such as Erin Ergenbright who writes about a demanding customer who eats at an upscale restaurant in Portland, always by herself. Phoebe Nobles essay on eating nothing but asparagus is masterful. Laura Calder's essay is so laugh-out-loud funny that I was surprised I hadn't heard of her before. I can't wait to read more of her stuff.

This is the perfect book for someone newly single, but really, it's a book for everyone who enjoys reading about people and food and where the two intersect. Kudos to editor Jenni Ferrari-Adler for choosing such terrific writers and memorable stories. This is an anthology to savor.

READ MORE Over at Bay Area Bites is my review of Fish Forever which includes a recipe reprint.

FOOD

Wine

Beautiful Sonoma Valley!

Beautiful Sonoma Valley!
Yesterday we took a long drive across woods, mountains, and along the Pacific Ocean.

We first headed North of Petaluma and Santa Rosa, on highway 101, to Healdsburg, a very nice town which features a Spanish style architecture and has plenty of posh shops, wine tasting places, and restaurants.
We strolled in the city for quite a while, there were plenty of "brocanteurs" (called antique shops here, but to get the real feeling I'd say brocanteur). I almost bought an old picture of a Chinese guy with two young children .. but it was so big ... how to transport it back to Paris?
Then we had lunch in a nice restuarant that had a lot of tables outside, in a private garden.
From there, I had spotted a place for icecream, and we went and had one (as small and as expensive as French icecreams). We had our treat in a park in the center of the town.

Then we drove North towards Asti, along minor roads in the vineyards. I love to see how vineyards remodel the landscape.
The vineyards here are pretty high compared to the vineyards in the Loire (where I harvested last year). They look almost like bushes in some places!
So peaceful!




After a while, we headed towards the mountains between the valley and the Pacific Ocean. We passed Lake Sonoma and its refreshing view, and drove for more than one hour amidst sequoias, sky and valleys. Beautiful 35 miles of woods, mountains, high trees, and quietness.
A true regal!

At last, we arrived on the coast, and the Pacific Ocean, which makes me always a bit nervous, was majestic!
From there we drove South along Ca 1, and then back to Petaluma for a quick spinach leave salad with fresh poche organic eggs.