Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again….the food blogging community never ceases to amaze me with their generosity. I have two case in points. Almost two months ago, when Tanna, of My Kitchen in Half Cups, came into town I was lucky enough to meet up with both her and Lynn, from Cookie Baker Lynn, for lunch. Lynn was a sweetheart and had made us each aprons(plus homemade cookies of course). Mine had little pea pods all over it(see below). She did such a good job on them(I am always fascinated by people who can sew) that my husband accused me of buying it. I assured him it was a gift…not sure if he believed me though.

Second case in point was most recently. Veronica of Veronica’s Test Kitchen had asked me for my new home address. I thought I might be seeing a new home card in the mail, but instead was a giant box of goodies, from spatulas to a pastry brush to dish towels(and more!) What a housewarming gift for me. Far better than all the bills that usually pile up in the mail! So a special thanks to both Veronica and Lynn for making me feel so very special.

Now onto the food.

I’ve always walked to the beat of a different drummer, as my dad(the drum major of a pipe band), has told me on several occasions. He is right. I do tend to go against the “norm” on most things. Dessert is no exception. When I go home for Thanksgiving(which is not that often anymore) my mom is in charge of making all of our “regular” desserts and I get to be in charge of the “alternative.” If I was going home this year, which sadly I am not, I would be making this dessert as my alternative. The original recipe called for almond meal(flour), but I like hazelnuts with pumpkin much, much better, so I used hazelnut flour. It’s dense, yet surprisingly light… and very, very moist. Nothing more is needed than a nice dollop of whipped cream to make this alternative treat complete. You might want to add it to your list of desserts this year as your alternative.

Pumpkin Financier

½ pound unsalted butter
1 ¼ cups hazelnut flour
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups powder sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
2 TBSP tightly packed brown sugar
8 large egg whites, at room temperature
½ cup canned pumpkin puree

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the solids separate and begin to brown to a dark golden color, 7-10 minutes. Removed from the heat and let cool at room temperature until it reaches 70F. Don’t chill it. It needs to remain in liquid form. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 10-x-2 inch round cake pan with pan spray, line with parchment paper, then coat the paper lightly with pan spray.
Sift together the hazelnut flour, flour, powder sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the spices and brown sugar. Turn the machine on low and mix the dry ingredients for 30 seconds. Add the eggs whites all at once and mix on medium speed for 3 minutes. Add the pumpkin puree and mix for 30 seconds.
Add the melted butter all at once. Be sure to scrape in all of the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Mix for 30 seconds on medium speed, then turn the mixer to high speed and mix for 3 minutes more, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes. Rotate the cake for even browning and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then invert it onto the rack, remove the cake pan and parchment, and cool completely before serving.

Adapted From: The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard, Houghton Mifflin 2003

I had mentioned that the idea of using the pumpkin brioche to make cinnamon rolls sounded good to me….and it still does. But after more thumbing through The Secrets of Baking I found a Gingerbread Brioche, and so you know I had to give that a try! I decided that the gingerbread brioche is what I would make into buns. I wanted to do something less traditional.
Around last Christmas, my friend M brought gingerbread with a lovely lemon sauce to Book Club as her treat. And what a treat it was. I had never had lemon sauce with gingerbread before. My mom always served it with whipped cream(nothing wrong with that!) and once you get in a rut, you get in a rut. So I thought, how can I incorporate that into a bun? I made the brioche as the recipe called for but made a lemon sugar for the filling and a lemon sauce to go over the top of them. These are soft, spicy, tangy and tasty all “rolled” into one. Be warned: This dough is not like normal brioche…it is sticky and doesn’t like to play nice, but the end result is worth it.
I am really loving this cookbook. It was purchased for me off of my wish list at Christmas time when I got more than a few cookbooks. I must have just skimmed through it and thought nothing more of it. I must say I am kind of addicted to it….like Yard is becoming me new Dorie(though she can never be replaced). Now I am excited to purchase her new cookbook(Desserts by the Yard) that just came out. Oh and speaking of cookbooks that just came out, my most influential chef Marcel Desaulniers came out with a new one just in time for Christmas, I’m Dreaming of a Chocolate Christmas. Oh course I bought it. It has so great looking things and I plan on making something from it this week!

Gingerbread Brioche Buns with Lemon Sauce

Gingerbread Brioche

For the sponge:

½ cup whole milk, room temperature
1 TBSP dry active yeast
2 TBSP sugar
½ cup bread flour

Combine milk and yeast in the mixing bowl of a standing mixer. Whisk and let sit for 5 minutes. Add flour and sugar, mix to form a thick batter. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 30-45 minutes, until bubbles form.

For the dough:

1/3 cup unsulfured black-strap molasses
3 TBSP packed light brown sugar
2 TBSP ground ginger(may seem like a lot but this makes a lot of dough)
1 TBSP ground cinnamon
1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp ground cloves
3 ½ – 4 cups bread flour
2 tsp salt
6 large eggs, slightly beaten
9 ounces unsalted butter, softened but still cool

Filling:
3 TBSP unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar rubbed with the zest of one large lemon

Add the molasses, brown sugar, spice, flour, and salt to the sponge. Add the eggs. Beat with the paddle attachment on low speed for 2 minutes, until the eggs are absorbed. Increase the speed to medium and knead the dough for 5 minutes.(It doesn’t say to do it, but I switch to the dough hook at this point). The dough will be sticky. Hold the mixer when necessary if it starts to dance on you.
Turn the machine down to medium low speed and add the butter, 2 TBSP at a time. Knead for another 5 minutes, until the dough is shiny. Scrape out the dough and clean and lightly oil the bowl. Don’t worry if the dough is difficult to work with(it will be).
Place the dough in the bowl then turn it over so that the top is oiled. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 2 hours, until doubled.
When dough is has doubled in volume, punch it down by folding it two or three times. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
After the second rise, the dough is ready to be shaped. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll it into a rectangle approximately 12 by 16 inches. Use a pastry brush(or your hands if you like to get messy) to spread 3 TBSP of butter around the rolled out dough, leaving an 1-inch margin at the top edge with no butter. Sprinkle filling evenly over the surface, again leaving the 1-inch margin. Starting from the long side closest to you, roll up the dough like a jellyroll. Transfer the log to a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 10 minutes. This will make cutting the buns clean and even.
Remove from freezer, cut buns into 1 ½-inch pieces, you should get around 12. Place them back onto a greased baking pan. Spread out so they are not touching. Wrap with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 1 ½ to 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 400F. Bake buns for 10 minutes and reduce heat to 350F. Bake for another 10-15 minutes depending on the size of your buns. Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Pour lemon sauce over buns and serve warm.

Adapted From: The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard, Houghton Mifflin 2003

Lemon Sauce

1 TBSP cornstarch
½ cup sugar
dash of salt
1 cup boiling water
juice of one large lemon
zest of on large lemon

Combine cornstarch, sugar and salt in a sauce pan. Add boiling water to it and bring to a boil, stirring constantly; cook until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in juice and zest.

One of my culinary confessions in life is that I love those stupid from a box, Funfetti cupcakes. I think I am allured by the birthday cakey flavor of the cake and the festiveness of all the colors of the Funfetti. So when I was making a cake the other day that required 8 egg whites(it will be on the blog later), I could not bring myself to throw out 8 egg yolks. I hadn’t planned on making anything else that day, but my plans changed. During the move, I found many a lost treasure lurking in my cupboard. One of those were my colored sugar crystals that I used for my homemade Pop Tarts. I decided that I would pay tribute to my favorite boxed cupcakes in the form of flan, yes flan. You can add just about any flavoring you want, I didn’t add any this time around, but a dash of vanilla would have been nice.
I think little kids would be drawn to these. I think they are a lot of fun(as the name would imply). As you can see, the crystals do melt and form a sauce(I wasn’t sure if they would or not) and it turns a festive pink color.
In house news, I just sold my left arm to buy some window treatments. Not to worry, I kept my mixing arm. Who knew stupid blinds could be soooooo expensive. They joys of home ownership. We also get to do battle with Comcast again…one of the cable boxes doesn’t seem to think we want sound half of the time…special. Other than that, I am loving it.

Funfetti Flan

4 large egg yolks
½ cup sugar
1 ½ cups heavy cream
pinch of salt

colored sugar crystals(I didn’t measure but I would say about 1/3 of a cup)

Take ramekins(this recipe made 4-6 ounce ones) and divide crystals among them. Press the sugar down making sure it is evenly distributed. Place cups in a baking pan large enough to hold them and a water bath.
In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt. Warm cream in a saucepan over medium heat until it is warm, almost hot to the touch but not boiling! Ladle some of the cream into the egg mixture, whisking the whole time. Then slowly add the rest of the cream, again, whisking the whole time. Strain the mixture through a sieve to avoid any egg bits that might have formed.
Pour mixture into ramekins. Don’t panic if some of the crystals float up, this will most likely happen, but the majority of them will not rebel and will stay where they are suppose to. Place them into the baking pan and place in the oven. Then pour HOT water(boiling if you’ve got it) into the pan so that it comes half way up on the ramekins. Bake flan for 25 minutes,until the custard is set but just a little jiggly in the middle. Remove from water bath(thongs work good for this). Let cool for 20 minutes and place into the fridge for at least 6 hours(I did overnight).
To remove the flan, run a knife around the edge of each ramekin and invert onto a plate or whatever you are serving it on. 

Right around the time of my move, two of my favorite blogs, Veronica’s Test Kitchen and Dessert First both made brioche from Pure Dessert. They both did a wonderful job of replicating the beautiful, buttery brioche that I wanted to make it…and surprise, surprise…I just happen to own that cookbook. But along the way I ran into one of my many forgotten about cookbooks while I was unpacking. I ran across a recipe for pumpkin brioche and thought that sounded pretty darn perfect.
I must say that there is very little pumpkin flavor in the brioche, it simply makes it super moist. It is not made to be a sweet bread either, I made part of the recipe into rolls and ate them with chicken and couscous(which my husband amazingly enough liked the rolls…he hates pumpkin). I did on one of the loaves spread butter and sprinkle it with pumpkin pie spices…which helped to bring out more of the pumpkin flavor…or maybe it was all in my mind(most likely ). I want to make these into some sort of cinnamon bun I think….who knows.
That is it. I am still pretty busy so no real long, drawn out blog updates….lucky you.

Pumpkin Brioche

For the Sponge:
¼ cup whole milk, at room temperature
2 ½ tsp active dry yeast
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup bread flour

Combine the milk and yeast in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment ans whisk until the yeast is dissolved. Let stand for 5 minutes, then stir in the pumpkin puree, sugar, and flour, forming a thick batter. Cover with plastic film and let rest in a warm environment until bubbles form, 30-40 minutes.

For the Dough:
5 cups bread flour
2 tsp salt
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
½ lb(2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1.Add the flour ans salt to the sponge, then add the eggs. Mix on low speed for 2 minutes, or until the eggs are absorbed. Increase speed to medium and knead the dough for 5 minutes. The dough will begin to slap around. Hold on to the mixer when necessary.
2.2. On medium-low speed, add the butter, 2 TBSP at a time. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally.(Recipe did not say to, but I switched to the dough hook at this point). Knead until the dough is shiny ans smooth, about 5 minutes. Scrape out the dough, wash and dry the bowl, and coat it lightly with oil.
3.Place dough in the oiled bowl and turn it so that the top is coated with oil. Cover with plastic film and let rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.
4.After the dough has doubled in volume, press down to deflate, folding one half into the other. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. This is the second rise.
5.Spray three 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pans with pan spray. I used one large pan, two mini loafs and made 8 rolls.
6.Remove dough from fridge. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough evenly into thirds. With a rolling pin(that is floured), roll the dough into a rectangle equal to the length of the pan and double its width. Starting from the short side, roll up the dough like a jelly roll. If you would like you can add a filling. I added pumpkin pie spices with sugar in one of my loafs. Pinch the seam together. Place the dough seam side down in the prepared pan. Gently work the dough into the pan with your fingers so that it touches all sides. The dough should fill the pan halfway.
7.Cover the dough with plastic film coated with pan spray and let rise at room temperature until it has doubled in size and filled the pans completely, 1 ½ to 2 hours.
8.Toward the end of proofing preheat the oven to 400F. Adjust the rack to the center of the oven.

Egg Wash
1 large egg, plus large egg yolk

Whisk together the egg and yolk. Gently brush the surface of the dough with the egg wash.

Baking:
1.Bake for 10 minutes. Turn down the oven temperature to 350F and bake for 30 minutes more(the mini loaves only need 17 minutes more), with a golden crust and an internal temperature of 180F.
2.Remove the brioche from the pans as soon as they come out of the oven and cool it on a rack before serving.
3.If making rolls, roll them to golf ball size. Proof in paper lined muffin cups for easy baking. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes.
4.
Adapted From: The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard