Bakin-n-Bacon

Mile High Biscuits

After years of frustration in the biscuit making arena, I have finally found success.

Since my husband is from the South, he has great expectations for biscuits. He likes them tall, somewhat flaky, but definitely not cakey.

My previous attempts were either too cakey, overly flaky (to the point of resembling pie crust), dense and squat, or so tender they wouldn't hold together.

Finally, after trying the formula from Michael Ruhlman's Ratio, I feel like I have nearly mastered the high-rise, fluffy but not cakey biscuit. It couldn't be easier.

Ruhlman calls these "Chicago biscuits" after the ratio, which is 3:1:2 (the area code for Chicago). Three parts flour, one part butter or fat, and two parts liquid (by weight), plus a little salt and baking powder, equals biscuit bliss. For added rise and layers, I folded the dough in half twice after patting it into a rectangle. I didn't want to work it too much and risk making the biscuits tough, but this was just enough to get a super rise out of these puppies.

I used a very sharp knife to cut the biscuits. I like squares because there are fewer scraps and because I think they look nifty. You do want to cut all the way around, including the outside edges. Just as with puff pastry, if you do not cut the edges the dough will not rise, because the edges left after rolling or patting out will be a little smushed on the sides. Trust me on this one; I've tried it seeral times without cutting the outside edges and those sides remained squat.  

Complete instructions follow.

Mile-high Biscuits

3 parts unbleached all purpose flour (15 ounces)
1 tablespoon double acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 part unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes (5 ounces, 10 tablespoons)
2 parts buttermilk (10 ounces)
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Mix together the dry ingredients. Cut butter into flour (I used a food processor, about 12 pulses, or you could do it by hand) until mixture resembles really coarse cornmeal.

Add liquid and stir (or pulse) just until dough starts to come together. Turn dough out onto lightly floured cutting board.

Pat or roll into a 9-inch rectangle. Fold in half and pat out again. Repeat one more time, making sure the dough doesn't get warm and melt the butter.

Cut into 9 pieces (3x3). Place on parchment-lined baking sheet and brush tops with melted butter. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

More Modeling Chocolate

This was a cake for a co-worker's child's baptism. I tinted the white chocolate with a bit of sky blue to match the invitation. The cutout part at the top was inspired by the laser cut paper of the invitation. I got a little carried away with the pearled sugar dots, but I was desperately trying to distract from the teeny golden bits in the frosting that announced I curdled the eggs when making the icing.

After making the cutout (which tore and cracked a bit as I was transferring it), I thought the cake looked plain. I considered some writing, but what do you put on such a cake? "Happy Baptism"? Nothing sounded appropriate, so I cracked into the gum paste cutters and tried something new. I thought the end result looks a little Hawaiian, but it was well received.

And here's one more example of white chocolate roses. They will become a standard part of the repetoire since they are dead easy and don't taste awful like gum paste. One of these days I will crack into the gum paste mix and try for some of the very realistic flowers but I will wait until the dreary nights of winter when I need something to keep me sane.

 

Wonderful Elixir

In this last year or so I've taken an interest in vintage cocktails. Although I have tried several, this is the one I keep returning to. It's called a Corpse Reviver #2, and it indeed revives the corpse I turn into some days after work.

This cocktail is one where the whole is truly more than the sum of its parts. It's got a great balance fo sweet and tangy with a good alcohol kick without being boozy.

The only bad thing about it is that I usually want more than one, and if I have more than two I risk returning to the "corpse" state again.

Most folks probably don't have all the ingredients for this one on hand, but I'll give you the recipe anyway.

Corpse Reviver #2

3/4 oz. gin (I prefer Plymouth but if you can't find it any top shelf gin will do)
3/4 oz. Cointreau (or Grand Marnier)
3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
3/4 oz. Lillet Blanc (a French aperitif - medium to high end liquor stores will carry this)
Dash Pernod or Absinthe (just a couple of drops - this adds a whisper of anise/licorice)

Combine the first four ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled. Strain into a glass and stir in a couple drops of Pernod or Absinthe. I suppose you could put the Pernod in with the other ingredients but I like to do it at the end so I can taste as I add to get just the right amount. Garnish with whole star anise.

Modeling Chocolate Roses

Welcome to my latest experiment - modeling chocolate. This stuff is insanely easy to make and not very difficult to work, so I am very happy with this medium.

I chose to begin with white chocolate, since I had a large quantity that was passing its "use by" date. To make modeling chocolate, you melt chocolate (white, milk, semi-sweet, or bittersweet), add corn syrup (the amount varies with the type of chocolate used), stir together and let cool to room temperature. Then you knead the resulting mixture until it is smooth and pliable, rather like a very stiff Play-Doh.

From there, you can roll it out and cut it with cookie cutters or stamps, roll it into ropes or other shapes (to make figurines, for example), or even use it to cover an entire cake similar to fondant, but much tastier.

Often it is used to make roses, as pictured above. Each petal is formed and attached to a central core made from rolling a circle of chocolate into a right roll and flattening the base. There are two methods for forming the petals. One is to pinch off a small ball of chocolate and press it into a petal shape with your thumb. The second is to roll out the chocolate and stamp out circles. The edges of each petal are lightly feathered for a more realistic effect, and each petal is pressed to the core and then to other petals. The heat from my hands was enough to adhere the chocolate to itself, although I suppose you could use icing to glue it together.

I refrigerated the roses to firm them up (90 degree heat tends to wilt any type of rose, it seems), then I lopped off some of the base to make it look more natural. I formed the leaves with a cookie cutter, using the back of a paring knife for the veining and serrations.

Here's another example:

I braided three ropes together and wrapped the braid around the base. My marbleing on the top was not the best because I tried using a fork instead of a cake tester for the swirling, thinking it could do it in less time. The effect is less than perfect, but whaddya gonna do?

Altogether, I am pleased with the results. I want to branch out to other types of flowers or decorations, and also want to try my hand at gum paste flowers. Those don't taste very good but they are quite realistic and beautiful. Stay tuned!

Catching up...

It's unbelievable that I have not posted for nearly two months. It sure doesn't feel like that much time has passed. The summer is already winding down, yet there is still so much to do before winter sets in (and when it sets in here, you want to hibernate).

Even though my posts have been few and far between, I have been stretching the limits of my air conditioner by baking several cakes for coworkers (and just for the fun of it). Here are some of the recent things I've made (at least the ones where I remembered to take a photo!). The main photo is of "killer bee" cupcakes (killer because it took me 2 1/2 hours to decorate 27 cupcakes). Inspiration for these cuties came about after making a graduation cake for a coworker's daughter. The collegiate colors were yellow and black, and the team mascot was a bee, but she didn't want a bee to be the main feature. So I made a yellow cake with white daisies, and placed a few  little bees here and there on the flowers. They were so cute that I had to make a bunch more of them. Then, of course, I had to make some cupcakes on which to place the bees. The flowers on the cupcakes are supposed to be sunflowers, and if you look very closely at the centers, you will see I attempted to make individual "seeds" in the middle. This is a technique that still needs work.

Next up is a birthday cake and a new icing color. The color is Delphinium Blue, but the lighting made it look more purple. This cake was great because it had a lemon curd filling. MMMmmmmm...lemon.

I tried to make diamonds on the sides of the cake. They are deceptively difficult. I really need to invest in one of the cake dividing mats that Wilton makes. It has radial lines extending from the center so you can place the cake on it and use the lines to divide the cake into fourths, sixths, or eighths. It helps when forming swags, or in this case, diamonds. Of course, I would still have to make the lines straight. Maybe I could get a tilting cake stand so I'm not decorating at a straight 90 degree angle. But  can't you just see the Wile E. Coyote moment that is sure to arise with a tilting cake stand? I can imaging placing the cake on it, using a grippy mat to make sure it wouldn't slide, and jumping up and down beside it to make sure it isn't going to slip. I would decorate 99% of it, and then, just as I am about to place the last detail on the cake, VOOM! It slides right off and onto the floor. Perhaps I can find another way...

The next photo features chocolate overload. I got a little carried away with the decorations because I made a double batch of frosting. Also, the more decorations you have the less anyone notices how crooked the cake is and how poorly you applied the frosting base coat. I used my favorite chocolate frosting from Cook's Illustrated that is silky and luscious. I usually eat about half a cup of frosting with a spoon after I'm done icing the cake. That is one reason I don't make it very often, or I would have to widen the doorway into the kitchen.

Finally, we have an ill-conceived and poorly executed example. I'm calling it a "tribal" cake, but really, it was just a practice cake. You see, a few of my co-workers and I get together one evening every other week and practice decorating cakes. Each week we try a new type of flower, a new icing, new colors, or a new technique. Sometimes my cakes end up looking odd (well, like this one) because I've used a bunch of different colors or several different (and not necessarily complementary) techniques on one cake. No one else in the office, however, cares about the oddities - they are just happy to eat the cakes the next day. It's been a blast and my co-workers, who hadn't done any decorating before, have caught on fast and are now trying things I've never even done.

I've done many more cakes but alas can't find any of the photos. Going forward, I hope to A) post much more frequently, and B) remember to take photos of all of my baking (and maybe even my cooking, if I get really fired up). Until next time, I bid you adieu.