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Spicy Pumpkin Butter Gingerbread Beignets

Susan S. Bradley — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 05:00:03 +0000

This concept should have been a cinch. After all, I developed White Chocolate, Cardamom & Coconut Beignet and they’re wonderful—ethereally light, tender, moist, and beautifully flavored.

But I made a classic mistake at the onset. I tried to pattern the new beignest after the earlier success. And that, my friends, was a disaster. I threw batch after batch of beignets in the trash after just one taste.

Something different went wrong with each batch: too dry, too wet, not sweet enough, not pumpkin enough, not spicy enough, and finally, just okay but nothing special. I almost gave up. Where was I going wrong?

Then just in time, I remembered my trusty ally on the recipe development front: The Recipe Grid. I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s basically a way to compare key ingredients and their quantities across dozens of published formulas. It gives you a good sense of the latitude you have with the key ingredients—in this case flour, eggs, milk, butter, and chemical leavener.

So, establishing 1 cup of flour as the non-variable, I adjusted each formula to reflect the same quantity. Then I looked across the formulas. I learned that my earlier beignet recipe is an anomaly, calling for perhaps the maximum amount of ricotta possible: 2 cups ricotta to 1½ cups flour. When I added pumpkin puree to that, the batter was too wet and too heavy. Fully cooked, the beignets were altogether too moist and bland.

To lighten the batter, I swapped the ricotta for buttermilk and used it in a 1-to-1 ratio with flour. The batter was then too loose to hold a spherical shape in the hot oil, and I had to whisk in an additional ½ cup of flour before frying the beignet. The last minute whisking counteracted the positive effects of a night in the refrigerator (to relax the gluten). The beignet were acceptable, but more like average cake donuts than beignet. For whatever reason, the buttermilk did not contribute any special tanginess.

The breakthrough came when I spied a container of Pumpkin Butter that was languishing in the frig. I made it last week and then forgot it. It was sitting on top of a fresh carton of sour cream. Carl Jung calls this magical type of apparent coincidence, synchronicity.

My first bite of these beignet produced an OMG moment. They are impossibly light, melt-in- the-mouth tender, oh so moist, tantalizingly fragrant, and over-the-top delicious. The pumpkin flavor really comes through, and the spice level is perfect. There are angels in my kitchen.

Three Types of Beignet

If you scour your cookbooks and the web for beignet recipes, you will find three basic types: yeast-leavened, egg-leavened, and chemical-leavened, as follows:

Yeast-leavened beignets are New Orleans and Dixieland beignets. They are ethereal fried bread.
Egg-leavened beignets are their highfalutin French cousins. They are lighter-than-air, fried cream puffs (pate a choux).
Chemical-leavened beignets (think baking powder and baking soda) are close kin to cake donuts. The key difference is that cake donuts are rolled and cut, while chemical-leavened beignets are fried, free form, in hot oil. I think of this type of beignet as Americana all the way—easy, simple goodness.

Beignet Tips & Tricks

Beignet batter must be thick enough to hold its shape after hitting the hot oil.
The batter must have enough chemical leavener to plump each beignet into a fairly uniform spherical shape as the interior gains heats.
For the lightest, most tender beignet, refrigerate the batter for at least 2 hours before frying. Refrigerating overnight is even better.
You must maintain the frying oil at 350°. (See Technique Note below.)

Spicy Pumpkin Butter Gingerbread Beignet

Pumpkin and gingerbread spices are a marriage made in heaven, as you will discover when you taste these amazingly light, not too sweet, melt-in-your-mouth morsels. Pumpkin Butter is the trick to getting maximum pumpkin flavor into the beignets.

You need to make the batter at least two hours ahead to let the flavors develop and gluten relax. Beignets are best served immediately after frying.

Technique Note The only thing difficult about the following recipe is maintaining an even 350° temperature on the oil for frying. If the oil dips below 350°, the beignet will be fat soaked and heavy. If the temperature rises above 375°, the beignet will cook too fast on the surface and need to be removed from the fat before the interior is cooked through. It always takes me a few tests to get the oil and my timing just right. A deep fry thermometer is essential for this recipe. If you happen to have a deep fat fryer with a temperature gauge, success is assured.

2 large eggs
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup Spicy Pumpkin Butter
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon fine sea salt

1½ cups King Arthur unbleached, all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder

vegetable oil, for frying (I used 4 cups for a 7-inch diameter saucepan; the oil was 1¼-inches deep)

Garnishes
powdered sugar in a shaker

one of these sauces, optional

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and brown sugar, and then whisk in the Pumpkin Butter, butter, sour cream, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, and salt until smooth.
Put the flour and baking powder into a sifter or single mesh strainer and sift over the batter. Using a flexible silicon or rubber spatula, fold gently to thoroughly combine.
Cover the batter tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or as long as 24 hours (longer is better). Bring the batter to room temperature before frying.
If desired, prepare one of the caramel sauces and reserve. Rewarm just before serving.
In the meanwhile, put a few layers of paper toweling on top of an edged baking sheet and set next to the stovetop. Locate a deep-fry thermometer that will grasp the edge of the pan, a small skimmer for removing overbrowned bits of batter, and a 2-tablespoon capacity, release-style ice cream scoop. (If you don’t have the ice cream scoop, 2 tablespoons will work.)
In a 6- to 7-inch diameter, heavy saucepan, attach a deep-fry thermometer to the side of the pan and add vegetable oil to a depth of 1¼-inch to 1½-inch. Heat oil to 350°. This is the trickiest aspect of this recipe. You need to maintain a frying temperature between 350° and 375°, no lower and no higher.
Carefully drop three to four 2-tablespoon size scoops of beignet batter into the hot oil at one time. Do not crowd the pan. Begin GENTLY swirling and flipping the beignets after 15-20 seconds in the hot oil, and keep flipping them periodically until they are nicely browned on all sides and cooked through, about 2-3 minutes. If in doubt, remove one beignet and cut in half to check the interior. If the interior is gooey, the beignets need more time in the hot oil. You can also test with a thin wooden skewer inserted into the center of the beignet. It should come out clean.
With tongs or a skimmer, remove the beignet, one-by-one, from the hot oil, drain briefly over the oil, and then tumble onto the paper toweling. Continue until you have used all batter.
As the beignets hit the paper toweling, dust with powdered sugar.
Serve hot, either plain or with Caramel Sauce (see choices above).

Makes about eighteen, 1¾-inch diameter, beignets.

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Caramelized Apple, Onion, Cheddar & Blue Cheese Tart

Susan S. Bradley — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:05:05 +0000

There is something magically transporting about this particular combination of flavors. Wow is the only word I can think of to describe it. The buttery richness of flaky pastry, sweet tartness of apple, mellow bite of onion, deep savoriness of cheddar, and intense sharpness of blue cheese create a wondrous effect on the palate.

This was my first opportunity to try the custard proportions espoused by Jerome Audureau and Frank Mentesana of Once Upon a Tart, SoHo, New York bakery fame. I am a fan of their beautiful book and have long wondered about the proportion of 1 egg to 2 tablespoons cream for their quiche, in lieu of the more standard 1 egg to ½ cup cream that is my standard. I am a custard lover and admit to wanting more, rather than less, custard in my quiche.

Nevertheless, less custard puts the focus on the filling, and that can be a very good thing, as this tart demonstrates.

Caramelized Apple, Onion, Cheddar & Blue Cheese Tart

This wonderful fall tart is more about the filling than the custard binder. Not quite a quiche, it packs a multi-layered flavor wallop that is sure to please. Perfect for a special brunch, with perhaps a lightly dressed green salad alongside.

one 9- to 10-inch or four 5-inch shallow pastry shells, partially prebaked (use Quick & Easy, Flakey, All Butter, Short-Crust Pastry or your favorite pastry)

Onions
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 large onion, peeled and thinly sliced

Apples
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

Custard
2 large eggs
¼ cup cream (or half-and-half)
¼ cup crumbled blue cheese
1 clove peeled, minced or pressed garlic
¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon finely minced fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon finely minced fresh sage
sea salt, to taste
freshly ground white pepper, to taste

Cheeses for Layering
1 loosely packed cup grated, aged cheddar
¼ cup finely grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon crumbled blue cheese

To prepare the pastry, make one 9-inch pastry shell in a shallow, removable bottom tart pan, prebake, and allow to cool on a wire rack. (Or prepare four, 5-inch pastry shells in the same manner.)
To prepare the onions, in a large sauté pan, melt 1 tablespoon butter and slowly cook the onions until translucent and beginning to caramelize. Remove from the heat and reserve.
To prepare the apples, in a large sauté pan, melt 1 tablespoon butter per batch and add apple slices to cover the bottom of the pan without overlapping. You will likely need to sauté the apples in two batches.
Quickly brown both sides of the slices and then remove to a plate. The apples should not be fully tender at this point.
To prepare the custard, in a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs to smooth them and then whisk in the cream. Mash the blue cheese with the back of a fork, and add it to the custard, along with garlic, mustard, rosemary, sage, and salt and pepper to taste.
To prepare the tarts, sprinkle a little cheddar cheese over the bottom of the pastry shell (melting it quickly under a broiler if you like, to help ensure a crisp bottom crust), and then evenly distribute the onion mixture over the top.
Sprinkle all but 2 tablespoons of the remaining cheddar over the onions and top with the Parmesan.
Arrange the caramelized apples in a spoke-like fashion over the cheeses.
Pour the custard over the apples, taking care not to overfill the pastry shell. Leave ¼- to ½-inch top edge clearance. (If there is custard remaining, fill a buttered ramekin or two and bake in a bain-marie later.)
Sprinkle the top of the quiche with the remaining 2 tablespoons cheddar and 1 tablespoon blue cheese crumbles.
Bake at 350° for about 25 minutes for a 9-inch tart or about 20 minutes for 5-inch tarts.
Remove the tart from the oven and cool the slightly on a wire rack, allowing at least 10 minutes of set-up time before cutting. (Actually, this tart taste best when cooled just a bit and is excellent even at room temperature.)
Remove the rim of the tart pan and cut into eight wedges to serve. (Or serve individual tarts.) Because of the delicacy of the pastry, I find it better to cut through the top edge with a serrated bread knife, changing to a flat-bladed knife to finish the bottom of each slice. This way the pastry does not break or shatter.

Serves 4.

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Lime & Vanilla Scented Rhubarb Clafouti

Susan S. Bradley — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 05:25:29 +0000

Clafouti (pronounced klah-foo-tee), a simple French custard-cake, is the perfect foil for the fresh fruit and berries of summer. Formulas vary wildly from one end of the spectrum (custard) to the other (cake). I love trying them all, and I shared the following two versions with you already:

Fresh Apricot Ginger Peasant Cake is on the cake side of the spectrum, with a decidedly chewy texture, which makes it everyone’s favorite. The formula is unusual in that it contains no egg.

Spiced Green Apple Lemon Clafouti is on the custard side of the spectrum. It rises high around the edges, much like a Dutch Baby. However, it is thicker than a Dutch Baby and the center more closely resembles a firm, tender custard than a pancake. The formula is unusual in that it contains no fat.

What I am sharing with you today is a chewy, cake-style clafouti with a sweet-tart topping of lime- and vanilla-scented fresh rhubarb. I always hesitated adding rhubarb to a clafouti, because it releases so much liquid while baking that the dish was bound to be soggy. I couldn’t see any way around this, other than to cook the rhubarb to a mush before adding it to the batter. And that of course didn’t sound like a viable solution either.

But then, Paula Wolfert came to the rescue recently in her inspired new cookbook, The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes for the Passionate Cook. In it, she describes a way of treating rhubarb for a custart tart that allows you to extract the juice without cooking the rhubarb to a mush. The rhubarb pieces hold their shape while the tart bakes, which is just the effect I want for this clafouti.

INGREDIENT NOTE The success of this dish rests squarely on the quality of the rhubarb. Buy crisp, tender stalks from a local grower, in season. In the Northwest, rhubarb season now extends from early spring to almost fall, thanks to numerous small growers who provision local farmers markets.

SERVING NOTE Because this cake is so simple to make and not overly sweet, it makes an excellent addition to a breakfast or brunch menu. It’s also wonderful with afternoon tea, perhaps the medium-bodied, floral, fruity No. 64 Darjeeling Singtom, from Oregon tea purveyor, Steven Smith of Smith Tea.

Lime & Vanilla Scented Rhubarb Clafouti

There is possibly no easier or quicker cake to make than clafouti. However, in this rendition, you must macerate the rhubarb with sugar the night before, so that it releases its considerable quantity of juice. What you get in return is rhubarb that will not turn to mush when you bake it. Definitely a fair trade.

You will notice that this clafouti formula contains no egg. Thus, it doesn’t rise as much as some formulas. The advantage though is the wonderfully chewy texture.

Serving Note Clafouti is best eaten warm, shortly after baking.

Rhubarb
3/4 pound fresh rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1- by ½-inch pieces
6 tablespoons sugar
½ vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise
finely grated zest of 1 large lime
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Batter
1 cup king Arthur, unbleached, all-purpose flour, sifted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder

¾ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 drop lime oil, optional

Garnish
powdered sugar in a shaker

Put the rhubarb in a medium-size bowl and add the sugar. With a small sharp knife, scrape the seeds from the inside of the vanilla bean into the bowl and add the bean as well. Add the lime zest. With a flexible spatula, gently combine the rhubarb with the other ingredients. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, remove the vanilla bean, rinse, dry, and use again later for another purpose. Pour the liquid from the rhubarb into a saucepan. Bring the liquid to a simmer and reduce to a syrup, about 4 tablespoons.
Remove the pan from the heat, add the rhubarb, and toss to coat with syrup. Stir in the lime juice. Let cool to room temperature.
To prepare the baking dish: Locate a 10½-inch diameter ceramic pie dish with a 4-6 cup capacity. (Another shape of shallow baking dish with the same capacity will work too.) Pour in the melted butter and tip the dish from side to side to cover all of it with butter. You may need to use a brush to lightly coat the edges of the dish with butter. Reserve.
To prepare the cake batter: In a large bowl, sift together the flour, remaining 1 cup sugar, and baking powder.
With a wooden spoon, beat in the milk, vanilla, and lime oil to produce a smooth batter. Don’t over beat. However, the batter should not have too many lumps either.
Pour the batter into the buttered baking dish.
Place rhubarb and syrup evenly over the batter, leaving a 3/4–inch open border of batter around the outside edges (this will allow the batter to rise at the edges).
Place clafouti on a rack in the upper third of a preheated 375° oven. Set an edged baking sheet on the rack below to catch any overflow.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the sides are puffed and the top is golden brown.
Remove from the oven to a wire rack to cook for 15 minutes before cutting.

To serve, cut into wedges and arrange on serving plates. If desired, dust each serving with powdered sugar and serve with a lime wedge.

Serves 4-6.

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If you have read this far, please leave a comment. Include your blog URL and CommentLuv will automatically link back to your most recent blog post. Also join LunaCafe on Facebook for daily adventures in the OtherWorldly Kitchen. I appreciate your support more than I can say. Blessings…Susan

Spiced Green Apple Lemon Clafouti

Susan S. Bradley — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 21:04:26 +0000

I ran into an interesting clafouti (pronounced klah-foo-tee) formula in an old magazine in a box in the garage recently and almost dismissed it because there can be no better clafouti than Fresh Apricot Ginger Peasant Cake.

As you may recall from that post, clafouti, an earthy cake from the region of Limousin in France, is comprised of a layer of cake-custard, topped with a layer of juicy fruit. The result can be rather more like cake or rather more like custard, depending on the proportions in the batter.

Sometimes it’s described as a pancake and it does often have a similarity to the high-rising German pancake called Dutch Baby (which contains butter and an equal measure of flour and milk). I have also eaten versions that are simply custards enrobing fruit, no flour in the batter at all.

Fresh Apricot Ginger Peasant Cake is on the cake side of the spectrum. It contains no eggs (which is highly unusual) or butter, and is cake-like (not a pancake, not a custard), with a decidedly chewy texture, which everyone loves.

Spiced Green Apple Lemon Clafouti, on the other hand, is on the custard side of the spectrum. It rises high around the edges, much like a Dutch Baby. However, it is thicker than a Dutch Baby and the center more closely resembles a firm, tender custard than a pancake.

Because this delectable cake-custard is so simple to make and not overly sweet, it makes an excellent addition to a breakfast or brunch menu. It’s also wonderful with afternoon tea, perhaps a fruity, floral tea, such as No. 47 Bungalow from Oregon tea purveyor, Steven Smith.

Note Julia Child describes this classic dessert beautifully, along with several variations, in the inestimable, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1. Her basic formula is similar to the custard-like formula I present here, although with a little less egg.

Spiced Green Apple Lemon Clafouti

This high rising, custard-like clafouti batter contains no fat of any kind, which makes it ideal for breakfast or a light afternoon sweet. Adding a topping of sugar before baking gives this peasant cake yet another appealing textural element.

Serving Note Clafouti is best eaten shortly after baking.

Spiced Green Apple Lemon Topping
1 medium-large Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and ¼-inch diced
2 tablespoons currants
2 tablespoons sugar
finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon apple cider syrup (or molasses)
1 tablespoon dark muscovada sugar (or dark brown sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg

Batter
1 cup whole milk
3 large eggs
½ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

¼ cup sugar

Garnish
powdered sugar in shaker, optional
lemon wedges, optional

Heavily butter the bottom and sides of a 9”-9½”, 6-cup capacity, ceramic baking dish. Reserve.
To make the topping, in a large mixing bowl, combine apples, currants, ¼ cup sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, apple cider syrup, muscovada sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Let macerate for ½ hour. You should have at least ¼ cup of juices after maceration.
In a blender, blend the milk, eggs, flour, sugar, vanilla, and salt.
Pour batter into the prepared baking dish, and top with drained apple mixture and ¼ cup of the apple liquid, being careful not to cover a ¾-inch band around the edges.
Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup sugar over the top of the batter.
Bake at 400°, on the middle rack of the oven, for 30-35 minutes, until the edges are well puffed and the center appears set.
To serve, cut into wedges and arrange on serving plates. If desired, dust each serving with powdered sugar and serve with a lemon wedge.

Makes one 9½-inch clafouti; serves 4-5.

Note To print this recipe for your personal use, click Print this Post below.