Kouign Amann = A Very Good Start to 2014

Until a couple of weeks ago I had never heard of a kouign amann, let alone tasted one. Turns out the baking blogosphere has been raving about these pastries for a couple of years. I had some catching up to do, and fast! With a little help from the folks at theKitchn (link to recipe), I can now tell what the hoopla is all about.

The best way to describe these:   a croissant and a palmier collided at high speed and fused into flaky caramel butter heaven.

A few kitchen notes:

1) I used one teaspoon of instant yeast. Any more than one teaspoon would be way too much.

2) I used salted butter from Trader Joe's. Maybe it is worth it to use something fancier, but honestly they turned out so good, and the caramel flavor predominates so much, I am skeptical that more expensive butter will make much difference.

3) I baked these in individual aluminum pie tins. I buttered the tins generously, dropped the individual pastries into the tins, and then crimped the sides all the way around so that there was no place left to rise but up.

4) I added a pinch of fleur de sel to the top, along with some extra sugar, right before baking.

Aebelskiver, aka Danish Pancake Balls

A couple of years ago some students at the end of the year gave me an aebelskiver pan. Proof that I had taught them well! Since I live alone I never make pancakes. There is always too much batter and no use for it. But since I got this pan, I do every now and then make a batch of aebelskiver. Since they freeze wonderfully, a prerequisite for registration in my breakfast course. They also make a great afternoon snack.

The recipe, from Beatrice Ojakangas in The Great Scandinavian Baking Book.

1 cup milk,  heated to lukewarm

½ cup melted butter

3 egg yolks

3 egg whites, whipped to stiff peaks

2 tbs sugar

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

Melted butter for brushing pan.

Whisk together milk, butter, egg yolks, and sugar, Whisk in flour and baking powder. Fold in egg whites. Heat pan over medium heat, reduce heat to low and use about one heaping tablespoon batter for each Aebelskiver, lightly butter pan before each round.

Bouquet of (Paper) Sunflowers

Homemade Cavatelli with Vodka Sauce

The recipe is from Lidia's Italy. The semola makes a silky smooth dough and the cooked pasta is pleasantly chewy. I ran out of patience shaping the individual cavatelli, and just ended up rolling them between my palms. A hand cranked cavatelli maker with wooden rollers is now on my Amazon wish list.

The sauce is half an onion very thinly sliced and sauteed, an anchovy mashed, a small can of tomato paste, half a cup of water and a cup of cream, a lot of salt and pepper and a big splash of vodka.

Chocolate Rum Cake Balls, No Cake Mix or Canned Frosting Alllowed

These chocolate rum cake balls combine two super simple recipes:  Beatty's Chocolate Cake, courtesy of Ina Garten, and Creamy Chocolate Frosting, courtesy of Cook's Illustrated. Bake the cake in a 9x13 pan, or in cupcake liners, or in a couple of 8 or 9 inch round or square pans, and when it cools just dump it into a bowl and break it up into crumbs. Then moisten the crumbs generously with rum -- 1/3 to 1/2 cup -- and fold in the entire batch of frosting. Refrigerate for several hours, roll into balls, roll the balls in almond meal seasoned with fleur de sel, and let ripen in the refrigerator as much as four or even five days. The cake balls change texture and develop flavor as they sit. They start very good and they become spectacular.

To everyone caught up in the cake ball craze, please, please, just put down the cake mix and the canned frosting and walk away slowly. It gets better, it really does!