High-altitude angel cake (p. 748), Fresh strawberry sauce (Strawberry coulis) (p. 853), and Custard sauce (Creme anglaise) (p. 846)

As much as I complain about living in the hell that is high-altitude, I have this terrible suspicion that I'm going to end up moving without completing all of the high-altitude recipes, which would be terrible. Frankly, I'm not sure what you would do in regards to the high-altitude recipes if you were trying to cook-through TJOC and lived around sea level. Would you go to a friend's house in the mountains and make 14 cakes? Would you adjust them so they weren't high altitude (which seems bizarre)?

With this in mind (and the fact I've only made 5/14 of the high-altitude section so far) I decided to make High-altitude angel cake (p. 748). I'd never tried my hand at angel cake and it has a reputation for being challenging, so I was nervous.

I measured out 1.5 cups of egg whites. It took about a dozen eggs:



That's a lot of egg white! I added the egg whites, a bit of salt, and some cream of tarter together and beat it until slightly droopy peaks formed. It went from this:



To this:



That's one of my favorite parts of baking. I love seeing huge changes like egg whites changing color. I added in sugar and then folded in vanilla extract, almond extract, and water:



In another bowl I sifted together sifted cake flour and sifted confectioners sugar (that is two sifts, each) and returned it to the sifter:



I sifted the dry ingredients one quarter at a time in to the egg white mixture and folded:



It took quite a bit of folding. Eventually, I (messily) poured the batter in to my cake pan and ran a knife around the middle to burst any bubbles:



Popped it in the oven:



When the cake was finished, I inverted it on top of a funnel until it was completely cooled:



Delicious! The almond extract really helped the flavor of the angel cake "pop". The cake was moist and light, not as tall as I would have liked (although taller than I would expect in Colorado). It was also pretty easy.

I thought that angel food cake is really a great canvas for sweet sauces, so I decided I would make two. The first sauce was Fresh strawberry sauce (Strawberry coulis) (p. 853). Super, super easy.

I took a pint of strawberries, some sugar, and a little lemon juice and popped them in the blender:



And got this:



Finished! I didn't even have to strain it. It was really good, reminiscent of a strawberry Julius at Orange Julius. And certainly easy (much easier than the raspberry coulis, which took forever to strain).

I thought that Custard sauce (Creme anglaise) (p. 846) would be a good use of some of the leftover egg yolks.

I lightly beat egg yolks:




I whisked in sugar and salt. I heated two cups of milk until bubbles started to form around the edges and then slowly whisked the hot milk in to my eggs (always mix hot in to cold, not cold in to hot--you will get scrambled eggs):



And the whole mixture went back on the stovetop. I needed it to heat to 175 degrees. Just like heating anything in Colorado, this step took FOREVER. Honestly, it should have taken about five minutes but instead took around an hour.



(Ignore the messy stovetop! It was a big day of cooking) I was so thankful when it was finally done (well, done after stirring in a little vanilla).



This custard sauce was so delicious that I could (and did) just eat it with a spoon. It was creamy and rich and absolute perfection. I can't wait to make it again at sea level when it should only take a few minutes. Plus it's a great use of egg yolks.

My angel food cake with both sauces:



Delicious! The two sauces together were particularly good.

Do any of you make awesome angel food cakes?

Random facts:

• If you go to too high of a temperature with creme anglaise, just 5-10 degrees over, the custard will collapse and you will get grainy curds (On Food and Cooking, p. 93), giving you low quality scrambled eggs (Wikipedia). So make sure you are using a candy thermometer.
• Creme anglaise is French for "English cream" (Wikipedia). For some reason, I think it's hilarious that English uses the French version of an English phrase.

Caramel sauce (p. 849)

I've been trying to pound through some of the randomly selected list and I thought Caramel sauce (p. 849) seemed fairly easy. I like making candy and it seemed like an easy candy-like recipe, so a simple thing to knock off the list.

I boiled sugar and water until the syrup was clear:

I boiled the syrup until it began to darken around the edges and then stirred it until it was a deep amber (one of those obnoxious value judgement):

I stirred in a stick of butter until incorporated and then added heavy cream:

Finally, I stirred in a little vanilla and salt. The recipe actually made quite a bit:

And I poured the sauce over some ice cream:

I should come clean--I'm not a huge ice cream eater and I really don't require sauces the few times I eat it, so I'm not an aficionado.

I don't know about this recipe. I thought the caramel tasted burned but I probably just overcooked it--it's very hard to make something that is essentially a candy without using a candy thermometer. Josh really loved it and happily used it for the next couple of days, so it might just be a matter of taste. It kept well in the refrigerator and was nice for making vanilla ice cream a little more interesting.

Has anyone made this before? Did it taste burned to you?

New Orleans bread pudding (p. 822) and Southern whiskey sauce (p. 852)

As I mentioned in the last post, I decided to have a New Orleans tribute day which included jambalaya and New Orleans bread pudding (p. 822) with a Southern whiskey sauce (p. 852).

I am an experienced bread pudding baker--I love bread pudding and frequently make it. In fact, I'm the second generation of people who love bread pudding--my mom and dad used to make it from leftover donuts all the time in college. So the fact that this recipe confused me is really impressive--I don't know if I would have guessed my way through the directions correctly if I had never made bread pudding before.

The recipe says to cut French or Italian bread into half inch slices and then arrange the slices almost upright in tightly spaced rows.

What does that mean?

Usually the loafs aren't sliced--was I supposed to leave it in a loaf?

I figured no, I would slice it one way, and then slice it into strips:

I think that was correct, since the recipe turned out well. I sprinkled dried cranberries over the bread (I used cranberries instead of raisins because I like them more).

I mixed eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large bowl until frothy:

I poured the liquid over the bread:

And let it soak for an hour. I then baked it for about an hour until the top was puffy and lightly browned:

And onto the sauce--

I melted butter in a small saucepan and then stirred in sugar, bourbon (Maker's Mark!), water, nutmeg, and salt). I used TJOC's trick for adding in an egg--I added hot sauce to a beaten egg and then added the mixture back to the sauce. I figure they want you to do it that way so you don't end up with scrambled eggs in your sauce.

I then cooked it for about a minute and set it aside for an hour (conveniently the amount of time the bread pudding needs to be in the oven):

I poured it over the bread pudding and it was done:

Not only was it good but it knocked two recipes off some of my more-neglected chapters (desserts and frozen desserts and sweet sauces). The bread pudding was light and fluffy, with a nice bite from the dried cranberries. The whiskey sauce was delicious but STRONG. I don't recommend bringing a serving of this to work--you would smell like you took a couple whiskey shots at work. The bread pudding kept really well, too. In fact, I think it got better over time, as the flavors melded.

Shortbread crust (p. 667), New York-style cheesecake (p. 744), Chocolate satin frosting (p. 796), and Fresh raspberry sauce (raspberry coulis)(p. 853)

I love cheesecake. Absolutely love it. I even remember my first experience with cheesecake--I was about five years old and visiting my aunt in New York. We went to a high-end restaurant in Manhattan and I ordered the cheesecake. The rest is history. I spent years selecting cheesecakes at every restaurant I went to (usually instead of a meal). I remember eating at The Cheesecake Factory when they were still cool and made their cheesecakes in-house, before they had a 100 page menu complete with ads. But I haven't made my own cheesecake for years (although I have three sizes of springform pans).

When I saw that the Shortbread crust (p. 667) was an option on the randomized list, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to make a New York-style cheesecake (p. 744). "New York" refers to the cooking method--extremely high heat followed by low heat.

Readers know that my main problem with baking recently has been the high altitude--I was hoping it wouldn't affect the cheesecake.

I made both recipes concurrently. The crust was easy. Flour, sugar, a little lemon zest, and a bit of salt were whisked together. A stick of butter was then mixed in. I used my pastry blender to mash it until it resembled coarse crumbs and then added an egg yolk.



The recipe asked for a nine inch pan. I only had a 8.5" and 9.5" pan. I decided that the smaller pan would be easier to fit in the refrigerator, so that's the one I used. I patted a third of the dough into the pan and then baked it.



The bottom crust came out beautifully!



The sides were then patted into the pan, making sure that the bottom crust was connected to the side crust. I realized as I was patting the crust that I didn't rebutter the pan--the recipe didn't call for it but I was really hoping that the sides wouldn't stick to the pan.



The cheesecake recipe was actually really easy. I took five packages of cream cheese (the expensive part of the recipe) and beat them until they are fluffy, then mixed in some sugar and flour (necessary if you want a denser texture, which I did). I then added in a little lemon zest (thank god for the microplane!) and vanilla, followed by five large eggs and two more yolks, one at a time. Finally, some heavy cream. Easy!

There are some important points to keep in mind--the ingredients should be room temperature because if they aren't you will probably end up overbeating the batter.



I poured the cheesecake into the crust. There was extra filling that I threw away, which is horrifying, but I didn't want to overfill the crust and didn't have a little pan.



The cake was baked for 15 minutes at FIVE HUNDRED DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. You might wonder why I capitalized that--it is such an enormously high temperature that you have to capitalize it. My stovetop was smoking. Then you lower the temperature to 200 degrees for an hour. Finally, the oven was turned off and the oven door was propped open (easy if you have an electric oven, more difficult if you have a gas oven) for another half hour.



The cake was capital letter BEAUTIFUL! It wasn't caved in the middle, it wasn't cracked, it was perfection.



I cooled it overnight in the refrigerator and popped the springform off--perfection! The crust looked beautiful! It didn't stick at all!




The inside--terrific.




I know you are impressed--as you should be :) The cheesecake was creamy and flavorful. The texture was perfect--creamy but not like a Jello cake, dry but not too dry. The crust was amazing and I usually cut the crust off--like a thin cookie on the bottom of the cake. I loved it. I would make this again but for a bigger crowd than the two of us (we are eating a LOT of cheesecake).

But what is a cheesecake without toppings?? I made two.

First, Chocolate satin frosting (p. 796). I only made a half batch of this because I knew I didn't need the full three cups. A half cup of heavy cream was boiled in a small saucepan. Three ounces of unsweetened chocolate were then added (but not stirred in) and the pot was left off heat for exactly ten minutes.




When it was done, I added the chocolate mixture to sugar, butter, and vanilla.



And then processed until it was smooth.



Parts of it were a little gritty (probably because of the sugar) but the flavor was really good. It wasn't bitter (I don't like dark chocolate) and was really smooth. When I melted it, it was pourable. When it cooled it was the consistency of frosting. TJOC recommends smearing it on graham crackers--that would be absolutely delicious, especially with a marshmallow or two.

I also decided to make a fruit topping, specifically Fresh raspberry sauce (raspberry coulis) (p. 853). There are four coulis recipes in TJOC, which is hilarious because they are all exactly the same. Add a pint of fruit, some sugar, and a little lemon juice, and blend:



Strain (if need--this step is in the raspberry and blueberry recipes but not the strawberry or mango).



And it's done! You can probably tell that I used a half pint blackberries and a half pint raspberries (because that's what was on hand).




Incredibly delicious! An intense berry flavor, no seeds, a perfect compliment to the cheesecake. I will definitely make this again because it was so easy. It would be really good on ice cream too.

Coq Au Vin (p. 431) and Chocolate Sauce (p. 847)

::Sigh:: Another set of blogs. Actually, the last two are pretty much on time--but this one is late! I'm sorry!

The first item I made was Coq Au Vin (p. 431). Coq Au Vin is one of those dishes that has always intimidated me--I know it's just chicken cooked with wine but its fancy name always makes it seem difficult to make. I know that the dish is supposed to be made with an old co...rooster (I would giggle too much if I used the other term) or spent hen but, as I don't keep chickens in my backyard (much to my dog's dismay), I had to settle for chicken thighs from the grocery store. I always default to chicken thighs when TJOC specifies "chicken parts" because I think they are FAR more flavorful and juicy than chicken breasts and easier to eat than legs.
Plus they are cheap. Wonderfully cheap.

You know a recipe is going to be tasty when it starts by asking for bacon. Ummm....bacon... I cut bacon using my kitchen shears because bacon can be difficult to cut with a knife. I didn't have thick-cut bacon so I estimated the ounces of my normal-cut bacon.



I can never figure out what kind of skillets or pots TJOC thinks we have. I can't fit 3.5-4.5 lbs of chicken in any of my pots or pans and it always takes several batches...



I happily started to make my onion/carrot mixture--no problem, made that a thousand times. I add all the ingredients and get ready to add the wine...



I go to add the 3 cups of dry red wine. Obviously, this is an important part of the recipe--I mean, it's in the title. Josh and I don't tend to drink at home, so when I buy wine to cook with, it sits around for a while. I made Stracotto again (it was even more delicious this time because I cooked in less) and was under the impression that I had enough wine for both dishes. As you probably have figured out from the beginning of that sentence, it was a wrong impression.

I pour the wine into a measuring cup. It's only one cup. Crap.

I look in the refrigerator--there is a bottle of red in there! I taste it--it tastes fine to me (I'm no wine expert) so I measure it. One more cup. Crap. And of course it's not the same type of wine as the first.

So I look in the cupboard. No more red wine--but I have a bunch of the little bottles of white (I prefer these for cooking). And it's a Sunday so there are no liquor sales. So I pour that in too. So now we have three different types of wine in the Coq au Vin.

It smelled delicious. I started the butter, pearl onion, mushroom mix. I used a shiitake/cremini/button mixture for the mushrooms (that's my typical mix). It's shocking I used pearl onions because I find them to be a real PITA. Even if you blanch them, which I always do, it still sucks to take the skins off. But they do taste good...

After bacon, mushrooms must be one of the tastiest ingredients in the world:



This recipe makes a spectacular amount of dirty dishes so be prepared. You have the dish that the raw chicken was on (well, I didn't because I seasoned it in the Styrofoam), the dish the bacon is on, the dish the cooked chicken was on (I had it on top of the bacon), the skillet for the butter, mushroom mixture, and the platter for the final product (platter--right. I don't own a platter).

The chicken, piled on my "platter":



I reduced the sauce quite a bit and it was DELICIOUS! The whole recipe was really tasty. The chicken was moist and the sauce was rich. The mixed wine didn't seem to matter, which made me happy. And it heated up really well, which is always important in our house.

Reducing the sauce in my cool wok-y skillet:



I was hungry for a cake and felt like making something easy. Nothing in TJOC fit that requirements (at least at first glance). I am embarrassed to say that I made a cake that seemed like a cake Sandra Lee would have made on Semi-Homemade--it was one of those souped up cake mix cakes where you mix a pudding mix and several other ingredients with a cake mix. Plus, I could use my new Bundt cake pan! The cake was easy enough to make (I found it on allrecipes.com I think) but really needed something to be added to it. It was pretty boring.

So I made Chocolate Sauce (p. 847). I didn't make the sauce in the world's tiniest food processor because the directions (pour hot cream into the running food processor) didn't seem like a very safe idea--plus I don't think that I can open my food processor with the motor running. I used vanilla rather than rum (I'm still feeling burned by the drunken icing incident, chronicled in the first few postings of TJOTJOC).



The sauce was really good, especially if you like semi-sweet chocolate (it was still a little bitter for me, I'm not a big chocolate fan). It was easy and fast--and if you bake a lot, it was totally made out of things you probably have in your cabinets and refrigerator (at least I did--I didn't have to buy anything special).




I'm going to Mexico for a week so there won't be any cooking for a while!