Julia's Kitchen Wisdom (26 page)

VARIATIONS

• FREE-FORM APPLE TART.
  Form a 14-by-18-inch
  free-form tart shell
  as detailed. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar in the shell. Peel, core, and slice 3 or 4 Golden Delicious apples, and arrange in neat rows of overlapping slices. Sprinkle over more sugar. Bake and glaze as in the master recipe.
  

• PEAR TART.
  Use firm ripe pears, such as Bartletts, in either of the preceding apple tarts.
  

• FRESH STRAWBERRY TART.
  Paint a fully baked 8- or 9-inch tart shell with warm
  red-currant glaze
  . Arrange 1 quart of fresh hulled strawberries attractively, heads up, in the shell, and paint lightly with more glaze. Serve with whipped cream on the side.
  

• PASTRY CREAM AND STRAWBERRIES.
  After glazing the bottom of the tart shell, spread on a layer no more than ¼ inch thick of
  pastry cream
  , then arrange the strawberries on top and complete the recipe.
  

• OTHER IDEAS.
  Rather than strawberries, use raspberries, blueberries, or a mixture; include halved seedless grapes and/or a sprinkling of chopped nuts; or sliced fresh or canned peaches, apricots, or pears; or halved ripe figs. This is a great opportunity for you to use your creative skills.
  

The Famous Upside-Down Apple
Tarte Tatin

For 6 servings. Provide yourself with a heavy ovenproof 9-inch skillet and a third to a half of the recipe for
chilled pie dough
. Slide rack onto lower-middle level and preheat oven to 425°F.

Slice the halves of 6 cored and peeled Golden Delicious apples into 4 lengthwise wedges each, and toss with the grated zest and juice of 1 lemon and ½ cup sugar. Drain after macerating 20 minutes.

Heat 6 tablespoons unsalted butter in the frying pan over high heat; stir in 1 cup sugar, and cook until syrup bubbles and turns caramel-brown.

Off heat, arrange a layer of apple slices in a neat pattern on the caramel coating, then arrange the rest of the apples fairly neatly on top.

Return over moderately high heat and cook for about 25 minutes, covering the pan after 10 minutes, and pressing down on apples every several minutes as you baste them with exuded juices. When the juices are thick and syrupy, remove from heat.

Roll the chilled dough into a circle, 3/16 inch thick and 1 inch larger than top of pan. Drape over apples, pressing edge of dough between apples and inside of pan; cut 4 small steam holes on top. Bake about 20 minutes, until the pastry has browned and crisped.

Unmold onto a serving dish so the pastry is on the bottom, and serve hot, warm, or cold, with whipped cream, sour cream, or vanilla ice cream.

TO CLEAN A BURN-BLACKENED PAN.
Fill the pan with water, adding 2 Tbs baking soda per quart. Simmer 10 minutes, cover, and let soak off heat for several hours or overnight. The black residue should scrub off easily with a stiff brush.

TIMING—REGULAR VERSUS CONVECTION OVENS.
All the timings in this book are for regular ovens. Convection ovens cook about one-third faster. In other words, a leg of lamb that takes 2 hours at 325°F in a regular oven will probably take less than 1½ hours in a convection oven.

Cakes and Cookies

“When you have mastered a number of frostings and fillings, cake making becomes just an assembly job.”

You will find all the standard cake and cookie recipes detailed in numerous cookbooks, including some of mine. Here I am only touching on a few of my favorites, and spending more time on the fundamental “how-to”s, such as the beating of egg whites, the preparation of the cake pan, the measuring of flour, the melting of chocolate. Rather than giving two general cake recipes, I am concentrating on the
génoise
, that all-purpose work horse for layer cakes, petits fours, jelly rolls, cup cakes, and so forth. Before the electric mixer it was a real chore to make, since its basis is whole eggs and sugar beaten at length to produce a thick cream—arduous by hand, easier with a portable beater, easy indeed when you have one of the modern mixers on a stand. I have included a classic almond cake, a walnut cake, my favorite chocolate cake, and the always popular dacquoise with its crunchy meringue-nut layers. When you have a few cake formulas and filling ideas in your repertoire, you will find that it’s pretty much an assembly job—you can mix and match a different way every time. Please note that there’s only one cookie recipe—no more room!

CAKES

MASTER RECIPE

Génoise
Cake
For about 6 cups of batter, to make 1 round 9-by-1½-inch cake, or 1 round 8-by-2-inch cake (or enough for 16 cup cakes, or a 12-by-16-inch sponge sheet)

½ cup plus ⅓ cup plain bleached cake flour (
sifted and measured
as per the box)

1 Tbs plus ½ cup sugar

¼ tsp salt

¼ cup
warm clarified butter

4 “large” eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F, slide rack onto the lower-middle level, and
prepare your pan
. Sift the flour with the 1 Tbs sugar and salt and reserve the clarified butter in a 2-quart bowl. Beat the eggs in your mixer bowl with the remaining sugar and the vanilla until you have “formed the ribbon.” At once, rapidly sift on and fold in a quarter of the flour, then half the rest of the flour, and
finally the last of it. Fold a large plop of this cake batter into the clarified butter, then fold the butter-batter back into the remaining batter. Turn batter into prepared pan, filling it to no more than ¼ inch of the rim. Bang lightly on work surface to deflate bubbles, and bake 30 to 35 minutes, until puffed, lightly browned, and showing a faint line of shrinkage from sides of pan. Let cool 20 minutes before unmolding onto a rack. Let cool completely before filling and icing.

VARIATIONS

• SERVING SUGGESTION: WHITE MOUNTAIN CHOCOLATE-FILLED GÉNOISE.
  Prepare a double amount of the
  Italian meringue
  , and flavor half of it with chocolate, as directed. Using a long, serrated knife, cut the cake in half horizontally. Place bottom half on a rack set over a tray, and turn the top half cut side up. Sprinkle both surfaces with
  rum-flavored imbibing syrup
  , and spread the chocolate meringue over the bottom half. Turn the top half cut side down over the filling, and frost the cake with the remaining white Italian meringue. Before serving, dust with a sprinkling of grated chocolate.
  

  TO PREPARE THE CAKE PAN.
  Smear inside bottom and sides lightly with softened butter. Cut a sheet of wax paper to fit bottom exactly, press it in place, and butter it. Pour ¼ cup cake flour into pan, shake and turn in all directions to cover surface completely, turn pan upside down, and bang out excess flour.
  

  TO MEASURE FLOUR: “THE SCOOP AND LEVEL SYSTEM.”
  To avoid trouble, especially when making pastries, measure your flour accurately. For every recipe in this book, place the dry-measure cup on a large piece of wax paper. Scoop the flour directly into the sifter, and sift it directly into the cup until overflowing, then, using the flat edge of a big knife, sweep off excess flour level with the rim.
  

  TO STORE A PLAIN CAKE.
  When thoroughly cool, refrigerate in an airtight plastic bag for several days, or freeze for several weeks.
  

• CUP CAKES.
  Use the preceding
  génoise
  batter for cup cakes, following directions for
  almond cup cakes
  , which are some of my favorites with fruit desserts and tea.
  

• JELLY ROLL—ROULADE.
  Preheat oven to 375°F and set rack in lower middle. Grease the inside of an 11-by-17-inch jelly-roll pan with soft butter and line with a sheet of wax paper, leaving an extra 2 inches of it at each end; butter the paper where it lines the pan. Roll flour in the pan to cover inside and knock out excess. Spread in the
  génoise
  batter and bake about 10 minutes, until cake is lightly colored and top feels springy. Remove from oven. The following maneuvers are to prevent cake from cracking. Slice off ¼ inch from each end of cake. Sprinkle top with confectioners’ sugar. Cover with a sheet of wax paper and a slightly dampened towel. Set a tray over the top and reverse the two. Holding an end of the wax paper, lift off the jelly-roll pan. Then, very carefully, peel off the wax-paper backing. Sift a ⅛-inch layer of confectioners’ sugar over the cake and roll it up in the damp towel; you may refrigerate it for a day or two. If frozen, be sure it has thoroughly defrosted before unrolling.
  

  Serving Suggestion: Apricot Roulade.
  Unroll the cake, sprinkle with
  imbibing syrup
  , spread on the
  apricot filling
  , and frost with
  meringue butter cream
  .