Pie and Pastry Bible (162 page)

Preheat the oven to 45O°F at least 20 minutes before baking. Set the oven rack at the lowest level before prebaking.

In a small bowl, with a rubber spatula, stir together the cocoa and boiling water until smooth. Stir in the vanilla and cover tightly with plastic wrap.

Separate 2 of the eggs, placing the yolks in one large mixing bowl and the whites in another. To the yolks, add the 2 remaining eggs, the additional yolk, and
cup of the sugar. Beat, preferably with the whisk attachment, on high speed until thick, fluffy, and tripled in volume, about 5 minutes. Add the cocoa mixture, beating a few seconds until incorporated. Sift the flour mixture over the egg mixture and set it aside.

Beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form when the beater is raised. Beat in the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised slowly. With a large rubber spatula, fold one third of the whites into the batter until all of the flour is incorporated. Gently fold in the remaining whites. Pour the batter into the prepared pans (or pan), using a spatula to level it. If you are using the tart pans, the batter will come halfway up the sides.

Bake for 7 minutes if using the sheet pan, 10 minutes if using the tart pans, or until the cake is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed in the center with a fingertip.

If necessary, loosen the sides of the cake with the tip of a sharp knife, and unmold at once: If using a baking pan, grasp a long edge of the liner or parchment overhang and gently slide the cake from the pan onto a flat surface. If using the tart pans, place each pan over a heatproof container that is smaller than the opening of the pan bottom and gently push down on the rim, causing the rim to release and leaving the cake sitting on the tart pan bottom. (If the tart pans do not have removable bottoms, simply invert each layer onto a greased wire rack, lift off the pan, peel away the parchment, and reinvert onto another greased wire rack to cool top side up for maximum height.) Allow the cake to cool.

For the sheet pan layer, use scissors and a cardboard circle slightly less than 8½ inches in diameter as a template to cut the 2 layers. As the finished size of the sheet is 16¾ inches, you will have almost 8½-inch rounds. Allow the scraps to dry for a few hours and then chop them with a sharp knife or in the food processor to make cake crumbs.

The layers baked in the tart pans will each be a little over ½ inch high. To split each in half, use a long serrated knife held horizontally to make a shallow cut in the middle of each layer, going all the way around. Using this cut as a track for the knife, with a sawing motion, slice from one side all the way through to the other. As you proceed, be sure to check that the far end of the blade stays in the groove.

Wrap each layer in plastic wrap.

STORE

Room temperature, up to 3 days; refrigerated, up to 5 days; frozen, up to 2 months. Do not stack the layers unless frozen; once frozen, they can be stacked and placed in reclosable freezer bags.

POINTERS FOR SUCCESS

See Light Sponge Cake Layers, page 583.

If you forget to cover the cocoa and water mixture and it dries, add water, a few droplets at a time, until it is soft enough to form soft peaks when lifted with the spatula.

POACHED APRICOTS

R
ipe, deep golden apricots with a faint pink blush are one of the world’s most glorious fruits. In Austria, they are so revered an entire region, the Wachau, between Vienna and Salzburg, is devoted to growing them. In this country, the apricot season starts in June and continues until August. When shopping for apricots to use for tarts, choose firmer ones, as they hold their shape better. The skin should be left intact after poaching. If using softer apricots, they will lose their skin after poaching.

Poaching does wonders to bring out the hidden flavor and perfect the texture of apricots that are picked slightly underripe. It’s as though the cooking completed the ripening.

With a small sharp knife, cut the apricots in half and remove and discard the pits. Place the apricots in a bowl and sprinkle them with the lemon juice.

In a large saucepan, over high heat, stir together the water and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add the corn syrup and heat until simmering.

Meanwhile, prepare a large bowl of ice water.

Add the apricots to the sugar syrup and simmer over low heat for 4 to 5 minutes or until just barely tender. (A skewer inserted into an apricot should meet with a little resistance.) With a slotted skimmer or spoon, immediately transfer the apricots from the syrup to the ice water. Allow the syrup to cool completely.

Drain the apricots and place them in a bowl. Pour the cooled syrup over the apricots. Cover them tightly with plastic wrap and allow them to sit at room temperature for at least 8 hours, or refrigerate them for up to 3 days.

VARIATION

For a solution to apricots that look beautiful but turn out to have no flavor, I am indebted to David Karp for the following technique, which gives them a lovely flavor.

Prepare a large bowl of cold tap water with ice cubes in it.

In a medium saucepan, combine 2 cups (23.75 ounces/672 grams) of honey, the zest of 1 lemon (removed in strips), 3 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, and ½ cup of water. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Lower the heat. Add the apricots, in batches, so that they are covered by the mixture, and simmer each batch of apricots for 4 to 5 minutes or until just barely tender. (A skewer inserted into an apricot should meet with little resistance.) With a slotted
skimmer or spoon, immediately remove the apricots from the syrup to the ice water to stop the cooking. Allow the syrup to cool completely.

When the apricots are cool, drain them in a colander and place them in a bowl. Pour the cooled syrup over the apricots. Cover them tightly with plastic wrap and allow them to sit at room temperature for at least 8 hours, or refrigerate them for up to 3 days.

UNDERSTANDING

Corn syrup is added to the poaching liquid to make it smoother and give it more body. The lemon juice prevents browning after the apricots are removed from the syrup. The apricots will not take on the sweetness of the poaching liquid unless they have been cut in half and are allowed to sit in the syrup for at least 8 hours. As the apricots continue cooking from residual heat even after being removed from the syrup, to retain a firm texture, they should be poached only until barely tender, removed from the syrup, and then returned to the cooled syrup.

RASPBERRY CONSERVE

T
his conserve is worth every bit of the effort involved, because a product tasting of this much raspberry simply cannot be bought. (It would take a jar of commercially made jam two and a third times the size to equal the amount of fruit used in one jar of this recipe). This unique method of preparing jam triples the concentration of the fruit so that it gels without having to add pectin or the usual high amount of sugar (in excess of two thirds more). The conserve is tart and full of fruit flavor, with a deep garnet hue. It will make the best Linzertorte (page 283) you have ever eaten.

Have ready near the range a colander suspended over a bowl.

In a wide pot (about 9 inches), combine the sugar and water and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Add 3 to 4 cups of berries (so that they are in a single layer) and boil for 1 minute. Remove them with a slotted spoon or skimmer to the colander. Over high heat, boil down the syrup in the pot to 2 cups. Add another 3 to 4 cups of berries and boil for 1 minute. Add them to the berries sitting in the colander. Again boil down the syrup in the pot to 2 cups. Continue with the remaining berries, cooking 3 to 4 cups at a time. When you are boiling down the syrup, add the syrup that has drained from the cooked berries to the pot. Skim the white foam from the surface.

When the last batch of raspberries is cooked, again boil the syrup down to 2 cups (the temperature will be 210°F.). Set the pot aside.

Press the berries through a sieve to remove most of the seeds. (When condensing raspberries to this degree, leaving all the seeds would be excessive; however, some seeds lend a nice texture to the conserve. I use the colander/sieve attachment on my KitchenAid, which has large enough holes to allow a few seeds to pass through. You can also use a food mill fitted with the finest disc.) You should have at least 2 cups raspberry pulp.

Add the sieved berries to the reserved syrup and simmer for 10 minutes or until reduced to 4 cups. Fill four ½-pint canning jars that have been rinsed in boiling water, leaving a
-inch head space (see Note, page 591). Screw on the caps and process them in a water bath, covered, for 10 minutes after the water comes to a boil. The jars must be sitting on a rack in the water bath to allow the water to flow all around them, and the water must be high enough to cover them by 1 inch. They must be upright to expel any air inside the jars, producing a vacuum that seals the jars. Remove the jars and allow them to cool before checking the seal.