Author: joepastry

Er, you have to “cure” sweet potatoes?

I’ve received a couple of questions along those lines the last two days. The answer is yes, but only if you’ve grown them yourself. Grocery store sweet potatoes are cured before they get to market. But what is this mysterious “curing”? What do sweet potatoes need to be cured of? Good question. Basically curing is a process by which the potatoes are stored for 10 days or so at a temperature of about 85-90 degrees Fahrenheit. It initiates the process by which the potato’s starches convert to sugars, and gives them their characteristic flavor.

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Next Up: Sweet Potato Pie

We grew a bumper crop of sweet potatoes here at Chez Pastry this year. Those vines pretty much took over our garden at the end of the season, in fact. We dug them, we cured them and now we’re ready to eat them — just in time for Thanksgiving. Let do this thing.

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Making a Fraisier

There’s nothing like a fraisier for drama. It’s got shape, it’s color, it’s got motion…and all that before you even take a bite. A fraisier isn’t a cake, it’s a gâteau, which is not a fancy French term for the same thing. Rather the word denotes a structure made up of various fruit and/or cream layers, all supported by thin layers of sponge. The fraisier gets its name from the French word for strawberry, and you can see why. This thing is packed with fruit, all held in place by an extremely rich crème mousseline filling and topped with cognac-infused sponge cake and marzipan. It ain’t messin’ around.

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Gish

Several good comments and emails the last day or two about génoise and the relative benefits of the classic stuff versus some of the more toothsome alternates. Each side has a point. On the one hand traditional génoise can be quite dry, but then that’s what cake syrup is for. You can add entirely new dimensions of flavor and texture by gettin’ jiggy with the spices, extracts and liquors.

On the other there’s no denying the appeal of a sponge that’s moist and tender from the get-go. Indeed we on this side of the Big Drink are disposed to tender cakes already, so a fluffy sponge is an easy sell here. Maybe it’s the American in me, but I’ll almost always prefer a tender sponge cake over a drier one. Also I confess I can’t stand the texture of a sponge that’s awash in syrup. If you’ve ever been to a wedding and wondered why is this cake WET inside?, you know what I mean.

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Easy Marzipan

The truth is that sometimes I just don’t have time to go for the gold and make my own marzipan from scratch (i.e. from almonds). However there’s still value in doing it yourself, even if your base ingredient is store-bought almond paste. It just tastes better. All you need to do is combine an 8-ounce can of almond paste with 7 ounces (1 3/4 cups) of powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle.

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Traitorous Brunch

On a side note, reader Emily asks if I can tell her where eggs Benedict comes from. Emily, it’s commonly thought that this dish, which consists of poached eggs, ham and Hollandaise sauce on an English muffin is named for Benedict Arnold, the turncoat American general who plotted to surrender the fort at West Point to the British during the Revolutionary War. It’s a shame that it isn’t because it would be an extremely clever culinary joke: just like General Arnold eggs Benedict is English underneath.

There are at least two competing theories about the origin of Eggs Benedict. One that it was invented at the legendary Delmonico’s by a Mrs. LeGrand Benedict who placed a creative off-menu order one morning in 1893. The other posits much the same thing, though it was the hung-over Lemuel Benedict at the Waldorf-Astoria in 1894.

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Making “Neo-Classic” Génoise

This spongecake is a more reliable version of classic génoise, and is good for all the same sorts of things: gâteaux, jelly rolls, bûche de Nöels (bûches?) you name it. And the process is simpler than a standard génoise. The only drawback is that it can’t handle as much syrup as a classic génoise, so if you’re making some very moist petits fours or a tres leeches cake, you’ll want to use the classic. It goes like this:

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Call it “Neo-Classic” Génoise

Let’s face it, not everyone likes classic génoise. It can be challenging to make and not all that pleasant to eat (heavy on egg whites, it’s often dry). So here’s a variation on a classic génoise that on the one hand is a lot easier to make: there’s no heating step, it’s hard to over-whip it (a big reason why many génoise attempts fail) and the batter ends up thicker, more spreadable and more capable of holding on to the bubbles it contains. On the other hand, it also looks and tastes better: it’s taller, fluffier and retains more moisture, again due to the reduction of egg whites. It calls for:

2 ounces (1/4 cup) milk
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs, room temperature
3 egg yolks, room temperature
6 ounces (1 cup minus two tablespoons) sugar
3.75 ounces (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour

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