Spanish test....

We had a really fun class last week at work. We had the executive chef from a local Spanish restaurant teach a class in tapas and paella. The food was amazing, he even brought a giant paella pan (about 4 feet in diameter) that we set up on a propane burner out on the patio. Our guests had a blast. 

When preparing for a class like this, we sometimes have to tweak the recipes before we make the recipe packet for the guests to take home. The chef provided us with copies of his recipes, and as I expected, they were his restaurant production recipes. Luckily, most of them were scaled appropriately for the home cook--the paella for example is meant to serve 3 to 5 restaurant guests, so that required just minor adjustments in the instructions to make it easier for the home cook. The pan con tomate tapas was scaled to make 4 quarts of the tomato topping, but it was easy enough to scale down to make 1 quart. The flan, on the other hand, was scaled to make 105 servings. The flan recipe was going to take a little work.

Flan is a traditional Spanish custard dessert. Generically, custards are made from dairy, sugar, and eggs. Depending on the type of dairy and whether the eggs are whole or yolks only, custards can range in consistency from creme anglaise (vanilla sauce, which when processed in an ice cream machine becomes vanilla ice cream) to something firmer, such as creme brulee (firmer than a sauce, but still soft enough that it must be served in the dish in which it is baked), to flan, which is firm enough that it can be unmolded from its dish and stand alone on the plate. Cream and egg yolks will yield softer custards, milk and whole eggs generally yield firmer custards. 

The chef's recipe for flan used sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, liquid eggs and coconut extract--and the measurements were along the line of 3 quarts of liquid eggs, 2 gallons of evaporated milk, etc. On top of that, the chef used a combi oven to bake the custards. A combi oven is a restaurant appliance that combines a convection oven with a steamer, and when using a combi oven, you can set temperature, fan speed, percent steam, even add superheated steam. So, the baking instructions for the chef's restaurant recipe consisted of the different dial settings and a time to bake. Needless to say, the recipe as written wasn't going to work for the home cook.

I started by converting all of the measurements to ounces and then used basic math to adjust from 105 servings to 1 serving, then looked at how the measurements worked for 4, 6, 8 servings, etc. My goal was to see if I could get the math to work out for round numbers on the eggs, hoping to avoid something like 4.6 eggs. The math for a 6 serving conversion came out to 3.1 eggs, so I used that as my starting point. But, I knew I needed to make a batch of the flan using the converted recipe, because when you scale a recipe to that degree, things can go sideways pretty quickly.

The first batch of the flan didn't quite work. The flavor was spot on, but the texture was totally wrong--it was spongy. The flan had cooked too quickly, and for too long, and the custard curdled.  I had looked up a flan recipe on the internet and used the basic baking instructions as a substitute for the combi oven settings, but clearly I needed to make some adjustments. I asked our R&D chef to take a look (we share our cooking school with his team), and he agreed that the temperature and time were off, but he also thought that I might want to add a couple of additional egg whites to lighten the custard. I didn't have enough time to bake another batch at work that day, so I quickly packed up the ingredients I would need and took them home with me to test the next day on my day off.

So, that next afternoon, I pulled the bag of ingredients out of the fridge to start the next test batch of flan. In my rush to get out of work the day before, I had inadvertently grabbed the extra large eggs (instead of the large eggs), and two cans of evaporated milk instead of one evaporated and one sweetened condensed. (Grrrrrr....) I really didn't feel like getting out and going to the store, so I decided just to go with what I had on hand--my biggest concern was the oven temperature and cook time, and I decided I could probably sort that out with the ingredients I had on hand. If not, I could go in to work early and make a third test batch when I got there.

Sometimes, the best recipes are the result of happy accidents. I added sugar to compensate for not having the sweetened condensed milk, and instead of adding egg whites, I used the extra large eggs and increased from 3 to 4. I reduced the baking temperature and time, and it all came together beautifully. The recipe we gave the students still uses the sweetened condensed milk and large eggs, to keep it as close as possible to the chef's original, but this version below I will proudly claim as my own.

Flan

Makes 8 to 10 servings, depending on ramekin size

For the custard:

2 12-ounce cans evaporated milk

½ cup granulated sugar

4 extra large eggs

2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

For the caramel:

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup water

Preheat the oven to 300 °F. Arrange ramekins in a shallow baking dish or roasting pan.

Place the custard ingredients in a blender and blend on medium-high speed until well blended, about 2 minutes. Set aside.

Take the remaining 1 cup sugar and water and place in a small saucepan. Heat over medium high heat until the sugar is fully dissolved and the liquid is boiling. Do not stir the sugar solution from this point forward, gently swirl the pan as needed. Continue to cook until the syrup is a deep golden brown. Remove from the heat and carefully pour the caramel into each  of the ramekins, making a puddle fully across the bottom of each ramekin. 

Pour the custard into each of the ramekins, filling them just up to the rim. Fill a large pitcher with hot tap water, then carefully pour the water into the roasting pan around the ramekins. The should be deep enough to come about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. 

Cover the roasting pan with foil, then place in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and peel back the foil. The flan is cooked when the custard is set and is slightly wibbly in the center. If the flan still seems soft, replace the foil and return the roasting pan to the oven, but turn the oven off. Check the flan again in about 10 minutes, they should be set.

Remove the ramekins from the roasting pan and allow to cool on the counter to room temperature, then wrap and place in the refrigerator. To serve, run the tip of a paring knife around the inside edge of the ramekin to loosen the custard, then turn out onto a plate.

I'm a little out of practice....

It's been a while since I wrote a blog post....mostly because I've been busy with work (I know, what else is new). I find myself starting recipes, taking pictures of the dishes as I work on them, but not quite getting them finished to my satisfaction. I'll eventually loop back to them--how to make dashi broth and udon noodle soup, an exercise in cooking potatoes, recipes inspired by my trip to Santa Fe, plus a few others. I'm just a bit out of practice...

Our cooking class calendar updates on the first of every month--so this last Friday, June 1st, the July calendar went live on the website. It's always fun to see which classes our customers jump at first, we often have a couple of classes that that sell out in the first 4 or 5 days each month. This time, we had a class sell out in 36 hours--a class on making macarons. Needless to say, I was thrilled to see our customers respond this way, but I haven't actually made macarons in a while. Like working on the blog, I'm a little out of practice.

So, if I'm going to teach macarons next month, I'd better brush up on my skills in the coming weeks. I did a first practice run a couple of weeks ago, in anticipation of putting the class on our schedule. The flavors were spot on, but I can see every little flaw in the technique. I'll definitely need to practice a few more times before the class. But, I thought you might like to see what I've been up to. I hope you enjoy!

Blueberry Macarons with Lemon Buttercream

Blueberry and lemon is a classic flavor combination. In this recipe, I use freeze-dried blueberries, ground into a fine powder, to give both flavor and color to the cookies. Feel free to use a store-bought lemon curd in the buttercream filling, but the recipe below is really easy to make.

Makes 2 to 3 dozen cookies

For the cookies:

2 ounces freeze-dried blueberries

7 ounces powdered sugar

4 ounces almond meal

4 large egg whites (about 4 ounces)

pinch of Kosher salt

3 ½ ounces granulated sugar

For the filling

4 large egg whites (about 4 ounces)

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

1 pound unsalted butter, softened

²/₃ cup lemon curd, plus more to taste (recipe follows)

To make the cookies:

Preheat the oven to 325°F and place a rack in the center. Line 3 baking sheets with silpat baking mats or parchment paper. 

Place the dried blueberries into a mini-food processor or spice grinder. Process the berries until they are finely crushed into a powder. Shake the berry powder through a fine mesh sieve over a bowl to remove the seeds. 

Place about ¹/₃ of the powdered sugar, the almond meal, and the blueberry powder in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse until a fine powder is formed. Transfer the nut and sugar mixture and the remaining powdered sugar into a fine mesh sieve set over a large bowl. Sift the mixture into the bowl, using the back of a wooden spoon to press any remaining bits of almond meal and blueberries through the mesh.

Place the egg whites and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whip on medium high speed until frothy and white in color. Gradually add in the granulated sugar, and once all the sugar has been added, increase the speed and whip until stiff peaks are achieved. Remove the bowl from the mixer.

Scatter about ¹/₃ of the almond mixture over the egg whites and gently fold them into the egg whites. Add the second third of the almond mixture to the egg whites and fold as before. When incorporated, fold in the remaining almond mixture. Continue to fold and mix the batter until it is loose enough to slowly flow and drip off the spatula.

Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a ½ inch round piping tip. Carefully pipe rounds of batter onto the prepared baking sheets. You can pipe them to whatever size you like, but be careful to leave space in between the cookies as they will spread after piping. (I piped mine a little larger than 1 inch in diameter, and the finished cookies are about 1 ½ inches in diameter.) Lift the baking sheets a few inches off the counter and drop them, this will allow any trapped air bubbles to release. Let the cookies stand at room temperature to dry. The cookies are ready to bake with they are dry and not sticky when lightly touched by your fingertip. This may take anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. 

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 6 minutes, then rotate the pan in the oven and bake for another 3 minutes. Let the macarons cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. 

To make the filling:

Place the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and hand-whisk to blend. Bring about 2 inches of water to a boil in a medium saucepan and place the mixer bowl over the saucepan. Whisk constantly until the mixture is no longer grainy and has reached 160°F on an instant-read thermometer. Remove the mixer bowl from the heat and attach to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whip on high speed until the meringue is light and fluffy and until the bottom of the bowl no longer feels warm to the touch.

With the mixer on medium-high speed, add the softened butter a couple of tablespoons at a time, allowing each addition to blend in fully before adding the next. Halfway through the butter, stop the mixer and use a silicone spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Continue adding the remaining butter--the mixture should resemble a velvety mayonnaise.

With the mixer on low speed, mix in the lemon curd and beat until smooth. Taste and add more lemon curd until the desired flavor is reached. Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a star tip.

To assemble the cookies:

You will likely have cookies of slightly varying sizes and shapes, so take a few minutes to organized matched pairs. Pipe a swirl of buttercream on the bottom of one of the cookies in each matched pair. Top with the other cookie. Repeat with the remaining pairs of cookies. 

You can store the cookies in a closed container at room temperature, but I recommend storing them in the refrigerator. Storage in the refrigerator will also soften the texture of the cookie and make them even more delicious.

Lemon Curd

Lemon is the classic flavor, but I like to mix it up. Try using grapefruit juice, lime juice, or passion fruit puree (available in most Latin grocery stores, in the freezer section).

Makes about 1 ½  cups

4 large egg yolks

3 ½ ounces sugar

3 ounces lemon juice

zest of one lemon

4 ounces unsalted butter, cut into 1" pieces

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, whisk together the yolks, sugar, lemon juice and zest. Cook the curd slowly over medium to low heat, stirring constantly, until it is thickenought to coat the back of a spoon. Do not let the curd boil, it should be properly cooked at about 170°F.

Pour the cooked curd through a strainer into a bowl to filter out any curdled egg. Whisk in the butter a piece at a time, and stir until melted and completely incorporated. Cover the curd with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic directly onto the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming. Chill until completely cool.