Kouign of Pastries... or My First Kouign Amman

A few months ago, Dad pinged me on Gchat and asked if I'd ever tried a "kouign amman." 

A what now?

"Kouign amman," he repeated, going on to describe it as the best pastry he'd ever had in his life. Worth every calorie and every penny of it's $4 price tag, he claimed. He then informed me that I had all summer to perfect it.

Gee, thanks, Pops!

Dad's request went unfulfilled for some time, until one day we happened to stop by Four Barrel Coffee, which gets a daily stash of kouign ammans from b. patisserie in San Francisco -- the same patisserie that inspired Dad's initial rave review. After one bite, I realized Dad wasn't joking. I really did need to perfect this one... Or at least try!

I've read that kouign amman is pronounced "queen ah-man," and that it's a Breton cake, originally from France. It's made from laminated pastry dough, similar to a croissant, but it has layers of sugar, in addition to the butter. It sort of reminds me of a cross between a croissant and a palmier.

Even though I love croissants and have always wanted to try making them, laminated pastry dough intimidates me a bit. When you bite into something that is crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and flaky throughout, you just know it didn't get that way by accident.

However, I was lucky enough to find this super easy-to-follow recipe on thekitchn.com, which includes step-by-step photos to help you along the way. It's the most helpful recipe breakdown I've ever seen, and the photos made the process seem so manageable that I was emboldened to try it myself.

Here's the result:

They aren't perfect, but they actually turned out much better than I had anticipated. They were moderately flakey and not too heavy, which were my main concerns, and they tasted like pretty delicious -- funny how butter and sugar together can do that.

So what's next? Now that I've tried them once, I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to tackle another recipe in my quest to bake a kouign amman fit for a queen!

Candied Cocktail Nuts

If I had to describe these candied nuts in one word, it would be: dangerous.

"How?! They're so small, and it's just a few little nuts," you think... Aye, but there's the rub. Indeed, they're so tasty, and it's so easy to just pop them in your mouth, that before you know it, the whole batch has disappeared and you begin to feed decidedly less trim in the belly.

The kicker, of course, is that they're insanely simple to make, which means even though you know you shouldn't, you'll find yourself making another batch tomorrow! Ah, well. Some indulgences are just worth it.

On to the recipe...

There isn't a whole lot of chemistry at work here, aside from the crystalizing sugar, so as far as baking projects go, these are uncommonly forgiving. I was lucky in this regard, since I didn't actually have as much sugar or cinnamon as the recipe called for. I ended up fudging things a bit, throwing in extras here and there, but I'm still pleased with the end result. I honestly think I may never use a recipe for this again, and each time I make it, I'll just see which way the winds blow. There are so few times in baking when that is possible, it's almost refreshing.

I will, however, record the recipe here... for posterity, of course.

Candied Cocktail Nuts

2 lbs mixed nuts (I used almonds, cashews, pecans and walnuts)

1/2 c. egg whites, room temperature

1 c. white sugar

1 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp. cayenne

1 pinch paprika

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (this was all I could find when I ran out of cinnamon)

Prepare two baking sheets with Silpats or other non-stick mat. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In a medium sized bowl, mix together both sugars, salt, and a spice mixture of your choosing. I have listed approximate measurements for what I used above, but I didn't measure most of the spices, so adjust as you see fit. For the record, if I did this again, I'd bump up the cayenne just a smidgen. Stir until evenly distributed.

In a large bowl, lightly beat the egg whites until they are foamy. Add the nuts and coat the nuts evenly with the egg whites.

Add the sugar and spice mixture, and stir until evenly distributed. Spread the nuts out on the two baking sheets in a single, even layer.

Bake for 30 minutes, but turn the nuts ever 10 minutes or so, and switch the baking sheets halfway through if you're only using one oven.

Remove baking sheets from the oven and let the nuts cool to room temperature. When the nuts have cooled, break up any large chunks, and store in an airtight container. 

Buon Appetito: Eating and Cooking through Rome and Florence

Ciao!

Mom and I just got back from a trip to Italy, and I am already planning my next trip back. This was my first time in Italy, so we just hit up the biggies: Rome and Florence. I loved them both, for different reasons, and would return in a heartbeat... If only I could afford it!

If you must know, I am guilty of taking pictures of pretty much every item of food that I consumed, but since stuff like that is documented far and wide across the Internet, I thought I'd just write a short post about one of the most fun activities we did on the trip: a cooking class in Florence at Giglio Cooking School. Marcella, the woman who runs this school, is a treasure -- she's knowledgable, patient, and refreshingly laid back.

We made spinach ravioli stuffed with asparagus and scampi, truffle risotto, and a pine nut cake. My hands were dirty with pasta dough, shrimp, and cake batter for most of the evening, so I don't have pictures of everything, but here is one of my favorites.

I had never made pasta from scratch, and I got a kick out of the fact that you don't need any sort of bowl -- you just make a bowl out of flour and dump the egg right in the middle! 

We also made black truffle risotto, but unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that dish. You'll have to take my word that it was rich and utterly delicious. Definitely not for the everyday mean, but a decadent, savory treat to be sure. 

For dessert, we baked pine nut cake with red wine caramel sauce. AMAZING. I've actually never made caramel sauce either, because caramel is usually too sweet for my tastes. On the contrary, this sauce was absolutely divine -- with all of the alcohol burned off, you could savor the flavor of the wine grapes. It almost tasted berry-like, but without all those pesky seeds! I know I'll make this again.

At the end of the night, Marcella sent us home with half of the leftover cake (which I kept eating for days), and two jars of fig jam and honey, which came from her friend Max's farm in the countryside. How thoughtful! I would recommend Giglio Cooking School and Marcella to anyone traveling through Florence. The evening was one of the highlights of my trip!

Unfinished Business: Homemade Blueberry Pop Tarts

Sigh... I don't know how this happened. I'm usually pretty good about remembering to take pictures of final products, but somehow this time it completely slipped my mind. They were really tasty, though, so I felt like sharing the pictures anyway, however incomplete the story may be...

There is a story behind these blueberry pop tarts, by the way, and the story goes something like this.

Sara walked into her favorite natural grocery store, which starts with a "W" and ends with "oods", and discovered that organic blueberries were $1.99 per pint, one day only. So pleased with this fortuitous discovery, Sara placed two boxes in her basket. 

She then proceeded to pick up a few other items -- celery, baby carrots, tofu -- but she couldn't shake the nagging sense that she had bypassed a real gem of an opportunity. She went back and picked up another box of blueberries. Now, to the butcher for some bone-in chicken breasts! 

Ah, but the berries called her again. After all, Sara had been known to eat a whole pint of blues in one sitting, so there was simply no way that three boxes would suffice. Two more, into the fray.

And that, my dear friends, is how I ended up with five pints of blueberries. You can't possibly imagine my delight. I even went so far as to text Dad to tell him about my great steal -- he went to WF the same day, up in Northern California, and bought three boxes for himself. Like father, like daughter.

Now, if I'm being perfectly honest (which I always am on this blog), I ate 3.5 of the boxes straight up. But I saved some for these pop tarts, because blueberry pie is my #1 all-time favorite, and these are just like handheld pies. I've detailed the pop tarts recipe at length on this blog, so I won't go into that, but suffice it to say that blueberries + sugar + lemon zest + pastry = the pinnacle of happiness.

Baked Powdered Sugar Donuts

Holy cow, it is June 1st! 

The last few months have really flown by, and now I'm just a few weeks away from graduating and packing my bags to head back north. I have to say, I was skeptical when I moved here, but Southern California has really treated me well. There is something to be said for the impact that sunny day after sunny day can have on your overall mood.

I haven't blogged for several months, but I have baked a few times since my last post. I wasn't so happy with the results of my last few projects, so I didn't feel like sharing those recipes. I get discouraged when recipes don't turn out well, but I think I need to change my mindset. Sometimes you'll get it right, and sometimes things will just flop. Luckily, baking is one of the very few things in life where you can simply throw away the mistakes and move on, no hard feelings whatsoever.

I woke up this morning with a hankering, and I've been wanting to try this recipe for baked donuts that I saw on... YouTube! I've been wasting tons of time on YouTube lately, mostly watching tutorials. I came across this video on baked donuts over a week ago, and have had the tab open on my computer since then, so I would remember to try making them. I finally got to it this morning, and I was really happy with the results. Really, really happy.

I've tried making baked donuts several times now, and I think these are my favorites so far. The outside was *just* crispy, and the inside was dense enough to remind me of a real, deep-fried cake donut. Sigh. Those are the best. Anyway, here's the recipe.

Baked Powdered Sugar Donuts
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
1 whole egg

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
Pinch of salt1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup powdered sugar (to coat doughnuts)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar on low speed. Add vanilla, egg and baking powder. Mix until thoroughly combined. Turn off mixer and add flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing each addition completely. Add salt and milk, mix to combine. 

Using a piping bag, fill donut pan with batter. Bake for 13 minutes. 

Cool donuts in the pan, then turn upside down to remove donuts. Cool completely, then coat in powdered sugar.

Time out for Savory: Chipotle Chili

I just looked back at my last post and realized that after posting twice in one week, I went MIA for over 2 months. Woops! To be perfectly honest, I don't know how I managed to go that long without baking anything, but it could be because I ran out of eggs... two months ago.

Anyway, onwards and upwards!

Today's post isn't actually about baking, but it does come with tons of pictures, so hopefully those will provide adequate compensation for the lack of sugar and butter. This year I entered my school's annual chili cook-off, and it ended up being a really fun process, so I thought I'd share it with the two people who still care what I have to say here.

Let me start by revealing that I've actually never made chili start-to-finish by myself. I've watched Dad make it few times (as well as countless stews, which I think share some common traits), and I picked up several tips over the years, but I've never flown solo. As such, I began the project by reading tons and tons of recipes. I should have known that this would be overwhelming, because there are as many ideas for what constitutes the "perfect" chili as there are people in the world. And making chili comes with all sorts of mind-bending decisions, such as beans vs. no beans, ground beef vs. chunks, tomatoes vs. sans tomatoes, and don't even get me started on all the combinations of chiles...

Needless to say, I spent several hours reading recipes, but nothing I found was quite perfect. The recipe I finally executed is loosely based on this version from America's Test Kitchen, but also on several IM conversations with Dad, as well as my own preferences.

Here is the result, in all of its ungarnished, beefy glory. What do you think? Am I going to win the competition?

Just in case I do win, here's the recipe for my (possibly) award-winning chili!

Sara's Chipotle Chili

3 T kosher salt

1/2 lb. dried pinto beans

4 quarts water

1.5 T chili powder

1 T dried chipotle chili powder

1/4 t dried cayenne pepper

3 T cornmeal

2 t dried oregano

2 t ground cumin

2 t cocoa powder

2 1/2 c low-sodium chicken broth

2 c onions, chopped in large chunks

1 large jalepeno pepper, rough chopped in large pieces

2 T vegetable oil

4 t garlic, finely chopped

1 can of diced tomatoes, 14.5 oz

2 T brown sugar

4 lbs beef chuck steaks

12 oz. Newcastle ale

1. Wash pinto beans and pour into 4.5q Dutch oven. Add salt and water. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 1 hour. Drain and rinse with cold water.

2. In a food processor, blend chili powder, chipotle powder, cayenne, cornmeal, oregano, cumin, and cocoa powder. Shouldn't take more than 1 or 2 quick pulses. Turn on the food processor, and slowly pour 1/2 cup of chicken broth into the bowl until it becomes a paste. Pour paste out into a small bowl.

3. Put chopped onions into food processor and pulse four times. Add chopped jalepeno and pulse three or four more times. In a small bowl, dissolve brown sugar in a few spoons of warm water.

4. Heat 1T oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and jalepeno mixture, and saute until onions are soft and moisture has evaporated. Add garlic, and saute until fragrant. Add the chili paste, tomatoes and brown sugar liquid, and stir until combined. Add remaining two cups of chicken broth and reduce heat to simmer.

5. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a skillet, heat 1T oil over medium-high heat. Pat beef chunks with a paper towel, then sprinkle lightly with salt. Add 1/2 beef to skillet and brown on all sides. Transfer beef to Dutch oven. Pour 1/2 beer into the skillet to deglaze pan, and simmer for a few minutes, stirring to remove browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Transfer beer to Dutch oven. Repeat with remaining beef and beer. Return to simmer.

6. Cover pot and place in oven for 1.5 to 2 hours, or until beef and beans are tender and cooked through. Chill, uncovered, for 10 minutes, and season to taste.