The Cro-Nut

The Cro-Nut - from Paris Baguette, March 13, 2014

Have you heard of the cro-nut? It's a croissant and doughnut combined, hence the name. Legend or, er, wikipedia, has it that it was invented by chef Dominique Ansel in New York City. The croissant part comes from the fact that it's a laminated dough (butter folded into sheets of dough and folded over and over again) and the doughnut contributes not only the round shape but the sugar coating, the filling and the glaze on top. It's actually pretty genius when you think about it; this is the kind of food modification I can deal with.

I'm actually behind on the cronut craze because it was invented last year and I'm only trying it out just now. In my defense, I'm not crazy enough about either croissants or doughnuts to go out of my way for them, even when they're combined, so it would have to be literally in front of me in order for me to try it. And by lucky happenstance, it was exactly that, in front of me, when I was at Paris Baguette last week. I was actually at a food court next door getting takeout for my dinner and stopped off at Paris Baguette to see if there was anything I wanted for dessert. Lo and behold, there sat a tray of cronuts. So I bought one for $3.75. Not exactly cheap if you think of it as a doughnut (Stan's Donuts are 85 cents each) but in line with croissant prices.

Overall, I thought it was pretty good. When I took the first bite, I classified it mostly as a croissant because of the flaky texture. And I'll be honest. I didn't see what the fuss was about. Yeah, it was good but a "craze"? Hmm, that's pretty grandiose. I should also mention though that I'd had this after my takeout dinner so I was rather full and one bite was all I managed of the cronut that night. I returned to it the next day when I was more hungry and gained a greater appreciation for it. Once I wasn't stuffed full of orange chicken from the night before, I could appreciate the doughnut half of the cronut. The filling was a light citrus pastry cream/glaze, probably the exact same as the glaze on top. The sugared coating combined with the flakiness really did make it a perfect hybrid of a croissant and a doughnut. If you like either or both of those, the cronut is worth experiencing.

Deep Dish Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Pizookie

Deep Dish Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Pizookie - made March 14, 2014, recipe modified from Damn Delicious

You ever have one of those weeks when, by the time you've made it to the end, you're so wrung out that all your good intentions of eating healthy to nourish your body, working out for mental well being, and going into zen mode to refresh your spirit gets drowned out by the call of "screw this, I want a warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream. Now." Right? Welcome to last Friday.

Only it was such a week that I upped the ante. A normal chocolate chip cookie just wasn't going to cut it. In fact, even chocolate chips weren't going to do. This called for chocolate chunks. I had a slab of milk chocolate my parents had brought back from a trip (yup, I'd much rather have that as a "souvenir" than a t-shirt or a mug, thanks) which I chopped into generous-sized chunks. I wasn't messing around. And I not only raised the stakes to go with a chocolate chunk pizookie but I made it a deep dish brown butter chocolate chunk pizookie. In a size and of a thickness guaranteed to push me beyond comfortable ecstasy straight to semi-consciousness. For the first few bites anyway. As they say on Sesame Street, this is a sometime food.

Normally, pizookies are individual sized and I'd bake them off in small ramekins. This time I went for broke and spread all of the dough into my 8-inch cast iron skillet. Which turned out to yield a pizookie large enough to feed me and 18 of my closest friends. I added the scoops of ice cream and drizzles of warm nutella on top for picture taking purposes but since my 18 closest friends didn't happen to be around when I took this out of the oven, I ended up only taking a few bites.

Which were actually pretty satisfying enough. My only mistake was, because the cookie turned out to be so thick, I didn't bake it long enough. Which I didn't discover until I'd already put the ice cream on top and took a few bites. The outer edges were fine; they were perfect as a matter of fact, warm and sumptuous. But the inner circle and the middle were too gooey, especially when warm.

Nothing left to do except scrape the ice cream off to eat separately and put the skillet back in the oven. I baked it off a little longer but after the second baking, my emotional eating crisis had passed or been stuffed into submission with those first few bites so I left the skillet pizookie for the next day.

Which actually turned out to be even better. By then it had cooled to room temperature, the texture wasn't mushy or gooey, more like "fudgy". And the brown butter flavor was more prominent. Much as I like warm cookies topped with ice cream, I have to admit, this was better at room temperature without the ice cream. I think it was because, in the skillet, the pizookie was too thick so the cookie was mushy/gooey when warm. If I had baked less of it in smaller ramekins like I usually do, it would've baked more evenly and thoroughly all around so it wouldn't have been as mushy. And in small amounts, a little gooey isn't a bad thing.

I had a hard time getting a clear picture of the inside, both due to the lighting at that time of day/almost evening when I made this but also from the deepness of the pan. But you can see a hint of the mushiness below. Regardless, this was a good cookie recipe. I'd advocate baking it in smaller portions; then you can enjoy it warm or room temperature, your choice. I took the cooled cookie, broke it into smaller chunks and placed them in a ziploc bag in my freezer. Next time I'm having an emotional eating crisis, I know what to reach for.

1 7/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
14 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup chocolate chunks
Vanilla ice cream

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly coat an 8-inch cast iron skillet with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until the foam subsides and the butter begins to turn a golden brown, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
4. Whisk in sugars and vanilla until well combined. Whisk in egg and egg yolk until well combined. Add flour mixture, beating just until incorporated. Gently fold in chocolate chunks.
5. Pour mixture into skillet. Place into oven and bake until edges are golden brown but center is still moist, about 20-25 minutes (check at 15 minutes).
6. Serve lukewarm, topped with ice cream.

Lemon Pudding Cake

Lemon Pudding Cake - made March 8, 2014 from One Bowl Baking by Yvonne Ruperti

The best way to describe a lemon pudding cake is to think of it like an upside-down lemon bar. The lemon curd or pudding is the bottom layer and what normally would be the shortbread crust on a lemon bar is instead a soft lemon cake on top of the pudding layer. All from one batter. I can't tell you what science makes this phenomenon work (I probably could but I'm too lazy pressed for time to look it up), just that it does. But you have to follow the recipe exactly, beating the eggs in enough in the order given. I did and it really did work.

However, unlike a lemon bar, this is not a bar cookie that cuts into neat little slices. Because the pudding is the bottom layer, this is really more like a spoon dessert. That is, it's literally best eaten with a spoon as it's very hard and messy to eat pudding with your fingers. I like the lemony flavor of this but I can't say I was in love with the cake in general. This is probably because I don't generally like custard-type desserts except for creme brulee and certain pot de cremes but this didn't clear my hurdle to go into the exception pile. It was okay but I wouldn't call it fantastic unless you like anything lemon.

3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice from about 4 lemons
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon lemon zest from 1 lemon
pinch salt
1/3 cup cake flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
confectioners' sugar, for dusting

1. Place an oven rack in upper-middle position.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line an 8" square baking dish with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray or brush with melted butter. Place the dish in a rimmed sheet pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the sugar with one egg until the mixture is very light, about one minute.
3. Whisk in the second egg for 30 seconds.
4. Whisk in the third and fourth eggs for 15 seconds each.
5. Gently whisk in lemon juice, milk, butter, lemon zest and salt.
6. Sift the cake flour and the baking powder over the mixture, then gently whisk until combined.
7. Immediately pour into the pan and set in the oven. Fill the sheet pan with about 1/2-inch of water.
8. Bake until the pudding is just set, about 20 to 25 minutes.
9. Carefully remove the baking dish from the water bath and let it cool on a wire rack until just warm. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve warm, room temperature or chilled.

Bakery Review: Sift Cupcake and Dessert Bar

Sift Cupcake and Dessert Bar - visited March 3, 2014

Prepare for a post with lots of pictures. Because this is it. After my niece Lauren and I filled up on dim sum, we headed out of Chinatown and made our way down (and up) California to go to Sift Cupcake & Dessert Bar. I'd first heard of Sift by watching Cupcake Wars. A big reason I watch Cupcake Wars is to find out about local small business cupcakeries - more places to try out. Whenever I hear of any in my area, it goes on my list of places to visit someday. For Sift, this was the day.

Last summer, I did the same thing with Frost. Frost Cupcake Factory actually won their episode of Cupcake Wars but if you recall my review of their cupcakes, I was rather disappointed as the textures on most of the cupcakes I bought were dry and their flavors weren't very spectacular in terms of taste. So my expectations for Sift were a lot lower because Sift got knocked out in one of the qualifying rounds and, unlike Frost, couldn't boast being Cupcake War winners.

But before I get to the cupcakes, let's talk about Sift's cute little bakery because it really was a cute little bakery. Sift is located in lower Pacific Heights; Lauren and I were so busy talking when we were walking there that we actually passed it because we were on the other side of the street. We had to double back to find it.

The bakery storefront itself isn't very big but for a cupcakery, it's still a decent size, similar to Sprinkles and Kara's Cupcakes. It's very cheery and filled with pastel colors. One look at their display cases and I was predisposed to like them anyway. They also were smart in their display and storage space by having shelves house their cupcake boxes (above). The cupcake boxes have cute sayings on them and double as decorations until they're needed.

Sift has a selection of not just cupcakes but also "soda pop" (not to be confused with the likes of Diet Coke and their ilk because they didn't have any but actual old-fashioned soda pop) as well as layer cakes, macarons, Krispy cakes (amped up Rice Krispie treats), and whoopie pies. I have a one-track mind and I came for cupcakes so cupcakes are what we bought.

When faced with such mouthwatering choices, it's always hard to narrow down my selections. I highly recommend you check out Sift's flavor menu so you can appreciate my First World struggle. In the end, I bought a Samoa Cupcake and Lauren chose a carrot cupcake. We also bought a red velvet and a chocolate one for Lauren to bring back for Shyla.

Red Velvet and All for the Cookie cupcakes

The carrot cupcake was topped with the traditional cream cheese frosting and decorated with an icing decoration of a carrot. It was my favorite way carrot cake (or cupcake) should be made: with just carrots. The flavor card on the bakery counter that describes each flavor even points out there are no nuts or raisins in their carrot cupcake. Points for Sift. It was also a really good cupcake, cakey, fluffy and moist but not greasy.

The Samoa cupcake was a coconut cake filled with chocolate ganache and topped with vanilla frosting garnished with toasted coconut and ganache drizzle. If that sounded good to you, it's because it was. I loved this cupcake. Let me repeat that: I loved this cupcake. Moist, fluffy, perfect coconut flavor. And here's the shocking thing: I also loved the frosting. If you know me at all, you know I always say I'm not a frosting person, I only like a little frosting to go with my cake and I never profess love for frosting. This is the only cupcakery I've been to where I not only like the frosting but I ate it all. Yup, you read that right. I love Sprinkles red velvet cupcake and I prefer their frosting over most places but I don't ever eat all of the frosting on a Sprinkles cupcake. Not so with Sift's Samoa cupcake. Loved it. The toasted coconut on top was the perfect complement in texture and flavor with the frosting too.

I even liked the ganache filling although if I had to give one piece of feedback to Sift, I'd recommend they switch out the chocolate ganache for a caramel filling instead. The chocolate is already represented in the drizzle on top but I was missing the caramel component of a traditional Samoa. Still, this was a darn good cupcake, chocolate ganache filling included, so I have no complaints. Actually, let me rephrase that: I enjoyed this cupcake so much that I did something else I never do. I bought another one. Buying another cupcake isn't so unusual but typically I would get a different flavor to try. But I liked the Samoa so much that I had to have another one. Not right that moment of course but I bought it for later. And just to really push the outer limits of my waistband, I also chose one of the chocolate cupcakes to try out another time.

Carrot Cupcake on the left, Samoa on the right

I bought the "Sky is Falling" cupcake which was a chocolate cupcake filled with white chocolate mousse and topped with a chocolate buttercream. But I was really greedy for the Samoa again. I had the second one the next day and it was just as good as the first one, even a "day old" and I ate all the frosting again. You've no idea how mind-boggling that is to me.

I didn't get to the Sky is Falling cupcake until the following day - in the interests of moderation, one high-calorie treat a day is all I normally allow myself. This one was more typical of other cupcakes I've had elsewhere. I don't know whether it's because it was two days old by then or it just wasn't as good as the Samoa to hook me in but on this one, I ate the cupcake but left a lot of the frosting. It was good but just not as good as the Samoa. Sorry I don't have a picture other than the bakery case. For once, I forgot to take one before I ate it.

All in all, I thought Sift's cupcakes were delicious and I enjoyed them much more than the ones from Frost. I'll have to hunt up their Cupcake Wars episode again and see where they went wrong in the competition but they win in my cupcake book.

Texas Fudge Cookies

Texas Fudge Cookies - made March 9, 2014 from Cookies and Cups

I've been writing my blog for several years now but it occurred to me only recently that I've never fully explained my scale. Not the kind you step on and it makes you cry but my taste rating scale when I evaluate what I bake. You can probably glean from random posts that, because I bake so much and so often, I have finicky taste buds when it comes to desserts and a pretty high bar on what I consider worth the empty calories. I balance things out (most of the time) with a whole lot of exercise so I always evaluate whether something is worth a session at the gym, a run for X number of miles, walking for umpteenth hours and tackling my 20-lb dumbbells (my dumbbell set goes to 50 lbs but let's not kid ourselves).

But, not everyone exercises to the same extent or understands how I balance my universe of taste buds vs waistband fit so let me tackle it another way. As you know, I give away 90-95% of what I bake. I'll take a taste test piece, evaluate it, photograph it, write it up and give everything else away. Some of the feedback from my recipients I reflect in my evaluation and some just go into my mental files. But their feedback is how I've come up with my taste scale.

Me: These are okay. Meh.
Everyone else: These are really good.
Me: These are good.
Everyone else: OMG, these are fantastic! To die for! Love them!
Me: OMG, these are fantastic! I think I'll have TWO pieces!
Everyone else: Can I have the recipe? I'm SO making these. When are you making them again? Do you take orders?

Now that you've gotten a little primer on my taste rating scale, you'll have the context to understand when I rate these as "OMG, these are fantastic!" My love for Texas Fudge Cake has extended itself to this cookie version from Cookies and Cups. Fudgy cookies are enrobed in Texas Fudge Cake frosting  to the same stupendous results. Little (or not so little) bites of fudgy goodness. The only cautionary note is please don't overbake these. If they puff and crack on top, they're overbaked and can be a little dry (I discovered that with the first batch). They're still salvageable because of the frosting but they're better a little underbaked so they remain moist and fudgy. The cookies aren't too sweet or overly chocolaty; that comes from the frosting. If you have high end baking chocolate (I used Tcho), use that instead of the regular Nestle chocolate chips; they're worth it. And, in keeping with my rating scale, yes, I ate two cookies before giving the rest away to my friend Cindy when we met for dinner and to my coworkers the next day. Cindy asked me for the recipe so my taste rating scale remains intact.

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups flour
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted and lukewarm

Icing
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 tablespoons milk
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
3. In bowl of stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, scraping down sides of mixing bowl frequently.
4. Add in egg and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Mix in baking powder and salt.
5. With mixer on low, slowly add in flour. Mix in melted chocolate chips until evenly incorporated.
6. Drop dough in tablespoon-sized mounds onto baking sheet. Bake for 7-9 minutes until cookies just appear set. Do not overbake. Cool on wire racks.

Icing

1. In a medium saucepan combine butter, cocoa powder, and milk over medium heat, whisking until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in powdered sugar.
2. Pour icing over cookies and allow to set before serving.

Salted Nutella Butter Bars

Salted Nutella Butter Bars - made March 2, 2014 from Cookies and Cups

This was the third dessert I made for care packages, along with the Texas Sheet Cake and the Gooey Cookies and Cream Cake Bars. Since the first two were primarily chocolate, I wanted something with a different flavor profile so butter bars seemed the way to go.

You'll notice very quickly that there's a pound of butter in these bars. Yes, a pound. For something that only makes a 9 x 13 pan, that's a lot of butter. For context, most similarly-sized desserts might contain half that amount. So these aren't called butter bars for nothing.

With all this butter, as you can expect, this was like eating a very rich shortbread with some nutella. I like nutella but I don't know if I like it with the butter shortbread. I also should've baked this a little longer and let the top become more golden brown. When baked enough, the texture of the top layer is almost crisp like good shortbread should be. Because I didn't bake it long enough, they tended to be soft and you can taste the butter all the more. That's not necessarily a bad thing but I would have preferred more of a texture contrast between the snap of butter shortbread and the creaminess of the nutella. Oh and I would recommend sprinkling the sea salt (I used fleur de sel) on top even though the recipe says it's optional. The salt breaks up the richness of the butter a bit and provides a nice flavor contrast.

1 pound butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup Nutella, warmed slightly to be of easy spreading consistency
1-2 teaspoons fleur de sel, optional but highly recommend

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
3. In bowl of mixer, combine butter and sugars. With mixer on medium speed, beat together until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla and beat until combined. Slowly add the flour into the butter mixture until dough comes together.
4. Press about one-third of the dough evenly into the pan to form a bottom crust. Wrap remaining dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator.
5. Bake crust until firm and the edges are a pale golden brown, approximately 12-14 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool 10 minutes.
6. Spread softened Nutella evenly over crust, about 1/4" away from the edges.
7. Remove remaining dough from the refrigerator and crumble remaining dough on top. Bake another 20-25 minutes until top is set and lightly golden.
8. Sprinkle immediately with fleur de sel, if desired.
9. Cool and cut into squares.

Restaurant Review: Grand Palace (dim sum)

Grand Palace - lunch on March 3, 2014

This is the restaurant my niece Lauren and I went to for dim sum for our day in San Francisco. We didn't do anything technologically advanced to find it - we didn't check yelp, we didn't do a google search on best dim sum places in Chinatown. Instead, since we were in Chinatown, we just walked around until we found a sit down restaurant for dim sum. Which is not hard to do.

It wasn't fancy or all that cheap considering it was Chinatown and some might even say it was a little rundown but we weren't that picky. The restaurant ran long and narrow so it wasn't conducive to dim sum carts roaming the aisles. Instead we ordered dim sum from the menu along with pan-fried noodles, Hong Kong style. There was a regular menu that spelled Grand Palace correctly and a pictorial dim sum menu that did not. What I liked about the pictorial menu is I could finally see what some of the dim sum items were called. For the most part, my guesswork in the past was fairly correct. My "pork puff pastry thingie" is called "BBQ Pork Puff". Close enough.

Our food came out promptly and it was really good. The siu mai was a notch above the usual dim sum fare and everything else was up to our high dim sum standards. The BBQ Pork Puff was really flaky. It could've used a little more BBQ pork filling but otherwise was tasty. The only things we didn't get that we normally do were the pork buns and egg custards since we'd already bought those at Garden Bakery.

BBQ Pork Puff

Siu Mai

Har Gow (shrimp dumpling)

Lotus Wrapped Pork & Sticky Rice

Pork & Sticky Rice

Pan-fried noodles, Hong Kong style

While the dim sum was good, the prices aren't cheap considering it's Chinatown. For all of the above dishes, including tip, our bill came to $35. That's actually expensive for dim sum. One word of caution: according to the rather abrupt waiter, they only take cash. A fact that is belied by the Visa/Mastercard stickers on their cash registers at the front. Either those stickers are just for show or they do take credit cards and they push for cash unless someone fusses and points out the stickers. I tend to pay cash for most things anyway so it wasn't a big deal to me but it might be to others. Grand Palace also seems more Americanized than what I would've expected in Chinatown and, looking back, the patrons while we were there were mostly non-Chinese folks. I don't think that was because of the food because we thought the food was pretty good so maybe it was due to the prices. No elderly Chinese people here.