Experiment #4: Gougères

Pre-Lab

Don’t let the fancy French name scare you from this delicious appetizer; these gougères (I pronounce them “goo-yers” because that’s as frenchy as I get) are a cheese-and-carb-lovers delight. I describe them often as “cheesy balls” (haha) but that really describes their moist cheese-flavored interior and the slightly crunchy outside. I’ve tried a similar recipe for pão de queijo, which is the Brazilian version of cheesy balls made with tapioca flour. The recipe from the Tartine cookbook asks for much more butter (see the grease stains on the baking sheet in the photo?) than the Brazilian version, which gives it a really amazing flavor of course. The dough for the cheese balls is called a choux paste, which is used throughout French pastry (think cream puffs) and is relatively simple to make and does not require any yeast or kneading like other breads (you actually add the flour to a mixture of boiling butter and milk to form the dough!) And the compliments that you’ll get from making this will never end ;)

Experimental Procedure

Total time: ~45-60 mins
(Adapted from Tartine by Elizabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson)

Makes ~30 small appetizer-sized breads

Ingredients
1 ¼ cup of skim (non-fat) milk
10 Tbsp (1 stick + 2 Tbsp) of butter
1 tsp of salt
1 cup of flour
5 large eggs
¾ cup (4 oz) of gruyère cheese, grated
1 tsp of freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp of fresh thyme, minced

Topping (optional)
1 large egg
A pinch of salt
Grated gruyère cheese for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 350oF and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. To make the choux paste, combine milk, butter, and salt to a heavy saucepan and place over medium heat until the butter melts and the mixture reaches a full boil.
3. Add the flour to the boiling mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture has formed a smooth dough and most of the moisture has evaporated (~3 mins).
4. Transfer the dough to the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Begin to mix at medium speed and add eggs, one at a time, completely incorporating each before adding the next. The dough will be sticky and shiny.
5. Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the cheese, pepper, and thyme and combine with a wooden spoon.
6. Spoon out ~1” portions of the dough onto the parchment paper. For a more consistent shaped ball, you can use a piping bag to dispense the dough or use two spoons to help shape the ball into uniform sizes.
7. To prepare the topping, combine the last egg and salt and beat until well mixed. Using a pastry brush, brush the egg mixture onto the tops of the balls, then top with gruyere cheese.
8. Bake at 350oF for ~25 minutes or until the tops are a light golden brown.

Results and Discussion
I tried to follow this recipe to the “T” because this was my first attempt, but there are a lot of variations that you can do with this recipe. You can use dried thyme like I did (I wasn’t about to spend $4 to add a teeny bit of fresh thyme) and the amount can be approximate, as can the amount of pepper (I’m heavy-handed with pepper). Try a different cheese or a mix of cheeses (a jalepeno cheese would make this a spicy appetizer!) or make the puffs bigger for a more substantial bread. Best served warm, but still tasty when cool, these cheesy balls can be stored in the fridge for a few days. To reheat, just pop them in the oven or toaster oven (350oF) for ~5 minutes.

If I am going to make this recipe again (and I probably will since it was a BIG hit at my party), I’ll probably cut out 2-4 tablespoons of butter and see if that still tastes good! Most likely I will need to add the equivalent amount in milk to substitute for the loss of moisture from the butter, which acts to bind the flour into the dough. I'll try this "lightened" recipe, I'll let you know how it goes!

Experiment #3: Experimental Procedure

Total time: ~2 ½ - 3 hrs. (excluding overnight chilling)

(Adapted from Tartine by Elizabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson)

Part 1. Coconut Chiffon Cake

The recipe given below makes one 10” cake, which will be split into three layers to assemble the entire cake.

Ingredients

2 ¼ cup (315g) of all purpose flour

1 ½ cup (300g) of sugar, divided

2 tsp of baking powder

¼ tsp of nutmeg

1 tsp of salt

¼ cup of vegetable oil (ie, safflower or sunflower)

6 large egg yolks (~1/2 cup)

¼ cup of water

¾ cup of unsweetened coconut milk

10 large eggs whites (~1 1/3 cup; at room temperature)

½ tsp of cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 325°F and line a 10” x 3” springform pan (bottom x side) with parchment paper. No need to grease the pan.

2. Sift flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Add 1 1/4 cup (250g) of sugar and salt and whisk to combine.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, egg yolks, water and coconut milk.

4. Make a well in the flour mixture, and add the egg yolk mixture (step 3) to the flour mixture (step 2). Whisk ~1 minute to achieve a smooth, homogenous mix.

5. Place egg whites (room temperature) in a large mixing bowl and place the stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on medium speed (“6” on my kitchenaid mixer) until frothy. Then add the cream of tartar, and increase speed to medium-high (“10”) until the whites form soft peaks. Then slowly add the remaining ¼ cup of sugar and keep beating until whites hold firm, shiny peaks.

6. Using a rubber spatula, scoop ~1/3 of the whites into the flour/yolk mixture and gently fold to incorporate everything. Continue to add the remainder of the whites this way just until everything is combined.

7. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick test comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake. Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack.

8. Once completely cooled, unmold and slice the cake into three layers. To do so, mark 1” segments all along the sides of the cake with a serrated knife. Then carefully cut the top layer first, using the marks to guide. After removing the top layer, proceed to cut the second layer. The cake is ready for assembly. (If not using right away, wrap up tightly in plastic wrap and store in the fridge.

Part 2: Caramel

Ingredients

2/3 cup of heavy cream

¼ of a vanilla bean

1 ¼ cup of sugar

¼ cup of water

¼ tsp of salt

2 Tbsp of light corn syrup

¾ tsp of lemon juice

4 Tbsp of unsalted butter

1. In a small saucepan, add the heavy cream and vanilla bean scrapings together and begin heating to medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to just under a boil, stirring occasionally, then reduce the heat and keep warm until ready for the next step.

2. In a medium saucepan, add the sugar, water, salt and corn syrup (you can begin this step at the same time as step 1). Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Then leave the mixture to continue cooking with no stirring for ~5-8 minutes or until the mixture has become amber colored. Remove from heat.

3. Slowly add the cream mixture to the sugar mixture (boiling will occur). Whisk mixture until smooth, then add the lemon juice and allow to cool ~10 minutes.

4. Add the butter in ~3-4 pieces, one piece at a time, whisking until each piece has been completely incorporated. Continue to whisk the caramel as it cools to maintain a smooth mixture.

Part 3: Pastry Cream

This recipe makes 2 ½ cups of cream…perfect because that’s how much I need to assemble the entire cake!

Ingredients

2 cups of whole milk

½ a vanilla bean

¼ tsp of salt

3-4 Tbsp of cornstarch

½ cup + 1 Tbsp of sugar

2 large eggs

4 Tbsp of unsalted butter

1. Have a bowl and a fine-mesh sieve handy for when the pastry cream is finished.

2. In another bowl (preferably one that has a rubber-grip bottom), whisk together cornstarch and sugar (more cornstarch if you want a stiffer cream). Add eggs and whisk till smooth.

3. In a heavy saucepan, add the milk, vanilla bean scrapings, and salt, and heat on medium-high heat until the mixture is just under a boil. Stir occasionally to make sure that the milk does not burn or stick to the bottom.

4. When the milk mixture has almost reached a boil, slowly ladle 1/3 of it into the egg mixture (step 2), whisking constantly (the rubber grip on the bottom of the bowl should help with the challenge of pouring and whisking at the same time).

5. Pour the egg/milk mixture back into the hot milk, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens (~2 minutes). Continue heating until the mixture is just starting to boil (you should see a few bubbles); be careful not to heat too vigorously or the eggs will curdle.

6. Once the mixture just starts to boil, immediately remove it from the heat and pour the cream through the sieve into the bowl (step 1). (Use a spoon to push the cream through the sieve if its too slow). Cool and stir occasionally to prevent a “skin” of cream from forming on the top.

7. When the pastry cream has cooled to ~140^oF (10 minutes), whisk in the butter, one tablespoon at a time. Make sure the butter is well-incorporated into the mix before adding the next.

Part 4: Assembling the Cake

Ingredients

1 Coconut Chiffon cake (Part 1)

Coconut syrup:

1 cup of unsweetened coconut milk

6 Tbsp of sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

A pinch of salt

Filling:

1 ½ tsp of gelatin

2 tsp of water

2 ½ cup of Pastry Cream (Part 3)

1 cup of heavy cream (very cold)

½ cup of caramel (Part 2)

Topping:

1 ¼ cups of heavy cream (very cold)

4 tsp of sugar

1. Using a serrated knife, slice the chiffon cake horizontally into three equal portions, removing the top first. (See Experiment #1: Results and Discussion for tips)

2. To prepare the coconut syrup, combine the coconut milk, sugar, vanilla and salt and mix well. Set aside.

3. To prepare the springform pan (10” x 3”), take two large sheets of plastic wrap and stick them together along the long side. Then put the bottom of the pan on top of the wrap, and wrap the plastic wrap into the middle of the pan. Then I placed the outside rim of the pan around the plastic-wrapped bottom. Once the rim of the pan is attached, unfold the plastic wrap and pull it back so that it covers the sides and hangs over the rim of the pan. The result should be plastic wrap covering the inside of the pan, but not the bottom.

4. To prepare the filling: prepare the gelatin by adding 1 ½ tsp. of gelatin with 2 tablespoon of water (gelatin will absorb all the water to form a gel). If the pastry cream is freshly made and still warm, add the gelatin mixture directly to the cream and stir well. Then allow the cream to continue to cool. If the pastry cream is cold: take ½ cup of the pastry cream you just made and add it to a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of water. Warm over medium heat, whisking constantly until hot to the touch (120oF; 5 minutes). Add the moist gelatin, and whisk until it is completely added. Remove the bowl from the water bath and add in the remaining pastry cream in two batches.

5. In a mixing bowl, whip with stand mixer on medium-high setting (“8” on my Kitchenaid mixer) the heavy cream until it holds medium-stiff peaks. Then fold gently into the pastry cream with pastry cream.

6. Place the bottom layer of cake into the prepared pan. Then using a pastry brush, moisten the cake with 1/3 of the coconut milk mixture. Then spoon ½ of the caramel on top and spread evenly. Next, scoop ½ of the pastry cream filling on top and spread evenly with an offset spatula. Place the second layer of cake and repeat the moistening with 1/3 of the coconut milk mixture, adding the remaining caramel, and adding the remaining pastry cream filling. Add the top cake layer, and moisten with the remainder of the coconut milk mixture.

7. Wrap the cake with the plastic wrap from the sides and gently press the cake down to spread the filling evenly. Allow the cake to cool in the refrigerator for 4 hours or preferably overnight.

8. To finish the cake, remove the metal sides and unwrap the plastic wrap from the cake. Place the cake on a raised surface, preferably a wire rack over paper (to prevent a mess). Clean up any stray filling with an offset spatula.

9. Beat the cold heavy cream in a stand mixer set at medium high (“8” on my mixer). When the cream thickens, add the sugar and continue whipping until the cream holds soft peaks. Then frost the top and sides of the cake with an offset spatula, using minimal strokes to keep the surface smooth. If desired, add shredded coconut on the top and sides of the cake.

Experiment #3: Pastel de Tres Leches

Pre-Lab

So I’m having a party at my place. YAH. Its been a long time since I’ve hosted a party so of course, I’m going to use the opportunity to try yet another cake recipe from Tartine. Since it’s the tail end of summer (its still too hot in CA to declare it Fall), I’m going to make a refreshing Tres Leches (Three Milk) cake; one of my favorites. Amazingly moist, milky, and sweet and yet I’ve never made it before. So in preparation for my endeavor, I’ve read the recipe and associated recipes for the fillings/cake, etc. and I find it very similar to the Summer Fruit Bavarian cake I made in my first experiment. The differences are that the Tres Leches cake calls for a Chiffon cake base (instead of the génoise I made for the Bavarian cake) and a coconut syrup and optional caramel topping (uh, of COURSE I’m going to do the caramel!). Otherwise, the composition of the cake does consist of a filling made of pastry cream with the gelatin (to firm up the cream) and whip cream (to make it light and airy), just like in the Bavarian cake. This will be a good opportunity for me to practice making the pastry cream again (hopefully with a little more finesse). The cake is also topped with whipped heavy cream, which hopefully turn out better than last time now that I know that less manipulation frosting the cake = better looking cake.

I’m also going to start writing in the weights for some of the ingredients that I’ll be measuring out by weight (in metric units of course; it is the system used most commonly by chemists). At my job, it’s really routine for me to weigh things as a form of measurement. We hardly do anything my volume, except liquids, in which case, we have to usually take into account the density of the material. But solids come in all densities…think light and fluffy marshmallows versus sugar; the same volume of marshmallows will be a lot lighter than the same volume of sugar. Flour is notorious for varying in volume depending on how much air is incorporated into it while measuring; a tightly packed cup of flour can weigh several grams more than a lightly packed cup. So you just can’t measure solids by volume; it just isn’t accurate enough. For some recipes, it doesn’t really matter too much. But others such as one as important as the cake-for-my-party, it does.

One last note about the order of the experiment: since my cake base needs time to cool, I’ll make that first. Then I’ll make the coconut syrup, caramel, pastry cream (which I’ll make into the filling for the cake right away). I’ll let the assembled cake components party in the fridge overnight, then finish the cake with whipped cream and coconut (not in the recipe, but I like coconut and it’ll make it pretty) the morning of my party.

Experiment #2: (Drunken) Brownies

I got a request from my friend J.K. (a closeted sweet addict) to make brownies and I knew just the recipe that I wanted to try (from my new Tartine Bakery book of course). And so last night after dinner and lots of wine, my chocolate craving surged through me. Drunken and determined, I undertook a last-minute task to bake chocolate brownies. Thank goodness that this recipe was pretty straight-forward and I actually had everything on hand. Sorry, there was no real “pre-lab” or “experimental procedure” preparations on my part; I just starting baking. What happens when a drunken girl bakes? A mess happens.

Brownies (adapted from Tartine)

Ingredients

1 ½ sticks of butter

1 pound of chocolate (Elizabeth calls for bittersweet, but I used semi-sweet chocolate chips, which worked fine)

5 large eggs

2 cups of light brown sugar

¾ cup + 2 Tbs of flour

¼ tsp of salt

1 tsp of vanilla

Nuts (I used pistachios)

1. Pre-heat oven to 350oC.

2. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Once melted, turn off the heat and add the chocolate and stir until completely melted. Set aside to cool.

3. In a mixing bowl, add the eggs, brown sugar, and salt. Using the whisk attachment, beat at highest speed until the mixture thickens. (4-5 minutes).

4. Sift the flour into the egg-sugar mixture and use a rubber spatula to incorporate fully.

5. Add the cooled chocolate to the bowl, mixing from bottom to top to incorporate the chocolate (the chocolate tends to sink to the bottom).

6. Pour the batter into a 13 x 9 pan and bake for ~40 minutes. (You can’t do a toothpick test to check the doneness of the brownies; there’s just too much darn chocolate. If the top looks a bit crusty, then you’re done!). Cool before eating.

Results and Discussion and Conclusion

Having already consumed a large portion of the delicious brownies, I’m amazed how well they turned out, despite having made them in a drunken state. I think that says a lot about how easy the recipe is and that anything with lots of butter + sugar + chocolate is bound to be delicious. But I really think that the light-and-tenderly soft texture is attributed to beating the eggs and incorporating air into them. Upon reflection, I’m not sure if I deflated the batter with my drunken mixing, so perhaps the brownies could have been even more light and fluffy. Nevertheless, let it be known that this recipe yields a most deliciously moist-and-light, tender-and-soft, and chocolatety-delightful brownie.

Experiment #1: Results and Discussion/Conclusion

There were a lot of steps involved with making this entire cake and I’ve learned a lot from this experiment. Here’s the play-by-play breakdown on each step:

Part 1: Making the génoise cake
Not to intimate anyone into making this cake, but even the fist task of lining the pan with parchment paper is not as easy as it seems in the instructions; it actually required some math! First I traced the bottom of the pan on the parchment paper (pencil works well) and cutting out the piece to fit the bottom. For the sides, cut a 2-3” wide strip (the cake doesn’t rise all the way to the top so it doesn’t have to be perfect) of parchment and as long as the circumference of the pan. How long is that? Well, 2πr long. Or 2*3.14 * the radius of your pan (5” for my 10” diameter pan). So I cut a piece that was 31” long. Is this lesson in geometry a bit excessive for a stupid pan lining? Yeah, but at least you won’t waste your parchment paper. :P I found that it was easiest to line the sides first with parchment paper, then slide in the bottom piece so that it “holds” the sides in.

The prep work for the cake wasn’t too hard at first; after all, I’ve made cake batters before. But then I tried the folding of the flour into the batter and lo-and-behold, the flour sinking to the bottom, just as Elizabeth had warned. I thought I had my eye on the flour, but as I was pouring out the batter, I found a significant amount of flour at the bottom so I had to quickly blend in the flour at the last minute. The result: lumps in my batter. I definitely need some work practicing folding in flour for this cake before I can call up Tartine for a try-out.

Part 2: Making the pastry cream
I discovered a trick early on in the process of making the pastry cream. My vanilla beans were very stiff and I could not slice it in half without cracking the whole thing. I first contemplated adding the hard chunks of vanilla bean, pod and all, into the milk, but came up with a better idea: microwave it! Twenty seconds and the bean was soft and sliceable again. The most challenging part was the addition of the hot milk to the egg/sugar mixture while whisking; this required the ability to do two different actions with your hands (kind of like patting your head with one hand and rubbing your belly with the other). I ended up whisking with my left hand and pouring with my right hand, which was probably not the best way to do it since I am right-handed. Next time, I will set up the egg/sugar bowl to the right of my burners, so that I can pour the hot milk from the left and whisk with my dominant right hand. I also found that the cream didn’t flow very quickly through the sieve. At all. So I used my spoon to smoosh it through. Not elegant, but it works.

In the end, the pastry cream ended up much thicker than I imagined; it was the consistency of a thick pudding after it cooled (I could make plenty of polymer references to describe the consistency, but there’s definitely no comparison in taste!). I stirred it occasionally while I got ready to assemble the cake.

Part 3: Making the filling and assembling the cake
Elizabeth instructs us to line just the inside rim of the pan with plastic wrap and not the bottom. When I read this, I was puzzled on how to achieve this. So with a little experimentation, I found this way worked for me: take two large sheets of plastic wrap and stick them together along the long side. Then put the bottom of the pan on top of the wrap, and wrap the plastic wrap into the middle of the pan. Then I placed the outside rim of the pan around the plastic wrapped bottom. Once the rim of the pan is attached, unfold the plastic wrap and pull it back so that it covers the sides and hangs over the rim of the pan. Voila!

To cut the cake evenly, I found myself placing my hand on top to gauge the evenness of the cut. I also stooped down to counter-level so that I could see the cutting process. I sawed gently all the way around first to mark where I would cut, then I cut deeper the second time around. That worked pretty well and cake came out fairly even!

In my preparation to make the filling, I was intrigued about the role of gelatin; I had never used it in my baking before. What was this stuff going to do to the pastry cream that I had just made? I was amazed that the stuff absorbed all of the water I added almost immediately to form what we would call in lab a “gel.” I wondered how adding this gelly-blob to the pastry cream would work, and I was amazed that when whisked into the hot pastry cream, it “melted” to form a smooth cream product. (At my job, we don’t want our gels to melt like that!) Honestly, the cream looked the same before and after the gelatin. But I think if I were to compare cooled plain pastry cream and pastry cream with gelatin, I would notice that the one with gelatin was more firm since macromolecules such as gelatin will have different physical properties at lower temperatures. I’m imagining the protein structure of gelatin freezing up when it is cooled, trapping the pastry cream in its network. The result is a sliceable cream filling.

When I took the cake out of the fridge to top it with the whipped cream, the assembled cake reminded me much of a giant ice cream sandwich. The filling peaking out on sides of the cake wasn’t perfectly smooth and I realize now that I should have put more pressure to even out the filling when I originally assembled the cake. Oh well, I’ll have to improvise. Since I didn’t have any more strawberries left, I sliced some nectarines thinly and lined them along the side of the cake. The cake didn’t look like the one in the book, but it still looked good to eat!

I added the whip cream topping next and being the perfectionist that I am, I kept smoothing the top, and eventually it started to look “grainy.” Adding more whipped cream didn’t help either; I think there is a certain window of time that one can manipulate the whip cream before the “graininess” sets in. Lesson learned; plop the whipped topping down, smooth over once or twice then leave it alone.
Perfect!

Too much manipulation of whip cream :(

Conclusion

This by no means is an easy cake to make, but with a little determination and a big sweet tooth, it can be done in about 2.5-3 hours. Overall, the taste of my cake was successful (though I’ve never tasted the real thing); it was creamy, not too sweet and the cake base was scrumptious (so my friend C.H. said!) The co-workers devoured it and I’ve probably gained a pound or two from it, but it was well worth the experience. In future repeats of this experiment, I hope to address the key mistakes I made, which will hopefully improve the aesthetic quality of the cake:

*Genoise cake: when adding the flour to the batter, REALLY dig to the bottom of the bowl to scoop up the flour and to ensure good mixing.

*Pastry cream: work with the egg/sugar mixture on the right-hand side (if you’re right-handed like me); pour milk with the left hand, whisk with the right.

*Cake assembly: I would probably put more syrup on the cut-side of the top of the cake so that it would have been a bit sweeter. Also, press the top of the cake firmly to make sure filling will be smooth on the sides of the cake and don’t mess around with the whip cream topping too much or it’ll look ugly. Still tastes good though!

Experiment #1: Experimental Procedure

The key part in designing this experimental procedure is timing; I need to plan out how long each component will take so that I can still have time to do other things. Of course, I’m going to need to make the cake base and the pastry cream first, and since the cake needs to be completely cooked before I cut it, I’ll make that one first. The pastry cream can still be warm because I need to warm it up in the making of the filling anyway.

I’ve also made a few procedural edits to make things easier for me (like preparing the egg mix before concentration on the making the milk mixture in the pastry cream, which can be easy to burn). I used to adjust the procedures for my chemistry labs too so that things would go more smoothly for me in the experiment (and many times, safer too). Also, I recommend reading though the results/discussion section to get some tips on what I did during the experiment to make it work (and the lessons I learned from things that didn’t work!)

Total time: ~2 ½ - 3 hrs. (including cooling time)

(Adapted from Tartine by Elizabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson)
Part 1: Génoise Cake Base
The recipe given below makes one 10” cake, which will be split into two to assemble the entire cake.
Ingredients
5 Tbsp of unsalted butter
1 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp of cornstarch
6 large eggs
A pinch of salt
1 cup + 1 Tbsp of sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350oC and line a 10” x 3” springform pan (bottom x side) with parchment paper.

2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Set aside and keep warm.

3. Sift together the flour and cornstarch and set aside.

4. Get a saucepan that is big enough to fit the mixing bowl of your stand mixer without it touching the bottom of the pan. Fill the pan with ~2” water, but don’t let the bowl touch the water. Heat over medium heat until the water reaches a simmer.

5. In the meanwhile, combine the eggs, salt and sugar into your mixing bowl. Whisk together and place it over the saucepan of water. Keep on whisking until the mixture is hot to the touch (120oF), which will take 5-7 minutes.

6. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and place into mixer stand. Using the whisk attachment, mix on medium-high speed (“8” on my KitchenAid mixer) until the batter is: 1. pale yellow; 2. tripled in volume and 3. drips off the whisk in wide ribbons that dissolves slowly back into the surface of the batter. (see below)


7. When the batter is ready, fold in the flour/cornstarch mixture (step 3) in 3 batches into the batter. Mix from bottom to top to ensure even distribution of flour. [Elizabeth advises not to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl wall to remove any flour that ends up along the sides, but instead, to spread the batter along the sides of the bowl to incorporate the flour stuck on the sides. This will help prevent lumps in the batter.]

8. Scoop out a small portion of the batter into a bowl and whisk in the melted butter (step 2). Then mixed the butter/batter mixture back to the main batch of batter, mixing carefully as to not to deflate the batter.

9. Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan (step 1). Bake for ~40-45 minutes, or when the top of the cake springs back slightly when pressed. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack.

Go ahead and prepare the pastry cream while the cake cools.

Part 2: Pastry Cream
This recipe makes 2 ½ cups of cream…perfect because that’s how much I need to assemble the entire cake!
Ingredients
2 cups of whole milk
½ a vanilla bean
¼ tsp of salt
3-4 Tbsp of cornstarch
½ cup + 1 Tbsp of sugar
2 large eggs
4 Tbsp of unsalted butter

1. Have a bowl and a fine-mesh sieve handy for when the pastry cream is finished.

2. In another bowl (preferably one that has a rubber-grip bottom), whisk together cornstarch and sugar (more cornstarch if you want a stiffer cream). Add eggs and whisk till smooth.

3. In a heavy saucepan, add the milk, vanilla bean scrapings, and salt, and heat on medium-high heat until the mixture is just under a boil. Stir occasionally to make sure that the milk does not burn or stick to the bottom.

4. When the milk mixture has almost reached a boil, slowly ladle 1/3 of it into the egg mixture (step 2), whisking constantly (the rubber grip on the bottom of the bowl should help with the challenge of pouring and whisking at the same time).

5. Pour the egg/milk mixture back into the hot milk, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens (~2 minutes). Continue heating until the mixture is just starting to boil (you should see a few bubbles); be careful not to heat too vigorously or the eggs will curdle.

6. Once the mixture just starts to boil, immediately remove it from the heat and pour the cream through the sieve into the bowl (step 1). (Use a spoon to push the cream through the sieve if its too slow). Cool and stir occasionally to prevent a “skin” of cream from forming on the top.

7. When the pastry cream has cooled to ~140oF (10 minutes), whisk in the butter, one tablespoon at a time. Make sure the butter is well-incorporated into the mix before adding the next.

Part 3: Assembling the cake
Ingredients
1 Génoise cake (Part 1)
Assorted berries, stems removed

Fruit puree or liquor syrup:
½ pint of berries + ¼ cup of sugar + a pinch of salt
or
½ -2 tablespoons of sugar + ½ cup of water + 2-4 tablespoons of fruit-flavored liquor

Filling:
1 ½ tsp of gelatin
1 tsp of water
2 ½ cup of Pastry Cream (Part 2)
2 cups of heavy cream (very cold)

Topping:
1 ½ cups of heavy cream (very cold)
4 tsp of sugar

1. Using a serrated knife, slice the génoise cake in half horizontally using a sawing motion.

2. I decided to go with a liquor-based syrup to moisten the cake instead of the fruit-puree (what can I say, I like liquor ;)). To do this, put ½ cup of sugar minus 2 tablespoons into a small saucepan. Add ½ cup of water and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Cool in fridge then add 2-4 tablespoons of your liquor of choice (mine was Grand Marnier). If you want to make the fruit puree, blend the berries, sugar, and salt in a blender until smooth.

3. To prepare the filling: prepare the gelatin by adding 1 ½ tsp. of gelatin with 1 tablespoon of water (gelatin will absorb all the water to form a gel). Then take ½ cup of the pastry cream you just made and add it to a stainless steel bowl over a saucepan of water (I used the same one that I used for making the pastry cream). Warm over medium heat, whisking constantly until hot to the touch (120oF; 5 minutes). Add the moist gelatin, and whisk until it is completely added. Remove the bowl from the water bath and add in the remaining pastry cream in two batches.

4. In a mixing bowl, whip with stand mixer on medium-high setting (“8” on my Kitchenaid mixer) the heavy cream until it holds medium-stiff peaks (see below). Then fold gently into the pastry cream with pastry cream.

5. To assemble the cake, place one half of the cake base in the bottom of a springform pan lined with plastic wrap (see results and discussion below). Moisten the cake with the prepared syrup of fruit puree with a pastry brush. Add ~1/2 of the pastry cream and even out with rubber spatula. Add the prepared fruit (I used whole strawberries and blueberries, pushing the stemless end of the strawberries into the cream).


5. To assemble the cake, place one half of the cake base in the bottom of a springform pan lined with plastic wrap (see results and discussion below). Moisten the cake with the prepared syrup of fruit puree with a pastry brush. Add ~1/2 of the pastry cream and even out with rubber spatula. Add the prepared fruit (I used whole strawberries and blueberries, pushing the stemless end of the strawberries into the cream).

6. Add the remaining filling and smooth over fruit. Moisten the last layer of cake and place it on top of the filling. Press gently into the pan to smooth out the filling. Wrap up the cake and refrigerate for 4 hours or preferably overnight.

7. When ready to serve the cake, prepare the topping by whipping the heavy cream in a stand mixer until thickened, then add sugar and continue whipping until the cream holds soft peaks. Using a rubber spatula, transfer cream onto cake and smooth out with off-set spatula.

Experiment #1: Summer Fruit Bavarian

*Note about my titles: I have labeled each section of my baking experiments as I did when I was taking chemistry lab; we were required to prepare for the labs ahead of time by writing a pre-lab and procedure so that we would know what to do when we got into lab. After the experiment was done, we would do our calculations, analysis etc., then we would have to reflect on the success of our experiment by writing a results and discussion, and a conclusion. Ask anyone that’s ever taken chemistry and they can tell you that laboratory is very time consuming! But it helped me develop some good lab skills as a chemist and I think it’s a good guide for me to learn/grow as a baker!*

Pre-Lab

The first task in starting my experiment was to pick a recipe to try; not an easy first task given the many delicious-looking treats in the book. I have the tendency to overwhelm myself with too many recipes at once, so I decided to pick the Summer Fruit Bavarian cake, which incorporates several components to keep me busy, but the end result is only one cake (good; I don’t need more than one cake in my stomach!)

I had never heard of the term Bavarian until I picked up this book but after reading it’s description as a cooked fruit-and cream or an egg-and-cream filling, I realized that I’ve probably had it sometime in my sweet-eating quests, but never knew what it was called. The cake is composed of a cake base, either a Génoise or Chiffon, the first being a French egg-based cake and the second being a lighter American cake made with lots of egg whites. Since the author Elizabeth Prueitt mentioned in her intro that she typically interviews new bakers by asking them to make a génoise and a pastry cream, I thought that I should go with the génoise (hey you never know) and of course the Pastry Cream, which is stabilized with gelatin to make the filling. I’ve never worked with gelatin before (except making Jello, if that counts), and I took it for granted what it was exactly, so I looked it up and found out that it’s a protein related to collagen (I know, that’s bio, not chemistry!)

OK so to prep for this experiment, I read the recipes for the Summer Fruit Bavarian, Génoise and the Pastry Cream. But not just reading, but actually studying and visualizing each step and trying to get myself organized for this endeavor. I looked at what equipment I needed to get, how many pints of heavy cream I would need to buy overall, and which bowls I would need to use (and when I would have to re-wash them during the process since I don’t have the luxury of having a bakery’s worth of equipment). Most importantly, I have to see what steps I need to do first (see Experimental Procedure in the next post). Funny, I do this when I’m setting up real experiments in the lab too; I have to order the right amounts of the chemicals I need and get all my equipment lined up so that they are ready to use at the time I need them. Only difference is that I can’t eat what I make in the lab. :P

From Chemist to Baker

GraceFace is my college nickname (though I'm not quite certain which of my friends came up with it)... In any case, all my friends know me to have a major sweet tooth; I am a firm believer that there is ALWAYS room for dessert ;) and I have not been shy to reveal the number of root canals I have survived over the years (3).

And so it is natural that started learning how to bake my favorite sweet treats once I had my own kitchen to experiment. By day I was working in the chemistry lab trying to make new drugs (legit one I assure you) and by night, I was baking cookies and tarts and cakes (oh my!). I brought so many baked goods to work that my co-workers called me "Betty Crocker" (I think that was a compliment!)

And so after almost 7 years of being a chemist, I am finally going to transition myself to baking, which is surprisingly not so different from what I learned in college. While I dream about professional pastry school, I'm going to practice making fancy sweet treats on my own. My source of inspiration comes from a lovely bakery here in San Francisco called Tartine. Though I've only eaten there once, the beauty of the pastries in their book is inspiring and this is where I will begin my baking journey!