Brown Butter Madeleines

Usually, it's the simplest treats that I enjoy the most.  Nondescript little seashell shaped cakes. When you bite into one of these petite, French cakes you can't help but close your eyes and smile. They are that good. You'll want to eat the batter with a spoon.  A big spoon.  But try to wait until they are baked because they get even better. Custardy, rich  golden and nutty.  Flecked with vanilla bean seeds.  They are at once light and dense.  Dunk them in your coffee or, better yet, do like Proust and dunk them in your tea.  It is easy to understand why he made such a fuss over these sweet little cakes.

Brown Butter Madeleines
makes 2 dozen
(adapted from this recipe)

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter + more for greasing the pan
4 eggs, at room temperature
1/8 tsp kosher salt
2/3 cup sugar
the seeds from one vanilla bean (or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract)
3/4 cup flour + more for dusting the pan

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with a rack set in the middle position.  Generously butter a madeleine pan and then dust with flour.  Set pan aside.

In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Continue to cook the butter until it turns brown and smells fragrant and nutty, approximately 25 minutes.  Keep a close eye on the butter as it can burn quickly.  Turn off the heat and pour the butter through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Allow the strained butter to sit and cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment (or in a large bowl using a hand mixer), beat the eggs and salt on high speed until they become quite thick and frothy, about 5 minutes.  With the mixer still on high, slowly add in the sugar.  Continue to beat for another 2 minutes.  Turn off the mixer and gently fold in the vanilla seeds or extract, using a rubber spatula.  Gently sprinkle in the flour and fold that into the mixture. Pour in the cooled butter and fold that into the mixture, being sure to incorporate everything evenly.

Transfer the batter to a liquid measuring cup and pour the batter into each madeleine mold, being sure not to over-fill.  (Molds should be about 2/3 full).  Bake for 14 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Remove warm cakes from the pan immediately and allow to cool on a wire rack, scalloped side up. Carefully, re-butter and flour the pan and bake the second batch.

Normal sized madeleine pans hold 12 cakes.  Find your pan at a baking supply store or online.  

Fresh vanilla seed gives these treats amazing flavor.  Slice the bean in half and then run the blade of your knife down the middle to scrape out all of the seeds.  

Some people like them glazed or dusted with sugar but I like them just the way they are.

Soba Noodle Soup

Sometimes you just need to enjoy something, well, brothy.  A healthy, light, brothy soup.  Just to feel better.  Whether I'm feeling under the weather or just in need of a light meal, a restorative and comfortable bowl of steaming hot soup always hits the spot.  A few ingredients and some store bought broth can turn an often times bland dish into a nourishing and delicious meal.  A riff on Vietnamese pho, this soup is flavored with star anise, ginger, lemongrass and cinnamon.  Shiitake mushrooms give the soup a rich meaty flavor, while the buckwheat soba noodles add an addictive nuttiness.  Spicy, healthy, feel-good food.  A bowl of hot soup always makes things better.

Soba Noodle Soup
serves 4

3-4 oz soba noodles
6 cups store-bought vegetable broth
4-5 star anise pods
1 cinnamon stick
4 lemongrass stalks, tough ends removed
1 two-inch knob of ginger, cut in half
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 pint of shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and thinly sliced
1 hot pepper (preferable thai) thinly sliced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
lime wedges for serving
cheese cloth
kitchen twine

In a medium to large sauce pot, boil water for cooking the soba.  Once boiling, add the soba and cook for 4 minutes.  Drain noodles into a colinder and rinse 2-3 times with cold water.  Set aside and allow to drain.

Add the broth to a soup pot or large dutch oven set over medium-high heat. Carefully bruise the lemongrass stalks by pounding them with a meat tenderizer or using the flat side of a chopping knife and pounding it with the heel of your hand. You will notice that this releases the juice from the stalks.  Lay out your cheese cloth (you'll only need about a 6x6 inch square) and place your lemongrass, star anise, cinnamon stick and ginger on top.  Wrap the cheese cloth around the spices to form a bundle and tie tightly at the top with kitchen twine.  Place the bundle into the broth, along with the chopped shallot and garlic, and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes (the longer it simmers, the more flavor you get). Turn the heat back up to high, add the soy sauce, sliced hot pepper and sliced shitakes and allow to boil for 5 minutes.  Turn the heat off, add the cooked noodles and serve with lime and fresh cilantro.

Note:  This soup is even better heated up the next day.

Earthy shiitake mushrooms give this soup an almost meaty flavor.

Soba noodles, packed with buckweat flour.  Nutty, filling and  healthy.

It's amazing what a few flavorings can do for this soup.

Feel-good food at its best.

Honey & Pine Nut Tart

Spring is here, technically.  In Minneapolis there is still snow on the ground, ice patches to avoid and that all too familiar chill in the air.  Ugh. I'm trying to be patient.  It's hard.  In the meantime, I made a tart.  Not only does this tart have the honor of being one of my husband's most requested desserts, but as an added bonus, its flavors are eerily capable of transporting my mind to another place... a warmer place.  One bite and I am taken to a Tuscan villa.  A long wooden table is set under a cloudless early evening sky. It is packed with great friends, heaping platters of family-style dishes and many opened bottles of wine.  At the end of this magical dinner, a rustic tart is passed around the table, accompanied by a gently whipped rosemary steeped cream. The perfect ending to a perfect dinner on a perfectly warm evening.  Sigh.  Alright, back to reality and this tart is still sublime.  The rich, piney flavor of the toasted pine nuts marries perfectly with the creamy honey custard filling.  A slightly sweet and tart rosemary steeped cream plays off the flavor of the pine nuts remarkably well.  This dessert is elegant, beautiful, complexly flavored and most importantly, completely irresistible.  Glancing out the window, I still see the remnants of winter, but just a slice of this decadent tart and I am reminded that spring is just around the corner.

Honey & Pine Nut Tart with Rosemary Cream
(tart adapted from this recipe)

for the tart crust:
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 sticks (10 Tbsp) cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

for the tart filling:
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup honey
1 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 Tbsp) cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cups pine nuts, toasted

for the rosemary cream:
1 cup heavy cream
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 Tbsp créme fraiche
1 Tbsp sugar

note:  you will need a 10 inch tart pan with removable bottom for this recipe.

for the crust:
In a small bowl, whisk together the cream, egg, egg yolk and vanilla.  Set aside.  In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.  Pulse a few times until dry ingredients are combined.  Add the cold butter and pulse mixture until it has the texture of coarse meal.  In a slow, steady stream, pour in the cream and egg mixture with the machine running.  Process until the dough just comes together (the dough may be a bit crumbly).  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and divide into two discs.  Wrap each disc in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate one disc for 30 minutes.  (Freeze the extra disc of dough for a future use).

One the dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 325 degrees.  Generously flour your rolling pin and surface and roll the dough out to a 12'' circle, just larger than the tart pan.  The dough should be about 1/8 inch thick.  As you roll, move your dough around to prevent it from sticking to your surface. Carefully transfer the dough to the tart pan and gently press it in evenly, leaving no holes.  If the dough forms holes or cracks, simply patch them up with excess dough.  When you've finished pressing the dough into the pan, run your rolling pin over the top of the pan to cleanly cut off any excess dough.  Place the prepared pan in the freezer while you make the tart filling.

for the filling:
In a medium sauce pan, bring the honey, sugar and salt to a boil over medium-high heat.  Whisk until the sugar dissolves.  Add the cold, cubed butter and continue whisking until the butter has melted and incorporated into the mixture.  Remove pan from the heat and allow to cool for 30 minutes.  Once cooled, whisk in the cream, egg and egg yolk.

Remove prepared tart pan from the freezer and place it on a rimmed baking sheet.  Pour the pine nuts into the tart pan, spreading them evenly.  Pour the honey custard mixture over the pine nuts.  Bake the tart for 1 hour.  The center of the tart may still be a bit wobbly, but should be golden brown.  Allow tart to cool completely before removing the tart from the pan.  Serve at room temperature with rosemary cream (below).

for the rosemary cream:
In a small sauce pan, bring 1/2 cup of the heavy cream and 2 rosemary sprigs to a slow simmer over medium heat.  Once bubbling, turn off the heat and allow the cream to steep for about 15 minutes. Transfer cream and rosemary to the refrigerator to cool completely.  Once cooled, strain the cream into a large bowl.  Add the additional 1/2 cup of cream and whip (using a whisk or hand mixer) until it just begins to thicken.  Add the sugar and créme fraiche.  Continue to whip until thick but not stiff.  You still want the cream to have movement.

Pulse cold butter into the flour mixture.

Your dough may appear dry and crumbly but don't worry, it is supposed to look this way.

Whisk the cold butter into the boiling honey syrup.  The beginnings of an amazing custard-like filling.

Toasted pine nuts add an unexpected warmth and richness to this dessert.

Spread pine nuts out onto the bottom of the unbaked shell and then fill with the cooled honey custard.  

Fresh rosemary-steeped cream.   Whip it into a soft and flavorful topping.  

Slice, top with cream and bring on spring.

Chocolate Bouchons

I first learned of chocolate bouchons from my beloved Thomas Keller cookbook of the same name. Traditionally baked in cork-sized molds (bouchon is French for cork), these decadent morsels are meant to be tiny, two-bite treats.  For my first batch of bouchons I decided to buck tradition and make mine a bit bigger, one, because I can certainly eat more than a corks worth of chocolate cake and, two, because I don't own a bouchon tin. Well, I'm very happy with my results and, as far as I'm concerned, the more bouchon the better.  These cakes are incredibly rich, luscious and unabashedly chocolaty.  They melt in your mouth with their densely moist cake and splattering of chocolate chunks. Make these for anyone who adores dark chocolate and you'll have a friend for life.  Make them for dessert at your next dinner party and your guests will swoon. Believe me, you will be glad you made these cakes a bit larger than a cork.  

Dark Chocolate Bouchons

adapted from the recipe in Bouchon by Thomas Keller

makes 15 cakes 

3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 

2 tsp fine fleur de sel or kosher salt

1 tsp espresso powder

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 sticks unsalted butter, melted

6 oz dark chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour a 12 count muffin tin plus half of a 6 count muffin tin. Set tins aside.

Melt butter in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat.  Once butter is melted, remove pot from stove to cool slightly.  Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, sift together the flower, cocoa, salt and espresso powder.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl using a hand mixer) beat the sugar and eggs at medium speed for 5 minutes or until thickened and light in color.  Add the vanilla extract and turn the speed to low.  Continuing on low speed, add in half of the dry mixture followed by half of the melted butter.  Add the rest of the dry mixture and finish by adding the remaining butter.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and using a rubber spatula, mix in the chopped chocolate.  Make sure batter is thoroughly mixed.

Using an ice-cream scoop, portion a scoop of the batter into each of the 15 prepared cups.  Bake for 23-25 minutes or until the tops are a bit cracked and no longer wet to the touch.  Allow cakes to sit in the tins for a few minutes and once they are cool enough to handle, transfer the cakes to a wire rack to finish cooling.  If necessary, use a small offset spatula to carefully coax the cakes out of the tins.  

If using, pour powdered sugar into a fine mesh sieve and gently shake over the cooling cakes.  

note: this recipe can easily be doubled

These cakes have a lot of butter but don't worry, they are so worth it.

Chopped dark chocolate.  It doesn't matter if you start with chocolate bars, chips or  callets.  I prefer chocolate with 60-75% cocoa solids for ultimate richness.    

Mix the chopped chocolate into the surprisingly thick and fudgy batter.

Bake until just done and perfectly moist in the middle. 

You've just got to try them.  Chocolate heaven.