Buttered rum pudding, a poor man's pudding no more

"Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Kerrygold" is what I read on My Baking Addiction's site. Quite the invitation if you ask me! I think I can handle a butter-themed event. I love butter (especially brown butter, as demonstrated by my embarrassing lack of poetry skills). One of my favorite ways to serve butter is melted on top of fresh and crispy air-popped popcorn. Given the season, just on the cusp of the time for Christmas baking, I veered in a completely different direction than buttered popcorn and was immediately hooked on the idea of buttered rum. It also just so happens that I ate at Au Pied de Cochon last week, where I devoured a giant portion of "pudding chômeur" (ie poor man's pudding; a "chômeur" is an unemployed person). This Québecois "pudding" involves a knob of cake batter that is baked in a pool of delicious maple and cream sauce. The pudding is served bubbling hot. It's gloriously sweet and I'm pretty sure that this pudding could ruin your perfect record of cavity-free visits at the dentist's office. That's okay because this pudding is worth every stinging cavity. It is the epitome of comfort food in Quebec. It feeds my sugar addiction every time. As two of my cousins shared one serving of the pudding, I gobbled my one serving by myself. There was no sharing of this pudding. I took in every last drop of molten sugar and I don't regret even one ounce of it.
My creation for this butter-themed event combined two elements that I heart: buttered rum and pudding chômeur. I felt like this was a winning combination, and I was honestly surprised that nobody (according to my googling) had baked up this combination before today. Sure, it's a deviation from the traditional, but I think it is a very respectable, and respectful deviation. I think this pudding should be honored to be made with a little extra butter and rum. Together, they bring this pudding to a new level. Perhaps the poor man's pudding will be able to overcome its rank and change it's stars!
I adapted this recipe, which itself was adapted from Martin Picard's Au Pied de Cochon pudding chômeur recipe. The cake batter remains the same (except for the addition of a generous pinch of salt as I believe that cake should always have some salt in it), but I altered the sauce ingredients to include butter, rum, and a pinch of salt. By the way, if you like this recipe, it would be great if you could click on the holiday exchange logo at the bottom of this post, and vote for my entry.

Buttered rum pudding
Yields 4 to 6 (depending how large your ramekins are and depending on how much batter and sauce you aliquot in each)

Ingredients

• 6 oz butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 generous pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups maple syrup
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup rum
• 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
• 1 generous pinch of salt

Cake batter preparation:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the 6 oz. of butter with the sugar.
2. Add the eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl and mix on low until you have a thick batter. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat the mixture one last time.
4. Transfer the mixture to a container, seal, and refrigerate overnight.

Buttered rum sauce preparation:

1. In a large saucepan, pour the maple syrup, cream, and the rum. Add a generous pinch of salt.
2. Add the butter, and stir the mixture on medium heat until the butter is melted.
3. Bring the sauce to a simmer, and continue simmering on low for at least 5 minutes. Stir often, you don't want the sauce to scorch on the bottom.
4. Remove the sauce from the heat and set aside.

Assembly of the puddings:

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F.
2. In each of the large ramekins or oven-proof soup dishes, place a scoop of cake batter.
3. Poor the sauce around the dollop, at least until half way up the dish, but no more than three-quarters full (the more sauce you add at this stage, the more you will have left after baking!). Store any remaining sauce for later (for buttered rum ice cream sundays perhaps...)
4. Place all the filled ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet to catch the drips (the drippings on the pan may burn, this is normal).
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 20–30 minutes (a cake tester should come out clean).
6. Let cool at least 5 minutes before serving (or else you risk a seriously scorched tongue!).
7. Prepare for a buttery sugar-high.

DB: You say crostata, I say galette!

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.
The Italians call it crostata, while the French call it galette. Both are terms for a tart that is often baked free-form, straight on a baking sheet. Both crostatas and galettes are also baked in fluted tart pans. And, just to confuse us all, crostatas and galettes can be filled with a number of different fillings, such as jam, cheese, fresh fruit, etc. The two terms are like umbrellas hiding a number of delicious desserts underneath them. I wish I had time to experiment with them all. Alas, I do not, and I am told that "crostata-exploration" is not a reason to quit my day job. Hmmph! In any case, the suggested dough for this dessert was a "pasta frolla," therefore I figure that finished tart would be called a crostata. Here's the lowdown on how I made my crostata.

The dough was quite easy to prepare. It starts like any all butter pie crust: you incorporate ice cold butter into the flour and sugar so as to obtain a rough crumble texture, without allowing the butter to warm up too much.

Then, you form a well in the center of the mixture and add an egg plus an egg yolk (beaten together)

I used a fork to slowly incorporate the eggs with some of the surrounding flour. This is the tool that I am most comfortable with for this step. When I make fresh pasta, the fork is my tool of choice to incorporate a well of eggs into the surrounding flour walls. I use the fork until the floury egg mixture becomes fairly stiff, then I switch to my hands, until the dough can be kneaded, which I also do by hand. Interestingly, I found the dough quite dry initially. I almost reached for some cold water, as I would do with a pie crust. Instead, I opted to continue working the dough with my hand, patiently. I was rewarded for my patience with a beautifully smooth dough, without adding any water.

After chilling, I rolled the dough and filled a tart pan with it. I opted to use a tart pan because I was making a ricotta-cheese–filled crostata, and I felt the filling may be a little too liquidy for a free-form crostata. I let the lined tart pan chill in the fridge while I prepared the filling.

I prepared the filling (recipe source: Good Taste, June 2007) by mashing/whisking together the ingredients. If I had a larger food processor, I would have used that, but I don't.

I then docked the tart shell (not sure if that was necessary, but I wasn't in the mood to risk unsightly air bubbles!). I then spread a couple tablespoons of homemade carrot and rhubarb jam (which actually tastes exactly like and has the same texture as orange marmalade! Recipe from Well Preserved, my favorite jamming/jellying book) on the bottom of the tart shell. Then, I topped with the ricotta filling, which I streaked with dollops of more jam.

Baked the crostata for 55 minutes.... et voilà! Initially, the filling was quite puffed, but with time it settled nicely.

The crostata turned out great. The pasta frolla crust was excellent, like a crisp, thick cookie. I would definitely use that crust recipe again! The filling was sweet and the jam flavor really came through even though I only used a few tablespoons! My only comment would be that I think the ricotta mixture that I made could have used some orange zest (I meant to add some but I forgot!). It's very rare that I make the comment that a little zest is needed, but I think the zest of a good-sized orange would have been a great addition. Also, I think the filling would have benefited from a quick blend in the food processor to give the finished crostata a finer texture, and maybe a pinch of salt. I wonder if I could have used my blender to make the filling? See, this is why I do need to quit my day-job!

And so concludes another successful DB challenge. Visit the Daring Kitchen site to join in on the monthly fun, as a baker or as a cook, for the recipes of the monthly challenges, or to view what the other DBers baked up this month.

BIC's potato-yogurt bread

The scent of homemade bread baking in the oven is so soothing. The aroma tugs at your heart and clears your mind. When I bake bread, I like to crack the door open about half way through the baking time. I know that this is probably a bread-baking faux pas, but I just can't help it. This is the best way to get the aroma of the fresh bread to fill my home. I'm addicted to this scent. I just have to get a whiff of it once and awhile.

With my recent bread successes courtesy of RLB's Bread Bible, I felt ready to tackle a non-RLB bread recipe, i.e. any typical bread recipe that does not have every minute step and characteristic "RLB-detail" written down. I considered this as a test of sorts to see if I have developed even the slightest instinct in bread baking? The first non-RLB recipe I tackled was from the culinary school at Baltimore International College (BIC). I was quite successful with the pumpkin-cranberry chutney from BIC, so I was pretty confident about BIC's potato-yogurt bread recipe.

The recipe caught my interest because it contained mashed potatoes and yogurt, both of which seemed unusual to me. In the past, I have made potato bread buns using dried mashed potato flakes (the kind that comes in a box), but I had never made bread from freshly boiled and mashed potatoes. The yogurt in the recipe was also intriguing to me. I have often used yogurt in cake batters, and I think that it lends a certain moistness to the finished cake, perhaps a better crumb too. I had no idea what the yogurt would do to bread.

The original recipe called for fresh yeast, but I happened to have instant yeast in my fridge, so I opted to use what I had instead. I used this handy conversion chart to figure out how much instant dry yeast I needed to use in place of the 15 grams of fresh yeast. According to the chart (and assuming I'm reading it correctly), 15 grams fresh yeast corresponds to 1.7 tsp instant dry yeast (so I used a heaping 1.5 tsp of instant dry yeast).

I started by combining warm water (50 mL) with the honey, and adding the yeast to this. I don't know that this is really necessary with instant yeast, but I wanted to make sure that my yeast was still active, since the bottle had been open for a few months. After about 5 minutes, I ended up with a mug of yeasty foaminess.

As my yeast was foaming, I prepared the dry ingredients. I first mixed together all the dry ingredients with the mashed potato, then I added the bubbly yeast and the yogurt to this mix. I didn't follow the recipe for the order of addition of the ingredients, but I preferred to do it this way. I ended up with a very, very dry dough. It would not come together when I kneaded it with my KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook attachment. Finally, I added another 100 mL of water, and the dough came together. It was the toughest-feeling bread dough I have ever made. My KitchenAid mixer was not happy to knead it. I was very concerned I might blow the motor in the process. I left it to knead for only 3 minutes. Even with 3 minutes of kneading, it was pretty dense, and not the elastic, stretchy dough that I was used to from the couple of RLB recipes I had tried. It did, however, pull away from the sides of the bowl, so I continued with the recipe.

I transferred the dough to a greased bowl. I marked it to know how tall it was before I let it rise (this way there are no guessing games when it comes to gauging if the dough has doubled in size!), and I set it in my oven, which was off, but with the oven light on. This way, the dough is sheltered from any drafts, and the oven light slowly heats it up and gives the dough a pleasantly warm environment to grow in.

The dough rose really nicely! It took about 2 hours for the dough to double in size. I can't say that I was really surprised that it took so long, given how dense the dough appeared initially.

I shaped it and let the loaf rise some more.

Then I baked the loaf for the exact amount of recommended time and the finished bread was.... PERFECT! Really!

It had a great texture. It was moist and light inside, but not overly airy (none of those annoying holes that you sometimes end up with in homemade bread). The texture of it made me think that this would be the perfect bread for a sandwich. The crust on the outside was excellent. I was very pleased with the end result, and I was really quite shocked at how good this bread was considering how dense the dough was! Since the recipe required a little tweaking on my part to make it work with the ingredients I had on hand, I think that I passed my personal challenge. I can bake bread! I think my next step will be to come up with a recipe on my own. I think that for now, I'm going to continue practicing with other people's recipes.

BIC's potato-yogurt bread
Yield 1 loaf

• 188 g russet potatoes, peeled, quartered
• 150 mL warm water (not hot, just body temperature)
• 1/2  tablespoons honey
• 1 3/4 tsp instant yeast
• 188 g low-fat yogurt
• 10 g nonfat dry milk
• 75 g whole wheat flour
• 493 g bread flour
• 10 g salt

1. Simmer the potatoes in water until tender.  Drain and steam dry the potatoes in the pot over medium heat for about 5 minutes.  Mash the hot potatoes with a masher.  Allow the potatoes to cool to room temperature.
2. Combine the 150 mL warm water, honey, and the yeast in a small mug.  Set aside for 5 minutes so that it foams.
3. In the mixer bowl, add the mashed potatoes, dry milk powder, flours, and salt. Mix on low speed with the dough hook.
4. Add the foamy yeast mixture.  Knead with a dough hook at medium speed until a smooth dough develops, about 3 minutes.  The dough should cleanly pull away from the sides of the bowl.  Add more water or flour by spoonfuls if the dough is too dry or too wet.
5. Transfer the dough to a greased bowl. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a damp towel and place in a warm area (like the oven with the oven light on).  Allow the dough to rise until it is doubled in bulk and holds an impression for a few seconds when pressed with a finger, about 1–2 hours.
6. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured work surface.  Deflate the dough by kneading it briefly.  Shape into 1 loaf.
7. Cover the loaf with pa damp towel and place in a warm area.  Allow the dough to rise again for about 1 hour.
8. Score the loaf and bake on a sheet pan in 350°F oven until the crust is golden brown, about 1 hour.

Note that I halved the recipe so as to end up with one loaf. The original recipe yielded two loaves.

Remember that BIC provided me with a small stipend for ingredients (for this one as well as the pumpkin cranberry chutney), along with their recipes. At no time did BIC instruct me to give a positive review of their recipe. I was told to be honest and to blog about the recipe, and to give my opinion with a few photos.

A tea soup to soothe the soul

Whenever I'm upset, my mom makes me a hot cup of tea. A hot cup of tea from my mom can lighten the load that I bear on my shoulders, or lift the veil that clouds my heart. A hot cup of tea is a very powerful cure. Today was just one of those days when a hot cup of tea was very necessary. Today was rough. Rough is the only way to describe it. Today started as usual: I got up around 6AM and sleepily made my way to the gym. I had a really good workout and was feeling good, relaxed even. I exited the gym and made my way through a tunnel to the metro. As usual, I was walking against the swarms of business people hurriedly plowing ahead to their jobs. I often have trouble moving forward through this crowd, but I usually stick to the wall, and slowly make it to the metro turnstiles. Today was different. The crowd was not letting me get to the wall so that I could safely move forward. Instead, I was having to weave my way through the people, with my gym and lunch bags over either shoulder. It was difficult, and it got worse when a large woman body checked me. How large? I weigh about 125 pounds. She probably weighed about 200. She slammed into me so hard that my feet flew up from under me and I wound up on my butt on the tunnel floor. The impact resonated up my spine as she took a few more steps forward, while the crowd slowed around me. Then, the female linebacker turned around and said "oops!" with a smirk. She was gone in seconds while I was sitting on the dirty floor of the tunnel. Horrified and disgusted, I yelled to her "seriously?!" as my brain was flooded with a rush of anger. Then I felt myself yanked up by my elbow off the floor and put on my feet. I turned to the man who had picked me up (pretty cute!) and he asked, still firmly gripping my elbow and with a very serious look on his face "are you alright?" I answered "yes, thanks!" and then we parted. I continued my trek through the mob, tears in my eyes. My bum was sore. I was embarrassed even though the witnesses were long gone. I was just plain upset.

By the time I got to work, I had calmed down. And then, the one person at work that I considered a friend got fired. She went to a 9:30AM meeting, never to return. She knew it was coming. She had warned me it was going to happen soon. I was still unprepared. The misery seeped into my soul. I realize that I am not the one who should be miserable. I still have my job; the pay cheques will still roll in every 2 weeks. Nonetheless, I was shocked. I felt very alone. I quietly worked through the day, and then I dragged my feet home, exhausted.

Since today was a day that only a cup of tea could fix, and I needed to make dinner at this point, my solution was to take a cup of tea (or rather a pot of tea) and make soup. I was inspired by a beautiful post on a green tea chicken noodle soup, and another tea-rrecipe for poaching chicken in a broth containing lapsang souchong tea, published in Delicious magazine (Volume 7, issue 4). Conveniently, yesterday, I picked up a fun assortment of mushrooms, including some enokis and shiitakes, perfect for tea soup.

I brewed a pot of tea while I poached two chicken breasts in a chicken broth flavored with more loose-leaf tea, star anise, mirin, and fresh ginger. I also soaked some brown rice noodles in hot water to soften them.

When the chicken was done, I shredded the meat with two forks. I strained the broth into a soup pot containing the prebrewed tea (also strained), then I brought the soup back to a gentle simmer to cook the mushrooms (except for the enokis).

When all the components (shredded chicken, noodles, mushrooms, and broth) were ready, I added each of them to my bowl, topping with the enokis and the broth. I had meant to also add some fresh cilantro, but at the last minute, I forgot.

The soup is slightly sweet (from the mirin) and slightly bitter (from the tea). The licorice flavor of the star anise and spice of the fresh ginger are very subtle, but definitely key.
My flavorful tea soup calmed me.
My friend will find another job and be back on her feet in no time.
The female linebacker will get hers eventually.

Tea soup
Serves 4

• 7 tsp loose-leaf green tea

• 4 tsp loose-leaf green tea
• 1L chicken broth
• 1.5 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 star anise
• 1/4 cup mirin
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (~300 grams)

• 170 grams mixed mushrooms (such as shiitake, oyster, and sliced mini portobello), trimmed
• 100 grams enokis, trimmed
• 100 grams brown rice vermicelli, split in half and softened in hot water

1. Prepare a pot of tea with the 7 tsp loose-leaf and set aside to brew. After steeping for about 10 minutes, strain the tea into a soup pot and leave this to stay warm on medium–low heat on the stove.
2. Prepare the poaching liquid by combining 4 tsp loose-leaf tea with the chicken broth, ginger, star anise, and mirin. Bring this to a simmer, add the chicken breasts, and let them poach for about 15–20 minutes, until they are cooked through.
3. When the chicken is cooked, remove them from the broth and shred them with two forks.
4. Strain the broth into the soup pot containing the strained, prebrewed tea. Bring this to a simmer and add the mushrooms. Simmer for a few mushrooms to cook them to your liking.
5. Divide the cooked vermicelli, enokis, shredded chicken among four soup bowls. Top with the cooked mushrooms and broth. 
6. Enjoy!

P.S. For a lighter tea taste, skip the brewed pot of tea, and simply add boiling water to the strained poaching liquid.

An unusual celery and pear bisque

Fall and winter can be a little deceiving. While the sun shines bright amidst a clear blue sky, the air is actually cold and crisp (as opposed to the hot and humid air from the summer). The transition from summer to winter temperatures can be a little rough, although fall is my favorite season. When the temperatures dip below zero, I begin to fear the cold of winter (as many other Quebecers do). I dread the freezing temperatures because I do most of my trekking around town by foot/public transportation. Although the fall and winter seasons are beautiful, the cold temperatures can make it really difficult to enjoy the outdoors and get around. I have combated the cold weather these last few seasons with a few wardrobe investments. Two years ago, my mom purchased a pair of Ugg boots for me (yep, I've become one of those people) because my toes were constantly frostbitten and would take hours every morning and evening to defrost (Aldo boots, I blame you for the painful months of frostbite and inflammation!). The Ugg boots have definitely helped me out when it's –40°C outside. Now, I've invested in Sorel boots for days when it's cold but also wet outside, when the sun is melting the snow into slush, although the temperatures are still hovering around –10 or –20°C. I feel that, armored with this gear, and some essential layers on top, I should be good to go, and ready to enjoy the end of fall and the brisk winter to come.

 Indoors, I invite fall and winter because these seasons are the perfect excuse for rich soups. A bisque is definitely a fall-appropriate meal, and I was particularly intrigued by the celery and pear bisque from the November 2010 issue of Bon Appétit. The reviews on the website were mixed, many mentioning that the soup was not rich enough to be a bisque, an understandable comment considering the recipe does not call for any cream. I ventured to make it anyways because the flavor combination was just so intriguing.

There is a fair amount of prep-work for this recipe. You have to chop up a pretty large amount of celery, along with a couple pears (I used bosc pears instead of Bartlett), and some leek (I could only find trimmed leeks and therefore only had the white part of the leek to work with for this recipe).

 You also need a simple set of herbs: dried bay leaves and fresh thyme.

When all the ingredients are prepped and measured, then you can begin cooking.

The recipe calls for 4 1/2 tbspns of butter. I opted to use half that amount, along with some olive oil.

 I began by sautéeing the leeks to mellow out their flavor before adding in the other fruits and veggies. I omitted the flour because I felt it was unnecessary.

Then I added the stock (I used vegetable broth) and the herbs, and brought the soup to a boil. I covered it, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmered the soup until the celery was tender, about 20 minutes.

Finally, I puréed the soup in a blender. I made sure to do this with the lid open, covered with just a tea-towel because otherwise you could end up with an explosion of hot soup that splatters everywhere.

Overall, this recipe was not difficult, and it included ingredients that are readily available and local this time of year. My final verdict on this bisque. It is rich and creamy, even though there is no cream to be found. I think the key is the butter. Without it, I don't think it would be the same. Actually, this soup is so rich, I wouldn't eat more than a small serving at one time (which is unusual for me). The flavor and texture of the pear shines through, alongside the celery and the leek. I think adding diced fresh pear as garnish really freshens up and livens the flavor of this bisque. This is definitely a great fall recipe.

This bisque is my next submission for Magazine Mondays.