Day 23: Bananas and Cherries with Chocolate Frosting
Today’s dish is half a lesson in lazy and half a lesson in flavor pairings.
I had frosting. I needed fruit to pair with it. however not just any fruit would do. When you start to notice food beyond the “stuff in mouth” school of study, it becomes clear that certain combinations of flavors seem more popular then others. Raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, and strawberry, commonly called fruits of the forest, are an excellent example. Here I had to pair with chocolate. While I’ve seen chocolate paired with such things as chillies and caviar, I decided to go with two of the classic pairings.
Day 22: Blackberry Grunt
A grunt is a dessert from New England. The name grunt supposedly comes from the sound it makes when the fruit filling bubbles up through the crust while baking. Similar to a cobbler, it’s basically biscuit dough put on top of a fruit filling. Here we have a fruit filling of water, blackberries, ginger and sugar. The crust is good old southern buttermilk biscuit dough just placed on top of the filling and then baked in the oven. Traditionally these are made entirely on the stove, but I didn’t feel like taking up the range with this.
Day 20: Fudge Cake
This cake is rather strange from most cakes. Made from scratch, it has sour cream and boiling water added into it. When the butter and brown sugar were creamed, the butter disappeared into the sugar rather then the usual method. This was due to using much more sugar then butter.
This results in a batter that is very lose and runny for a cake batter. And a cake that is incredibly gooey in the middle when the cake is done. I had to left it cool for several hours in order for the center to come together. Next time I am just going to put it into the refrigerator.
The frosting is a mixture of semisweet milk and white chocolate, whipping cream, butter, and confectioner’s sugar. Today I learned that frosting is a real pain in the ass to make from scratch. I’m not even sure if i did it right.
Taste wise the cake is moist and has an interesting flavor. The chocolate is less pronounced then most chocolate cakes, which all seem to be aimed a chocoholics. The way I poured the cake lead to it having separate sections, getting less like a cake and closer in texture to fudge the closer you go to the center. I like the effect, even though it was completely accidental.
Still this cake was something of a pain in the ass to bake and I may be on the search for a differing approach.
Day 15: Blueberry Shortcake
If cooking is playing with science, baking is the field of chemistry. The addition of one additional ingredient can drastically alter the composition of a baked dish. Utilizing too much flour for kneading can result in horrible disfigurement to the dough you have been working on. It is a place of absolutes and hard rules that you don’t break ever. Because you’re playing with Mother Nature and when you make her mad bad things happen.
Here we have what in the America would be referred to as a type of biscuit (different from the European conception). The primary defining feature of foods referred to as biscuits or baked in the method of one is adding solid fat (better, shortening, or lard are the most common.) Biscuits include scones, cobblers, dumplings, and the current example shortbread.
Here it’s made into a decadently sweet desert when topped with a blueberry mixture along with whipped cream. The raspberry gelato adds further to the whole “fruits of the forest” vibe.
Day 3: Pineapple Upside-Down Cake topped with Pineapple Slices, Maraschino Cherries, and Pecans
Today’s dish is a varient of a classic piece of Americana. This cake was baked in a 12-inch cast iron skillet, which allowed for a dark brown sugar/butter mixture to be dissolved in it before adding the mandatory pineapple slices/maraschino cherries and pouring the batter on top. The heat from the oven will cause this mixture to harden into the topping. This topping is a hop, skip, and jump away from actual candy, eliminating the need for any type of frosting. It also tastes sublime.
The cake itself is simple flour, eggs, sugar, baking powder, and salt base with the addition of pineapple juice for flavor and sweetness. The batter was not creamed fully as in a normal cake, but rather combined until it incorporated like a muffin. This creates more air pockets and a coarser texture then a normal cake. It also incorporates much less sugar then a usual cake due to the incorporation of pineapple juice and a desire for a less sweet and tender bottom to compliment the sweet topping.
Yes, the cherries are those kinds from a jar that you put in cocktails. But for this recipe it doesn’t feel the same with anything else.
