Best Dessert Atlanta 05/09/2011
Well, it is official, a new winner as been crowned at the Best Dessert Atlanta. I had the pleasure of working with some great women at Adoption Discovery (www.adoptiondiscovery.org) to assist putting this event together. We had seven of the best pastry chefs compete head to head with some fantastic desserts. No, yours truly did not compete; since I've won it two years in a row I was asked to be a judge this time. However, I did have lots of fun demonstrating desserts featuring brown butter for the VIPs. We made some Almond Madeleines, a Spiced Pumpkin cake with Brown butter & Cream cheese frosting topped with Salted Maple Caramel, & last but definitely not least, a Praline Pecan Tart. And by special request, you will find the Praline Tart recipe at the bottom of this post. But back to the Best Dessert, we had some great chefs there.  Kirk Parks from Rathbuns  Zeb Stevenson Zeb Stevenson from Livingston (at The Georgian Terrace) made a Strawberry Terrine with pistachio foam and ginger pop rocks. Brittany Emerson from Woodfire Grill make a Strawberry Shortcake with vanilla croutons, lemon verbena cream, strawberry jam, and pickled rhubarb. Kirk Parks from Rathbun's made a Beer Battered Whoopie Smore with Malted Milk Marshmallow.  Beer Battered Whoopie Smore  Jeff Pfeiffer Jeff Pfeiffer from Bistro Niko made a Rhum Baba ala Martinique. Alon Balshan from Alon's made a Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch cake. And the People's Choice winner, Chrysta Umberger from 4th & Swift made a Sticky Toffee Pudding. And now, drumroll please................................  Lisa's award winning dessert The winner of the Celebrity Judge panel was Lisa Smith from BluePoint; who made a Yuzu Chibouste with a passion fruit center served with candied citrus zest, passion fruit caramel, and a couple of gingersnaps. Now I know your mouth is watering, and if you are kicking yourself for not attending this event keep your eyes and ears open for information about the next Best Dessert competition happening in September, featuring the best Catering companies Atlanta has to offer.  Lisa Smith (on the left) and Chrysta Umberger (on the right)  Adoption Discovery in Chocolate Special thanks to Natasha Capper, Callebaut's Chocolate Ambassador; who made a beautiful chocolate sculpture and presented a "Bean to Bar" seminer for the VIPs in attendance. Thanks to my culinary student volunteers; you were all a great asset and I hope you enjoyed the experience. Thanks to the celebrity judges who so graciously sampled all the desserts and for some, more than once. And I have heard that we reached the $25,000 goal for Adoption Discovery; thank you to all that attended and made it such a great event.  Culinary Students  Praline Pecan Tart And now what I know you are all waiting for, or just scrolled straight to the bottom for: the recipe for the Praline Pecan tart. Ingredients: One par-baked tart or pie shell 1 large egg 4 oz golden brown sugar 1/2 cup golden syrup 1/4 cup heavy cream 1/4 tsp salt 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted 2 oz brown butter (*see note below) **Note: The 2 oz is by weight cold brown butter, then melted in a small saucepan over low heat. You want your shell par-baked so that it is fully cooked by the end of the baking process. Then simply whisk the egg and brown sugar in a medium bowl until well blended. Then add the golden syrup, heavy cream, and salt. Whisk until combined; then stir in the pecans. Pour the filling into a warm crust, distributing the pecans evenly. Bake the tart at 350 degrees until filling is browned and slightly puffy (25 - 27 minutes). The center will still be wiggly and will set as it cools. Let it cool for at least 2 hours, if you try and cut into it right away all the filling will ooze out. Please let me know if you have any questions and thank you for visiting my site. Keep your ovens and hearts warm. Add Comment Atlanta Underground Market 03/29/2011
 We were at the most recent Underground Market this past weekend. This was our first time, and the second time for the Market itself. The first time it was held at the Sweet Auburn Curb Market and this time at Castleberry Hill. The Atlanta Underground Market is based of a similar concept out in San Francisco; you can go to www.atlantaundergroundmarket.com for more information. We stepped outside the box for the event and made scones. My thought was that there were already several dessert booths available I would offer an item you could have for breakfast the next day. I made lemon-blueberry, irish cream with currants & walnuts, and applewood smoked bacon-cheddar topped with poppy seeds. I also had a few oatmeal blueberry cookies for sale as well; since I paid my help in cookies I had some left over. The cookies were a huge success, everyone loved them. Even a few of you who were leary of them gave them a shot and wanted more! I wish the scones had done as well. We had a great location next to a table who made a great dish: roast beef with mushroom gravy and truffled mashed potatoes. To be honest, I could have just eaten the potatoes over and over again. There were some great people there and some great dishes. Unfortunately, I think the rain kept a lot of people away. The sun made a brief appearance at dusk and lit up the room before disappearing for the evening. Everyone was gracious and eager to share their wares.  Scones: (from top to bottom) Lemon-blueberry, Irish Cream, & Bacon-cheddar  Oatmeal-blueberry cookies I wish I had an opportunity to take more pictures and I will next time. Thanks to everyone who helped with this event. And a big thank you to my husband, without his support I couldn't do this! I love you honey! Look for me at the Patty Cakes competition this Sunday in Decatur, Ga. Go to http://www.pattycakescompetitions.blog.com/ for more details; it is free to come in and try all kinds of goodies and to see some great cakes. I hope to see you there. Share Our Strength Bake Off 03/06/2011
 Well, this past week has been an exciting one for me. I competed in Share our Strength's Great American Baking Contest at Le Cordon Bleu this past Wednesday; and if you haven't heard already I took 2nd place. Now this is a big deal for me since last year I didn't place at all.  There were 4 different categories for this competition: children, amateur, culinary student, and professional. The student category is new this year, and a great addition. A student entry won the people's vote for best tasting: a rose water chiffon cake with saffon whipped cream frosting topped with chopped pistachios. Please forgive me, I cannot remember all the great entries; I believe there were over 40 entries for the entire event. There were so many to try and I had to pace myself. There were cupcakes, cookies, tarts, pies, cakes, and even a cinnamon roll ring.  I entered a Gluten-free Tres Leches Mixed Berry cake with toasted meringue frosting into the professional category, and I knew there would be some stiff competition when I saw Chrysta (Pastry Chef @ 4th & Swift) standing in the kitchen. There were 6 entries in the professional category; some I recognized and others I did not.  Chrysta (4th & Swift), Jennifer (Pricci), Lisa (Bluepoint), and myself.  Chrysta's Valhrona chocolate decadence took 3rd place.  My Tres Leches took 2nd.  1st place: a Key Lime Curd Cheesecake  The judges for the professional and student categories were Mary Moore (Cook's Warehouse) and Todd Kazenske (Le Cordon Bleu). The judges for the amateur and kids categories were Jennifer Etchison Pastry Chef of Pricci, Heather Hurlbert Executive Pastry Chef, Cherokee Town and Country Club Contestant on Bravo’s "Top Chef Just Desserts", and Jennifer Turknett Dining Team Member for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I have to admit I was really excited to see Heather Hurlbert again. She is such a nice person and great Pastry Chef. I want to wish Chrysta and Lisa good luck, they are both auditioning for the next "Top Chef Just Desserts" competition.  Heather Hurlbert and myself.  You can visit www.strength.org to learn more about this great organization; and even learn how you can hold your own bake sale to end childhood hunger. Black Bananas, what do you do? 02/09/2011
 How many times has this happened to you? Everyone I know buys bananas, they are inexpensive and the easiest fruit to eat on the go. However, you always have one or two that don't make it. They end up black and yucky, but what if you could make something delicious from them? I know everyone has their favorite banana bread recipe, but what if you could make brownies or scones? Check out www.finecooking.com for a great article about bananas and several fantastic recipes. I tried a few and they were a smashing success!  One of the recipes in the magazine is Banana Split Brownies; according to the article they are "like a classic banana split, minus the ice cream". One change I will make in the future is to use a baking sheet not a glass dish. The recipe called for a square 9-inch metal pan (which I did not have), but I used a 9-inch glass baking dish and unfortunately the sides baked faster than the center. The brownies were thicker than I would have liked and that is why I plan to use a baking sheet next time.  One of the highlights of this recipe is its use of brown butter! I love browned butter, I swear it makes everything better. In fact, on a side note, my mother is testing the use of brown butter in her sugar cookie recipe; I'm waiting to hear the results. I keep browned butter stocked in my fridge so I didn't have to take the extra time to make it for this recipe, I simply used the 8 oz called for in the recipe. Please don't feel intimidated whenever a recipe calls for browned butter, simply take a little extra time and some patience. For your first time, I suggest using unsalted butter; this will take a little longer but will not burn as quickly!  Now the recipe is really simple, this is the batter before the cocoa powder and flour are added. This is the browned butter, sugar, salt, eggs, banana, and vanilla.  Brownie batter after cocoa & flour are added.  So the topping is next. I would suggest starting the ganache halfway through the baking time of the brownies. You need to steep the cream with the bananas for an hour, then bring it back to a boil before straining the cream into the chocolate. If you wait until the brownies are cooled before starting this process you could be at this one recipe all day. When making ganache great chocolate is key, and a personal preference. However, I strongly suggest a semi-sweet or other dark chocolate; milk chocolate will not match well with this brownie.  So this is the finished product. Everone raved about them, said they were the best brownie they have ever eaten! So if you need something special give this recipe a try, you won't be disappointed.  Keep a glass of milk or cup of coffee handy.  This is the lemon-glazed banana-ginger scones featured in the same article. This is a recipe using a ripe but not mushy banana; the reason is the banana needs to hold some shape while cutting and mixing into the dough. However, if you only have mushy bananas try freezing them before cutting and adding to the dough. Another fact, you want to add as little cream as possible; the banana & sugar will add moisture to the scone and too much moisture will make the dough sticky and difficult to work with. You want to add just enough to bring the dough together. You also want to keep your butter as cold as you can, if your hands or kitchen are warm you might want to freeze your butter before adding to the dough. The cold butter helps create a lightness and flakiness to your scone. I'm considering cutting back on the lemon zest and ginger next time; you barely got any of the banana flavor. All in all this was a good scone, not great; but good.  This is my favorite recipe to use for black bananas. This is a recipe I got from my mother, we call them banana bars. In my opinion, they are a cross between banana bread and brownies. It's a simple batter; flour, butter, sugar, spices, eggs, and bananas; all mixed together until combined and then baked until you can smell them throughout your kitchen! Once cooled we top them with a lemon-sugar glaze, and ideally you wait until the glaze has set to cut them but that never happens. Sometime my husband gets into them before they have cooled, let alone glazed. Well, I hope this has inspired you to use those black bananas instead of discarding them. Let's keep our ovens warm and enjoy all of life's just desserts. Cupcakes 01/12/2011
As everyone knows cupcakes are the "in" dessert right now; from boutiques to parties to tv shows, they are all over the place. Every local bakery has to have at least one exceptional cupcake in order to be competitive today. And everyone has their favorite cupcake from their favorite shop. What is your favorite? Please don't ask me to choose because I am a woman with the prerogative to change my mind with every new bite I take. Now what started this topic on it's journey was the recent Cupcake Wars. I record it on my dvr because I love my husband, and just finished watching it earlier today. Now if you are not familiar with the show I will try to give you a brief explanation. You have 4 contenders, whom usually have their own shop, and 2 eliminations. There are 3 judges; two that are consistently on the show and one guest judge based on the challenge. Well this challenge was wedding themed, the guest judge was a celebrity wedding planner. The first elmination is based on taste using surprise ingredients, and you make one cupcake for the judges to taste. The second elimination is based on taste and appearance, and you have to make 3 different cupcakes for the judges. And the final elimnation is you have to make 1000 cucpakes (from the 4 cupcakes you presented earlier, so 250 of each) and place them on a display you have a carpenter build for you from you own design (a drawing you create with a marker and a big sheet of paper). Oh and let's not forget the time limit. I think it's 45 minutes for the first, 75 minutes for the second, and then four hours for the last elimination. So what makes this one episode so intiriguing you ask....the required ingredients. You are all familiar with the "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue"; well that was the theme. Something old: aged cheddar, tequila, balsamic vinegar, almonds Something new: fresh green tea, caramel, acai berry Something borrowed: saffron, marzipan, caviar Something blue: blueberries, blue cheese Well, what's so hard about that? I hear you asking; here's the catch: not just one ingredient, not just two...................................................they had to use one ingredient from each category in one cupcake. Now take 5 minutes and see what you would have come up with. And don't cheat and take more............. Now what did you come up with? No really I am curious............................. This is what I would have tried: saffron cake (white cake base), blue cheese cheesecake filling in the cupcake, caramel frosting, topped with toasted almond slices. And I have to say I am anxious to give it a go, however, I have to wait out our little ice prison here in Atlanta; need saffron and blue cheese. What do you think? Edible or down right disgusting. No one on the show used the blue cheese everyone used the blueberries. Only one person tried to use the saffron and she didn't finish her cupcakes on time, so she was eliminated early. Of course, marzipan, caramel, and green tea were the top picks. Please share what you would have done and feel free to email me a picture if you give it a try. Well here it is a new year, I hope you all had a safe and joyous holiday. I had a great holiday and had so much fun in the kitchen. First, I had lots of fun at my second cookie swap. I made white-chocolate cherry drop cookies and mexican wedding cookies for this swap. I really enjoyed all the other cookies that were brought to the party. One thing I did learn about mexican wedding cookies (at least with this recipe) they double in size when they bake. What started out as 1 Tbsp size came out of the cloud of powdered sugar a monster cookie. So the second time I made them for a New Year's Engagement party I made them teaspoon size.  Mexican Wedding cookies  And yet again I forgot to take a picture of the table spread. The assortment was as diverse as the last swap I attended. There was a little bit of everything; peanut butter blossoms, shortbread, spritz, pfeffernussen, choco-nut dainties, surprise cookies,candy acorns, chocolate pretzel rings, and cake balls. The pfeffernussen, if I remember correctly, is a german cookie similar to a spice or molasses cookies. It was really good and was the winner of the best tasting. The candy acorns reminded me of buck-eyes; you can't see them in the picture but they were easily the first to dissappear at my house because you could pop one in your mouth without breaking your stride pass the table. One of the neat things about this swap is it was co-hosted by two lovely ladies, and they were able to get the recipe everyone used for their cookies and provided a small packet for everyone who attended. Since attending these holiday cookie swaps I have considered myself. I am thinking about having one in the spring, but don't hold me to that just yet.  In very special news, Congratulations to my mom! She won a baking contest in her office with her Snowy-capped Cupcakes. She made chocolate fudge cake, peppermint 7-minute frosting, and them topped them with little sugar candy snowflakes. She had some stiff competition this year people; and mom please feel free to elaborate (as well as the "stiff competition). I believe there were some cheesecakes and elaborate desserts. They were judged on taste as well as presentation. Congratulations again mom!  One more first to go into my collection is assisting my daughter in decorating sugar cookies for the holidays. One of the hardest things I had to accept was that she was going to make a mess! I thought I was mentally prepared but needless to say I was not. Thankfully I was not alone in this crazy adventure. Elysa and I went to a friend's house to decorate the cookies. I baked the sugar cookies and brought some of my decorating items, but soon realized my choice in decorations were probably not the easiest for the girls to handle.  The girls helping themselves to the sprinkles.  And yes, straight to the mouth. Who needs the cookie?  Yes, thankfully I was not alone. Thank you Jen for inviting us over and allowing us to make a mess. A big thank you for sharing the old T-shirt as a smock idea! I hope you were able to enjoy the cookies we left you and Sam. The highlight of my day had to be my learning curve. We sat the girls down at the table and had the cookies and decorations on a countertop near by. We (the moms) would ice the cookies and then assist the girls decorating. Well, my first time went as follows: I iced a Christmas tree with a big glob of green icing and set it down in front of my little girl; turned to get some decorations off the counter top; turned back around to see Elysa with her hand covered in green icing on her face. Yup, she put her hand smack down on the cookie and was eating the icing right off her hand. So we gave the girls some small plastic spoons for the candy sprinkles, however, I think they misunderstoond the purpose of the spoons. As you can see from the pictures above. Once I accepted the mess and laughed right along with my friend, Jen; I had a blast. Thanks again to Jen and Sam for inviting us over for a great holiday tradition.  The cookies my little girl decorated. Holiday Cookie Swap 12/15/2010
 Here is my haul from my first cookie swap. I have been invited to a few in the past but was unable to attend due to my work schedule. I was so excited when the invitations started to arrive this year. It was so difficult to decide on what to take, there a so many in the holiday magazines; and then the recipes that were handed down from my mom. But since I am attending a few swaps this year I can do all kinds of cookies. This swap I made butter pecan macaroons and chocolate-mint drop cookies. Now the macaroons I've made before and have become a new favorite at my house; I made one change this time: less buttercream between the macaroons. This way the buttercream didn't overpower the cookies itself, nice balance this time. The chocolate-mint cookie is a drop cookie recipe that I substituted the Andes mint baking chips for the white chocolate chips the recipe originally has. I like this recipe because you get a crunchy outside with a chewy brownie-like texture inside.  From top to bottom clockwise: peanut butter blossoms, butter pecan macaroons, buckeyes, and spritz on the bottom.  Top left: snickerdoodles; middle: chocolate-mint; bottom: walnut-chocolate chip  On the left: I call this one the everything bar, it has chocolate, coconut, graham crackers, and condensed milk. All the cookies were delicous! It's impossible to pick a favorite simple because they are all so good and different. The swap was a relaxed gathering of friends; there were some savory goodies to nibble on to counteract the sugar. I was told the chicken salad was delicous, unfortunately I ate dinner prior to leaving so I missed out on the chicken salad. I really enjoyed the swap, I am attending another one next week and will try to take pictures of the spread. I meant to take pictures last night, the table was overflowing with goodies; but realized too late that I forgot my camera. Have you ever attended a cookie swap? I understand there are so many variations of a swap, can you do them for different holidays? What is your favorite cookie to share? Is there a cookie you have to have to make you holiday complete? Please share your traditions and stories. Happy baking! Pictures 12/01/2010
 Butter Pecan Macaroons Thanksgiving spreads 11/30/2010
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and enjoyed your leftovers. I visited both my family and my husband's family over the holiday, and got to thinking about how family heritage and locality can develope your menus and holiday traditions. It has always amazed me how different Thanksgiving dinners and lunchs can be. Just to let you know even though I was born and raised in south Georgia my mother was from up north. So the traditional fare I had was very different from some other southern homes. We almost always had one pumpkin pie and one apple pie, no cakes; sometimes we had turkey cut-out sugar cookies that my brother and I decorated. And the rest of the meal fairly simple; mashed potates, peas, stuffing, rolls, and turkey. But always delicous mom! The first time I spent a Thanksgiving with my husband's family was a learning experience. I had cornbread dressing for the first time as well as a smoked turkey. I think the desserts outnumbered the side dishes, there were cakes, the infamous blueberry delight, congealed salads of assorted colors, and pecan pie. Now the cakes were as different as chocolate to caramel to red velvet, but the pecan pies were very interesting. The pecan pies were as different as the hands that made them. I find this so intriguing because the ingredients for a pecan pie are fairly simple and few in number. I know some recipes are handed down and some are tweeked for personal preference, but I truly believe it's the touch of the individual that affects how a pie turns out (or anything you bake for that matter). As a friend once told me "put love into everything you do". There's also the personal preference towards ingredients; molasses instead of corn syrup, brown sugar instead of standard granulated sugar, bourbon or chocolate for taste, etc. And if you are like me you always want to try the newest creation out of your favorite magazine. Don't be afraid to try new things, I will be here to answer any questions you have. But remember, "put love" into everything you bake you will always have a delicous success. Soooo many ideas, so little time 11/21/2010
Hello, I hope you are all baking away. I know everyone is starting to get ready for Thanksgiving, whether you are doing the cooking or the traveling. I know if I show up without my Crisp Apple pie at my dad's I may not be allowed in the door. We will be visiting family this week, so I have a lot I want to get done before we leave. I need to finish two Red Velvet cakes, I didn't have time to take any pictures of the cakes I finished last week. So look for pictures soon. I am also testing some macaroon recipes too. Now before you turn your nose up because you don't like coconut let me define macaroon. There is a cookie now referred to as a French Macaroon which when I was in culinary school was simply a macaroon. However, most people think of coconut macaroons when you say macaroon. Both cookies are made with egg whites and sugar, but as the name implies the coconut has shredded coconut in it. The French macaroon is usually a light crispy airy cookie, typically a sandwich of two cookies with a filling. The filling can be anything from jam to buttercream to ganache. French macaroons can be an assortment of colors (usually pastel) and flavors. Right now I am working on Butter Pecan macaroons. This will have a brown butter buttercream sandwiched between crispy pecan macaroons. Pictures to follow soon. I am working on some holiday flavors to create a sampler pack; cranberry-orange, apple pie, etc. What are some of you favorite holiday flavors you think might make a good macaroon? | Kristina WeemsJust some random thoughts about my business, my culinary experiments, and the world of pastry.  ArchivesMay 2011 Categories |
RSS Feed