Honey Hazelnut Cake

As the autumn season commences, the dessert menu gets a little warmer, a little darker, a little richer.  This pleasantly dense honey hazelnut cake gets a quick pan-fry in sage butter before being topped with fresh blackberries and a sage infused blackberry coulis.  
A chubby quenelle of blackberry sherbet (scooped with a deep soup spoon) pairs icy tang with the warm and crunchy cake.
Recipe coming soon!!

Yogurt On The Menu

I love yogurt in desserts and I almost always have it in some form or another on the menu.  And this is what we're currently serving for dinner at the restaurant.

A dome of yogurt mousse, embedded with a hidden disk of angel food cake and sprayed with white chocolate, rests on a crispy sheet of coconut meringue.  Flake-like shards of coconut ice, my preferred form of granité these days, keep the mousse company.  A starkly white dessert arrives at the table, but quickly gets bloodied by a spooning of warm and winey redcurrant compote.  Visual, textural, and temperature contrasts collide in this one dish.  And I think it tastes pretty good too.

A Romantic Wedding

I admit that wedding cakes scare me a bit.  The pressure and anxiety lie more in disappointing the bride (and groom; or grooms; or brides) by not meeting their expectations rather than the actual construction of the cake.  This is not to say that I'm altogether confident at cake decorating either.  No offense, but gum paste artistry kind of bores me.  I appreciate the work, but would rather see, feel and smell fresh flowers on a cake than find laborious replicas in sugar that have been breathed on for hours.  I prefer wedding cakes that make me want to jump into its soft, fluffy icing and devour every bite.  So when a bride comes to me with a photo of a fondant-ized cake she would like to emulate, what am I to do?  I can only say yes, and hope that my patience can carry me through all the smoothing, modeling, crimping, etc that is required of such an undertaking.

I think that very patience paid off in this cake, and I'm extremely grateful to my staff who actually revel in working with this medium.  One 7kg bucket of fondant later, came to fruition a feminine and romantic 5-tiered display with a touch of 50's prom dress chic.  My opinions aside, I wouldn't be mad if this were to show up at my wedding.  I hope our bride felt the same.

Cheese Course

I have a soft spot for retro party food.  Spinach dip in a bread bowl, pigs in blankets, devilled eggs, cubed food on toothpicks, etc.  Sit me next to a crudite platter for 10 minutes, and you'll find an empty space where the carrot sticks and ranch dressing used to be.  

This dish takes its cue from another retro favorite, stuffed celery.  That cool crunchy stalk is a must for me when enjoying blue cheese.  The slightly bitter, watery crispness balances perfectly with the pungent chalkiness of a strong blue, in this case, Fourme D'Ambert.  Tiny champagne grapes sprinkled like confetti add a juicy surprise.  Grab it like, well, a celery stick, and dip each bite into a puddle of fennel seed honey.

I rarely order cheese when dining out, mainly because I'm saving room for dessert; but also because I most often end up feeling underwhelmed.  The standard accoutrements of bread or crackers leave me feeling very heavy and the saltiness of the cheese is never fully cut by the predictable fruit garnish.  But to be perfectly fair to this prized sector of the dairy world, I much prefer to eat "something with a little cheese", than "cheese with a little something". 

It makes a great pre-dinner snack and/or a nice segway into the sweeter part of the meal, with guaranteed room for dessert!

P.S. Please eat the leaves.  They're delicious and palate cleansing.

Stuffed Celery
Serves 4 as a light cheese course before dessert

4 ribs of young celery, leaves intact from near the heart of a large bunch
4 oz good blue cheese, I recommend Roquefort or Fourme D'Ambert
1 small bunch of champagne grapes, or a few regular seedless grapes if unavailable
a few whole wheat croutons, optional
a few pinches of toasted fennel seed

Fill each stalk of celery with about 1 ounce of cheese.
Sprinkle with a few individual champagne grapes on top, or slice a couple of large grapes and do the same.
If croutons are available, sprinkle those on top too.
Sprinkle fennel seeds along length of celery for extra crunch and anise-y flavor.
Serve with a teaspoon of fennel honey with each stalk.

Fennel Honey
100 grams good wildflower honey
10 grams toasted fennel seed
Put both in a pot and bring to a light simmer.
Allow to infuse for an hour or so before staining out seeds, if a smooth honey is desired. The honey will be perfectly fine with them too.

Sweet Cheese

For some reason, I always associate blueberries with cheesecake.   I don’t recall having it more often than any other blueberry dessert as a kid, so I don’t really know where the correlation comes from.   I do know, however, that when you pair the silkiest of cheesecakes with an awesome blueberry sauce, it can be heaven in your mouth.

This is my attempt at that celestial mouthful…and there isn’t a graham cracker crust in sight.  Instead, I’ve replaced the traditional with a “cremet”, an ethereally light mixture of cream cheese and crème fraiche lightened with meringue and drained overnight through cheesecloth.  Its sweet-floral notes come from the addition of elderflower syrup & liquor.  Blueberries make the sauce and a most intense pickled sorbet.  Toasted shreds of cornmeal cake add texture and a breath of warmth to this summer dessert.  A sprinkle each of fresh lemon thyme leaves and espellete pepper keep every bite as interesting as the last.

Sweet Cheese Cremet
About 10 portions

670 g  cream cheese at room temperature
690 g  creme fraiche

40 g   fresh lemon juice
10 g   vanilla extract
2 g    kosher salt
60 g   St. Germain elderflower liquor
20 g   elderflower syrup

230 g  pasteurized egg white

Line a perforated half hotel pan with a double layer of damp cheesecloth, allowing it to drape over the sides.  Place this pan over a solid half hotel.  Set aside.

Blend cream cheese & creme fraiche in a food processor until smooth, scraping sides of bowl.  While machine is running, stream in liquid flavorings.  Scrape the bowl down again and make sure this mixture is completely smooth.

Meanwhile, whip the egg whites to firm peaks.  Pour some of the liquid cheese mixture into the stiff whites, and fold to loosen. Pour in the remaining liquid and fold until homogeneous.  

Pour the cremet mixture into the lined pan and gently fold the cheesecloth over it to cover.  Wrap this in plastic and allow to rest in the fridge overnight.  Next day, gently peel away the cheesecloth from the surface and scoop about 3 ounce of cremet into a bowl and serve with blueberries or whatever fruit you have on hand.

Note:  Once the cremet has been set overnight, do not stir it.  When scooping, try to do this in one motion, allowing the pattern of the cheesecloth be part of the character of the cremet.

Serve within 2 days of making.