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Week 12: Chocolate Pavoratti with Wicked Good Ganache for Natalie's Birthday

2/16/2015

A single layer chocolate butter cake, frosted with Rose's special dark chocolate ganache and dedicated to the famous tenor Luciano Pavarotti! I never heard him sing live, unfortunately, but his Ave Maria by Schubert was breathtaking.

The reason she's so beautiful is because her inner goodness shines through!
Happy Birthday, beloved one, and God bless you!

This is our goddaughter, Natalie Adelle. She turned 17th on February 14--perfect timing for the Chocolate Pavarotti with Wicked Good Ganache.

Smitty has been under the weather, so I only have a couple of photos this week. I kept forgetting to stop and take pictures in the middle of baking!

The first order of business was making the ganache, because it has to cool for several hours. This particular recipe features both unsweetened and semisweet chocolate, combined with heavy cream and a little cornstarch.

But what really knocks it out of the park is the addition of cayenne pepper. I used a half teaspoon, aiming for the middle of the range recommended in the recipe.

My fellow Alpha Baker, Raymond, who blogs at Your Just Desserts, hates to wash the food processor, and doesn't use it when making ganache. (visit Raymong at https://yjdesserts.wordpress.com/) However, I am hopelessly dependent on my kitchen appliances and wouldn't know how to do it any other way, although I do see his point. Fortunately, I have that other essential kitchen appliance, a dishwasher.

This is the rubble from one batch of ganache! (except for the peeler!) I definitely see Raymond's point! If I had to wash these by hand I would go crazy.

This is a surprisingly easy and fast recipe to put together. The cake includes melted white chocolate, which doesn't translate to flavor, but adds richness.

Let me chime in here in favor of Rose's silicone Cake Strips or Wilton's Bake Even Strips. You only have to purchase them one time, and they ensure flat cakes and even baking.

Rose's Cake Strip is clipped around my pan with a binder clip to cool the sides of the pan and promote even baking.

The ganache spreads like a dream, but I never remember that ganache firms up so quickly that there's no time to go back and smooth it out once it's spread on the cake!

A couple of flourishes before I delivered it to Natalie. She loved it, and so did her family.

It's been a while since I've baked a chocolate butter cake, so I'm having trouble comparing this one to Rose's others. I found it to be lovely, although perhaps a little bit on the dry side.

The ganache, on the other hand is wicked GREAT! I am not the biggest dark chocolate fan, but this one is fantastic.

NEXT WEEK: LEMON POSSET SHORTCAKES

Thanks, everyone, for visiting and commenting!

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Catch-up Week: Black and Blueberry Pie

2/9/2015

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The recipe starts with Rose's wonderful cream cheese pie crust. I've been making this from the Pie and Pastry Bible days. Don't miss this recipe, there's no pie that isn't enhanced by this delicious crust!

This is "catch-up" week for the Alpha Bakers, to take a break or bake something we had missed in the regular schedule. I had missed the Black and Blueberry Pie last month, so I took this chance to bake this delicious dessert.

First of all, let me say that I have long baked triple-berry pies. I discovered about 20 years ago that a combination of berries makes an irresistible pie. Our family favorite is raspberry, blackberry and blueberries in about equal quantities.

The black and blue combination is also a favorite for jam, and my daughter Jessica and I make as much of it as we can every year. I sent a few half pints to my mom during her last summer, she loved it so much!

So, this pie, from the Baking Bible, was guaranteed to be a favorite before it ever made it out of the oven!

Having read previous posts by my fellow Alpha Bakers, and knowing from personal experience that frozen berries make a LOT of juice, I increased the amount of cornstarch.

At this time of year, fresh berries are very expensive. I splurged on blueberries and used frozen blackberries. The berries are combined with sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice.

I had some previously frozen fresh lemon juice, but no zest, so I used lemon oil, as Rose suggests in the back of the book in her "Emergency Substitutions" page.

Rose's instructions call for cutting a tidy circle before transferring the dough to the plate. Old habits die very hard. I just can't seem to do it any way except the way my mother taught me!

The little cutout holes suggest BERRIES, not bowling ball finger holes, as Smitty said!! Cut them out with the wrong end of a piping tip.

It was delicious! Like all of Rose's desserts, the sweetness was perfectly balanced. I love the way the dominant flavor is the fruit--not the sugar.

One note--I don't recommend substituting the lemon zest with lemon oil for this recipe. It lent a bitter after taste to the filling. No doubt the zest would have been perfect.

Can't wait for berry season to make this one again! As soon as the season approaches, I will begin stocking the freezer with pie crust!

NEXT UP: Chocolate Pavarotti with Wicked Good Ganache

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Another new favorite: Swedish Apricot Walnut Bread

2/1/2015

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A little gorgonzola cheese spread was a lovely accompaniment to this delicious bread!

Well, she's done it yet again! None of my fellow Alpha Bakers will be surprised, but Rose has given me yet another new favorite recipe. I am crazy about this bread!

This is one of three bread recipes in the Baking Bible in a chapter entitled "For the Cheese Course," and indeed, cheese is wonderful with this bread. We baked a small wheel of brie to go with it and the combination was pure poetry!

It begins with a biga, or starter, which is a simple combination of bleached bread flour, rye flour, water and yeast. It is allowed to get nice and puffy, and then tucked in for a three-day stay in the refrigerator to build flavor.

You can read all about different types of dough starters—sourdough starter, biga, sponge, poolish, levain—in Rose's previously published Bread Bible. I can’t remember all the details, and unless you care to, you really don’t need to memorize it all either! All you need to know is—trust that Rose understands it, follow the recipe carefully and it will be delicious!

The walnut halves are toasted in the oven and then rolled in a dishtowel to remove the skins. I was surprised at how much of the skin was removed using this method.

I soaked the golden raisins in hot water for a few minutes. Not long enough to turn them back into grapes, but enough time to plump them up. I used the soaking water in the recipe, which Rose does in many of her recipes.

Notably, there is no sugar or honey in this bread. The only sweetener is the fruit.

The biga is snipped with scissors into pieces and dropped into the water in the mixing bowl. The biga provides flavor and a bit more lift to the dough.

I figured out that I learned to bake bread about 40 years ago. Yikes! There are several artisan bread bakers among the Alpha Bakers. I am a world-class bread eater, but an average bread baker! Until Rose's Bread Bible came along, I was accustomed to recipes that called for just two rising periods. This dough includes three “rises,” or proofing periods.

Golden raisins and toasted walnuts are incorporated into the dough. This is after rising.

I had plenty of dried apricots left over from our second Alpha Bakers assignment—the English Dried Fruitcake. Although this is a Swedish recipe, I couldn't find a single IKEA kitchen implement to include in the making of this bread!

A ruler is an essential kitchen gadget! The dough is patted into a rectangle, and the top two corners are folded down. Then, the point is rolled down, enclosing the apricots, to form a torpedo-shaped loaf.

The dough has risen for the third time, but it's not a large, puffy loaf. At this point, my dilemma is always--to slash or not to slash? I have deflated loaves of bread with my timid slashing, but this time I braved it with no ill effects (immediately after this photo was taken!). My tool of choice for that purpose--a single-edged razor blade.

I combined gorgonzola (Italian blue cheese) with softened cream cheese and enough heavy cream to make it spreadable. Not pictured--Swedish Apricot Walnut Bread with baked brie--a fantastic combination!

The contrasts between the crisp crust, the sweet apricots and raisins and the crunchy walnuts is addictive! I could have eaten the whole loaf myself! The rye flavor is very subtle, so even if you don't care for rye bread, don't let that dissuade you from trying this exceptional recipe.

It's tempting to begin a new biga immediately, but Smitty isn't a fan of raisins or other dried fruits. I don't know what's wrong with the guy! I guess I'll wait a while--but not too long!

Rose's Alpha Bakers is a group of bakers around the world who are baking through our own copies of the newest book by Rose Levy Beranbaum--The Baking Bible. The recipes are copyrighted material.

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﻿Week 12: Chocolate Pavoratti with Wicked Good Ganache for Natalie's Birthday

Catch-up Week: Black and Blueberry Pie

Another new favorite: Swedish Apricot Walnut Bread

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Week 12: Chocolate Pavoratti with Wicked Good Ganache for Natalie's Birthday