Mama Mia Meatballs!

There's nothing like a cold snap to get the soup simmering. At Thanksgiving I made The Barefoot Contessa's Italian Wedding Soup, and it was delish. So I decided to go for it again, with a few changes, of course.

Tonight, I made the meatballs. Now I appreciate what goes in to making these recipes user friendly, but when it calls for 3/4 lb. ground chicken and I buy it in a prepackaged 1lb. package, you have to make some changes. So the recipe that follows is my version. It's just a little easier to use up what you buy, right? The meatballs are kinda dangerous though. They smell fabulous, cook quickly and you can pop 'em in your mouth without even really thinking about it. Which is why I always fight my weight, I never think about those things!
T
he chicken sausage I use is links from the Fresh Market, they are yummy, and easy to slip the casings off. And the recipe calls for 2 kinds of cheese. I buy my Parmesan Reggiano by the 5# wedge, so why would I deviate from that? I also like to shred it with the bigger holes of the grater rather than the fine powdery grate. I want to taste the most expensive ingredient after all! So combine the mixture and use a small 1" scoop so your meatballs are uniform and line your baking sheets with parchment so clean up is a snap! The original recipe says it makes 40, my version which really isn't a double makes 90. So plenty for the soup, and a few to freeze for a quick pasta. Also, after a day in the fridge, you'll find the tortellini soak up a good amount of the broth, so have extra on hand to keep the soup, well,soupy!
Of course no soup should be without something to mop up the sauce. So I went back to the bread recipes and did some tweaking. Watch for the next post on the bread success and failures.

Italian Wedding Soup
adapted from Back to Basics Barefoot Contessa
1# ground chicken
1# chicken sausage (4links)
1 c. fresh breadcrumbs
4 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 c. fresh Parmesan, shredded
6 T milk
2 eggs
salt and pepper

Combine and drop. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. You better eat one to make sure they are done. Cool and chill until you are ready to make soup. They also freeze beautifully.

Soup
1 cup chopped yellow onion
1 cup chopped carrot
3/4 c. chopped celery
2T olive oil
10 cups chicken broth
1/2 c. white wine
7 oz, bag dried tortellini
2 T. chopped fresh dill
Meatballs
Fresh Spinach
Fresh ground pepper

At least a half hour before dinner, start the soup. You begin with the aromatics. Celery, carrots and onions sauteed in a little olive oil. You don't want to brown them, but sweat them so they release their flavors. You then add the stock and white wine. I usually do this step early and let the broth simmer with the veggies for a few hours. The broth will reduce, and I then pop the lid on after an hour. The veggies get soft and the flavors really marry. Bring the soup to a boil before you add the tortellini, and when they have cooked, add the dill and meatballs. I like more spinach than the rest of my family, so I generally put a handful in the bottom of my bowl, and then ladle the soup over it. Wonderful! I never season my soup with salt if I use canned broth, and I prefer my pepper fresh ground on the top. A glass of wine, a hunk of bread, dinner is served. Healthy, light, delicious.

A Pile of Tuiles (tiles)

So this is my first official month as a Daring Baker. What, pray tell, is that? Well, it is mostly bloggers, a few strays, all foodies, many bakers, well over 1000 of us in all. We are a secret society (love that term), and we log into a cyber kitchen every month where the secret recipe is revealed. You have the whole month to plan your baking strategy, following the recipe as written. Then on reveal day, which is today, thousands of food bloggers are posting their creations.

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux. Tuiles translates from French as tiles, and they are generally formed as an oval and then shaped to a gentle curve to mimic the roofing tiles seen in France. Our challenge was to bake them, but we could use any shape. I have seen plenty of ovals, flowers and butterflies, but I chose hearts since the big Valentine's Day is right around the corner.
The recipe was actually very easy to prepare. The toughest part was cutting out that heart on heavy plastic with an Exacto knife!

It took a few tries to evenly spread the batter, and it was fun to experiment with the chocolate batter as decoration. All of the chocolate you see is actually baked into the tuile. Some bakers chose to use a color instead of chocolate, I love creative cooks! I chose not to make ice cream garnish on the coldest day of the year...brrr. So I used my favorite Blood Orange Gelato.

I tasted one of the first cookies and had a deja vu, but I just couldn't place the taste. Christina came home, took one bite and declared, "Fortune Cookies"! She's right. How fun to make them as such, the recipe would be perfect. You make them as a circle and fold them in half and then over the rim of a glass. I made them probably 18 years ago....a fun project. I would be much better at them now!

Recipe:
Yields: 20 small butterflies/6 large (butterflies are just an example)
Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams / 1/2 cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour
1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Oven: 180C / 350F
Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the bakingsheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.

Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from bakingsheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a bakingsheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.

So there you go, be daring yourself! Give 'em a try, just get in there and cook!

Ooh La La...Bouchons!

Wow. It's so hot, it sizzles. Articles in the Times, both LA and NY, responsible friends sending them to me asking, "Can YOU Bouchon?" I explore our own food section every week and had never come across the bouchon, it had to be on the wire, why not in our paper? Maybe it wasn't Southern, wasn't fried, required special equipment, whatever, but I know lots of people who would love to eat these, and a few may possibly go to the effort of baking them from scratch. And then at Williams Sonoma, the mix. Horrors. I know the mix is good, it is Williams Sonoma for Pete's sake. But the question was, could I, possibly bouchon?
Bouchon is French for cork, and the finished cake should resemble one. It is the brainchild of Thomas Keller, the genius behind French Laundry in the California Wine Country. Bouchon is the name of the bakery and he started it primarily to bake bread for his restaurants. I guess one day he decided he needed a signature bouchon dessert. I'm guessing, but it would make a sweet story. These little cork cakes are pretty hard to describe in writing, but have quickly turned legendary.
First the molds. We sell a silicone mold at the store that bakes 12 at a time, but Lori, the sweet sis she is, sent me the recipe from the LA Times and bought me the real French molds at Sur La Table.
The fluted are by far prettier, but proved to be unworthy. More on that later. They are really called timbale molds and are about 3 oz.
The recipe from the LA Times is pretty easy and straightforward. The batter can be made and then chilled if you can't bake all the "corks" at one time. But beware, one taste of that batter and Whoa! it is killer. I used my bittersweet Guittard chocolate, (only about 6 pounds to go), and of course Pernigotti Cocoa. I also used some aged vanilla from Nielsen Massey that was a gift from a friend. 10 year old vanilla is wonderful and more fragrant than you can imagine. After I mixed up the batter, I divided it between 2 disposable pastry bags.
The theory was that each bag would have to fill 6 timbales. The recipe said to butter and flour the molds, but I decided to spray them with Bak-klene. It is great stuff and washes off with soapy water. I baked them at 350 convection for about 22 minutes. They smelled fabulous and were super shiny on top. A few had cooked over and formed a sort of crust. I cooled them as directed, and the basic ones slid right out and looked oh, so cork like. The fluted, well, not so successful in the release, and you can't really see the design with that dark chocolate. Next time, 2 batches of 6 with the solid molds. A dusting of powdered sugar, and wow! I CAN bouchon, they look just like Keller's. So, now YOU bouchon, get in there and cook!

Adapted from Bouchon by Thomas Keller

3/4 cup (3 1/2 ounces) flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, melted and just slightly warm

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, such as 55% Valrhona, chopped into pieces the size of chocolate chips

Butter and flour for the timbale molds

Powdered sugar

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt.

2. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the eggs and sugar on medium speed until thick and pale in color, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix until incorporated.

3. With the mixer on low speed, add about one-third of the dry ingredients, then one-third of the butter, and continue alternating with the remaining flour and butter. Add the chocolate and continue to mix to combine. (The batter can be made up to this point and refrigerated, covered, for up to one day.)

4. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 12 timbale molds. Set aside.

5. Put the timbale molds on a baking sheet. Place the batter in a pastry bag without a tip, or with a large plain tip, and fill each mold about two-thirds full. Bake the bouchons until the tops are shiny and set (like a brownie), and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out moist but clean (there may be some melted chocolate from the chopped chocolate), 20 to 25 minutes.

6. Transfer the bouchons to a cooling rack. After a couple of minutes, invert the molds and let the bouchons cool in the molds. Remove the molds and serve, or store until needed (the bouchons are best eaten the day they are baked).

7. To serve, invert the bouchons and dust them with powdered sugar. Serve with ice cream, if desired.

Each of 12 servings: 453 calories; 5 grams protein; 46 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams fiber; 30 grams fat; 15 grams saturated fat; 113 mg. cholesterol; 116 mg. sodium.

Okay...I KNOW...pretend you didn't read it. 453 calories. YIKES! Are they worth it? Well, yes. The Williams Sonoma mix is about half the calories, but honestly, just not as rich as the real thing.