Back from the Holidays - Happy New Year

Before drizzling with melted white chocolate

My husband and I got to visit with most of my sisters and also some friends over the recent holidays. It is always a celebration when my sisters get together and only one missed out this time, so there were 5 of us, along with spouses, some children and some grandchildren. My sister hosting most of the get together had 20 people in her house. The decibel level was amazing! It was a riotously good time. The week prior to Xmas we visited with friends and also enjoyed their company immensely. I am grateful for all the people we got to spend time with, some for the first time. I am grateful to have been able to arrive safely at all the destinations, though driving conditions were not always optimal. And, grateful to be home safely as well. 

Before leaving for the holidays I had done some baking and prep for holiday goodies. One new item I made was a White Chocolate Matcha Bark with Pistachios, Almonds and Rose Petals. I have had a fascination with Matcha green tea for some time. I have found that all Matcha is not created equal. The best, and best for drinking can be exceedingly costly, while there are some sold that are so pale in color as to hardly be noticeable. The best is a deep and bright green, or so I have read. My first attempt at buying Matcha green tea powder yielded a very pale green powder that required large amounts if one was looking for color in the final product. I had made some Pistachio Tea Cookies, a version of Snowballs. They were delightfully flavored, but their color was pale, pale green.

Paler Matcha Cookies left, Darker Matcha Cookies right

Then this past year I ran out of that powder and ordered another bag, this time being more careful of what I was ordering. This batch was a deep green, nearly olive, and far stronger flavored. I made the Pistachio Tea Cookies once again and this time I used less of the Matcha powder, yet the recipe yielded a far deeper green color, shown in the photos above. The flavor was excellent both times, though the tea flavor was slightly more pronounced this second time around. I explain this so that any who are unfamiliar with this Matcha powder might know what they are looking at, or for.

Back to the White Chocolate

I guess in my life, I had always taken for granted what was called white chocolate. I recall loving white chocolate as a child. Perhaps because when I was a child, there was actually white chocolate made with cocoa butter. These days it is becoming harder and harder to find any true white chocolate at all. What is commonly sold is an approximation of white chocolate, and often with no cocoa butter in the ingredients. It never occurred to me that one could make white chocolate from scratch!

After drizzling with melted white chocolate

Generally, white chocolate is a combination of cocoa butter, whole milk powder and sugar. Often, the white chocolate sold commercially is far too sweet. Making it oneself allows one to judge the amount of sweetness involved, making it more to taste. I felt that adding the Matcha powder would also help with this sweetness factor, as the Matcha is a bit bitter. I am not much of one for chocolate at all, and rarely eat chocolate. Once in a great while I will crave chocolate, eat a few bits, and be done with it for months on end. Since this is the case, I do not use chocolate often. I keep chocolate chips in case of the need to make cookies. I generally do not make candy. One of my sisters does make candies and does a lovely job of it. But not me. Which brings me to the subject of "tempering."

Tempering Chocolate

I will not go into too great detail on tempering chocolate here - only enough so you might try out this recipe with some success. Tempering is not absolutely necessary. What tempering adds to the outcome is that shiny exterior and a crisp snap when it is broken. Since I was starting from scratch, I felt I might as well go the whole nine yards and see if I could successfully temper the white chocolate.

Tempered White Chocolate Matcha Bark with a lovely shine

In order to temper chocolate, it is necessary to have on hand some commercial (or homemade) chocolate that has been previously tempered.  Since I was making this white chocolate from scratch with cocoa butter, I had to get something commercial that was previously tempered. I found some Lindt White Chocolate with true cocoa butter in it. This previously tempered chocolate had already had a chemical chain reaction called "seeding" occur. Some of this commercial tempered chocolate is needed to "seed" the new batch of chocolate. Tempering is required for this shiny exterior and crisp snap on breaking whether it is white or dark chocolate being tempered. 

Tempered White Chocolate Matcha Bark with drizzled white chocolate

In tempering white chocolate, bring ¾ of the chocolate (in my case all of the new white chocolate made from cocoa butter) to 110 degrees F. Chop the remaining ¼ of the chocolate (in my case some commercial white chocolate kept aside, i.e. the Lindt) into small pieces and keep handy. Remove the melted chocolate from the heat as soon as it reaches 110 degrees and begin stirring in the chopped commercial chocolate, a few bits at a time. Stir gently, so as not to incorporate air bubbles, and allow the pieces to melt before adding more. Continue adding in pieces of the "seed" chocolate until the temperature is reduced to 83 degrees.

At this point, remove any unmelted pieces of the "seed" chocolate. It is suggested to use a blow dryer to heat the sides of the pan gently. Blow the hot air onto the sides of the pan in 5 to 10 second bursts, until the temperature of the chocolate increases to 87 degrees F. Now, proceed with whatever is being done, whether using the chocolate for dipping or for pouring out onto a surface, as in my recipe. 

A Note on Dried Rose Petals

I happened to have some dried rosebuds in my spice pantry, as I had used them when making my Ras el Hanout. Not everyone will have dried rose petals in their cupboards, so these can be left out entirely, if desired. For the Xmas holidays, I felt the pretty dark rose colored petals would look great on the green colored chocolate. If desired, dried rose petals are available on www.amazon.com.

White Chocolate Matcha Bark with Pistachios, Almonds and Rose Petals

White Chocolate Matcha Bark

Makes approximately ¾ pound candy

12 ounces (¾ pound) cacao butter
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1½ cups confectioners' sugar
3 - 5 teaspoons Matcha green tea powder
1 tablespoon dried whole milk powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 - 5 drops rosewater
1½ tablespoons chopped pistachios
1½ tablespoons sliced almonds
2 tablespoons crushed dried rose petals
½ teaspoon medium grind Himalayan sea salt 

FOR TEMPERING:
1 bar (4.4 oz.) Lindt Classic White Chocolate Bar, broken or cut into small pieces

In a double boiler, set over (not in) boiling water at a gentle simmer, melt the cacao butter and coconut oil. Stir or sift together the confectioners' sugar, green tea powder and dried whole milk powder. Stir this mixture into the melted cacao butter. Add in the rosewater and vanilla extract. Pour onto a Silpat or proceed with tempering.

To Temper: With a candy thermometer, or one that will show lower temperatures from 83 to 110 degrees, monitor the temperature until the chocolate reaches 110 degrees. Remove from heat. Begin adding the Lindt white chocolate pieces, one or two at a time, stirring gently to melt. Add more only once the previous pieces have melted. Monitor the temperature carefully until the temperature decreases to 83 degrees F. Have handy a blow dryer. Begin blowing the warm air at he sides of the pan in bursts of 5 to 10 seconds. Monitor the temperature until the temperature of the chocolate reaches 87 degrees. 

Have ready a Silpat or other silicone surface, or grease aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet. Pour the tempered white chocolate onto the surface. Combine the chopped pistachios, sliced almonds and rose petals with the Himalayan salt and sprinkle this mixture over top of the chocolate. Allow the chocolate to cool completely, then break apart into chunks and store in a tightly sealed tin. If desired, melt any remaining Lindt White Chocolate and drizzle over the top.


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Reprise of my Valentine Cake

Almond Pistachio Torte with Baklava Flavors

Ever since Valentine's Day, when I made an Almond Pistachio Torte with Baklava Flavors, I have been itching to remake the torte, with some changes. Don't get me wrong - there was absolutely nothing wrong with the flavors. There was nothing wrong with the cake at all, except that if someone with less experience tries that recipe, it will yield a lot of frustration and possibly some heartbreak along with it. 

My Reasons for Making Changes

For starters, when I get going on the creation of a recipe, I am of the "more is better" school. It is really hard for me to scale back on ingredients. I also usually look for what will be the most rich, unless I am absolutely working on a recipe for paring back in some way, due to someone's dietary restrictions. Going on that theme, I used 5 eggs, 1 2/3 cup sugar, 2 sticks of butter and a half cup of heavy cream, on top of the 3+ cups of ground nuts. As I said; rich. My goal was to have the flavors of Baklava, in a cake. That much was pretty good. The actual layers of the torte were too fragile, too wet, too sunken in the middle. 

I used possibly more glaze than needed, but oh my, was that cake moist. I think part of the sinking-in-the-middle problem was too much meringue in the batter and way too much butter mixed in. When attempting to trim the very high edges, the pieces were wet enough to pack into the middle, where the layer was sunken. All this was okay, ultimately. The cake held together, but trying to move the layers onto the cake to ice them was a real trick. The flavors were wonderful. Still, I wanted something less friable. 

"New and Improved": Nut Torte with Baklava Flavors

Creating a New Version

I got thinking it has been a while since I made a dessert. Desserts are generally my specialty. And my mind once again turned to that Almond Pistachio Torte. I got out my Grandma's recipe for a Nut Torta, alongside my recipe for the Almond Pistachio Torte. The vast differences were almost funny. Grandma's cake was mostly eggs with a little sugar and 1 cup of nuts. I wanted to keep the 3 cups of ground nuts I used originally, but felt that I needed more eggs in the mix. Less as meringue, perhaps, but more overall. I thought I needed less sugar, so I lowered that quantity. I eliminated both the 2 sticks of butter (Grandma's cake has no oil or butter at all), keeping only the 1/4 cup of olive oil, which I absolutely had intended using from the get-go. 

The flavors in the original Almond Pistachio Torte were of Baklava: cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, rose water. I kept these, but used slightly more: a teaspoon apiece of cinnamon and cardamom, and I kept the rosewater at 1 teaspoon. The glaze I used on the original cake was upwards of 8 tablespoons of liquid. The cake layers were too moist to begin with. Not knowing how this second attempt would fare, I chose to lower the liquids to 4 tablespoons. As it turned out, this cake could easily have taken the amount I used in the first one. While the torte layers were in no way dry, the extra glaze would not have hurt at all.

Nice soft crumb when fresh

In the first cake, I wanted pistachios, as my husband loves pistachios. I was going for the love, being Valentine's Day! This time I used 1 cup each of ground almonds, pecans and walnuts. Any nuts preferred will work. It can be made with all of one particular kind of nut meal, or half and half of two kinds. 

The Results

Freshly made, the torte was lovely. The layers  came out of the pans easily and were exceptionally easy to handle. Immediately sliced, the torte was nowhere near the "wet" consistency of the first torte. Obviously I could have used more of the glaze this time, rather than cutting the mixture in half. Once the cake set for a while, cut, it started to dry very quickly. Inside, it was still nice and moist as a cake should be, but the outside was not holding up. If it is meant to go quickly, this should be no problem. Another option to help it stay more moist: put less icing between the layers and stretch it to cover the sides also. I have not tasted it yet this second day, but if it was drying that quickly on the day it was made, I think I need more of something to keep it moist. More olive oil in the batter, and more glaze after baking, probably. Also this time I used all purpose flour in the batter, rather than the rice flour in the first mixture. I may go back to the rice flour concept. I have a feeling I am going to have a round 3 on this recipe before too long!

Nut Torte with Baklava Flavors

Nut Torte with Baklava Flavors

Makes one 4-layer 8-inch torte

8 eggs, divided, room temperature
1¼ cups sugar
¼ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon rosewater, optional
1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
3 cups finely ground nuts of choice
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground true cinnamon, (sometimes called Ceylon cinnamon)
1 teaspoon ground cardamom seeds
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon sugar
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease four 8-inch round pans. Cut parchment to fit the bottoms of the pans and set the parchment inside, then grease the parchment. Grind the nuts, measure out three cups worth and set aside. Sift or whisk together the flour, cinnamon, cardamom, salt, baking powder and cloves and set aside. Mix together the olive oil, vanilla extract and rosewater and set aside.

In a mixer bowl, crack in 5 of the eggs. Separate the remaining 3 eggs and put the yolks with the 5 eggs and the 3 whites in another clean bowl. Set the whole egg mixture in a stand mixer with the 1¼ cups sugar and beat on medium or medium high speed until the mixture is very light and fluffy and will drop slowly, ribbon-like, dissolving back into the mixture, taking a few seconds to disappear. Mix in the olive oil mixture and the lemon zest, then stir in the nuts.

With a mixer and very clean beaters, beat the 3 egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add in the tablespoon of sugar and beat to stiff peaks. Fold this mixture into the batter until no white remains. Divide the mixture evenly between the 4 pans. Bake the layers for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the layers cool for a few minutes in the pans, then turn them out onto cooling racks. Brush on the Glaze, dividing evenly between the 4 layers.

Glaze
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 strip (about 1 x 2½-inches) lemon peel
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1-inch true cinnamon stick, crumbled
3 whole cloves

Set all the glaze ingredients in a small saucepan over very low heat and let them steep while the cake is baking. Strain the mixture and brush onto the cake layers.

Frost the layers with Honey Butter Icing (found here).

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

A Nutty Valentine Cake

Nutty: the cake, that is. I had been planning a cake (torte, really) of this sort for over a month now. An idea, over weeks, took shape. Lots of time was spent on comparing different recipes, getting an idea of what it might take to get this cake of mine to do what I wanted, i.e. make thin layers that would grow properly in the oven, hold together while stacking the torte, have great texture and flavor.

Almond Pistachio Torte with Baklava Flavors

My Goals

1. For starters, I wanted to use pistachio flour, or meal. No easy feat, with pistachios. They just do not like to be ground finely. At the beginning, I wanted to use all pistachios, but that just seemed like too much work. I ended up going to half pistachio flour and half almond flour in the proposed recipe, almond flour being more easily obtainable these days. Ultimately . . . I used 2/3 almond flour and 1/3 pistachio flour. There was still plenty of pistachio flavor, so no problem.
2. Last year's Valentine Treat was Cupcakes (see here for that recipe). They had Middle Eastern flavors, with cardamom, pistachios and other things. I wanted something on that same line, but with a different twist. First that it be a cake and made with mainly nuts; in other words a "torte". Second that the flavors be like . . . and all I could think of is Baklava. 

I love Baklava. I have made Walnut Baklava, Walnut/Pecan/Almond Baklava and all Pistachio Baklava. I love them all. But what was it in Baklava that I wanted? Partly it was the nuts. Partly that chewy and sticky quality. Partly it was the spices and flavors.

I had read recently that true Lebanese Baklava has rose water as one of its flavors. I had just purchased new bottles of Nielson-Massey rose water (right) and orange blossom water. This brand's flavors are quite strong. I wanted to use one of these two new flavorings in this cake. I went with rose water. I may have erred on the cautious side, as I cannot really taste this flavor in the finished cake, though it did have nicely complex flavors, so maybe it was a good thing that all the flavors melded so well.

Almond Pistachio Torte with Baklava Flavors

And, OH, did the flavors come out well!

As for the cake itself, I wanted to make at least three and possibly four thin layers to stack. In the spirit of Baklava, I also made a glaze to brush over the layers when they came out of the oven. With Baklava in mind, I mixed water, honey, cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel and a touch of rose water. I hoped that this would also ensure the cake be very moist. And it certainly was. But.

While everything about this cake, flavor-wise, came out perfect, the cake layers puffed and sank in the middle, leaving deep wells. After the glaze, and turning out of pans, I trimmed some of the high edges. The trimmed bits were wet enough that I just slapped them into the center "well" part of the cake and lightly pressed in place. The cake layers held up this way and even sliced neatly. So, while I might have some work to do on making the layers come out right without all this fuss, the end result was still wonderful.

My Grandma's Icing

As for the icing part, I went with an amended version of my Grandma's icing recipe. To tell the truth, I always hated my Grandma's icing. It was the only one she made (in my memory) during my childhood in the 1950s. As a large portion of the icing was shortening, the texture and flavor were just not my thing at all. She had a funny way of making this icing, too, which I will get into in a second. I made her Nut Torta and her Icing recipe a couple of years ago, so I could set it into my website. The cake part was okay, but the icing was just as I remembered: greasy, tasteless and gross. As I thought about it though, I thought maybe substituting butter for the shortening would at least give it flavor. I tried it. It tasted really good, but the texture was funny. It looked almost curdled.

Imagine my surprise - nay, SHOCK! - when in wandering around Pinterest one day I came on a recipe for a "miracle icing", which was, essentially, my Grandma's Icing recipe - with butter instead of shortening!

In reading more as this type of icing recipe seemed to blossom and pop up all over the internet, the main thing is to keep beating the icing until it is smooth and fluffy. If it curdles, it may be too warm, so just chill it for a bit, then keep on beating. I decided to give Grandma's recipe one more try, again with butter. At the end, I added in some honey, in keeping with the Baklava flavors. It came out absolutely perfect. Smooth, creamy, and flavorful. Very rich, but not too sweet.

Almond Pistachio Torte with Baklava Flavors

On Making Pistachio Flour or Meal

I placed ¾ cup of shelled, raw, unsalted pistachios in my food processor and let it run for about 2 minutes. Your processor may work differently, but at this point in mine, the nuts had only begun to stick slightly in the edges, indicating it wanted to start being a nut butter. We do not want nut butter, but meal. I stopped the processor and poured the contents into a sieve with not too fine holes. I had a small amount of meal that would not pass through the sieve. I repeated this process with another ¾ cup of nuts. The result was 1¼ cup of nut meal (that passed through the sieve) and about ½ cup left over for decorating the top of the cake.

Almond Pistachio Torte with Baklava Flavors

Makes one (2 to 4-layer) 8-inch cake

1⅔ cup granulated sugar

Almond Pistachio Torte with Baklava Flavors

 

2 cups almond flour/meal
1¼ cups pistachio meal (see above)
1 cup white rice flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon (preferably true cinnamon, not cassia)
½ teaspoon ground cardamom seed
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon rose water
3 egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tarter
¼ cup sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease 2 to 4 (8-inch) cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment and grease the parchment. Set aside.

In a mixer bowl, combine the first 10 (dry) ingredients. With the paddle attachment or a whisk, combine all these ingredients well. Add the butter and beat the mixture until it makes thick crumbs. In a separate bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, yolks, olive oil, cream and flavorings. Pour these into the nut mixture and beat to combine.

In another mixer bowl, with whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tarter to soft peaks. Begin adding the 1/4 cup of sugar slowly, until the mixture has reached stiff, glossy peaks. Fold 1/3 of this meringue into the cake batter to loosen. Add in remaining meringue and fold in gently until no white remains. Divide this batter between the prepared pans. For 4 thin layers, bake for about 25 minutes, until a tester inserted in center comes out clean. For 3 or 2 pans, the time will be longer. Watch carefully.

GLAZE:
3 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 strip lemon peel
1-inch true cinnamon stick
3 whole cloves
½ teaspoon rose water

While cake is baking, combine all the glaze ingredients, except the rose water, in a small saucepan. Heat through and then leave to steep while the cakes are baking. Strain the liquid into a small bowl and stir in the rose water. Once cakes are baked, use a pastry brush to apply the glaze. Use all, or some, as desired.

To frost the cake, turn the cakes out onto racks, then with another rack over top, invert, so the tops of the cakes are upwards. Trim edges as necessary to allow for stacking. The layers are quite wet. I have racks with the lines all running one way, which allowed for easy sliding onto the plate and next layer(s).

Honey Butter Icing on Almond Pistachio Torte

Honey-Butter Icing

Makes enough to frost the tops of 4 layers, or tops and sides of 2 layers
 
 1½ cups granulated sugar
⅓ cup cornstarch
1½ cups milk
1½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons honey

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar and cornstarch. Whisk in the milk and set the pan over medium heat. Whisking constantly, bring the mixture to boil and allow to boil for at least a few minutes to cook out the starch. This should take a total of about 10 minutes.

Pour the hot pudding into a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and beat the pudding on medium speed or higher until it is cooled to room temperature, so the butter does not melt on contact. Begin adding in about 2 tablespoons of the softened butter at a time, allowing each addition to fully incorporate before adding more. Once all incorporated, continue to beat until very fluffy and light.

Frost the cake layers as desired. Use some or all of the leftover pistachio bits to decorate the top or sides of the cake.

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.