Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook (5 page)

COFFEE CAKE

8 tablespoons 113 grams
unsalted butter,
at room temperature

1 cup 200 grams
sugar

2 teaspoons 12 grams
baking powder

½ teaspoon 3 grams
fine sea salt

2 large
eggs,
at room temperature

2 cups 300 grams
all-purpose flour

⅔ cup 170 grams
whole milk,
at room temperature

1 cup 200 grams
sourdough starter

Cake Crumb Streusel

MAKE THE GOOEY TOPPING:
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugars, and salt until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg yolk and mix until well blended. Add the syrup and mix on low speed until well blended, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the water and vanilla and mix until well blended. Add the flour and mix on low speed until it comes together as a homogeneous mixture, scraping down the bowl as needed, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a lidded container or zip-top bag and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

MAKE THE COFFEE CAKE:
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter a 9-inch (23 cm) tube cake pan with a removable bottom and put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, baking powder, and salt until the mixture is light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Increase the mixer speed to medium and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour and mix until it is fully incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Turn the mixer off and add the milk and the sourdough starter. Turn the mixer on low speed, then turn it up to medium and mix until a smooth, silky batter is formed, 15 to 20 seconds.

Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan, using a rubber spatula to smooth it into an even layer. Tap the pan on the table a few times to level it out and remove any air bubbles. Use a teaspoon to scoop dollops of the gooey topping all over the surface of the cake. Sprinkle the cake crumb streusel over the top.

Bake until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and the top feels firm when touched, or the internal temperature of the center of the cake registers 208°–210°F (97°–98°C), about 1 hour 20 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and let the cake cool for 15 minutes in the pan. Then remove the sides and let the cake rest on a wire rack until cool, at least 1 hour.

THE BEST WAY TO CHECK THE CAKE FOR DONENESS IS WITH A THERMOMETER.

CAKE CRUMB STREUSEL

MAKES ENOUGH FOR ONE 9-INCH / 23 CM TUBE CAKE

We are a household of three, and sometimes cakes and cookies start to go stale before we can eat them all. We like to grind them up into crumbs, dry them out, and freeze them so that they aren’t wasted. We often sprinkle the crunchy bits into ice cream, but when we find ourselves overloaded, we make cake crumb streusel. We use dry crumbs in the recipe below, but if you have fresh, moist crumbs, start with half the amount of butter and add the additional in tablespoons just until the mixture comes together.

1½ cups 100 grams
dry cake crumbs

⅔ cup 100 grams
all-purpose flour

6 tablespoons 75 grams
sugar

⅛ teaspoon 0.75 gram
fine sea salt

8 tablespoons 113 grams
unsalted butter,
at room temperature, diced

In a food processor, combine the cake crumbs, flour, sugar, and salt and pulse a few times to blend. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture forms small clumps. Transfer the mixture to a lidded container and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

ROASTING NUTS

Back in the day, culinary instructors used to teach that if you were using nuts in something that was going to be baked or roasted you didn’t need to toast them in advance. Hogwash! Nuts taste better when they’ve been toasted, and even if you are cooking them a second time, they benefit from an initial flavor boost. We generally toast nuts in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the nut, until they are golden brown and fragrant. They cool quickly at room temperature and are ready to use in both sweet and savory recipes.

We were pretty happy with this technique until we tasted pastry chef Philip Speer’s pecans at the StarChefs International Congress in 2011. They were out of this world—incredibly dark, crisp, and delicious. His recipe called for boiling the nuts in a brown sugar syrup for 2 hours and then frying them.

Although the memory of Philip’s recipe sticks with us, the reality of his technique was not something we were ready to tackle in our home kitchen. Even the idea of having to keep an eye on a pot bubbling away for 2 hours was daunting. So we adapted the idea and came up with a slightly less time-consuming and equally delicious (in our opinion) universal recipe for roasting nuts.

We take equal weights of nuts, sugar, and water, add a pinch (technically 0.3%) of salt, and put everything in a pot set over medium heat. Then we bring the mixture to a boil and let it cook for 5 minutes to soften up the nuts so that the syrup can penetrate them. Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and steep for 20 minutes. Strain off and discard the syrup, and toss the nuts with a little butter and salt. The nuts are still warm enough to melt the butter, and it emulsifies with the syrup still clinging to them to form a thin glaze—and the cooler your nuts, the thicker the resulting glaze. We then roast them in the oven on a parchment paper–lined baking sheet until they are a deep golden brown, 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the type of nuts. Take the pan out of the oven and let cool completely.

Once cool, the nuts are crunchy, delicious, and only slightly sweet. You can add some fresh herbs or spices to the syrup, but don’t expect to save that liquid. The sugar syrup pulls some of the tannins from the nuts, which makes them mellower with a pronounced nutty flavor, but the sugar syrup ends up tasting quite bitter.

BASIC ROASTED NUTS

This recipe can be multiplied to make as large a batch as you need. The important thing is that you use equal weights of nuts, sugar, and water as your starting point. We generally add ½ teaspoon of spices to the sugar syrup in the beginning to add any extra flavors. They will mostly be strained off with the syrup before roasting, so you need to make sure their flavor permeates the nuts. The cooking time below will result in a medium roast. If you are not cooking the nuts a second time (in a cake or something), try roasting them for an extra 5 to 10 minutes, until they are a deep mahogany, and see how rich the flavor becomes.

MAKES ABOUT 1 CUP / 150 GRAMS

About 1 cup / 150 grams
whole nuts

¾ cup / 150 grams
sugar

5 ounces / 150 grams
water

⅜ teaspoon / 2.25 grams
fine sea salt

2 teaspoons / 10 grams
unsalted butter

In a small saucepan, combine the nuts, sugar, water, and ¼ teaspoon (1.5 grams) of the salt. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let the nuts steep for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Strain the nuts, discarding the syrup, and transfer them to a medium bowl. Add the butter and remaining ⅛ teaspoon (0.75 gram) salt, and toss well. Spread the nuts out on the baking sheet. Roast for 10 to 15 minutes, rotating once, until the nuts are a deep golden brown. Let them cool completely—the nuts will crisp up as they cool down. Transfer them to an airtight container. The nuts will keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container at room temperature.

GARLIC BREAD POPOVERS

NUT BUTTER SCONES

NO-KNEAD DANISH

ENGLISH MUFFINS

PARSNIP-PEAR QUICK BREAD

GARLIC BREAD POPOVERS

WE USE CHOUX PASTE FOR THIS RECIPE BECAUSE IT PRODUCES
delicate and airy popovers—and you can make the dough in advance. The make-ahead versatility of the popover technique is perfect for breakfast, too.
Garlic bread popovers are delicious alongside crisp bacon and runny eggs; they are a great stand-in for classic Yorkshire puddings with a roast and a wonderful companion for thick stews or roasted fish. They go with everything because they are a striking combination of light, crisp, and flavorful.

MAKES ABOUT 24 POPOVERS

CHOUX PASTE

1⅓ cups 360 grams
whole milk

6.25 ounces (12½ tablespoons) 175 grams
Garlic Butter

1 teaspoon 6 grams
fine sea salt

1 cup 150 grams
all-purpose flour

⅔ cup 100 grams
barley flour

6 large
eggs

2 cups 150 grams freshly grated
Gruyère cheese,
plus more for serving

CHEESE TOPPING

⅔ cup 100 grams
all-purpose flour

1 cup 100 grams freshly grated
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

¼ teaspoon 1.5 grams
fine sea salt

4 ounces (8 tablespoons) 112 grams
Garlic Butter
melted