Making the world a little sweeter one pastry tip at at time.
I do lots of reading for all my pastry writing and I recently found a little gem, Foods and Food Adulterants on Baking Powders, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It goes into detail on the “investigation into the character and composition of baking powders.” …read more
Chess Pie Chess Pie is a classic Southern dessert custard pie made with eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, with some recipes containing either/both cornmeal and vinegar. Open up a dozen different community cookbooks and you’ll find that many different versions of Chess Pie, or more. The origin of …read more
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| Opéra Cake – courtesy Flickr User arnold | inuaki through a Creative Commons License. |
To me, there is nothing more close-your-eyes decadent than an Opéra Cake, probably because I know what goes into it. It is sinfully rich and since it is typically served in small portions, the whole presentation makes it a little sexy for adults – you know you’re getting something good inside a small package. For the kids, if they enjoy chocolate, they’ll love a little Opéra Cake at tea time.
The origins of this cake differ. Some say Opéra Cake is credited to Gaston Lenôtre (1920 – 2009), who started École Lenôtre in 1971. Others say it was invented in the kitchens of Dalloyau, where it is still showcased today.
Opéra Cake consists of thin layers of joconde moistened with a coffee-flavored syrup, and sandwiched between layers of coffee-flavored buttercream and ganache. Depending on where you find the dessert, you’ll find variations ranging from several layers of joconde with the buttercream and ganache, to just a few. The topping for it is generally a smooth chocolate glaze. You will often find flakes of edible gold leaf, gold dust, a piping of a musical note, or a coffee bean on the top.
Here is my favorite recipe for Opéra Cake, and it’s very simple. This cake has three layers of joconde separated by a thin layer of ganache and a thicker layer of coffee buttercream. It is then topped with melted ganache that sets up shiny and smooth. It yields one sheet pan.
Opéra Cake
Lay a ganache frame or rectangular stainless steel frame over parchment paper or a silicone sheet on a flat sheet pan . Trim 3 biscuits joconde to fit inside the frame. Place one joconde sheet on the bottom. Brush 10 ounces of coffee syrup over the top, ensuring all the syrup is used up. Evenly spread the ganache over the top of the biscuit joconde.
Place the second joconde over the ganache and gently press to make sure the layer is evenly flat. Douse this layer of joconde with 10 ounces of coffee syrup, again making sure all the syrup is used up. Spread the buttercream over the second joconde evenly, and press the last joconde down evenly to get a perfectly flat cake. Use the last of the syrup for this layer, and spread a very thin layer of ganache over the top. This will act as a crumb coat. Chill until the cake is firm, then melt an amount of ganache for the top, spreading or tilting to make an even layer. Chill again, then cut into small rectangles for service.
Opéra Cake Coffee Syrup
This recipe yields about 30 ounces. Use 10 ounces for the bottom layer, 10 ounces for the middle layer, and the rest for the top layer.
Stir everything together in a saucepan until almost boiling. Remove, and cool before using.
Enjoy,
Traditional Galette des Rois – photo courtesy Flickr User Gael Chardon through a Creative Commons License. Twelfth Night is a celebration that marks the coming of Epiphany, and most Christians celebrate it on the 12th day after Christmas. Epiphany celebrates the divination of Christ, and …read more
The St. Honoré tip is by far the most requested of the specialty pastry tips I carry. It looks like a large plain tip with a v cut in the front. And if you have ever had this dessert, you would understand its elegant appeal. …read more
All true chocolate lovers know how chocolate is made. The basic flow begins with cacao beans which are cleaned and roasted. After winnowing, the cacao shells are separated from the nibs which are ground into the liquor. From this, either cocoa powder, cocoa butter, or bar chocolate is separated or made. But do you know the true history of chocolate? In the book The True History of Chocolate goes into the history, and is written by husband and wife team, Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe (Thames & Hudson, 1996, ISBN 0500282293). The second edition was published in 2007 (ISBN13: 9780500286968).
It is important to note that while it contains both authors’ names, the work was finished posthumously by Michael after the death of his wife, Sophie, who had written the first three chapters and assembled notes for subsequent chapters. Sophie was a noted food historian with a doctorate in anthropology. Her study of the both the birthplace of cacao and the Aztecs are engrossing to read. The Sophie Coe Memorial Prize is an annual award for food history essays, and the Sophie Coe Memorial Fund is a UK registered charity. Michael Coe is a renowned Mayan scholar, holding a PhD in anthropology and authoring the books The Maya
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| Second Edition Cover |
The True History of Chocolate is very academic in nature rather than informal, and the average person wanting only history with examples will be satisfied. Black and white images, photos, engravings, along with a few color photographs, are dotted throughout the book. How the peoples of the New World and Europe used, traded, and imbibed on chocolate, and how it interacted with the culture, is interesting.
The history is long and spans many centuries. It is threaded throughout the chapters: The Tree of the Food of the Gods; The Birth of Cacao: Olmec-Maya Genesis; The Aztecs: People of the Fifth Sun; Encounter and Transformation; Chocolate Conquers Europe; The Source; Chocolate in the Age of Reason (and Unreason); and Chocolate for the Masses. The Epilogue details the history of “ethically-correct” chocolate products. In case you were wanting to read up on the authors’ sources, the Notes section is extensive, and there is a full Bibliography at the back of the book.
All in all, this book will give you much more than just learning about how chocolate is made or where in the world the origins of chocolate came. The plant and its product intrigued many. As in the first chapter, Europe and the New World both have had a history in loving chocolate, as evidenced with the botanical name given by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus: Theobroma cacao. Theobroma, Greek for ‘food of the gods’, and cacao coming from what the Mesoamerican people called the plant.
Book Information:
; by Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe
Think flowers, think vegetables, think…bugs? On my Old School Pastry blog, I’ve found different recipes that were done by confectioner’s long before commercial food coloring was available to the masses. How to Make Yellow Food Coloring (Saffron) How to Make Green Food Coloring (Spinach) How …read more
Haven’t been to Portland in a long, long, long time, but a long, long, long time ago I used to love the Coffee People coffee. I know Diedrichs has it now and Coffee People coffee can still be purchasedhttp://www.coffeepeople.com/t-about.aspx but was it the name or …read more