Pumpkin Flan

Right after I got home from Ecuador, I took my nephew up to my aunt and uncle's farm to get some pumpkins. We had different goals, James and I, but we both came home happy. He got a pumpkin 'big enough to fit Poppy (his sister) in', as well as some quality time admiring the tractors. I scored 15 pie pumpkins. My plan was to make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, but we were missing something crucial, though I can't remember what it was now. That left me with a cooked pumpkin, so I brought it home and got to work. I made a pumpkin loaf, which was delicious, but got eaten before the camera-computer issue got fixed. Then I made this, which is just like pumpkin pie filling without the crust, and with a caramel sauce. It's smooth, creamy, dense and pumpkiny. 

Pumpkin Flan

Serves 8 according to the recipe, but I think it's enough for at least 12--it's quite rich

Source: Adapted from Gourmet Today

2 cups sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1½ cups whole milk

5 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

15 ounces pumpkin puree (I used fresh, but this is equivalent to one can)

2 tablespoons dark rum

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

a handful of pumpkin seeds for garnish (optional)

2-quart/liter souffle or round casserole dish (I used small ramekins)

Preheat oven to 350℉.

Caramel:

Heat 1 cup sugar with ¼ cup water in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved, brushing down the edges of the pan with a wet brush to rinse away any sugar crystals. Boil until it is a dark amber colour, then immediately pour into dish or dishes and swirl to distribute evenly. Set aside while you make the flan.

Flan:

Bring the cream and milk to a simmer in a heavy saucepan over medium heat (I used the same saucepan, and didn't bother to wash it--the hardened caramel with dissolve). Whisk the eggs, yolk and remaining sugar together until well blended. Add the pumpkin, rum, vanilla, spices and salt and whisk. Add the hot cream mixture in a stream while whisking. Pour mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pushing mixture with a spatula to force it through. Pour custard into caramel lined dish or dishes. Place into a large roasting pan, place pan in preheated oven and then pour boiling water to come at least halfway up sides of dish. Bake until flan is golden brown on top (small ones won't brown as much) and a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 1¼ hours. Transfer dish to a rack to cool. Once cool, cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, overnight is even better. The longer it sits, the more caramel dissolves, giving more sauce.

To serve:

Run a thin knife around the edges of the flan to loosen it. Shake the dish gently until the flan moves freely in dish. Invert a large platter deep enough to catch the caramel sauce over the dish and, holding them tightly together, quickly invert and turn flan out on platter. Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds just before serving.

See you on Thursday with the Daring Bakers' reveal!

Brown butter pumpkin birthday cake

The little one, for O

I'm finally back home! I was hoping to have something yummy and seasonal to share with you, but who am I kidding? There's not much seasonal in my neck of the woods these days. I raided my mother's freezer and made rhubarb crisp with the last of the frozen stuff, but I didn't get any pictures. It wasn't the most picturesque dessert anyway, even though it was very tasty. Instead, I bring you pumpkin cake! I made this cake for 2 friends' birthdays, one in November and one in March. The first one, in November, was a half recipe baked in 6" cake pans. The second was the full recipe. Both times I made extra frosting, because you really don't want to skimp on the cream cheese and browned butter goodness.

The big one, for M

This is a rich cake, best served in small slices. Make sure the frosting is at room temperature for spreading and serving, as you can see how it wasn't as smooth in the top picture. Sorry, no cut photos this time: these left my kitchen and only the cake plates came back, eventually. Because I am lazy actually made these according to the recipe, I am linking it here. Okay, I might have added a teaspoon of baking powder and browned all the butter at once and used butternut squash for one of them. The extra baking powder definitely helped lighten the cake a bit, as I forgot it for the second version and it was much denser. Also, for the second cake I didn't strain out the browned bits in the butter, thinking they would add extra texture to the frosting. They did, but it also looks like my frosting is full of crumbs. Do as I say, not as I do. The last little change was that I didn't put any nuts between the layers, but piled them all on top. 

Whatever changes you make, this is an absolutely fabulous cake, and one of my new favourites. It may not be spring-y, but there's a butternut squash on my counter that's tempting me to make this again. For me this time.

:)

Gevulde Speculaas (Spice cake with almond paste)

This is an autumn cake from the Netherlands, and if you like spices and almonds it's the perfect treat for you. If not, well, I've got a chocolate version in the works--stay tuned. It's quite rich, so it's best served in small slices. Don't worry--you can always go back for seconds! I definitely did. It's actually more like a cookie than a cake, as the dough is dry enough to roll out. The resulting confection is firm, sweet, spicy and crumbly, and perfect with tea or coffee. This is another recipe from Warm Bread and Honey Cake, my favourite new baking book in ages. I want to make almost everything from this book, as the writing and photos are wonderful.
Spice mixture*
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon aniseed
¼ teaspoon cloves
⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon mace
9 oz/1⅔ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
7 oz/1 cup brown sugar
6 oz/¾ cup unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
1 egg, well beaten
Filling
10½ oz coarse almond paste (I made my own, see below)
about ½-¾ of a beaten egg (reserve the rest for glazing)

1. Combine spices, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the beaten egg and run the food processor until the dough comes together. Try not to eat all the dough. Divide the dough into ⅓ and ⅔ portions, shape in discs, wrap separately in plastic and refrigerate. Chill for one hour. It can be made the day before, but will need to warm up before rolling to prevent it from breaking up.
2. Preheat oven to 340℉/170℃  and grease a 9" cake pan.
3. Mix the coarse almond paste with enough beaten egg to make a fairly soft, spreadable filling. Set aside. Roll out the larger portion of dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap to an 11" circle. Make sure there are no creases in the plastic wrap. Use this piece of dough to line the pan, pressing it to the sides of the pan so it doesn't fall inward. Spread the almond paste evenly over the dough and fold in the dough edges so they rest on the almond paste. Reuse the plastic wrap to roll the smaller piece of dough into an 8½" circle. It should be slightly smaller than the cake pan. Trim it so the edges are neat. Moisten the edges of the dough in the pan and lay the smaller circle on top. Press the edges gently together to seal. Brush with the leftover beaten egg and prick with a fork in several places. I forgot to glaze it and it was fine. 
4. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Leave to cool in the pan, then transfer carefully to a serving plate. If you can stand it, wrap this and let it sit for a day or two before serving for best flavour.

*I reduced the cinnamon, upped the cardamom and ginger, and left out the cloves and aniseed. Use what you have, making up any missing spices by increasing one of the first 3. This is the place for fresh and freshly ground spices, as you can really taste them. I also halved this recipe and made it in a 6" pan, which still made 16 slices. It freezes well, too. 

Coarse almond paste:
My new neighbourhood has a fantastic store for buying very fresh nuts, so I have given up on store-bought almond paste. They do not sell blanched almonds there, but the almonds were huge and very fresh, so I did it myself by covering them with boiling water and letting them sit for a minute or two, till the skins wrinkled. I then rinsed them in cold water and squeezed the almonds out of their skins.
8 oz blanched almonds
5 oz icing sugar
1 egg white
lemon zest (optional)
almond extract (taste first to see if it's necessary--I didn't add any)
Grind almonds in food processor until coarsely ground. Add icing sugar and egg white and process until it comes together. Best made a few days in advance and refrigerated. Can also be frozen.

TWD: Caramel pumpkin pie

This week's recipe came a week after Canadian Thanksgiving so the smart and efficient thing to do would have been to make it a week in advance and serve it at the family dinner. I didn't do that, not only because I rarely choose the efficient way, but because I was worried that it wouldn't be as good as my regular recipe. I make a good pumpkin pie, if I do say so myself (I guess I just did). Anyway, I didn't even get my own pie made this year for the holiday, as it was a busy weekend. Instead, I melted my pumpkin ice cream down and used that as pie filling the next day. It was amazing--custardy and bright orange, just the way I like it! So good, that my mother called to see if I had told my sister-in-law I had also left some behind for her. She wanted to keep it all to herself. Luckily I hadn't said anything and my mother got 2 her pieces of pie. If you want to use that recipe you don't need to freeze it first, obviously. I'm all about efficiency, you know.

What does all that have to do with this week's recipe? Not much. I decided to make this pie in ramekins rather than in a crust for a change. I also decided to switch up the flavouring, as I find pumpkin pie sometimes just tastes of the spices rather than of the pumpkin. So, out came my favourite homemade essence: extrait antillais. I know I have mentioned it a number of times, but it's vanilla beans, tonka beans, sapote and mace marinated in rum. I sometimes use this to replace rum and vanilla and that's what I did here. Forgetting that I wanted to go light on spice, I added small amounts of fresh mace, nutmeg, sapote and tonka bean. Unfortunately, the spices completely overpowered the pumpkin and I found it inedible. I ate 2 to be sure. I guess the extrait has been sitting long enough that it's really powerful. Anyway, they looked pretty enough, but this recipe won't be replacing my regular one, as the texture wasn't as nice. And the colour! The caramel was delicious, but it darkened the filling enough that it looked like canned. Eeek! I know I ranted about this when I made the ice cream, so I won't do it again, but just look at this:

This week's recipe was chosen by Janell of Mortensen Family Memoirs. Great pick, and sorry I screwed up! As always, head on over to the TWD site to see what everyone else baked up. Should be good--lots of positive comments this week. Some pumpkin-haters may even have become pumpkin eaters. :)

Update: Hmm, just had a friend over for dinner and I let her try the reject pumpkin pie. She took them all home, so maybe they're not as bad as I thought. She's going to mix them with ice cream to tone down the spice a bit.
Another entry for Torview's Orange recipe month!

Chickpeas and Oreos: MaryMary cannot live on cake alone

Clockwise from top left: asafoetida, turmeric and dried Korean peppers, fresh cayenne chile, ground cumin, and black mustard seeds

When I look at my blog posts, it looks like I only eat dessert, and mostly cake. That is somewhat true, but I do eat savoury food at least once a day. Sometimes twice! It's just that it's usually dark before I even start making dinner, so I have a hard time getting photos, and I don't find main courses as photogenic as dessert. At least not when I'm taking the pictures! Now that the days are getting longer, I have no excuse, and never mind for now the fact that I finish work by 3 and am often home before 4. Earlier this week, I made one of my favourite dishes: Easy Karnataka Chana, which is a chickpea dal. This is quick and easy, and means you can have homemade Oreos for dessert. It's from Mangoes and Curry Leaves by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, a couple based in Toronto who are travelers, cooks, writers and photographers. Their books are beautiful, and have won numerous awards.

Easy Karnataka Chana
1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, or for at least 4 hours in 4 cups water
4¼ cups water, plus up to 3 cups more if serving as a soup
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 green cayenne chilis, minced (1 used 3 red ones)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds (I am very generous here)
pinch of asafoetida powder
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ to 1 teaspoon cayenne powder (I had some Korean chile powder, so I used that)
about 1½ teaspoons salt
about ½ cup chopped cilantro/coriander leaves (I use closer to a cup, but don't measure)

Drain the chickpeas and place them in a food processor with ¼ cup water, the cumin and the chilis. Process for 20 seconds, scrape the sides and process for 10-20 more seconds. They should be coarse. I usually don't bother to chop the chilis, and end up with more finely chopped chickpeas by the time they are chopped. Be sure to leave some texture--you don't want a smooth paste.

In a deep heavy pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. When it is hot, add the mustard seeds and cover until they stop popping. Quickly add the asafoetida, turmeric and cayenne and stir. Pour in the chickpea mixture--it will spatter a bit. Stir-fry for a minute to expose all the chickpeas to the hot oil.

Add the remaining 4 cups water and stir to blend well. Bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes, or until the chickpeas are cooked through, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. If serving as a soup, add the extra 3 cups water and bring to a boil.

Add the salt and bring to a simmer for a few more minutes. This may seem like a lot of salt, and I thought it was too much the first time I made it, but after a few minutes simmering it's perfect. Start with 1 teaspoon if you're unsure.

Stir in the chopped coriander and serve. I like this with basmati rice, and make a meal out of it. It keeps and reheats really well, but it will get thicker, so you can add water when reheating if you like.

And for dessert:

I've been thinking about making homemade Oreos ever since I saw the recipe on Smitten Kitchen, and then when I loved the homemade graham crackers I made in January, I knew I had to try it. But when? The perfect opportunity appeared the other night: I was having dinner at O's house, and the Ottawa Senators were up 1-0 in their playoff series with Pittsburgh. I took this as a sign that it was time to make the cookies, and it also meant that I wouldn't show up both late and empty-handed. It was also a nice excuse to get silly with cookie cutters again. 

I made this recipe, and used the lower amount of sugar. The first time I followed the recipe and made them as a drop cookie, but they were too thick for sandwich cookies, I thought. They were delicious, though, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting rid of them. I formed the leftover dough into a cylinder, chilled it, and then sliced thinly and baked as directed. The only other change I made was to replace the shortening in the filling with butter, because I didn't need to be that authentic, and I knew melting wouldn't be a problem in the chilly, wet weather we've been having. The filling was very rich, but Oreo perfect. Don't be tempted to slather it on too thick (like I did).

I must admit, I almost wanted to keep these at home instead of bringing them to O's place for dinner. Yes, they were that fantastic. I'll be making a few more tomorrow for J, and to bring the Sens luck!

                       

Multilayered spice cake

I got the book Warm Bread and Honey Cake out of the library a month or so ago and immediately bookmarked a dozen recipes. I had to return it before I even got the chance to make anything, but I immediately ordered it from the bookstore and made this cake today. Today was actually a really busy day for me, as I supply taught, volunteered, did laundry and went to a book club meeting. That's more than I usually do in a whole week! Of course, I hadn't finished the book, so I spent the afternoon frantically reading, but a book is always better with a cup of tea and a piece of cake, isn't it?

I'm not sure why I chose this cake, because in the notes that accompany the recipe, the author, Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra, says that the layering can take up to 45 minutes. I made a half recipe in a 6" pan, and it was very rich, but delicious. The recipe calls for cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and nutmeg, but I replaced these with mace, tonka beans and sapote. These are the spices, along with vanilla, that make up the extrait antillais I wrote about earlier. Antilles extract just doesn't sound as good, does it? Here's a photo of the spices in the extract, which I used, along with freshly grated/ground spice:

Here's the recipe, but you really should get your hands on this book. It's got recipes for breads, cakes, cookies, pastry and savoury items from a variety of places such as Guyana, The Netherlands, Chile, Turkey and China.

9 oz/2¼ sticks butter, softened

7 oz/1 cup sugar (in 2 equal portions)

5 eggs, separated

1 tsp vanilla extract

4½ oz/scant 1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon 

½ tsp ground cardamom 

⅛ tsp ground cloves

⅛ tsp freshly grated nutmeg 

1¾ oz/scant ½ stick melted butter, for brushing

Grease an 8" pan and preheat the broiler. Move the oven rack to the top beforehand. It's much easier when it's not hot!

Sift the flour with the salt and set aside.

Beat the butter until smooth. Add half the sugar and cream until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and beat well to incorporate. 

In a clean bowl with clean beaters, whisk the egg whites till foamy, then add the other half of the sugar gradually, beating until stiff peaks form. Add a spoonful to the butter mixture and mix well to lighten. Gently fold in the rest of the egg whites in 3 additions, alternating with the flour. Do not overmix.
Transfer half the batter to another bowl (the egg white one is already dirty...just saying) and fold in the spices. Spread a quarter of the contents of one bowl over the bottom of the greased pan and level it with a spoon or an offset spatula. It doesn't matter which batter you start with.
Place the pan under the hot broiler and broil until the top is puffy and the batter cooked through. The first layer always seems to take a little longer, about 5 minutes, depending how close it is to the heat source. Remove the pan from the broiler, brush with the melted butter and then add a layer consisting of ¼ of the other batter. Repeat the layering, broiling and buttering until all the batter is used up. Each subsequent layer will take about 3 minutes. FYI: you do not have time to check your email while broiling this cake. Just a bit of kitchen wisdom from me to you, learned the hard way.  You will end up with 8 layers. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that I only have 6.* Be careful about spreading the layers evenly and wiping any spills from the edges.
When you are finished broiling all the layers, gently loosen the edges with a knife and turn it out onto a cooling rack. Serve in small slices.

*Make sure your layers are fully cooked, as my second layer wasn't, and so the first and second layers separated from the rest of the cake when I removed it from the pan. Sad, but a nice snack! Next time I make this I am going to try it without the butter brushed between layers, as it's already very rich, and some layers had oozing butter. I'm also going to try this again with different spices, as I think the cardamom's in a snit now--I haven't used it in a week.

Oh, and what was the book club book? It was Speak Ill of the Dead by Mary Jane Maffini. It's a mystery set in my hometown, and I loved reading about many familiar places in Ottawa. Mary Jane was there and told some great stories about her inspiration for the book. As an added bonus, I won the door prize, which was a copy of next month's book: Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel.