French Toast

How is is possible that I’ve never written a post on french toast?? We’ve done waffles, we’ve done pancakes, but I’ve neglected my true breakfast love. French toast, if you can hear this, please accept this humblest of apologies.

Anyway, so french toast, why aren’t we making this more often? And even better question, why would you ever buy the pre-made frozen crap? I don’t get it. Listen, as much as I don’t agree, I can understand you saying making waffles and pancakes from scratch is a hassle, but there’s no excuse for french toast. The point of what i’m saying is to make you feel bad about yourself, and  for you to reflect on how poor your decisions are…that’s all…I joke! You’re the best, and that’s why you deserve some french toast, so let’s get some stale bread shall we?

It’s actually a pretty amazing thing.. french toast that is…(are you not following??) I mean you take some old bread which has gone stale (more on that in a second), you add some eggs and milk, and fry. If you really delve into it, there are two things going on, first is the bread staling, which the actual technical term is retrogradation, and the other thing that’s happening is we’re cooking a custard.

Let’s start with retrogradation. Bread is made up of starch, which is a long molecule made up of smaller glucose molecules, and how those glucose molecules are stacked makes the starch either amylose or amylopectin, which are the two main starches found in bread. When starch and water meet, they gelatinize, which basically means the starch absorbs water, and once that happens the starch starts to undergo retrogradation, which means the starch starts to gel, and slowly start to expel moisture. Once a bread is done baking the staling process starts, and given enough time, it will expel enough water to make it feel dry. This is essential for french toast, because what we then do, is replace that lost moisture with the custard (ie – the milk and eggs). Now we’re not really going to get into the custard part, because frankly it’s not that important here, and we’ve done it before.

So just to recap – we need to expel the moisture from the starch network, and then replace it with awesomeness. One way to do that is allow the bread to stale by drying it out on the counter, which will allow the moisture to leave naturally. However, America’s Test Kitchen did a study and found that if you allow the bread to dry out in the oven, it actually will release a lot more moisture, because the process of retrogradation isn’t really that great, so we end up with a lot of moisture actually trapped inside. Basically, the best way to dry out bread is in a very low oven. That being said, this batch of french toast I made by allowing to dry out on the counter over night. By the way, if you’re wondering, don’t use the bread you buy in the supermarkets that mysteriously take weeks to go stale. There are so many preservatives that it won’t stale properly.

Once the bread is good and dried, it’s a matter of allowing it to soak up the eggs and milk, and then frying in some butter. So allow the bread to sit in the egg mixture for a minute or two, to make sure it’s sopped up enough liquid, and then fry, over medium heat.

That’s it. Easy as pie.

By the way, after I wrote all this I realized that I kind of did cover this, in my stuffing post. Bread pudding, which stuffing is a form of, is like french toast’s step brother. Also while we’re on the topic, can I air out one grievance? You know that dish that people make called: “french toast souffle?” That drives me crazy. First of all a souffle is a specific type of dish (you’re still reading, and want to know what defines a souffle??? Well since some people want to go back to their real lives, I’ll leave it for the comments, just ask away…as usual, I don’t bite)…and it’s a freaking bread pudding, so let’s call it that! Whodathunk I’m such a stickler.

Anyway, you’re free to go back to real life.

Good Shabbos, Y’all.

Crème Caramel

In my humble probably wrong opinion, proteins are probably the most versatile and important molecule in cooking. They’re responsible for those awesome Mailard reaction flavors that we’ve spoken about before, but they’re also responsible for a lot more. We don’t have to look any further than the ever versatile egg. Want to whip up egg whites? Make an omelet? Yeah that’s right, it’s all thanks to proteins. Proteins are like big balls of yarn, all tangled up and such, and a lot of cooking involves unwinding the big ball, and re-forming them into a cohesive structure.

When you want to make an omelet, you crack open some eggs, which are a liquid, and put some heat on it, and blammo – you got yourself a solid. The same thing happens when making whipped egg whites, some mechanical intervention, and baddaboom, you got yourself a different structure. But how?

Well heat “denatures” proteins, which is the technical term for un-tangling the ball of yarn, and the newly opened up protein thing-a-ma-bob can now reform into a more solidified thing-a-ma-bob. So basically all there is to it, is the protein denaturing, and re forming. So pretty much, when we cook any protein (think meat, eggs, chicken, etc..) we first have to denature the protein (un ravel the yarn) and then put it all back together, in a way we want it. What’s going on, is imagine this newly unraveled yarn as a long string, and all along that string there are different areas that can now bond to a different unraveled yarn, and when they bond to each other, that gives you the dish’s structure. That’s it.

There is however one caveat, we don’t want all of the different areas that can bond, to actually make that bond, because then the proteins will clink too strongly to each other, which is bad (ie – chewy steak and chicken, rubbery eggs, whipped eggs that weep…), so the trick when cooking pretty much any protein is to not overcook it (yeah I know – thank you captain obvious).

Ok on to crème caramels. Crème caramel is a custard, which has caramel on the bottom of the dish, and then baked, and then turned over so the caramel is pretty much on top of the custard. Traditionally a custard is any egg and milk mixture. It can be baked, served raw, made into an ice cream, and all that fancy jazz. I say traditionally, because it really doesn’t have to be made with milk, and for us on team kosher, we sometimes need to find good substitutes for milk. Since you hate when I talk all chemistry up in this house, I’m going to spare you the details, but suffice it to say, that if it was plain water and eggs, it wouldn’t work, but if you add some added “stuff” to the water, then it will work. (There really is a good enough explanation for it, and anyone willing to risk their brain imploding with information overload, just ask away, and I’ll be happy to explain…by the way, now that I have you here in between these parenthesis, have you checked out The Kosher Gastronome fan page on Facebook yet? Well you should, and you know what else you should do, click on the “like” button over there, because you love me, and there’s no “love” button, so “like” will just have to do it for you…Oh and feel free to comment away over there also, that way people will think there’s a whole party going on over there, and they’ll be jealous…it will be awesome…Ok that’s it for now, I’ll let you go back to reading the rest of the article)

Ok, so if you’re lost, and trying to figure out what’s going on – custard…milk and eggs…don’t really need milk…water with “stuff” is good enough…so basically any parve milk substitute will work. Heck, chicken soup will work, even water with just a few pinches of salt will work…but it will probably not taste all that good.

First make the caramel.

Just to clarify, caramel is 2 parts sugar and 1 part water cooked together to a certain temperature, depending on what your final product is. The stages are – 1) thread, 2) soft-ball, 3) hard ball, 4) soft crack, 5)hard crack, in that order, and of course each one is a description of how the caramel behaves then, and the best way to know you’re at a specific stage is by temperature. So for this dish, we cooked the caramel to the soft crack stage, which is about 280 degrees, although if/when I make this again, I would go all the way to the hard crack stage, which is about 300 degrees. You’ll see why below.

While the caramel is still hot, and liquidy, pour it in to your dish, and let it cool.

Now it’s time to whip up the custard part. Most recipes call for the milk substitute to be heated, and then adding it slowly to the eggs while whisking (aka – tempering). You really don’t need to heat up the milk substitute (I’m just going to call it milk, because you know what’s annoying? spelling the word substitute, there’s just way too many “t”s in there), unless you’re trying to infuse a flavor that can’t be readily mixed in. Meaning, if you’re going to use vanilla extract, just mix it all together, and skip the heat up part. However, if you’re so devoted to being a foodie elitist, like myself, and decided you just had to use real vanilla beans, then you will have to heat the milk up.

You just need to heat it up to a simmer, and let it sit for a few minutes so the flavors blend.

Whip together the eggs, yolks and sugar until it becomes pale in color.

Then, if you heated up the milk, it needs to be strained of the vanilla pod, and added slowly to the eggs. The easiest way to do this is, is to wrap a towel around the base of the egg bowl, and pouring the milk into a measuring cup.

 

That way, you can pour and mix at the same time, without holding on to the bowl…brilliant!

See? My mom was right, I am a genius.

Pour the custard over the now hardened caramel, and put all of your dishes into one big baking dish, and pour hot water into the baking dish, so it comes about half way up on the custard dishes.

Baking the custard in a water bath allows the proteins to cook more evenly, and not over cook.

Then pop these in the fridge for at least 3 hours, and when you’re ready to serve them, just run a knife around the edges, place a small plate on top, and flip it over, so it pops out.

Look how fancy

That last picture was from my phone, and if you don’t like the picture, well here at Gastronome headquarters, we’re looking for someone to sponsor a D-SLR camera. I don’t know the first thing about photography, but I can pretend I do with that shiny new camera, and buying it for me will make you feel good about yourself too.

As for the custard, I thought it was great. The caramel top (or is it bottom?) became a little too runny, and I would have rather it stayed put on top of the custard, and that’s why next time, I’m going to cook the caramel to the hard-ball stage. The actual custard tasted great, and I loved the real vanilla in it, and had the consistency of, well, custard. Someone, who shall remain nameless, thought it tasted like “lukshen kugel,” I know, a complete disgrace, and someone poignantly retorted – “no, lukshen kugel tastes like this.” To explain – lukshen kugel (noodle kugel for the inundated), is also a custard, with some noodles baked in it. So, when you’re trying to figure out what it tastes like, just know if it reminds you of lukshen kugel, it’s because lukshen kugel is a type of custard.

Are we done yet?

Ingredients:

For the caramel:

• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup of water

For the custard:

• 2 cups of milk substitute
• 1 vanilla bean (or 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract)
• 2/3 cups of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 yolks

Directions:

1. To make the caramel – combine the sugar and water together, and turn the heat up to high, and let it cook until a thermometer registers 300 (for the hard-ball stage)
2. Preheat the oven to 350, and bring a kettle of water to a boil.
3. To make the custard – if you’re using a vanilla bean, bring the milk to a simmer, scrape the bean, and it and the pod to the milk, and let the vanilla and milk sit for a few minutes for the flavors to infuse. (If you’re using vanilla extract, just mix milk and vanilla together, and you can add it all at once to egg mixture, once the egg mixture is thoroughly whipped.)
4. In another bowl, mix together eggs, egg yolks, and sugar, and whisk vigorously until it becomes pale in color.
5. Add the milk mixture to the egg mixture slowly, whisking the whole time.
6. Pour custard into your dish of choice, and put that dish, into a larger baking dish, and add boiling water to the bigger dish, to come halfway up the sides of the custard dish.
7. Bake for 40-50 minutes. The middle will be a little jiggly, and that’s ok. Remove from the water bath, and allow it to cool in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
8. When ready to serve, run a knife around the edges, and place a plate on top, and flip over to un-mold

Mom’s Tiramisu

Ok so I had this whole post written up, that I planned on posting earlier, but someone in this household who shall remain nameless (it rhymes with “shmy shwife”) accidentally shut down the computer without saving it. It was obviously the funniest and most informative post ever, but now is another dreadful victim of technology, oh well here goes take 2.

So Shavuos was like 3 weeks ago (yeah, I’m pretty awesome at this whole having my life in order thingy) and even though we were eating out all of the meals, I had got it in my brain that I wanted to make tiramisu for dessert, and make it I did. And lemme tell you, it was pretty freaking amazing.

The best tiramisu I’ve ever tasted is made by my mother, and her secret is: read the back of the BelGioioso tub of mascarpone. No really, that’s where this recipe comes from, and it’s easy and awesome.

For those that don’t know, tiramisu is an Italian dessert that roughly translates into: heaven sent food that I would gladly shovel into my mouth with my fingers, and would most likely have to check myself into some sort of dessert rehab facility, if one actually exists, unless it somehow puts me into a pleasure induced coma, in which case the rehab won’t be necessary. I said roughly. Those wacky Italians.

I’m not 100% sure what makes an authentic tiramisu, but one thing is clear, it needs to have mascarpone, lady fingers dipped in espresso (tiramisu really means- “pick me up”), and eggs, but the logistics are different in different recipes. Most will call for the eggs to be separated and whipped separately, and then folded together, and that’s what this recipe called for also.

So put the yolks, some of the coffee, rum, and sugar into a mixing bowl, and beat until the it comes together and starts looking paler.

Now in regards to the rum, the actual recipe calls for cognac or brandy, neither of which I have, so I used rum, but I think it goes well with the chocolate (which we’re going to dust on top later), and I really like this new rum I have, it’s really good.

Ok, now take the tub of mascarpone, and dump it in the yolk mixture, and mix together, and set the whole shebang aside.

Now put the egg whites and a pinch of sugar into a mixing bowl, and whip em up until stiff peaks form. Egg whites whipped up, are essentially a foam of tiny air bubbles that get incorporated into the protein network of the egg whites. The problem is it’s a relatively fragile network, and we don’t want to waste all that hard work the kitchen aid went through to get to this point and deflate all those bubbles. The way to avoid that is by folding the whipped up egg whites into whatever it is you’re folding it into. This way you’re not completely destroying the delicate structure within.

You can actually add 1/3 of the egg whites and mix them in as vigorously as you want to start the whole thing going, and the remaining 2/3 fold in. 

Take 1/2 of the mascarpone goodness, and spread on the bottom of your dish.

Then take the lady fingers, and dip them in the remaining coffee. You don’t want the lady fingers soaked, and it takes a very short amount of time for it to get totally soaked up with coffee, so to avoid that, place the lady finger on one side in the coffee, and then flip it over, and take it out. Don’t let it hang out in the coffee.

Then layer the lady fingers over the first layer

 

I don’t know how Mr Pyrex knew I was going to make this tiramisu in this dish, with these lady fingers, but it fit 16 (8 on each side) exactly.

Then layer the remaining mascarpone mixture, and dust with some chocolate.

You can even see the little lady fingers on the side, complacent with their lot in life to be devoured by the tiramisu junky you are.

It’s also a requirement that whenever you “dust” something with cocoa powder, that you get it all over the counter…just letting you know.

Then put this in the fridge for at least 3 hours to let it set up, and enjoy.

By the way, as you can tell, this has raw eggs in it, so if you were ever worried about getting some horrible disease from raw eggs, I highly recommend this be the dish to do it to you. Or if you want, there are recipes out there that cook the eggs first.

adapted from BelGioioso

Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup espresso or strong coffee
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp. rum (preferably dark)
• 8 oz. Mascarpone
• 16 ladyfingers
• Cocoa powder, for dusting (I used Dutch process cocoa powder, because it’s not as bitter as regular cocoa powder)

Directions:

1. Combine 3 egg yolks, 1 Tbsp. espresso, sugar and rum in large mixing bowl. Beat 2-3 minutes, until pale. Add Mascarpone and beat 3-5 minutes until smooth.
2. In another bowl, combine 3 egg whites and a pinch of sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into Mascarpone mixture.
3. Spread half of the mixture on the bottom of your serving dish.
4. Dip one side of each ladyfinger into remaining espresso and layer on top of the first layer of mascarpone mix.
5. Spread the remaining mascarpone mixture on top, and sprinkle with cocoa.
6. Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.