Trick or treat! Scottish tablet

I've wanted to try this for a long time.  I wasn't sure what it was, but had an idea -- it's basically caramel that's been agitated to create tiny crystals, turning it into a semi-firm block.  It's extremely sweet, like eating frosting, with a buttery, penuche-like flavor.  Thing is, I'm not a fan of overly sweet things, so it wasn't something I was going to be eating.  I don't know how people feel about kids getting homemade products at Halloween, but I did it anyway and will be handing these out to the kids.  I was concerned about the small quantity this made, but it's so sweet that it really has to be served in small pieces.  

I looked at several recipes; they were all pretty similar, so I cobbled together my own list of ingredients then followed instructions from a couple of others.  This made about 100 pieces (about the size of a Mary Jane candy).  Here's what I used:

1/2 cup salted butter
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
4½ cups granulated sugar
2 pinches of salt
pinch of cream of tartar
1 can (397g/14 oz) condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grease a 13 x 9" baking pan, line with foil, then lightly grease again.  In a large, heavy saucepan, combine the butter, milk, cream, sugar, and salt over medium-low heat. Stir constantly, removing any sugar crystals or splatters from the sides of your pan with the wet pastry brush (do this throughout the entire process) and slowly bring to a boil.  Once the mixture is boiling and the sugar has completely dissolved, stir in the cream of tartar, then the condensed milk.  Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-low heat, still stirring continuously.  Once boiling, stop stirring.  Allow the mixture to cook, wiping down the pan sides as necessary with the wet pastry brush to remove any crystals.  Once it reaches 240F, remove from heat and beat with a whisk for about 5-10 minutes; this will encourage proper crystallization.  (I used an electric hand mixer wit the whisk attachment on the lowest speed.)  Continue to mix until the mixture has thickened and cooled slightly but is still pourable.  Quickly pour the mixture into your prepared pan and smooth the surface; remove any air bubbles by tapping the pan on the counter top a few times.  Allow to cool for several hours before cutting (or scoring so you can break it later).  To make cutting easier, lift the entire slab by the foil out of the pan and set on the counter.  Store in an airtight container.

This was pretty easy to make.  I had a slight issue of a spot in the bottom of my pan that cooked hotter, creating browning that pulled up and resulted in a few hard, dark pieces of candy mixed in, but I picked those out and used caution scraping the bottom of the pan.  (One recipe recommends stirring occasionally while it's cooking in order to keep this from occurring.  An undamaged pan shouldn't have this problem.)  The only tricky part was knowing when to stop whisking after it's cooked.  I whisked too long, I think, so that the mixture was cooler than it should have been when I poured it out.  It was firming up quickly while I was trying to scrape the last out of the pot.  Then when I tried to smooth the top, it just dragged the mixture around.  On top of that, I found my counter is not level, so one side of the pan was substantially thicker than the other.  Also, some areas of the candy were softer and creamier than others, which I can only assume had something to do with the cooling process since it all came from the same place.  I used a slender, sharp knife to cut pieces about 1.5" x 1" x 1/4" and wrapped them in waxed paper.

Conclusion:  Delicious!  Tooth-achingly sweet, but nice to nibble on in tiny bits, and good with strong coffee.  For an adult version, I would add rum or bourbon instead of vanilla.  Coconut or nuts would be good too, as long as they don't burn.  (Maybe have them in the pan already and pour the candy on top.)  One could also try dipping an edge in dark chocolate.

Original recipes:  Scottish tablet via Not So Humble Pie and Old English Butterscotch 1934 via The Vintage Kitchen

Martabak manis (sweet Indonesian pancake)

"Martabak is a popular food that is delicious and very loved by the whole family," reads the copy.  I bought this mix several years ago because it looked interesting.  I held onto it for a long time (in fact it should have been used prior to April 2014), intimidated by the Indonesian directions.  Google Translate helped, but there were significant gaps.  (It doesn't help any that Translate makes up new words.  Take this translation, for example:

Timbang 285 adonan, lalu tambahkan dengan 20g (2 sendok makan penuh) butter yang sudah dilumerkan, aduk hingga tercampur rata.

which was translated into:

Weigh 285 dough, then add with 20g (2 tablespoons full) butter that has been melinjkan, stir until well blended.

Melinjkan?  What is that?  And where did it come from?  It's not English, and it wasn't in the original sentence to be translated.  A mystery.

               

I finally decided I had the directions sufficiently translated and it wasn't going to get any better, so I dove in. Here's what I used:

2 egg yolks
pancake mix
350g water
150g water
60g butter, melted and divided into 3 equal portions, plus additional
sugar
condensed milk
toppings (chocolate, cheese, nuts, etc)

In a medium-sized bowl, add the egg yolks, the pancake mix, and the 350g water and blend with a hand mixer on medium speed for 10 minutes.  Stir in the 150g water thoroughly, and allow to rest for 1 hour.

Heat a 9.5" skillet on medium heat for 5 minutes.  Measure out 285g of the batter into a bowl and stir in 20g of the melted butter.  When the pan is ready, butter the bottom and sides lightly, then add the measured-out batter.  Allow to cook for about 7 minutes, until holes have opened up across the surface like a honeycomb.  Lower the heat, sprinkle with sugar, cover, and cook for about another 3 minutes until the surface is no longer wet. 

(The surface will still be shiny.)  Remove the pancake from the pan to a cutting board and rub the surface with butter.  Pour on condensed milk and selected toppings.  Cut in half, and place one half on top of the other like a sandwich.  Rub exterior with butter if desired.  Allow to cool somewhat before cutting into wedges.  Repeat with the remaining batter, making 2 additional pancakes.  I recommend sandwiching the two whole pancakes together for convenience, rather than cutting each in half, unless you want different toppings on each. 

I found cooking the pancakes a little challenging.  (My pan was only about 7", which probably threw off the cooking.  I probably should have done only two pancakes and used the 10" skillet.)  The first one worked best, but cooked quickly.  I suspect you should let the pan reheat well before adding the next batch of batter.  The first one was cooked on the spider burner with an oiled pan; the second on the solid cover with a buttered pan.  The first one came out a bit spotted and cooked quickly, but seemed to work out best.  The second one came out with a beautiful, evenly tanned crust... except where it burned.  The third I did on the spider burner with butter, and it did the worst.  It didn't cook evenly, and one spot didn't rise at all.  (A big air bubble formed under the batter and raised it off the pan surface.)

I don't know why the instruction have you add the butter in separate batches.  Why not just add all 60g to the batter and THEN divide it up?  I can only assume the fat causes some reaction in the batter if left to sit.  In fact, the last batch of batter sat longer after the butter was added than the first two.

I cut into the first pancake immediately.  It was very spongy and didn't cut well (which is why I recommend letting them cool a little so the crust firms up), but was delicious and decadent.  Very much like a pancake, but eggier, spongier, and overly buttery.  (Probably could do without all the slathering.)  Perhaps it's better likened to a crumpet.  It was soft and rich and extremely satisfying.  I used dulce de leche plain and with toasted almonds, and chocolate ganache, all delicious.  I can imagine cheese would also be delicious, resulting in something like these Salvadoran quesadillas.  (Particularly the recipe from Global Table Adventures.)  The possibilities are endless.

I don't remember where I purchased this product, so I'm not likely to find it again.  The mix powder tasted a lot like vanilla cake.  (In fact, my only complaint was that it was overly vanilla-y.  Probably imitation flavoring.)  The ingredients on the box are wheat flour, sugar, leavening, vanilla (with an undefined adjective), and salt.

Conclusion:  I'd like to make this again, although it's so terribly decadent I'm not sure I would ever be brave enough to be left alone with it again.  I'd been thinking it was too bad that I probably wouldn't be able to find the mix again.  But after noting on the box that this is a popular Indonesian treat, it occurred to me that they probably make it from scratch.  Which means there are recipes. :)

Recipe:  Digging around on the Internet, I found a recipe that includes yeast, which would be fun to try, but this one seemed very close to the mix I made:  Martabak Manis via SortedFood.  This one at 196 Flavors also sounds good.

Chocolate Sourdough Cake for Guy Fawkes Day

Remember, remember the fifth of November --
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot.
I know of no reason the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot!

I'm not a big Guy Fawkes proponent (although I loved V for Vendetta), but the timing was right.  I bought this 3-D skull pan last year and had hoped to use it to make a sugar skull cake, but didn't get my act together soon enough, so it became a Guy Fawkes mask cake.

Some time ago, I made a "sourdough" starter from the wild yeast off my own organic grapes.  It's a very mild starter, not sour at all.  I don't bake bread often enough to use it all, so when I came across this sourdough cake recipe I was eager to try it out.  The recipe calls for King Arthur Flour's own sourdough starter, but by referring to the photos in their blog I was able to make adjustments so it would work with my own starter.

The planned baking day was very cool, and after 3 hours my flour/milk/starter mix hadn't budged.  After six hours it looked good, but by then it was late, so I put it in the refrigerator until the next evening and hoped for the best.  I forgot that wet flour, when left alone for a long period of time, will develop gluten all by itself.

Chocolate mixture.

Sourdough mixture, cocoa dusted.

When I went to use the mixture, it was as tough and stretchy as rubber!  Mixing it with the chocolate mixture was impossible, so I added a little milk to loosen things up.

In the end, I didn't get everything completely mixed together and there were small swirls of white in the final cake that baked up very tough.  I also made a mistake in not reducing the oven temperature to account for the longer baking time.  The pan comes with a recipe that calls for 65-75 minutes in a 325F oven. I had made note of the baking time, but not the temperature.  So I set the oven for 350F as called for in the KAF recipe and after 65 minutes it tested done.  Well, yeah.  Over done.  The best parts were the parts I cut off to get the two halves to fit together smoothly.  (It rose quite a lot in the middle, partially, I imagine, due to the overly hot oven.)  Next time I'll pay better attention... I hope.

Here's what I used:

1 cup "fed" sourdough starter
1 cup whole milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa (not Dutch process)
1 teaspoon espresso powder
2 large eggs

Combine the "fed" starter, milk, and flour in a large mixing bowl. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours. It won't necessarily bubble, but it may have expanded a bit.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (325°F if using a 3-D pan). Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan.  (If using a 3-D pan, lightly grease and then dust with flour or cocoa.)  In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar, oil, vanilla, salt, baking soda, cocoa. and espresso powder. The mixture might be grainy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Gently combine the chocolate mixture with the starter-flour-milk mixture, stirring until smooth. Be sure to thoroughly incorporate the two.  This will be a gloppy process at first, but the batter will smooth out as you continue to beat gently.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and rap a few time on the counter to release any large air bubbles.  (If using a decorative pan, this is especially important in order to settle the batter into the grooves.  For the skull pan, I poured in just enough batter to fill in the face and then rapped it hard several times to make sure the batter was fully filling the form.)  Bake the cake for 30 to 40 minutes, until it springs back when lightly pressed in the center, and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.  Remove the cake from the oven; allow the 3-D pan to cool for 15 minutes before removing cake and cooling completely on a rack.

Constructing the cake was a little tricky, but went smoothly.  I sandwiched the halves with purchased dulce de leche, then went about constructing a nose out of cake scraps, also attached with dulce de leche.  (That stuff is sticky!)  I should note that both halves of the cake have a portion that rests on the plate, so your filling doesn't have to be firm enough to support the face.  (I hadn't been able to tell prior to making it.)  I also had to construct a lower lip.

 

I had yet another new thing to try in the frosting.  I find most frosting too sweet, so when I heard about cooked flour frosting that was less sweet, I had to try it.  You start with a loose roux, and that helps give body to the frosting.  I used half the full recipe and had just barely enough to cover the outside of the cake.

While very tasty, this frosting is not especially good for intricate decorating, as it has a whipped consistency that's difficult to smooth.  To get it truly smooth (and I did not do this), you should chill the completed cake to firm up the frosting, then use CLEAN fingers to smooth out the surface, just like cold butter.

Conclusion:  This cake was delicious!  Where I didn't over bake it, the cake was soft and moist.  It is not a very sweet cake, so your taste might require you to add another half cup of sugar or so, but with a sweet frosting it balanced out nicely as is.  I feel sure the issues with texture were due to over-developing the gluten in the flour and/or over baking.  I definitely will make this again, including adapting it to other flavors.

Recipe:  Sourdough Chocolate Cake via King Arthur Flour

October ABC challenge: Crusty Apple Pie

Like Mr. Cratchit, I'm behind my time.   There are two types of people:  crust people and filling people.  I solidly fall into the first category.  So late or not, I didn't want to miss out on this month's challenge.  The idea is brilliant:  just enough filling for flavor and interest, and all the rest a rich, buttery, crust!  The problem here is that it's almost too good.  I found I could pick it up and nosh my way through slice after thin slice, just like pizza.  I think I might have to stick with traditional deeper-dish apple pie, just so each piece actually registers as a dessert serving.

Fortunately, I saved myself a few pounds by making only half the recipe.  I didn't want a mini pie, so I rolled out the full 13" and folded it over on itself.  That way each slice was a normal serving.  (Like "normal" even came into it once the eating began!)

Dulce de leche spread on half the crust.

I had an open jar of dulche de leche in the refrigerator and thought that would be a good additional to the pie.  I just spooned it out and spread on what seemed like a good amount.  (I didn't want it oozing out of the crust if there were too much.)

Keeping the peel adds nutrition and flavor.

I ended up using only one medium-sized apple.  That's less than half the recipe, but it seemed sufficient.  I never peel apples for a baked product.  So far neither I nor anyone else has noticed.  I think peeling the apples is a throw-back to when serving highly refined foods was a sign of wealth and gentility.  We're over that now.  In the same vein, I also substituted half the flour with whole wheat pastry flour.

Artfully decorated, it's ready for the oven.

A few decorative cutouts, and it was ready to go.















I baked it the first 15 minutes at 425, as directed, but when I checked on it the temperature was 475.  That's probably why, after turning the oven temperature down, it was a little over-browned after only 20 minutes.  (I have a temperamental oven.)  It was still delicious!

Conclusion:  This was very good, and came together so easily.  (Especially since I eliminated rolling out a second crust.)  But despite being an avid crust fan, I think I find traditional pie more satisfying.  However, that won't stop me from perhaps trying this again with a layer of cheddar cheese in the bottom.

Recipe:   Crusty Apple Pie via King Arthur Flour