February ABC challenge: Custard Rum-raisin Cinnamon Rolls

I'm always up for a good cinnamon roll.  This recipe sounded interesting because they're filled with a custard instead of a butter/sugar mixture.  (Although you do sprinkle the filling with brown sugar.  Why not just mix that into the custard???)  I thought they might be something like pain aux raisin, but no, not nearly that rich and sweet and buttery.

I reduced the recipe to a quarter the quantity (yield 4), rum soaked the raisins, and made a few other minor tweaks, mostly to accommodate the reduced recipe.  My changes are noted in strikeout and italics.  Here's what I used:

Crème Pâtissière
64g (2.25 oz) full fat milk
2.5g sugar
quarter piece vanilla pod
5g (scant 2 teaspoons) cornstarch
12g (1 tablespoon) sugar
13g egg yolk (close to one whole)
5g (1 teaspoon) butter
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat the milk gently in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch, sugar and the egg yolk until well blended. Slowly whisk 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture, then add the mixture back to the milk in the saucepan and whisk again. Whisk slowly while bringing the milk mixture to a boil, picking up speed as the mixture thickens. Boil and whisk the mixture for one minute. Remove from the heat, add the butter, cinnamon, and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Place the saucepan on a cool surface and leave it to stand for a minute, then transfer the crème to a bowl and cover with clingfilm. When cool, refrigerate until needed. 

Dough
225g (1.8 cup) AP flour (or pastry flour)
4g (¾ teaspoon) salt
3g (1 teaspoon) instant yeast (or 1.4 teaspoon active dry)
75g (2.6 oz) milk at room temperature
57g (2 oz) water
13g (2¾ teaspoon) salted butter, softened
12g (1 tablespoon) sugar
ground seeds from 2 cardamom pods (scant 1/8 teaspoon of seeds)
25g (2 tablespoons) golden raisins, macerated in dark rum until plump
12g (1 tablespoon) soft brown sugar
25g (3 teaspoons) icing sugar plus water for glaze (and salt)
 
In a bowl, combine the dough ingredients and knead for about 15 minutes, until the dough is silky and bouncy. Cover and leave for 1 hour at room temperature. 

Roll the dough into a long rope about 18 inches, then roll out the rope into a thin rectangle about 6 x 20 inches. Loosen the prepared cinnamon pastry cream by whisking briefly. Spread an even layer onto the dough rectangle, then sprinkle the brown sugar and raisins on top. Roll up the dough starting at the short end. Cut into 4 equal slices (about 1.5 inches thick) and place the slices, cut side up, in a nonstick or greased baking pan. Leave to proof for 60 to 75 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 392ºF. Bake the proofed buns in the oven for 22 to 25 minutes. Leave to cool slightly. Prepare the glaze by mixing icing sugar and water to form a smooth paste and brush on top of the buns.

 

My dough seemed a bit stiff right off, so I added about another 0.5 ounce of water.  Perhaps it was supposed to be stiff, as the dough became difficult to manage once it was rolled up.  The log was soft and flattened out, then squished terribly when I cut the slices.  Raisins and custard were popping out everywhere, but I just reformed the rolls.

Conclusion:  These were nice, but nothing special.  The custard disappeared into the bread and wasn't noticeable other than adding a taste of vanilla, and it did add a nice moistness.  (I would double the custard.  Since I used a different method of adding vanilla, I don't know how strong the original recipe would have been.)  They were only mildly sweet (which tends to make you eat more!), the cinnamon was barely detectable, and the cardamom not at all.  In fact, they were a little bland and uninteresting.

Recipe:  Sunday morning cinnamon buns… deluxe via Weekend Bakery

December ABC challenge: Whole Wheat Mocha Eclairs with Espresso Rum Filling

Shortly before seeing this month's challenge, I happened to watch this video of an old British TV show.  Can't Cook, Won't Cook was a UK game show and cooking program that was broadcast on BBC1 on weekday mornings from 1995 to 2000.  This episode, hosted by Kevin Woodford, featured two middle-aged rockers (Kelly Groucutt and Roy Wood, both of Electric Light Orchestra fame) competing over Tia Maria éclairs and judged by their teenage daughters.  (Let the hilarity begin!)  I decided to use the same flavors for this challenge.

Choux pastry doesn't keep well, so I reduced the recipe by 1/4, which should have made only 3 éclairs.  I wasn't sure what size to pipe them, and after piping 3 I had a lot of batter left, so I ran down each one again.  I still had enough batter left to make a small puff.  Because the éclairs ended up fairly large, I was concerned about having enough filling.  To extend and lighten the filling, I added some rum-infused whipped cream.

Here's what I used.  Deviations from 1/4 of the original recipe are shown in strikeout and italics:

For the coffee pastry cream:
3/4 cup whole milk, divided
2 tablespoons sugar
1/16 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 tablespoons heavy cream (optional)
2 teaspoons Myers rum (optional)

In a small saucepan, stir together all but 2 tablespoons of the milk, the sugar, and the salt.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  Meanwhile, whisk the cornstarch, flour, and egg yolk with the remaining 2 tablespoons milk.  Whisk some of the hot milk mixture with the egg yolk to temper it.  Pour the egg/milk mixture back into the remaining simmering milk. Doing this through a strainer will help prevent lumps later. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a whisk, until the mixture thickens; remove from the heat. Stir in the butter and espresso powder until smooth.  Pour into a heat-safe bowl; rub a piece of butter over the surface of the cream, top with a piece of plastic wrap (make sure it touches the top of the pastry cream so it doesn't develop a skin), then refrigerate until cool.

When ready to serve, whip the cream until thick, then add the rum.  Continue whipping until stiff peaks form.  Fold gently into the cooled custard.

For the éclair pastry:
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons unbleached bread flour
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 425°F.  Combine the whole wheat and bread flours in a small bowl and set aside.  Place the water, butter and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a rolling boil over medium high heat.  Remove from the heat and add the flours all at once; stir vigorously until well combined. Return to the heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the dough forms a rough ball, about 15 to 30 seconds.  Remove the pan from the heat, transfer mixture to a mixing bowl (because you don't want to put eggs in a hot pan), and let cool for a few minutes until still quite warm, but not hot enough to cook the egg.   (Since this is a small amount, it will cool in just a few minutes, especially if you spread it around.)  Beat in the egg a portion at a time, in 3 or 4 installments. Each portion should be fully incorporated before the next is added. Beat for 2 minutes after adding the last bit of egg.  The dough will be thick and sticky.

 

Ready for the oven.

  

Pipe the dough into 3 4"-long (and about 1.5"-wide) strips onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (I used an insulated one) and bake for 15 minutes at 425°F.  Reduce the heat to 375° and bake for 15 more minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and, using a sharp paring knife, make a small slit near the top of each to let the steam out. Return the éclairs to the oven, turn the oven off, and prop the oven door open slightly.  Let the éclairs cool inside for 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Cooling.

For the ganache:
1¹/₂ ounces chopped semisweet chocolate
2 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon sugar syrup

Put all the ingredients in a heat-safe bowl.  Heat gently and stir until the chocolate melts and the icing is smooth.

To assemble, slice each éclair in half horizontally with a very sharp knife.  Spoon 1/3 of the filling into the bottom half, then replace the top.  Spoon or drizzle chocolate ganache over the éclairs and allow to drip down the sides. Serve immediately.

Conclusion:  Someone come take the fork away!  I might just sit and eat the whole batch.  Delicious, decadent, and richly flavored.  They taste very naughty.  I'm not sure the whole wheat  goodness counteracts the badness involved here.  Anyway, no one would know there was whole wheat involved.

Original pastry cream recipe:  Pastry Cream via King Arthur Flour
Original pastry recipe: Whole Grain Cream Puff Pastry via King Arthur Flour
Original glaze recipe:  Icing via King Arthur Flour

February ABC challenge: Boston Cream Pie

Obviously there's an art to cutting this cake so it still looks pretty.

I LOVE Boston Cream Pie, but it's pretty much impossible to find a good one commercially.  Most use a cornstarch-based filling, and I don't know what that brown glaze is that bakeries are using these days that they pretend is chocolate, but it's awful.  Consequently, if I want Boston Cream Pie, or a chocolate eclair, or even a chocolate glazed doughnut, I'll be making it myself.  

Fast forward to the February baking challenge!  Happy happy!!  

The King Arthur cake recipe doesn't include a recipe for the filling.  The hunt for a pastry cream recipe revealed that there is a lot of variation, mostly in the number of eggs, but also in the amount of flour, corn starch, sugar and butter.  So, pretty much everything.  And then the reviews were all over the board as well, everything from "This is my go-to recipe" to "This was inedible!"  The ones that confused me were when they stated that the recipe was nothing more than vanilla pudding.  And that made me wonder, "What IS the difference?"  I really didn't know what I should be looking for.  I had finally settled on one in Joy of Baking because that's a dependable brand, when I happened upon one from King Arthur themselves.  With their own recipe on their web site, I had to wonder why their cake recipe suggests their packaged product or sends you searching for your own recipe.  Did they forget they had it?  Anyway, I decided to go King Arthur all the way and used their recipe.  

The pastry cream was very easy and delicious, mildly sweet and heavily vanilla, like the best French vanilla ice cream.  The recipe makes 3 cups and I needed only 1.5, so I halved it, and that would have required 2 large egg yolks.  The Joy recipe called for 3 yolks, which clued me in that a little more egg wasn't going to hurt anything.  The cage free eggs I buy, though labeled "large", usually run pretty small, so I decided to use 3.  Other than that, I followed the recipe as written.

The cake recipe was pretty easy.  I didn't have the KA cake flour blend and didn't know what was in it; I used unbleached AP flour but substituted a few tablespoons of corn starch.  (Essentially making cake flour.)  The instructions to remove any lumps of flour concerned me -- I didn't feel confident that I would find them if they were there.  So I ran the batter through a sieve, which did collect some small gummy bits.  I think this also evens out the size of the air bubbles, which helps give a fine crumb.  I rapped the pan on the counter a few times to encourage the last of the hold outs to rise up and be popped.  

Is this what you'd call "deep golden brown"?

The problem came when I realized that none of my cake pans are 2" high.  So I used a springform pan, but that was only 8" in diameter.  The recipe recommends baking 50-60 minutes, or until it's a "deep golden brown and beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan".  At 50 minutes, it obviously wasn't done.  At 60, it seemed done, but I didn't feel confident since my cake was thicker than it was supposed to be and would therefore need to bake longer.  Besides that, it wasn't what I would have called "deep golden brown" and it was clinging steadfastly to the sides of the pan.  So I let it go another 10 minutes.  It still wasn't pulling away from the pan at that point, but it tested done and it seemed the right color.   

I was concerned about the usual problem I have with things browning too deeply on the bottom, so I had put a pan used to catch drips from pies under the cake pan.  Good thing, too, because it did leak a little.  Otherwise, the cake came out nicely.

This looks like a milk chocolate glaze, but it's just the photo.

When it came to making the glaze, I didn't have any good quality chocolate.  I used some cheap chocolate chips that weren't melting very nicely into the cream, so the glaze took a while to emulsify.  Once I finally had the glaze mixed, I wasn't satisfied with the chocolate intensity, so I added about a teaspoon or so of Dutch processed cocoa, which helped. The recipe directs you to pour the glaze on immediately, but it seemed too warm and runny.  I thought it might just run right off the cake, so I let it cool down considerably and then poured it on slowly.   



I could hardly wait to try the final product.  It's been ages since I've had Boston Cream Pie.  It turns out I could have held off on those last 10 minutes of baking.  The cake is crispy on the outside, which isn't a problem other than it resists the knife and causes it to squish down when I cut it.  

Conclusion:  I would definitely make this again.  It's a little time-consuming, with three separate components, but they don't all have to be done the same day.  The cake could probably be made well in advance and frozen.  The pastry cream can be made a few days in advance.  The glaze could probably be made in advance and warmed before drizzling it on.  

I had two slices.  Immediately.  :)

Recipes:  Boston Cream Pie and pastry cream,  both via King Arthur Flour