Glutton Behavior (Germany)

I am both proud and ever so slightly appalled at myself.  In a span of four hours I ate breakfast at a relative’s house, went on a pastry crawl, drank a life-changing hot chocolate, and ate an entire ice scream sundae (almost).

I have no shame.

When faced with the departure from a country, I become overwhelmed with all the foods I absolutely must eat but have not eaten yet.  Take this instance for example.  With a mere 24 hours left in Germany, I simply refused to leave without eating kuchen, eis (ice cream), and generally stuffing myself with everything that looks delicious.  Hence, I grew an extra two stomachs.

It went something like this.  We awoke to a late breakfast of assorted breads, cheeses, cold cuts, and coffee.  After a round of goodbyes, we left my relative’s house and made our way to the city center to test the limits of our stomachs.

I began what I like to call a pastry crawl with a berry and custard filled, streusel topped roll.  It continued with a couple of bites of berliner bretzle (sweet pastry dough pretzel) filled with vanilla pudding.  Next was a slice of zuckerkuchen – basically sweet bread baked like a cake and topped with sugar and toasted almonds. And finally, half a nut filled, sugar glazed, chocolate dipped puff pastry roll.  I felt like the guy who has tons of money and just throws it all in the air and makes it rain.  Except I imagined myself doing so with german pastries.  Needless to say, I was incredibly content.  And astoundingly, I was prepared to eat more.

Ha, who am I kidding.  I wasn’t even astounded.  This was normal glutton behavior.

We continued to galavant about the city, seeking nourishment to satisfy the black hole that had appeared inside my stomach.  That black hole was quickly quenched with a large mug of hot chocolate.

this is what a life-changing cup of hot chocolate looks like

Now, listen up kids.  I’ve had a lot of hot chocolate throughout my 18 years of life.  Based on my extensive experience with hot chocolate, I like to thoroughly judge each hot chocolate I drink.  For example, swiss miss is dirty water.  The marshmallow variety seems to include some sort of white styrofoam pieces that were somehow mistakenly called marshmallows (if it wasn’t evident, I have a bit of a grudge against powders that are mistakenly marketed as “hot chocolate”).  Anyhow, this german hot chocolate – I’ll call it german for a lack of any other way to differentiate it from the other hot chocolate’s I’ve had – it was unlike any hot chocolate I’ve had before.  When I drink hot chocolate, I like to asses the drinkability.  For example, italian style hot chocolate has the drinkability of pudding.  Thus it’s easier to “drink” it with a spoon.  French hot chocolate is somewhere in the middle on the thickness scale.  It’s thick enough that a small sip will suffice, but not so thick that you begin to doubt your ability to finish off an entire cup.  Now, this german hot chocolate was on the opposite end of the scale, closer to the drinkability of chocolate milk.  And yet… it had this deceptive richness that I’d compare to that of french hot chocolate.  It’s as if there were tiny particles of chocolate suspended in what seemed to be regular hot chocolate made with steamed milk that melted on the tongue and created the allusion of extreme chocolaty-ness.  This was a very satisfactory cup of hot chocolate.  I could even call it life changing.

At that point I was slightly surprised that the immense amount of sugar I had eaten hadn’t knocked me out.  However, I decided to take advantage of the fact that I was still conscious and we continued our afternoon of gluttony with some ice cream.

Firstly I would like to make the general statement that all dairy products in Europe, and particularly Germany, taste better than those of their counterparts in America.  I have no desire to divulge in this topic but suffice it to say that some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had was in Germany.  I ordered some sort of sundae type object with vanilla ice cream, frozen yogurt, yogurt and a medley of fresh fruits in an attempt to bring some sort of balance to my diet (HA).  It came with some sort of magical berry coulis that gave me the impression that I was frolicking through a beautiful meadow perfumed with the sweet scent of happiness.  But the ice cream itself, the vanilla, was something entirely different.  It was some sort vanilla bean speckled, lovely lemony and ever so slightly fruity concoction that I would have very much liked to bathe in if it were possible.

And so, with an obscene amount of sugar coursing through my veins I was content to leave Germany having eaten nearly everything I had been set on consuming (except for that elusive/non-existent speatzle, which we wandered about for a good two hours looking for).  Thanks Germany, it was delicious.  Until next time.

Ciao!

Good Stuff (Nice, France)

Patisserie Lac

Almond Milk Chocolate Pudding

It really is quite remarkable how a little infection can turn a once functional human being into a fussy, immobile, bundle of distraught.  Not to mention one that can no longer eat solid food on account of a bright red throat so swollen that speaking is no longer an option.  In case you were wondering, yes, I was suffering from the aforementioned symptoms.  My diet for the past four days has mainly consisted of easily swallowable foods, such as applesauce, smoothies, yogurt, butter infused scrambled eggs, soup, and a not so easily swallowed slice of stollen.

Having been restricted to liquids and very soft foods and being denied my favorite sweet holiday bread, I refused to live without delicious food items.  Even if I couldn’t completely taste everything.  Damn congestion.

The most delicious candidate for swollen throat friendly foods I could think of was chocolate pudding.  And seeing as chocolate pudding is obviously the most nutritious food one can eat while ill, I surrendered.  I’m convinced it was the pudding, and not actually the antibiotics that made me feel better.  Okay so maybe a combination of the two.  My point is the pudding was really good.  Exceptionally so.

When you’re sick, you deserve chocolate pudding.

Almond Milk Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 1/3 cup 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup coco powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 cup almond milk
• 1/3 cup of your favorite chopped chocolate
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation

1. Mix the cornstarch with the water until a thick paste forms.
2. Combine the sugar, coco powder and salt in a small saucepan.  Over medium heat, add the almond milk a little bit at a time.  Stirring constantly, cook until steam rises from the surface but do not let the mixture boil.
3. Take the saucepan off the heat and add the chopped chocolate, swirling to prevent the chocolate from sticking to the bottom.  Let rest for three minutes, then mix to incorporate the chocolate.
4. Return the pan to heat and mix in the cornstarch mixture, stirring constantly over medium heat until the mixture thickens, a few minutes.  At the end, mix in the vanilla extract.
5. Pour the chocolate pudding into desired containers, covering with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming.  Refrigerate at least two hours before eating.
6. Feel better!

Lemon Matcha Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 2 stick butter (room temp)
• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 5 eggs, separated
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon matcha green tea powder
• zest of one lemon
• juice of half a lemon

Preparation

1. Butter and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan.  Preheat the oven to 325 F.
2. Cream butter in a stand mixer till light and creamy.
3. Sift in the confectioners sugar and mix on medium-high until a beautiful sugary butter cloud forms in the bowl of your mixer.
4. Add in one egg yolk at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the side of the bowl.
5. Mix together the flour and baking powder, then add it to the butter and sugar cloud in two additions, mixing in between each addition.
6. Add the salt to the egg whites in a separate bowl and with a separate mixer, mix on high until stiff peaks form.
7. Add 1/3 of the egg whites in to the batter, folding to incorporate.
8. Add in the rest of the egg whites, folding until the batter is uniform.
9. Separate the batter, placing half in a separate bowl.
10. To one half of the batter, add the matcha powder and mix until combined, in the other bowl, zest the lemon and add the lemon juice then mix until combined.
11. Pour half of the lemon batter into the bottom of the loaf pan, followed by half the matcha batter, then the rest of the lemon batter, and finish it off with the rest of the matcha batter as the top layer. Then lightly swirl the batters together with a knife.
12. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour (I ended up under-baking mine a bit which left a sunken middle and a bit of uncooked batter – sometimes I hate myself), remove from oven, let cool for ten minutes, and then take it out of the pan to cool.

I brought this cake over to a friend’s house for dinner and boy, did it go over well.

Heaven Cake

Sometimes, cakes come from heaven.

Glowing with a halo of sparkling sugar.

An angelic marshmallow-ey, white chocolaty frosting, lighter (and I assume far tastier) than a cumulus cloud.

Enrobing a cake that deserves its own religion.

Not to mention its very own place of worship.  Although a plate and fork will do just fine.

And a devout group of followers, but that’s implied with the heavenliness of this cake.

Make this cake, and you shall be converted – your life shall be guided by a new light – this cake.  Which goes marvelously with strawberries for breakfast I might add.

The Whiteout Cake from the super marvelous guys at BAKED

Ingredients

For the Cake:

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cups ice cold water
• 3 large egg whites, at room temp
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (or 1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice)

For the White Chocolate Frosting

• 6 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 1 /2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, soft but cool, cut into small pieces
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:

Making the Cake

1.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Butter three 8-inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper (important!) and butter the parchment and cake pans.  Dust with flour.
2. Sift the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into a large bowl.  Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and shortening on medium speed until creamy, 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the sugar and vanilla and beat on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Scrape down the bowl, add the egg, and beat until just combined.
4. Turn the mixer to low.  Add the flour mixture, alternating with the ice water, in three separate additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Scrape down the bowl, then mix on low speed for a few more seconds.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar (or vinegar or lemon juice) until soft peaks form.  Do not overbeat.  Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.
6. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and smooth the tops.  Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean.  Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes.  Invert the cakes onto the rack, remove the pans, and let cool completely.  Remove the parchment.

Make the White Chocolate Frosting

1. Using either a double boiler or a microwave oven, melt the white chocolate and set it aside to cool.
2. In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the sugar and flour together.  Add the milk and cream and cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until the mixture comes to a boil and has thickened, about 20 minutes.  THE MIXTURE MIGHT SEEM THICK AFTER 5 OR SO MINUTES, BUT KEEP COOKING AND STIRRING, IT WILL GET MUCH THICKER.  DO NOT LOSE FAITH IN THIS ODD MIXTURE THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE FROSTING AT SOME POINT.
3. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Beat on high speed until cool – this may take a while, like 10 minutes or so.  Reduce the speed to low and add the butter (MAKE SURE THE MIXTURE IS COOL – YOU DO NOT WANT THE BUTTER TO MELT!), mix until thoroughly incorporated.  Increase the speed to medium high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.  This part is magical.
4. Add the vanilla and white chocolate and continue mixing until combined.  IT IS ALSO IMPORTANT TO MAKE SURE YOUR WHITE CHOCOLATE IS COOL BEFORE YOU ADD IT.  If the frosting is too soft, put the bowl in the refrigerator to chill slightly (although this may be difficult if your refrigerator is filled to the brim with various easter food items and preparations), then beat again until it is the proper consistency.  If the frosting is too firm, set the bowl over a pot of simmering water and beat with a wooden spoon until is it the proper consistency.  And what exactly is the proper consistency?  I say it’s whatever consistency you feel comfortable frosting your cake with.  Trust the cake baker instincts deep inside you.

Assemble the Cake

1. Refrigerate the frosting for a few minutes (but no more) until it can hold its shape.  Place on cake layer on a serving platter.  Trim the top to create a flat surface, and evenly spread about 1 1/4 cups of the frosting on top. Add the next layer, trim and frost it.  Then add the third layer.
2. Crumb coat the cake and put the cake in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to firm up the frosting.
3. Frost the sides and top with the remaining frosting.
4. Garnish with whatever and however you desire.
5. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to firm up the finished cake.
6. This cake will keep marvelously in a cake server at room temperature (cool and humidity free) for up to 3 days.  If your room is not cool, place the cake in a cake saver and refrigerate for up to 3 days.  Remove the cake from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for at least 2 hours before serving.

I also really highly recommend this cake for breakfast in a bowl topped with sliced strawberries.  Really go for the spoonfuls of frosting with a couple of strawberry slices.  It’s pure heavenly indulgence.