April 8, 2009 - Continue Quick Breads

In just two weeks, the full time culinary students have come a long way. It's fun to see to their progress, and it's getting more an more delicious every day. Tonight we had savory rice with assorted vegetables, broccoli and cheese, and a delicious Sole, accompanied by the usual green salad.

We each had two baking assignments, but were only to plate one at the end of the night, creating a dessert presentation. The first was another plain scone recipe and we were all to come up with our own flavor combinations to incorporate into the recipe. I replaced some of the flour with cocoa powder and added orange zest and chocolate chips to make a chocolate orange scone. It was super rich, but also super good. I finally stopped holding out on my coworkers and brought some to work the next day -- everything else has gone to the roommates.  There were some really creative and delicious combinations with chocolate, fruit, and various extracts including lavender and rose. All in all a very fun experiment!

Our next assignments included a variety of breads. I had the Gingerbread-Pear Napoleon with Caramel Sauce.  It looked harmless at first glance, but upon closer look I realized I had about a million steps to get through in less than an hour. The gingerbread itself was enough steps, but I got it done quickly and got it in the oven. Next I had to peel and poach pears and make a caramel sauce. Everything went along pretty smoothly, but the gingerbread ended up taking a lot longer to bake than the recipe stated, so at plating time, it was still too hot to cut. So I ended up plating a scone and the caramel and pears went into the fridge for Saturday.  

I haven't tried any of these yet because they weren't finished in time, but I'm picking the one that is the least familiar to me to share

The Delicious Recipe of the Day: Ouzo-Scented Almond Yogurt and Olive Oil Cake

(Bon Appetit May 2007/FERW)

• 2 cups whole almonds, divided
• 3/4 cup ouzo (or Pernod)
• 3 1/2 cup flour
• 3 whole star anise, ground (about 1 3/4 tsp)
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1 1/2 cups plus 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 cup extra light olive oil (or 1/2 extra virgin, 1/2 canola)
• 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp plain whole-milk yogurt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush 2 loaf pans (8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2) with butter. Line bottoms with parchment paper. 

Toast 1 1/2 cups almonds in oven for 10 minutes, cool and then coarsely grind in food processor; set aside. Finely chop the remaining untoasted almonds in food processor. 

Place ouzo or Pernod in small saucepan and cook until reduced to 1/2 cup. Sprinkle 1 1/2 Tbsp of untoasted almonds over the bottom of each loaf pan.

Mix flour, star anise powder, baking powder, salt and toasted ground almonds together in a large bowl. 

Beat egg yolks and 1 1/2 cups sugar together until well blended. Add olive oil and beat for 1 minute. Add ouzo and yogurt and beat until well blended. Gradually add flour mixture to yolks to form a thick batter. Beat egg whites to soft peaks. Fold in one-third of egg whites into batter. Fold in remaining whites whites in two additions. 

Divide batter between two pans. Sprinkle with remaining untoasted almonds and then the 2 Tbsp of sugar. Bake cakes until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes and then turn out onto cooling rack. 

Garnish with greek yogurt and honey or whipped cream and honey as desired.