Picking Up The Slack

Last post September 15. Serious blog neglect? Guilty as charged.
It's not that I haven't been baking, it's that with 2 part time jobs I either haven't been baking at home or I haven't had the time to photograph it before it was consumed. Last week, I actually had a small sliver of time to make the Chocolate Crunched Caramel Tart for a friend's potluck. It came out great and went over like gangbusters but it's fabulousness went undocumented here. After reading about everyone's experiences at Blogher Food (sign me up for '10) , it's time for me to redirect my energies in the direction of this site which means less talk, more pudding. Specifically this week's TWD, Split Level Pudding.


With no actually baking involved, I felt I should at least try something new and made Milk Chocolate Caramel Pudding. Back in the days before I realized how easy and utterly awesome homemade pudding is, I used to buy those Jello pudding cups all the time. Never again.
To make the ganache I substituted good quality milk chocolate chips for the bittersweet chocolate and let it set up at room temperature. The caramel pudding is adapted from a recipe pulled from Food & Wine. My recipe binder is currently overflowing with a glut of torn magazine pages, some of them so old the ingredients are out of season!
Milk Chocolate Caramel Pudding was a great place to start.

Caramel Pudding
adapted from F&W, March '09
1 quart whole milk
1/4 cup plus 3 tbsp corn starch
2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch fleur de sel
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp water
1 tbsp butter, at room temperature

Whisk together 1/2 cup milk, corn starch, vanilla and salt and set aside. In a large saucepan combine sugar and water and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Do not stir. Allow sugar to cook until it turns a deep amber color. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in the remaining milk. Be careful as it may sputter and foam up quite a bit. Put back on the heat and whisk until the caramel dissolves into the milk. Reduce to a simmer until slightly thickened and darker in color. Remove from the heat to whisk in the cornstarch mixture then cook over medium heat until pudding is very thick- this takes about a minute. Strain pudding into a food processor and pulse a few times. Add the butter and pulse again until smooth. Pour into ramekins, cover the surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled.

Sunday School

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I've started taking pastry classes. I'm enrolled in the Pro Baking program at The New School of Cooking, a small culinary school in Culver City, and for the next 16 weeks I will spend 4 hours every Sunday learning the fundamentals of all things pastry and you are coming along. I won't be posting the recipes we receive in class (you can find our textbook, Baking At Home With The Culinary Institute of America, on Amazon) but in my Sunday School feature, I will be sharing some of the things I learned, as well as my failures & success during practical.
This week, Custard Week, I had both the former and the latter but first, some Dairy Facts:
Whole milk is 8-10% fat. Half & Half 18%. Cream 20-40%. Milk from a cow milked in the morning has more fat than afternoon milking milk. Butter left out of the fridge is safe because fat is a preservative. So is sugar. Egg whites are all protein. The yolk provides fat (flavor) & lecithin (emulisification)

This week's practicals included Chocolate Pudding, Creme Brulee and Bread Pudding. The Chocolate pudding I made in class had good flavor but a consistency that strongly resembled spackle. Definitely over cooked. Very disappointing. When I got home, I made it again and cooked it slowly at a lower heat to a much shinier, smoother & creamier result. Yum.


This was my first creme brulee- I never make it a home because I don't have a torch and after scaring a few of my fellow students as well as myself through the handling of the class torch it is obvious I need a lot more practice. The custard itself was silky and delicious, especially with the high quality, plump and shiny vanilla beans we used. Gotta get me some of those.


This was also my first Bread Pudding (I tend to avoid them because just the idea of one makes me feel like I have to go work out) and I'll be sampling it this evening. Along with the Pudding Redux. Yeah, maybe going to the gym isn't such a bad idea after all.
Join me next Sunday School Sunday when our subject will be Souffle and Pate Choux. In the meantime, if you have any questions just post them in the comment section and I will try to ask them. Class dismissed!