Day 16: Soufflé, Asparagus with Horseradish Sabayon, Ice Cream and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Souffle

I think my whole life I’ve assumed a souffle was like a popover - light and tall, and essentially hollow on the inside. Boy, was I wrong. 

Soufflé is fairly time intensive (no surprise there), and when savory, honestly doesn’t feel that worth the effort (tbd on sweet soufflés - haven't attempted chocolate soufflé yet). It’s kind of fluffy, but not really that light - there’s more weight to it than you might expect. It kind of felt like if a muffin and really fluffy scrambled eggs had a baby. Not sure what to make of it. But, here’s the general method:

• Make a roux
• Make your béchamel with your roux
• Add your flavor (cheese, herbs, etc.)
• Add egg yolks. Now you have you rbase, and this part can be made ahead of time
• Whip your egg whites into soft peaks. Fold in, ⅓ at a time (don’t want to overwhelm the mixture) right when you’re ready to bake.
• Bake a at 400 degrees until puffy and golden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sabayon

We also made a savory Sabayon , which I had never had before. Sabayon is just a light egg custard, but typically one that’s sweet and turned into a dessert. In class, we add horseradish to it and served it over asparagus.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp marsala wine (can sub white wine if needed)

• 6 egg yolks

• ⅓ cup freshly grated horseradish

• ¼ cup freshly grated parmesan

• Salt and pepper

Kitchen Tools:

• Saucepan and wide bowl, to create a double boiler

• Whisk

Method:

1. Fill a saucepan with one inch of water and bring to a boil.
2. Add wine and egg yolks in a metal bowl and whisk until smooth.
3. Place the bowl over the saucepan of the simmering water and whisk ingredients until the mixture is pal and foamy and a ribbon forms on the surface of the foam when the mixture falls from the whisk. You want big, vigorous whisks here to incorporate as much air as possible
4. Remove from heat (so as not to curdle your eggs!) and stir in horseradish, cheese, salt and a generous seasoning of black pepper.
5. Serve over blanched asparagus!

Ice Cream!

Now this was really fun. Ice cream is actually super simple to make IF you have an ice cream machine. This is a base that you can use for really any kind of ice cream - vanilla, cardamom, pepper, basil, etc would all be delicious! If you wanted to add something that is not an aromatic (i.e., olive oil) you would need a different recipe because that would change the fat content.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups heavy cream

• 1 cup milk

• Bunch of mint (or whatever aromatics you want to infuse!)

• 5 egg yolks

• ½ cup sugar

• Pinch of salt

Kitchen tools

• Pot

• Whisk

• Ice cream machine

Method:

1. Heat cream and milk with bunch of mint (or whatever aromatic you wanted)  to just below the boil. Turn off the heat and let sit for 15 minutes
2. Whisk egg yolks, sugar and salt together until just blended. Pour hot cream, slowly, onto egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. You don’t want your eggs to curdle!!
3. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until it coats a spoon.
4. Strain, cool completely and freeze in an ice cream freezer, at least overnight until ready to churn!

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

So turns out, chilling cookies is important. I have thus far refused to believe in how important that was because I am very impatient and typically only make cookies when I want to eat them NOW. So chilling has been for the obligatory 30 minutes, tops.

Well folks, I’m now a believer. We made one giant batch of these cookies, and cooked some the night we pulled the batch together, and the rest 4 days later after chilling and man alive, it was like night and day

Unchilled batch: super sweet, and lacking in almost all other flavor. The vanilla was barely there and the texture was off. Not crispy, not chewy, just kind of lame. Honestly took a bite and put it back - wasn’t even worth eating.

Chilled batch: flavor and texture were so much more developed. Don’t know how to describe other than everything being more complex and just better. Before I had thought the dough could use a healthy dose of salt, more vanilla, and brown butter. Still bullish on the brown butter because who doesn’t want that, but the time in the freezer allowed the salt and the vanilla to infuse and develop more. Do think the sugar should be cut back slightly, so adjusting that in the recipe below!

Recipe for chocolate chip cookies

Adapted from the New York Times (adjusted with my edits)

Ingredients

• 4 oz cake flour (roughly 2 cups, but weighing out is better!)

• 4 oz bread flour (roughly 2 cups, but weighing out is better!)

• ½ tsp baking soda

• ½ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp coarse salt + more for sprinkling on top

• 5 oz unsalted butter (10 tbsp)

• 5 oz light brown sugar (scant ¾ cups)

• 3 oz granulated sugar (7 tbsp)

• 1 large eggs

• 3 tsp vanilla extract

• ¾ pounds bittersweet chocolate disks

Method:

1. Sift flours, baking soda baking powder and salt into a bowl
2. Cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes with a mixer that has a paddle attachment (or by hand if you’re feeling strong!)
3. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each
4. Stir in vanilla
5. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients until just combined, 5-40 seconds
6. Remove from mixer and drop chocolate pieces and incorporate without breaking them.
7. Using a cookie scoop (you want to do this before chilling), scoop rounds of dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets
8. Chill dough for at least 24 hours (but up to 4 days!)
9. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350, and let cookie dough come to room temp while oven is preheating
10. Sprinkle lightly with seas salt and bake until golden brown 18-20 minutes