A new tome from one of the country’s leading baking teachers, Nick Malgieri, arrives in bookstores just in time for plenty of holiday baking.
“How to Bake, The Complete Guide to Perfect Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Tarts, Breads, Pizzas, Muffins, Sweet and Savory” (HarperCollins, $35), offers novice and experienced bakers a useful manual of more than 400 recipes for everything from apple pie to sfinciuni (a Sicilian hybrid of focaccia and pizza).
Malgieri, a pastry chef and the author of the highly regarded “Nick Malgieri’s Perfect Pastry” and “Great Italian Desserts,” directs the baking program at Peter Kump’s Cooking School in New York. First and foremost, this excellent teacher is a thoroughly dedicated baker.
His devotion to the craft becomes clear when reading the recipes. He offers explicit directions full of detail but without condescension. Because of the detail, the recipes are long. But for those wanting to learn, they are worth sifting through. Line drawings guide bakers through more complicated steps such as rolling up a cake for a jelly roll and shaping apricot pinwheels.
Each of the nine chapters reads like an intensive cooking class. For example, the chapter on breads and rolls begins with a thorough discussion of ingredients, equipment and special vocabulary. The information on yeast includes a useful conversion chart for substituting compressed yeast for dry.
Once we’ve learned the basics, we are ready for the recipes, which Malgieri organizes from simplest to most complex.
He sets high goals for his readers: He advocates the use of only the best ingredients and never mentions convenience foods. He includes more than a half-dozen recipes using homemade puff pastry and such classics as croissants, orange babas (a yeast-risen, syrup-soaked cake) and strawberry savarin–all time-consuming but rewarding recipes.
Savory recipes include such unusual items as Parmesan and paprika palmiers, potato pizza, Sicilian swordfish pie and English muffins.
For holiday baking there’s mince pie, pumpkin pie, gingerbread cake, Italian Christmas bread and almond butter spritz cookies. A dramatic chocolate-chestnut buche de Noel is in one of the 32 pages of color photographs.
Each recipe includes storage information, variations, hints for success and serving suggestions.
A half-dozen recipes tested in the Tribune kitchen were easy to follow. Tasters enjoyed them all.
CHOCOLATE PECAN SQUARES
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Yield: 24 squares
Malgieri writes, “These easy bars are also excellent when almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts are substituted for the pecans.”
Cocoa cookie dough:
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup non-alkalized, unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
Chocolate pecan filling:
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup light brown sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup whipping cream
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons dark rum, optional
3 cups (about 12 ounces) toasted pecans, coarsely chopped
1. To make the dough: beat the butter and sugar with a hand mixer set at medium speed, or in a heavy-duty mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until it is soft and pale in color. Add the yolks, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Continue to beat until the mixture is light and very smooth. Sift together the cocoa and flour several times to break up any lumps. Fold into the butter mixture thoroughly with a rubber spatula.
2. Scrape the dough into a lightly buttered and foil-lined 13- by 9-inch baking pan and spread it evenly over the bottom. Use an offset metal spatula, or press it in with floured fingertips. Chill the dough while you prepare the filling.
3.Set a rack at the lowest level of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.
4. To make the filling, mix the corn syrup and brown sugar together well in a saucepan. Place on medium heat and stir occasionally until the syrup comes to a boil. Add the butter and cream and return to a boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes, or until the syrup forms a thread when a spoonful is dropped into a cup of ice water–about 230 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate. Whisk smooth, add the optional rum, and stir in the pecans.
5. Pour the filling onto the dough and, if necessary, smooth the top with a metal spatula. Bake the pastry for about 30 minutes, or until the dough is firm and baked through and the filling is just beginning to bubble.
6. Cool on a rack to room temperature.
7. To unmold the pastry, place a cookie sheet or cutting board on the pan and turn it over. Remove the pan and peel away the foil. Place a cutting board on the exposed pastry and turn right side up. Remove the cookie sheet or board and trim away 1/8 inch around the edge. Cut into 2-inch squares.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories…..310 Fat……………21 g Cholesterol…..55 mg
Sodium…..15 mg Carbohydrates…..30 g Protein………..3 g
FLAKY DOUGH FOR TARTLETS
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Chilling time: 1 hour
Yield: About 12 ounces dough, for 8 to 10 tartlets
1 1/2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
4 to 5 tablespoons cold water
1. To form the dough by hand, combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a medium mixing bowl and stir well to combine. Cut the butter into 1-tablespoon pieces and add to the dry ingredients. Toss once or twice to coat the pieces of butter. Use your hands or a pastry blender to rub the butter into the dry ingredients. Break it into tiny pieces and keep pinching and squeezing it into the dry ingredients. Occasionally reach down to the bottom of the bowl and mix all the ingredients evenly together to keep it uniform. Continue rubbing the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles a coarse-ground cornmeal and no large pieces of butter remain visible. Sprinkle the minimum amount of water on the butter and flour mixture and stir gently with a fork–it should begin holding together. If it still appears dry and crumbly, add the remaining water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until the dough holds together easily.
To mix the dough in a food processor, combine the flour, salt and baking powder in the work bowl fitted with a metal blade. Pulse 3 times at 1-second intervals to mix. Cut the butter into 1-tablespoon pieces and add to the work bowl. Process, pulsing repeatedly, at 1-second intervals, until the mixture is fine and powdery and resembles a coarsely ground cornmeal and no large pieces of butter remain visible, about 15 pulses in all. Sprinkle the minimum amount of water on the butter-and-flour mixture and pulse 5 or 6 times–the dough should begin holding together. If it still appears dry and crumbly, add the remaining water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until the dough holds together easily.
2. Whichever process you use to form the dough, at this point turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a rectangle. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm, or until you are ready to use it, but for at least 1 hour.
Nutrition information per 1/10th of recipe:
Calories…..170 Fat……………12 g Cholesterol…..30 mg
Sodium….115 mg Carbohydrates…..14 g Protein………..2 g
CARAMEL PEAR TARTS
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 1 hour
Yield: 10 servings
These picture-perfect tarts, Malgieri’s variation of his caramel apple tarts in “How to Bake,” make an elegant addition to any holiday buffet or dinner party.
1 recipe flaky dough for tartlets, recipe follows
Filling:
6 (about 3 pounds) ripe Bartlett pears
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon dark rum
Glaze:
2/3 cup apricot preserves
2 tablespoons water
1. Prepare and chill the dough.
2. To make the filling, peel, halve and core the pears. Put them into a bowl of water with some lemon juice added to prevent discoloration.
3. To make the caramel, combine the sugar and lemon juice in a large aluminum or enameled iron saute pan (do not use tin-lined copper or the tin coating may melt). Mix well until the mixture resembles wet sand. Place over low heat and cook until the sugar begins to melt and caramelize, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir occasionally so that the sugar caramelizes evenly. When the caramel is a deep amber color, remove from the heat and add the butter, water and rum. Swirl the pan to mix, then set aside 1/2 cup of the caramel in a small saucepan to use later for the glaze.
4. Chop all but 3 pear halves into 1/2-inch cubes. Add the chopped pears to the pan and place it over medium heat, swirling it to coat the pears with caramel. Cook until the pears have exuded juices and diluted the caramel, about 10 minutes. Continue cooking until the pears are fairly dry, about 10 minutes longer. Pour the filling out into a ceramic heat-proof glass or stainless-steel pan and refrigerate it while rolling the crusts.
5. Set a rack at the lowest level of the oven and heat to 400 degrees.
6. To make the crusts, divide the dough into 10 small pieces and on a floured surface roll each to a thin circle. Press the circles of dough into 10 buttered 3 1/2- to 4-inch tart pans. Then roll over the top of each pan with a rolling pin to trim off the excess. Arrange the pans on a jellyroll pan.
7. Divide the cooled filling among the dough-lined pans and smooth the top of the filling flat. Cut the reserved pear halves into 1/8-inch slices and arrange 4 or 5 slices over the filling in each tart.
8. Bake the tarts for about 30 minutes, until the crust is baked through and the sliced pears have browned. Place the tarts on a rack to cool.
9. To make the glaze, add the apricot preserves and water to the reserved caramel in the saucepan. Bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally. Strain the glaze into another pan and return it to a low heat to reduce and thicken slightly, about 5 minutes longer.
10. Unmold the cooled tarts and arrange them on a platter or pan. Brush the tarts with the hot glaze and allow the glaze to set.
Serving: Serve the tarts at room temperature. If you wish to serve them warm, reheat them at 300 degrees for about 5 minutes before serving.
Accompany them with some sweetened whipped cream flavored with rum and a pinch of cinnamon.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories…..425 Fat……………16 g Cholesterol…..40 mg
Sodium….125 mg Carbohydrates…..72 g Protein………..3 g
