Book 22: Miette - Meg Ray

I've been fairly slack with my blogging of late, so I will make this as quick as possible.  I have a number of cookbooks that terrify me, I don't mean scary pictures etc, but with recipes that are so complicated or spiffy that I have no idea how I could possibly pull them off.  Zumbo and SugarBaby are two issues, both are impressive and exciting but with so many steps and explanations that my brain shuts down and I start to drool uncontrollably.  So it was with some trepidation (and a bit of panicky wee) that I removed Miette from my bookshelf.  Miette is one of those beautiful, spiffy recipe books that I feel quiet happy to leave on the coffee table, but avoid where possible when it comes to cooking.  Why?  Quite simply, there is a recipe in this book that recommends you sieve the mixture to avoid over mixing in cakes.  That alone is enough to have me shrieking like a girl and running away.  I know sieving the mixture doesn't sound like much, but its a step I would never have considered and seems so serious.  I hate to think what the results will be if I don't have a sieve and what if its not the right sieve?  So ignore my sieve paranoia and enjoy Miette...... arrrgghhh (just realised that makes me sound like a pirate)

Recipe - Gingerbread

1 1/4 cups Plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbls plus 2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tbls stout beer, such as Guinness
3/4 cup Molasses
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 large eggs, at room temp
3/4 sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar. packed
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Cream cheese frosting (method and ingredients below)

1.  Grease two 7 by 2 inch cake pans and dust with flour.

2.  Preheat the oven to 170c.

3.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, spices, and salt into a bowl and set aside.

4.  In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir together the stout and molasses and bring to a boil.  Whisk in the baking soda.  Be careful and whisk constantly, as the mixture will foam up when you add the soda.  Immediately remove from the heat and let the mixture cool to room temp.

5.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the eggs and sugars and whisk on medium speed until well combined and lightened in colour, 3 to 4 minutes.  Slowly drizzle in the oil and beat until combined.  Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the stout mixture.  Stop the mixture and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, then return to low speed and slowly add the dry ingredients, beating until just combined.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and scrape down the sides with a  rubber spatula.  Strain the batter through a medium-mesh sieve into a clean bowl.  Divide it between the prepared pans.

7.  Bake until nicely risen and lightly browned at the edges, about 5-50 minutes.  Transfer to wire racks and let cool in the pans for 20 minutes.  Run an offset spatula around the edges of the pans, then invert the cakes onto the racks and let cool for about 20 minutes longer.  Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate to ensure that the interiors are completely cooled before decorating, at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.  To freeze, wrap tightly in a second layer of plastic and store in the freezer for up to 2 months.

8.  To decorate the gingerbread, fit a pastry bag with a medium star tip and fill the bag with the frosting.  Pull up the cuff and twist it to seal and tighten the frosting down into a cone.  Starting at the centre of each cake, pipe frosting in a tight spiral over the surface.  Use an offset spatula to slightly smooth the surface of the frosting.  Garnish with a pink sugar flower or two, if you like.  Serve at room temp.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 pound (2 cups) cream cheese (softened)
5.5 ozs unsalted butter, at room temp
5.5 ozs sifted pure icing sugar

1.  In a bowl of  stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar.  Beat until completely smooth and glossy.
2.  Add the cream cheese to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly.

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Miette is a beautiful book, its the type of book that the publishers/author have put an amazing amount of effort into the presentation.  Everything about it is fancy, from the scalloped edges to the pristinely set out pages.  This is not the type of book you spill cake mixture on!  Beauty aside, this book details recipes from San Francisco's most charming pastry shop (its claim, not mine) and is full of interesting recipes like Hot Milk Cake, Bumblebee Cake and Chocolate Orange Scones.  But it is all terribly intimidating!  I'm not sure if the book itself is the issue (you have read of my messiness) or the often complicated recipes, or it could possibly be the steps that require lots of time?  Which ever it is, I love looking at this book but I've never thought about cooking from it.  Making this recipe hasn't altered my opinion much.

 A very bad photo, but my icing job isn't much better

When the recipe says gingerbread, don't think ginger bread mean with royal icing and smarties!  This is old fashioned dense and rich gingerbread.  Its actually not to bad to make, but does take a bit of time with cooling etc.  I wasn't a massive fan of the cake itself, although its smells amazing whilst cooking, but Matty seemed to love it and polished off both cakes.  If you love the dark richness of  molasses, I would totally recommend this cake, be warned though it is very heavy and you will only need a small slice.  I think next time I make something from this book I'll give the Hot Milk cake ago, the unfortunate thing is I most likely won't cook from this again.  It has a massive section of instructions at the front which they tell you to read through before every recipe, this kind of annoys me so I didn't do it.... I'm a rebel that way!..... :)

Thanks
Kate
xx