Hazelnut Brown Butter Cake....fail.

When I'm on a roll, I'm certainly rollin'. I seem to go through recipe fail phases. I love the picture below because it perfectly illustrates the letdown that was this cake.

After finding myself with an abundance of egg whites after making the Poppyseed Lemon Cake, I rejoiced in that fail by tackling this highly recommended recipe from Smitten Kitchen. And really, how can you go wrong with hazelnuts and brown butter?

Well, I'll tell you how:

I went through all the motions of the recipe; whipping the eggwhites, browning the butter, folding everything together, and I was cleaning up my counter after sticking the cake in the oven, when I noticed something strange:

I was missing half a pound of butter.

I knew I opened a 1 pound package of butter to make the cake, and there, staring up at me from the counter, was a completely empty wrapper.

I didn't waste much time looking for the missing butter- with a sinking heart I realized that I'd browned that whole pound of butter and mixed it into this poor cake.

I did hold out little hope that it would emerge from the oven unscathed, but the thing was just oozing butter. It dripped down my fingers when I squeezed it.

Given the fact that several people still like the cake, even with the 1,620 calorie boost, I will give this recipe another shot. So here it is, for your baking pleasure, from Smitten Kitchen (originally from Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin).

Hazelnut Brown Butter Cake

5 ounces (about one heaping cup) hazelnuts, blanched to remove dark skins (or, I used chopped Hazelnuts)
1/2 pound unsalted butter (plus 1 tablespoon melted extra for greasing the pan)
1/2 vanilla bean
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar, plus extra for dusting the cake
1/3 cups all-purpose flour
6 large egg whites
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Preheat to 350; line and butter a 9 or 10-in cake pan.

Spread your hazelnuts out on a cookie sheet and toast them in the oven for 12-15 min, until fragrant. (mine, which were chopped and smaller, I only toasted for about 7 min). Let cool.

Place TWO sticks of butter in a medium saucepan, scrape the seeds out of the vanilla bean and add them to the butter along with the pod. Cook until the butter is brown and nutty-smelling, about 6-8 minutes. (I pull mine off the stove before it gets too brown, because it cooks for a little longer after you take it off. Also, stirring the butter the last couple minutes helps it brown evenly.) Then discard the vanilla bean pod and set aside the butter to cool.

Grind the hazelnuts and confectioner's sugar in a food processor until fine, then add the flour and pulse to combine.

Whisk the egg whites and the granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer in high speed until very stiff, about five minutes. Transfer them to a large mixing bowl.

Alternate folding dry ingredients and butter into the egg whites, a third at a time. Pour the batter in to the cake pan and bake for 40 min to an hour (right, I know it's a big difference in times, but I can't really gauge mine properly because there was a pound of butter in it, remember?)

(my test cupcake)

Deb covered hers in chocolate ganache, which sounds phenom. Chocolate and hazelnuts are a winning combination.

In retrospect....I thought the batter seemed a little runny.

Poppyseed Lemon Cake...fail?

Deb at Smitten Kitchen recently posted this Poppyseed Lemon Cake recipe, raving about the nutty flavor, the lemon scent and the airiness. I couldn't wait to try it; I love winter citrus recipes. This cake recipe was originally found in Food and Wine by Chef Kurt Gutenbrunner.

Unfortunately, I have to admit that I was disappointed. I loved all the little crunches that the poppyseeds made, and the first bite, all covered in powdered sugar was very nice, but after that I found it sort of bland. My mouth expected sweetness and lemon flavor that just wasn't there.

I looked at the recipe again and again, trying to tell just where I went wrong, and I'm 90% sure I followed it to the letter.

Maybe this cake requires a certain palette. But before I'd go and use 8 egg yolks on this cake again, I will definitely up the sugar and probably throw in some lemon juice.

I love all the recipes on Deb's site, as you can tell by the abundance of references to them on this blog. I would head right on over to Smitten Kitchen and check it out. And check out this cake- because the profound exuberance of the poppyseeds here is not to be ignored. There is something to it- be adventurous and figure out how you like it.

BBA Sourdough Fail

It was a beautiful rainy day, and after several days of preparing my sourdough starter, i was ready to bake.

The previous night I mixed the barm I'd been fermenting with flour and water to make the starter. You can see it above in a plastic bag. Below, you can see how I cut it up into pieces and mixed it with flour, salt and water to make the dough.

The next step was to let rise at room temp for 3-4 hours, until plastic wrap. Maybe the starter was bad, or maybe this is where I went wrong, because I only covered it with a towel, and at the end of 3.5 hrs, it had not risen very much and had a crust on top.

Undaunted, I carried on, dividing it into two boules, which I also set under a towel to rise for an hour.

After an hour had passed, they hadn't rised at all, and we were late for Chinese Thanksgiving* at Fred's house, but I decided to bake them anyway. I went through the whole process of spraying and steaming the oven, and in the end, I just had to turn off the oven and hope they were done.

When we came back that night, this is what we had:

Pasty, dense excuses for bread. And when I looked inside, the crust that has formed during the first rise remained, hiding inside the loaf like an alien, ready to burst forth...

Needless to say, I will have to try this again.

*Chinese Thanksgiving. A tradition that Fred and his friends started in college, where friends get together sometime near thanksgiving and order chinese food and eat on the floor. This was last sunday. I brought a chocolate torte to get feedback on, and we ordered just about every chicken dish that the place had.

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Cupcakes by Cakelove...Fail

I'm already plotting new cherry cupcakes, because this one failed so spectacularly. I'm envisioning a Ben n Jerry's Cherry Garcia inspired cupcake.

The flavor wasn't awful, but what the heck do you do with an inverted cupcake?

Perhaps someone can tell me: Was the recipe bad? Did I somehow screw up the recipe? Could this have been solved by not overfilling the cupcake papers?

This cupcake featured chopped dried cherries, cherry puree (made by boiling sugar and frozen cherry puree), chocolate chips and cocoa powder.

Undoubtedly, the best part of the experience was Italian Meringue Buttercream with Cherry Puree. Make the IMB recipe, and add about 1/4 cup cherry puree. It's beautiful.

The cupcake bowls provided a space to slather on about 3 times as much frosting as necessary, but while this cherry frosting was killa dilla...too much is too much.

Fail :(