Rosie Finds Another Treasure At The Recycle Center. A Cook Book.

 

Rosie is a recycler.
A time or two or three a week, you might find the Hawthornes at the recycle center.
Please stop by to say hello.

Whenever I go to the recycle center, I always check out the book bin.
Thankfully, they've separated the books people used to put in those huge death receptacles and now they set them in Rubbermaid containers off to the side where one can sort through them.
I have found beautiful books here.

Last time Mr. Hawthorne and I visited, I came back with this treasure -

Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts.

I cannot wait.

The first recipe I want to try is the one for Ladyfingers.  I hope her recipe can take me back to the Ladyfingers Mama Hawthorne would buy for me when I was a little girl.  You'd take a bite and inhale the powdered sugar.

Let's see...

Ladyfingers
1/8 tsp salt
3 eggs, separated, at room temperature
2 TB sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup confectioners sugar
3/4 cup sifted flour (As in sift before measuring.)
additional confectioners sugar for dusting.

Heat oven to 350°.
Beat salt and egg whites at high speed until they are firm and "hold a definite point, or are stiff but not dry."  Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.

In the same bowl with the same beaters, beat the yolks, then add vanilla and confectioners sugar.  Beat at high speed for 5 minutes, until the mixture becomes very thick and very light in color.

Fold the yolk mixture into the whites.  Do not be too thorough.  Sift half of the flour over the egg mixture and gently fold it in.  Repeat with the rest of the flour, folding only until the flour is just absorbed.

Fit a large pastry bag with a round tube  5/8-inch in diameter.  Pipe batter 1 inch wide and 4 inches long onto foil-lined baking sheets, placing 1 inch apart.  Sprinkle additional confectioners sugar over top and bake for 10 minutes, turning pans halfway through baking.  Place ladyfingers on rack to cool.
 

Here are my egg whites.  When you're able to turn the bowl of whites over your head and not end up with egg on your head, then they're ready.

This is the yolk mixture.  In hindsight, this probably should have been thicker.  I beat the mixture on high for over 5 minutes, but probably should have gone longer.
 

Pour the yolk mixture into the whites.

Gently fold.

 

Sift the sifted flour in two additions.
Fold until flour is just absorbed.  Do not over-blend.

This is how you get messy batter into a pastry bag when you don't have an extra hand.
Place the pastry bag into a tall glass or cup and fold the opening over top.
Load in the batter.

When I piped my batter out,  it spread out and didn't hold its shape.
That's why I think I didn't beat the yolk mixture enough.
Oh well...  Live and learn.

This is not the first time I've made ladyfingers.
I attempted Julia Child's a few years back and the results were the same.

Oh wait.  I just happen to know a pastry chef I can ask about this issue.
Will address this and let you know.

I liked the reflections on my kitchen counter.

The vanilla aroma in my kitchen takes me back.
Way back.

The flavor is there.
But not the texture I was hoping for.

I'll have to rectify this texture issue, but for now, since these were not the ladyfingers of my childhood, I'm taking my ladyfingers in a totally different direction.  I'm going with tiramisu.
Or, at least, my version of tiramisu. 

Tiramisu, Italian for "pick me up," is a dessert consisting of a sponge cake, genoise, or ladyfingers, dipped in some type of liqueur, and layered with custard or whipped cream, and chocolate.

Liqueur Dip For Ladyfingers
1/2 cup strong coffee
2 TB sugar
2 TB Kahlua
Mix to dissolve sugar.

Whipped Cream
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 TB sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Whip the cream.  When it starts to thicken, sprinkle in the sugar and add the vanilla.  You want nice soft peaks.

Chocolate For Drizzling
As much Ghirardelli Intense Dark Midnight Reverie as you want.
 

I had about 1/2 cup of coffee left over from this morning.

I added 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of Kahlua.

Stir to dissolve sugar.

And I melted some Ghirardelli Intense Dark Midnight Reverie.

 I tore the ladyfingers into pieces and dipped into the coffee mixture.

 

 Line a trifle bowl, or in my case, a glass mixing bowl, with slices of liqueur-soaked ladyfingers.

 Plop in some whipped cream.

I used 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, with 2 TB sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla.
 

Drizzle melted chocolate.

 

 Keep filling and stuffing and drizzling.

And there ya go!

Tiramisu is grand.

Tiramisu is a surprisingly light dessert.
We loved all the flavor components - the coffee, the coffee liqueur and rum based Kahlua, the whipped cream, the chocolate.
Another example of culinary synergy, where the creation of the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Whenever I hit synergism, I'm happy. 
It means I've met or passed my bar.
Tiramisu does that for me.  Every time.
Here was last time.

Make this and you'll be very glad you did. 
You will thank Rosie.
And you are very welcome!



 

Rosie Makes Ladyfingers. Kinda.

 

Man, oh man, what is it?

I try to gloss over a particular element in my presentation

and my readers are gonna bust my chops every time.

I have to admire that tenacity.

 I posted the other day about my
 Strawberry Rhubarb Parfaits.

I made a strawberry and rhubarb filling
and layered my glasses with the filling,
along with whipped cream, Creme Anglaise,
and homemade ladyfingers
sprinkled with sherry or Amaretto.
Or both.

I was soooo trying to coast on the homemade ladyfingers,
but nooooooo.
Ain't gonna happen.

Rosie loves getting comments from her readers

and she got this comment on March 25 about her parfait post:

March 25, 2012 5:33 PM

Anonymous said...

Actually when I noticed the specks in the sauce,
 I knew vanilla beans would turn up soon!

I also noticed in your photos the interesting appearance of the ladyfingers.
 They look like they have a glaze. (?) 
Are your ladyfingers soft or crispy?

Next time, maybe you'll drop the other shoe
 and tell us how you make your homemade ladyfingers :)

Best wishes to you Rosie
B.

Is that "B" for Becky?
Or "B" for Busted?

OK, B.

This post is for YOU!

Consider the other shoe dropped.

The reason I glossed over the ladyfingers

is because they didn't quite turn out the way I expected

and it was my fault.

Since I've been "outed" on my ladyfingers,

I'll give you the recipe and let you in on what went wrong.

I haven't had ladyfingers since childhood.

I remember them as soft cakes,

 drier and not as sweet as regular cakes.

I remember when I bit into these cakes,

I might inhale some of the sugar.

I'm thinking the ones Mama Hawthorne bought 

had a cream filling too. 

But I may be making that up.

I haven't even noticed them in stores,

(I haven't looked.)

so I turned to Julia's, Baking With Julia.

A ladyfinger starts with a genoise.

A genoise is to the French baker

what the sponge cake is to the American baker.

It's a basic cake and a building block for fancier confections.

The fact that it is drier than American cakes

is considered an asset by the French,

since the cakes can be soaked in liqueurs and sugar syrups

of most any conceivable savor.

A genoise is a whole egg sponge cake.

It gets its volume not from chemical leavening

(baking powder or baking soda) 

or beaten egg whites,

but from the air retained in a whole egg and sugar mixture

that is beaten until it has tripled in size.

At this point, everything goes downhill,

as in these beaten eggs look freakin' beautiful right now

and anything I add to it and/or do to it will only serve to deflate

both eggs and ego.

Julia says not to worry,

"This deflation is built into the genoise equation."

Apparently, Julia didn't factor in the Rosie Variable.

Julia's Ladyfinger Genoise
Makes enough batter for 6 dozen ladyfingers.

3 TB unsalted butter, melted
1 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
4 large egg yolks, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

Pour the melted butter into a 1-quart bowl and reserve.
Sift sifted flour, 1 TB sugar, and salt  and set aside.
Put eggs, yolks, and 1 TB sugar in bowl of heavy duty mixer.
Whisk to combine.
Add remaining sugar and whisk to mix.
Whip the mixture on medium speed until it is airy, pale,
and tripled in volume, 4-5 minutes.
The eggs are properly whipped when you lift the whisk
and the batter falls back into the bowl
in a ribbon that rests on the surface for 10 seconds.
If the ribbon sinks, continue whipping.
Pour in the vanilla during the last moments of whipping.
Detach the bowl from the mixer.
Sprinkle about one third of the flour mixture over batter.
Fold in the flour with a rubber spatula,
stopping as soon as the flour is incorporated.
Fold in the rest of the flour in 2 more additions.
Gently spoon about 1 cup of the batter into the bowl
with the melted butter and fold the butter in
 with a green rubber spatula.
Fold this mixture into the batter still in the mixer bowl.

"This is the point at which the batter is at its most fragile,"
 Julia tells me, "so fold gingerly.
The batter is now ready to be used and,
in fact, must be baked immediately."

My oven is at 400 degrees and I have two 12- x 15 1/2-inch
baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
I also drew pairs of parallel lines 3 inches apart
across the parchment paper, as recommended by Julia,
to serve as piping guidelines.
Marked this way, each sheet will give you room to pipe
3 dozen ladyfingers.

Heeding the advice given to me by Sandra Lee,
I smartly turned the parchment papers over,
so I wouldn't ingest all the "lead from the pencil."
Thanks for the tip, Sandy!

Fit a 16-inch-long pastry bag with a 1/2-inch plain
decorating tip and scoop ALL of the batter into the pastry bag.

Yup. This is another place I screwed up.

Using the marked lines on the paper,
pipe out ladyfingers that are 1/2 inch wide and 3 inches long,
keeping them about 1/2 to 3/4 inches
 apart so they'll have room to expand.

Coat each ladyfinger heavily with sifted confectioner's sugar,
or, as Pauler Deen calls it, "confectionate sugar."

Bake for 5-6 minutes,
or until the ladyfingers are firm but feel spongy
when you press lightly with your finger.
Transfer to cooling racks.

Julia described this recipe as "sturdier" than the classic genoise,
having a little more flour which gives it the body needed
to be piped into ladyfingers that hold their shape
and having additional egg yolks for even more structure.

Sounds like I can't go wrong!

Here's my sifted mixture of 1 1/4 cups sifted flour,
1 TB sugar, and salt.

Action shot!
Find the whisk.
Eggs, yolks, and 1 TB sugar.

Remaining sugar whisked in.

A-whuppin away.

Vanilla in.

Triple volume.  Check.
Ribbons for 10 seconds.  Maybe?

As I said, the eggs are at their peak volume right now
and anything else I do only serves to deflate.
But the deflation is built into the equation.

Flour mixture going in.

Fold until flour is just incorporated.

Rest of flour goes in in 2 more additions.

Keep folding.

One cup of batter going into melted butter.

Buttery mixture going back into bowl.
Fold gently.

Then I start piping.

This is where it all broke down.
I didn't use a pastry bag this time
since I couldn't find the proper piping tip.
If I could have put all the batter at one time
in one pastry bag,
I think my ladyfingers might have made it to ladyfingers.

What I used was a canister type with the plunger.
The opening to fill the canister was about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
I had to refill the canister 3 times and each time
I could see the difference in the resulting piping of genoise.

And you cannot imagine the mess I made.
Well, those of you who know me can.

These are not holding their shapes.
Somehow, the Rosie Variable
was not ciphered into the Deflation Equation.

And I sprinkled the confectioner's sugar after baking.
Forgot to do it before.

 I know.
Pathetic.

I let these cool on racks
and when I touched them they were real sticky and soft.
So I put them back in the oven until they crisped up.

Not Mama Hawthorne's store-bought ladyfingers of my childhood.
The texture was a soft crunch,
not cakey.
But, oh my, the taste was there.

So there you have it, Becky.
Thanks again, for so graciously pointing out my failure.

And by the way, the absence of any photos of Julia's Ladyfingers
in Baking with Julia was quite conspicuous.