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| Pretty, ain't it? |
***
Each year, I have to top the last birthday cake I made for
Emily. Last year, I made a beautiful peach blueberry tart (pictured above in
the sidebar). (EAG: That was a damn tasty
tart.) Emily gave the in inspiration for my cake in April. She texted me a
picture of a pistachio apricot danish that she gets at a local farmers market. She
kept raving about that pastry, so I decided to make a variation of that.
My first question was what to use a base. I wanted something
denser than a cake. Emily suggested making a crust with almonds (EAG:
gluten free so Mom could eat it!), but that was too close a tart crust. Then it
came to me: I should base the crust on croissants I had experiment with making
croissants last fall, and had found a really good recipe. The croissant dough
would be similar to the danish base, but even better.
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| The tart that started it all... |
There are basically three stages for making croissants. The
first step is making the dough. You melt butter, add some milk, and once the
butter dissolves and the temperature of the milk is below 90`F, you mix in the
yeast. You then combine the milk mixture with flour (preferably King Arthur all
purpose flour; it has the best protein content), sugar and salt in a mixer with
a dough hook. The dough should form a slightly sticky ball. The dough then
rests in the fridge on a parchment-lined baking sheet overnight.
While the dough was resting I tackled the pistachios. My
first thought was to make a pistachio-flavored pastry cream, using pistachio
extract, but that would be too close to last years’ again. Then I came across a
recipe for "Snow Eggs in pistachio cream" in the Gourmet Cookbook. To
make the pistachio cream, you grind the pistachios in a food processor with a
little milk, and then refrigerate the mixture for at least 8 hours to develop
the flavors. I originally made one batch of this, but it was so yummy, I made
another.
The second stage or croissant making is laminating the
dough. You beat butter into an 8" x8" block, then place the butter in
the middle of the croissant dough, that has been rolled out to
24"x8". You then fold the dough over the butter block and seal it in
the dough. Then you roll the dough out to 8"x24" again, and then fold
the dough in thirds, like a letter. You repeat the rolling out and folding a
couple more times (at least 3, I did 5), to layer the butter between the layers
of dough. After it was laminated, the dough had to rest in the freezer for 2
hours.
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| Decorating the tart. |
While the dough was resting, Emily and I tried one of the
apricots that had been bought for the cake. They were very tart and mealy. To
improve the flavor and texture, I decided to roast the apricots with vanilla. I
had hoped that it would add more sweetness, and the vanilla would mellow the
tartness. After they were done roasting, they still weren't quite sweet enough,
so I finished them off under the broiler, with a little vanilla sugar sprinkled
on top. At this point, they were still quite tart, but the tartness was no
longer overwhelming.
After the dough had rested for 2 hours, I rolled it out
until it was about 1/4" thick at the center. I then draped the dough into
a tart pan and molded the dough to the edge of the pan. Because the cake is a
riff on a cheese Danish, I rolled 1 inch of the excess dough in to create a
rolled edge. In hindsight, I should have painted the excess dough with the
pistachio cream before rolling it, to break up the monotony of the huge crust. I
set a straight-sided bowl in the middle of the giant Danish to stop the dough
from rising too much and obliterating the center depression, and left it to rise
for 2 hours.
An hour and a half later, I preheated the oven to 425`, and
took the bowl out of the center of the Danish. I then painted the Danish with a
basic egg wash, with a little extra sugar. When the oven was preheated, I put
the Danish in and immediately lowered the heat to 400`. The Danish baked for 15
minutes, when it was nicely puffed and golden brown.
To assemble the cake, I spooned the pistachio cream into the
depression, the draped the apricots on top. The blackberries were placed around
the apricots, along with some almond slivers. The final step was to eat it. And
it was very tasty. (EAG: Damn straight.)
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| By the slice. |
Apricot-Pistachio Danish Cake
Croissant dough:
3
tablespoons unsalted butter plus 24 tablespoons (3
sticks) unsalted European-style-butter, very cold
1 3/4
cups whole milk
4
teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
4 1/4
cups (21 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/4
cup (1 3/4 ounces) sugar
2 tsp salt
1
large egg
1
teaspoon cold water
Pastry cream:
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
2 tbsp sugar
7 tbsp of whole milk
Roasted apricots:
7 apricots
1/2 vanilla bean, seeded
1 cup white wine
1/4 cup vanilla sugar
Slivered almonds
Egg wash:
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
Dash of salt
Dash of water
Optional:
Fresh blackberries
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| Slivered almonds, after being roasted with the peaches. |
1) Melt 3 tbsp butter in over low heat. Take of the heat and
immediately stir in the milk. Let cool til the temperature is under 90’. Whisk
in the yeast, and pour it all into a stand mixer. Add flour, sugar, and 2
teaspoons salt, then knead on low speed using the dough hook roughly 2-3
minutes, until dough forms. Up the speed to medium-low and knead for another
minute. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter for
half an hour.
2) Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper dump in
the dough. Shape it into a 10-by-7-inch rectangle, about an inch thick. Wrap
tightly with plastic and stick in the fridge for 2 hours.
3) Meanwhile, fold
24-inch length of parchment paper in half to create 12-inch rectangle. Fold the
3 open edges over to form an 8-inch square with enclosed sides. Crease the folds
firmly. Place 3 (sliced) sticks of cold butter directly on the counter and whack
them with rolling pin for a minute or so until the butter is just pliable but
not yet warm, then fold butter in on itself using bench scraper. Beat it into
rough 6-inch square. Unfold your parchment envelope. Using the bench scraper,
transfer the butter to the middle of the parchment, then refold it enclose.
Turn the packet over so that the flaps are underneath, and gently roll with the
rolling pin until the butter fills parchment square, making sure it’s even.
Refrigerate at for least 45 minutes.
4) Put the
dough in the freezer for half an hour, then lightly flour your counter and roll
the dough into 17 by 8-inch rectangle with the long side along the edge of the counter.
Unwrap the butter from the parchment and place it in the center of the dough.
Fold the sides of the dough over the butter so they meet in the center, and
press the open edges together so they seal. Roll the butter/dough package out
lengthwise into 24 by 8-inch rectangle. Starting at the bottom of the dough,
fold it into thirds like a business letter. Turn the dough 90 degrees, then roll
it out lengthwise again into 24 by 8-inch rectangle and fold into thirds again.
Place the dough on your cookie sheet, wrap it tightly with plastic, and put it
back in the freezer for another half hour.
5) Put the dough back on your lightly-floured countertop so
that the top flap opens on the right. Roll the dough out lengthwise into a 24
by 8-inch rectangle and fold into thirds (yet again). Place the dough back on
the sheet, wrap it tightly with plastic, and refrigerate it for yet another 2 to
24 hours.
6) Make the Pistachio Cream: Finely grind the pistachios in
a food processor with the sugar. Add 2 tbsp of milk, and grind until it forms a
paste. Add the remaining 5 tbsp of milk and mix in the food processor until
well combined. Transfer the cream to a bowl and refrigerate for a few hours to
develop the flavors.
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| Pistachio cream (can also be eaten straight with a spoon). |
7) Shape the Crust: Remove the Croissant dough from the
refrigerator and roll it out until it’s about 1/4" thick. Drape the dough
in a tart pan, so that there is a least an inch of excess dough all around when
the dough is molded to the sides of the pan (trim off any extra excess dough to
use/eat later). Paint a little of the pistachio cream on the excess dough. Roll
the excess inch of dough to make a Danish-like edge to the tart. Place a
buttered bowl with straight sides in the middle of the pan to keep the dough
from rising in the center, and let the dough rest of 2 hours.
8) Prepare the Apricots: Preheat oven to 400`. Slice each
apricot into 4 flat slices with parallel cuts and place them in one layer in a
baking pan. Scatter a handful of slivered almonds. Mix together 1 cup of white wine, the vanilla seeds, and 2 tbsp
vanilla sugar. Pour the mixture over the apricots, and place the vanilla bean
pod in the pan. Roast for 30 minutes, or until most of the liquid is gone. Put
aside and let cool.
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| Apricots, pre-roasting. |
9) Preparing the Crust: Raise the oven temperature to 425`. After
it has sat for at least 2 hours, remove the bowl from the croissant crust. Combine
the egg, sugar, and a dash of salt with a dash of water,
and mix until well combined. Paint the croissant crust with the egg wash.
10) Bake the Crust: Place the croissant crust in the oven
and immediately turn down the oven's heat to 400`. Bake the croissant tart for
15 minutes, or until golden brown. The dough will puff up a lot. Remove from
the oven and let cool.
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| Final assemblage. |
11) Turn the oven to broil. Sprinkle the apricots with the
rest of the vanilla sugar, and broil them, just until they begin to brown. (Keep
watch so they don’t go up in flames!) Take them out of the oven and let them
cool.
12) Assembling the cake: Spoon a quarter cup of pistachio
cream into the center of the croissant crust, and spread it evenly. Cover the
cream with the broiled apricots. Place the slivered almonds and
blackberries on top of the apricots prettily. Add candles, sing
happy birthday, and bask in the adulation of everyone there.
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| (with a bowl of pistachio cream & fruit for the gluten-free set) |
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