Apple Spice Cupcakes

The Art.
   Every fall, Handsome and I go apple picking at a nearby fruit farm. It's one of my favorite traditions, partly because we get to enjoy the crisp fall weather in a beautiful orchard, and partly because it involves things I can eat. While we both love apple picking, the two of us certainly have very disparate approaches to it. Handsome will pick as many apples as he can fit in his paper bag regardless of whether we can eat them all, because he thinks it's a great deal. I, on the other hand, always have a recipe in mind before we go, and I will pick the exact number of apples I need for said recipe, no more, no less. I like to pick Granny Smith apples for baked goods because of their crisp texture and tart flavor. This year, I made apple-filled spice cupcakes, topped with a tangy buttermilk icing. I decorated the cupcakes like little apples themselves, with pretzel stick stems and mint leaves on top.

The Science.
    While I used food coloring to make my apple cupcakes red, the skin of real apples contains a pigment called anthocyanin that gives them their bright red color. The Sangrado apple variant produces anthocyanin in the flesh of its fruit as well, causing it to be red throughout. Researches have recently found that this color pattern is due to a whole genome duplication that occurred in the apples long ago, and created a second copy of the gene that regulates anthocyanin pigmentation [1]. In Sangrados, the extra gene has a slightly different sequence from the original, and this change causes it to be expressed in the apple flesh, and make it a beautiful red. On the other hand, Granny Smith apples have green skin and white flesh, because they do not contain any anthocyanin [2]. I guess you could say that they are the albinos of the apple world.




The Recipe.

Apple filling:
3 tablespoons salted butter
5 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

    Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add remaining ingredients. Stir occasionally until apples are soft and juices are concentrated and syrupy, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly in pan while making cake batter.


Spice Cake:
Recipe can be found here. Makes approximately 28 cupcakes.

    Preheat oven to 350^oF. With a 1/4 cup measure, spoon batter into cupcake tins with liners. Spoon 1-2 tablespoons apple filling on top of the batter, in the center of each cupcake. Bake for 20 minutes or until tester inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

Buttermilk Icing:
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
6 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk

    In a large bowl, beat butter on medium speed until fluffy. Gradually add sugar while beating, then beat in buttermilk. Tint half the icing red and the other half green. I used Wilton Icing Colors Red and Burgundy for the red, and Kelly Green and Lemon Yellow for the green.

Decorating:
1 cup sugar, divided
Red and green food color
14 pretzel sticks
28 mint leaves

    To make the red and green sugar, place 1/2 cup sugar in each of two plastic sandwich bags. Add a few drops of either red or green food color and seal the bags shut. Massage the bags of sugar until the food color is distributed evenly. If needed, add more food color to get the desired color. Pour sugar into two saucers.
    Spread a dollop of icing onto each cupcake, making a high dome in the center and only a thin layer on the edges. Roll the cupcake in the corresponding colored sugar. If the icing has an uneven shape, you can reshape it on the saucer while you roll it. To make an indentation for the top of the apple, coat your finger in sugar and press the center of the icing down.

     For the apple stems and leaves, break the pretzel sticks in half and insert one half into the top of each cupcake. Gently press a mint leaf into the icing next to the pretzel. Store cupcakes in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to three days.

  

1. Chagne, D. et al. "An ancient duplication of apple MYB transcription factors is responsible for novel red fruit-flesh phenotypes." Plant Physiology, 2012, 160:2 (October 24).
2. Takos, A. et al. "Light-Induced Expression of a MYB Gene Regulates Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in Red Apples." Plant Physiology, 2006, 142:3 (November).

Almond Nutella Cake

The Art.
    The time has come for me to admit that I have a Nutella addiction. Nutella's entire "part of a healthy breakfast" ad campaign is completely lost on me. If there is a jar of Nutella in my pantry, I'm not going to scrape it over some whole wheat toast and wolf it down with a glass of orange juice as they suggest. I will eat it by the spoonful until I fall into a diabetic coma on the couch like a respectable human being. I am very good at coming up with excuses to eat it, and it was upon one such occasion that Almond Nutella Cake was born. This cake features my staple yellow cake layered with a light Nutella mousse and frosted with rich almond buttercream. The cute flower decorations are a technique developed by my youngest sister, who is nothing less than inspiring with her cake decorating. I love these almond flowers because they are so simple to make and the colors remind me of autumn chrysanthemums.

The Science.
     Unfortunately, some individuals suffer from hazelnut allergy and can't enjoy sitting on the couch with a jar of Nutella. How these people go through life I'll never know, but they are certainly braver than the rest of us. There are two culprits to blame in regards to this allergenic condition. First, there is the IgE antibody. This antibody flows through your bloodstream and generally does a lot of good things, like recognizing parasites. However, in some individuals IgE goes rogue and recognizes certain foods, such as hazelnuts, as allergens and causes severe reactions [1]. The other culprit is the Cor-a family of proteins, which can be bound by IgE and recognized as allergens. A scientific group has recently found that heating hazelnut flour to high temperatures (called autoclaving) denatures the Cor-a proteins. This changes their conformation in such a way that they cannot be recognized by IgE, thus diminishing their allergenic effects [2]. With such a technique in hand, people that are usually allergic to hazelnuts can consume autoclaved hazelnut products. In the future, everyone could enjoy autoclaved Nutella's sugary spell and only have to worry about a diabetes-related death, not anaphylactic shock.

The Recipe.

Moist Yellow Cake:
    Recipe here. Follow the directions, except use three 8-in round cake pans, coated with baking spray and lined with waxed paper. To make a perfect lining, trace around the bottom of the pan onto the waxed paper, and cut the circle out (see photo below).
    Divide batter evenly into the three pans, lift and drop onto the counter a few times to release bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick tester comes out clean. If your cake layers have high crowns, you can press them down as I described here. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then invert onto wire racks. Peel off waxed paper, cool until room temperature.

Nutella Mousse:
1 cup 40% heavy whipping cream
1 jar (370g) nutella, divided

    Whip cream over an ice bath with chilled beaters until stiff peaks form. Add Nutella, reserving 3 tablespoons for decorating. Beat until thoroughly combined and refrigerate until needed

Almond Buttercream:
1 1/2 cups salted butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

    In a medium bowl, whip butter until fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar, then beat in milk and almond extract.

Cake assembly:
    Place one cake layer on an 8 inch cardboard cake round. Spread half of the Nutella mousse over the cake, to within 1 inch of the edge. Place second cake layer on top, then cover with the other half of the mousse. Place third cake layer on top, and put cake in the freezer for at least 45 minutes.

    To make a perfectly smooth coat of icing on this cake, we will first put a crumb coat on it. Using an offset spatula, place a large dollop of icing on top of the cake. Scrape the icing over the cake, making a very thin, smooth layer.

    Use the excess icing to spread over the sides of the cake, sealing the edges of the cake layers and making the sides flat. The crumb coat should be thin and translucent, serving the function of providing a smooth surface on which to spread the decorative icing. Place the cake back in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, tint the remaining icing a buttery yellow. I used equal amounts of Wilton Icing Colors Golden Yellow and Brown.




    Take the cake out of the freezer and place on top of an inverted cake pan. This raises the cake off the countertop so you can spread the icing all the way to the bottom. Spread an even layer of tinted icing on top of the crumb coat with a large spatula.  Make the icing as smooth as possible. To get rid of any ridges, heat the spatula over a candle flame and use it to gently smooth the icing.



Almond flower decorations:
   Spoon the remaining Nutella into a plastic sandwich bag and snip off the bottom corner to create a piping bag. For each flower, press six slivered almonds into the icing in a ring. Fill the center of the flower with Nutella.

Cover and store finished cake in the refrigerator before serving, up to three days.


1. Flinterman, A. et al. "Hazelnut allergy: from pollen-associated mild allergy to severe anaphylactic reactions." Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2008, 8:3 (June 2008).
2. Lopez, E. et al. "Effects of autoclaving and high pressure on allergenicity of hazelnut proteins." Journal of Clinical Bioinformatics, 2012, 2:12 (22 May 2012).




 

Bacon and Apricot Gougères

The Art.
    Every summer I host a Bacon Explosion Party, and this year I smoked a whopping three Bacon Explosions for my dearest friends. This means that I rolled up 6lbs of sausage inside 6lbs of bacon, slathered it with two bottles of BBQ sauce, and smoked it for a day. As you can imagine, I had a substantial amount of bacon fat left over after frying up all this bacon. I strained the fat and tucked it away in the fridge, and I've been experimenting with adding it to different foods ever since. My most recent bacon fat adventure was when I tried my hand at making gougères.
    Gougères are a French puff made from choux pastry and cheese that are light and crisp, and are arguably the perfect party pastry. By replacing some of the butter in the pastry with bacon fat, I added a hint of bacon flavor. I then filled the airy puffs with a slightly sweet apricot gruyere mousse, to provide the perfect balance of sweet and salty. These pastries are wonderful to have as an appetizer or with an aperitif.

The Science.
    Needless to say, traditional French choux pastry recipes do not include bacon fat. Rather, the dough is made with butter that is melted into the liquid component, then mixed with the flour. Substituting fats in baking recipes can be a tricky business, and this goes double for pastry dough. Different fats used in baking are composed of different types of lipids, which have varying melting temperatures and reactivity with other ingredients. Butter is composed of milk fat, which is made up of mostly saturated fats and some cholesterol, and has a melting temperature of 90^oF [1]. Shortening, on the other hand, is solely composed of hydrogenated unsaturated vegetable oils, and has a melting temperature of 117^oF. The problem with shortening is that doesn't add any flavor. Lard is similar to butter in that it is made up of mostly saturated fat, has a low melting temperature of 86^oF, and provides scrumptious flavor [2]. The main difference between butter and lard is that lard does not have the small water component that butter does. However, equivalent amounts of lard can be substituted in most recipes without altering texture or flakiness [3]. I consider bacon fat to be lard's sexy cousin because it has a wonderful smokey salty flavor from the cured meat. Just be careful when using bacon fat in a recipe, it's strong stuff and can easily overpower your other flavors.

The Recipe.

Bacon Gougères: (makes 48)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons bacon fat*
6 eggs
3/4 cup finely grated gruyere, divided
1 egg yolk

    Preheat oven to 415^oF and place racks in middle and lowest position. Sift together flour and salt. In a saucepan, combine water, milk, butter, and bacon fat and place over medium heat, stirring constantly. Once the mixture reaches a boil, remove from heat and immediately add the flour/salt, stirring rapidly with a spoon.

    Put saucepan over heat again, and stir dough until it begins to pull away from the sides and form a ball. Turn dough out into a large bowl, and lightly beat with bread hook attachment for 30 seconds to cool. While the dough is cooling, beat eggs in a medium bowl. Gradually add eggs to dough while beating on medium speed, then continue to beat until a wooden spoon or spatula stands in the bowl, about 4 minutes. Fold in 1/2 cup cheese.
    Line two baking sheets with waxed paper. Spoon or pipe dough in 1 tablespoon rounds aprroximately 2 inches apart onto baking sheet. Lightly beat egg yolk with 1 teaspoon water and use to brush tops of dough. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup gruyere over tops. Sprinkle a few drops of water on the baking sheet with your fingertips, being careful not to dampen the dough.

    Place baking sheets in oven, and pour 1/4 cup water onto the bottom on the oven right before closing the door. The water will create steam in the oven which helps the gougères rise. Bake for 15 minutes, then very very gently switch the baking sheets, so the top one is now on bottom and vice versa. Switching the rack position halfway through ensures that all the puffs with bake evenly. Try not to knock them too hard while moving the trays so the gougères keep air inside them. Pour another 1/4 cup water onto the bottom of the oven, and bake 15 more minutes.  If your gougères start to deflate while you're moving them, don't worry. The second steam burst will help them puff right back up.
    When the gougères are done baking, they should be deep golden brown and sound hollow when you tap the bottom. Turn the oven off, leave the door ajar, and let the gougères dry in the oven 10 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Gougères can be stored in an air-tight container in the freezer for up to 2 months. (Recipe modified from [4])
*To make bacon fat, fry up 6-8 slices of thick-cut bacon in a pan to your desired crispness. Eat that delicious bacon. Once the fat in the pan has cooled, strain it through a coffee filter into a small bowl and refrigerate until needed.

Apricot gruyere mousse:
4 egg whites
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon brandy
1 1/4 cup 40% heavy cream
1/2 cup apricot preserves
3/4 cup finely grated gruyere

    In a large bowl, combine egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and brandy. Set bowl over a saucepan with 1 inch simmering water. Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and beat for an additional 2 minutes, set aside. In another large bowl, beat cream on high speed over an ice bath until stiff peaks form. Fold into egg whites. Fold in apricot preserves and gruyere. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before filling gougères.

Assembly:
    If gougères have been frozen, warm in a 300^oF oven until crisp, then cool to room temperature on wire racks. Open the gougères halfway by gently prying at the side with fingertips. Spoon in approximately two tablespoons of mousse. Serve immediately.

1. American Baking Essentials Course 201. "Butter, Shortening, and Oils: The Fats We Bake With." The Prepared Pantry, 2005.
2. O Chef, "Turning the Heat up on Crisco (and Lard)." Available here.
3.  All Recipes, "Common Ingredient Substitutions." Available here.
4. Rogers, Juliet. The Essential Baking Cookbook. Millers Point, Australia: Murdoch Books, 2010.