I have been HIGHLY anticipating Dorie Greenspan's new cookbook, Baking Chez Moi ever since I first heard about it a couple of months ago. Lucky for me, my copy arrived a day early! With Baking Chez Moi, Greenspan focuses on French baking. These are not fussy recipes for the most part, these are the recipes that are handed down for generations among families, the recipes that the French cook in their homes, cherished recipes of French chefs and a few of Greenspan's own favorites.
This cookbook is BEAUTIFUL. It's an oversized hardback, over 450 pages and separated into different categories including simple cakes, fancy cakes, tarts and galettes, baby cakes and petite pastries, cookies and bars, fruits, creams, frozen desserts and candies, and then a section called basics. The recipes are very conversational, which I love. You feel like Greenspan is sitting down and having a conversation with you and teaching you personally how to bake the recipe.
Because of this, I'm letting Mrs. Dorie Greenspan teach me how to become a master French pastry chef! It's exciting to learn how to bake all of these things that I otherwise never would've attempted to learn. So I'm going to bake all of these things one at a time in the order of the book. And I started tonight with the very first recipe!
Brown-Butter-And-Vanilla-Bean Weekend Cake. Holy crap is this cake GOOD! Good isn't even the word for it. This is the cake I've been looking for for years. I'm not even kidding. I've been looking for this recipe for years. This is exactly what cake should taste like. Greenspan explains that a weekend cake is a cake that the french make that can be picked on throughout the weekend and is actually better after it's sat for a day. She recommends that you let it sit for a day before cutting it. Yeah right....as you can see in the picture, that didn't happen :p It was still hot when I cut it.
This cake has flour, sugar, eggs, lots of vanilla, rum and brown butter. I've discovered the amazingness that is brown butter, AKA burnt butter. Ok, borderline burnt. To make brown butter, you boil butter in a saucepan until it turns a honey brown color but you have to watch it closely as it can literally go from brown to black in a matter of seconds. Luckily I caught it before it went to black. And then you pour that goodness into the batter and incorporate it. I've only made this one recipe so far, but I would suggest this cookbook for this recipe alone.
Next up, Plain and Simple Almond Cake! But first I need to find almond flour....and eat and/or give away all of this brown butter cake first >_>
8 comments:
Oh god. Yet another reason to wish we were next door neighbors! I want to be on the "taste testing" end of your journey to master pastry chef-hood!!! :D That cake sounds so decadently delicious!!! Oh my gosh, and the next up has me sold just from its name-anything almond will get me every time! Glad you're having so much fun with this already!!! :D
Oh wow!!! Now I think I want that book. Brown butter cake with rum? Yes, please!!! Oh and please consider linking up any of these posts next Saturday (and any Saturday) for Weekend Cooking.
NO PRESSURE, though, if you don't want to or you forget. I'm so looking forward to seeing your fun.
unlike Debi I am glad I am not a neighbor! It took me 2 yrs to drop 30 lbs and I am sure it would only take 2 weeks of your baking to put it all back on! lol xoxoxoxoxox
WOW that sounds tasty. Mmmmmmm except I have very little faith in my ability to do the brown butter correctly. Because I am inattentive.
Preaching to the choir, buddy...brown butter is the BEST. I got a recipe from Joy the Baker's site for Brown Butter Banana Bread. You will never make plain banana bread again. :-D That cookbook looks deliciously dangerous...I look forward to seeing all of the good stuff you'll be making! (Also, wanna trade mixers? Mine is plain ole white...I covet all of the colorful ones!)
I think I might need to get this book. I like baking, although cooking is not my bag, in general.
Speaking of which . . . our KitchenAid mixer decided to fling itself off the counter. Husband is trying to fix it but I think we'll probably end up getting a new one. We shall see. Yours is pretty!
I want to taste this cake now! I'm going to put the book on hold. I hope you keep sharing this project with us.
I'm so behind on blog reading but I still wanted to comment on this one! I LOVE delicious baking recipes that aren't ridiculously hard so I think I'm going to need this book. I also love when cookbooks are conversational too. And maybe I can get a new Kitchenaid mixer in a pretty color ...
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