Le Soufflé Without Le Struggle

Fearless home cooks, the kind that whip up cassoulet or steak béarnaise without breaking a sweat, still get hot under the collar at the thought of making a fancy French dessert.It’s only natural. When visions of tricky spun-sugar baskets, temperamental soufflés, and stubborn pâte brisée dance in your head, it just seems easier to bake an apple crumble or buy some ice cream instead.Maybe that’s why Kate Zuckerman, who has been pastry chef at Chanterelle restaurant for the last six years, chose to feature a simple dish of roasted pears on the cover of her new book of French desserts, “The Sweet Life: Desserts From Chanterelle” (Bulfinch Press, 224 pages, $35). “This is easier than you think,” the cover photo whispers.Luckily, in this case you can judge a book by its cover. Though Chanterelle is one of New York’s most venerable French restaurants, Ms. Zuckerman works hard to translate her cakes, cookies, truffles, mousses, and tarts for those of us who don’t have an army of assistants or endless prep time.“Home cooks may not have the right pan, the right ingredient, the right oven, or the time to product a plated dessert composed of multiple preparations,” Ms. Zuckerman writes. “But I believe that the best work comes not from unbounded freedom but from the realistic boundaries we deal with every day.”So just how does Ms. Zuckerman translate her elaborate, multipart desserts for home? Her strategy is simple: Divide and conquer.At Chanterelle, a hazelnut cake might be served with roasted glazed peaches, Sauternes sabayon, and hazelnut streusel — a dazzling composition, no doubt, but one that’s likely to exhaust mere mortals. But in “The Sweet Life,” Ms. Zuckerman doesn’t attempt to force home cooks to mimic her desserts exactly. Instead, she breaks the components down into individual desserts that can stand alone, or be combined. The Sauternes sabayon is great simply poured over fresh berries. The hazelnut cake gets a chance to shine with just a dash of powdered sugar on top. It’s a liberating approach that lets you decide whether you want an over-the-top spectacle or a simple sweet finish to your meal.What’s more, “The Sweet Life” doesn’t insist that you master homemade puff pastry or learn how to temper chocolate. The cakes are almost all single-layer affairs, the tarts have simple fruit, citrus curd, or chocolate fillings, and the fanciest garnish is an apple chip. Even the most intimidating chapter, on soufflés, uses an Italian meringue base that allows the home cook to assemble the dessert hours in advance.But plain or fancy, Ms. Zuckerman remains a perfectionist. She might scale down desserts for the home cook, but she doesn’t dumb them down. Take those roasted pears on the cover. They might look easy, but you don’t achieve that perfectly shiny, caramelized fruit without effort. The recipe takes two hours of basting and turning. Thankfully, well-organized headers, cross-referenced sidebars, and equipment lists help add clarity to all the recipes.Ms. Zuckerman’s perfectionism also extends to her flavor combinations. Most pastry chefs would be happy with a perfectly creamy espresso ice cream — but she delights in using a rich caramel syrup to deepen the flavor (caramel also enhances the flavor of her chocolate pot de crème). She sprinkles her peanut brittle with fine-ground sea salt to make the nuts even toastier.Texture is just as important as taste in a dessert, Ms. Zuckerman rightly points out. Her apple and quince tart features a filling of tender little quince cubes that contrast with the crunchy crust and chewy, paper-thin apple slices on top. Her fresh huckleberry and fig tart boasts two types of dough: a sweet tart crust and a lattice topping made from store-bought puff pastry, offering a double-whammy of textures with little extra work.Occasionally, Ms. Zuckerman will drop the ball. The photo of the apple and quince tart features apple slices that still retain their pretty red skin, while the recipe instructs you to peel them. A photo featured an adorable “freestanding” variation on the chocolate soufflé, but soufflé recipe only shows how to bake them in the traditional ramekins. And she neglects to tell you to prebake the crust for the passion-fruit curd tart before you fill it.But these are mere trifles in the light of how much inspired, hard-won knowledge Ms. Zuckerman does share. Why browning butter with a scraped vanilla bean releases even more vanilla flavor than just adding vanilla seeds to batter. How extra baking soda in chocolate chip cookie dough yields cookies with a crispy outside and chewy middle. For a dessert cookbook that doesn’t claim to be an exhaustive guide to baking, there’s a whole lot of “takeaway” for the beginning baker. And when you’re ready to go from a fullsize lemon tart to miniature ones topped with raspberries, Meyer lemon soufflé, and served with pineapple-rosemary sorbet, you can do that, too. I call that “The Sweet Life.”VANILLA, BROWN BUTTER, & ALMOND TEA CAKEAdapted from “The Sweet Life: Desserts From Chanterelle” by Kate Zuckerman. This recipe shows off Ms. Zuckerman’s trick of browning butter with vanilla beans. You’ll need a food processor and a 10-inch fluted tart pan, round cake pan, or springform pan. For a simple presentation, she suggests serving it garnished with powdered sugar and sliced almonds, or any fresh seasonal fruit or compote.1 cup (5 ounces) blanched almonds 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour 1 vanilla bean 16 tablespoons (8 ounces) unsalted butter 7 egg whites (approximately 7 liquid ounces) 1 cup powdered sugar 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and position the rack in the center of the oven. Butter or oil a 10-inch pan.2. Combine the almonds and 1 tablespoon of the flour in a food processor and grind to a fine powder. Set aside.3. Using a paring knife, cut down the center of the vanilla bean and scrape out the tiny black seeds into a medium-size saucepan set over medium-high heat. Add the vanilla bean and the butter and cook until the mixture caramelizes and emits a rich nutty vanilla aroma. Remove it from the heat, take out the vanilla bean, dry it, and save it for another use.4. In a medium mixing bowl set over a pot of simmering water, whisk together the egg whites and the two sugars until the whites become warm to the touch and the granulated sugar has dissolved. Remove the bowl from the heat.5. Slowly whisk the remaining 1/2 cup flour, ground almonds, and salt into the egg whites. The mixture will become thick. Smooth it out with a few turns of the whisk.6. Using a ladle, add approximately 1/4 cup of the vanilla brown butter to the egg mixture and whisk until incorporated. Repeat this process until you have added all the butter. (This process is very important. If you add the butter too quickly, the mixture will not emulsify and the butter will melt out of the cake when baked, making it greasy and heavy.) The batter can be made up to this point and stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the cake is a deep golden brown and the center springs back when you touch it or a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. (The cake is very dense, and will not rise more than 2 inches.) Serve warm.Makes one 10-inch round tea cake.

Le Soufflé Without Le Struggle

Le Soufflé Without Le Struggle

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