French dinner

One night this week, I made an all French dinner. For the appetizers and dessert, I used choux paste (you may remember this from the cream puffs, before)

For appetizers, I made a savory dough and added gruyere and parmesan cheese, and created gougeres. The savory choux paste has no sugar and more salt and some pepper, and then you fold in the cheeses.

For dessert, I crafted profiteroles, which are sweet choux paste dough split open, with a scoop of ice cream inside and chocolate sauce on top. Yum!



For the main course, we had blue cheese souffle, with a side of baby greens with vinaigrette.



The vinaigrette was awesome! The souffle - meh. I thought it tasted kinda like scrambled eggs. Hubby thought it was tastearrific.

Blue Cheese Souffle

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the dish
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan, plus extra for sprinkling
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup scalded milk
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pinch cayenne pepper
Pinch nutmeg
4 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
3 ounces good Roquefort cheese, chopped (or other blue cheese)
5 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Butter the inside of an 8-cup souffle dish (7 1/2 inches in diameter and 3 1/4 inches deep) and sprinkle evenly with Parmesan.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. With a wooden spoon, stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Off the heat, whisk in the hot milk, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, the cayenne, and nutmeg. Cook over low heat, whisking constantly, for 1 minute, until smooth and thick.

Off the heat, while still hot, whisk in the egg yolks, one at a time. Stir in the Roquefort and the 1/4 cup of Parmesan and transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Put the egg whites, cream of tartar, and a pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on low speed for 1 minute, on medium speed for 1 minute, then finally on high speed until they form firm, glossy peaks.

Whisk 1/4 of the egg whites into the cheese sauce to lighten and then fold in the rest. Pour into the souffle dish, then smooth the top. Draw a large circle on top with the spatula to help the souffle rise evenly, and place in the middle of the oven. Turn the temperature down to 375 degrees F. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes (don't peek!) until puffed and brown. Serve immediately.

Green Salad Vinaigrette

3 tablespoons Champagne or white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup good olive oil

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, garlic, egg yolk, salt and pepper. While whisking, slowly add the olive oil until the vinaigrette is emulsified. Toss the greens with enough dressing to moisten and serve immediately.

The recipes above call for room temperature eggs, which beat easier with more air, and emulsify easier. To bring eggs to room temperature fast, cover them in a cup or bowl with warm water and let sit for about 10-15 minutes.

You can find the profiterole and gougere recipes here and here.

Strawberry Shortcake

I am of the camp that does NOT like a biscuit-y shortcake. I know, I know, how very unSouthern of me. When I think of it, my mouth just gets dry, like most shortcakes I've had.

Growing up, we always had those little sponge cakes that had indentations in the top with our strawberries. I guess we always want what we are comfortable with.

I was very pleased to find this recipe for an almost sponge cake baked in a tube pan like an angel food cake. I appreciate that it does NOT need 12 egg whites like angel food cake. I never find anything to do with all those leftover egg yolks.

Sponge cake for strawberry shortcake

4 eggs at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup milk

Note - it says cake flour, not all purpose flour. I usually use Swans Down brand. Cake flour has a low protein content, unlike bread flour, and therefore should not be used to make bread. You want a cake that is light and fluffy, and does not develop gluten like bread. Softasilk is another popular brand. If you do not have cake flour, you CAN use 7/8 cup all purpose flour and 2 tablespoons cornstarch per cup of cake flour, but I would try and use cake flour if you can.

Preheat oven to 325 deg F.

Separate eggs, placing yolks in large mixing bowl and setting whites aside. Beat yolks with sugar until very light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.

Sift cake flour with baking powder onto waxed or parchment paper.

Fold dry ingredients alternately with milk into egg mixture, beginning and ending with dry. In a separate bowl beat reserved egg whites until stiff and then fold into batter.

Pour into an ungreased 9 inch tube pan and bake in preheated oven 45-50 minutes. Invert pan to cool. Remove from pan when cake is completely cool.

It's best cut with a serrated knife.

This would be very easy to modify with different extracts and things such as lemon/lime/orange zest.

I served with macerated strawberries and whipped cream. yum!