Savory Sidetrack

As you've probably guessed, I'm not much of a cook. Baking is my thing, and I leave the cooking to my husband, who is quite good at it. Case in point:

When we lived in Portland, Oregon, my favorite take-out lunch was bánh mì. Our go-to place was Nam's Deli at SE 78th and Powell, where we could get two sandwiches for under $6. For those of you unfamiliar, from Wiki:

Bánh mì is a Vietnamese baguette made with both wheat and rice flour, but more popularly known as a type of sandwich traditionally made with this type of baguette.^[1] The sandwich is made up of thinly sliced pickled carrots and daikon (do chua), cucumbers, cilantro, chili peppers, pâté, mayonnaise, and various meat fillings or tofu. Popular bánh mì fillings include roasted or grilled pork, Vietnamese sausage, chicken, head cheese, and ham.

We've since moved to very Northern Washington State, where until recently there was no bánh mì to be found. So my husband decided he would make it for me. Oh-so-good.


We've also started making the occasional Vietnamese coffee at home -- chicory-flavored French roast with a bit of sweetened condensed milk poured into the bottom of the glass before the coffee starts dripping. Okay, I'll admit part of the appeal for me is the cute individual filter set-up. But this is a perfect afternoon pick-me-up.


Now I need to come up with some other favorite big-city food I can't get up here and see if I can't convince my husband to make that for me too.

Pleasing the Masses

I set out to make oatmeal cookies recently for an upcoming road trip, but was unsure what I wanted to put IN the cookies. So I took an informal poll among friends -- how do you like your oatmeal cookie? Chewy or crispy? With or without nuts? Any other additions? -- and found people are very particular about their cookies. Of the 15 people that responded, three said absolutely no nuts, three more said raisins do NOT belong in cookies, two preferred them plain, no additions, and seven people were open to just about anything in their oatmeal cookies, from coconut, M&Ms, chocolate chips, even coconut and dried apricots. Chewy won hands down.

Well, my brother, who lives two states away in California, chimed in -- “I prefer oatmeal cookies over any other (hint). Raisins are okay, but I prefer chocolate chips, chewy, and never with nuts.” So I took the hint and went in search for a good chewy oatmeal cookie. And I found it at Smitten Kitchen.

I split the batch in two – half with raisins, half with chocolate chips.

First I soaked the raisins in hot water to plump them up a bit, as I generally do when I bake with raisins. Doesn’t look like it does much, but I think it helps. (I use rum when I'm making rice pudding.)

Success – chewy in the middle, slightly crispy on the edges.

I boxed up a dozen of the oatmeal-chocolate chip in a small USPS priority box and shipped them off to my little brother. And decided my preferences lean toward the more traditional (to me) oatmeal-raisin variety. (But because I can't leave well enough alone, I'd like to try these next time with chunks of dried apple.) How about you?

Birthday Beets

For years I’ve been baking small chocolate cakes and mailing to them – yes, mailing them – to friends on their birthdays.

I’d been using a doctored cake mix – chocolate with mini chocolate chips with a chocolate ganache glaze. But I’ve kind of sworn off mixes, so I’ve been sending brownies for birthdays while I searched for a suitable scratch version of my birthday cake.

Last week Eggs on Sunday posted a recipe for Chocolate Beet Cake. I knew as soon as I saw it I was going to have to try it. I’ll admit the cute beet stenciled on the cake had a lot to do with my desire to bake this cake, but I also am a sucker for unusual food combinations, so at that point it was a no-brainer.

The recipe instructed me to boil the beets, and I did that. But I wonder now, what kind of results would I have gotten if I’d roasted them? Would I have gotten more sugar out of them? (And why didn't I take photos of the beautiful ruby red beets after they were peeled and piled high in the mixing bowl?!) I’ll try it next time, and I’ll reduce the brown sugar a bit, just as an experiment. "Despite having the highest sugar content of any vegetable, beets are low in calories. At about 35 calories per half cup, beets are rich in vitamins A and C, and also give us folates, calcium, iron, and potassium." [The City Cook] Reducing the brown sugar would actually make this cake healthy. Right?!

The batter is RED --

-- but the baked cakes are not.

I divided the batter into thirds – one for us, one for the neighbors, and one for a generous friend who lives up the street.

As much as I adored the beet stencil, I was working the night I made this and didn't have time to make my own, so I used these stars instead.

The cake is fabulous, I have to say. Very moist, and only a vague hint of something – what is it? – that makes you take notice that this is not your typical chocolate cake.

So the quest is over – I have found my new scratch recipe birthday mailer.

Pâte à What?

I had leftover pastry cream from my pink-o-licious champagne cake. What to do, what to do? It was suggested I try pâte à choux. So I read up.

I consulted Wiki:

Pâte à choux is a light pastry dough used to make profiteroles, croquembouches, eclairs, French crullers, beignets, St. Honoré cake, Indonesian kue sus, and gougères. It contains only butter, water, flour, and eggs. In lieu of a raising agent it employs high moisture content to create steam during cooking to puff the pastry. Choux pastry is usually baked but for beignets it is fried. In Austrian cuisine it is also boiled to make Marillenknödel, a sweet apricot dumpling; in that case it does not puff, but remains relatively dense.

And King Arthur.

It looked easy enough. How could I NOT try it?

First the requested pastry cream recipe.

Pastry Cream

• 3 c. whole milk
• ½ c sugar
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract (or 1/3 vanilla bean, split lengthwise)
• ¼ c. cornstarch
• 1 T all-purpose flour
• 4 lrg. Egg yolks
• 4 T butter
• 1 c. heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks

In a medium-sized saucepan, stir together 2 ½ c. milk, the sugar, salt, and vanilla bean (if you use extract, add it at the end). Bring to a boil over medium heat.

Meanwhile, whisk the cornstarch, flour, and eg yolks with the remaining ½ c. milk.


Whisk some of the boiling milk mixture with the egg yolks, then pour back into the hot milk mixture and return to the heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and boil for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat, strain through a fine sieve, and stir in the butter and vanilla extract.


To keep the creamy texture intact, top with a piece of plastic wrap, making sure the plastic covers the entire surface of the cream.

To complete, fold the cooled cream into the whipped cream.

Now for the pâte à choux.

Bring ½ c. butter, 1 c. water, and ¼ tsp. salt to a rolling boil.




Take it off the heat and add 1 ¼ c. flour all at once, stirring vigorously. Return to heat until it forms a ball.


Let it cool to about 140°.


Transfer to a mixing bowl and add four eggs, one at a time. Beat for two minutes after adding the last egg. The mixture is supposed to be “fluffy”, but I didn’t find that to be the case.


Our ‘70s-era superhero glasses are the perfect size to hold pastry bags.


The only real difference I can tell between éclairs and cream puffs are their shape. I don’t know why, I just went with éclairs.


King Arthur told me to bake them for 15 minutes at 450°, then lower the eat to 360° and bake until the sides are set. But they were set and sufficiently browned at 15 minutes, so I took them out.


The King also told me to make slits in the ends of the eclairs (I missed that detail and made cuts down the side), and then return them to the oven for another five minutes to allow the steam to escape. I didn't want them to dry out, so I skipped that step. They seemed fine.

The pastry cream by now is two days old and has almost lost its whip. Its texture is more like thin pudding. But it tastes like full-fat homemade vanilla ice cream before it’s frozen, so that can’t be a bad thing.


They sort of remind me of alligators.

Now melt 1 oz. baking chocolate and 1 T butter in the microwave for about 20 seconds, depending on your microwave. Add 1 T hot water and ½ c. powdered sugar (I sifted it to remove lumps).


Oooh, aaaaah...




I really need a less fattening hobby. I think it’s time to try another quilt.

Cake Required

A 21^st birthday is a good example. A friend asked me to bake a cake for her daughter’s milestone birthday. She likes Goldschlager (cinnamon schnapps), but I could only come up with carrot cake as a way to incorporate it into a baking assignment. For some reason that just didn’t seem appropriate for a 21^st birthday celebration, so I went with Pink Champagne Cake with pastry cream filling and champagne-buttercream frosting, and decided to gift her a bottle of Goldschlager to enjoy as she pleased.

I had time before Bake Day, so I dug out one of my saved oatmeal canisters and dressed it up a little.

I was playing with beads and leather cord this week, so I made her a funky necklace as well.

As usual with a cake I have weeks to think about, I gathered up all my ingredients and decorating options -- sprinkles, ribbon, tissue, decorative paper. I never know how I’m going to use it until it comes time to assemble it, but looking at it for a while sometimes helps stir my creativity.

Bake Day was a workday, so the night before I did some prep. I’ve been reading food memoirs lately, so the term "mise en place" comes to mind. Dry ingredients were sifted and measured, pans were greased, floured, and parchment papered, butter was brought to room temperature.

The recipe called for liquid food coloring. I use gel coloring, but I’m always unsure how much to use when recipes call for liquid. I found a Red Velvet Cake recipe that called for 2 T of gel coloring. I wanted a delicate pink cake, so I used just 1 tsp. It was really pink!

Adding the champagne, hoping to lighten it up a bit.

Not much.

Still hot pink!

I found the three layers in combination with the silky pastry cream made for an unstable cake, and I needed some wooden skewers. I was out, so I stole a couple from an unused sushi mat.

Gerbera Daisies to class it up a bit…

…and some candles, because 21 is still young enough to be okay with The Birthday Song.

I received a text from the Birthday Girl after she and her friends had cut into it..."Pink-o-licious, tangy champagney goodness, delectable, creamy, decadent -- my friends loved it!"

Happy Birthday, Rachel!