Alps: Gâteau Grenoblois

This is a simple and easy to execute cake with a whole lot of "impress them" power! This is a cake that can be easily found in the Alps and especially in Grenoble. The reason? Walnuts. Walnuts are a specialty of the city of Grenoble and while I never kept an eye out for walnut trees while I was living there I am certain that they are bountiful.

Because this is a simple cake there are many opportunities to spice this cake up. I will offer a few suggestions, but remember I have not tried them so if you would give me your feed back after trying one of the variegations that would be great!

The cake begins with a simple pâte à génoise, which is a basic cake batter. It is Airy and light but with more of the flavor of a yellow cake than a white one.

Pâte à génoise:
3/4 cup flour
A scant 3/4 cup sugar
4 TBS butter
2 eggs

Butter Cream filling:
8 TBS butter
1/2-1 cup powdered sugar
2 TBS milk
1 cup crushed walnuts

Chocolate layer:
about 50 grams dark chocolate
3-4 TBS milk

Pâte à génoise

Start by melting the butter in a medium sized sauce pan, once melted remove from pan and set aside. (However if you have a microwave take advantage) 

 

Then in the same sauce pan add your sugar and 2 eggs. Place over medium heat and mix with whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved remove the mixture from the heat but do not stop whisking until it has cooled.

Have your flour ready to go...

Slowly add in the flour, then the butter. Mix until incorporated. You can continue to use the whisk for this. I was just scraping down the sides of the batter with the spatula.

Pour into a greased cake pan. and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until a knife comes out clean when inserted. 

Remove the cake from the tin by flipping it over on to a cooling rack and gently hitting the bottom of the mold until the cake springs free. Let the cake cool while you head off to make the butter cream. 

Butter Cream

The butter cream is a simple process that once learned will be easy to repeat again and again. I did not take any pictures of the process but is not a very glorious one anyways.

NOTE: making a butter cream is a million times easier if you have a stand mixer or a hand mixer, in fact I would go as far as to say that it is near impossible to make with out one.

Step one: Place your butter in the mixing bowl and turn on the mixer. At first the mixer might just throw the butter around but you can coax it into the center on the mixing bowl with a spatula when the mixer is off. Let the mixer soften and fluff up the butter, this can take a while but be patient you do not want to add the sugar to soon.

Step two: Now that the butter is soft and fluffy you may begin adding sugar. I like to add a little sugar at a time so I have more control over the end result and over the possible mess that could take over my kitchen.

Step three: after adding about 1/8 cup of sugar add about a TBS of milk (I used almond). You do not want to add too much liquid or your final product will be runny not creamy and this is never good! I did not add any flavor extracts (such as vanilla) but if you desire that flavor I would add about a tsp and make sure that you account for the extra liquid and reduce the milk you add

Step four: one a little liquid has been added continue adding the sugar until you reach a thick, fluffy, creamy consistency that tastes just about as sweet as you could dream. Remember if you think your frosting needs more liquid you can add it just be careful while doing so.

Step five: Crush up the walnuts, on a cutting board in a plastic bag, whatever works for you. Then add them to your tasty butter cream, give it all one last mix and consider yourself a newly trained butter cream master!

Chocolate

this process is really about as simple as they come. All you have to do is:

add the desired amount of chocolate (I used about 50 grams) to a sauce pan and melt it. Make sure that you are stirring this so that it does not burn on the bottom of the pan. Add a little milk to the chocolate to make it more spreadable, about a couple of tablespoons. Then BANG! like that you are done with the final layer of this cake!

Assembly

 

cut the cooled cake in half. Try to get it fairly even so that your cake does not break the way mine did. One side is much more thin than the other.

 

Plop on the butter cream

 

and gently, but with a firm hand, spread out the butter cream. Try to get it all the way to the edges. Also, if you do hurt your cake while slicing it in half this is a great time to patch it all up. 

 

Place the top of your cake back on. 

 

and coat with the chocolate. yum!

 

adding walnuts all over the top not only adds more flavor but it makes it look very nice indeed!

Options:

Just a few possible changed that could be made to this cake are:

-adding walnut meal (just very finely chopped/crushed walnuts) to the cake batter

-using a different kind of nut

-adding flavor to the butter cream

-using white chocolate for the chocolate layer

-using the butter cream for both the top and the center

basically the options and endless and the eaters are easy to impress!

Alps: Gratin Dauphinois

Like I said in my last post this is a cheese free option for us poor saps in the USA who don’t have access to amazing cheese for a reasonable price.

A Gratin Dauphinois is your basic potatoes au gratin without the cheese. The big argument is whether or not this gratin calls for cheese. It is one of those arguments that can only really be won with your own taste buds. I made mine with out any cheese but when my boyfriend sat down to eat it the first this he did was cover the potatoes with a thick layer of grated cheese. I personally enjoyed the rich creamy flavor that almost evoked cheese with out any.

This dish can't skimp on the butter or cream, so if you are scared of those ingredients I would shy away from this dish.

Ingredients:
8 fairly large red potatoes (a fun twist on this dish would be to make it with purple potatoes, a personal favorite)
5 cloves of garlic (I am a big believer of more garlic being better garlic)
1 stick of butter
1 pint of heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste


 This is really one of the more simple recipes, so get ready to be amazed!

 

start by peeling all eight potatoes. 

Preheat the oven to 350

Then rinse and dry them. Keep them on the towel drying while you slice up the other potatoes.

Slice the potatoes. The key here is to make sure that the potatoes are evenly sliced, thin but not transparent, so that they cook evenly in the oven. 

Rub the pan with the cloves of garlic. then slice all cloves of garlic so that you will be able to layer them in with the potatoes. 

Create a layer of potato slices. 

dot with butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

You will repeat this until all the potatoes and butter have been used. I used an 8x13 pyrex pan and i believe I had about 4 layers of potatoes and 5 of butter. 

Once all the potatoes have been layered up and a final dotting of butter and sprinkle of salt and pepper. Now for the really fun part...

THE CREAM! Pour it all on try to evenly cover the potatoes.

This is when you could add cheese if your little heart desired. A nice Swiss cheese would be good.

Now off the oven. This should bake for around 45-60. Mine cooked for an hour maybe even a little longer. Just make sure that you are paying attention. To test and see if the potatoes are done stick them with a fork but also pay attention to the color of the potatoes. 

If it looks like some potatoes are not covered by cream or butter you can and should push them into the liquid.

  

Ready to enjoy!

Alps: potato and cheese overview!

As I looked through my recipe books trying to decide what combination of potatoes and cheese I should make I become very torn. Mainly because I could not bring myself to use a substitute cheese when it was the whole taste and charter of a dish. Two of my favorite treats from the Alps are Tartiflette and Raclette.
Tartiflette is a potato dish made with ripe Reblochon cheese, onions, bacon, garlic and butter, all baked up to an amazing. It is a truly indulgent dish created to restore after cold days.

Raclette is also a cheese and potato dish but it can have a little more flare. The cheese you use in a Raclette is Raclette cheese so that is pretty simple to remember. Raclette uses a grill (specifically for this dish) that has individual little dishes in which you place a piece of cheese and it gets cooked in the grill. When it is melted you slide it out of the tray and onto your potatoes. Raclette also includes a verity of raw meat that is cooked on top of the grill along with any veggies your heart desires. But don’t for get the little cornichon pickles because it just wouldn't be Raclette with out them.

If you really want to try Raclette with out buying one of these grills you can just melt the cheese in a pan but you would not want to do that with more than a couple people it would be too much work.

So after dreaming about these dishes and knowing that very soon I would be able to eat the real thing with the real cheese I decided to make some thing that required no cheese... however it is still amazingly good!

Off to the Alps!

I am so excited to cook some of my favorite foods of France, the food that I grew to love when I was living in Grenoble. One of the keys to enjoying this rich cheese filled, cream drenched food is filing your days with physical exercise. My favorite is skiing but a good hike will do nicely too. Of course both of these full filled activities are in close range whenever you are in the Alps making indulging in the amazing food totally worthwhile.
The Alps are known for terrific cheese, sausages and a nice array of wine! But one of the more exciting specialties is Chartreuse (the only alcohol to have a color named after it). Chartreuse is local liquor made in the Carthusian monastery in Dauphiné. In any bar you go to you can find creative cocktails made of this green elixir. So if you ever find your self in the Alps keeps your eyes out for this awesome treat!

This week I am reading my usual books:

The Food of France by Waverly Root
The Food of France by Sarah Woodward
Culinaria FRANCE edited by Andre Domine

and a couple books I picked up when I was in France:

Saveurs des régions: Alpes par Laure Boisjoly