I have recently completed a consulting job with Poulet, deli/restaurant with a humble, kitchy interior. Started by Marilyn Rinzler and the infamous Bruce Aidells, Poulet has stood in the same spot since 1979! With the hopes of providing honest, healthful food, with a chicken slant, it is still owned by Ms. Rinzler and manages to makes heaps more food than the diminuitive kitchen implies.

A family friend, Ms. Rinzler asked me one day last Spring if I could look at some of their baked good recipes and help her out with advice and suggestions. I began baking 2-3 days a week alongside Lucila Hernandez, Poulet's long term kitchen manager, to test the recipes they had on hand, and re-work them to provide a more viable repertoire of baked goods for their clientele and kitchen staff.

"What is this consulting thing you speak of?"

I get this question a lot. The exact sort of consulting I do depends on what I've been hired to do. It depends on how much time the employer wants me there. Being the overachieving, A-type of employee that I am, I tend to give a little something extra. Throw in some extra information they might not even know to ask for.

At Poulet I tested all the recipes, tasted them with the staff and fixed what needed fixing. I trained and taught Lucila better baking skills and techniques. I created Excel spread sheets for keeping track of what we made, sold and tossed. Seasonal fruit was bought and recipes created around what was at it's seasonal best. "Cake mixes" were made well in advance, so getting a baked good in and out of the much used oven took less time. While spending time re-working recipes I got a feel for who did what when. I learned that if I did not get there before 7 am, the lunchtime dessert could not arrive until after lunch had begun.

At Poulet the most important item is the chicken. And with one oven working overtime, my sweet things stood in a very long line for hot box space!

Commercial cooking and baking is all about streamlining. It's about efficiency. As cooks we are constantly finding way to have our food be sent out of our respective workplaces in the fastest way possible. "What can be done in advance without hurting the end product," could be our tag-line.

Amid the costing-out, training, rewriting recipes, testing and re-testing, writing a newsletter, photographing, spreading the word and tasting, I was able to create some favorites. Because most of my training has been in restaurants, I've spent little time making pretty frosted cakes, pre-packaged puddings and tart slices. So, as many of you know, I had a lot of fun at Poulet creating these sorts of items.

Although right at the beginning I began working on the caramel cake. And because so many of you have requested the recipe, here it is. Of course if you took my if you took my caramel class, you own the recipe and watched it being made!

CARAMEL CAKE with Caramelized Butter Frosting

10 Tablespoons UNSALTED BUTTER, ROOM TEMP
1 1/4 Cups SUGAR
1/2 teaspoon KOSHER SALT
1/3 Cup CARAMEL SYRUP*
2 each EGGS, ROOM TEMP
splash VANILLA EXTRACT
2 Cups AP FLOUR
1/2 teaspoon BAKING POWDER
1C MILK, ROOM TEMP

*Caramel syrup recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350F
Butter one tall 9" cake pan.

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth.
2. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.
3. Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl.
4. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.
5. Sift flour and baking powder.
6. Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dries.
7. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time.
8. Add another third of the dries, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dries. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, drry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}
9. Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds. making sure batter is uniform.

Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it. Cake will keep for three days unrefrigerated.

CARAMEL SYRUP

2 Cups SUGAR
1/2 Cup WATER

1 Cup water for "stopping"

1. In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand.
2. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush.
3. Turn on heat to highest flame.
4. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.
5. When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and prepared to step back.
6. Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}

For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING

12 tablespoons UNSALTED BUTTER
1 Pound CONFECTIONER'S SUGAR, SIFTED
4-6 Tablespoons HEAVY CREAM
2 teaspoons VANILLA EXTRACT
2-4 Tablespoons CARAMEL SYRUP
Kosher or sea salt to taste

1. Cook butter until brown.
2. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.
3. Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.
4. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner's sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner's sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month.
To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix with paddle attachment until smooth and light.

The Caramel Cake is also wonderful on it's own. I've also been known to drizzle it with ganache, or serve it with whipped cream. You will be surprised how delicate the crumb is! The caramel not only adds flavor, it contributes to the cake's moist tenderness.

Enjoy!

I've had a bit of back and forth with a number of prospective students interested in the Sunday December 3rd Caramel Class. In the ultra specific vernacular of professional baking, I have found myself in the midst of trying to explain that, even though caramel is the name of some candies, it is also the name of an ingredient describing a method.

As an attempt to lay it all out on the table, I wrote this email over the weekend:
"The class is about learning how to make caramel and what to do with it as an ingredient. Most people are afraid of making caramel at home-- and they should be, as it is very dangerous. I will teach a number of methods on how to make it and teach arecipe or two utilizing different caramels.

Caramel as candy is another subject, as one needs to be comfortable making caramel at home in the first place. Caramel as candy deals with specific candy making temperatures, long cooks, and special equipment. If a person can learn to feel comfortable with making caramel in the first place, they can go on to make more specific items with it.

The classes I am teaching are "foundation classes." They are meant to start people at the beginning, for comfort, knowledge and ease. I may, at some point, teach more advanced classes, but it is my experience that most bakers, even good home bakers, only know the hows and not the whys of baking foundation principles/instructions."

Does this clear things up a bit? I hope so, I did not mean to confuse or lead astray.

When one understands the whys in conjunction with the hows, one develops a more thorough understanding of a subject. Many people can follow a recipe. But what do we do when:
a. we see a blatant error in the text?

b. are going merrily along following a recipe and it does not appear to be producing said results?

c. have made something over and over and this time it doesn't work?

d. want to substitute ingredients, lower sugars or increase volume?

e. are attempting to make a recipe in a new environment/oven/kitchen/geographical location?

f. Any, or all of the above??

Baking is a science, yes. But it is also about courage and intuition and experiment and craft. It's understanding how each ingredient plays a role in a play, or on a team. Why baking soda this time and baking powder the next? Why am I separating the eggs? How come I'm being told, in no uncertain terms, not to over-mix? Why all purpose flour for this cake and cake flour for that cake? Do I really need to sift?

And on and on and on. Right?

Caramel is a really interesting substance and ingredient. Like glass, it goes from solid molecule, to hot liquid, back to solid again. It sweetens in a deep way. It softens, in a mysterious way. It lowers freezing temperatures, smoothes out batters and custards, and makes candy chewy, in the darndest ways. And it's a fantastic cooking vehicle.

It is my goal, with these classes I have set forth, to help you to feel more comfortable with ingredients and methods and principles, so that you can go back into your home kitchen with some Foundation Basics. If a person can conjure the whys of baking, they are more likely to be able to figure out how to make changes immediately or feel confident taking risks.

My cookie classes covered creaming, air incorporation, leaveners and the importance of ingredients in a simple, uncomplicated baked good. The pate a choux class thoroughly explained the hows and whys of eggs, a twice cooked dough and piping. The pie dough class will explain the tenuous relationship between butter, flour/gluten, and what the oven does when it's introduced to these delicate structures. With caramel I set you forth to both be afraid (it's the most dangerous substance in any kitchen, professional or home) and comfortable with melting sugar, mounting it with various fats, and how it changes baked goods/sauces it gets added to. A class on custards will focus on the egg as it can be manipulated when you know exactly the light hand in which to treat it.

Interested in taking one of my Baking Foundation classes?
Follow this link to Eggbeater and send me an email.

Come one, come all, come hungry to learn.