Almendrados: Spanish almond cookies, 3 variations

I saw a recipe that needed roasted skin-on almonds, got them, then forgot what I wanted them for: definitely something Spanish, probably dessert-like. So I hit upon Almendrados, almond cookies. I found some variations and decided to make three. Below, the first two are similar techniques and I used the skin-on whole almonds (ground up), while the final one was more fussy and I used store-bought finely ground almonds; you can see the difference in the color. It's not quite a fair comparison, and I probably wouldn't buy the whole skin-on nuts again: they give the cookies an unappealing "health food" look. 

Variations: #1 bottom, #2 top right, #3 top left

TL;DR: the first recipe below is the easiest and was quite good; the second was quite dry and requires a glass of sherry; the last is visually the most appealing (pale finely ground almonds) and was like a shortbread, similar to Spanish polvorónes we see in wintertime.

#1: Spain On A Fork: 3 ingredients -- an easy treat

Some of the other recipes I've made from his site turned out well, and his videos are quite helpful. 

These had a good chew and definite sweetness that made them a treat.

260 g Almonds, ground fine

120 g Powdered Sugar

  1   Egg, separated

Grind the Almonds as fine as you can in a food processor or blender, but watch out it doesn't go so far as to turn into nut butter. Mine are not as fine as I'd liked, and I wouldn't use the skin-on nuts again.

Add to a large bowl, and add the Powdered Sugar.

Separate the Egg into White and Yolk.

Whisk the Egg White about 15 seconds to fluff and add to the Almonds and Sugar.

Mix together and when it starts combining, use your hands to squeeze it together; if it's too sticky, add a bit of ground Almonds or Flour; if too tight, add a little water.

He shapes them into "chicken nugget design" but I kinda rolled the mass between cling film to a bit under a centimeter then cut into rectangles with a knife -- it was easier.

Set on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and press grooves into the tops of each.

Whip the reserved Egg Yolk and paint each one.

Bake convection at 190C for about 10 minutes.

Remove from oven, then dust with a bit more Powdered Sugar, and let cool.

These didn't look too impressive but they were a treat to eat: sweet, a bit of a chew, and much more fun than the ease of this recipe would suggest.

I expect using finely ground, pale, store-bought ground almonds would make this more appealing.

#2: Spruce Eats: similar technique, more fussy -- dry, no joy

Spruce Eats recipes seem well-researched and others I've made have turned out well.

This one, however, made me think of "health food": dry, almost no sweetness -- it didn't bring joy.

I halved their recipe here to accommodate the amount of ingredients I had.

Perhaps it would have been better with store bought almond powder but the extra work compared to the first recipe doesn't seem justified.

Not appealing, in looks or taste; this shouldn't be "health food"

1/2   Lemon, zest

  1   Egg

227 g Almonds, ground

125 g Sugar, granulated

Zest 1/2 Lemon.

Separate Egg into White and Yolk; use an electric whisk to whip the Whites in a glass until stiff peaks formed. 

Mix the Yolks then gently combine with the whipped Whites, don't worry about getting it uniform.

Add the Sugar, Lemon Zest, Ground Almonds, and combined Egg to a bowl.

Mix with a spatula then your hands until it's well combined. 

I used a disher (miniature ice cream scoop) to load the dough, compress, then emplace onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 190C convection about 15 minutes until golden; this was hard to tell with our skin-on almond color, but no problem.

Remove and cool.

These were too dry, with almost no sweetness; any hints of lemon were lost. They cried out for Sherry.

I'm surprised how "sad" these seemed compared to the previous recipe since the ingredients are basically the same; I would have figured the inclusion of yolks would have made these richer but, the the whipped whites would have made them puffy, but it wasn't the case.

I probably wouldn't bother with these again.

#3: Visit Southern Spain: totally different technique -- impressive looking, shortbread-y

This was a totally different technique and yielded cookies that looked ... like cookies. It involved chilling, rolling, and cutting the dough but wasn't really that difficult. 

They had a shortbread crumbly texture, almost like the "polvorónes" that appear everywhere here in Barcelona around Christmastime.

Appealing and rather good "short" cookies

200 g Flour

125 g Ground Almonds (store-bought, finely ground, pale)

4.5 g Baking Powder (1 tsp)

125 g Sugar, white, granulated

125 g Butter, room temperature

  2   Eggs (one reserved for garnish)

   Sliced Almonds, for garnish

Sift Flour into a large bowl.

Happily, the bag of store-bought ground Almonds was 125 g so I didn't have to do anything.

Add Almonds and Baking Powder.

Make a well in the center and add Sugar, Butter, 1 Egg.

Combine as well as you can with a spatula, then use your hands to bring it all together.

Form into a ball and wrap in a large piece of cling film; refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Remove and spread out film, top with another layer of film, and roll out to about 3/4 cm thickness.

Chill in fridge again for about 10 minutes.

Use a glass to cut circular cookies; I dipped mine into ground almonds to keep it from sticking, but the amount of butter in these would probably prevent any stickage.

Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet, whip up the reserved Egg, and paint with the egg wash; garnish with Sliced Almonds.

Bake about 12 minutes at 190C convection until browned.

Shape and roll the remaining dough, cut, and place on another parchment-lined sheet, wash, and garnish; bake.

Remove and let cool.

These are fairly impressive looking, like something you'd get at a bakery.

They're rather good, maybe a bit crumbly -- "short" -- for my taste, but worth the trouble of chilling, rolling, cutting.

Chocolate Coulant: time and temperature are a challenge

I've had this recently at three fancy restaurants (has it come back into fashion?) and decided to try and make it myself. It's an intensely chocolate dessert cake with a molten interior. My favorite was served unmolded on a plate, the other two were in the ramekins they were baked in. The challenge is getting the batter set just enough but not to much -- see my disastrous result below, and improvement after that.

Second Try: slightly over-baked, no liquid center

I've halved the recipe from My Parisian Kitchen and am trying it first with the mediocre store brand chocolate (40% cocoa) I have on hand; she didn't specify the type of flour, so I used cake flour with 10% protein. If I can get the texture right -- delicate cake barely containing the liquid center -- I'll try again with good quality chocolate.

Serves 2 richly.

  2    Eggs

 70 g  Sugar

 67 g  Dark Chocolate (55-70% cocoa)

 60 g  Butter, unsalted, cut into chunks

 22 g  Cake/Pastry Flour (Farina per a rebosteria)

pinch  Salt

       Butter, soft

       Cocoa, for dusting, optional

Just five basic ingredients

Melt the Chocolate with the Butter in a microwave (about one minute) or double boiler; let cool a bit to avoid cooking the Eggs.

Whisk the Sugar and Eggs together until smooth.

Slowly whisk the Chocolate mixture into the Egg mixture, whisking continuously.

Sift the Flour into the mixture and add a tiny pinch of Salt; gently whisk to combine.

Butter the insides of two 200-250 ml ramekins; optionally dust with Cocoa to coat bottom and sides.

Fill the ramekins with the batter.

My batter was about 325 ml and my ramekins are only 175 ml so the batter came up higher than I would have liked; fortunately it didn't overflow!

Chill in the fridge for at least an hour. You want them to be cold when they hit the oven so the outside bakes to become cake-y while the inside remains unset.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Remove the ramekins from the fridge and bake about 10 minutes until the outside sets and the liquid sheen on the top disappears.

Serve immediately in their ramekins with a spoon.

(You might be able to invert these and gently release the cakes from the ramekins, but I've read that this is almost impossible. It might be facilitated by lining the ramekins with parchment, but bakers better than me use bottom-less baking circles lined with buttered parchment set atop parchment-lined baking sheets.)

Now the results... I cooked these directly from the fridge on the chilled baking sheet for 11 minutes. Then I inverted the less-risen one on the left to release it -- disaster!

An examination of the ramekin showed that there was only a hint of cake forming around the outside, and nothing on the bottom to encase the liquid center: it needed a lot more time in the oven. I put the taller one back in for another few minutes and you can see it rose a little more.

Improved rise but still not set below

But this one too lacked any cake structure at the bottom and barely any around the sides -- just a little around the top edges. I need to adjust the time and heat to cook the cake on the bottom and sides.

Happily, it looks like my 175 ml ramekins will barely hold the batter and the soufflé-like top is quite appealing. Silicon baking molds might allow the heat to penetrate better and possibly release cleanly, but the shock of inverting the mold onto a plate still risks breaking the cake shell.

Next time... Don't use a chilled or even room temperature pan below the ramekins: it prevents heat from circulating around the bottom.  Increase the cooking time, to at least 15 minutes.  Perhaps remove the ramekins from the fridge while the oven is preheating to allow the ceramic to warm up a bit and give the lower part a chance to heat through; experiment by taking one ramekin out early, and/or by baking one 5 minutes longer than the other. Perhaps try spooning cooled batter into room temperature ramekins, or baking room temperature batter. Lots of things to try. 

Second Try: 20 minutes -- cake-y all the way through

This time, I used better chocolate: 84% Cobertura Negra de Guayaquil Extra Bitter from Parami.

More importantly, I did not place anything below the ramekins (to let air circulate), and baked for 20 minutes at 200C.  It was cake-like all the way through -- including the bottom -- with just a hint of not-quite-liquid chocolate in the center.  At 15 minutes I saw liquid chocolate flowing out of the top like lava (onto the oven floor, oops), so I left it in another 5 minutes -- maybe I should have taken it out at 15.

Interestingly, they were set enough that they (barely) released, because they were almost as firm as a muffin or cupcake.

Next time, try 18 minutes, or maybe one at 15 and the other at 18 minutes.

Japanese Cheesecake

I love cheesecake and have been hearing about this trendy light Japanese crustless version, so I tried to make it. On my third attempt, I think I've come up with something that works well: it's fluffy, almost soufflé-like. Everything here is taken from the exquisitely-detailed recipe/technique from Nami at Just One Cookbook, so look there for better photos and descriptions, including a link to a helpful video. Hers looks a lot more professional than mine, but I'm happy with the flavor and texture I've gotten with my too-short pan.

Cheesecake has a muffin top due to my short cake pan

For my first try, I used her parchment lining technique but with a springform pan and was annoyed by the fidgety parchment lining; worse, the water bath seeped through my tin foil lining making the bottom a bit soggy. For my second try, I realized I didn't need to line the springform pan -- it would release fine -- and I put the water bath below the cake pan (for humidity) instead of bathing the pan: it came out dense on the bottom, indicating the cake needed the heat moderated by the bath.  On my third try, I used a solid pan -- as Nami does -- directly in a water bath, and just dealt with the parchment lining; my pan is slope-sided where hers is straight, which makes lining a little more difficult, but it doesn't have to be exact; it worked well enough that I don't think I need to buy another pan with straight sides -- I can live with the muffin-top profile.

Her recipe is long, but very detailed, which I appreciate. First, note that if your pan is smaller than hers/mine, she provides ingredients scaled to a single egg, then she provides the full 6-egg recipe, so you can scale for your pan. 

As an overview, you "melt" the cream cheese and other batter ingredients then whisk in the egg yolks and flour to make a batter. Then you whip the egg whites into a stiff meringue, then gently fold them together.  I follow her advice about dropping the oven temperature twice.

The 6 eggs barely fit my slope-sided pan which is 20 cm at bottom and 23 cm at the top; the parchment lining must be higher than my pan's 4 cm to accommodate the rise, but the parchment lining flexed and created the muffin-top shape. If you have a different sized pan, scale the recipe appropriately, but realize this will rise dramatically before falling while it slowly cools.

Do take her advice to measure the ingredients beforehand: there's plenty of prep work. I'm trying to simplify this a little by combining measuring into cooking vessels.

Prep the Cake Pan

Use a 23 cm / 9 inch solid cake pan, preferably 10 cm / 4 inch high (mine's only about 4 cm).
Butter the pan bottom and sides so the parchment will stick.
Cut parchment strips to make straps long enough to cross the bottom, up the sides, and over the edge; set them in an X-shaped pattern to make a sling to remove the finished cake.
Cut another strip 10 cm high and line the side of the pan.
Cut a disk for the bottom and press into place.
Set aside.

Sling straps, sides and bottom lined

Batter

  6    Eggs, large

300 g  Cream Cheese

 60 g  Unsalted Butter

200 ml Heavy Whipping Cream (about 35% fat)

       Zest from 1/2 Lemon

 30 ml Lemon Juice (from about 1/2 lemon)

 80 g  Cake Flour

Separate the Eggs and chill the Whites for the Meringue below.
Make a double boiler from a pot of water topped by a medium-sized bowl.
Weigh the Cream Cheese, Butter, Cream, Sugar directly in the bowl.
Add to the double boiler and warm to melt the ingredients, combining with spatula or whisk.
When blended, remove from heat.
Sift in the Cake Flour through a strainer, and whisk to blend.
Strain through the strainer into a large bowl.
Whisk in the Lemon Zest and Juice.
Whisk in the Egg Yolks, one by one, with a hand whisk.

Prepare Oven and Water Bath

Put a roasting pan in the oven and preheat to 165C with convection (15C higher without).

Bring 1 Liter of water to boil.

Meringue

  6   Egg Whites from above, cold

100 g Sugar

1.5 g Cream of Tartar (optional to stabilize)

Clean the medium bowl thoroughly for the Meringue: don't leave any fat, soap, or water on it which would interfere with the development of the foam.

Whip the Egg Whites with an electric whisk (stick blender attachment) on medium until opaque, foamy, and just a little bubbly, about 2-4 minutes.

Whisk in the Sugar and Cream of Tartar, a bit at a time, then increase whisk speed to high; whip until quite dense and it forms stiff peaks.

Gently fold in a third of the Batter with a hand whisk, then repeat with another third, then finally mix it back into the Batter and gently combine with the whisk.

Pour into the lined cake pan.

Pour boiling water carefully into the hot roasting pan, then place the cake pan in water bath; ideally the water will come half way up the cake pan.

Drop the temperature to 145C convection, bake 70-75 minutes.

Reduce temperature to 135C convection and bake another 10 minutes.

Check for doneness: a skewer should come out clean.

Turn off the oven and open the door a crack but let the cake cool very slowly to minimize collapse.

After 20 minutes, remove from the oven.

Use the straps as a sling and move the cake to a plate.

Remove the parchment around the sides. 

Let cool and serve.

Panellets: Bonny Boniato

It's fall in Barcelona which means it's time for Castanyas/Castañas (roasted chestnuts) and Panellets, little confections of patata (potato) or moniato/boniato (sweet potato). There are little stalls on street corners selling roasted chestnuts and boniatos; it seems kinda strange to see cooked sweet potatoes for sale on the street, but it's a tradition. October 31 is actually celebrated as Castenyada/Casteñada in northern Spain. After I spent a fortune at the bakery last year on "two of each", Irene made a bunch with potato and they turned out quite well. This year, I wanted to use boniato because I figured the earthy sweetness of the spud would work well with the nutty coatings. 

This turned out a bit more moist than last year's with potato, which was more appropriately biscuit-y. You might want to increase the ground Almonds to compensate for the Boniato's wetter texture.

Makes 40.

For the dough:

150 g Boniato (1 medium)
250 g Almonds, finely ground

200 g Sugar
1/8   Lemon Peel, grated fine on a microplane

For the coatings:

  2   Eggs, separated
      Almonds, coarsely ground (we had sliced, so chopped them)

      Coconut, shredded, unsweetened or sweetened 
      Pine Nuts

 

Boil the Boniato until it's cooked; let cool and peel.

Boniato, cooled, cooked, and peeled

Press through a potato ricer or mash them as best you can.

Mix in the Ground Almonds, Sugar and Lemon Peel.

Let cool so the dough firms up.

Now it's time to shape and coat them. Traditionally, each different coating uses a different shape: spheres, pyramids, cylinders, etc. For simplicity, we made balls for all of them. 

Lightly butter two cookie sheets or use non-stick baking sheets.

Use a disher or spoon to scoop out little balls, then roll them in your palms to make smooth spheres. 

Separate the Eggs into bowls for white and yolk.

Put toppings -- Chopped Almonds, Shredded Coconut, Pine Nuts -- into separate low bowls.

Dip some of the balls into yolk and then Coconut, roll to cover, then place on the nonstick baking sheet.

Repeat with more balls using Egg White and Almonds.

Dip the remaining balls into a mixture of the Egg White and Yolk, then coat with Pine Nuts: this is the most fidgety part, as the Nuts are so large they don't want to stick well to the Boniato balls.

Apply a bit of the egg mixture as a wash to all the Panellets to help them brown nicely.

Bake about 10-15 minutes in 180C convection until the nuts are barely golden and attractive.

Let cool.

Serve with Moscato sweet wine. 

Gâteau Basque #2

I made Gâteau Basque once before with an unusual technique that required piping the base and top in a spiral; it was a nuisance but I see Spanish Sabores does it the same way. This time, I want to avoid that fuss and make a more standard pastry top and bottom, like NY Times (paywall) and Serious Eats do; like Serious Eats, I'll fill with both jam and pastry cream; I've got an excess of marmalade so I'll use that instead of traditional black cherry. Here in Barcelona, I don't have my old stand mixer, so I'll make the pastry by hand, as shown in this traditional preparation video which I found on the Fête du Gâteau Basque official site, and also this video with clear quantities and technique. I'm starting from the Serious Eats recipe, including their Pastry Cream.

When I made this, I let the Pastry butter warm up, and was not able to get the sandy texture -- it congealed. But I chilled it and reworked a bit later, and it still turned out well.  My cake pan has a 20 cm (8 inch) interior with 4 cm steep sides, and 24 cm across at the top. The quantities of Pastry and fillings below worked well for this. The Almond "flour" is actually very finely ground almonds, not as fine as wheat flour. 

Pastry

250 g      Flour

 50 g      Almond "Flour"

150 g      Sugar

  4 g      Baking Powder [I had only 3.2g]

pinch      Salt

210 g      Butter, unsalted, cold, cut into 1cm cubes

  1 large  Egg (50g [mine was 59 g]), cool

In a large bowl, whisk Flour, Almond Flour, Baking Powder, Salt, and Sugar.

Mix in half the cubed Butter, and rub the butter into the flour; add the rest of the Butter, and continue rubbing in to get a sandy texture; see the video for clear technique.

Add 1 Egg, and again mix by hand, then knead into a smooth ball; it should be soft and sticky.

Divide in two portions, one slightly larger than the other for the bottom; shape into flat disks, wrap each in plastic wrap, and refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.

Pastry Cream

455 g      Whole Milk

           Orange Zest from one Orange (microplane)

115 g      Sugar

 30 g      Cornstarch

pinch      Salt

  4        Egg Yolks (70g)

 30 g      Butter, unsalted, cold, cut into 1cm cubes

2.5 ml     Vanilla Extract (1/2 tsp)

Infuse Orange Zest in Milk by combining in a pot, bring to bare simmer, then cover and steep for 30 minutes. Because this is hot, you'll need to temper the egg mixture.

Make an ice bath to chill the Pastry Cream and set aside.

In heatproof bowl, whisk the Sugar, Cornstarch, Salt; whisk in Egg Yolks until smooth, pale yellow, and fluffy -- about 1 minute.

My Infused Milk threatened to separate so I blitzed with a stick blender.
Slowly whisk the warm Infused Milk into the Egg mixture to temper it.

Return to sauce pan, cook over medium heat while whisking continuously until it begins to thicken (at 80C), about 5 minutes. 

Continue whisking, pausing every few seconds to check for bubbles; when they appear, set a timer and whisk continuously for 1 minute; this neutralizes starch-dissolving egg proteins.

Off heat, whisk in butter until melted and thoroughly combined.

Strain through fine sieve into heat proof bowl; I skipped this as I want the fine zest in my filling.

Put film directly on surface to prevent skinning, and transfer to an ice bath  to chill 30 minutes, then refrigerate until cold, about 2 hours or overnight.

Whisk in the Almond (Vanilla) Extract.

Whisking eggs into sugar

Assembly, Baking

200 g      Marmalade, room temperate to ease spreading

  1 large  Egg (50g) for wash

 15 ml     Milk for wash

Preheat oven to 180C (350F).

Grease 20 cm (8 inch) cake pan with butter and hold in refrigerator.

Whisk the Pastry Cream with an electric whisk, egg beaters, or regular whisk to fluff it up.

Remove dough disks from fridge; you'll need to let them warm up for 15-30 minutes so you can roll out the dough.

Spread film or parchment on a counter, then place the larger dough disk it, and cover with film or parchment; roll it out to 28 cm -- enough to cover bottom and sides of cake pan. 

Store covered in film/parchment in fridge while you work on the next one.

Repeat rolling out the smaller disk for the top, rolling to 24 cm between film/parchment; store in fridge.

Remove the larger disk and transfer to greased cake pan, gently pressing into corners, and running it up the sides.

Add Marmalade and smooth out.

Add Pastry Cream and spread evenly on top of the jam.

Remove smaller disk from fridge and transfer to cake pan to cover the filling.

My filling did not come up to the top of the pan, so I pressed the edges of the top to the bottom where it ran up the sides, then folded it over to the center to seal.

Whisk 1 Egg with the 15 ml Milk and brush top.

Use tines of fork to create a traditional diagonal crosshatch pattern.

Use a knife to cut a few small air vents along the crosshatch lines.

Bake 45 minutes at 180C (350F) until cake is puffed and deep golden brown

Let cool completely, about 2 hours.

Loosen edges with a knife, invert, then invert again onto serving platter.

Slice and serve.

Marmalade on bottom, left side; lots of pastry cream on top, crumbly cake-y top

Next Time...

I'll use cold butter for the pastry, as I've corrected in the instructions above.

The bottom is a little wet; can I warm up the jam and spread it on top of the pastry cream?

Mini Chocoflanes

These chocolate flan desserts are also called "pastelitos imposibles" because the cake portion magically rises to the top of the dish as it cooks (due to expansion making it lighter than the flan above). In fact, it's relatively easy to make. This is an intensely chocolate-y version from Cooks Country February/March 2023. They claim that you must use Cajete instead of the easier-to-find Dulce de Leche due to the latter's density, but that doesn't make sense due to the layering, and is empirically untrue. The hardest part is combining the ingredients for the cake as it's quite dense; the flan is trivial in a blender.

Dulce de Leche on top, then flan, and cake on bottom

This makes six 8-ounce ramekins, or four 12-ounce oven-safe ceramic bowls that are large enough to split between two people; eight 6-ounce ramekins would be a fine size for a single person.

 90 ml          6 Tbs     Cajeta or Dulce de Leche

Cake:

  70 g          6 Tbs     Sugar

  45 g          5 Tbs     AP Flour

 0.6 g        1/8 tsp     Baking Soda

 0.8 g        1/8 tsp     Table Salt

  57 g        1/3 C       Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

  60 ml       1/4 C       Whole Milk

  22 g        1/4 C       Dutch-processed cocoa powder

  37 ml     2 1/2 Tbs     Vegetable Oil

   1 large      1 large   Egg

1.25 ml       1/4 tsp     Vanilla Extract

Flan:

 235 ml         1 C       Evaporated Milk

 235 ml         1 C       Sweetened Condensed Milk

  85 g          3 ounce   Cream Cheese

   2 large      2 large   Eggs

  10 ml         2 tsp     Vanilla Extract

   1 g        1/8 tsp     Table Salt

Heat oven to 160C/325F (convection is fine, too).

Spray ramekins with oil or paint with butter.

Find a lasagna pan or similar, big enough to hold your ramekins in a water bath.

If necessary, heat Cajeta or Dulce de Leche gently in a microwave until spoonable, then add a Tablespoon to each of the ramekins.

Cake:

Whisk Sugar, Flour, Baking Soda, and Salt.

Heat Chocolate, Milk, and Cocoa in a small sauce pan over low heat until melted and smooth, 3-5 minutes; let cool slightly, about 5 minutes.

Whisk Oil, Egg, and Vanilla into chocolate mixture until smooth.

Whisk in sugar mixture and combine thoroughly; this is pretty stiff but it will come together.

Divide the thick batter between the ramekins, trying not to mix into the Cajeta/Dulce too much.

Flan:

Bring 1 quart/liter of Water to boil for the bain marie.

Process all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

Divide flan mixture between the ramekins; this loose liquid probably won't disturb the thick cake batter much.

Add the ramekins to the lasagne pan then fill this pan with boiling water to make a bain marie.

Spray oil or smear butter over a piece of foil and cover the bain marie.

Bake 50 minutes for small ramekins, or 70 minutes for larger ones; you want enough time for the egg to set the flan.

Test that a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Remove ramekins from water and let cool, at least an hour.

Invert the ramekins onto serving plates, and top with remaining sauce from the ramekins.

You can eat these barely cool, and they'll be pretty soft, but they're quite good after being chilled in a fridge where they will firm up a bit.

Basque "Burnt" Cheesecake

I love cheesecake and the the burnt appearance of this impressed me; curiously, this cheesecake has no crust. If you don't feel like spending the 20 minutes and $17 to make this, you can order chef José Andrés version for only $109! :-)

I compared recipes from four sources, ignored the outliers, and took ideas from each; the ingredients and execution were quite similar. The Guardian provided terrific detail but used a smaller springform pan than mine, while Cooking Issues seemed too hot (the comments said as much). Bon Appetit and Tasting Table were nearly identical. I like the idea of the tartness of The Guardian's creme fraiche so I use a mix of heavy cream and sour cream here. Below, we add a bit of Salt for American cream cheese since the Basque version is a little saltier; the Flour or Cornstarch prevents weeping.

The original quantities are for a 10-inch / 25-cm diameter 6-cm high springform pan. For just the two of us, I got a 16x4-cm pan and scaled the recipe to 40%, but it's shorter (27% capacity, not 40%) so this recipe does NOT fit (a 20x4-cm  or 18x5-cm pan should accommodate this).

10in/25cm pan   16cm

-------------  -----   

2   Lb  900 g  360 g  Philadelphia Cream Cheese, room temperature

1.5 C   330 g  132 g  Sugar

5         5      2    Eggs

1   C   235 g   94 g  Heavy Cream

1   C   240 g   96 g  Sour Cream or Creme Fraiche

1   tsp   3 g  1.2 g  Kosher Salt (for American Cheese)

2   Tbs  15 g    6 g  All Purpose Flour (or Corn Starch)

Grease the springform pan with butter, and line it with parchment, with extra height about an inch above the sides. You can make strip around the outside and a separate disk for the bottom, or you can just press in a large sheet and smooth out the edges: the rough and rustic edge is a trademark of this cake, and  after trying to fit the sides and bottom separately, I can see why most preparations just layer perpendicular sheets!

Trying to fit separate bottom and side strips was a pain

Combine Cream Cheese and Sugar in a stand mixer, and mix slowly until smooth and sugar is dissolved, scraping down as needed, about 4 minutes.

While mixer is running, add Eggs one at a time until each is thoroughly incorporated.

Add the Heavy Cream, Sour Cream, Salt and Flour, and mix until smooth, another minute.

Pour into prepared springform pan, and chill about 30 minutes so that the center heat will be delayed (this may not be necessary).

Preheat oven to 400F / 200C, then put cake pan on a cookie sheet (to catch drips) and bake for about 50 minutes, less for the smaller pan. The top should look quite brown, even though the center will remain jiggly. If not, leave it in another 10 minutes and check; repeat as needed. The temperature of the center should be 140F / 60C. My total time was 70 minutes, and my probe always measured near boiling, even though the cake was quite jiggly, not sure what I'm missing.

Remove from the oven and let cool, it should "gel". 

Remove from the springform pan and take off the parchment.

Serve warm or cool.

Blue Cheese Straws

From John Martin Taylor in Gastronomica, Fall 2008, who bases his recipe on a survey of old southern recipes. Also in https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/john-martin-taylors-blue-cheese-straws/13436/.

We used a delightful, intense, creamy French Blue (from Costco) for this, and the result was good, but in the straws, it loses some of its unique quality as an eating cheese, it's blue-ness. We've also used a Cheddar and a mix of Cheddar with Pecorino with fine results.

With a processor, this comes together very quickly. I grate the hard cheeses in the processor, but just crumbled the softer Blue. I then rolled the dough between sheets of cling film and cut with a pizza wheel or pastry scraper; both worked well, but the scraper made transferring to the parchment easier.

113 g  8 ounces Blue Cheese

 56 g  2 ounces Unsalted Butter, cut into chunks (half stick, 4 TBS)

   1/2 tsp Salt, plus more for garnish 

1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper, plus more for garnish

145 g  1 cup All Purpose Flour (preferably soft Southern)

1 Egg Yolk (if needed for moisture)

Preheat oven to 375F (or 350F convection).

Line 2 cookie sheets with a Silpat or parchment so straws don't stick.

Crumble or grate cheese in a food processor.

Combine all ingredients except egg in processor with metal blade and process a minute or two until it forms a ball. 

If it's too dry, add the Egg Yolk (some recipes use a bit of Milk or Buttermilk).

Divide into two batches.

(Many recipes chill the dough for 30 minutes at this step, try if you've got a hot kitchen)

Roll into 1/8 inch thick slabs about 6-inches wide between sheets of cling film;

I use a rolling pin with thick O-rings on the ends for even thickness.

Garnish with Salt and Cayenne, roll once lightly to press in.

Cut into 1/2 inch wide strips, each 6 inch long.

Lay out on cookie sheet, with strips not touching.

Bake 20-25 minutes until just lightly brown.

Cool on rack.