Beef Wellington for Xmas

Beef Wellington is a fancy dish that seemed a challenge but Chris Young's video on YouTube made it approachable. He first cooks the meat sous vide then freezes the assembled package before baking; this allows the pastry to puff without overcooking the meat or making the pastry soggy from beef juices.  Serious Eats also has a good technique, and he includes foie gras :-) but we followed Young's procedure. Other YouTube videos are good for demonstrating the assembly technique.

Perfectly cooked beef, edge to edge; with roast potatoes, asparagus

The hunt for ingredients has been fun. We only found two places that had butter-based pastry "hojaldre" in rectangular sheets (in the US, Dufour is good but pricey). The beef tenderloin is called "solomilla de ternera" here, we got it from a butcher at the Mercat de Sant Antoni. We used "papada Iberico curado" (thinly sliced guanciale)  to wrap the beef and duxelles as a waterproofing layer instead of Chris Young's similar lardo.

Irene has a pastry lattice cutter (of course she does) which makes for a beautiful top layer. For practice, we first made a Pork Tenderloin Wellington; this demystified the process and taught us how to measure the coatings to fit.  The only fidgety part is the assembly, so take your time; this isn't something you can do in one day, especially since you need to freeze it hard -- take your time and relax.

Serves 2, plan on taking a couple days to make.

350 g Solomilla (beef tenderloin, from 500 g untrimmed)

3.5 g Salt

250 g Mushrooms, Cremini or other flavorful variety

 75 g Shallots

sprig Tarragon, chopped fine

      Mustard

      Black Pepper

1 package Papada Iberico Curado (thinly sliced, arranged in a sheet)

260 g Hojaldre Mantequilla (1 package puff pastry, in a sheet)

      Egg, beaten

Generously Salt the Solomilla, about 1% by weight.

Wrap it in plastic film and roll tightly to give it a good cylindrical shape.

Seal in a sous vide bag and cook at 55C/130F for 2.5-3 hours.

Chill.

Make the duxelles.

Chop the Mushrooms and Shallots very fine, a food processor makes this easy.

Sauté in a bit of Oil with some Salt to cook down until very dry: you don't want liquid seeping out and ruining your pastry.

Add the chopped Tarragon.

Chill.

Unwrap and sear the Beef in plenty of fat to brown without overcooking.

Paint with Mustard.

Wrap and chill again.

The assembly is the tricky part, just take your time.

Lay out a sheet of cling film.

Measure the diameter of your Beef -- we wrapped with a string and cut; this gives you an idea of how much Papada/guanciale, duxelles, and pastry you'll need. Adding the duxelles and fat will increase this so add a bit more length to your string.

You may get lucky and find the sheet of Papada or other cured meat is about big enough to cover a rectangle the same width and a bit longer than your measured diameter -- we had to add a couple extra slices. If not, or you have individual slices of guanciale, serrano ham, or whatnot, just layer them with a slight overlap until you have a rectangle sufficient to cover the Beef.

Spread on the Duxelles to cover the cured meat slices, but leave a couple centimeters (an inch) uncovered: the Duxelles will spread as you roll.

Sprinkle generously with Black Pepper.

Lay the Beef on top and use the cling film to wrap it with the Fat-encased Duxelles;

you should have enough uncovered cured meat that they'll overlap slightly at the seam.

You might wanna put this in the fridge while you unwrap the Pastry.

Lay out another sheet of cling film or parchment paper.

Unwrap the Hojaldre Pastry onto the Film, smoothing out any egregious seams with a rolling pin.

Cut it a bit longer then your diameter-string to account for the thickness of the Duxelles; cut it wide enough to wrap the sides of the Beef roll. Keep the trimmed bits to decorate the finished roll.

Paint the Pastry rectangle with the beaten Egg.

Unwrap the Beef and lay on the Pastry.

Use the film/paper to carefully wrap the Beef, and seal the Pastry seam.

Place seam-side down on parchment paper or aluminum foil that you'll bake on.

Paint the Pastry outside with the beaten Egg.

If you're fancy, use your pastry lattice cutter to slice the left over Pastry; you can just cut strips, too.

Gently lay the lattice or strips of Pastry over the first layer.

Wash again with beaten Egg.

Wrap gently in the Film or Parchment.

Insert a leave-in probe thermometer, if you've got one.

Freeze the assembled Beef Wellington overnight or longer: you can hold it like this indefinitely if you wrap it well, and cook whenever it's convenient!

Preheat the oven to 230C/450F.

Remove Beef Wellington from the freezer and apply an egg wash. 

Bake the Beef Wellington until the Pastry is puffed and deep golden brown, rotating once -- about 30-40 minutes; the center will still too cold to eat; ours was still frozen, holding onto the probe thermometer which read "LO", below freezing!

Lower the oven temperature to 65C/150F; open the door to drop the temperature.

If you didn't insert a thermometer before, do it now if you can.

Continue baking low until the internal temperature comes up to about 40C/105F, about 40 minutes;

we had to let it bake about 30 minutes longer but saw it rise fairly quickly once it started.

Turn off the oven and open the door.

Let the Beef Wellington rest, the internal temperature should rise to about 55F/130F serving temperature.

Slice carefully: you might want to start with a serrated bread knife to score the crust, then switch to a slicing knife for the Beef. 

Plate attractively and serve.

We're accompanying it with asparagus and roasted potatoes, and a deep Spanish red.

Next time...

It turned out well, despite the need for longer baking time. We think the duxelles was too thick (in addition to the quantities above, we used some left over from our pork wellington) and may have insulated too much. Next time use less. 

Irene was OK with Jamon Serrano we used on the Pork Wellington but didn't like the flavor and texture of the papada/guanciale because it didn't melt. Lardo probably won't melt and certainly won't crisp, so try inexpensive prosciutto or mortadella (which would cut more easily).

The ends had bunched up pastry which was a bit too much -- these "caps" fell off when cutting the meat. Next time trim when folding like a package.

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?

French Apple Tart

This came from Cooks Illustrated 131 and looked fussy but impressive. The pastry crust is super easy; the puree plus apple rosette topping is a bit of work but worth it. Active time is about three hours, most of it on prepping and cooking the apples -- the crust and filling are pretty quick. It is fancy as a dessert, and indulgent as breakfast. We made it a couple times and it's a hit. We've updated the quantities and some procedure for what worked for us. You can double the recipe but will need to have plenty of big skillets.

Baked in a 9-inch tart pan

For simplicity, use the same variety of apples for the puree as for the topping because different varieties cook at different rates; if you want some contrast make sure you cook the puree apples separately from the topping apples. Varieties like Muntaner and Braeburn work well, they stay firm; surprisingly, Granny Smiths turn mushy very quickly when cooking.

Ingredients below are for one 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom, but you can also use a 9-inch disposable aluminum pie tin or Pyrex pie pan. I recently made this in a 10x3-inch spring-form pan (so it would be easier to transport to a friend's house), and scaled up the ingredients by 25% to accommodate the larger volume.

Crust

The big innovation Cooks contributes here, IMHO, is the super-easy pastry crust using melted butter: it comes together quickly and doesn't bubble or shrink. If you're not using a tart pan, you might want to increase the quantity so you have enough to run up the sides.

10-inch 9-inch  9-inch pan

228 g   185 g   6 1/2 ounce (1 1/3 cup)  Flour, all purpose
 80 g    65 g   2 1/4 ounce (5 Tbs)      Sugar
  6 g     5 g     1/2 tsp                Salt
185 g   150 g  10     Tbs                Butter, unsalted, melted

Preheat oven to 180C/350F or 165C/325F convection.
Whisk together the dry ingredients, then pour in the melted butter and combine until you get a smooth play-dough-like consistency.

Press into the tart pan, bottom and sides; I cover with cellophane and smooth with the bottom of a measuring cup.
Bake 30-35 minutes until deep golden brown; set aside until ready to fill.

Filling

You might want to add one more apple to your mix but we needed less than Cooks 5 pounds (2250 g). In Barcelona with a 10-inch spring form pan, I used 880 g sweet apples for the base and 1040 g tart apples for the top (total of 1920 g, 8 large apples), and had some topping apples left over.

1400 g     3 pounds Apples, flavorful, firm, peeled and cored
  45 g     3 Tbs    Butter, unsalted
  15 ml    1 Tbs    Water (use some from holding the apples)
                    Lemon Juice
 120 ml  1/2 Cup    Apricot Preserves
   2 g   1/4 tsp    Salt

Peel and core the apples; hold them in a bowl of water with a squeeze of lemon to prevent then from turning brown. If you don't have an apple corer (we don't, it's a "uni-tasker"), you can cut the apples in half after peeling then use a melon baller to remove the tough center.

Cut the halves into 6-8 wedges each, you want to preserve the wedge shape of the apple for presentation. Hold the cored wedges in the acidulated water until you're finished with prepping the apples.

If you're doing a single recipe, you probably can do topping and puree apples in two separate large skillets, or use one large skillet and do the topping and puree sequentially. If you're doubling the batch, you probably won't have enough giant skillets.

Cook a bit less than half the apples (by weight is easiest to measure), the best looking wedges, in half the butter and some of the water from the holding bowl until they're pliant but not soft and mushy. Stir gently to make sure all the wedges get fairly evenly cooked. If some break, it's OK, you can use them for the puree, but try to be careful.  It took about 10 minutes for our apples, but every variety will be different. Reserve to a large plate; I used cookie sheet lined with a nonstick mat.

While the apples are cooking, add a bit of water to the Apricot Preserves and heat in microwave to thin, strain to collect thin syrup in a bowl for finishing, and retain solids for the puree.

Cook the other half of the apples for the puree the same way, but cook longer until they're a bit softer. If you need to make up some presentation wedges for the topping, pull them out early and put them with the previous cooked wedges.  Put these puree wedges into a food processor with the Apricot Preserves solids and process until very smooth.  Put the puree back into the skillet and cook to concentrate flavor and texture -- I was looking for an almost custard-like texture rather than loose applesauce. Remove from heat.

Fill the baked crust to the top with the puree but don't go over the edge; if you're a bit short, that's fine.

Start laying out the attractive wedges around the outside, starting with the largest wedges, overlapping each one. Continue to the center, pressing each slightly into the puree, being mindful that you want to end up in the dead center and not wander off.  When you are almost done, select the smallest and most thin pliable wedges to curl and nestle snugly into the center void.

Bake at 180C/350F or 165C/325F convection for 30 minutes on a wire rack above a sheet pan to catch any drips but let the bottom of the tart pan to get some heat.
Remove tart from oven and turn on the broiler, with a rack about 3-4 inches below the top element.
If the retained Apricot Preserve syrup is thick, reheat in the microwave briefly to thin.
Brush the syrup over the tops of the apple wedges to gloss, drizzling it between the wedges to cover all surfaces; avoid getting it on the tart pan else it will make releasing difficult.
Return to broiler and broil 30 seconds to a few minutes, just until you develop attractive highlights in the glaze; you may need to rotate the tart pan to get even browning.
Remove and let cool.

Works fine in a disposable 9-inch aluminum pan

Scaled up for a 10-inch spring form pan

Truly Excellent Croissants, from Art of Eating magazine

These were a fair amount of work, spread over 2 days, but very worth it: they're better than any croissants I've had in the U.S.

James MacGuire's been writing some very technical articles about French baking techniques in the Art of Eating magazine. His article in issue number 93, "Crisp, tender, old-fashioned croissants" looked like a challenge I had to try. It's a long article and very detailed, involving measuring, paper templates, sequences of folds, and refrigerated rests to prevent the butter from melting while retaining plasticity. It's very similar to "Crescent Rolls (Croissants)" in the book Jacques Pépin's  Complete Techniques (2001). I hope the ASCII art diagrams and photos below help illustrate these techniques.

Good quality butter is important; we used a Kerrygold unsalted from our local store as it had the highest fat content. It's important that the butter be neither too cold to fold nor so warm that it melts; this probably means you can't make croissants in a hot kitchen in the summer. I beat the butter into a square where MacGuire spreads a cylinder, but the rest of the technique is his.

This recipe runs over two days: make the dough and fermenting overnight, then forming, rising, and baking. This means if you start the forming in the morning, you'll have to wait until the afternoon to eat your croissants. I'd like to try retarding the risen croissants so I can bake them in the early morning.

Ingredients

For 16 croissants.

Dough:
500 g all-purpose Flour
35 g Sugar
12 g Salt
15 g instant dried Yeast
120 g Whole Milk (cold)
260 g warmish Water (to compensate for cold milk)
250 g unsalted Butter, preferably cultured, chilled

Egg Wash:
1 Egg
1 generous pinch salt

Procedure

A day ahead, make the dough

The day before baking, mix Flour, Sugar, Salt and Yeast, then add Milk and Water, and mix 1-2 minutes to form a shaggy dough. Wait 5 minutes then knead just until smooth, 2-3 minutes. 

Cover the dough with plastic and let ferment 3 hours at ambient kitchen temperature, 70F or 21C, folding the dough onto itself after 1, 2, and 3 hours. Cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, add the butter and laminate

Take the dough from the refrigerator (it should be 40F, 4C) and place on a lightly floured counter, lightly flour the dough. Pat into a 10x30 inch rectangle. Fold into thirds to create a 10 inch square. Refrigerate 1 to 1 1/2 hours to allow the dough to relax.

Just before removing the dough from the refrigerator, cut the butter into 4 or 5 pieces and beat it with a rolling pin between cling film to "plastify" it. Roll it out so it's a 10x10 inch square; you could do this in a large zip-top baggie, which is 10 1/2 square if you stay clear of the edges or roll the dough a little larger. After beating, it should be 60F, 15C.

Roll the dough sideways to form a 10x18 inch rectangle and use the rolling pin to make an indentation 4 inches from the left and 4 inches from the right. Time for some ASCII art:

+----+----------+----+

|    :          :    |

|    :          :    |

|    :          :    | 10

|    :          :    |

|    :          :    |

+----+----------+----+

   4      10      4

This will leave a 10 inch square in the center with flaps like the open doors of a cupboard. Place the 10x10 inch square of butter in the center and fold the flaps over the butter to shut the cupboard, and pinch shut the seam and the top and bottom edges of the dough to seal in the butter. 

If the dough has become too warm and pliable, so the butter may squeeze out in rolling, refrigerate for 10-15 minutes, but not long enough to let the butter harden.

Flour your counter and roll out the dough to a 10x30 inch rectangle -- left to right, if your counter is a conventional 24 inches deep.  Fold this in 3, left side to the center, right side to the center, so it's once again a 10 inch square. 

+----------+----------+----------+

|          :          :          |

|          :          :          |

|          :          :          | 10

|          :          :          |

|          :          :          |

+----------+----------+----------+

    10          10         10

Again, if the dough seems too warm, refrigerate a few minutes -- if butter ever shows, stop immediately, seal it back inside the dough, and cool the dough. 

Rotate the dough 90 degrees so the folds are facing toward and away from you, the ragged edges will be on left and right. Again roll it out, left to right, to a 10x30 inch wide rectangle, and fold in thirds again.

Refrigerate again for 30-40 minutes; the interior of the dough should be 55F, 12C.

Shape the croissants

Cut the dough in half down its length from folded end to folded end (ragged edges will be on right and left). You'll have two 5x10 inch pieces. Put one piece in the refrigerator while working on the other. 

Roll the piece into a 7 1/2 by 20 inch strip. Trim 1/8 inch of dough from the two long sides to expose the inner layers which provide more texture when baked. Cut 8 triangles from the dough by cutting it in half, and each half in half, then cutting a diagonal through each. 

+--+--+--+--+

| /| /| /| /| 7 1/2

|/ |/ |/ |/ |

+--+--+--+--+

  5  5  5  5

Roll the triangles up into croissants, pulling gently on the pointed end as you go to maintain a taut shape; I gently squished the tip to the countertop to keep it from moving. Rotate the formed croissant so the point comes a third of the way down the roll, then gently curve the ends toward the side with the point.  You don't have to curve them, they look great either way, but "croissant" comes from "crescent" and the shape is traditional.

Set on a cookie sheet, orienting them diagonally so they all fit with room to grow.  Repeat with the second piece of dough from the refrigerator.

Rise and bake

Rise at about 80-82F (27-28C) with enough humidity that the surface doesn't dry out. If your kitchen's cool, try putting them in an oven with the light on (a pilot light will likely make it too warm). In our 70F kitchen, the oven with the light on was 82F, perfect. If it's not warm enough, pre-heat it briefly to bring it up to temperature then turn off the heat. If you need humidity, you could fill a pan with hot water and put it in the bottom of the oven. Check the temperature with a thermometer to be sure you're not overheating your dough: you don't want to melt the butter.

Rising takes 1 1/2 - 2 hours. The croissants are ready for baking when they look like baked croissants -- puffy and round with no flattening out -- and when you touch them with a finger they have a slight springiness.  Preheat the oven with convection to 375F (400F without); make sure you remove the rising croissants if you're using the oven to rise the dough!

Whisk the Egg with a generous pinch of Salt. With a soft-bristled pastry brush, coat the croissants with the wash. Bake to a rich golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. 

You gonna eat that?

These were great fresh out of the oven while still warm.  After cooling thoroughly, we froze them in zip-top bags and found they were quite good reheated in a toaster oven after defrosting.

We rolled good quality chocolate pieces into some of our croissants; you don't need much if the chocolate is intense.

Questions and future work

I really need to find a way that I can make the dough one day (and ferment overnight), shape the dough the next, then retard and bake early in the morning of the third day. Can the shaped rolls be risen completely in the fridge, like I do with my bread which I rise over 2-3 days? Do I have to rise them a bit on the second day, then retard in fridge, then bake the next morning? If I've retarded them in the fridge, do I need to let them warm up before baking, or can I bake them directly from cold?

We tried freezing one unrisen, shaped croissant, and it didn't rise well later. We let another shaped croissant rise, then put it in a container, then baked the next day but we found it stuck to the container so it lost its shape.

MacGuire says that if you freeze butter then let it thaw out, the emulsified droplets of water come together more, and if you work the butter for layered pastry, water will appear on the surface. This suggests that making and rising the croissants, then freezing them for later baking may sacrifice texture. 

We almost always keep our butter in the freezer, taking out a stick only as needed; does this also impact texture, using previously frozen butter? A comparison seems in order, if it weren't so much work.

McGuire also notes that butter which becomes warm then is chilled, it loses it's plasticity and becomes harder than original.

Can we use 2% milk instead of whole Milk plus Water? The goal of the above cold Milk plus warm water is to provide a warmish, presumably to encourage the Yeast. Pépin says 90-100F is good.  Can we use 2% Milk that's a bit above room temperature? 

If I beat out the butter in a zip-top baggie, it can be pre-formed then stored in the freezer. This could be a time-saver if  I made croissants regularly.