hex conduction hour

Grapefruit Hypocrite Pie

2012-02-12T17:02:00.002-05:00

For those of you not lucky enough to have met her, my sister is a badass. She's an amazing singer/songwriter, one of the founders of Girl's Rock Charleston, and just as cute as a button. This past Christmas she knocked it out of the park: not only did she get me a first-edition copy of a flat-out incredible book on old-time North Carolina cooking, but she also splurged on this beautiful copy of the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook by Christina Tosi.

I was totally enraptured by these books over the holidays, and I immediately started researching and accumulating the slightly out-there ingredients (citric acid, glucose) and equipment (new beater blade, acetate strips) I'd need to get rolling. Since then, I've made four or five recipes out of the Milk Bar cookbook, each one insanely sweet and over the top in its own amazing way, but from day one I had my eye on the grapefruit pie. It took a trip to a Hispanic grocery store in NC to get a hold of the necessary ingredients, but six weeks later, I finally had everything I needed.

This guy traveled a long way to get here.
As I learned from Beth Tartan, a more accurate name for this pie would be a grapefruit hypocrite pie, since the top layer disguises another layer of filling below it. According to the cookbook, the inspirations for this recipe were the Ohio Shaker pie (wherein thinly sliced lemons are tenderized in sugar and salt) and the key lime pie. The translation of these ideas to grapefruit is inspired, and the components work beautifully together.

Blooming the gelatin for the grapefruit passion curd.
The grapefruit pie starts off with a baked Ritz crunch pie shell, which provides the perfect sweet/buttery/salty counterbalance to the citrus explosion of the filling. Next up, a simple curd combines the bright, broadly "fruity" flavor of passionfruit pulp with the creamy mouthfeel of custard filling, into which grapefruit threads are stirred. This step, which involves suprêming the grapefruit (cutting away the rind and pith and slicing between the membranes) and spooning the segments over themselves in a warm, neutral oil, was pure magic.

Suprêming the grapefruit.

Suspended grapefruit threads.
Finally, sweetened condensed milk is curdled with grapefruit juice and citric acid, colored a velvety pink with a single drop of red food coloring, and poured over the grapefruit passion curd. The overall effect is something to behold. Each bite combines the salty, buttery base of the Ritz crackers, pockets of fresh grapefruit juice embedded in a rich pastry cream, and the tart brightness of the key lime pie-inspired top layer. Both the process and result are totally unique and really speak to Christina Tosi's talents.

Sweetened condensed grapefruit, featuring my new mixing tool (thanks Hendrens!)
Ritz Crunch Pie Shell

1 sleeve Ritz crackers
1/2 c (100 g) sugar
1/4 c (20 g) powdered milk
1/2 tsp kosher salt
7 Tbsp butter, melted

Heat the oven to 275 deg F.
Crush the Ritz crackers with your hands into small pieces. Combine all the ingredients and press with your hands into a 10" pie pan, making sure to completely cover the bottom and sides of the pan.
Bake the pie shell for 20 minutes until golden brown. Cooled completely, it can be stored, wrapped in plastic, in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Grapefruit Passion Curd

1/4 c (50 g) passion fruit puree, thawed
3 Tbsp (40 g) sugar
1 egg
1/2 gelatin sheet, or 1/4 tsp powdered gelatin
6 Tbsp very cold butter
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 large grapefruit
1 tsp grapeseed oil, or other neutral oil

Whisk the fruit puree and sugar until the sugar has dissolved.
Add the egg and vigorously whisk until the mixture is bright orange-yellow. Transfer to a saucepan.
Bloom the gelatin by sprinkling evenly over 1 Tbsp of water and letting hydrate for 5 minutes. Heat the passion fruit mixture over low heat, whisking regularly, until it just comes to a boil. The mixture will thicken considerably: once very thick, remove from heat.
Transfer the mixture to a blender and add the bloomed gelatin, butter, and salt. Blend until the mixture is shiny and smooth. Transfer to a heatproof container and allow to cool completely at room temperature, then the refrigerator, for 30 to 60 minutes.
Suprême the grapefruit using the directions above.
Gently warm the grapefruit segments in a small saucepan with the oil. After 2 minutes of gently spooning the grapefruit over itself, the segments will have separated into grapefruit threads.
Stir the grapefruit threads into the chilled curd.

Sweetened Condensed Grapefruit

3/4 c (225 g) sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp (30 g) ruby red grapefruit juice
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp citric acid
1 drop red food colering

Combine all ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula, folding until the mixture is homogeneous.
Use immmediately or store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Layer the curd and sweetened condensed grapefruit in the chilled pie shell, smoothing each layer and making sure not to mix the two. Once assembled, either place the pie in the freezer (at which point it can be held, wrapped gently in plastic, for up to one month) or hold in the refrigerator until ready to slice and serve. Allow to fully thaw before serving.

Speculoos

2011-12-05T11:30:00.000-05:00

Because there's nothing quite as exciting as seasonal cookies, I present to you a recipe for speculoos, ripped wholesale from the pages of Baked Explorations.

Just like its precursor, this cookbook is solid gold. Almost every recipe has an interesting backstory or a tantalizing gimmick, and the entry for speculoos (alternately "speculaas," as they're called in this cookbook) is no exception. The idea was to recreate those Biscoff cookies you're sometimes lucky enough to get on Delta flights. Biscoff are in fact a brand of speculoos, a Dutch sweetcrust pastry that is traditionally made the day before St. Nicholas' Day, which is celebrated on December 6.

As you can see from the recipe, most of the flavor here comes from cinnamon, with lots of cloves, ginger, and nutmeg to round things out. Obviously such a spice-forward recipe really benefits from using freshly-ground spices. Since these are "shortcrust pastries," sugar is cut into what amounts to biscuit dough (flour, leavener, and cold fat cut into the dry ingredients), which impedes gluten formation and results in a tender yet crunchy cookie. I found that a small cookie cutter (2" diameter at most) ensures that these bake past the soft cookie stage and into more of a ginger snap territory. As you can see, I cut this batch a little too large.

I suggest that you roll these out on a work surface dusted with powdered sugar instead of flour -- you get the same effect, without the taste and texture of unincorporated flour, or you could just use a couple layers of wax paper and save some time on cleanup. Best of all, using cookie cutters means you get to eat all the scraps that bake alongside the deliverables (see also the amazing jam sandwiches from last year). Happy St. Nick's Eve!

Ingredients

1 3/4 c AP flour
1 c packed dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
10 Tbsp butter, cool but not cold, cut into 1/2-in cubes
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp grated orange zest
coarse raw sugar

Directions

Pulse flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and salt in a food processor.
Drop the butter over the flour mixture and pulse until the consistency of coarse sand.
Add beaten egg and orange zest, and pulse once or twice to combine.
Turn batter out onto a floured work surface and knead the dough until it forms a ball, taking care not to overwork the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two jelly roll pans with parchment paper.
Unwrap and divide dough into halves. Roll one half out on a work surface generously dusted with powdered sugar to a thickness of about 1/4 in. Cut out cookies using a small round cookie cutter and transfer to prepared pans. Repeat with second half of dough.
Generously sprinkle the cookies with coarse sugar and bake for 15 minutes, rotating halfway through. Cookies should be dark brown and appear dry on top.
Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Visual Guide to Home Coffee Roasting

2011-10-19T01:11:00.000-04:00

It's been about six months since I started roasting coffee at home, and in that time I've had just about every disaster you can have with such a simple task, barring an actual fire. Broken glass, charred beans, and very loud smoke alarms have given way to a ten minute routine that is not only super fun and simple but also produces consistently amazing results. If you like coffee and have $40 in your pocket, you too can save 60% on your coffee expenses (no really -- I did the math, and it's closer to 62%) and trade up for daily fresh-roasted coffee. Obviously this is an idea whose time as come. You'll need the following:

A popcorn popper. I suggest the Poplite. It's got the right type of mesh at the bottom of the roasting chamber AND is the perfect canvas for the stickers you've amassed over the years.
Wooden spoon with long handle. This one has been in commission for a couple of weeks. Clearly a consumable item, but one that can be replaced for under $2 at your local restaurant supply store.
Metal strainer or colander. Anything will work here.
Green coffee beans. Your every home coffee roasting need can be met by Tom and co. at Sweet Maria's.
Oil lamp chimney. The perfect multipurpose solution to some of the basic difficulties of roasting coffee in a popcorn popper: with the combination of a chimney and a wooden spoon, you have a 3-in-1 stirrer (to make sure the beans don't burn early in the roast), container (to prevent the beans from flying out), and window (to monitor the degree of the roast).

First things first -- the little 1/2 cup scoop that comes with the popper is exactly the right measurement for one batch of coffee. Be careful not to overload the popper or you'll trigger a low-flow sensor and cause the popper to shut down for about 10 minutes. If this happens in the middle of a roast, you get to throw away a batch of incompletely roasted coffee. Also, you may think that those people on coffeegeek.com who warned you about "smoke" were doing it wrong, but make no mistake -- roasting coffee produces a huge amount of smoke and chaff, so don't try this indoors. Finally, toss out the plastic lid that comes with the popcorn popper. The popper will quickly be rendered useless for anything other than its new calling. Here's how to proceed:

Step 1: Load up the popper with a scoop of green coffee beans.
Step 2: Guide the wooden spoon through the glass chimney. In most cases, you'll see that the neck catches the wooden spoon, giving you a simple hands-free way to drop on and pull off the chimney. Place the chimney on top of the popper.
Step 3: Turn on the popper, drop the head of the spoon to the bottom of the bed of coffee, and roll the handle of the spoon between your hands (a la those wooden helicopter toys for kids). It's important to evenly distribute the heat early on in order to avoid any charred beans.
Step 4: After about three minutes, the beans will be done. Apparently the time it takes to complete a roast varies based on humidity, ambient temperature, etc., so all you can really go on is how the beans look. They'll go through a couple of audible cracks, corresponding to loss of moisture and fracturing of the seed's matrix, and you can target just about any degree of roast. I've learned a lot by reading this great visual guide to the stages of roasting, and when you order beans from Sweet Maria's, they always come with recommended roast levels for whatever you've bought.
Step 5: As soon as the beans look good, kill the power, carefully pull off the chimney and set it aside, grab the popper by the bright yellow handle, and dump out the roasted coffee into your colander. Toss the coffee to quickly quench the roast while wandering around your backyard. This step always makes me feel like one of those incense guys at a Catholic mass.
Step 6: Once the coffee has slightly cooled, transfer to a vented tin container or a bag with a gas valve. After the beans are roasted, they give off a bunch of carbon dioxide, so storing the beans in a valved container allows the carbon dioxide to push out all the oxygen, essentially vacuum sealing the coffee overnight. The aroma of a just-opened bag of fresh-roasted coffee is amazing.
Step 7: The coffee will be ready to enjoy after at least 8 hours, but in some cases a day or two is necessary to really develop the flavors. Adding name tags to your bags of coffee is optional but recommended.

Almond Raspberry Layer Cake and Siphon Coffee Mach 2

2011-05-18T22:33:00.009-04:00

I'm right in the middle of that stretch of your late 20's/early 30's when everybody and their dog is getting married. It's hard on the wallet, but getting to see your friends from every stage of your life more than makes up for it. Sometimes, if you're known for the manly art of baking, generous friends will donate the spillover from their wedding gifts, and a couple of years ago I was lucky enough to receive this gorgeous cake stand.

Sadly, it's about an inch and a half too skinny to fit a standard 9" cake. Month after lonely month, the cake stand stood on its shelf, collecting dust. That is, until I made this amazing almond raspberry cake and realized that some cakes would just be more appetizing if they weren't towering monstrosities.

I latched on to the idea of making a 6" almond raspberry layer cake and slowly worked up to actually buying more cake pans. Boy howdy I'm glad I did -- it's a perfect candidate for a more toned-down cake experience.

As a matter of fact, this cake comes together relatively quickly, especially with half the batter to haul around the kitchen. By far the hardest part is tracking down almond paste. The first time I made this cake, I went to no less than five different stores, including Michaels (shudder), just to try to put my hands on some almond paste. It's in the baking section of your local grocery store, squirreled away on the bottom shelf, defying you to find it.

In other news, I made a pretty amazing discovery at a salvage yard in Oakland a few weeks ago -- a pristine top carafe for an old 8 cup siphon brewer. I cradled it like a newborn all the way back to Boise and, with a new 1000 mL boiling flask and some stuff from the brewer's supply store, created a fully functional siphon coffee brewer. I've been sketching out ideas for a homemade siphon brewer for a few months, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

I can't say enough good things about this cake. The combination of almonds, raspberries, and dark chocolate is pretty tough to beat. Remember not to overmix and keep an eye on the baking time, and if you're not feeling chocolatey, cream cheese frosting would be a good option too. In order to make a full-on 9" layer cake, double the recipe below. Now go out and buy some unnecessary bakeware!

Almond Raspberry Layer Cake

Ingredients

2 1/4 c cake flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3.5 oz prepared almond paste
1 1/3 cups sugar
5 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 Tbsp almond extract
5 egg whites
3/4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup simple syrup (to keep cake moist))
1/2 cup seedless raspberry preserves

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 6-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.
In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set the dry ingredients aside.
Place the almond paste and sugar in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in another large bowl if using a handheld mixer. Begin to cream the mixture on low speed to break up the almond paste, then increase the speed to medium for about 2 minutes, or until the paste is broken into fine particles.
Add the butter and almond extract and beat it well, then the egg whites, two or three at a time, beating just long enough to incorporate after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl several times to make sure it is evenly mixed.
Dust about a third of the dry ingredients over the batter and fold in with a large rubber spatula until just combined. Fold in about half the milk. Fold in half the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining milk. Finally, fold in the last of the dry ingredients just until no streaks of white remain. Use a light hand and do not overmix. Divide the batter among the three prepared cake pans.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in their pans on wire racks for about 10 minutes. Turn the cakes out on to wire racks, carefully peel off the paper liners and let them cool completely, about one hour.
Assemble the cake: Place one layer flat side up on a cake stand or serving plate. Slide small strips of waxed paper under the edges to protect the plate from any messiness accumulated while decorating. Brush first layer with simple syrup, if using. Spread 1/2 cup of the raspberry preserves over the cake, leaving a 1/4 inch margin around the edges. Repeat with the second layer, brushing syrup if using and using remaining preserves. Add the third layer and brush with syrup if using.
Spread a thin layer frosting of your choice over the top and sides of the cake. Let frosting set in the fridge for about 20 to 30 minutes (this is your crumb coat) then spread a thicker, decorative coat over the base coat. If you have any frosting remaining, pipe a decoration of your choice.

Whipped Bittersweet Frosting

3.5 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature

Melt the chocolate with the cream in a double boiler or metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk to blend well. Remove from heat and let stand, whisking occasionally, until the chocolate mixture thickens slightly.
Place the butter in a large mixer bowl and with an electric mixer on medium speed, whip the butter until light and fluffy. Add the chocolate cream and whip until lighter in color and somewhat stiff, about three minutes. Do not whip too long or the frosting may begin to separate.

Changeling

2011-04-27T18:40:00.042-04:00

About two years ago, one of my best friends asked me to make her a CD of stuff from the 80's. With our shared love of Siouxsie & the Banshees in mind, I spent way longer than planned on growing my post-punk collection and exploring the depths of the stuff I already had. Hope it was worth the wait!

Changeling

That's Howard Devoto, one of the founding members of the Buzzcocks. After Spiral Scratch came out in 1976, Devoto saw that punk was just a flash in the pan, so he left the band and formed Magazine alongside John McGeoch, who later joined Siouxsie & the Banshees, and a keyboard player named Dave Formula. McGeoch was an insanely talented guitarist in a world where 3-chord punk was the norm (Devoto hired him after watching him play all the lead guitar parts of Television's Marquee Moon front to back). Dave Formula was an unknown entity, and since nobody else in the band knew anything about synths, he had total control over that aspect of their sound. The albums they put out between '78 and '80 were perfect examples of the amazing creativity that blossomed in the aftermath of punk.

John McGeoch and Siouxsie Sioux

Even without any context, post-punk music is great, but part of what makes it so appealing and enduring is that punk's DIY message really caught on in Britain, totally revitalizing the musical landscape. The sleeve for one of Scritti Politti's early EPs wrote out its production costs and the contact info for local record pressing plants. The Desperate Bicycles sang, "it was easy, it was cheap, go and do it!" Lucky for us, truly great bands like the Homosexuals, who still sound years ahead of their time, remain in distribution thanks to labels like Messthetics. At the time, crap keyboards were cheaper than guitars, and if the Shaggs taught us anything, it's that you don't have to be good at your instruments to make good music.

Scritti Politti's "4 A-Sides"

One of the reasons this music sounds so great is because nobody had any idea what they were doing. Case in point: in the early days of Devo, the band couldn't find the keyboards they wanted, so they built their own hardware from scratch. While on stage, sweat would pour down the sleeves of their full-body plastic suits, frying their equipment and causing totally unreproducible sounds. I think that's a great way to illustrate what happened when punk kids started picking up synthesizers.

Devo

This compilation isn't meant to be a primer on the DIY movement or the origins of synth-pop (if that's what you're after, watch the BBC's amazing Synth Britannia) -- it's more about what happened when guitar-heavy bands (e.g. the Buzzcocks) started incorporating keyboards (e.g. Magazine), before people really knew how to market pure synth pop a la the Human League and their legion imitators. The chugging glam riff, handclaps, and wobbly square-wave vrrrring during the bridge of "The Machman," the way the guitars chime into the airy synth opening of "Second Skin," the back-to-back wall of John McGeoch awesomeness that is "My Tulpa"/"Head Cut" -- with so many amazing jams to decide among, you understand why this project took so long.

Sandwell District

Lately I've been listening to a lot of deep house and techno music, and some of my favorite stuff is being released by a label called Sandwell District. During an interview, the two guys who run the label said that they both draw inspiration from early post-punk, and you can actually trace a line from then to now: Joy Division's guitars were replaced by the opening 4/4 beat of Blue Monday, and guys like Sandwell District are only following that trajectory.

Download

Changeling

Men Without Hats - Ban the Game
Ultravox - Slow Motion
Positive Noise - Hypnosis
Joy Division - Isolation
Pete Shelley - I Generate a Feeling
Tubeway Army - The Machman
Simple Minds - Changeling
The Teardrop Explodes - Ha Ha I'm Drowning
The Sound - Heartland
The Chameleons - Second Skin
Spoons - Nova Heart
Japan - Quiet Life
New Order - The Village
Magazine - My Tulpa
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Head Cut
Echo & the Bunnymen - In Bluer Skies
Ultravox! - Hiroshima Mon Amour

Siphon Coffee Brewing and Hazelnut Cinnamon Biscotti

2011-02-18T01:00:00.000-05:00

Apparently when I was a kid, I thought that coffee was the last socially acceptable addiction, but thanks to a recent obsession (see also: dub music), now I get why.

One of the joys of living near the west coast hot spots is that the guys (it's always guys) who are into coffee take it to a flat-out ridiculous level of obsession. I went to Stumptown Annex in Portland last week, and while checking out their bean selection, I casually told the counter guy that I was just getting into coffee and was interested in knowing more about the broad flavor trends between the big global coffee-producers (Central America, Southeast Asia, Africa). Lord love him, but he was totally incapable of dumbing it down for me. He said that making those kind of generalizations would be like asking what "wine from Europe" was like.

So I'll be the first to admit that I don't really know anything about coffee: up until a few months ago, I didn't really drink much coffee at all. All that changed with the first cup of coffee I made with my siphon brewer (which I found, new in the box, at the Boise flea market for $10).

I'll admit, even if I didn't I love the process -- like my friend Trey says, it's coffee theater -- and appreciate the fact that it's a great justification for indulging my love for scientific glassware, brewing coffee this way would be a waste of time if it didn't make super good coffee. My little Hario didn't disappoint.

I could never explain the process as well as the impressively-produced little video below, but the point is that the water in the brewing chamber never reaches the boiling point, so most of the bitter compounds stay in the coffee. The result is a bright, floral flavor with lots of salty, caramel-y body. I just tried an Ethiopian varietal from Stumptown that actually tasted like raspberries. Another varietal from Kenya is described as having "notes of kiwi, cocoa, pineapple and raw sugar in a cup redolent of dried flowers."

Is it all psychosomatic? Why would it be for coffee and not for wine or scotch? Admittedly, all these flavors are really subtle (it is black coffee, after all) but the fact that I can taste even one or two of them is pretty exciting. And, my brewer and hand grinder are both from Japan. The New York Times would be proud. Next, I wanted to bake something to complement my labor of love, and guess what? Biscotti go really well with coffee!

This recipe from Baked is basically perfect. Warm cinnamon, creamy hazelnuts, semisweet chocolate, and black coffee? I made another recipe alongside these (white chocolate and dried cranberries with semolina flour), but they were so sad next to the world's best biscotti that I couldn't muster up the heart to take any good pictures of them. My best advice when making these is to use plenty of parchment paper. A paper sling makes transferring the dense dough much easier.

Hazelnut Cinnamon Biscotti

Ingredients

1 1/3 c sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/4 c AP flour
1 1/2 c blanched hazelnuts, toasted
1 3/4 c (10 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1 egg white

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
Beat the eggs and sugar in an electric mixture until the color is uniform and the mixture thick. Add the vanilla and beat for 5 seconds. Add the flour in two batches and beat until just combined. Scrape down the bowl, add the hazelnuts and chocolate chips, and beat until just combined.
Turn the dough out onto parchment paper. Use a dough scraper to form into a log about 16" long, 3 1/2" wide, and 3/4" thick. Smooth the top with an offset spatula. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until firm but not browned. Cool for 10 minutes.
Lower the oven to 325 degrees F. While the log cools, whisk together the egg white and 2 Tsp of water and apply the egg wash to the top of the dough with a pastry brush.
Cut the log into 3/4" slices with a serrated knife. Lay the biscotti on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, cut side down, and bake for 25 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Jam Sandwiches

2010-12-20T21:20:00.017-05:00

I have a confession to make -- I don't really like Christmas cookies. I love cutting them out, decorating them with my mom and sister, making the goopy colored frosting, but at the end of the day, they taste like straight butter and flour. I had given up on Christmas cookies until, on a whim, I opened up my Baking Illustrated cookbook and, lo and behold, I found the greatest Christmas cookies of all time: jam sandwiches.

It turns out the secret ingredients for the perfect sugar cookie are a) superfine sugar, b) two sticks of butter, and c) cream cheese. As always a stand mixer takes all of the guess work out of making these, and liberal use of parchment paper makes rolling/cutting/cleanup incredibly easy. Be sure to refrigerate the dough in between steps and to eat one of the cookie holes right when it comes out of the oven. I think I've found my favorite cookie recipe ever.

Jam Sandwiches

Ingredients

2 1/2 c (12 1/2 oz) AP flour
3/4 c (5 1/2 oz) superfine sugar (granulated sugar, pulverized in the food processor for 30 sec)
1/4 tsp salt
16 Tbsp (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool, cut into sixteen 1/2" pieces
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp cream cheese, at room temperature
2 Tbsp turbinado, Demerara, or white decorating sugar
1 1/4 c (12 oz) raspberry jam, strained

Directions

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the flour, sugar, and salt at low speed until combined. With the mixer running on low, add the butter a piece at a time. Continue to mix until the mixture looks crumbly and slighty wet. Add the vanilla and cream cheese and mix for another 30 seconds.
Knead the dough by hand in the bowl for a few turns, then turn the dough out onto the countertop. divide in half and wrap each half in plastic and refrigerate for at least half an hour.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll out one half of the dough to an even 1/8" thickness between 2 large sheets of parchment paper. Slide the rolled tough, still on the parchment, onto a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, repeat with the rest of the dough.
Cut out the cookies with a 2" round cookie cutter and transfer to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through, until the cookies are golden brown. Roll out the the remaining dough, sprinkle the sugar over the dough, and use a 3/4" round cookie cutter to cut out the centers of the rounds. Bake as before.
When the cookies have cooled, add about 1 tsp of jam on the base cookies and put the cut-out cookies on top. Let stand until set, about 30 minutes.

Secret bonus song I made on my Kaossilator while making these this weekend:

Sound and Vision - Fra Angelico and Britten

2010-11-23T18:28:00.017-05:00

The Annunciation, Fra Angelico (1437-1446)
It's nice to have such a cultured family. My mom loves medieval and early Renaissance painting, especially Fra Angelico, and she passed a lot of that appreciation on to me and my sister, who got her BA in art history. One of my favorite trips we've ever taken together was to the Cloisters in NYC. Not only do my mom and sister love art, but my brother is a music professor, and every once in a while he sends me some of the music he's working on, like the Faure songs I've posted here. He's currently coaching the second of five canticles Benjamin Britten wrote for tenor, countertenor, and piano. The original text for this piece is taken directly from Chester's mystery plays, a cycle of 15th century plays based on biblical texts.

The connection between the Britten piece and the Fra Angelico painting isn't just the concurrence of the art and the text, it's their shared depiction of contact with the supernatural. Everything about the Fra Angelico painting is otherworldly, from the over-sized figures and Gabriel's rainbow wings to the beauty of the painting itself (and, you know, the whole idea of the annunciation to begin with), and Britten's portrayal of the voice of God at the beginning of this piece is almost scarily awe-inspiring.

Britten's Canticle II - Abraham and Issac

Mussamun Curry Paste

2010-10-09T13:01:00.027-04:00

My brother and his wife got me a great curry cookbook for Christmas a few years ago, and after opening it up the other day, I got hungry for some labor-intensive Indian food. In the back are a few recipes for curry paste (red, green, yellow) and one for "Thai-Style Mussamun Curry Paste" that serves as a base for an interesting curry containing chicken, potatoes, and peanuts. After looking at the ingredient list I knew I had to make it.

This paste has a bunch of sweet spices and an undercurrent of a kick from the dried chiles. Apparently it some ceremonial purposes in Thailand (weddings, births, ordinations of Buddhist monks), and it tastes pretty incredible. All the up-front work you put in pays off, since making homemade curry is so quick with some curry paste on hand. I happend to have all the whole spices (except for the turmeric), so I went overkill: here's a photo of some cardamom pods I cracked open, just to give you an idea of how far you can take this recipe if you're in the mood.

The Mussamun curry recipe in this cookbook calls for 2 cans of coconut milk, 2 lbs cut up chicken breast, 1 large peeled, chopped potato, and 1 onion cut into chunks, along with 1/2 c dry-roasted salted peanuts, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 3 Tbsp dissolved tamarind paste, 2 Tbsp lime juice, and salt to taste. Combine 5 Tbsp curry paste with 1/2 c of coconut milk over medium-high heat, lightly brown the chicken, then add everything else besides the lime juice. Bring to a boil, simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, add the lime juice, and serve with basmati rice. FYI, I also made this with a couple of blocks of cubed, pan-fried extra firm tofu (frozen overnight, thawed during the day, and hand-squeezed dry), adding the tofu a few minutes before taking the curry off the heat, and it was at least as good as the original recipe.

Thai-Style Mussamun Curry Paste

Ingredients

15 small dried red chili peppers (chiles de arbol, the slender ones about the size of your pinkie)
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp salt
1/2 c coarsely chopped onion
1/2 c chopped garlic
3 Tbsp minced fresh lemongrass (the white sections of about 3 stalks)
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
few Tbsp water

Directions

Stem the chilies, remove the seeds, and cut them into small pieces using kitchen shears. There will be about 1/4 c of dried chilies. Place in a small bowl and add warm water to cover, then soak for about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, combine cumin and coriander seds in a small, dry frying pan. Toast over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring often, until fragrant and slightly darkened. Remove from heat and combine with the rest of the spices. In a food processor, combine the onion, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, 2 Tbsp of water, drained chilies, and the spice mixture. Process to a fairly smooth, evenly colored-paste.
Transfer to an airtight jar and seal. Refrigerate until needed for up to 1 months, or freeze for up to 6 months.

Indian Skillet Black-Eyed Peas

2010-08-03T16:26:00.003-04:00

Ever since my awesome friends Erik and Kelly turned me on to Moosewood Restaurant's New Classics cookbook I have been cooking from it compulsively. Every single recipe, except for one bland potato/pasta/pesto dish, has been a showstopper. This recipe for spiced black-eyed peas is one of my favorites.

Like most fun recipes, this one has a couple of secret ingredients: tamarind paste, which is pretty easy to find in a Whole Foods/co-op/ethnic grocery, and ground cardamom. It's definitely a little more effort to buy cardamom pods, pound them open, fish out the flavor crystals, and grind them by hand, but it smells and tastes amazing. You know that moment when you throw a bunch of spices into a pan of hot oil and onion and garlic? This recipe dials that moment up to 10.

I really went overboard with my favorite spices, easily doubling the amount of fresh ginger and cardamom. Any way you make it, this recipe has an amazing flavor profile and is one of the most satisfying bean dishes I've ever made. Score another one for Moosewood!

Ingredients

2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 c chopped onions
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp salt
1 tsp tamarind concentrate, dissolved in 1 c warm water
3 c cooked black-eyed peas (equal to two 16 oz cans, rinsed and drained)
1/2 c chopped fresh tomatoes
2 c rinsed and chopped fresh spinach

Directions

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet or nonreactive saucepan. Add the onions and garlic and saute on medium-high heat until the onions are soft and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes.
Add the ginger, cayenne, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, and salt and mix well. Stir in the water and tamarind and black eyed peas, cover, and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and spinach and cook just until the spinach wilts, about 1 minute. Serve immediately.

Strawberries, Two Ways

2010-06-29T01:06:00.023-04:00

Strawberry Shortcakes, c/o Baking Illustrated

A few weeks ago, at the height of strawberry season, I was eating strawberries with everything (especially Greek yogurt). This having been my first strawberry season with my new copy of Baking Illustrated in hand, I knew I had to make their strawberry shortcakes. They turned out great - slightly sweetened biscuits, mascerated strawberries, a generous portion of whipped cream - just about everything you'd want. Thankfully, my obsession didn't stop there.

Strawberry Brown Butter Bettys, c/o Smitten Kitchen
Just as this unbelievably delicious and easy banana bread cobbler recipe rendered banana bread obsolete, the strawberry brown butter bettys on smittenkitchen.com were so perfect that I'll probably never make strawberry shortcakes again. Still, both of these recipes are well worth your time.

Fruit

8 c strawberries, hulled
6 Tbsp sugar

Shortcakes

2 c (10 oz) AP flour
5 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-in cubes
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 c plus 1 Tsbp half-and-half or whole milk
1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 c whipped cream (+ 1 tsp vanilla)

Directions

For the fruit: Crush 3 cups of the hulled strawberries with a potato masher. Slice the remaining 5 cups of berries and stir into the crushed berries, along with the sugar. Set the fruit aside and mascerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.
For the shortcakes: Set an oven rack to the lower-middle position and preheat to 425 degrees. Pulse the flour, 3 Tbsp of the sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor. Scatter the cold butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until it resembles coarse meal, about fifteen 1-second pulses. Transfer to a medium bowl.
Mix the beaten egg and half and half in a mesuring cup. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until large clumps are formed. Turn onto a floured work surface and lightly knead until combined.
Pat the dough until a 9"x6" rectangle, about 3/4" thick, making sure not to overwork the dough. Cut out 6 dough rounds with a 2 3/4" biscuit cutter. Brush with beaten egg white, and sprinkle with remaining sugar.
Bake until golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes. Place the baking sheet on a wire rack and cool until warm, about 10 minutes.
Split each shortcake, portion fruit over the bottom, add a dollop of whipped cream, and cap with the cake top.

Serious Moonlight

2010-05-23T17:59:00.019-04:00

Serious Moonlight
My friend Darcy and I have an inexplicable attachment to the lyric about the "serious moonlight" in Bowie's "Let's Dance". Last month we were both at our mutual friends' wedding, and that's the song they chose for their first dance. For whatever reason, that lyric embedded itself into my brain. After that night I was super inspired to put together a compilation that evokes nighttime and all that it entails: dreams, sleep, sex, confusion, and, of course, field recordings of frogs. It's meant to be listened to at dusk with the lights out and the windows open. As usual, just unpack the zip file and drag the songs into iTunes, and they'll sort themselves in the Mixes genre under "Serious Moonlight".

The Moody Blues - The Sun Set (3.03)
Arovane - Tomorrow Morning (1.46)
Serge Gainsbourg - Valse de Melody (1.32)
Leila - Something (1.29)
The Durutti Column - Sleep Will Come (1.49)
Euros Childs - Roedd Hi'n Nofio Yn Y Bore Bach (3.30)
David Sylvian - The Heart Knows Better (7.52)
Linda Perhacs - Parallelograms (4.34)
Colin Blunstone - Her Song (3.31)
Matt Sweeny & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Blood Embrace (7.57)
The Clientele - Lamplight (6.44)
Datacide - Flashback Signal (15.55)
Björk - Headphones (5.40)

Autechre and Bruce Gilbert

2010-05-09T20:57:00.014-04:00

Autechre - os veix3 (2010)

Bruce Gilbert - Angel Food (1987)

Udon with Shiitake Mushrooms and Kale in Miso Broth

2010-03-28T21:08:00.016-04:00

I'm just getting over being sick for a full month, and when I'm sick I crave Japanese food. I wish I had found this recipe when I was just coming down with the plague. It's cheap, comforting, easy, and incredibly satisfying. It's also arguably the healthiest thing I've ever made in the kitchen.

This recipe comes from the venerable Veganomicon and features red miso, which magically enhances any broth-y entree.

Since I live alone, I bought all the ingredients, prepped the onions and mushrooms, set half of them aside, and cooked a half recipe two days in a row. Fresh udon noodles should be available at any halfway-fancy grocery store - in fact, I've never seen dried udon noodles, so fresh noodles may be easier to find. I also at least doubled the amount of fresh ginger in this recipe, but your ginger threshold may not be as high as mine.

Ingredients

1/2 lb fresh or dried udon noodles
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium red onion, sliced into thin half-moons
4 oz shiitake mushrooms, rinsed, stems trimmed, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ginger, minced
2 Tbsp mirin (optional)
2 cups water
3 Tbsp miso (preferably red, if using light add another Tbsp)
4 c chopped kale
2 tsp soy sauce

Directions

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the udon per the directions. Fresh udon will take about 2 min. Drain, rinse with cool water, and set aside.
Saute the onion and mushrooms in the oil over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and saute for another minute.
Add the mirin, water, soy sauce, and miso, and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat and add the kale. Toss with tongs until kale has wilted, about a minute.
Add the noodles, toss again, and serve.

Narcissus Album

2010-03-02T00:43:00.033-05:00

There was an op-ed column on the New York Times website this week that really struck me. I love articles that examine our relationships with each other, ourselves, and our tastes in the context of the internet (one of the reasons why Hipster Runoff is my favorite website), and Roger Cohen's article, entitled "The Narcissus Society," discusses what has happened to our values and self-perception in the past decade.

"Community — a stable job, shared national experience, extended family, labor unions — has vanished or eroded. In its place have come a frenzied individualism, solipsistic screen-gazing, the disembodied pleasures of social networking, [...]. Feelings of anxiety and inadequacy grow in the lonely chamber of self-absorption and projection."

He's on to something isn't he? While research suggests that our on-line personalities are actually more true to life than we may think, our relationships on the internet are essentially about "broadcasting personal content to a multitude of people," as the Wired article puts it. At the end of the day, that's what this and all blogs are about: a one-way dissemination of content designed to imprint a specific image of the author.

When I was in 9th grade, on the suggestion of the NME (which I loved in high school), I sat down at the listening station at Millenium Music in West Ashley and listened to Orbital's second album for the first time. The opening notes of "Lush 3-1" pouring in through those headphones was mindblowing. Orbital and Aphex Twin and Autechre opened up a whole new world for me. I think the defining characteristic of this stuff wasn't necessarily the fact that it was made without guitars but that it was way more abstract than the verse-chorus-verse music I had heard up to that point. There's a lot of emotional content to this music (Aphex Twin's "Fingerbib" is a perfect example), but there's not a lot of narrative. I was really impressed by their ability to make such technically complicated, affecting music without any pretentions of relatability akin to pop music.

Orbital
The contrast between the first big step in developing my own music tastes -- the less relatable the music, the more I liked it -- and how I listen to music now is something that Roger Cohen's article realized in me. I think as you get older and you start accumulating more good and bad experiences, you can't help but find some comfort or catharsis through music, which enables the listener to relate his own life to the music, even if it's abstract. For instance, for me, Nobukazu Takemura's "Icefall" and Talk Talk's "I Believe in You" are embarassingly affecting. Songs like these fit into a very specific space in my emotional composition. This neo-spiritual space is exactly the kind of content I like to disseminate on my blog. Of course, on some level I'm only doing so to impart a particular image of myself, which is pretty narcissistic (via Roger Cohen).

I've been working on a compilation for a few months, and I figured, what better way to acknowledge the intention and effect of my blog than to make a mix that's purposefully all about me and my musical taste and post it on my blog? Even I would probably get bored with nothing but songs like "Icefall," so instead this brief and highly listenable compilation is just about different aspects of my life here in Boise. I have exactly one friend here, a super cool co-worker who is another California transplant, but besides that, it's just me and my toys and my cookware and Malcolm. Since I see my two or so years here are a preparation for the rest of my life, I don't mind it too much. This set of songs are available here, and I even wrote up a little listening guide. There's some stuff on here that probably only I could love (e.g. Oorutaichi), but that's part of the point, isn't it?

Narcissus Album

Oorutaichi - Jurasy Human (1.47)
If there were a TV show about me and Malcolm, this would be our theme song.
Space Opera - Country Max (3.23)
Setting the tone with some help from my favorite mp3 blog, The Rising Storm.
Warren Zevon - The French Inhaler (3.47)
A story-song about hard work, disappointment, isolation, etc.
Animal Collective - What Would I Want? Sky (6.46)
Pretty much awe-inspiring.
Cylob - Morning (3.05)
The cymbal that's just a tiny bit too loud reminds me of my alarm.
Broadcast and the Focus Group - I See, So I See So (2.09)
A groggy drive to work .
PJ Harvey - Working for the Man (4.49)
Ad pedem litterae. Big thanks to my sister for reminding me of just how badass To Bring You My Love is.
Boris - Parting (7.33)
Like 15 seconds of awesome metal stretched to 8 face-melting minutes.
The Beach Boys - I'm So Young (2.33)
A song for me and Kat.
XTC - Harvest Festival (4.15)
"that longing look"
Orbital - Belfast (8.07)
A big deal early in my musical life.
The Clientele - Walking In the Park (1.38)
My favorite outro.

House Tour and Kaossilator Demo

2010-02-20T18:10:00.024-05:00

Since Kat came last weekend and gave me some great advice on how to arrange my little apartment, it finally feels like home. I took some photos and made a folder on Picasa for anybody who's interested in seeing how it came together. The older I get, the more fussy my living arrangements, and I love it. I can't believe I lived with other people for so long. There are still some things to fix up here and there but it's great to finally have a livable space again.

From Boise Apartment Photos

Of all my finds over the past couple of years, one of my favorites by far is my map of the southeast US from the Alameda antiques fair. I got an amazing deal on it and I love how it looks perfect in my living area. I also couldn't wait to share this:

From Boise Apartment Photos

This is my new toy, the KORG Kaossilator dynamic phrase synthesizer. It's basically a touchpad-controlled loop generator, and it is the most awesome purchase I've made in a long, long time. It's got a ton of voices/sound effects/drum hits/preset drum patterns, and it gives you complete control of BPM and loop length (anywhere from 1/32 of a beat to 8 full beats), as well as 31 different scales, 49 different gate arpeggiators that sound the selected sample at different intervals of the beat, and the ability to record loops and layer them. I've had so much fun with it the past couple of weeks that I figured I would post some quick (~20 second) samples to give you an idea of how easy it is to lose hours playing with this thing.

Starting out with the 'flap' lead running through gate arpeggiator 09. 'Egyptian' scale, 145 bpm.

Adding a BD/SD3 drum hit to each downbeat.

Layering on the 'auto techno' drum pattern using one of the more basic presets.

Testing out the trance chord before adding it to the other fixed layers.

Fixed the trance chord with a surge in the cutoff during the second bar. At this point I was set. I played around with this backing track for at least half an hour.

Playing with the low-frequency oscillation on a sweep sound effect.

From Boise Apartment Photos

The Astro-Sound of Magnificence, or my first post where I actually blog about my life

2010-02-18T21:55:00.021-05:00

This is my friend from Clemson, Clay.

Clay.
We met, of course, through Clemson's student-run radio station, WSBF. I met all of my best friends from college through the radio station one way or another. One of the unexpected benefits of going to such a backwoods, yee-haw cow college was that the weird people congregated pretty quickly. To give you an idea of what we had to work with, we always made it a point to attend one of the cultural highlights of year: Spittoono, a self-described redneck festival held at the National Guard Armory. After the spittin' contest and mud dancing, we would go to the lake for a midnight swim.

Probably my favorite picture from my college days.
If co-opting Spittoono was our tradition, the frat boys at Clemson held the tradition of dressing up in their finery for the Clemson home football games, when the population of Clemson quadrupled and the campus became a parking lot for tailgaiters. I love beer and nice clothes as much as the next man, and needless to say the frat boys at Clemson were first-order douchebags, so we made our own tradition wherein we too could dress pretty and get drunk. That tradition was the Red Eye Society, where we would get up early on MLK Jr. Day (8ish), put on red ties, and drink all day long.

This was the year before we had an adventure in an abandoned school.
We may have not have been the most normal people by Clemson's standards, but Clay was way out there. The first time we hung out, he brought a crate of CDs to my freshman dorm. Lush, Momus, Pulp, etc. -- he'd been listening to a lot of really good music for a really long time, and none of it was Jack Johnson. In person, Clay is totally unassuming, but like Popeye with a mouthful of spinach, in the presence of music he becomes another person entirely. Some of my favorite memories of college were the WSBF house shows where the no-talent local bands (term of endearment) would play badly and too loud. For a blessed couple of years, Clay would fill in between bands at these house shows as Karaoke Klay. Once he had set up his equipment and pressed play, he was no longer Clay. I don't know if I've ever seen someone commit to something as completely as Clay did to becoming Karaoke Klay. The images of a house full of drunk outcasts from a Greek life/Fellowship of Christian Atheletes/Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management (Party Right Through May)-major college like Clemson, singing along with KK to Mr. Roboto and of Clay humping the floor during the breakdown of "Hungry Like the Wolf" will be forever burned into my mind.

The Karaoke Klay stance.
Clay doesn't have a traditionally "good" voice, but he knows and loves too much good music not to know how he sounds. And I think it's awesome. He's been making his own music for years, and he recently made an album called "The Monkey of Love". You can hear it on his myspace page. He's made me a few mix CDs over the years too, and while unpacking my place in Boise a couple weeks ago I pulled out this gem:

The Astro-Sound of Magnificence
It's a compilation of exotica/lounge/orchestral pop he made me a couple of years ago, and for whatever reason, it really grabbed me. I've been listening to it a ton the past couple of weeks. I don't have much of this sort of thing in my music library, but there are some fun, catchy songs on here. If you hate kitsch or groovy female vocals stay away, but if not, I invite you to take a peek into the mind of a very unique guy.

Honey-Lavender Biscotti

2010-01-30T23:58:00.004-05:00

This was my first attempt at biscotti, so I of course turned to my Baking Illustrated cookbook. Turns out I really like big chunks of almonds/hazelnuts/etc. in my biscotti, so these guys weren't my favorite. Interesting to be sure, but the flavor is very subtle. I think that they would have been much more interesting with a more assertive honey, like a spicy clover honey. The run-of-the-mill honey I used just faded into the background. I have to say, however, that the aroma that filled my apartment while these were baking was out of this world -- creamy, buttery tones with heady citrus and lavender notes floating overhead. Words don't suffice.

I used the lessons I learned in making these for the chocolate almond biscotti below, specifically the tricks with the wax paper and keeping my hands good and floured. The "cylinders" I was able to form with this dough were hideous. Still, a good learning experience, and like I said, the aroma. Wow.

Ingredients

2 1/4 c (11 1/4 oz) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 c (4 2/3 oz) sugar
3 large eggs
3 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp minced zest from 1 orange
1 Tbsp dried lavender blossoms

Directions

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl, set aside.
Whisk the sugar and eggs in a large bowl to a light lemon color; stir in the honey, vanilla, orange zest, and lavender. Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the egg mixture, then fold in until just combined.
Divide the dough in half and place one portion on a work surface covered with floured wax paper or parchment paper. With floured hands, pat it into a cylinder about 2 inches in diameter and 12 to 15 inches long. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Cut the parchment paper and, using the paper as a sling, roll the dough into a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Place in the oven and bake about 35 minutes, rotating halfway through, until firm to the touch. Transfer to a cutting board, let cool for 5 minutes, then cut on an angle into slices one-half-inch thick. Return the slices to the baking sheet, laying them on their cut sides, and return them to the oven. Bake another 15 minutes, turning over each cookie halfway through, until they are crisp and golden brown on each side. Allow to cool completely before storing or serving.

Chocolate Almond (Cherry) Biscotti

2010-01-25T20:24:00.010-05:00

Over the holidays, somebody's mom made me some killer biscotti, and I got to wondering why I had never made any at home before. This dreamy chocolate biscotti recipe was altered from a recipe I found on smitten kitchen, with some tweaks. The obvious ones for me were to substitute hazelnuts for almonds and fit some dark chocolate chunks in there. My less inspired inspiration was to put some chopped dried cherries in the dough. In my effort to make these biscotti tooth-chippingly hard, I reduced the cherries to, more or less, char, which definitely didn't help the flavor. I guess there's a reason people don't put dried fruit in biscotti.

As far as technique goes, wax paper or parchment paper really does wonders for making sure you don't get biscotti dough club hands when trying to work the dough into a cylinder. I formed each half on a large piece of wax paper, cut the paper down the middle, and used each sling to transfer the dough to the baking sheet. Easy as cake. Once my personal effects finally show up here in Boise (tomorrow!), I will definitely be making these guys again. Stay tuned for another, completely different batch of biscotti I made earlier this month, which I'll post here soon.

Ingredients

3/4 cup toasted, blanched almonds
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
2 1/2 cups flour, plus flour for work surface
1/2 cup Dutch-style cocoa powder
1 tablespoon espresso powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread hazelnuts on baking sheet and toast about 10 minutes, until lightly browned. If hazelnuts are not blanched, toast them until the skins begin to crack, then remove them from oven and wrap them in clean linen or cotton towel (not terrycloth). Rub hot nuts to remove most of the skin. Set toasted nuts aside.
Sift the flour, cocoa, espresso powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder together and set aside.
Beat eggs lightly, just until blended, in mixing bowl with whisk or in electric mixer. Remove two tablespoons of egg mixture to small dish and set aside. Beat sugar into remaining eggs until blended. Stir in flour mixture to form soft dough. Stir in chocolate chips and chopped almonds.
Divide the dough in half and place one portion on a work surface covered with floured wax paper or parchment paper. With floured hands, pat it into a cylinder about 2 inches in diameter and 12 to 15 inches long. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Cut the parchment paper and, using the paper as a sling, roll the dough into a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with the remaining dough. Brush the tops of both rolls with the reserved egg.
Place in the oven and bake about 20 minutes, until firm to the touch. Transfer to a cutting board, let cool for 5 minutes, then cut on an angle into slices one-half-inch thick. Return the slices to the baking sheet, laying them on their cut sides, and return them to the oven. Bake another 25 minutes, until they are crisp and dry. Allow to cool completely before storing or serving.

Sound and Vision - Blakely and Lambchop

2009-11-28T20:48:00.007-05:00

The Emptiness Left by a Denial of the Use for which it was Intended, Colin Blakely
I'm moving to Boise in late January, so I've been thinking about (i.e. dreading) this kind of weather a lot lately. This song by Lambchop (off their recently released Live at XX Merge album) makes me think of how warm and comforting I'd hope the inside of those houses are.

Lambchop - I Will Drive Slowly

Molasses Spice Cookies, etc.

2009-11-23T14:21:00.022-05:00

Somebody got me a beautiful new copy of Baking Illustrated for my birthday, and last week I was really in the mood for some kind of molasses-y, spice-y cookie. Lo and behold, I found a promising recipe for "Molasses Spice Cookies" on page 442. The Cook's Illustrated Story^TM that prefaces this recipe is hilarious. They explain how to get the "tooth-sinking" texture and just the right amount of cracking on the tops of the cookies, but when they go into how they perfected the flavors, they really get into it. I can't read this and not hear Will Ferrell reading it aloud.

A teaspoon of vanilla extract complemented generous amounts of sharp, spicy ground ginger and warm, soothing cinnamon. Cloves, rich and fragrant, and allspice, sweet and mysterious, were added, but in more judicious quantities. Nutmeg was pedestrian and had little to offer. Finely and freshly ground black pepper, however, added some intrigue -- a soupçon of heat against the deep, bittersweet flavor of the molasses.

Anyway, these are incredibly good cookies, and they're best served warm with some ginger ice cream. I have to admit, they were right about the black pepper.

Molasses Spice Cookies

2 1/4 cups (11 1/4 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp freshly ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened but cool
1/3 cup packed (2 1/3 oz) dark brown sugar
1/3 cup (2 1/3 oz) granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup light or dark molasses
1/2 cup raw sugar

Instructions

Place the oven rack in the middle position and heat the oven to 375.
Whisk the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt until thoroughly combined.
Beat the butter and brown/granulated sugars at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium, add the yolk and vanilla, and mix for 20 seconds. Add the molasses and mix for 20 seconds. Reduce speed to low, add the flour mixture, and mix until just incorporated. Scrape the bowl between each addition.
Break off heaping Tbsp chunks of dough, roll into 1 1/2 inch balls, and roll in the raw sugar. Set on parchment paper-lined baking sheet with a couple inches to spare between the cookies.
Bake until puffy and the edges have just begun to set, about 11 minutes, rotating the pan after 6 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

I also made a pig pickin' cake for my friend's birthday, and I used a good ol' fashioned 9x13 baking pan, not those fancy pants cake rounds. The ingredients speak for themselves. It was real good.

Y'all, today we're gonna make some peanut butter balls.

Sound and Vision - Rousseau and XTC

2009-10-26T23:08:00.011-04:00

Tropical Forest with Monkeys, Henri Rousseau
Rousseau spent his days off producing paintings like Tropical Forest with Monkeys without any formal training. To me, even an effortless, tossed-off XTC song like "I Bought Myself a Liarbird" seems as gorgeous and handmade as a Rousseau painting. It's from their 1984 album The Big Express, which was a return to their full-throated "big drum" sound after 1983's more understated Mummer (which has one of my favorite songs ever, Love on a Farmboy's Wages).

XTC - I Bought Myself a Liarbird

Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding Pie with Crème Fraîche Topping

2009-09-30T14:06:00.013-04:00

A few weeks ago I came across a recipe for chocolate pudding pie, and in the comments I found a much more complicated recipe from Bon Appétit. Guess which one I made?

This pie was exactly what I hoped it would be. It was cool and refreshing, especially with the tangy crème fraîche topping, and the cookie crumb/hardened chocolate crust was the perfect base. I adjusted the crust recipe a bit, since there wasn't quite enough of it as it was written. It also took way longer than 12 minutes to get the crust to that "dry" point, so keep an eye on it. As always, my preferred method of "finely chopping" bars of chocolate is to bash them with my rolling pin while they're still in the wrapper. When you distribute the chocolate over the crust, don't be as impatient as I was and wait a full two minutes before spreading the melted chocolate around.

As it turns out, you can easily make your own crème fraîche. Add a tablespoon of cultured buttermilk to a cup of heavy cream (both at room temperature), partially cover, and let stand at room temperature about 24 hours, or until thickened. Stir and refrigerate at least 24 hours before using. I made this at home, forgetting I had a carton of store-bought crème fraîche, but I tried both and they were pretty much indistinguishable. The cream will keep about 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Crust

1 1/2 cups chocolate wafer cookie crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
7 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao), finely chopped

Filling
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups whole milk, divided
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao), finely chopped
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping
1 cup chilled crème fraîche*
1 cup chilled heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the crust: Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 350°F. Blend cookie crumbs and sugar in processor. Add melted butter; process until crumbs are evenly moistened. Press crumb mixture onto bottom and up sides (not rim) of 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Bake until crust begins to set and no longer looks moist, pressing gently with back of fork if crust puffs, about 15 minutes. Remove crust from oven, then sprinkle chopped chocolate over bottom of crust. Let stand until chocolate softens, 1 to 2 minutes. Using offset spatula or small rubber spatula, spread chocolate over bottom and up sides of crust to cover. Chill crust until chocolate sets, about 30 minutes.

For the filling: Whisk sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt to blend in heavy medium saucepan. Gradually add 1/3 cup milk, whisking until smooth paste forms. Whisk in remaining milk, then 1/4 cup cream. Using flat-bottom wooden spoon or heatproof spatula, stir mixture constantly over medium heat, scraping bottom and sides of pan until pudding thickens and begins to bubble at edges, about 5 minutes. Add chocolate; stir until mixture is smooth. Remove from heat; stir in rum and vanilla. Pour hot pudding into crust and spread evenly. Cool 1 hour at room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap; chill overnight.

For the topping: Using electric mixer, beat crème fraîche, whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla in medium bowl just until stiff peaks form and mixture is thick enough to spread (do not overbeat or mixture may curdle). Spread topping decoratively over top of pie, swirling to create peaks, if desired.

Sound and Vision - De Chirico and Broadcast

2009-09-21T13:19:00.010-04:00

Melancholy and Mystery of a Street, Giorgio De Chirico
For me, De Chirico's dreamlike paintings are much more evocative than the abstract still lifes of other surrealists like Tanguey or Dali, and more than just about any band I can think of, Broadcast can make music that sounds like a dream. This song, an homage to a Czech movie called Valerie a týden divu, is one of my favorites from their second album, Haha Sound.

Broadcast - Valerie

Blueberry Buckle

2009-09-17T23:41:00.017-04:00

So I bought a bunch of blueberries thinking I was going to make another blueberry coffee cake, but I ended up making this one and I'm glad I did. After checking Cook's Illustrated I realized I'd never made (or heard of) a buckle, so I gave it a shot. A buckle is basically a coffee cake, and this was definitely the best buckle/coffee cake I've ever made. The blueberries, lemon zest and cinnamon go perfectly together.

The recipe only makes a little bit of dough, and I couldn't believe that a whole quart of blueberries could be folded into it, but somehow it worked out. It also took forever to bake -- more like 75 minutes than 55 -- and it could have gone longer, since the bottom was a bit gummy. I'd say give it another few minutes once a tester comes out clean.

Streusel

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (2 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch table salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), cut into 8 pieces, softened but still cool

Cake
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour ( 7 1/2 ounces)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
10 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened but still cool
2/3 cup granulated sugar (about 4 3/4 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature
4 cups fresh blueberries (about 20 ounces), picked over

For the streusel: In standing mixer fitted with flat beater, combine flour, sugars, cinnamon, and salt on low speed until well combined and no large brown sugar lumps remain, about 45 seconds. Add butter and mix on low until mixture resembles wet sand and no large butter pieces remain, about 2 1/2 minutes. Transfer streusel to small bowl and set aside.
For the cake: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9-inch round cake pan with 2-inch sides with nonstick cooking spray, line bottom with parchment or waxed paper round, and spray round; dust pan with flour and knock out excess.
Whisk flour and baking powder in small bowl to combine; set aside. In standing mixer fitted with flat beater, cream butter, sugar, salt, and lemon zest at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes; using rubber spatula, scrape down bowl. Beat in vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds. With mixer running at medium speed, add eggs one at a time; beat until partially incorporated, then scrape down bowl and continue to beat until fully incorporated (mixture will appear broken). With mixer running on low speed, gradually add flour mixture; beat until flour is almost fully incorporated, about 20 seconds. Disengage bowl from mixer; stir batter with rubber spatula, scraping bottom and sides of bowl, until no flour pockets remain and batter is homogenous; batter will be very heavy and thick. Using rubber spatula, gently fold in blueberries until evenly distributed.
Transfer batter to prepared pan; with rubber spatula, using a pushing motion, spread batter evenly to pan edges and smooth surface. Squeeze handful of streusel in hand to form large cohesive clump; break up clump with fingers and sprinkle streusel evenly over batter. Repeat with remaining streusel. Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool on wire rack 15 to 20 minutes (cake will fall slightly as it cools).
Run paring knife around sides of cake to loosen. Place upside-down plate (do not use plate or platter on which you plan to serve the cake) on top of cake pan; invert cake to remove from pan, lift off cake pan, then peel off and discard parchment. Re-invert cake onto serving platter. Cool until just warm or to room temperature, at least 1 hour. Cut into wedges and serve.

Sound and Vision - Bouguereau and Scott Walker

2009-08-22T00:22:00.030-04:00

Pieta, Adolphe-William Bouguereau
A few weeks ago I posted a Squarepusher track along with a Tchelitchew painting, and since then I've been thinking of other songs and paintings that go together. Bouguereau's "Pieta" is one of the most intense paintings I've ever seen in person. "Farmer in the City" is from Scott Walker's 1995 album, Tilt. The lyrics are from Pier Paolo Pasolini's poem, "Una tanti dialoghi" ("One of the many epilogues").

Scott Walker - Farmer in the City

Shield Street

2009-08-13T14:47:00.011-04:00

Shield Street
It's been a little under 4 months since I graduated, but despite the daily grind and almost total lack of job security, I'm still basking in the glow of not being in school any more. Every moment of freedom is like liquid heaven. These songs pretty much speak for themselves. They're about feeling stupidly happy and being free.

I love the guitar work in the Felt song and the end of Across the Shields and when Edwyn Collins quotes the guitar solo of the Buzzcocks' "Boredom" in "Rip It Up." "Bye Bye Pride" takes my breath away every time I listen to it. "Crew Filth" starts with almost everything I like, condensed into a minute, before it meanders into barely audible, nonsensical drivel. I like this image. After the big day, life goes on in its weird way.

I had a blast making this the past few months and am glad to get it out to my friends who still have some summer left to listen to it (i.e., nobody here in the bay area, where summer never begins or ends). Just unzip and drag the mp3 files into iTunes, and the album will organize itself as "Shield Street" under the "Mixes" genre.

The painting on the cover is "Support" by Sarah McKenzie.

Peach Cobbler

2009-08-09T15:18:00.021-04:00

My landlords got a big box of peaches from the farm this week and unloaded a bunch on me, so naturally I signed into Cook's Illustrated and searched for "peaches". They started with one of their archetypal problem statements:

"Bad peaches, soggy biscuits, and syrupy filling were just three of the problems we had to solve in resurrecting this simple summer dessert."

My peaches were a bit overripe, so I blanched them to speed up the peeling step, then I drew out some moisture by soaking them in sugar for half an hour. Combining a portion of the peach juice with some cornstarch or arrowroot and lemon juice thickens the syrup and brightens the flavor of the peaches. I made some very simple biscuits and placed them on the peaches after they had baked for about 10 minutes. I'm not the biggest fruit dessert fan, but I loved this cobbler. It's easy and flexible. (I had to use Greek yogurt, because I didn't have any whole-milk yogurt on hand, and it worked fine.) Next time I'll have some vanilla ice cream.

Filling

2 1/2 pounds peaches , ripe but firm (6 to 7 medium)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice from 1 lemon
pinch table salt

Biscuit Topping
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (5 ounces)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold), cut into cubes
1/3 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Cube the butter and hold in the freezer while preparing the peaches and biscuits.
For the filling: Peel peaches, then halve and pit each. Using small spoon, scoop out and discard dark flesh from pit area. Cut each half into wedges. Gently toss peaches and sugar together in large bowl; let stand for 30 minutes, tossing several times. Drain peaches in colander set over large bowl. Whisk 1/4 cup of drained juice (discard extra), cornstarch, lemon juice, and salt together in small bowl. Toss peach juice mixture with peach slices and transfer to 8-inch-square glass baking dish. Bake until peaches begin to bubble around edges, about 10 minutes.
For the topping: While peaches are baking, in food processor, pulse flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to combine. Scatter butter over and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, about ten 1-second pulses. Transfer to medium bowl; add yogurt and toss with rubber spatula until cohesive dough is formed. (Don't overmix dough or biscuits will be tough.) Break dough into 6 evenly sized but roughly shaped mounds and set aside.
To assemble and bake: After peaches have baked 10 minutes, remove peaches from oven and place dough mounds on top, spacing them at least 1/2 inch apart (they should not touch). Sprinkle each mound with portion of remaining 1 teaspoon sugar. Bake until topping is golden brown and fruit is bubbling, 16 to 18 minutes. Cool cobbler on wire rack until warm, about 20 minutes; serve.

Sound and Vision - Tchelitchew and Squarepusher

2009-07-24T13:58:00.032-04:00

Interior Landscape, Pavel Tchelitchew
"Dreaded Pestilence" is a song from a long-out-of-print album by Squarepusher (in this case, "Chaos A.D.") called Buzz Caner. As a collection of leftover tracks and sketches, it reminds me of Ovuca's first release, but with a lot more phase shifting and white noise. This incredibly brutal track is my favorite. You can download the whole album here.

Chaos A.D. - Dreaded Pestilence

Minimal

2009-07-10T17:36:00.012-04:00

Minimal

I've been wanting to make this compilation for about 8 months and working on it on and off since February. My friend in NC just had his birthday and passed his prelims, so I finally had a good reason to put some extra work into it. It's basically the opposite of the post-doc compilation I'll be putting up soon. If you don't like ascetic minimal house, you will probably hate this, but what can I say? I love it, and this sort of music constitutes most of the the "new" stuff I listen to nowadays. The little chime in "Catchy DAAD" sends chills up my spine. All the mp3s are tagged, and if you drag them into iTunes, they'll organize themselves under the "Mixes" genre as "Minimal".

The photo of laser-cut steel is courtesy of Elijah Porter (Yale School of Architecture) and BLDGBLOG.

An Antiquity of Imagination

2009-07-10T14:51:00.005-04:00

The New York Times has posted a gorgeous slideshow of Venetian Renaissance sculpture currently on display at the National Gallery of Art. Articles like this are why I'd gladly pay $5 to access nytimes.com.

The State I Am In

2009-07-08T00:25:00.011-04:00

Oh love of mine, would you condescend to help me
'Cause I'm stupid and blind...

I'm very close to finishing my post-graduation compilation (4 months now?) but was so struck by this that I had to share. I was a big Belle & Sebastian fan in high school (I know, I should have been listening to Bad Brains), and I haven't listened to them much since, but after hearing this song today I was reminded of how great they were and are.

Belle & Sebastian - The State I Am In

post-doc

2009-04-28T21:36:00.046-04:00

It's hard to believe, but I'm actually finally done with school. I did some therapeutic baking over the past few weeks (nothing makes you feel in control like weighing out flour and chopped chocolate) and the results were very good.

The first of two Cook's Illustrated cakes I made was a vegan chocolate cake. I'm not vegan, but I think vegan baking makes for a fun challenge. I've had some great experiences with vegan chocolate cakes in the past, and there is a glint of satisfaction from giving someone a slice of vegan cake that doesn't taste like Play-Doh. So I was excited to find out that Cook's Illustrated spent two months making over 100 cakes and 23 batches of icing to come up with something they could stand behind. As always, the most important things you can do when making a cake are to get some parchment paper, baking spray, and an oven thermometer and to pay attention to temperatures!

Vegan Chocolate Cake
For the cake:

1 and 2/3 cups natural large-crystal cane sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
1/3 cup natural cocoa
1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup hot brewed coffee
1 cup light coconut milk
2 tablespoons cider or white wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup vegan butter substitute

For the frosting:

Two 10-ounce packages vegan or other semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup hot brewed coffee
4 tablespoons boiling water
1/2 cup light coconut milk
4 ounces silken tofu

Cake directions:

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with non-stick cooking spray; set aside.
Process sugar in a food processor to a fine powder, 30 to 40 seconds. Sift sugar, flours, baking soda and salt into a large bowl, then whisk to combine.
Combine cocoas and chocolate in a large bowl and cover with hot coffee; whisk until smooth.
Combine coconut milk, vinegar and vanilla in large measuring cup. Place vegan butter substitute in a medium bowl. Add coconut milk mixture in two additions, whisking until smooth after each.
Add vegan butter-coconut milk mixture to the chocolate mixture and whisk to combine, then add this mixture to dry ingredients and fold gently with rubber spatula until just incorporated and no streaks of flour remain.
Divide batter evenly between cake pans and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, switching position of and rotating pans after 12 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours.

Frosting directions:

Place chocolate chips in a medium bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Pour hot coffee and boiling water over chips, then whisk until smooth. Whisk in coconut milk until incorporated.
Process chocolate mixture and tofu in food processor until smooth and combined, 10 to 15 seconds, scraping down bowl once or twice.
Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until cool and texture resembles firm cream cheese, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. (If mixture has chilled for longer and is very stiff, let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.)
Transfer cooled chocolate mixture to the bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Whip mixture at high speed until fluffy, mousse-like, and the mixture forms medium stiff peaks, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes.
To assemble, invert cakes from their pans. Spread a dab of frosting in center of a cardboard round cut slightly larger than a cake. Place one cake, centered, on the cardboard round. The frosting helps hold it in place. Using an icing spatula, spread about 1 cup frosting evenly onto the top of the first cake. Place the second cake on top of frosted bottom layer and spread about 1 cup frosting on top. Cover sides of cake with remaining frosting.

I made this for my belated housewarming party that ended up being incredibly fun, despite two of my best friends' (whose turnkey social groups have been invaluable) being unable to come. It was super dense and at least as good as any chocolate cake I've made, least of all the Grit's chocolate vegan death cake. A little labor intensive, but worth it, if only to put a dent in the Play Doh vegan cake hegemony. This is one of those cakes that's especially good chilled.

The second cake I made was for my friend's birthday party. Once I found out she wanted yellow cake with chocolate icing I couldn't wait to get to it. I've been wanting to make Cook's Illustrated's version for months.

Fluffy Yellow Cake
For the cake:

2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 c sugar (12 1/4 ounces)
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 c buttermilk, room temperature
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks, room temperature
3 large egg whites, room temperature

For the frosting:

20 Tbsp (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (60 to 65 degrees)
1 c confectioners' sugar (4 ounces)
3/4 c Dutch-processed cocoa
pinch table salt
3/4 c light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz milk chocolate, melted and cooled slightly

Cake directions:

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch-wide by 2-inch-high round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper. Grease paper rounds, dust pans with flour, and knock out excess. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 1 1/2 cups sugar together in large bowl. In 4-cup liquid measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and yolks.
In clean bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites at medium-high speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. With machine running, gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar; continue to beat until stiff peaks just form, 30 to 60 seconds (whites should hold peak but mixture should appear moist). Transfer to bowl and set aside.
Add flour mixture to now-empty mixing bowl fitted with whisk attachment. With mixer running at low speed, gradually pour in butter mixture and mix until almost incorporated (a few streaks of dry flour will remain), about 15 seconds. Stop mixer and scrape whisk and sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium-low speed and beat until smooth and fully incorporated, 10 to 15 seconds.
Using rubber spatula, stir 1/3 of whites into batter to lighten, then add remaining whites and gently fold into batter until no white streaks remain. Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans. Lightly tap pans against counter 2 or 3 times to dislodge any large air bubbles.
Bake until cake layers begin to pull away from sides of pans and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen cakes from sides of pans with small knife, then invert onto greased wire rack and peel off parchment. Invert cakes again and cool completely on rack, about 1 1/2 hours.

Frosting directions:

In food processor, process butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt until smooth, about 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Add corn syrup and vanilla and process until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl, then add chocolate and pulse until smooth and creamy, 10 to 15 seconds.
The frosting can be made 3 hours in advance. For longer storage, refrigerate the frosting, covered, and let it stand at room temperature for 1 hour before using.

There was another cake at the party that was almost exactly identical to this one, but I have to give it to CI - this really did taste like the best cake mix cake ever, and totally homemade. Here's a quick snapshot of the slightly mangled results.

So yeah, hi from San Francisco! We're having a cake auction next month at the office, and if I'm in town I'll probably be making something overly complicated.

Time enough at last...

2009-04-15T21:24:00.010-04:00

In about a week I'll start cooking for myself, exercising, and doing other normal things that normal people do, because I'll be done with 23 years of school.

I did manage to make a cake a couple weeks ago for a new friend's birthday, and I'll try to put that up here sooner rather than later.

Contrails

2009-01-09T22:46:00.013-05:00

"Loss is nothing but change, and change is nature's delight."
Marcus Aurelius

This week I said goodbye to Durham to start a new job in the Bay area. Goodbyes have always been hard for me, and, as it is with everything else, music has been an important means for me to understand and express how much I'll miss everybody. I spent the past few months making a mixtape, and here it is.

Contrails
If you download the zip file, open it up, and drag the files into iTunes, the songs will organize themselves under the "Mixes" genre as the album "Contrails".

Perfect Pecan Pie

2008-09-07T11:08:00.009-04:00

I love how Cook's Illustrated is all business.

"The Problem: Pecan pies can be overwhelmingly sweet, with no real pecan flavor, and they too often turn out curdled and separated. What's more, the weepy filling turns the bottom crust soggy and leathery. The fact that the undercrust usually seems underbaked to begin with doesn't help matters.

The Goal: To create a recipe for a not-too-sweet pie with a smooth-textured, curdleproof filling and a properly baked bottom crust.

The Solution: Use a combination of dark brown sugar and light corn syrup for a classic praline flavor. To prevent a soggy bottom crust, heat the filling and add it to a hot prebaked crust, and to prevent curdling, cook the pie in a slow oven until almost done, then allow residual heat to finish the baking."

This recipe from Cook's Illustrated was, of course, one of the best pecan pies I've ever eaten. If you're as fastidious about recipes as I am, joining cooksillustrated.com is entirely worth it.

It looks big enough, right? Wrong.

Should have made two.

The Mythical Horizon

2008-08-24T22:10:00.025-04:00

In 1924, a couple of years before he died, Gabriel Fauré wrote a four-song cycle called "L'horizon chimérique" ("The Mythical Horizon"). It's a beautiful eight minutes of music. Click here for the whole translated text (which is poetry by Jean de la Ville de Mirmont) and some discussion.

I. La mer est infinie (The Sea Is Infinite)
II. Je me suis embarqué (I Set Sail)
III. Diane, Séléné (Diana, Goddess)
IV. Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés en pure perte (Ships, We Shall Have Loved You in Vain)

Ships, we shall have loved you in vain;
The last of you are all gone on the sea.
Sunset brings so many open sails
That this port and my heart are forever deserted.

The sea has returned you to your destiny
Beyond the shores where our steps halt.
We could not keep your sails enchained;
You must have far-away places that I do not know.

I am among those whose desires are on land.
The wind which intoxicates you fills my heart with fear,
But your call, in the depth of the nights, makes me despair,
For I have great departures unsatisfied in me.

Gabriel Fauré

New Romantics on WXDU

2008-07-23T22:27:00.011-04:00

This past weekend my good friend and general manager at WXDU and I hosted a special one hour show loosely centered on the New Romantic movement. More accurately, it's a bunch of melodramatic songs, mostly British, from the late 70s and early 80s, but rest assured that most of these bands wore lots of makeup. We called the show "His Mascara Is Running". If you listen closely you can hear me misuse the word "iconoclastic" for the thousandth time and totally fail to mention Japan's name after blathering about how awesome they were. Here are the tracks we played:

Tears for Fears - The Hurting
Fun Boy Three - Our Lips Are Sealed
Echo and the Bunnymen - The Back of Love
Ultravox - Dancing with Tears in My Eyes
Tuxedomoon - In a Manner of Speaking
Depeche Mode - New Dress
ABC - Poison Arrow
Visage - Fade to Grey
Icicle Works - Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - She's Leaving
The Sound - Total Recall
Peter Godwin - Images of Heaven
Japan - Life in Tokyo (12" version)

You can download the broadcast from sendspace here.

Steve Strange of Visage

Sharing Is Caring

2008-07-11T19:09:00.012-04:00

Listening: Gas - Nah Und Fern

Reading: Five Women (Musil)

Watching: Western Spaghetti (Pes)

Baking: Pear Bread

Summer music

2008-06-08T12:17:00.021-04:00

Since it's now 130 degrees by 10 am here in North Carolina, I thought it would be an appropriate time to share some music.

Summertime (2008)

I've been putting this compilation together for the past few months. The compressed file includes the songs, tracklisting and cover art. The mp3s are all tagged, so if you just drag them into iTunes they should organize themselves in the Mixes genre as an album called "Summertime". Download from sendspace here.

The Congos - Heart of the Congos (1977)

I don't know much about reggae, but this is my favorite I've ever heard (alongside Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey). Apparently it's Lee "Scratch" Perry's production masterpiece -- the perfect mix of songwriting and dub genius. Allmusic.com has a good writeup here.

The Savages - Live 'n Wild (1966)

Awesome garage album by some kids from Bermuda. Long writeup and download link here.

Visualizing Music

2008-05-14T14:21:00.005-04:00

"All of a sudden it hit me -- if there was such a thing as composing music, there could be such a thing as composing motion. After all, there are melodic figures. Why can't there be figures of motion?"
--Len Lye

I've always been interested in animated interpretations of music, and partly for my own sake I wanted to put some of my favorites here. Although I don't have much exposure to this area of film, the earliest examples of animated music I've seen have been the experimental films of Len Lye and Oskar Fischinger.

Len Lye's A Colour Box (1935)

Len Lye made "direct film" -- film made without a camera -- by scratching and painting individual frames of celluoid. I can only imagine how grueling this process must have been, but the results speak for themselves.

Oskar Fischinger's Studie #8 (1932)

Like Len Lye, Oskar Fischinger's films were totally abstract visualizations of sound, albeit much more stripped down and traditionally produced. He designed the "Toccata and Fugue in d" sequence for Fantasia but quit after Disney's animators made his designs too representational.

György Ligeti's Artikulation (1958/1970)

Sometimes animation can help us interpret music that would otherwise be almost totally inaccessible. This "visual listening score" for an early electronic composition by Ligeti is a good example of using discretization for musical analysis. Animating the score and allowing the audience to anticipate the seemingly random tones somehow grounds the whole experience and makes it almost participatory.

Autechre's Gantz Graf (2002)

Aphex Twin/Chris Cunningham's Monkey Drummer (2001)

Dense electronic music lends itself well to visualisation for the same reason that the Ligeti animation works so well. When music as incredibly complicated as Gantz Graf is set to perfectly synched animation, the editing and artistry in both the music and the visuals really shine through.

John Coltrane's Giant Steps (1959/2001)

For someone as jazz-illiterate as I am, this encompasses the imagination and vitality of a piece like "Giant Steps" and packages it in such an immediate, engaging way that I start to understand how much of a genuis John Coltrane was. That's a pretty huge achievement for an animated short. (High quality version here)

Larry Cuba's Calculated Movements (1985)

Sometimes animation and music work togeter just to create a mood, and I wanted to end this post with one of my favorite examples of that. Coincidentally, Larry Cuba did the very early computer animation that was used in the first Star Wars movie. He's done some other beautiful films too.

Chocolate Chip Cookies, and a really good margarita

2008-05-07T18:48:00.013-04:00

I already posted the recipe for my "favorite" cookies but that was sort of a lie. My go-to recipe for blended oatmeal chocolate chip cookies is below. I've made these so many times that they're down to a science and recently I started experimenting with the chocolate. I figured, rightly, that chocolate that is good straight up would also make good chocolate chip cookies. To this end I got my favorite eating chocolate (Green & Black's Maya Gold) along with a couple bars of high cocoa content Ghirardelli and followed protocol:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 ½ cups blended oatmeal

2 cups flour

½ tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

12 oz dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 375, or in my case 380, since my oven lies and my thermometer tells me so.

Cream together butter and sugars at high speed until fluffy. Set mixer to low and add eggs and vanilla.

Put about 2 cups of rolled oats in a blender and chop until fine, repeating with another ~2 cups until you have 2 ½ total cups of blended oats. Whisk dry ingredients together or combine in food processor.

Add dry ingredients until just combined. Make sure to incorporate the dough well since a lot of the dry material will fall through to the bottom. Mix in the chocolate and spoon out onto a jelly roll pan. Bake for 10-12 min and move to a cooling rack.

Equipment is usually a convenience, not a necessity, but whenever I make cookies I always use my aluminum jelly roll pan. It never needs to be greased and always does the job. This recipe makes a lot of cookies... 3 dozen maybe?

And the picture below is the beginning of a really good margarita.

Lemon Macadamia Cupcakes

2008-04-11T09:23:00.016-04:00

I made a small, obligatory step towards finishing the cookbook last week: lemon macadamia. After adding a handful of white chocolate chunks, they turned out great. The clean taste of the lemons shone through and the creamy macadamias/white chocolate pairing gave them a really rich base. I took them to a rainy kickball/beer get together and luckily got my hands on one before they were all gone.

I also made some incredible blueberry mascarpone crepes a few weeks ago. Seriously, if you ever want to make some sweet crepes, these will knock you on your ass, but be warned -- there's enough dairy fat in these to drop a mule. Thanks Emeril!

Bam!

Music from 2008

2008-03-19T12:33:00.026-04:00

Neon Neon -- Stainless Style

Neon Neon is the latest side project by Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) and LA producer Boom Bip -- an homage to the life and times of John DeLorean. Hilarious subject matter, shiny 80's-rivivalist production, Gruff's crooning -- even though it's disposable, there are a couple of really catchy songs. By far my favorite is "Dream Girls," which is ostensibly about DeLorean growing up in Detroit.

Autechre -- Quaristice

If you don't already like Autechre you probably won't be overly excited about their new album, but I love it. It's similar to some of their earlier music in that it's more accessible than their later stuff, but the diversity and looseness is definitely informed by some of their more impenetrable albums from this decade. As hard as it is to make not-insipid guitar music, imagine how hard it must be to make electronic music as emotional as "Simmm".

Listen to "Simmm" by Autechre

Portishead -- Third

The most exciting new music I've heard in ages -- probably since the last Broadcast album, or Panda Bear -- is Portishead's amazing third album, coming out in April. It's so coherent, well-written, and unapologetically, intensely dark, without ever approaching morose self-indulgence, that it's easily my favorite of their albums. Any band confident enough to release a song like "Machine Gun" as a single is doing something right.

Listen to "We Carry On" and "Machine Gun" by Portishead

And not to belabor the point, but it's still hard to believe how much I love Talk Talk's The Colour of Spring.

Talk Talk -- Give It Up

Siouxsie and Talk Talk

2008-03-07T12:00:00.006-05:00

I've probably already gushed about how much I love John McGeoch (Magazine, Siouxsie & the Banshees, late PiL) but I figured I would post another example of why he was such an amazing guitarist ("Into the Light"). "Dazzle" features Robert Smith (the Cure) on guitar and is another favorite Siouxsie & the Banshees song, post-McGeoch.

Into the Light
(Juju, 1981)

Dazzle
(Hyæna, 1984)

Of all the 80s bands I love, I think Talk Talk were the most ahead of their time. Their last three albums are beautifully arranged and performed. "I Believe in You" is one of my favorite songs (and videos) ever.

Happiness is Easy
(The Colour of Spring, 1986)

I Believe in You
(Spirit of Eden, 1988)

Massive Cooking Backlog

2008-03-05T19:09:00.013-05:00

To be honest, all the recipes I've linked in this entry except for the homemade nutella are baked and generally terrible for you, so this isn't so much a cooking backlog as it is a butter backlog. A few weeks ago I got a Le Creuset dutch oven for super, super cheap on craigslist and the first thing I made was no-knead bread from my new favorite magazine, Cook's Illustrated. Here's the lone photo from the past few weeks:

This is absolutely one of the easiest, most awesome things I've ever made if you can't tell from the photo. Perfect bread with zero effort. This bread is a great template for homemade nutella -- as long as you're not expecting something as smooth as commercial nutella, it's great. No hydrogenated oils and 3x more hazelnuts than commercial nutella. And speaking of Cook's Illustrated, the latest issue has something of a holy grail for me: the best yellow cake/chocolate icing recipe ever. I know how embarrassing that sounds, but it's my favorite kind of cake and it's great to finally have a recipe that works so well.

A couple other recipes I can recommend: chocolate cinnamon bread, which is just a stupid name for amazing spiced brownies. This took way, way longer to bake than suggested. Making it in a 9x9 worked much better than a loaf pan, and this would probably work best of all. I think the key to this recipe is grinding the whole cloves and cinnamon sticks in a spice grinder. Finally:

equals maple bacon cupcakes. I was invited to a potluck put on by some foodies who have a weakness for pork-y desserts, so I decided to step up to the plate. Yes, collecting bacon drippings was pretty gross for me, but I have to admit they were delicious, if sort of breakfasty.

radio show at WXDU

2008-02-04T10:26:00.001-05:00

So I'm starting a regular show Tuesday afternoons from 2 to 4 pm on WXDU here at Duke, and this morning I had a fun hour proving to my training DJ that I knew how to work the boards etc. Anyway here are a couple sets from this morning that give an idea of what to expect if you ever want to tune in. Don't miss the part when I give out the incorrect phone number for the station (twice). I'm a professional!

Download Set A

P.I.L. -- Public Image
Scrotum Poles -- Helicopter Honeymoon
The Whigs -- Like a Vibration
The Victors -- Scotch Mist
Pylon -- Volume
Ricky & the Impressionables Band -- Baco Walk
UT -- Sham Shack
The Fall -- Why Are People Grudgeful?

Download Set B

Takako Minekawa -- Plash
Plaid -- Diddymousedid
XTC -- English Roundabout
Kazino -- Binary
Xiu Xiu -- Under Pressure
The Plimsouls -- Lost Time

"Lost Time" is one of those songs that should be on the radio somewhere in the world at all times. (Sendspace links are dead -- I'd be happy to re-post if requested.)

new music!

2008-02-02T01:44:00.001-05:00

Super Furry Animals were my favorite band in high school. They're an "innovative, weird and endlessly enjoyable" Welsh group, and their latest album is my favorite of theirs since the late 90s. Here is a write-up about some recent reissues that hits the high points of one of the best pop groups of the past 15 years. One of their most famous songs is "The Man Don't Give a Fuck," which samples Steely Dan's "Show Biz Kids" and was their concert closer for ages. In 2004 they released a vinyl-only 20 minute live version from a show they played at the Hammerstein Ballroom, featuring a massive house breakdown in the middle of the song, c/o their amazing keyboardist Cian Ciarán (who's also 1/2 of Acid Casuals). I digitized it for easy access and posted it below.

Download "The Man Don't Give a Fuck" Live @ the Hammerstein Ballroom

Clark came out with a new album this week called Turning Dragon -- way more aggressive than his previous stuff but from my first impressions it sounds great.

Bochum Welt recently came out with a vinyl sampler for his upcoming album, "Robotic Operating Buddy," and I've really been enjoying the main track (Interlude (Mix 2)). You can hear a sample of this "lilting mid-90's padded breakbeat track" on boomkat or just download the whole thing here.

Two more things: next time you make hot chocolate at home, be sure to add some Cointreau. And in case you needed your faith in the internet restored, just watch this.

Cooking backlog

2008-01-16T12:37:00.001-05:00

By request, I made some cashew butter cardamom cupcakes this week -- not being a huge nut butter fan these weren't my favorites, and opening up each cardamom pod individually was a pain, but they turned out really aromatic and interesting. The frosting was way ugly because apparently you have to chop up powdered soymilk in the food processor first, or you get little pellets in the frosting (this was stressful).

Next, I made my favorite cookies for like the sixth time and was reminded to undercook them.

Double Chocolate Espresso Cashew Cookies

2 sticks softened butter
1 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp instant espresso powder (instant coffee works too)
2 c AP flour (280 g)
2/3 c cocoa (65 g) (not Dutch-process)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 c unsalted cashews, toasted and chopped
3/4 c semisweet chocolate chips (I like the 60% Ghirardelli stuff)

Preheat oven to 325. Cream butter and sugars, add eggs and vanilla and espresso powder slowly. Sift together dry ingredients, mix into creamed butter/sugar, and stir in cashews and chocolate chips. Scoop the dough onto a jelly roll pan (I use a spring-loaded ice cream scoop, leveling it off before unloading it onto the pan for uniformity), bake for 19 or 20 minutes, and let cool on a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes. By the way, this was stolen from The Great Book of Chocolate.

The real event was finally getting to make panettone french toast, which is as good as it sounds. The recipe for the wash is pretty involved -- in my mind, the more ingredients the better the flavor -- but the technique is straight Alton Brown: stale the panettone slices for at least 24 hours ahead of time, just barely dredge the slices in the wash, cook on a griddle, and hold in the oven until ready to serve. Panettone is way harder to work with than stale challah, but the flavor is pretty amazing (especially with maple syrup and mascarpone cheese). And yes, that is sriracha all over my eggs.

2008

2008-01-02T22:23:00.001-05:00

Just dust yourself off
The promise of a new year
Singing north charleston

photo: Jenn, haiku: Andy

Red Velvet Cake

2007-12-17T20:39:00.000-05:00

Made a red velvet cake for my friend's birthday (doubling the food coloring and cocoa powder, skipping the berries) and it turned out beautifully:

His name's actually Money, hence the dollar sign. Like all red velvet cakes, this was a delivery device for cream cheese icing (ingredients: cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar). Nutrition!

The Sound -- Total Recall

2007-12-05T13:57:00.002-05:00

The best, most under-appreciated band I've heard in a long time. These two videos are basically a summary of what I love in post-punk/new wave music.

This is a much better article on The Sound than anything I could write, and this is a live performance of a single of theirs called "Hothouse":

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes, Hot Sauce-Glazed Tempeh

2007-11-25T18:35:00.000-05:00

Not that these are supposed to go together, but they were both pretty tasty. I made the cupcakes a few weeks ago for my friend's post-marathon dinner potluck. She's one of the most athletic people I know but inexplicably this was her first race ever. She's also a gourmand (although she's eaten fromage de tête), so the potluck was great. The cupcakes weren't as good as the maple pie but they were alright -- nothing special. The frosting was fun though.
The hot sauce-glazed tempeh, courtesy of Isa's new tome, was awesome. Apparently the secret to tempeh is to boil it before doing anything with it. All that weird fishiness gets cooked off, and when you're marinating it in Valentina you're guaranteed it's going to be delicious. It was perfect with some mashed sweet potato (de-veganized with some dairy butter).

The Go-Betweens

2007-11-25T16:52:00.000-05:00

The Go-Betweens were an Australian pop band from the 80's that were kind of like the Smiths, but less maudlin, more varied, and even more genuinely affecting. Of course the Smiths had one of the greatest guitarists of all time, but that's another issue. Here's one of Grant McLennan's best songs, "Bye Bye Pride," from their 1987 album Talullah.

I tried to go chronologically with these guys, but Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express and especially 16 Lovers Lane are so good that their earlier albums were sort of passed over. The allmusic.com review of 16 Lovers Lane describes Grant McLennan's "refined yet primal emotional transference" as just one of the amazing things about the album. That being said, the Go-Betweens would still be one of my favorite bands if they had only written "Cattle and Cane" and broken up the next day.

Japan -- Adolescent Sex (1978)

2007-11-04T22:33:00.000-05:00

Once in a while you hear a band that reminds you that there's more amazing music out there than you'll probably ever hear, and in my case, that most of it came out before 1985.

It's hard to believe that this was 30 years ago. What is it that makes this stuff so special?

(Birthday) S'mores Cupcakes

2007-10-28T23:23:00.000-04:00

On my birthday I had three things on my mind:

Being luckier than I deserve, a couple of awesome people I know came through with all of them -- we drank some scotch, made S'mores cupcakes, and watched Bio-Dome (and Night of the Living Dead (first time!)). Bio-Dome was really, really good. And really funny. I can't believe those two guys threw a party inside the biodome! I liked when their girlfriends made them feel bad for trashing the biodome and they cleaned it up because they eventually cared about environmental stuff but they still knew how to party. Night of the Living Dead was okay but it was in black and white (boring!) and the special effects were really crappy. The zombies weren't scary at all -- they just looked like normal people walking funny. I mean come on!

The S'mores cupcakes were probably my favorite so far. They were so easy to make, so much tastier than actual s'mores, and warm (mmmmm). The only bad part was the dumbness of the word "s'more". If my friends' reactions were any indication, these were definitely the best Isa creation yet. 10 out or 10 pairs of juggling sticks.

Music Project 1

2007-10-14T15:09:00.002-04:00

This week I'm planning to make some more cupcakes (S'mores?) but in the meantime I wanted to give this a shot. I've been working on a mix CD for a while and this is how it turned out.

It's not too lengthy (50 min), but it's not much fun either. If I end up making another CD and posting it up here, I promise it won't be this maudlin. All the mp3 files are already tagged -- just drag them into iTunes and the album will be listed as "One Stone" in the Mixes genre. I made a liner as well -- it's included in the zip file. Just cut along the lines.

Download from sendspace here.

The Chameleons (and Scritti Politti)

2007-10-03T21:59:00.000-04:00

I've done a lot of baking posts lately and figured I could unload some music. First a short list of albums that I've bought in the past two weeks:

A Place to Bury Strangers -- s/t (2007)
Arovane -- Tides (2000)
Arovane -- Lilies (2003)
The Chameleons -- Script of the Bridge (1983)
The Chameleons -- Strange Times (1986)
Mekons -- OOOH! (Out Of Our Heads!) (2002)
Mekons -- Natural (2007)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds -- The Boatman's Call (1997)
Public Image Ltd. -- Metal Box (1979)
Scritti Politti -- Cupid & Psyche 85 (1985)

I would go on and on about how much I've gotten into the Scritti Politti album -- the immaculate songwriting, the sumptuous arrangements, the clever lyrics -- but the first 20 seconds of the video for my favorite song on that album (Absolute) will show you why I don't want to get into it here. I've embarrassed myself enough by starting a blog about cupcakes. To their credit, Scritti Politti basically kick-started the DIY movement in Britain in the late 70's by printing the manufacturing costs on their self-made record sleeves, and they went from awesome art-school experimentalism to synth pop very purposefully. I'll just say that Cupid & Psyche 85 is the earliest and (no coincidence) by far best example of the kind of maximalist sound for which Basement Jaxx has been getting so much credit, and I'm not the only one who likes it.

I've really enjoyed all of the above albums (OOOH! is incredible), but the real star is the first Chameleons album, Script of the Bridge.

Mark Burgess and co. spent two years gigging and doing radio sessions before they felt ready to record their debut, and all their preparation really paid off. Anthemic, haunting, alienated, and beautiful -- Script of the Bridge epitomizes some of the best aspects of post-punk. If there were any justice in the world, The Chameleons would have been at least as big as U2.

Icons

2007-10-02T19:15:00.000-04:00

John Lydon

Mark E Smith

Howard Devoto

Hazelnut Cupcakes with Hazelnut Mocha Mousse

2007-09-28T11:39:00.000-04:00

My friend Amy commissioned these after she told me she likes "hazelnut... and mocha" desserts. Although they were the most unbelievably expensive cupcakes you'd ever want to make, these were definitely a rung up the fancy baking ladder from the exploded Oreo cupcakes a couple of posts back. The hazelnut meal and Frangelico went a long way to deliver an amazing depth of hazelnutty flavor, and the meal in particular gave them a great texture. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to inject the filling without totally destroying the structure of the cupcake, but practice makes perfect.

I did finally figure out how to make sure the tops stayed nice and bulbous (be really, really gentle with them as you take them out of the oven and let them cool completely), which made the ganache-ing much less messy this time around. The mousse filling was great (I mixed some extra into some soymilk last night... mmmmm) but honestly it would have been a lot richer with some heavy cream. Vegans!

I overbaked them a little (paranoid about the tops falling) but they were still delicious. 9 Ankh necklaces out of 10.

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

2007-09-19T16:01:00.000-04:00

So I passed my prelims yesterday, and I got to wondering how an emasculated hipster would celebrate getting one step closer to a largely inconsequential degree. The answer: putting on some PiL and baking some beer-infused cupcakes.

The chocolate stout cupcakes were much, much easier than the Boston creme pie ones, and the substitution of a chocolate crumb topping (dusted with powdered sugar) for homemade frosting made the whole process, baking time included, about 45 minutes. I was pretty amazed at how moist and fluffy these were -- I may just have much better luck with oil-based cakes than margarine-based ones -- and the crumb topping is a great change of pace.

The stout flavor was understated to say the least (although that may be because I was drinking while baking), and at the end of the day it's more of a chocolate muffin than a cupcake, but still, another great chocolate gut bomb courtesy of Isa. At least 7.5 commune pamphlets out of 10.

Brooklyn vs. Boston Creme Pie Cakes (Round 1)

2007-09-19T16:00:00.000-04:00

Anything that even approximates Boston Creme Pie gets my immediate approval, so you can imagine how excited I was about making these. First, the good news -- Boston creme pies taste good, and stuff that tastes sort of like Boston creme pie tastes good.

These were a big step up process-wise from the previous cakes, and these were definitely a learning experience. Not nearly as good as they could have been, but next time they'll be killer.

That first photo is Exhibit A: as soon as I took these out of the oven, they collapsed from being perfect little bulbous ganache-ready tops to deflated, rubbery membranes that weren't ready for a damn thing. According to Isa, I probably over-mixed the fats and sugars -- something that doesn't happen when cutting sugar into butter, but apparently does happen with margarine. And I may have overmixed the batter in the KitchenAid.

I also tried to yellow up the cupcakes by cooking some turmeric into the soymilk before curdling it as suggested by Isa, which only served to cook down the milk and make the cakes kind of congealed and weird-like. The biggest disaster was the creme filling, which wasn't nearly the pudding consistency it was supposed to be, but rather totally liquid -- apparently, the problem was using agar flakes instead of powder. Time to troll the internet. Surprisingly, it set up within the cupcakes in the fridge, but you could hardly fit any inside with the creme pouring everywhere.

So next time:

Skip the turmeric trick

Get a hold of some agar powder

Ease up on the margarine man-handling

I'll definitely be giving these another shot.

Cookies and Creme Cupcakes

2007-09-14T18:19:00.001-04:00

I finally got to make another batch of cupcakes today after a couple weeks of traveling. This time around: Cookies and Creme. Definitely on the short list of cupcakes I was looking forward to making, and a good chance to try out Your Basic Chocolate Cupcake (the chocolate variation on the Golden Vanilla Cupcake from last time around).

The cupcakes themselves were dead easy to make, since the recipe called for canola oil instead of margarine. Pulsing cookies in the food processor is always fun too. The frosting was just the fluffy vanilla stuff from last time around, but with the addition of Newman-O cookie crumbs. So, so much tastier than just the plain frosting.

I got to use my fancy new pastry bag and decorating tips for the first time with these guys, but I learned the hard way that you really have to chop the hell out of the cookies before you incorporate them into the frosting. I still had some small cookie chunks, which plugged up the decorating tip and forced me to transfer all the frosting into an alternate bag with successively larger tips. Frosting got all ove the place during this process, which is why I am on a diabeetus-inducing sugar high right now. Unfortunately I had to use the large-mouthed round tip, which makes for ugly cupcakes compared to the star tips (ugly cupcakes not pictured).

All in all, so much better than the first set. I love cookies and creme, and these cupcakes are basically a cookies and creme gut bomb -- exactly what I hoped for. Definitely a solid 8.5 peace frogs out of 10.

Coming on Sunday: Brooklyn vs. Boston Creme Pie Cakes!

P.S.: Turns out I'm a bigger fan of these than my cupcake disposal unit friends -- they preferred the last round with chocolate icing. Could be due to the fact that those cupcakes were margarine/shortening-based and these were oil-based (they were a little more moist). Good thing the Boston creme pie cupcakes are the same cupcake base as the first batch.

Music from 2007 so far

2007-09-10T22:29:00.000-04:00

There has been some good music this year, but of course most of it fell way short of my nonsensical elitist standards. However, a few releases have really amazed me. If you, like me, don't have the time or patience to wade through Internet Person X's top 75 favorite albums from 2007 (in very particular order), then this is for you. Three albums that are awesome and that you probably won't like (except for the Panda Bear album).

Cylob -- Trojan Fader Style

Cylob was one of the first artists to get signed to Rephlex (RDJ's braindance label) and has been making great electronic music for 15 years. "Trojan Fader Style" is an hour-long album, consisting of one herculean track of squelchy electronic music. It's also surprisingly listenable -- I've gone through the whole album probably seven or eight times so far and it just keeps getting better. Cylob's released a bunch of stuff the past couple of months (including a couple of much more downbeat albums, Formant Potaton and Bounds Green), but if only from a technical standpoint this is my favorite.

Panda Bear -- Person Pitch

There's no reason you should want to listen to this if you've heard either Panda Bear's borderline unlistenable previous album or anything he's ever done with his other band (Animal Collective). That being said, this album is amazing. Along with Quinoline Yellow, my favorite new music of the past few years. Gorgeous 3- or 4- or 5- part overdubbed harmonies and a really joyous, tribal sense of warmth (yes, I know how bad that sounds). It's all a little strange, but thankfully he tapped into something special in each song and let it breathe. Apparently Noah Lennox listened to a lot of minimal electronic music while making "Person Pitch," which sort of proves my point about how guitar-based music is becoming irrelevant nowadays.

Von Südenfed -- Tromatic Reflexxions

It shouldn't be a surprise that I included this album, since I'm the literal embodiment of its target audience. If Mouse on Mars making loud music while Mark E Smith singspeaks semi-intelligibly over it sounds like your idea of a good time, I can't imagine you won't like this. It's not pretty, but it's definitely exactly what you'd expect (in a good way).

Tenori-On

2007-09-04T08:00:00.000-04:00

Have you guys seen the Tenori-On, by Toshio Iwai (of Electroplankton fame)? I've been following the development of this thing for the past couple of years, and it's finally going to be on sale in the UK tomorrow.

...at the low, low price of GBP 599. Did I mention my birthday is October 19th?

Golden Vanilla Cupcakes

2007-09-02T18:45:00.000-04:00

The first and most basic cupcake in VCTotW. Isa et al. call this a "multi-purpose, no-nonsense" cupcake, and, as the name suggests, it is pretty vanilla. Delicious and satisfying, especially with the chocolate buttercream frosting, but basic nonetheless. First some pictures of my new kitchen!

Thanks to my mutually-reinforcing compulsions for baking and kitchen equipment, these were put together in no time -- a basic creaming method. Both of the frostings were surprisingly creamy, although to be honest I have no recollection of what the fluffy vanilla frosting tasted like. The chocolate frosting, however, was really tasty and less melty than other non-vegan chocolate buttercream frostings I've made. Piping this stuff was probably the most fun part of the process, but I'm going to need some better decorating tips.

The only vegan cake I've ever enjoyed was the Chocolate Vegan Death Cake that I've made about a dozen times the past couple of years, and it looks like it's a formula worth exploring. Margarine, however, is strange and nasty stuff. I'm much more accustomed to butter, and the slightly metallic taste of the margarine/shortening fat combination was a little off-putting. Overall I give the vanilla+vanilla combination 5 out of 10 Ani DiFranco songs, and the vanilla+chocolate combination gets 7 out of 10 hemp necklaces. The basic cupcake was, as advertised, functional but a little too birthday-cake-y for me. The vanilla+chocolate had a lot more character, mostly due to the depth of the cocoa flavor in the frosting. And yes, I plan to rate each of the cupcakes I make on an appropriately vegan scale from 0 to 10. Here's a really ugly picture of the vanilla on vanilla:

youtube nirvana

2007-08-29T11:36:00.000-04:00

This passed my strict quality control standards within about 10 seconds.

Dr. Teeth!

Cupcakes en route

2007-08-27T00:42:00.000-04:00

It took a long time for me to convince myself that this wasn't a bad idea, but all it took was a purpose -- to chronicle my attempting to bake every recipe in Isa Chandra Moscowitz's Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. So ostensibly I'm starting this blog not to report on or dramatize my own life in any way but to show you pretty pictures of cupcakes (and to intermittently inflict my insular, reactionary, curmudgeony opinions about music on a totally uncaring internet).

Yes, my blog is an intensely unfunny pun on probably the best album by probably my favorite band. Yes, this has been attempted before, albeit with way more typos. But baking is fun, and I've got too much kitchen equipment to let it go to waste. For the time being, here's some Led Zeppelin.