The Last Bite

A Black forest German Gateau Cake ‘Schwarzwälder Kirsch torte’with Cherries from Kashmir, Baked in Bengal

This was his last bite. My Father, he tasted the little portion of the black forest cake that I cut for him n served him on a tea saucer. Back at that moment I had no idea that this was going to be the last thing he will eat, made by me. So for me this is his last bite of any food cooked by me and it is special in that way but it will always have sadness n gloom attached with this memory. Now that my Father has left his body, I run the pictures in my mind of the moment when he looked at the piece of cake in the little saucer, cut into it n very carefully, with a little shaky hand he transferred into his mouth, so that it doesn't fall off the spoon. I was looking for any signs of expression on his face and I find a little sign of satisfaction as he went through the cake. I am just re-running that subtle expression of Dad in my mind.

                            I wanted to do this black forest gateau cake for a long time, sometimes the doubt of eating so much whipped cream halted me, sometimes the doubt of whipping up huge volume of cream by hand made me pause, and sometimes I didn't get the cherries. But then with love that stayed on n upon consistent demand from my cute nephew, I did whip up large volume of cream by hand, whip up eggs with sugar till I reached the ribbon stage, pitted the cherries all by hand n I bake the cake!

                                                     The black forest cake or gateau has its origin in Germany, though the name doesn't come from the Black Forest mountain range in south-western Germany, rather it comes from a special liquor of that region called ‘Schwarzwälder Kirsch(wasser)’ n it is distilled from tart cherries. The liquor has a distinctive cherry pit flavor and alcoholic in nature that gives the cake its distinctive smell n flavor. So ‘Kirsch’ is what makes it special although other liquors are also used such as rum, which is used in Austria and co-incidentally which I also used, red rum.

                                                                                             Making the chocolate sponge for this cake requires a bit of whipping, first eggs n sugar r heated in a water bath until warm while constantly whisking, when the temperature is achieved the mixture is removed from heat and then further whisked until the mixture fluffs up and becomes almost triple in volume. When the whisk is lifted we can see ribbons falling off from the whisk and a figure of 8 made the ribbon stays for a second to be visible. No baking powder is used for this cake and the light volume is achieved by incorporating air in the egg n sugar mixture.

                                                                                                                The touch of Kirsch or rum gives the cake it’s special touch, but then you can always skip it if you want to, in my case my nephew kept away all the cherries from his piece! He likes the black forest cake without the cherries!

I have to tell you this, if you want to eat this cake tomorrow you have to begin today, the cake needs rest for several hours after baking, preferably overnight, also the cherries in soup which is treated with cornflour, need overnight time in the freeze to set, so keep that in mind.

                     So I guess it is now time to tell you about the recipe, here we go to have a walk in the Black forest cake.

For The Recipe: You will need

For the Chocolate Sponge:

Eggs-6

Powdered Sugar- 200gm (I used 180gm)

Coco powdered- 45gm

Plain Flour- 90gm

Butter, melted n kept warm-60gm

Salt-1/4 tsp, skip if butter is salted

For the Cherry layer:

Cherries-350gm, pitted and separated from the syrup

Syrup in which the cherries were preserved-1 cup

Lime Zest-1/2 tsp, roasted, dried out then whizzed with sugar

Cinnamon- ½-1/4 tsp, roasted slightly n powdered

Cornflour-1-1 ½ tbsp

Sugar-1 tbsp+1 tbsp (optional)

For the Whipping Cream:

Whipping cream/double cream-500ml

Fine powdered sugar-4 tbsp

Vanilla essence- 1 tbsp

For the Rum syrup:

Red rum- 3 tbsp

Suagr-2 tbsp

Syrup from the cherries-4 tbsp

For the Chocolate Layer n Chocolate shavings:

Dark chocolate-50-80 gm

Save a few whole cherries for decorating the cake.

1. We will begin by making the cake which will need to rest overnight. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius n butter one 8 inch cake tin. So begin by cracking the eggs in a big airy bowl n add the powdered sugar on them. Prepare a water bath or bain-marie, as the water comes to simmer, place the bowl with egg n sugar on top of it making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water. Whisk continuously as the mixture warms up, test it by placing a little of the mixture with your finger on your inner wrist, it will take 3-5 minutes to get warm, on your wrist it should feel comfortably warm, not something that is beginning to get intolerable for skin. So when the mixture feels warm enough remove it from the water bath and now either with hand whisk or electric whisk or stand whisk, whisk it until the mixture fluffs up becoming almost triple in volume. If you are whisking by hand it will take about 20 minutes, otherwise it will take about 5-8 minutes, when you will lift the whisk it will fall off smoothly making ribbons on the surface, if you try to do a figure of 8 you will be able to see the figure 8 for a moment before it vanishes, when you can do that you are at the right consistency.

2. Now sift the coco powder n flour alternatively in 3 stages and gently fold in with a spatula, first sift one-third coco powder, then one-third plain flour in 3 stages, until the flour n coco powder has been incorporated. For folding rotate the bowl while you lift up the mixture gently with the spatula and fold in slowly, keep rotating the bowl as you do so. After that add the warm melted butter and gently fold in again. Then carefully place the batter gently into the buttered cake tin which is layered at the bottom with perchment paper, then smooth the surface with a spoon or scraper. Then give one tap on the table before you place the cake tin in the oven, bake for about 20 -25 minutes, when a toothpick inserted comes out clean and you will see the cake will start to shrink from the sides. Then take the cake out of the oven, rest 10 minutes, take it out of the cake tin and place on a wired rack to cool overnight.

3. Now well prepare for the cherry syrup. Take a lime, with a sharp knife cut the peel lightly so that you don’t get the white part under the peel, when you have taken off the zest of the whole lime like that, put them in a baking tray and in a very low oven of around 100 degrees Celsius roast them but keep the oven door slightly open, give them about 5-10 minutes, shake the tray in between until they get brown but not burnt. When this is achieved take them out and cool them and they will crisp up, after that in a mortar n pestle powder them with 1 tbsp of sugar, keep aside.

4. Take 1 inch cinnamon stick and roast it slightly in a frying pan, tossing the pan often for about 1 minute, then crush it to a powder in a mortar n pestle, keep aside.

5. Take 4 tbsp of the cherry syrup and mix the corn flour, lime zest powder, cinnamon powder, 1 tsp of sugar until it is smooth. Then put the cherries with 1 cup of syrup in a pan and let it come to a boil, then add this mixture stirring constantly, very soon the cherry syrup will begin to thicken, taste it, add a little sugar if you think it needs a bit, then take it off the heat, pour it in a bowl, let it come to room temperature, when it is there, cover it with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator overnight and it will settle and almost become like cherry jam.

6. So next day we are ready to put it all together. Mount the cake on a high platform, make it by placing a plate on a deep high bowl, you can rotate it also, now with a serrated long knife cut around the edges of the cake to get 3 layers of the cake. Turn the cake slowly as you cut through the cake. Obtain 3 layers.

7. Melt 40 gm of dark chocolate in a water bath and pour that chocolate over the 1^st layer of the cake, make that surface almost coated with the liquid chocolate, after that place that cake layer in freeze until the chocolate solidifies.

8. Now we will whip the cream, freeze the whisk, the bowl for whipping for around 30 minutes. The cream should be very cold, around 0 degrees Celsius, then with an electric beater whisk it, when the cream starts to thicken add the vanilla essence, powdered sugar bit by bit and beat it until it just begins to hold the peak when tested with the whisk. Don’t over beat or your cream will be grainy and if using dairy cream it will turn into butter. Just when the cream begins to hold the peak, stop right there.

9. Dissolve the sugar in the water n red rum mixture. Get the cake layer with chocolate and the cherry mixture out of the freeze, with a spoon spread the cherry mixture on top of the chocolate layer which is now solid, cover that surface completely with the cherries. Now take whipped cream and spread it over the cherries until you cover them completely with cream. Place this layer on a round piece of cardboard so the cake will have a solid base and it will easy to move the cake further.

10. Now take 2nd layer of cake and sprinkle the rum syrup with a spoon or brush over both the sides of the layer. Then carefully place that layer on top of the cherry layer, then on top of this layer spread a layer of whipped cream. Then you place the 3^rd layer on top of this cream and again brush the rest of the rum syrup all over the surface. Then cover this surface with whipped cream. Now we have to cover the whole cake with cream, so cover the sides carefully with cream. When it is done, put the rest of the whipped cream in a piping bag and pipe on top of the cake the way you like it, I made small spiral rounds around the edges.

11. Now we will make chocolate shavings, get a bar of chocolate, take sharp knife, hold the blade of the knife between you two hands so it is parallel to your body, then resting your hands on the chocolate bar, putting some weight on the bar so it doesn't slip, drag the knife towards you and the chocolate shavings will appear. Be careful when you do this, do it slowly, get around 1 cup of shavings.

12. Take a handful of chocolate shavings and press it lightly around the base of the cake. Go around the cake until the cake is covered with the shavings around the base. Now place whole cherries on top of each cream round you have made on the top, then fill the middle portion of the top of the cake with a handful of shavings. Now see how beautiful it looks! Isn’t it just so amazing? You just did that!

And now we are ready to cut into the black forest gateau cake! Look at the cake for some time and absorb the beauty; let the cake settle a bit also, and then approach with love and with a knife. Bon appétit.

Cherishing the Cherry Clafoutis ...

Red Cherry Clafoutis with a hint of spice to lift it to new heights and let’s not forget the old secret tradition; using cherries with pits

                                                                  Clafoutis! Clafoutis!

                                                           The cherries roll on my finger,

                                                          U loose urself, let it be, let it be

                                                         Inside my mind now u just linger.

Well that’s a new start for my blog post, with a tiny poem! A month ago when I had a box of cherries in my hand, I rubbed my chin for what all I’ll be making with them, as it turned out I made only clafoutis, the rest I ate simply. Now I always tend to believe that fruits are always best eaten alone not just for their nutritional values also because I feel their flavor is reduced at the end of it. So before making the clafoutis I had my doubts which got cleared away to some extent after I made it. You can guess why? Because the clafoutis was delicious.

                       Clafoutis come from France, the region of Limousin, almost the central region of the country. Traditionally clafoutis is always made with black cherries, but other seasonal fruits are often used in making clafoutis such as pears, prunes, apples, cranberries, blackberries. In fact there is another name often used when any fruit other than cherries are used, known as ‘Flaugnarde’. The French pronunciation of clafoutis is ‘Klafuti’ or ‘Cla-foo-tee’. Now when we do say it like that note how it makes us smile at the end of it.

                                                      It is a baked desert of fruit, traditionally of cherries, arranged in a buttered n sugared dish and a batter is poured over the cherries without completely drowning them and then baked in the oven until it is set and starts to brown on the surface. The batter is made with eggs, milk, cream, sugar, flour, butter n basically that’s it. Now the alternations happen on this basic recipe as everyone alters it with their own taste.

In my version most importantly I've kept the whole cherries with their pits as it was done traditionally unlike the versions we most see on internet where the pits have been removed for the ease of eating! But then you remove one thing and you have to deal with the loss of flavor. And talking about the ease on eating! Come on, once you know you have made a clafoutis with whole cherries your brain automatically knows not to bite into that like a blind brain!

                                                                                 I have made two versions of clafoutis-one with the pitted cherries one without. And the result is the one made with cherries with pits, was much more flavorful n more delicious. So pits make a difference. In fact reading about it in Wikipedia taught me that the pits contain an active chemical called ‘Amygdalin’, during baking some amount of this chemical is released into the clafoutis, thus creating a delicious difference. Think about saving time also, you don’t have to pit the cherries, now isn't that nice? Now if you are serving it for your guests and if you don’t want them spitting cherry pits, then you remove it before baking knowing that it will be less delicious automatically.

                                             I have used black pepper and cloves in my versions, and guess what! Cloves go so well with the cherries, esp. the one I had, it is indeed a good combination, clove is a strong spice and we have to be careful because a little goes a long way. I used red rum to macerate the cherries along with the sugar n powdered clove n black pepper. I did not have ‘kirsch’ with me which is a cherry brandy which would've been nice but I love the flavor of red rum and so does cherries.

                                                                          While making the batter which gets poured over the cherries instead of plain butter I used ‘Beurre Noisette’ which is butter that is browned in a pan until the milk solids get separated and browned and it attains a nutty flavor. I love the flavor of that in many recipes.

So now I will take you to the recipe of clafoutis right away

For The Recipe:  you will need

For macerating the cherries

250 gm whole cherries

2-3 tsp of powdered sugar

1-1 ½ tbsp of red rum               

1 clove, slightly warmed in pan n powdered

Freshly crushed black pepper

For the batter

2 eggs

2-3 tbsp of flour

2 tbsp of powdered sugar

2 tbsp of milk

60 ml single cream

Pinch of salt

1/2 clove, warmed in a pan n powdered

Freshly crushed black pepper

1/4 -1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

20 gm of brown butter-beurre noisette

For buttering the ramekins

1 tbsp of lemon/lime zest

3 tbsp of powdered sugar

Pinch of clove powder

Some soft butter

                   

Texture of the batter has to be a pouring liquid consistency, preferably thin n not very thick; keeping the texture in mind we can adjust the amount of milk and cream n flour or eggs.

Pre-heat the oven at 180 Celsius.

1.  First with a paring knife cut the cherries along its length around the pit but don’t separate the cherry in half, with your fingers open the two half a bit just to expose the flesh. Now when all the cherries are done sprinkle  about 2 tsp of powdered sugar mixed with the clove powder, sprinkle some crushed black pepper on them and then add 2-3 tsp of red rum over them, toss them in that and let them macerate for half to an hour.

2. Grate the lemon/lime zest and mix that with the powdered sugar n pinch of clove powder kept for buttering the ramekins. Now butter the ramekins well, pour the sugar mixture into them and move around the sugar over the butter coat so the sugar creates a coating over the butter layer. Set aside.

3.  Take 20 gm of butter in a pan and on a medium flame let it melt, you will notice hiss sound as it keeps getting warmed, when the sound ceases down it is beginning to go to become beurre noisette, lower the heat now and within a minute you will see the separated milk particles below the butter had started to go brown and the whole butter has become brown in color. This is it, take it off the heat.

4. Time to make the batter, so in a bowl whisk the two eggs lightly, then add a pinch of salt, the milk and whisk lightly again. Then add the flour and whisk so there isn't any lump n nicely combined. Now add the brown butter, vanilla extract, powdered sugar, half clove powdered, freshly crushed black pepper, the cream and whisk to combine. Bring out the cherries now, you will notice some amount of liquid has gathered at the bottom of the cherries, add this liquid to the batter and combine.

5. In the baking dish/ramekins first lay the cherries, the base should be covered with cherries and some over them press the cherries lightly to pack them tightly. Then slowly pour the batter over them so that the batter drowns the cherries almost ¾ but not completely. Some of the cherry surface should be exposed. Now place them in the oven at 180 Celsius for around 30 minutes until the batter starts to go lightly brown on the surface. The batter will rise during baking. The batter should be crusty outside and soft n gooey inside. Let it cool so you can handle them. Serve them on their own or with crème fresh.

Cherry Clafoutis is ready for you now. Dig in with a spoon when it is warm or I like it more when cold. Bon appétit.