Rugelach with Walnut Frangipane

What is the most anxiety producing task for a pastry chef who owns a bakery? Designing a menu for her own party!!  Five years ago when I was still working in the corporate arena I would just run down to the local bakery, pick out a bunch of nice looking desserts, plop 'em on some patters, and, voila!, we have dessert. Well, that part of my life has changed. since I quit my job. I'm quite confident I can create a fabulous a menu for 400 people I don't know, but when it comes to providing dessert for 20 of my friends or family, my hands start to sweat. After all, these are the most important people in my life!

My husband and I throw a small party for some of our closest friends each year and I'm in the process of planning the menu. My less confident side keeps saying everyone expects the ultimate from 'the pastry chef' - the perfect little entremets made using a collaboration of unique and unheard of flavors, exquisite breads, blah, blah... Luckily, my more practical side says they would all be perfectly happy if I just popped down to the local bakery and picked up some goodies.

So I've decided this year to design the menu in-between the two extremes. I'll put my heart into some new recipes and pick and chose from some of my tried and true. One of the new recipes I'll be going with is rugelach with a smear of my favorite walnut frangipane. This is probably the best rugelach I've ever had as the moistness of the frangipane makes for some wonderful texture combinations and the flavors meld perfectly.

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com/

This dough is a dream to work with as it rolls out thin enough for the cookies, is never too sticky, and the taste of the dough is amazing - how could it be bad with cream cheese, butter and sourcream!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 8-oz package cream cheese
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup walnut frangipane (see recipe here - note: this recipe makes much more than 1/4 cup so be prepared to use it for other goodies; it works wonderfully in apple and banana tarts)

Directions:

• Cut cold butter and cream cheese into bits. In food processor pulse flour, salt, butter, cream cheese and sour cream until combined.
• Shape mixture into four equal disks. Wrap each disk and chill for at least 2 hours.
• Combine sugar, cinnamon, chopped walnuts and raisins.
• Roll each disk into a 9" round, keeping other disks chilled until ready to roll.
• Optional: using an offset spatula spread a very thin layer of the walnut frangipane on each disk.
• Sprinkle disk with sugar/nut mixture. Press lightly into dough.

• Cut disks into 12 equal wedges using a pizza cutter or chef's knife.
• Roll wedges from wide to narrow (you will end up with the point on the outside of the cookie.

• Place on parchment lined baking sheet (the point should be placed slightly under the cookie).
• Chill for 20 minutes.
• Bake in a 350 degree oven for 22 minutes or until lightly golden.

Petit Fours - Mini Frangipane Cakes

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com/

Bergen County, NJ

Petit fours are the perfect desserts for a casual gathering or towards the end of a cocktail party. Petit fours is translated from French to English as 'little ovens' but I think it should be 'little miracle.'

Our company, Confectionary Designs, is often hired to cater dessert bars for corporate gatherings. We find having a selection of several little desserts works much better than slices of cake. People like walking up to a dessert bar, seeing a beautiful arraignment of treats and having a wide variety of choices!

To make the little decadent treats above use our Frangipane Cake recipe baked in sheet pans. Cut out pieces of the cake using cutters no larger than an inch. Sandwich three pieces of cake together with apricot or raspberry jam.

We like to use a pre-made poured fondant mix to cover the cakes (the mix can be found at most cake decorating stores or online). Use your imagination in decorating the cakes. You can always add another flavor in the decoration to complement the cake, for example, a chocolate covered coffee bean works nicely with the raspberry jam.

Apple Tart with Walnut Frangipane

This apple tart recipe is just perfect - ever since trying it a few years ago, I have yet to make an apple pie. Try it and you will see why!

What you will need:

1 Recipe Walnut Frangipane:

• 5 oz. walnut pieces
• 4 oz. granulated sugar
• 4 oz. brown sugar
• 8 oz. softened butter
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 fluid oz. dark rum (optional)
• 4 large eggs
• 2.5 oz. AP flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 Recipe Pate Sucree

Tart Topping:

• 8 apples
• 2 oz. melted butter mixed with cinnamon and sugar to taste

To Assemble:

1. Make the Pate Sucree and let rest in refrigerator for a few hours.
2. Grease and line a half-sheet baking pan with parchment paper.
3. Roll out Pate Sucree to approximately 1/4" thick and put on baking pan; let rest in refridgerator.
4. Make Walnut Frangipane:
• Grind walnuts and granulated sugar together in a food processor until finely ground
• Cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy
• Beat walnut/sugar mixture and rum into the creamed butter
• Beat in eggs
• Whisk flour and baking powder together; add to mixer and stir until flour is absorbed
5. Spread the frangipane mixture evenly on the Pate Sucree
6. Core and peel apples, Slice in 1/4" slices and fan out heavily across the frangipane
7. Brush butter/cinnamon/sugar mixture over apples
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until frangipane is set.

I like to top this dessert off with cinnamon or vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, and sprinkle with chopped walnuts.

Mini Wedding Cakes

http://www.confectionarydesigns.com/

Bogota, NJ

We were asked to make 150 of these beautiful mini-cakes for a wedding. Tiny cakes such as these take much more effort than a standard wedding cake to feed 150.


The cakes are made using the following frangipane recipe:

8 oz sugar
1 lb almond paste
8 oz softened butter (approximately 65 degrees F)
12 fluid oz egg whites
5 oz AP flour

1) Cream together the sugar and almond paste until fully mixed. Add the softened butter and mix until the texture appears light and fluffy (this aids in incorporating air to help in rising).

2) Add the eggs and mix until incorporated. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated - don't overmix else you'll over-develop the gluten resulting in a less tender cake.

3) Prepare a full sheet pan by spraying with non-stick baking spray and placing a sheet of parchment on the pan. Pour the batter into the pan and spread evenly (this is an important step as your batter needs to be completely level for your cakes to look perfect!). Bake for 15 minutes at 375.

4) Cool cakes

To assemble the cakes:

1) Divide the cake into three equal portions. Spread a thin layer of apricot preserves on two of the layers (note: you may also use other jams, for example, using raspberry jam is quite nice and will add a little more acidic taste to the cakes).

2) Sandwich the layers on top of each other. Cut out your desired shapes. For the mini-cake above we used a 2.5" round petits fours cutter.

3) To cover the cakes either used poured fondant or rolled fondant (for our cakes we used rolled fondant). If you use rolled fondant, be sure to apply a light coating of your jam to make the fondant stick. We also added a 'ribbon' of fondant to our cake and piped a small snail trail border with royal icing.

4) Apply a small amount of royal icing on your cake board and position the mini-cake where desired. We used 4.5" squares of foamcore, covered with rolled fondant, and glued a ribbon around the edges.

5) Pipe a snail trail of royal icing around the bottom border of the mini-cake.

6) Decorate your board and mini-cake as desired. We added gumpaste flowers and leaves to the board and a chocolate butterfly painted with cocoa butter and luster dust on the cake.