Living with wanderlust.

Most days I have my head in the clouds about traveling. It's getting even worse.

Spending my weekend in the ocean helped. Vilano Beach sometimes makes me feel like I'm not in the country, with the orange crunchy shell floor and aquamarine seas. I like to leave the shells in my hair so I can be a secret mermaid in Orlando. By Monday night, I cave and shower.

I should be paying attention in classes.. and I am, somewhat, well, I am making A's atleast. But all I can think about is finding a hollow island cave and enjoying foreign cuisine that's so spicy I have to slam my glass of water (or beer) which in turn only covers my sunburnt lips with hot sauce extending the pain. ...You know what I'm talking about. I have perpetual wanderlust, I'm not sorry. But it is important to live each day as it comes. Today we made fruit tarts with pate sucree crust and lemon curd filling. I would make it for a spring/summer dinner party. Which makes me want to throw a dinner party next time I'm in St. Augustine..... hmmm.... stay tuned on that one.

Moving along, here are my little fruit tarts. Pate sucree, or sugar cookie crust, lemon curd filling, fresh fruit with a simple syrup glaze... too good looking to eat! But I picked one apart when I got home. Shocker.

Here is a rough batch of my darling cream puff swans. Usually they're dusted with a kiss of confectioner's sugar. I gave all mine away, they don't travel well.

Mid-size cream puffs. Makes me think of a mid-size sedan.. ew. These are delicious. Covered in chocolate ganache and filled with vanilla bean pastry cream.

Be careful if you make pastry cream at home.... you might want to pipe it right into your mouth instead of filling the cream puff. Don't confuse these cream puffs with profiteroles, they're filled with ice cream and are equally thrilling. Now you won't confuse them. I've got your back.

Ooo Creme brulee'... so many people like creme brulee'. They think it's decadent. I like it because it allows me to play with fire. Yes, I will use the largest blowtorch you have. These tasted like vanilla custard candy crack. Don't you love it when white girls refer to crack?

More creme de la creme... up close and personal.

 

Cheesecake. This one was especially exciting. I subbed 2/3 of the cream cheese with marscapone. You Italians and foodies know what's up. I was drooling and I can't eat dairy.... but I'd get sick for this one. Orange zest, chocolate ganache swirl, and oreo cookie crust. Heavy as a pillowsack of bricks. That's New York style.

Lastly, a dessert that makes its own sauce. If you guessed flan.. Wrong. It's creme caramel. Orange creamsicle creme caramel. It really tasted like the popsicle. Getting so classy in the kitchen with white plastic plates.

Only 2 more weeks left in my basic pastry and baking class. We're working in groups of 4 to produce a sweets table full of petite fours. Alice in Wonderland is the theme for our group. Trying to sway more toward the creepy/weird Alice Through the Looking Glass, not new fun and cartoonish. I want to get some eclair caterpillars in the there and freakish acid flowers.

Alice in her Wonderland and myself consumed by wanderlust.... 

Spring cleaning and what not...

Spring in Orlando is humid enough to be summer, and thus far I haven't done too much cleaning. Cleaning doesn't have to be throwing away junk or using so much bleach on your kitchen floor that your eyes burn and drip with tears uncontrollably...It can be more of an inner cleaning, a mental renewal, and a time to focus on goals. I have never understood New Year's resolutions- do you know how hard it is to drag yourself to the gym or not have an extra generous portion of homemade coconut chocolate ice cream when everyone is covered in layers and generally miserable? Not happening.

With that said, I'm a big fan of starting good habits one at a time, and being a (future) pastry chef, I don't have any choice but to work out 5-6 times a week hard. I'm spring cleaning my attitude. I just got a job, typical food and bev in a high traffic area near the convention center. Am I psyched about telling our guests all about our enticing "starters" or "perfectly cool" cocktails? No. Do I like money? Yes. Do I want to own a bakery in the tropics soon? Yes. So Taylor, get to work. There was once a time to be lazy and daydream on the beach and surf twice a day. That time is over... for awhile.

This past week was all about quick breads. I was especially thrilled to bake biscotti, which was a regular treat my beautiful grandmother used to make for the family. We dabbled in muffins, banana bread, pie, danish butter cookies, and biscuits.

Day 1: Danish butter cookies with fruit filling. I didn't actually take this picture until I got home, and they might have been tossed around in the car a bit. Orlando traffic. Fail. However, quite scrumptious.

Day 2: Biscotti means to bake twice. First you bake the dough in a log, then slice it and bake it again. Vanilla almond with orange essence, drizzled in chocolate.

 

Day 3: Biscuits.... I will never buy biscuits again. This was not only extremely easy, but the technique created biscuits that were tender and flaky and HUGE. These are roasted garlic and cheddar biscuits. Next time I'd probably do sage and cracked pepper biscuits, maybe with a sharper cheese.

 

Day 4:  Apple pie. This was another common treat my grandmother made for every holiday. She taught me the lattice crust back in the day, what kind of apples to use, and always used fresh fruit. They gave us canned apples (Gag.) I was rusty on my lattice skills but it still came out nice. 

Right out of the oven in class

 

Day 5: Blueberry mountains, or muffins, and banana bread. I've made better blueberry muffins, and I wasn't crazy about this recipe. I like to use a lot of fruit in my muffins and less sugar. The banana bread was so-so. Banana bread is kind of my thing. Banana mango, banana chocolate chip, sometimes with coconut, sometimes blueberries... Anyhow... this one I topped with streusel and sanding sugar. It was filled with miniature chocolate chips. 

Next week is all about pate a choux, pronounced pot-ah-shoo..... which means eclairs and cream puffs! Maybe even a cream puff swan. When I was in grade school, I used to walk to a little French pastry shop called Denoel on Charlotte Street in St. Augustine and buy one cream puff swan. With cream on my nose and confectioner's sugar on my plaid uniform skirt, I'd wait on the corner for my mom to pick me up. Denoel is still in the same place, and I happen to be going home for Easter weekend, maybe this time with a swan that I crafted. Let's be honest, if said swan is made, I'll be walking to my car with cream on my nose and sugar on my chef's coat. Nothing has changed.

Bake wild is about to go crazy.

For those of you who don't know, I picked up about 2 weeks ago and moved from St. Augustine Beach to Orlando, FL. And for those of you who do know, I am starting to like it here, thanks for asking. To get a girl like myself to leave the beach and all that is dear to her, there must be a motive. Now that I got that whole Bachelor's degree thing out of the way, I am free to pursue my official diplome of patisserie and baking at Le Cordon Bleu. I have been there a week now, everyday dressed in my crisp white chef's coat, awkward checkerprint drawstring pants, and black steel toe shoes... Not my best look, but I think I can manage for the rest of the year. 

Bake Wild is about to take a detour until I graduate.. with occasional recipes but mostly a weekly photojournal of the things I have made and my progress in becoming a pastry chef. The most fulfilling reinvention of oneself is changing paths to truly live your dreams. Mine is to travel the world and make pastries of glitter and diamonds..... anyway. 

Last week was all about the petit fours... or "small oven" in French which means small cookies. I have bags and bags of treats.... if you want some, email me your address and I'll gladly send them your way. This week is all about quick breads, biscuits, and pies. Stay tuned..........

Day 1: Miniature semisweet chocolate chip cookies- honestly the most perfect chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. Soft and chewy on the inside with a bit of crispness on the edges.

Day 2: Double chocolate brownies with ganache frosting (no picture), The best peanut butter cookies I have ever made.

 

Day 3&4: Vanilla and chocolate checkerboard sugar cookies. Time intensive but visually pleasing.

 

Day 5: French macaroons with raspberry jam filling. Looks like it took a lot of work, but the easiest of the week. A bit sweet for my taste. When we have some breathing room with flavors, I'm thinking a cocoa macaroon with creamed peanut frosting... 

Check back this Sunday for biscotti, pies, biscuits, and more. 

One thing I forgot to mention as an obvious upside of moving to Orlando.... MUSIC. In the next two months, I'm looking at CSS, Rusko & Doorly, Avicii, Felix Cartel, and The Electric Daisy Carnival. My roommate happens to love the beats as much as I do. Nothing but heavy bass and baking for the next 9 months.. and I like that.

Lazy Saturday Flourless Chocolate Cake... with a twist.

What a crazy week this has been, from waiting on the answer to a job interview to be an assistant pastry chef at a new upscale dessert bar/lounge in Charleston to getting an unexpected and quite hefty grant to attend Le Cordon Bleu this April. Now my search to find a place to live in Orlando has officially begun, doing some hardcore Craigslist searches. Against my better judgment, I signed up on a roommate finder website. I can only imagine the responses I will receive. Is there a "no creeps" filter? For me, stress leads to one thing- baking. More specifically, baking chocolate things and drinking a glass of wine. I live about a mile from a killer little specialty wine shop. It allows me to give in to my obsession with red wines from Puglia, Italy. It let me pair that wine with a flourless chocolate cake today. As for my stress.....what stress? More cake? Yes. 

The twist in this flourless cake is garbanzo beans. Yes, chick peas, garbanzos, those little things that get ground up to put in hummus. You may be familiar with the idea of beans in baking, it's a newer trend, mostly seen in black bean brownies or chickpeas in blondies. I'm my own worst critic when it comes to my baking and I am convinced- This. Is. Amazing. You would never know this contains chickpeas. It is so moist and light with a hint of dark fudgy texture. It is my dream cake. If you don't believe me, make it yourself, and then bring it over to my house and share it. I'd share mine with you. 

You will need:
19oz can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 bag 60% cacao dark chocolate or darker, I used Ghiradelli
3/4 cup raw sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs
1 teaspoon Madagascar vanilla extract 

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 9 inch round pan. Use dark cocoa to flour the pan rather than white flour, if you have it. 
In a double boiler, melt the dark chocolate chips until smooth. Set aside.
In a food processor, blend the garbanzo beans with the eggs until smooth.  Add in the baking powder, sugar, and vanilla. Blend again until completely combined. 
Pour batter into your prepared pan. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. When done baking, let the cake sit in it's pan for 10 minutes before flipping it onto a serving platter. 
This cake is so decadent it can be served as is, or you can dust powdered sugar on top and garnish with fresh blueberries like I did. Any delicate berry would work on this dessert. 

Stay tuned for a recipe for miniature apple-fig turnovers...........

Ice coffee & the fastest cinnamon buns ever.
It's finally 80 degrees outside and all I want in the morning is the perfect, icy cold glass of coffee. I say a glass because once you make the transition to ice coffee, it cannot be hidden in a mug. It must be admired in the most fanciful glass you own. You've been waiting all winter to break it out, just like me. The trick is to make coffee the night before you need it, sweeten it while it's hot, then allow it to cool completely before putting it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, simply add or don't add whatever you like. A nice breakfast accompaniment would have been my cinnamon buns, but they never last long enough to eat the day after. 

The dough for these, considering it's a faster version, contains no yeast. If you're afraid of yeast, this recipe is for you. The rolls taste a bit denser like biscuits, but as still savory with gooey cinnamon and you'll be so busy eating them you probably won't notice. The recipe is not entirely mine, except I made it into a vegan version, i.e., using soymilk for milk and Earth Balance wherever it calls for butter. Also, I did not follow any specific recipe, it was more of a fast kitchen experiment with scrumptious results. If you want to try your hand at one of the greatest breakfast sweets, try this recipe. If you're feeling even more daring, try this recipe. 

If you need some musical inspiration, play Koop Island Blues and open your windows. 

Tomato. Tofu. Goat Cheese. 
One of my favorite things to do is to look in the fridge and work with whatever ingredients I have on hand. Being that I have mildly different tastes than your average mid-20s lady, my fridge is often stocked with different kinds of tofu, in this case veggie tofu, basil, goat cheese (which the grocery store finally has their own brand so my bank account is relieved of pricey cheese burdens) and naturally I have several different kinds of flour being that I bake more than I can eat. And I can eat a lot. Just ask anyone who was around me if I went to Andolini's Pizza in Charleston. A glass of any meritage, a sunny Thursday afternoon in my courtyard and a 20 inch pizza. I enjoyed every last bite, but I digress...

 

I had not eaten all day as most of the morning was spent on the couch watching Samantha Brown's Passport to Europe, sipping creamy peppermint coffee and have my dog awkwardly step all over me and block the television a couple hundred times. A relaxing rainy day. A day to experiment with white whole wheat flour and buckwheat flour I had yet to explore. A thin crust pizza I desired was within reach. This recipe is much faster and more successful if you have as many kitchen appliances as I happen to have, I happen to be both fortunate and always actively seeking random tools. Break out your pizza stone, throw it in the oven, and set it to 450F while you make the crust.

Topping you will need:

red chili oil, or olive oil sauteed with red pepper flakes
really garlicky tomato sauce, homemade or store bought
1 thinly sliced roma tomato
1 small block firm veggie tofu, drained for 20 minutes and diced into small cubes
goat cheese
fresh basil leaves


For the crust... break out your KitchenAid with dough attachment..

In your mixing bowl..

1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water plus a couple tablespoons
1 tablespoon oil (I used safflower, but you can use anything from olive to coconut)

Mix on low-medium until the dough comes together, adding bits of water as necessary. You want a smooth and pliable dough without it being too dry or too wet. We're not baking bread here, keep it simple. When ready, dust your counter with buckwheat flour and roll your dough out as thin as you'd like it or as big as you can for your pizza stone or pan. The crust is not a doughy, soft crust but rather a wheaty crisp you'll feel okay about devouring most of it if you don't have a friend to share it with immediately.

Pull your pizza stone out of the oven, sprinkle it with bread crumbs and more buckwheat flour then throw the crust on it while you gather your toppings. Brush the crust with red chili oil, lightly covering it all the way to the edges. This oil is spicy so use with discretion if you're a weakling. I relish in the burning of the chili oil and the creaminess of the goat cheese coming together on one crust. Spoon the tomato sauce over the crust, then the tomatoes, tofu cubes, and crumbled chunks of goat cheese. Roll up the basil leaves and slice them thin before scattering them across the best pizza you've ever made in 30 minutes. Scatter sea salt and grind some peppercorns to top it off, then place the stone back in the oven for 15 minutes, but keep an eye on it. When it seems almost done, turn up the heat to broil for 2 minutes. And that's it. Let it cool if you can keep your hands off it.

"Karma Repair Kit: Items 1-4"
1. Get enough food to eat,
    and eat it.

2. Find a place to sleep where it is quiet,
    and sleep there.

3. Reduce intellectual activity and emotional noise
    until you arrive at the silence of yourself,
    and listen to it.

4. 



- Richard Brautigan, 1967



Not a day passes when I don't have a new idea about things I want/need to accomplish in this lifetime. I intend to start... one of these days. Without the forced deadlines of college, it is increasingly difficult to stay motivated. Not to mention I live on the beach, where the weather is perfect for daydreaming and playing outside... all day. And when night comes, I do on occasion bartend at a country/honky tonk bar.... how ironic.. probably the last place in the world you'd find me. But it is fun.

And not that I need it, but no one ever warned me how easy it would be to get off track after school is over. Almost 6 months out now. If you had asked me where I'd be after college a couple years ago and blah blah blah etc. what everyone says. I am happy. I'm working it out. I'm Taylor Chloe Berk.

Still baking insanely good for you treats, hosting weekly dinner parties, planning trips, hanging with Jimbo America, writing, reading, surfing, smiling. My brother has commissioned me to grocery shop for him and cook weekly meals, healthy of course. Could this start a new business? I am still waiting for my phone call from the Food Network begging me to star in my own show and be sent to exotic locations to commentate. Until that day comes.... which should be around next year or so..... I will continue on. 

 

In the spirit of year-round island warmth, I give you a snapper ceviche recipe.

 

What you need:

• 8 ounces snapper fillet large dice
• 8 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/4 cup mango juice
• 2 roma tomatoes
• 1 small red onion small dice
• 2 to 3 medium serrano chiles, diced (remove seeds if you want it milder)
• handful of chopped cilantro

What to do:

1. Place fish in a nonreactive mixing bowl, and toss with 2 tablespoons of the lime juice until it is well coated. Cover and refrigerate for 2 1/2 to 3 hours (the fish should be opaque in color and firm to the touch).
2. About 30 minutes before the fish is ready, combine remaining 6 tablespoons lime juice with mango juice, tomatoes, onion, chiles, and cilantro in a nonreactive mixing bowl; set aside to marinate.
3. When the fish is ready, add tomato-onion mixture and toss to combine. To serve, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and transfer ceviche to chilled serving dishes. Add homemade guacamole on the side to balance out the heat in the serrano peppers.

 Adapted and improved from a recipe on CHOW.com.

I have successfully ignored my cooking blog all summer. It is September 2 and I have way too many new recipes that need to be on here. It has been a summer of working, surfing, cooking, and music. Is there any other way to spend your summer? I complain sometimes, but it could be worse than living on an island. Not to mention an island that has had more than a couple days of waves and sunshine. Before I get right down to it, I'd you to play this track while you browse my summer recipe photos:


Miami Horror has been killing it lately, a smooth backbeat with a disco groove. Its mellow bassline is enough to relax and daydream about places you might want to be.

So now that you've got your appropriate baking track,we can begin:

Here is a list of all the delicious treats on this page:
1. French silk pie
2. Fresh mango tart with orange mango curd
3. Mexicali pizza
4. Sweet & savory plantains
5. Coconut apricot bread
6. Chocolate chip espresso almond ice cream cake (Vegan!)
7. Copious amounts of sushi... cannot get enough.
8. Triple chocolate butterfinger ice cream cake
9. Lemon cream pie
10. Another shot of the coconut apricot bread...
11. Vegan pancakes with mango, cinnamon coconut milk & honey
12. German chocolate cake
13. Vegan burrito bowl with fresh baked chili tortilla chips

There is more, and there will be more posts to come. I don't want to overwhelm you. We haven't seen each other all summer, and it's always fun to leave a little mystery. Check back soon for recipes, music, and much more.

It's full-on summer here in Anastasia Island. Surprisingly, it feels completely normal to be living here again. I have my morning run and swim on the beach in front of my house. I walk Jimbo in the morning in my bikini drinking hot chai to wake up. I attempted to go to work today, but surf camp was canceled due to lack of kids for the week. I am convinced to get some kind of work done this week, mainly writing out the stories I've been working on about Jimbo "America" Jenkins travels and experimenting with some new flavor combinations in baking.

Sometime I can't stand heavy desserts in the sweltering Florida humidity, so I turned to the ultimate summer fruit- peaches.... or nectarines. I know for a fact I baked one of these fruits. No, I was not drunk. When I was buying fruit, there was an entire section labeled "Peaches or Nectarines." I am not kidding. They were ripe, a color between the two, and just fuzzy enough to leave me bewildered. If that's not bad enough, the stickers on these mystery fruits were not labeled with anything but a number. It didn't even say where they came from! I purchased them anyhow, because they were ripe, and with peaches or nectarines you really can't go wrong. However, is it some strange hybrid fruit? But I digress.....  I made a peach or nectarine crisp. It has few ingredients and an insane amount of flavor.

Peach OR Nectarine Crisp:

Filling:
8 peaches or nectarines, sliced
juice of 1 lemon
3/4 cup evaporated cane juice raw sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
handful of flour

Topping:
1 cup rolled oats
1 cups chopped walnuts
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Toss the peaches or nectarines with the sugar first, adding in the lemon, the vanilla, and then the spices. Toss with flour your liking, it depends on how juicy you want the filling to be versus thicker like a pie filling. Pour the filling into an 8x8 glass baking dish.

In a separate bowl, mix the walnuts, oats, and brown sugar. Melt the butter in a saucepan and then add slowly mixing as you pour. This should create a sticky, combined texture. You don't want it to be too dry or too wet. It can be easily corrected if it's too dry, simply add more butter. If too wet, add more oats or sprinkle some flour in there. Get creative... you could even add chopped candied ginger or chopped macadamia nuts. Go wild.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. The top will bubble through the crisp topping a little bit. Let cool for 10 minutes. Serve alone or with ice cream. Also good for breakfast....................