James Distefano

Medjool Date Sticky Toffee Pudding

ohoadmin — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 13:45:35 +0000

Medjool Date Sticky Toffee Pudding ohoadmin Wed, 02/08/2017 - 08:45 The Best Kind of Valentine's Day Date February 8, 2017

By James Distefano

When I was the executive pastry chef at the original Rouge Tomate, my job was to incorporate more fruits and alternative grains into my baking while cutting back on the refined sugar and flours. I saw this directive as a positive challenge — one in which I could expand both my knowledge of ingredients and also my palette.

My medjool date sticky toffee pudding is a great example of this. It combines sweet medjool dates with whole wheat and buckwheat flours. Using the dates allowed me to cut back on the sugar and still retain the cake’s sweet decadence. I added a touch of cocoa powder to play into that richness while counterbalancing with the cocoa powder’s bitter qualities. Finally, I topped it off with a little banana caramel sauce. You might think that’s bananas, but who doesn’t love a date on Valentine’s Day?

Medjool Date Sticky Toffee Pudding

Servings: Makes about 8-10 servings.

Ingredients:

170 grams medjool dates, pitted
6 grams vanilla extract
10 grams baking soda
392 grams water
85 grams butter
227 grams dark brown sugar
75 grams eggs
122 grams all-purpose flour
85 grams whole-wheat flour
14 grams buckwheat flour
56 grams cocoa powder
6.3 grams baking powder
1.5 grams salt

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350° F.
Place the dates, vanilla extract and baking soda in a medium-size bowl and set aside.
Bring the water to a boil, then pour over the dates and cover with plastic wrap to soften them. This should take about five minutes.
Once the dates have softened, puree them into a smooth paste utilizing a blender. Set this loose date paste aside.
In a bowl fitted for an electric mixer, cream the butter and dark brown sugar on medium speed until it is light and fluffy.
Turn machine down to low speed and gradually add the eggs.
Alternately add your dry ingredients and the loose date paste, beginning and ending with your dry ingredients until all of the dry ingredients and the date paste have been incorporated.
Portion batter into individual molds and bake at 350° F until set. They will feel lightly firm with a soft spring to them.
Allow them to cool to room temperature before unmolding.
Serve with Banana Caramel (recipe below) or store until ready to serve. These cakes will last up to one day stored in an airtight container.

Banana Caramel Sauce

This is a great sauce for the Date Sticky Toffee Pudding and for just about anything else you’d serve with a traditional caramel sauce.

Ingredients:

75 grams granulated sugar
375 grams banana (about 3), very ripe, chopped into small pieces
125 grams whole milk
125 grams heavy cream
3 grams vanilla extract
1.5 grams salt

Preparation:

In a small pot heat the whole milk and heavy cream. Set aside.
In a second small pot, begin caramelizing the granulated sugar utilizing the dry sugar method.
Once all of the sugar has been added to the pot, allow it to turn a deep amber color, right before it begins to smoke.
Add the chopped banana to the caramelized sugar and gently stir, allowing the bananas to cook in the hot caramel for one minute.
Deglaze the pot with the warm milk/heavy cream and simmer the caramel sauce for five minutes.
Place the banana caramel into a blender and begin to process, making sure the blender is on its lowest setting first.
Gradually increase the speed until the blender is on its highest setting. Blend for 30 seconds more.
Strain the banana caramel through a chinois and immediately chill over an ice bath until it is cold.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.

Sweet tooth piqued? Click here to learn more about ICE’s Pastry & Baking Arts program.

Pastry Arts Desserts Valentine's Day

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Chef James’ Take on a Classic Holiday Treat: Speculaas Cookies

ohoadmin — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 13:45:41 +0000

Chef James’ Take on a Classic Holiday Treat: Speculaas Cookies ohoadmin Tue, 12/13/2016 - 08:45 December 13, 2016

By James Distefano

I love spices and everything about them — their history, their applications, their benefits and how they add depth of flavor and nuance to many worldly dishes. As the holiday season approaches, one cookie that I hold close to my heart comes to mind: speculaas.

Speculaas (also written speculoos) are thin, crunchy, caramelized cookies that are redolent with spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and cardamom. They are commonly found in northern European countries like Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands throughout the holiday season. When I was a pastry cook at Park Avenue Café, working under Chef Richard Leach, we served these cookies as part of our petit fours plate. I was tasked with making them and I’d always make one or two extra because I loved their spicy sweetness.

The idea to make this cookie was serendipitous. Around the same time that I was asked to come up with a holiday cookie recipe for the ICE blog, I was talking with two of my students about their Middle Eastern backgrounds. One of the students was telling me about a wonderful blend of seven spices used for seasoning meats; the second student about preserved and dried lemons. When I inquired about the spices, the former told me that it’s a very special blend — which happened to include all of the spices in a speculaas recipe, with the addition of rose hip.

The second student explained how dried lemon is used for infusing flavor into rice dishes or ground into fine powder to provide a bright, citrusy note with a touch of acid. I fell in love with the idea of using both of these ingredients in this recipe because of their flavor profiles — they would contribute exotic flavors to an already unique cookie. The result was a delicious, spice-filled cookie. And as a bonus: they're gluten-free. The takeaway? Don’t be afraid to look beyond the familiar to find new flavor profiles — they can really spice up your recipes.

Gluten-Free Speculaas Cookies

Servings: makes about 50 cookies

Ingredients:

250 grams butter, room temperature
206 grams powdered sugar
63 grams light brown sugar
2.5 grams lemon zest
5 grams spice blend (a mixture of spices that can include any of the following spices, to taste: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, rose hip and dried lemon)
2 egg yolks
20 grams tapioca starch
55 grams white rice flour
190 grams oat flour
100 grams sorghum flour
10 grams flax meal

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Place the butter, powdered sugar, light brown sugar, lemon zest and spice blend in a bowl fitted for an electric mixer with the paddle attachment. Combine ingredients just until smooth.
Slowly beat in the eggs and mix until fully incorporated.
Add dry ingredients and mix on low until combined.
Divide the dough evenly in half and roll into two cylinders. With plastic wrap, tightly wrap each dough cylinder and place in the refrigerator. Allow dough to hydrate overnight.
The following day, remove one dough cylinder from the refrigerator and cut into quarter-inch slices, then use a holiday cookie stamp to imprint your favorite design.
Place stamped cookies on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden.
Once cookies are done, remove from the oven and allow them to cool.
Repeat with remaining dough cylinders.
Store cookies in an airtight container for up to two days.

Read to dive into the pastry arts with Chef James? Click here for more information on ICE’s career programs.

Cookies Gluten Free Holidays Recipe

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No-Machine Ice Cream: Sweet Summer Corn

ohoadmin — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 14:22:36 +0000

No-Machine Ice Cream: Sweet Summer Corn ohoadmin Thu, 06/02/2016 - 10:22 Another Reason to Love Summer June 2, 2016

By James Distefano

James Distefano shows People magazine an unexpected way to eat not one, but two summertime treats. Watch him take you through each step in our video — then try the recipe yourself with his tips and directions below. Looking for more recipes from People & ICE? Click here for fried chicken sandwiches, French pastry made easy, knife skills and more.

Is there anything better than corn in the summertime? To me, corn is one of the highlights of the season’s produce. As a kid spending summers at the Jersey shore, the last thing I wanted to do was leave the beach early and shuck corn for dinner (but I did love eating it!).

Now, it’s one of my favorite summer ingredients to work with, its subtle sweetness giving it the versatility to work in many dishes. What’s more: whether you’re using it in a soup, salad or simply grilled and buttered, corn is an ingredient that doesn’t need a lot of gussying up.

When thinking about fresh ways to eat corn, I wanted to highlight its sweetness by combining it with another summertime staple: ice cream. You may not believe corn and dessert go together, but consider this: while we commonly think of corn as a part of a savory dish, it’s also in plenty of your favorite breakfast cereals. The inspiration for this homemade corn ice cream comes from a former boss of mine, Richard Leach. Rich has an amazing talent for creating and pairing desserts with uncommon ingredients.

When I was a young kid working for him in the mid-90s, putting corn in a dessert was a mind-expanding notion. One day when we were talking about food, he calmly asked me if I’d ever had a bowl of corn cereal with peaches in it. “Of course, I have,” I said quickly — and then realized what he was getting at. My mind melted.

Corn: it wasn’t just for dinner anymore!

The best part about this recipe is that you can make it without an ice cream maker. If I haven’t convinced you of corn’s delicious virtues as a dessert, you can try adding different flavors (see my tip below) or keep it easy by just adding the vanilla extract to the cream for a simple ice cream.

Here are some pro tips to help you out:

The scoop on the scoop: To get picture-perfect scoops of ice cream, dip your scoop into a tall container of warm water. The water will warm the scoop enough to enable you to dig into the ice cream and shape it into a nice round ball without the ice cream sticking to the surface. Just make sure to tap any excess water off of the scoop before digging in to avoid any messy dripping.
Flavor-ific: If you’d like to add another flavor, such as a spice, you can whip it with your egg yolks. If you’re keen on adding something else such as chocolate chips, candy or nuts, replace the amount of roasted corn kernels with the ingredient of your choosing. If you’d like to try adding fresh herbs, mint, cilantro or tarragon would all taste delicious with the corn! Add any of the above to the batter at the end when you’re folding in the whipped cream. For this recipe, two to three tablespoons of chopped herbs should be enough.
End results: To get the best from your eggs, let them come to room temperature because they will whip up more quickly and easily and hold more air (volume). To get the best results from your heavy cream, the cream and the bowl you will be using to whip in should be as cold as possible to whip up more quickly and easily and hold more volume. When you maximize the volume of both, your ice cream will be lighter and creamier!
Bowled over: Since most of us only have one KitchenAid bowl to work with at home, I’d recommend whipping the cream first and storing it in your refrigerator while you whip up the egg yolks, followed by the egg whites. Whipped cream tends to hold its volume (the air trapped during the whipping process) longer than either whipped yolks or whites.
Whip it good: To get the most out of your whipping cream, set the speed on your mixer between seven and eight or medium-high. At this speed, as the cream is whipping, the whisk will “cut” more evenly sized air bubbles into the cream. This is important because uniform air bubbles will “pop” closer to the same rate, whereas if you whip your cream on high speed, you will have irregular sized air bubbles—some large, some small—meaning your whipped cream will deflate more quickly than you want…and nobody wants to feel deflated!

Corn Ice Cream

Yield: 3 quarts

For the roasted corn kernels

Ingredients:

3 ears corn (approximately 1 ½ cups kernels), shucked, silks and husks reserved for corn-infused heavy cream (recipe below)
1 tablespoon canola oil
2-3 tablespoon sugar
Pinch of salt

Directions:

Heat the oven to 350 F.
Remove kernels from the cob and set aside. Cut cobs in quarters and reserve for corn-infused heavy cream (recipe below).
Spread kernels on a parchment paper-lined baking tray.
Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of canola oil.
Sprinkle with the sugar and season with a pinch of salt.
Roast in the oven at 350 F for 15 minutes or until the corn begins to color.
Remove from the oven and allow it to cool to room temperature.
Can be stored in an airtight container for up to two days.

For Corn-Infused Heavy Cream

Ingredients:

3 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
2 cups reserved husks, silks and cobs

Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients in one large pot.
Bring to a boil over medium heat.
Turn the heat off and steep for 15 minutes, covered with a lid.
After 15 minutes remove the lid and cool to room temperature.
Store corn-infused heavy cream in an airtight container for at least 24 hours or up to two days in the refrigerator.
The following day, strain the infused cream through a colander to make the corn ice cream base (recipe below). You need to make sure you wind up with three cups. Add fresh cream to make up the difference if needed.

For Corn Ice Cream Base

Ingredients:

4 eggs, separated
Salt
1 ½ cups sugar
3 cups corn-infused heavy cream, strained
1 ½ cups roasted corn kernels

Directions:

Combine the egg yolks, ½ cup sugar and a pinch of salt in the bowl fitted for the electric mixer with a whisk attachment.
Whip on high speed until pale, thick and ribbony, make sure all of the sugar has dissolved. This should take three to four minutes. Remove whipped yolk base from the bowl and set aside in a large mixing bowl. Keep cold. Wash the mixing bowl and whip for the mixer because you will need it to whip the egg whites.
Place egg whites and a pinch of salt in the bowl fitted for the electric mixer and begin whipping on medium speed until medium peak.
Once egg whites are at medium peak, slowly add in the remaining one cup of sugar. Once all of the sugar is in, turn the machine up to high speed and continue to whip until the meringue looks like shaving cream. It will be light, fluffy and glossy looking.
In three separate stages, gently fold the meringue (egg white mixture) into the egg yolk base, only folding about three quarters of the way. This will help prevent over mixing. After the third addition of meringue has been folded in, place back into the refrigerator to keep cold.
Wash the mixing bowl and whip for the mixer because you will need it to whip the corn-infused heavy cream.
Whip the corn-infused heavy cream to medium peaks in an electric mixer with the whisk attachment.
Fold one quarter of the whipped corn-infused heavy cream into the ice cream base and mix three quarters of the way.
Add the last three quarters of the whipped corn-infused heavy cream along the with the roasted corn kernels to the ice cream base.
Gently fold everything together until no visible streaks of whipped cream remain.
Pour corn ice cream into an airtight container with a tight lid and freeze immediately.
Allow to freeze for 24 hours before serving.

*The ice cream will last for up to four days in the freezer.

Want more delicious dessert ideas from Chef James? Sign up for one of his recreational classes — or go pro and get more information about ICE’s professional pastry program.

Summer Desserts Recipe

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