Iron Chef Challenge - Strawberries

Warning: This is a rather long post. It’s THREE recipes in one sitting…

At the end of June, we had a big family party, a reunion of sorts. When you think of my immediate family we’re not too big (there are only 5 of us: Mami, Papi, and the three of us kids), however, when you think of my mom’s side of the family it gets slightly more complicated. Not only is my mom one of six siblings, but add to the equation spouses, kids, kid’s significant others, and we literally have enough family to make up two baseball teams with relief players (this is including my 90 year old Gramma as pitcher of course). My mom’s side of the family, while originally based in Chicago, is now spread out all over the US. We have both coasts covered with some area in between. Because of this distance, it’s pretty awesome when we all get together.

To me, the fam is pretty special. I love to soak up as much time with my Aunts and Uncles as possible (maybe because I get some great dirt on my mom) and I enjoy getting to know my cousins a little better (mostly because there’s always a gem of a story to unearth). The big family party was set for Saturday and we were going to have a family dinner on Friday night at Gramma’s. My Uncle was going to cook dinner, so as the good little wannabe Chef that I am, I offered to make desserts. Having made the cakes for Gramma’s 90th and being impressed with some of my ridiculous concoctions that I’ve made for other family holidays he opened his arms to me. A week before the dinner I started to panic. I offered to make dessert without taking into account things like the amount of people that were going to be there (like 22 people or something ridiculous) AND it also seemed to have slipped my mind that the Jewel grocery store 37 seconds away from my house was closing it’s doors that week for remodeling. Couple these factors with normal work stress, attempting to have a life of my own, and minor daily annoyances and if you looked at me wrong, I probably would have burst into flames.

Luckily, I work best under pressure. I may not do my best work, but I’m focused, organized, and boy do I zero in on the prize and go for it.

So I set to work brainstorming. I couldn’t just make 200 cookies for my family – that was way too boring. And I had to make something gluten free so that my mom could enjoy it. I also wanted to use my tart pan still (I know – it’s a little obsessive) and I had recently purchased a cake carrier that was asking to be carried. I decided to make this a challenge – to pick one theme to carry through all the desserts. That way nothing was conflicting/overpowering and it made sense when presented in a group setting.

Strawberries. I love working with fresh fruit. I like the balance it has with chocolate or without chocolate and how it adds a lighter aspect to something. I also enjoy them by themselves. So in my own little kitchen stadium I began my Strawberry Challenge. Make 3 desserts, enough to feed 20 people and allow for seconds, in one very long night. I scoured the net for recipes. I settled on making three things, which I gave them each a spin of my own. I made Chocolate Covered Strawberries with semi-sweet and white chocolate, Fresh Fruit Tart, and what I like to call – A Slice of Strawberry Heaven (Gluten Free). To say everything came out perfect, would be a huge understatement. The fact is: I ran into a ton of kinks. There was intense troubleshooting, a 7 am bike ride to the Jewel down the road, and the remaking of a dessert before I had to be at work at 9:30 am. Even with all the stress and trouble, everything actually turned out delicious. And I want to mess with all these recipes some more so I can get them just right, however, I’ve OD’d a little on strawberries so I’m going to steer clear of them for a little while and focus on other delicious desserts before I bring them back.

Without further blabbing, here are the recipes. They’re definitely a work in progress, but have fun with them. They are delicious after all.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries (Taken from Food Network) These are also Gluten-Free!

Ingredients:
2 lbs of whole Strawberries (about 40)
12 oz Semi-sweet Chocolate (chopped)
6 oz White Chocolate (chopped)

Directions:
Wash and dry the strawberries really well. If they are wet the chocolate doesn’t set on them as nicely.
Put the Semi-sweet and White Chocolate in two separate heat proof bowls. I used my metal bowls. Make two separate double boilers to melt the chocolate by filling two separate saucepans with a couple of inches of water and heat until the water simmers. Make sure when you place your bowl on top of your saucepan that the water does NOT touch the bottom of the bowl.
While waiting for the water to simmer, line jelly roll pans with wax paper or parchment paper where you’ll set the dipped strawberries (or you can line your counter with it too).
Because I was doing so many strawberries I melted the Semi-sweet Chocolate first. I turned the heat down to low and waited for the chocolate to melt, stirring it until it was smooth. Once the chocolate was melted I turned the heat off.
Hold the strawberries by the stem and dip into the chocolate. As you lift it from the chocolate twist the strawberry so the excess falls back into the bowl or twists onto the strawberry. Set the strawberries on the parchment paper. Continue with the rest of your strawberries.
Follow the same rules stated above to melt the white chocolate. Once the white chocolate is melted, dip a fork in the white chocolate and whip it back and forth across the strawberries. It takes a couple times to get the whip of your wrist right, you might make a little mess and wind up with white chocolate all over your kitchen. But once you get the movement down they look gorgeous.
Let the strawberries set and them place them in the fridge. To package them you can stack them on top of each other between parchment paper. Don’t leave them out too long because you run the risk of the strawberries getting juicy and the chocolate shrinking back off of them (this is especially the case if you don’t dry them well enough).
This is a very easy dessert that is a crowd pleaser every time.

Fresh Fruit Tart Adapted from recipe found in Gourmet Magazine, 1998

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 ¾ cup Cinnamon Graham Crackers, ground (about 20 Trader Joe’s Cinnamon Graham Crackers)
1 stick of Unsalted Butter, melted
¼ cup of Sugar

Mascarpone Filling:
8 oz Mascarpone
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 cup Powdered Sugar
1 Lemon (zested)

Fruit Topping & Glaze:
3 ½ - 4 cups of Fresh Fruit (I used 1 ½ cups of sliced Strawberries, 1 cup Raspberries, and 1 cup Blueberries)
2 TBSP Strawberry Marmalade
2 TBSP Cointreau (or other berry/fruity liquor)

Directions:
Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place a metal small measuring cup in the freezer to chill and help push the sides of the crust up the tart pan (optional).
Grind the Graham Crackers in the food processor until they are fine, mealy, texture. Stir in the sugar. Next stir in the butter until it’s incorporated.
Pour the crust mixture into a 9” tart pan. Coat the bottom of the tart pan with the crust mixture and push it up the sides of the pan as well. Using the cold measuring cup will help with this.
Bake in the oven for 13 minutes.
The crust slid down on me and cooked a little funny. If this happens, as soon as you pull it out of the oven, use the measuring cup or the back of a spoon to push the sides back up the side of the pan. Allow the crust to cool about 15-20 minutes before filling it. The crust should be fine.
Mascarpone Filling:
Beat the Mascarpone, whipping cream, sugar, and lemon zest until stiff peaks form. (It is, by far, the easiest step.) Once the crust is cool, spoon and spread the Mascarpone filling into the crust.
Fruit Topping and Glaze:
Slice the strawberries and mix with the raspberries and blueberries in a big bowl.
Place the Marmalade and the Cointreau in a small saucepan and simmer until the liquid is reduced to 3 TBSP, stirring constantly. This takes about five minutes.
With a pastry brush or spoon, spread some of the glaze over the top of the Mascarpone filling. Pour the rest of the glaze in with the fruit and stir it up so the fruit is coated. The fruit will get a nice sheen to it from the glaze. If you are serving this right away, toss the fruit on top of the tart, if not set it aside and wait to cover the tart.

I made the mistake of dressing the cake way before it was time. The liquid from the fruit and the glaze seeped through the crust and made everything soggy, making a huge mess in my kitchen. I had to turn the tart over on a plate to stop it from oozing. As a perfectionist, this made me hop on my bike at 7 am and go to Jewel to re-make the dessert. I took the first, soggy dessert to work and it was a huge hit. I waited to put the fruit on top of the tart until I got to my Grandma’s. It was a big hit and tasted delish, but the crust was a little hard. So the juices are definitely needed to soften the crust, but just do it a little before you’re ready to serve and not 24 hours before because it is a sticky gross mess to clean up.

Gluten Free Strawberry Heaven
Gluten Free White Cake Ingredients: (Cake adapted from a recipe Amanda’s Random Ramblings
1) 1 cup White Rice Flour
2) 1 cup Sorghum Flour
3) 1 1/3 cup Tapioca Flour
4) 2/3 cup Potato Starch
5) 2 cups Sugar
6) 4 tsp Baking Powder
7) 1 tsp Salt
8) 2 tsp Xanthan Gum
3 sticks of Unsalted Butter, softened but NOT melted
6 eggs
3 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Whole Milk

Chocolate Ganache:
16 oz Semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1 ½ cup Heavy Whipping Cream
4 TBSP butter

Strawberry Buttercream and Strawberry Filling:
(This is where the recipe went awry. Everything was going well until I tried to concoct a strawberry buttercream. I think I looked at way too many recipes and didn’t think things through properly. I am going to write about how I made it a giant mess and what I think I would omit to fix it. Please do not get mad if it turns out badly, it can be fixed.)
1 cup Strawberries, pureed
½ cup Unsalted Butter, melted
4 cups Powdered Sugar
¼ cup Milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp Strawberry gelatin
2 envelopes regular Gelatin
1 cup Strawberries, sliced - to place between cake layers

Gluten Free White Cake Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease 2 – 9” Round pans.
Combine all your dry ingredients (ingredients 1 through 8) in a bowl and mix them together (best done with a large spoon since there are so many).
Place your softened butter in a larger bowl and beat until fluffy.
Add the dry ingredients to the fluffy butter until they are all combined. Turn up the juice on your mixer and mix until the butter/dry ingredients reach a crumbly consistency.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla (I used the empty dry ingredients bowl). Add the vanilla/eggs to the dry ingredients and beat until it’s smooth and thick. Add the milk to the batter and beat until it’s combined.
Divide the cake batter between the round pans. Place in the oven and cook for approx. 44 minutes. Check on it after 30 minutes. I think because I doubled the original recipe and made pretty thick cakes it took a little longer than I had anticipated.
Cool the cakes in the pans for 10 minutes and then dump onto a cooling rack.
This was hands down, one of the best gluten free cakes I’ve made. It’s a little more difficult because there’s no chocolate in it to mask the gluten free texture/tastes. It didn’t taste exactly like white cake, but it had a nice fluffy consistency to it and didn’t taste too heavy or mealy.

Ganache:
Do not make the Ganache until the cakes have completely cooled and are ready to be covered. Make sure to put a cookie sheet under the cooling rack to catch the dripping chocolate ganache.
Place the chopped chocolate in a heat proof bowl.
Heat the cream and butter over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring the cream and butter just to a boil and pour over the chocolate.
Let it stand, undisturbed for 5 minutes. Use a whisk and stir until smooth.
Pour the chocolate ganache over the tops of the cakes. Make sure to spread/cover the sides of the cakes.
Let the chocolate cool.

Strawberry Buttercream:
Beat all the ingredients together (except for the sliced Strawberries) until stiff peaks form. This does not happen, sadly. There’s too much liquid, no matter how long you beat. Poor Pegleg’s leg got tired, and my arm got tired of holding her. That’s why I attempted to add the gelatin to try to thicken it up. No dice…Then I thought if I refrigerated it, it would stiffen up a bit. It was still a soupy mess. Then I just prayed and decided to use it anyway. I think if I had omitted the milk it would have come out ok, but I can’t be positive.

Assembly:
I placed on ganached layer on the cake carrier and spread a little Strawberry Buttercream Soup over the top of the first layer. I then placed the sliced strawberries on top of the first layer. I placed the second ganached layer cake on top of the first one. Then, I poured the Strawberry Buttercream Soup over the ganached layers. I was hoping it would stick to the chocolate, it kind of slid everywhere and created a huge mess. Because it was so slippery, the strawberries started popping out of the center of the cake. By this time it was well past 1 am. I was crying. I’m not big on crying, but I was so exhausted and frustrated. I was sure this was going to rival the peanut butter crust disaster.
I stuck the cake in the fridge and hoped for the best, knowing that nothing good could come of it. It looked like a terrible unappetizing mess. I’m sure it tasted ok, but looking at it you definitely did NOT want to eat it. You could have potentially gotten cooties from just looking at it.
As I was sluggishly cleaning the kitchen and wallowing in self pity and disappointment I was thinking as to how I was going to fix this cake. I couldn’t let it go to waste, I had spent a lot of time on these gluten free layers and the ganache was beautiful. I couldn’t just serve the tart and strawberries, there wouldn’t be enough to feed the masses. I was already getting up to go to Jewel at 7 am, there had to be something I could do.
I sifted through the culinary encyclopedia in my brain and reverted to something I knew I could execute awesomely – Cream Cheese Frosting!

So early in the morning, I carefully removed the slippery, strawberry, soupy covered cakes from the cake carrier base and cleaned the base. (Since everything had dripped everywhere.) I whipped up a batch of cream cheese frosting. Placed the cake back on the carrier and frosted it.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 – 8 oz package Cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. Little by little add the powdered sugar until it’s light and creamy. It’s pretty easy and really tasty.

as the Whoopie Pies, I know it was damn good and thAnd the cake was DELICIOUS! It was absolutely phenomenal. It had just the right amount of sweetness and fruitiness. The chocolate added a great layer to the flavors and kept it from being bland with just a white cake and strawberries. I don’t really like attention and have a hard time taking compliments, not because I don’t appreciate them, but part of me only half believes them. I made a disaster into a success and while I was completely exhausted, the clink of forks and the going back for seconds was some of the most rewarding praise I’ve ever received. (Writing that seems kind of silly, but it’s truly how I felt.) My family, they don’t sugar coat things. They tell it like it is and when my mom said that she liked this cake almost as goodat’s that no one had been filled in on the backstory.

Maybe it’s a tale of success, maybe it’s just a story of luck, but for once I felt like I knew what it was like to take lemons and make lemonade.