This recipe is for Rebecca, who has both a stash of peaches in the freezer and a new KitchenAid mixer. (I'm seething with envy on both counts.)
Yeah, it doesn't look the best (which is why I didn't blog about it when I made it) but it tastes really really good. And what is more, it's from the Mary Poppins cookbook. I read both Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Comes Back last year and had to have the cookbook! Topsy Turvy Cake
Speaking of Topsy-Turvy...
"Three Little Maids from School" from Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh, 1999)
The film Topsy-Turvy chronicles the efforts of Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert to write The Mikado. If you haven't seen the operetta, the 1939 film is available on DVD, but if you get the chance to see it live, go for it! Gilbert and Sullivan operettas are ridiculous (and often extremely politically incorrect) but a lot of fun.
These are the kind of sugar cookie that keeps really well in a cookie jar, because you don't eat them hot from the oven. After they've cooled, they're crisp and crunchy, which makes for a nice change. They're also unfrosted, which means even less work and the batch makes 60 cookies, so I don't have to worry about making cookies very often. Plus, the dough freezes really easily. Freezing instructions are included with the recipe.
Sachertorte is the quintessential Viennese torte. The Hotel Sacher and Demel (a Viennese bakery and kaffeehaus) fought a 7-year legal battle to determine who would get to use the phrase "Die Echte" ("The Original") on their menu entry for Sachertorte. It all began in 1832 when a young Franz Sacher baked the cake for Prince Klemens von Metternich. It was a hit and Sacher took the recipe with him to his new position at Dehne, which was the emperor's official bakery in Vienna. Sacher eventually left Dehne to open a gourmet grocer, where he sold his Sachertorte. In later years, Sacher's son, Eduard, opened the Hotel Sacher and Dehne was purchased by Christoph Demel and renamed. After World War II, the Hotel Sacher sued Demel for the right to use the phrase "die echte" and won.*
My recipe comes mostly from Lilly Joss Reich's The Viennese Pastry Cookbook with Schlagobers (sweetened whipped cream) and Chocolate Glaze recipes from Rick Rodgers's Kaffeehaus. Rodgers writes that Metternich wanted a cake that was the opposite of the "light, fluffy, creamy 'feminine'" cakes popular at the time, so Sacher created a "dryer, more compact 'masculine' cake."* Lilly Joss Reich's recipe adds an extra egg white, which she argues keeps the cake more moist. Extra egg white or not, it is imperative to eat Sachertorte with Schlagobers.
Remember!
Read about the contest here. If you bake your own Sachertorte, please submit your comment (on this post) by 11:59 p.m. CST Monday, January 31, 2011. Good luck!
Because this recipe contains no baking powder, all that stands between your Sachertorte and a large chocolate cheesecake crust is the air that you beat into the egg whites. Make sure they are sufficiently stiff and that you fold, not stir, them into the rest of the batter.
Even though snobs (and I mean people who are just as snobby as I am, but in different ways) say that chocolate chips are inferior to bars of chocolate, I don't see them volunteering to clean all the little bits of chocolate off my counter. So, I use chocolate chips, but I use good ones like Guittard or Ghirardelli. They're tasty and not waxy. I used the 60% cacao Ghirardelli chips in this recipe, not the 72% cacao Guittard, mostly because that's what they had at World Market (my favorite chain store ever).
About preserves: I think it's best to spend a little extra time and money to get a brand that does not use high-fructose corn syrup. I know there are a lot of people who will argue sugar is sugar, but I think that using high-fructose corn syrup (which is much cheaper) shows an appalling lack of concern for the quality of the final product--but that's just me, speaking from my soap box.
Light or gold rums will work best for the apricot glaze. Don't use spiced rum! I'm no expert on rums, so I just used the Bacardi Superior that has been in our fridge for an embarrassingly long time.
The chocolate glaze will take forever to heat from 220 degrees to 234 degrees. Don't panic, don't turn up the heat. Just be patient!
In Kaffeehaus, Rick Rodgers suggests scraping the excess chocolate glaze that is left on the baking sheet, refrigerate it and then use it (with milk) to make hot chocolate.
I also think it's imperative to listen to Viennese waltzes while baking (and eating) Sachertorte.
*Rick Rodgers, "The Story Behind Sachertorte," in Kaffeehaus (New York: Clarkson Potter, 2002), 60-61.
The Joy of Desserts blog has a weekly round-up of vintage recipes and I thought that it would be a good way to help me blog on a regular basis! (Along with the contest, of course--the 2nd contest recipe will arrive Saturday.) I love all things vintage and cook from old recipes all the time, so a once-a-week posting shouldn't be too difficult!
This easy meal comes from one of my favorite old cookbooks: A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband. The cranberry relish is my parents' recipe, though. You'll have to ask my mom about it! Oh, and the original menu called for a Baked Potato, but I had sweet potatoes from my CSA, so I used those instead. Just pierce them a few times with a fork, wrap with tin foil and bake at 350 for about an hour. This is super-convenient because both the cornbread and the ham bake at the same temperature.
Clockwise from top left: Corn Bread, Baked Sweet Potato, Baked Ham, Cranberry Relish
A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1946)
I'll admit it--the reason I rented this film from Netflix was that I was browsing David Niven movies and hadn't seen this one. If I had known it also starred Kim Hunter ("Stella" from A Streetcar Named Desire, which is another must-see film) and Roger Livesey (I've talked about him before), I would have rented it earlier. The premise sounds really lame--a pilot cheats death and then has to prove to heaven that he deserves to remain on Earth because he's fallen in love. Don't let that (or the not-great special effects) stop you from watching this film. It's charming and Roger Livesey is magnificent as the doctor in an English village who looks after David Niven's character. Powell and Pressburger's script gracefully straddles the line between romantic, yet still realistic, war-wound-recovery story and romantic fantasy. Is the action fueled by an accounting error in heaven or is the accounting error in heaven simply a manifestation of neurological trauma?
If you're looking for a sweet but not saccharine classic film, this one's for you.
It also makes me want to move to an English village where Roger Livesey is the village doctor, but honestly, it doesn't take encouragement from a film to make me want to move to an English village!
Welcome to the first event in the Viennese Pastry Challenge! Even though its name translates to "Apple Cake,"this Apfelkuchen is a rustic tart with a sweet, lemony shortcrust pastry. You'll want to use a crunchy, flavorful apple for this recipe--I used Honeycrisp apples for my Apfelkuchen, but you can use whichever variety you want (as long as it's not something tasteless like Red Delicious). Obviously, you could have Apfelkuchen for dessert or a snack, but I think it works particularly well for breakfast because of the high fruit to pastry ratio. Apfelkuchen
A few recipe notes:
I used almonds in my Apfelkuchen, but the original recipe calls for either almonds or walnuts. It's up to you!
I bought both my pastry blender and bench scraper from Williams-Sonoma. Be sure to buy a pastry blender that has sturdy blades or it will be worthless. Here's a link to the one I have.
Be sure to use a high-quality unsalted butter. Don't use margarine! Remember that the quality of the ingredients is very important and will affect the taste of the final product.
If you only use one organic ingredient for this recipe, make it the lemon, because you will be using the zest, which is where most of the pesticides in conventionally grown lemons reside. Eeew.
Wondering what to do with your leftover egg white? We'll be using it in the next event! By the way, my wonderful eggs come from Morning Harvest Farm.
First layer of apples
The finished Apfelkuchen
Remember!
Read about the contest here. If you bake your own Apfelkuchen, please submit your comment (on this post) by 11:59 p.m. CST Monday, January 31, 2011. Good luck!
Also, "From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2011" on Great Performancesairs tonight on PBS.
.....
Gold Diggers of 1933
I posted a video from this film previously (Ginger Rogers's "We're in the Money" number) but I had yet to see the film in its entirety. I highly recommend it for its fascinating mix of licentiousness (ah, pre-Code Hollywood) and social consciousness (evidently the Warner brothers were FDR supporters*). In addition, you absolutely have to watch it for the Busby Berkeley production numbers.
Although tame by today's standards, Gold Diggers is risqué in comparison with films that would be forced to adhere to the Hays Code only a year later. This clip, "Pettin' in the Park," has several code violations including nudity in silhouette (horrors!). Film trivia alert: the lascivious "baby" is Billy Barty, the unlucky Bible salesman in Foul Play.
Gold Diggers of 1933 is no mere fluff piece. Although following most of the conventions of musical comedy, the film comments explicitly on the hunger, unemployment and alienation caused by the Great Depression, especially in the "Remember My Forgotten Man" number.
*Special Feature:"FDR's New Deal...Broadway Bound"
Sachertorte
