Apples...

There are a thousand varieties of apples from all over the world. Different shapes, colors, tastes, textures, sugar contents. An apple is probably the first food we ever taste in our life. Some varieties are great for baking and cooking. Others are great to eat just like that: bite by bite. Apples are full of pectin and fiber. Two thirds of the fiber and antioxidants are found in the peel. Did you know that an apple tree takes four to five years to produce their first fruit?  

When I think of apples, I always remember my Grandma. She had the most amazing and delicious apple jello. The original was taken form a newspaper article. Then she transformed it, actually, she enriched it. She never wrote down her recipe so, needless to say, it was lost when she died. The only thing that I remember is that she used yellow apples and a box of green apple commercial jello (it had to be green!), some sugar and water. She never used measuring cups or scale, but the result was always the same. That is a flavor that I really miss from my childhood, and even though I have it in my memory, I cannot recreate it exactly as I remember it was. In my search for flavor, one of the things I learned from her is that you can take any good recipe and make it great.

...a day in Paris

I was supposed to go back home after a one week trip to Spain with my mother. My schedule: Barcelona-Madrid, Madrid-Paris, Paris-Dallas, Dallas-Mexico City. That is the perfect recipe for loosing one of your flights when one of the airports has problems with rain and clouds...and that is exactly what happened: I lost my connection to Dallas and had to spend one day in Paris, all by myself.

My first reaction was panic. But once I had a hotel and a flight reservation for the next day, I realized that it was a day to enjoy. First stop, La Saint Chapell, the most exquisite place in Paris. The first time I went there, I was only 15 and fell in love with the beauty and the silence. Needless to say, I had a lot to think about, some decisions postponed for a while, and being all alone with myself was the perfect time to address them. Inside my head was the idea to change my career, to change the stilettos for clogs, the office for a kitchen, the fancy outfits for an apron. I spent more than an hour there, talking to myself. Then I went to a café to write, to think, to drink an espresso, to eat a croissant. I walked and arrived to Notre Dame and sat there for a while, then walked and walked....another café, the river, window shopping, until my decision was taken in the middle of a bridge facing the Eiffel tower: I wanted to change economics to become a chef.

It all began when...

I was trained as a pastry chef. I enrolled in a culinary school ten years ago with the idea of becoming a chef, a culinary chef. To be accepted I was required to have a one-week pastry class. I was not very happy about it, because I had never baked a cake, or a bread. Only some cookies with one of my grandmas. I was so wrong. Since the first five minutes of that class, I was hooked. I had never studied food chemistry, or even heard about it, and I was being exposed to a fantastic field. Not only that, my cakes and tarts were very good! I was the best student that week. So, needless to say, I was challenged with a decision: culinary or pastry?

I traveled to France a week later, promised to the culinary school dean I would consider pastry, but asked her to wait until I came back. In France, I was introduced to the most fantastic food, pastries, candies, bonbons, patisseries, restaurants, boulangeries, bistros... But it was the moment I found Fauchon patisserie when I had my answer. The macarons, the bonbons, the pate de fruit, the tarts, the jams, the entremets, the sugar work, the ecleirs, the pain au chocolat, the bread. My decision was taken.

But even before that, the story begins seven months earlier during another visit to Paris, this one not planned at all.

Coffee

There is a ritual that I practice every morning. I fill my kettle with water, turn on the stove,     grind some coffee beans, fill my french press with them, and wait for the steam to start whistling. I had my first cup when I was 7 years old. Everyone in my family had coffee in the mornings, but I was not allowed to taste it until one day my aunt, who was visiting us from Spain, told me: “I will let you drink one cup if you can do it without adding any sugar to it”. I said yes! ...and I loved it. The unique bitter coffee flavor, unmasked from any other thing. The aroma steaming from my cup. That one was the first of many more.

Coffee is a flavor that goes great with chocolate among other ingredients, and it is used in desserts, cakes, confections, ice creams... Two species of coffee trees are commercially exploited: Arabica and robusta. Robusta beans-- that are prized for its resistance to frost and disease, its faster fruiting, and its tolerance for warmer climates and lower elevations--are more neutral in flavor than the Arabicas, and contain about twice as much caffeine. Plantings in the Americas are mostly Arabica, in Africa mostly robusta, and in India, about half and half. Jamaican, Java, mocha, and kona (Hawaiian) coffees are prized because these Arabica beans are not prolific and are grown in relatively small regions.

Coffee beans undergo two stages of processing. First comes fermentation, during which the berry pulp softens and becomes more easily separated from the seeds. Then, the seeds are roasted: all of the flavor and aroma that we enjoy in coffee is created by roasting the beans. The hotter and longer the beans are roasted, the darker and more strongly flavored they get. During the roasting process moisture is lost and a chemical reaction takes place: starches are converted into sugar, proteins are broken, and the whole cellular structure of the bean is altered.

When brewing your morning coffee, remind this:

• Use water just off the boil--it extracts the desired substances rapidly
  
• Don’t boil the water while brewing or the flavor will scape with the steam
  
• Takes about two minutes of contact with the water at about 200˚F (93˚C) to achieve a good flavor
  
• If brewed too long, flavor deteriorates
  
• Less brewing time results in a weak but sour flavor because the beans’ acids are among the first substances to dissolve
  
• Don’t hold the brewed coffee at a high temperature for too long or reheat it too often: much of the aroma will be lost, and
  
• Certain molecules are broken down into acids, which give the coffee a sour edge
  

Yolks

I remember when I was only 6 years old and used to prepare the sunday dessert for my family. I cooked standing on a chair because I couldn’t reach the stovetop. We used to go to my grandma’s apartment at the Colonia Roma, a very classic and old part of Mexico City. Grandpa loved my dessert: natillas. 

Natilllas is a dessert from the custard family. It involves milk, yolks, sugar and vanilla.  It is cooked slowly and you may add cornstarch to thicken it faster. It is one of those things that came from Spain many centuries ago and was cooked by the noons in the convents and is still popular. Back then it was flavored with cinnamon instead of vanilla.

As a child, I cooked the yolks and sucrose with a wooden spoon in a big orange pot. Something I don’t do anymore because it can easily turn into a sugar-omelette. But that was the way my mom thought me to do it. Next was adding the milk and bringing it to a boil, then the vanilla extract and, here comes the trick, a package of vanilla atole: a mix of cornstarch, sugar and vanilla flavor to prepare a very popular drink. This helped to add flavor and thicken the mixture. Then stirring, slowly, until the right consistency was achieved: very similar to a vanilla sauce.

My mother helped me to pour my custard to a big blue crystal bowl that had matching little plates, then chill it until it was time to get to grandma’s home. The most difficult part of the preparation was separating the yolks. My mom was very clear that you had to get rid of the chalaze (the yolk cord) and any whites.

Years later, working in a restaurant kitchen I learned another recipe that involved 2 hours of stirring: no starch included. The result was an incredible creamy, very smooth, velvety dessert full of flavor. That one deserves a post of its own.

About the yolks

A large egg weights about 2 ounces, or 60 grams. The shell accounts for 10 to 12% of this weight, the white for about 60%, and the yolk for abut 30%. According to Harold Mc Gee from his book “On Food and Cooking”, The yolk “is about 50% water, 34% lipids (fats and related substances) and 16% protein, with traces of glucose and minerals. Of the lipids, about two thirds are ordinary animal fats; one quarter, phosphorus and fatty acid complexes, including the emulsifier lecithin; and about one twentieth, cholesterol. The yolk contributes most of the cholesterol, about three quarters of the calories, and most of the vitamin A, thiamine, and iron of the whole egg. Its yellow coloration is caused mainly by pigments that are relatives of  carotene, a precursor of vitamin A.“

Why do pastry chefs love eggs? Because they thicken liquids into solids, they “foam” when whipped, and are emulsifiers (stabilize fats and water). You can cream, whip, fold, beat, or blend them with other ingredients to achieve different preparations such as pound cakes, ice creams, souffles, desserts, sauces, etc.

When we cook or bake eggs they “coagulate”. What is to coagulate? Coagulation is when the protein molecules bond together. Proteins are shaped as coils. When they are exposed to heat, salt, or acid, they denature: the coils unwind. When proteins unwind, they bond together.

Whites begin to coagulate at 60˚C (140˚F) and are fully cooked at 65˚C (145˚F). Yolks begin to coagulate at 65˚C (149˚F)and are fully cooked at 70˚C (158˚F). It is a good idea to cook any egg preparation up to 82 to 85˚C (179.6˚-185˚F) to prevent bacteria. Cooking the yolks (eggs) any further, only evaporates water, leaving a less tender product, and developing an eggy flavor. Even further heating, the proteins in the eggs fully coagulate and they curdle. The yolk cords, or chalaze, remain liquid long after the rest of the egg components have set. That is why it is important to get rid of it  either before cooking the yolks or by straining the preparation once it is cooked.

Lecithin is the emulsifier found in egg yolks. It helps to absorb the fat content in the other ingredients. Like any emulsifier, it binds the fat molecules to the other molecules, making them small, and evenly distributed, and the result is a product with a soft mouthfeel. Since lecithin is not in the whites, it is not a good idea to substitute whole eggs or egg yolks in a recipe for only whites. When baking, the effect of lecithin results in a softer crumb, because when the yolks are whipped, they incorporate air, dissolve sugar, and disperse the fat molecules. 

When you combine eggs, milk or cream, and sugar you can produce a creme brulee or a creme caramel if baked, or a vanilla sauce, creme anglais, or natillas if cooked over gentle heat. Starches or gelatin can be added to achieve different textures. All these are custard preparations. 

Sugar or acids can start the coagulation process or “burn” the yolks. When combining them, be careful to do it at the last minute, just before cooking, and constantly stirring, to prevent small granules from forming.

Recipe:Natillas

Milk                   700gr/23.33oz

Vanilla bean   1

Yolks                80gr/2.820z

Sugar               110gr/3.88oz

Cornstarch      15gr/0.529oz

Butter               15gr/0.529oz

*If you cannot find a vanilla bean, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract is a suitable substitution.

• Split the vanilla bean in half using a paring knife. Scratch the seeds into the milk.
  
• Bring the milk, the vanilla bean seeds and the rest of the bean to a boil. If using vanilla extract, add it at the end.
  
• Combine the yolks, sugar, together. Whisk them until a light pale yellow is achieved. Whisk in the cornstarch.
  
• Add the hot milk to the yolk mixture, little by little, whisking constantly (temper). Return to the stove.
  
• Cook this slowly, stirring with a wooden spoon continuously, over low heat. When stirring, run the spoon along the sides and bottom of the saucepan to prevent the yolks from curdling. Cook until the custard covers the back of a spoon.
  
• Strain, add the butter (vanilla extract, if used) and chill, covered with a plastic wrap in contact.
  
• Serve with powdered cinnamon.