თბილისი

If you're reading this you know it's because you saw the title and though to yourself, "what the heck is that?!". That, is Tbilisi, Georgia. Isn't it the coolest alphabet ever?

I finally am getting to travel again. It's been so long since I've been abroad that I shudder to think of when that was. Tbilisi was my first stop on a four country tour to visit some of the offices I work with. In fact I don't actually have any work in Georgia, but I needed to go in order to get the extremely difficult visa for Azerbaijan. Although ironically the plane stopped over in Baku, Azerbaijan before continuing on to Tbilisi.

Having heard for years how fantastic Georgia is I was happy to take advantage of the situation; and happier to discover that all the hype wasn't for nothing.Tbilisi is utterly charming, if cold. I don't know why I didn't think it was going to be winter cold but I decided it wasn't and packed like it wasn't. Big mistake. I ended up wearing two pairs of socks everyday, often also with tights under my trousers, and wishing I'd brought thermal underwear.

 Monument in Freedom Square.

 Freedom Square

 This trolly is no longer in use but sits here for, I imagine, photographic opportunities.

 Cafe Marrakesh-I found the street of shisha :)

 The city is full of these random statues. I wish I could have got pictures of more of them.

 Had some fun with Photoshop effects.

In addition to being charming, Georgia is known for it's good food and wine. While I only have one picture of the food, I can attest that the reputation it enjoys is spot on.

Baked trout in pomegranate sauce. Yes.

I had dinner one evening at a traditional Georgian restaurant and the yumminess was awesome. Most notably, and something I will try to duplicate at home, eggplant covered in this walnut paste stuff. Dude. Dinner also came with three bottles of excellent Georgian wine; one white and two green. I am already planning a future vacation to explore the wine regions of Georgia. I did not drink all three bottles by myself but think I had the majority of the third bottle since my colleague was driving.

Speaking of driving-scary. I don't think I've ever experienced traffic quite so scary. People drive down the center lane, make u-turns in traffic circles, and have to back down streets when they cannot fit through. Part of the problem I think are the extremely narrow mountainous roads that people park on either side of ensuring that there's only enough room for one car to squeeze through. Which probably wouldn't be a problem if there were one way streets; but there aren't.

Views in the evening are almost as nice as those by day. These I took from the balcony of my hotel's restaurant.

I was really sorry that I wasn't able to spend more time exploring Tbilisi. The architecture, while often sadly neglected, is amazing, Old City charming, shopping extensive, and the food and wine delicious. I'm definitely planning a return trip that won't be bogged down by work and head banging attempts to get a visa from the Embassy of Azerbaijan.

Pumpkin Custard Profiteroles

Because I cannot do something as simple as a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, I decided to make a dessert that was kind of a pumpkin pie with a twist-pumpkin custard profiteroles. These are made with a baked custard that has about the same consistency as does pie filling, but which is then put into hollow shells and drizzled with caramel.

I made the custard the night before so it had plenty of time to cool. what you'll need is:

3 cups whipping cream
2 1/4 cups canned pure pumpkin
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
9 large egg yolks

Notice the one ingredient egregiously left out? Vanilla! I'm not a fan of vanilla per say and I generally find it to be the most boring flavor on earth; on it's own. But it's a staple spice for baking for Pete's sake.

 

 

So whisk the heavy cream and all the spices (including vanilla) and bring it to a simmer while stirring occasionally.

Instead of liquid vanilla I used this ground vanilla bean from Williams Sonoma and substituted regular salt for fleur de sal.

Whisk sugar and egg yolks in a separate bowl then gradually whisk in the hot pumpkin mixture. It wouldn't be a bad idea to whisk in a couple tablespoons at first to temper the eggs. You really don't want to accidentally cook them.

The pour the mixture into an 8x8x2 glass or ceramic baking dish (or whatever you've got that fits into a 9x13), cover with foil, place in a 9x13 pan and fill said pan about halfway with water. Bake at 325 for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. You want the middle to be pretty solid and not jiggly.

Once baked, chill at least 4 hours (or overnight).

For the profiteroles:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 egg yolk

Bring the water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil. 

Add the flour and cook over medium-high heat, stirring vigorously, until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the pan. 

Transfer to mixer and beat until slightly cooled, about 3 minutes. Then add the 3 eggs 1 at a time, totally incorporating each before adding the next. Then add the egg yolk.

Drop dough in generous teaspoons unto parchment covered cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 for about 30...or until they look golden brown.

And you're still not done because there's caramel sauce and whipped cream to make.

For the caramel sauce:

1 cup sugar

1 stick butter

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Stir sugar and butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat until it's melted, then add the cream and bring to a boil whisking until all the bits are melted. Reduce to medium heat and simmer 5 minutes, then add the vanilla and simmer for another minute.

Whipped cream is relatively easy. You can cheat with the canned or frozen varieties if you like, or beat the bejesus out of heavy cream, adding a little sugar along the way, until it's nice and thick.

To assemble, use a sharp parring knife to cut off the tops of the profiteroles, generously fill with the pumpkin custard, then set the tops back on. Drizzle the caramel, as much as you like really, on top of each profiterole, top with whipped cream and chopped pecans.

And yum!

Rita Hayworth

My absolute favorite chocolate shop in DC is ACKC; seriously if you're in the are and you haven't been, you need to go. In addition to just selling chocolates, ACKC offers coffee, drinks, cakes, brunch, and hot chocolate. Some of the awesomest hot chocolates ever, all named after silver screen divas. My favorite is the Rita Hayworth which is dark chocolate with clove, orange, and caramel. I decided that since I like it so much I should make a cake in homage to it.

I started by halving the cake recipe I think of as my base chocolate cake. I hate halving recipes because a) math is not my thing and b) using half an egg is tricky business. But the recipe I have was meant for a multi-tiered cake and I only needed two 9" rounds for this. The only other thing I did different for this recipe was to add a few dashes of cloves and the zest of about three oranges.

Side note: I was concerned before I baked the cake the the batter tasted more like orange than it did clove and was tempted to add more; but after a quick phone call to my mom I concluded the the cloveyness might be more prominent post baking; and it was.

Also for this creation I used my mom's recipe to make caramel:

1 cup each sugar, butter and karo syrup.
1 can sweet & condensed milk
Vanilla

Melt the first three ingredients until they're all combined and the sugar is dissolved. 

Bring to a boil and let it go, without stirring, for 4 minutes. 

Remove from heat, stir in the sweet & condensed milk and a wee bit of vanilla, then put it back on the heat and bring to a boil.

 Let it boil while stirring often for 14-ish minutes.

This is the color it should be when done. And while it's tempting...I really wouldn't recommend sampling it right away.

Second side note: if you want to make the caramel for candy, let it boil for 15-16 minutes then pour into a 9x9 pan to cool and set up. Boiling it for less time leaves it a little more viscous for filling my cake or the inside of chocolate shells.

While the caramel cooled I prepared the cakes by making a well in the bottom layer. First I cut off just the raised top section then shaved out more until I thought I had a decent hole.

For future reference though, I think I would make less of a dent in the bottom later and make a similar well in the top layer. This way there ended up being a lot of cake on top, then a thick layer or caramel, then a thin layer of cake.

Once it was cool I pour off the caramel into the cake. It was partially set up already but all I had to do was use the spatula to smooth it all to the edges.

I next made a small amount of ganache, flavoring the heavy cream with orange extract before adding the chocolate. I let that cool for a bit then poured it over the cake, smoothing it down the sides.

The ganache wasn't as thick as I wanted so I put the cake in the refrigerator for a little while which helped the ganache to set.

Unfortunately I was under a bit of a time crunch so I couldn't complete it the way I wanted to. While I had a smooth covering of ganache I would have liked to do a caramel drizzle on top as well. Even though the decorating wasn't completed to my satisfaction though, it really tasted good. I served it with dollops of homemade whipped cream which I do recommend doing; it helps to cut down on the richness of the cake.