Sophie's Bat Mitz, aftermath!

It all was so beautiful, Soph was amazing. Pictured, the cookie process! (the adult favors), The chocolates (fresh spearmint meltaways, toffees, and caramels) for the tables, chocolate pretzels for the kids favors.

Apple Bavarian Torte

Layer of brown sugar cake soaked in white wine sugar syrup, topped with thick apple compote, then creamy sour cream vanilla bavarian creme. On top of that a thin layer of spiced cider glaze. Surrounded by a white chocolate wall and topped with spun caramel shards and dried apple slices. Served with Vanilla Creme Anglaise and Caramel sauce. Eaten with some beautiful Calvados on a crispy fall night and we ended up dressed like this. Was taster testing this dessert for Thanksgiving.

Coulibiac (the step x step)

 See recipe in part deux! and have all parts ready.
 Roll brioche into 2 very thin rectangles, about 12" x 20", and place one on parchment lined sheet pan. Then, do below to the one on the pan.....

Then, top with layer of raw baby spinach and top
that with the filets of salmon, then see below, add small butter pats. Top with another layer of baby spinach, another pipe of mousse down the whole shebang.

Egg wash around whole thing and top with other rectangle of dough. Slit tiny vents all the way down. press sides of brioche together all around to press out any air
pockets.

Slice off extra dough and make it look pretty. Seal all the edges together very well. You can cut out shapes or stripes to glue on top, or make a tail. Then, you can bake (again see part deux!) or put in fridge for later baking that day.

s

Halloween Coulibiac, Part Deux

Between The Buttons Dancing Party
"A one enchanted evening filled with sweethearts" (Tommy) a warm and fuzzy fall Halloween weekend dinner. To make it happen, make a Coulibiac, and invite over beautiful friends. It can't hurt to have a surplus of masks, (wild and domestic animals are fun), a bottle of great champagne, some Cambozola and pears and walnuts, several bottles of Chardonnay, a bloody gothic Beet and Red Cabbage soup, a kindly friend who brings a large bottle of Calvados (to accompany the apple mousse Bavarian cake and which might incite a dance party, see above)....so a turntable and great records are good, too.
Parts: brioche, mousseline, salmon, spinach.....champagne beurre blanc

Brioche- dissolve 1 1/2 t yeast in 1/4 c warm water, set aside.
warm 1 1/2 c milk with 6 T butter, 2 T sugar, 1t kosher salt, when room temp whisk in 3 yolks.
Add to yeast. In lg bowl or food processor, add slush, and mix in 4 1/2 c flour. knead until smooth, rub outside of dough w butter or olive oil and set aside, covered, to rise until doubled. when doubled, punch down and rise again. After second rise you can freeze dough til needed, or begin to assemble Coulibiac.

Mousse: food processor, add 3 oz salmon filet, 6 oz large scallop, 4 oz peeled and deveined shrimp.
(acutally can use any seafoods or combo you'd like) process til smooth, add 1 egg, about 8 churns of fresh ground pepper, kosher salt, chopped chives, 1 T lemon juice, process again. Add 1/2 - 1 cup heavy cream (to your liking) and whip for a minute. stir in about 2 more oz. of shrimp, cut into chunks. Spread into container and chill at least 6 hrs.

Get about 1 1/2 pound salmon filets, skinned. And about a bag of baby spinach. 
put an egg and some milk in a cup and whisk for the egg wash, grab some extra butter......and you can begin to assemble your beast!

Roll out brioche into 2 rectangles that are quite thin. layer first the mousse, then a layer of spinach (raw) then the salmon filet or filets down the center, more spinach to cover, more mousse. Spread egg wash around creation and top w other piece of brioche.  Pinch all around to seal, then poke holes all along the top, and press the shape together to expel all inside air. Brush the outside with egg wash. You can cut out tiny shapes to decorate with the extra dough. (At this point you can put in fridge for about 6-7 hours, but let sit at room temp for 1 hour before baking.) Or, just bake in a preheated 400 oven for 20 mins, turn down to 350 and bake 10 mins more. Cool for at least 30 mins at room temp. Slice into slices of beautiful beautifulness.......serve with sauce.

Any version of classic Beurre Blanc (butter, shallots, wine or stock) is delicious, we used a champagne base.
Instead of putting rice in the Coulibiac, we a wild brown rice mushroom onion pilaf, made with a bit of fish stock. It really tied the room together, and the oven roasted zucchini, yellow squash and carrots made the plate gloriously colorful.

                                                        

the little caprese yellow tomato salad (bounty=18 tomatoes!)

Tree Cookies

 For Sophie's upcoming Eco-themed Bat Mitzvah. We discussed pale green tones, and a tree on her favors for her environmental theme.

rockin little yellow tomaters

Our little yellow tomato plants are suddenly bursting with bounty! We may actually be able to make a salad, instead of eating them one at a time as it was all summer.