Gluten Free

The beets and cucumbers in Dolores’s summer garden and the tangy goat’s-milk yogurt from Skyhill Farms, a Napa Valley producer, inspired chef William Withrow at the 2005 Workshop. He folded diced roasted beets into yogurt, then spooned the mixture into edible “cups” made from cucumber chunks. When all of the ingredients are well chilled, this healthful appetizer is incomparably refreshing—just what you want on a warm summer night.

Inspired by the simplicity and purity of Japanese sashimi, American chefs are exploring the world of seafood crudo (Italian for raw). Typically, crudo is accompanied by Mediterranean garnishes like capers and olive oil rather than the soy-based dipping sauce that is served with sashimi. At the 2005 Workshop, Florida chef James Reaux made a beautiful halibut crudo with chive oil, using the abundant chives in the winery garden. For raw preparations such as this one, the seafood must be impeccably fresh.

Like the marriage of prosciutto and melon, this duo explores the harmony of salty and sweet. Replace the peaches with nectarines, figs, or pears, if you prefer, or offer a combination. It’s an easy, juicy hors d’oeuvre for a hot summer evening. Although you can wrap the charred fruit with prosciutto, the nutty, earthy serrano ham from Spain is less commonplace and may be a discovery for some of your guests. Don’t wrap the fruit ahead or the ham will soften.

Crab cake fans will enjoy chef Marc Ehrler’s golden shrimp cakes, a dish that reflects his years cooking in the Caribbean. Chef Ehrler, a 1991 Workshop participant, substitutes rock shrimp for crab, grated yuca for bread crumbs, and cilantro for parsley to make an appetizer that tastes like something you might find at a seafood shack on Martinique. A mango salad seasoned with chile and lime is the palate-tingling accompaniment. Look for yuca, the starchy root vegetable also known as cassava, in markets that cater to a Latin American or Caribbean clientele.

The affinity between asparagus and eggs is apparent to anyone who has ever enjoyed an asparagus omelet. But here’s another variation on that theme. Brian roasts the asparagus to concentrate their flavor, then tops them with fried farm eggs basted with sizzling olive oil. The edges of the egg white become lacy and crisp while the yolk remains runny. A sprinkling of Parmesan helps make the dish more wine compatible. Serve as a first course for a spring dinner party, or in larger portions for a weeknight supper. It’s best to fry only one egg at a time, but each one takes less than 30 seconds.

A professor of wine and spirits at the Culinary Institute of America, Michael Weiss is part of our Workshop “faculty.” He teaches a wine and food pairing seminar for the participants every year and selects appropriate Cakebread Cellars wines for the evening meals. That’s no small challenge given how complex many of the chefs’ creations are, but we give Michael carte blanche in the cellar. When entertaining at home, he and his wife, Jenny, often serve their own gravlax as a first course. In place of the fresh dill that perfumes traditional gravlax, the Weisses season the fish with coriander seed, fennel seed, and lemon. The method works beautifully on farmed Arctic char, a more sustainable choice than farmed salmon. You can serve the translucent slices with toast and condiments, as described here, or on cucumber slices with a dab of crème fraîche.

Although just a minor variation on the Vanilla Icing (page 136), the addition of Marshmallow Fluff makes this version a bit lighter and more smooth. The marshmallow flavor is not overwhelming, and it’s a pleasant addition to the Devil’s Food Cake (page 98) in the Mini S’mores Cupcakes (page 101). We also use this icing, along with sweetened white coconut, atop Devil’s Food Cake and call it the “Snowball” during the winter or the “Bunny Tail” for Easter celebrations. Partnered with a smear of peanut butter, this icing is much loved on Vanilla Cake (page 115) in our “Fluffer Nutter,” or substitute Banana Cake (page 126) for Vanilla in the Fluffer Nutter version to get “The Elvis.” Marshmallow Icing can even be paired with Pumpkin Cake (page 128) in a dessert twist on candied yams.

Many peanut butter icings achieve a thin, smooth consistency by diluting the peanut butter with sugar and heavy cream, but ours is concentrated and stays true to the nutty flavor. It can be more challenging to achieve a smooth finish when icing a cake with this icing, so be prepared for your cakes to have a more textured finish.

Twenty years ago this icing was more commonly made with vegetable shortening than with butter. Even now, some grocery stores and lower-end bakeries still use shortening to save money. When the frosting is made with shortening, the sugar is really the only flavor you taste. To enhance the flavors, and because of an overall avoidance of trans fats (which are common in shortening), today at high-end bakeries and at home, butter is more commonly used for the base of this icing. The secret to this simple-to-make butter icing is beating it in a mixer for a good 5 to 8 minutes total, so that it is light and fluffy. Our recipe differs from others out there because it uses far less sugar, but this is still inherently a very sweet icing. In addition, using less sugar results in a naturally more yellow color, so if you want to get a bright white or if you’re planning to tint it a different color, beat the icing in a standing mixer until it is colorless—the more air you incorporate, the whiter it will be. To make our “Sassy” Cinnamon Icing, which pairs well with all of the cakes in the Banana Cake chapter (page 125), just add one tablespoon of ground cinnamon and mix until combined.

In this icing, the acidity of the citrus enhances the tanginess of the cream cheese. Orange, lemon, and lime all work well. Although the orange icing is my favorite, lemon is especially flavorful with fruity vanilla cakes, such as the Blueberry “Cheesecake” (page 123), and the lime icing spread over a vanilla cupcake and sprinkled with graham cracker crumbs, or sandwiched between two homemade graham crackers (see Graham Cracker Dough, page 86), can evoke a Key lime pie.

While the prominent taste of a ganache will always be chocolate, the essence of other ingredients will enhance the overall ganache. This recipe calls for vanilla extract, which is really imperceptible when combined with the chocolate, but it softens some of the bitterness of the dark chocolate. In place of the vanilla, any other liqueur, extract, or coffee can be added.

Swiss Buttercream is a little more time consuming to make than many of the other icings in this book because it requires a few more steps, but it is still quite simple. The slight sheen and smooth texture make it a beautiful icing to use for more formal cakes, and a bubbly, dry champagne pairs well with this icing, making it just the thing for celebratory occasions. While useful, a candy thermometer is not required. When you are heating the egg whites, just make sure that the sugar has dissolved entirely and the mixture feels hot to the touch before you whip the egg whites to a meringue. For best results in rebeating cold Swiss Buttercream, take about one-quarter of the icing and microwave it for 1 minute, until melted. Pour the melted icing over the cold icing, then beat it in a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment at high speed until it is smooth and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.

The health benefits of dark chocolate, almonds, and dried fruit make this a great option to serve as a snack or to give as a gift to a health-conscious friend. In a box or tin beautifully tied with ribbon, the flourless bark can also make a welcome Passover hostess gift, which can be served immediately or nibbled on all week long. The dried cranberries add a delicious chewiness to this otherwise solid bark. All sorts of dried fruits and nuts can be used, but when buying the dried fruit, especially cranberries, be sure to pick an unsweetened variety. The added sugar can change the taste of the fruit and also alter the tempered chocolate.

Salt and Pepper Chocolate is one of our more exotic, but top-selling, flavor combinations. The idea was given to us by one of our customers, who had seen a similar chocolate bar on a trip to Paris. This surprisingly elegant flavor pairing is an eye-catching chocolate treat to set out at the end of a dinner party.

Tempered chocolate solidifies easily into a hard, shiny chocolate that snaps when broken. It can be worked into a variety of shapes, spread into sheets, and used in molds. Tempering chocolate also keeps cocoa butter from rising to the surface of the chocolate and “blooming” into unsightly light brown patches. Many chocolate experts will teach you to temper using the marble slab method: You heat your chocolate, then pour it onto a cool marble slab, stirring and working the chocolate with a bench scraper until it has cooled to the proper temperature and then returning it to your bowl. This is a beautiful, classic French method to use, but as large marble slabs aren’t readily available for this purpose, here’s how to use the seed method. Be sure to have an accurate digital thermometer on hand.

While this Ginger Truffle makes a treat appropriate for Thanksgiving and the holiday season, it’s not exclusive to that time of year. With its candied ginger topping, it’s a refreshing chocolate treat even in the summer months. At Tribeca Treats we sometimes offer a variation on this, adding 2 tablespoons of dark rum to the ganache, for our Dark and Stormy Truffles.

Whereas the Double Chocolate Truffles (page 172) are the easy crowd-pleasers, Wasabi–Black Sesame Truffles should be reserved for your more adventurous friends. When mixed with chocolate, the spiciness of the wasabi is subdued, but it brings out some bitterness in the dark chocolate and gives the ganache a subtle kick. The strength of the wasabi varies greatly among the different brands of wasabi powder. Start with 1 tablespoon and then feel free to add more to taste. Keep in mind that the flavor will intensify as the ganache ages. The black sesame seeds are an important component of the truffle, both for their texture and for their nutty sweetness, which helps balance the bitterness of the ganache. If you can’t find black sesame seeds, regular sesames are a reasonable substitute, but they are a little softer and have a less intense flavor, so toast them first: Spread them in one layer on a sheet pan and roast them in a 350˚F oven for 5 to 8 minutes. Check them after about 4 minutes and shake the pan gently to turn them. They should be a light to medium golden brown when they’re done.

This caramel recipe has the right amount of butter and cream to make it nice and chewy but not too sticky. The honey and corn syrup, which also help to give it a chewy quality, are interchangeable in this recipe. If you don’t have any corn syrup, you can use all honey. Likewise, if you prefer the caramel to taste less like honey, substitute more corn syrup for the honey. Be diligent in watching the candy thermometer: If you overcook caramel by just a few degrees, it will become stiff and hard to bite. Likewise, if you take it off too soon, the caramel won’t be firm enough to stand on its own.

A colorful platter of crudités and dip is a sure crowd-pleaser for a party—or simply as a snack. As an alternative to lemon-thyme dip, serve the vegetables with the white-bean dip on page 51.