Marlene Parrish - What Einstein Told His Cook 2

So where does chocolate come in? The carob tree makes long, edible, seed-bearing pods that can be dried and ground into a powder. Because the powder is brown, sweet (it contains about 40 percent sugars), and virtually fat-free, someone got the not-so-bright idea of using it as a substitute for chocolate. Unfortunately, because it lacks chocolate’s fat it has a sandy, gritty texture, not to mention an almost total absence of flavor.

Carob is the Grinch who stole chocolate. Fuhgeddaboudit.

WE HAVE ARRIVED at the last course in our feast of knowledge: our dessert. We’ll conclude, then, with recipes for two sweet treats, a classic one and an off-beat one.

The classic one is a ganache , a blend of the two most luxuriant ingredients in our epicurean armamentarium: chocolate and whipping cream. In essence a marriage of two fats, cocoa butter and butterfat, ganache on a menu is not for the faint of carte . Rarely billed by its own name, it might be concealed as the frosting on a cake or the filling between its layers. Or it might be the center of a truffle. Wherever it appears, ganache is the definitive chocolate crème , and you know that when cream is spelled the French way, it’s gotta be good.

Our offbeat concluding confection is a grilled chocolate sandwich. Yes, a sandwich. Bread and all. Any time you’re in the mood for a soul-nourishing nosh, you can quickly whip up the cacao gods’ answer to the grilled cheese sandwich.

I hate it when a restaurant server says, “Enjoy.”

But enjoy!

Ganache

Aganache is a mixture of melted chocolate and heated heavy cream, blended together until very smooth. The relative amounts of the two ingredients may vary, but equal amounts give good results and are easy to remember. Ganache is often cooled and shaped into balls to form the soft centers for truffles. Here, lukewarm ganache is poured over a cake to make a smooth and luscious shiny glaze.

For a 1-layer 8-or 9-inch round cake, you will need about 1 cup ganache. Use the leftover ganache as a sauce for poached pears, ice cream, or other dessert. It will keep for up to 2 months in a well-covered container in the refrigerator—if you can keep from eating it with a spoon, that is.

8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 cup heavy cream

1.Put the chopped chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl.

2.In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and whisk gently until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Allow to cool to warm.

3.Place a cool 8-or 9-inch cake layer on a rack over a baking sheet or a piece of foil. Pour the warm ganache over the cake and use a metal icing spatula to coax and spread it over the top of the cake and down the sides. Let the iced cake set for about 1 hour before serving.

MAKES 1½ CUPS

Grilled Chocolate Sandwich

This sandwich makes a surprising and delicious dessert, afternoon snack, or indulgent breakfast. It is a semi-incestuous marriage, if you will, of transatlantic cousins, the American grilled cheese sandwich with the French pain au chocolat . In the latter pâtisserie classic, batons of chocolate are wrapped in rectangles of flaky pastry.

Bob and I prefer dark chocolate, but you can make yours with milk chocolate if you wish.

2 teaspoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 slices plain white or sourdough bread, each about ½ inch thick or less

1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1.Spread 1 teaspoon softened butter on 1 side of each slice of bread. Place 1 slice, butter side down, in the center of a small, cold nonstick skillet. Carefully scatter the chocolate over the surface of the bread to within ¼ inch of the edge. Top with the other slice of bread, buttered side up, to make a sandwich.

2.Place the skillet over medium-high heat. Put a flat weight, such as a small plate, on top of the sandwich. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the bottom slice is lightly browned. The chocolate should be barely melted, not oozing out the sides. Turn the sandwich over and cook for about 2 minutes longer, or until the second side is browned.

3.Remove the sandwich to a plate, cut into quarters, and serve warm.

SERVES 1 OR 2 INDULGENTLY

PLEASE NOTE: Nowhere in this book have I used the word myriad.

* In chemistry, the opposite of an acid is called a base. Acids and bases neutralize each other. But because base is a word with many common meanings (more than a dozen each as noun and adjective), I use the words alkali and alkaline in this book instead of base and basic . Strictly speaking, however, the word alkali should be reserved for the very strong bases sodium hydroxide (lye) and potassium hydroxide.

* Orange oil is available in the baking areas of some supermarkets or at Williams-Sonoma or other cookware stores.

* When proteins are subjected to heat or acids, the structures of their long, twisted molecules change, usually by unraveling or “deconstructing” themselves and then shrinking or tightening up like knotted rubber bands. This molecular reconfiguration process is called denaturing . In this book, I will frequently refer to denaturing as a “reconfiguring” of the protein molecules.

* See “Fatty acid chains,” on chapter 4.

* For simplicity, I have portrayed the membrane as if it has holes big enough for water molecules to fit through, but not big enough for sugar molecules to pass. In reality, the mechanisms by which animal and plant membranes selectively permit water, but not other kinds of molecules, to pass through are more complicated and in many cases not completely understood.

* Sumac is a nonpoisonous red berry that gives a distinctive, tangy-lemony flavor to dishes. Purchase ground sumac from a spice specialty store. If you have a choice, choose the best-quality sumac, which comes from Jordan. Store in the freezer to maintain quality.