I seem to be knocking out a lot of the dessert recipes in this cookbook. I don't want to give you the impression that this is just a literary work of sugary confections, there's certainly way more to Babbo than that. But if you had to ask most chefs what their weak points are in the kitchen, 8 out of 10 would probably say making a strong dessert. And I am one of those 8, which makes this project all the more purposeful. Plus, I have a nagging sweet tooth that constantly needs attention.
Most chefs treat savory cooking a little bit like the way your grandmother used to do it, a little bit of this and a little bit of that, bam you have dinner. Desserts are an entirely different animal. Desserts require finesse and exact precision. Which is probably why most chefs treat them with disdain, because in a fast paced, understaffed, busy kitchen who has the time for extra finesse and precision. So chefs tend to lump dessert making right up there with monthly inventory.....ugh.
But desserts are a necessary component to any celebratory or special meal dined out. From a business perspective, they are usually almost always very cheap to make, making it a profitable no-brainer for any restaurant owner. And if you manage to score a reservation at a Michelin starred restaurant such as Babbo, the general consensus, at least for me would be, 'we're here, we're spending the money, fuck it we're trying everything!'
I mean, if you've gone to the trouble to travel to New York City, score a reservation at one of the city's finest restaurants, and have prepared your palette for a culinary adventure of a lifetime, wouldn't you want to try something a little off the wall? Something different than the molten chocolate lava cake that you get at your favorite local chain?
That's why I can really appreciate this cookbook. You can get a glimpse into the Michelin-starred world, brought into your home, with recipes that are creative yet accessible. You're challenged, but in a way that's still doable. For example, in this post I make a pumpkin cake, not a real challenge per se, but Mario pairs it with a homemade olive-oil gelato. So we have something fairly common paired with the off-the-wall.
Olive oil gelato, to me, at least at first, sounded not so appetizing. But it presents a way to practice technique, a cool one at that, and Mario does promise in the liner notes that 'while perplexing at first, it will only take one bite to be slayed.'
Of course, before we start, you should know that you will need an ice-cream maker to make the gelato. Is it worth buying one? I think so. Each one that you buy is a little quirky, and it takes practice to master your maker, but once you fiddle around with it, you can make any flavor you want fairly easily. And you can rest assured that there won't be any artificial ingredients, preservatives, or funky commercial stabilizers in the batch that you make at home.
To get started, the oven gets preheated to 325° I spray a cake mold with cooking spray, then spread some pine nuts on a baking sheet to toast to a golden brown.
While the pine nuts cool, I put some golden raisins in a bowl and pour a little bit of boiling water spiked with brandy over them to plump.
Next I can start making the cake. I use my KitchenAid to beat some eggs and brown sugar until very light.
I add some chopped fresh rosemary, (yes, rosemary) which I clipped from my garden.
With the mixer running, I slowly drizzle in the extra-virgin olive oil.
Once incorporated, the dry ingredients get mixed in, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Lastly, pumpkin purée, pine nuts, and golden raisins get added to the mix.
The batter is put in the mold and baked for around 40 minutes. The baking time will be shortened if you use the smaller, individual cake molds for the recipe.
Next is to make the gelato. I'm a little nervous at this point because I haven't always had the best of luck making ice cream in my maker, (told you they're quirky). But here goes nothing. Using the KitchenAid again, I beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale and they form a ribbon when the whip is lifted.
While the machine is running, I slowly drizzle in the extra-virgin olive oil. Yeah, I used a shit-ton of olive oil in this recipe.
Milk and heavy cream are then added and mixed until incorporated.
The mixture is then ready to be added to an ice cream maker to be churned and frozen according to your machine's instructions. Here's some advice to have your ice cream making adventures more successful. The mixture needs to be really cold before going into the ice cream maker. Most ice cream bases are custards that get cooked a little before hand, and if you want yours to set properly you'll need to chill your base for at least a few hours or overnight which would be better. Luckily, this gelato requires no cooking, so all of the ingredients will be cold enough. The cylinder and paddle that churn the mixture also need to be very cold. I put mine in the freezer overnight to ensure that they're super cold. So it does require some planning ahead of time on your part, but it can be a successful and worthwhile feat to make your own frozen treats at home.
Once fully churned, I put the gelato into a Tupperware container to freeze a little more, because at this point it has kind of a soft-serve ice cream consistency.
Okay, the cake has cooled and the gelato is frozen, so I'm ready to plate this thing. I place a slice of cake on the plate, a quenelle of the gelato next to it, and garnish with the pine nuts and golden raisins. The picture in the cookbook has a drizzle of some orange looking sauce around the cake, but there's no mention of it in the recipe, so I followed the recipe and left it out.
Wow, another complex dish. What my wife and I both appreciated about this dessert was that overall it wasn't very sweet. More mildly sweet than anything, which fit into Mario's vision for his desserts at Babbo as described in the chapter outline. The pumpkin and the rosemary really battle each other for dominance, but equally win out as major flavor enhancers. And the olive oil gelato wasn't bad. I don't see it becoming one of Baskin-Robbins' 53 flavors anytime soon, but the gelato was enjoyable enough to not warrant spitting it out and shuddering.
'When I first sat down with (then) pastry chef Gina Depalma, one of the first things she stressed about her approach to dessert making was her hope that we could bypass the ooey-gooey school of desserts, which was exactly what I wanted to hear', states Mario in the chapter outline. This dessert does just that, providing a sweet end to a meal, without a sugar overkill, while at the same time utilizing seasonal ingredients in an Italian theme.
I have so much bulk of the book left to work through, but I feel like I'm finally hitting my stride. So far, I've completed over 30 recipes in this book, the most I have ever tackled from any one cookbook. Already I have added a lot to my repertoire. It may take a while to finish, but I'm going to finish. To help motivate me, my wife promised me a pilgrimage to Babbo once this blog is completed. That's right honey, it's in writing now so you have to take me!
Coming up, I'll be digging through the book to find some more of the fall recipes while preparing for the winter grind, where slow-cooked hearty meals win out. Until next time...
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