CIA Baking & Pastry Student Wins Scholarship that Brings Money, Travel and Fame

The Culinary Institute of America has just announced that pastry and baking student Kathryn Stork has won the Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter/Food & Wine Scholarship after completing a 30-week intensive course at the CIA. Stork will soon graduate with a Baking & Pastry Certificate and will then head to Ireland to further explore the benefits of Kerrygold butter, presumably.

The full press release, and winning recipe, is below:

CIA Baking & Pastry Student Wins Scholarship that Brings Money, Travel and Fame

St. Helena, CA, May 6, 2009 – It wasn't long ago that Kathryn Stork regularly watched her idol, Martha Stewart, bake inspiring creations then head to the kitchen of her Port Ludlow, WA home to channel the inspiration into her own baking. Now, Stork is about to graduate from the Baking & Pastry Certificate Program at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, in St. Helena, CA. She is also about to travel to Ireland with a $10,000 scholarship, and she will be featured in the June issue of Food & Wine magazine as the winner of the joint Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter, Food & Wine Scholarship.

Stork received the scholarship after creating a recipe for Apricot Cheese Tartlets with Butter Balsamic Caramel, Peach Whipped Cream, and Crushed Butter Toffee (recipe follows). She also wrote an essay about the importance of using good quality butter when creating baked goods.

"It makes a huge difference in the final product," says Stork. "I've learned that butter quality can be influenced by how well the cows are taken care of, what kinds of dairy practices are used and whether it includes preservatives like salt."

Stork will graduate from the CIA in May after completing 30-weeks of intense training in baking & pastry. She plans to make her trip to Ireland in the fall, and in the meantime she will head to Seattle to decorate cakes in a pastry shop. She hopes to open her own pastry business one day.

"I love the idea of having a little pastry shop that is a comfortable haven for people to relax and unwind," says Stork. "It would be a dream come true and I plan to work hard to see that it does."



Apricot Cheese Tartlets with Butter Balsamic Caramel, Peach Whipped Cream, and Crushed Butter Toffee

24 servings

Tart Crust:
* 4 cups flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup cold butter, diced 1/4"
* 8 tablespoons heavy cream

Filling:
* 3 packages (24 oz) cream cheese
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 6 egg yolks
* 3 tablespoons flour
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 3/4 cup apricot puree (from fresh, peeled, and pitted apricots)
* 1/2 teaspoon salt

Sauce:
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 3 tablespoons water
* 6 tablespoons sweet cream butter
* 1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
* 3/4 cup heavy cream
* pinch of salt

Toffee Garnish:
* 1/2 cup sweet cream butter
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 1/2 tablespoons water
* 1 1/2 teaspoons corn syrup
* 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
* 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Whipped Cream:
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 2 tablespoons crème fraîche
* 4 tablespoons brown sugar
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1 tablespoon peach schnapps

Equipment
* Mixer with whip and paddle attachments
* 24-cup muffin tin


1. Tart Shells: In a medium-sized mixer bowl, combine flour and salt. Add butter and toss to coat the butter in flour. Using a paddle attachment, mix until butter is broken into pea-sized pieces. Add the cream and mix on low until just combined, being careful not to over-mix. Divide dough in half, and place each half onto a sheet of parchment, form each into a disk, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

2. Preheat standard oven to 350 degrees. Roll each disc of dough out 1/8" thick. Cut 24, 5" diameter rounds of dough (save extra dough for another use). Place one dough round into each of the 24 unlined muffin cups, pressing to cover bottom and sides. Trim off any excess with paring knife. Chill 30 minutes. Meanwhile, cut 24, 5 inch squares of parchment paper. Prick each tartlet shell with fork, place one parchment square in each tartlet, and cover bottom with dried beans or rice. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until edges begin to turn light brown. Remove from oven, remove paper with beans, and cool completely.

3. Filling: Place cream cheese in medium-sized mixer bowl. Using paddle attachment, mix on low speed to soften. Add sugar and mix on medium speed until fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn speed down to low, and slowly add egg yolks one at a time, mixing fully after each addition. Add the flour and mix until incorporated. Add the vanilla, apricot puree, and salt. Mix just to combine. Divide filling evenly between the tart shells, filling two thirds to three quarters full. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the edges appear firm and the center is still slightly soft. Cool to room temperature, cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve.

4. Sauce: In a large saucepan, combine the water and sugar. Place pan over medium high heat and cook until the mixture is dark golden in color, being careful to swirl the pan rather than stirring. Add butter, balsamic vinegar, cream, and salt, and cook over medium heat to combine flavors and reduce slightly, one minute. Remove from heat and cool. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

5. Toffee garnish: In heavy saucepan, melt butter. Add sugar, stirring constantly. Add water and corn syrup. Cook over medium heat, stirring, to hard crack stage (300 degrees F). Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and almonds. Pour into a well buttered disposable pan with sides. Once cool, using a meat mallet or heavy skillet, crush into small pieces for sprinkling as a garnish.

6. Whipped Cream Topping: Place all ingredients expect schnapps in a chilled mixing bowl. Chill 30 minutes. Add schnapps. Beat with whip attachment on medium high speed until mixture holds soft peaks.

7. Plating: Invert tartlets onto a plastic wrap-lined board. Flip tartlets over so filling is on top. If sauce is too thick, place in microwave on low to thin slightly. Drizzle each serving plate with balsamic caramel. Place tart on top of drizzle. Top with a dollop of the whipped cream. Sprinkle with the crumbles of crushed toffee. Serve immediately.

A nice way to wrap up your St. Patrick's Day festivities

After the St. Patrick's Day parade and numerous pub crawls, it's time to come home and wrap up the night with one last "hoorah!" before heading to bed. May I suggest a simple but thematic dessert?

It's simple - take three scoops of vanilla ice cream (may I suggest Van Leeuwen's Vanilla Ice Cream) and a pint of Guinness stout.

Here's to a successful St. Paddy's Day and looking forward to the party next March 17th!

Recipe of the Day - Irish Soda Bread

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we are featuring a classic Irish baked good: Soda bread. Popular throughout Ireland and known for it's easy and quick recipe, I suggest you whip this up for tea this afternoon or evening and indulge in a little bit of St. Paddy's, other than the fifty gallons of green beer you've most likely already consumed...

"Time to Soak Up All That Green Beer" Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Equipment:
Sieve
Mixing bowls
Measuring spoons
Measuring cups
Spatula
Baking sheet
Clean tea-towel

Ingredients:
1lb/ 1/2kg/ 4 cups plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar (optional)
1pt/ 1/2 lr/ 2 cups buttermilk or sour milk

Sieve the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Scoop up handfuls and allow to drop back into the bowl to aerate the mixture. Add enough buttermilk to make a soft dough. Now work quickly as the buttermilk and soda are already reacting. Knead the dough lightly - too much handling will toughen it, while too little means it won't rise properly.

Form a round loaf about as thick as your fist. Place it on a lightly-floured baking sheet and cut a cross in the top with a floured knife. Put at once to bake near the top of a pre-heated oven, gas mark 8, 450°F, 230°C, for 30-45 minutes. When baked, the loaf will sound hollow when rapped on the bottom with your knuckles. Wrap immediately in a clean tea-towel to stop the crust hardening too much.

This recipe was taken from A Little Irish Cookbook by John Murphy.

Ireland's Culinary History

Usually when people think of a rich culinary history, France is typically the country that comes up in most everyone's minds. True, France has a beautiful food history, but many other countries posses an interesting tale when it comes to food, and Ireland is no exception.

I found a fantastic online article about Ireland's history in the eatin' department.

Check out the full article here.

For instance, prior to the potato famine that most people associate with Irish cuisine, the country's food stock was plentiful. As the author notes, soft rains and moderating influence of the Gulf Stream created a temperate land where wheat, barley, oats, and rye were easily cultivated and grazing cows, sheep, and goats produced superior dairy products. This is definitely something any baker can apreciate!

So, in celebration of St. Patrick's Day, I suggest you take a minute to educate yourself on the history of Ireland's palate - it's an interesting read.

The Irish Soda Bread Controversy of 2009...or the most insane argument in the history of the world.

To continue today's St. Patrick's Day theme, I wanted to share a fun little article I found online. MSNBC published a terrific interview between Epicurious.com and Rory O'Connell, chef, teacher and founder of Ballymaloe Cookery School about whether or not most soda bread recipes are authentic or as Americanized as Mexican food at Taco Bell.

Even more interesting, I learned that there is actually group dedicated to preserving traditional Irish soda bread. I swear I'm not making this up. The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread is a U.S.-based group whose mission is to...well...preserve the sanctity of authentic Irish soda bread.

Read the full article below.

What?! Nothing Irish about Irish soda bread?
To get the story straight, Epicurious turned to chef, teacher Rory O’Connell
By Megan O. Steintrager

In the United States, "Irish soda bread" generally means a somewhat sweet white bread made with eggs and butter and studded with raisins and caraway seeds — the "soda" in the name comes from the baking soda (or "bread soda" in Ireland) used to leaven it instead of yeast and kneading. But some people, like the founders of the U.S.-based Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread, insist that there's nothing Irish about this bread — that it's an American invention or at least a corruption of the Irish original.

To get the straight story, Epicurious turned to chef and cooking teacher Rory O'Connell. O'Connell trained with Myrtle Allen at Ballymaloe House in Shanagarry, East Cork, Ireland, and later became head chef at the restaurant (the post was taken over by Jason Fahey in late 2004, when O'Connell left for a stint with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse). O'Connell also founded the renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School with his sister, Darina Allen, in 1983 — both continue to teach there and are regarded as two of the foremost experts on Irish cuisine and food history.

Epicurious: What is traditional Irish soda bread?

Rory O'Connell: What we would consider to be a basic table bread — what we call a brown soda bread, which is made with whole-meal flour, or a white soda bread, which is with white flour — is just flour, bread soda, buttermilk, and salt. That's the basic recipe. The white flour would have been more refined than the whole-meal flour, so that would have been for a slightly more special occasion.

Epicurious: What is the history of soda bread?

Rory O'Connell: Bread soda was introduced in the early 1800s and it suddenly meant that people who didn't have an oven — and virtually nobody had an oven then — could make soda bread. They cooked the bread in what's called a bastible — a big cast-iron pot with a lid on it that would have been put right onto the coals or onto the turf fire. The great thing about soda is that it was not so perishable and it would have been relatively inexpensive. And they would have had buttermilk from the cows [old-fashioned buttermilk is a by-product of making butter] and they would have been growing wheat, so they would have had flour.

Epicurious: When did variations on the basic soda bread recipe begin to develop?

Rory O'Connell: You can't really put dates on them. But say, for example, having seeds in soda bread — a lot of people would completely raise their eyebrows at the idea of there being seeds in soda bread. However, the reality is that in Donegal and Leitrim there was a tradition of putting caraway seeds in bread. The likelihood is that the tradition was taken by immigrants to America.

Epicurious: What about the raisins?

Rory O'Connell: The raisins or the sultanas or whatever the dried fruit was would have been a luxury item. They would have been put into the white-flour version of the bread at the time of the year when the harvest was going on as a treat for the men who were working. The woman of the house who was making the bread would have put in a fistful of raisins or currants and then perhaps a little bit of sugar and an egg if she had either or both to spare.

Epicurious: So butter would not have been put into the bread?

Rory O'Connell: Absolutely not. But it would have been slathered liberally on the cooked bread. Yum, yum.

Epicurious: Noreen Kinney's soda bread recipe from A Baker's Odyssey contains flaxseeds, oat bran, wheat germ, and sunflower seeds. Is that traditional?

Rory O'Connell: No. Definitely not. Sunflower seeds? Ireland? Climate? [he laughs] They weren't grown here. However, wheat or oat bran, perhaps. Wheat germ, maybe.

Epicurious: You don't knead soda bread, do you?

Rory O'Connell: That's absolutely correct. You mix it to get the ingredients to come together with the minimum amount of handling. It's entirely simple to make but should be handled with great gentleness and care. The more you handle it, the tougher it gets. And that's a bit frustrating really, because it feels nice.

Epicurious: What is the purpose of cutting the shape of a cross on top of the bread?

Rory O'Connell: It's scientific, primarily, because it allows the heat to penetrate into the thickest part of the bread, so it assists cooking. And obviously the cross is a cruciform shape, so in a Catholic country that had a resonance — it had the symbolic note of crossing the breads and giving thanks. There was also the expression "to let the devil out of the bread," so it was slightly superstitious. And if you make that cruciform shape on the bread, when it comes out of the oven it breaks beautifully. So you've got the blessing of the bread by putting the cross on it and then you've got the symbolic breaking of the bread.

Epicurious: Is soda bread still eaten in Ireland today?

Rory O'Connell: You can buy brown soda bread in most shops — it's a fairly standard bread item made by commercial bakers right down to artisan bakers. Some of it is good and some of it is awful. White soda bread is less usual. It's not that it's not there, but it's less usual.

Epicurious: What about the version with butter, raisins, and caraway?

Rory O'Connell: No. That would be regarded as being some sort of exotic bread that wasn't Irish.

Epicurious: What is your personal opinion about soda bread variations?

Rory O'Connell: I think some are fine. I love plain white soda bread or brown soda bread, but [at Ballymaloe] we also do variations on the theme, using that simple, easy-to-prepare recipe as a vehicle for adding other ingredients — cheese, herbs, olives, roast cherry tomatoes, red onion, garlic. But then we don't say, "This is an Irish soda bread with sun-dried tomatoes." We say, "It's a sun-dried tomato bread made on an Irish soda bread base." But in a way I don't mind too much what people are doing with it as long as they're baking.

Epicurious: Do you find that more people are baking at home?

Rory O'Connell: There certainly is a resurgence of artisan bakers, and that's a direct result of the farmers' markets. There's definitely a renewed interest in cooking, partly for health reasons. The penny has dropped about the connection between good food and good health. And it is also partially to do with the economic situation we're in here. And I also think slowly there's a realization — maybe this is just me — of the therapeutic effects of cooking and what it can do in a home in terms of creating a positive atmosphere. It's great for children to see it. Traditions are passed on. If you give a child a bowl of flour and some buttermilk and some salt and a bit of bread soda and a little bit of instruction, they can make bread! On Saturday morning now we're doing cooking classes for children. One of the things we show them is the Irish white soda bread dough and then they make little breads and scones out of that and then we show them how to make a simple pizza base using that and they make little focaccias, all sorts of things. They adore it and they're good at it.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

For all of you out there that look forward to the day you get to break out your green sanding sugar, emerald food coloring, and clover shaped cookie cutters, Happy St. Patrick's Day! Oh, and I hope the Irish out there are enjoying today as well.

In honor of St. Paddy's Day, I suggest that all of you check out A Little Irish Cookbook by John Murphy. Containing 47 traditional Irish recipes, including instructions on how to make soda bread among other things, this book would make a great addition to anyone's cookbook collection.