SAUTEED CARROT CAKE
Orange Creamsicle Icing | Cinnamon Ice Cream | Orange Pate de Fruit | Candied Carrots | Carrot Cake Crumbs

This was the favorite dish of the night for several people. It was definitely one of the best. Super tasty. Sauteeing the carrot cake turned out to be mostly pointless. I intended it to further caramelize the cake, and it did, but it wasn't really worth it. Otherwise, I'd duplicate this exact dish again and again.

It turns out that Thomas Keller has a very similar dish in Under Pressure. His incorporates some licorice flavors, and as I recall, it does not incorporate any orange flavors. After reviewing many different carrot cake recipes, I did end up settling on using his. It's not a good carrot cake recipe, if you're planning on making a traditional carrot cake--it lacks the complexity and isn't as moist as I'd want for a normal carrot cake--but it's great for a pure carrot cake component of a plated dessert. Here are the components:

"Candied" Carrots
Blanch baby carrots until they're crisp-tender, and then shock them in ice water. Once they're fully chilled, rub the skins off. Slice them in half and hold them until you want to use them, up to two days. Several minutes before you want to plate, place the carrots in simple syrup and hold them there. When plating, drain them on paper towels or a rack, then plate.

Orange Pate de Fruit
5 navel oranges
65g sugar
15g pectin
575g sugar
110g glucose

Peel oranges with a knife as if preparing to cut supremes, taking off all the pith. Cut the oranges into chunks over a bowl, then puree the orange chunks along with the juice from the bowl. Puree until very smooth, then strain through a chinois. Measure out 525g of this puree.

Heat puree to 104F. Meanwhile, combine first measurement of sugar with pectin and whisk into puree. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously. Add remaining sugar and glucose and cook to 223F. Pour into a parchment-lined dish and allow to set (2 hours at room temperature). Cut into small rectangles and hold them in an airtight container.

Orange Creamsicle Icing
4 oz butter (at room temperature)
16 oz cream cheese (at room temperature)
1 tsp vanilla
16 oz powdered sugar
1 gram pure orange oil

Cream all ingredients together with the paddle attachment of a mixer until uniform. Keeps for several weeks in the refrigerator, or several days at room temperature. I transferred it to a squeeze bottle for plating, but you could pipe it, or spread it on cake, or whatever.

Cinnamon Ice Cream (adapted from Michael Laiskonis)
500g milk
30g nonfat dry milk
100g sugar
30g glucose powder
20g trimoline
4g stabilizer
100g egg yolks
75g heavy cream
40g cinnamon sticks
3g cassia powder (cheap powdered cinnamon is usually cassia, not true cinnamon)

Using both cinnamon and cassia gives the ice cream a more complex and familiar cinnamon flavor than using cinnamon alone would do.

Bring milk, cinnamon, and cassia to a boil, then cover and let it steep for half an hour. Strain through a fine mesh sieve or chinois. Whisk in dry milk powder, glucose, trimoline, and 75g of the sugar. Bring to a boil.

Combine sugar and stabilizer, then whisk into the egg yolks. Temper milk mixture into yolks, then cook the mixture to 185F. Remove from heat and whisk in heavy cream. Cover and refrigerate for at least twelve hours. Spin in an ice cream maker.

Thomas Keller's Carrot Cake
185g AP flour
1.5g baking powder
3.5g baking soda
205g sugar
3g salt
145g oil
75g whole eggs
240g shredded carrots
2.5g ground cinnamon

Line a quarter sheet pan with a Silpat and spray with nonstick spray. Sift all dry ingredients, other than sugar. Mix the sugar and oil in a stand mixer with paddle attachment. Mix in the eggs in two additions. Toss the carrots with 75g of the flour mixture (to keep the carrot from sticking together). Add half the remaining flour mixture to the batter, then add the other half. Finally, mix in the carrots. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 325F until done (which has taken about 30 minutes for me, though Under Pressure says 18 minutes--they probably use a convection oven). Cool briefly, then invert the cake onto a rack and let cool before slicing.

Carrot Cake Crumbs
Grind up some of the carrot cake in a food processor, then spread the crumbs on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for half an hour or so, until the crumbs are fairly dry. Hold in an airtight container for up to a week.

Posted by Barzelay on 2009/10/09 @ 1:52 | Comments (4) | Desserts, Lazy Bear, Veggies, Fruit, Grain, Cheese

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