Monday, October 24, 2011

sunday suppers


A few weeks ago, I finally got around to ordering Suzanne Goin's cookbook Sunday Suppers at Lucques which I've been coveting for...well, a long time. I love that it's organized by season and then arranged into menus.

Last night we had our friends Dave and Lindsay over for dinner. We had:

Onion, mushroom and goat cheese on puff pastry
-
Arugula with champagne shallot vinaigrette, pomegranate, and shaved parmesan
-
Cumin rubbed cornish game hen
-
Roasted butternut squash with sage hazelnut pesto
-
Hazelnut brown butter cake with sauteed pears and vanilla ice cream

The cake was a recipe from Sunday Suppers and it was lovely- maybe even my favorite part of the meal. Lightly sweet and richly flavored with toasted hazelnuts, it was just my kind of dessert.



hazelnut-brown butter cake with sauteed pears from Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin

5oz (1 heaping cup) blanched hazelnuts 
1/2 lb unsalted butter, plus butter for cake pan
1/2 vanilla bean
1 1/3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
5 extra large egg whites
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350F
Toast hazelnuts on a baking sheet for 12-15 minutes, until golden and fragrant

Brush the bottom of a 10-inch cake pan* with melted butter and line with parchment paper

Place the remaining butter in a saucepan. Slice the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the saucepan, the add the bean. Cook the butter and vanilla over medium heat for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally until the butter browns. Set aside to cool and remove vanilla bean.

Grind the hazelnuts with the confectioners' sugar in a food processor until finely ground. Add flower and pulse to combine

Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Add the granulated sugar and mix on high speed until the mixture forms stiff peaks (4-5 minutes). Alternate folding the dry ingredients and the brown butter into the egg whites a third at a time.
Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 1 hour**
Cool on rack for 30 minutes. Serve at room temperature, dusted with powdered sugar.

*I used a 9-inch pan and it was fine.
**My cake only needed 40 minutes in the oven.

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