On Pleasureful Pastry

Chef Linda's Confection Commentary

Oregon Strawberries Might be a Mathematical Wonder

By

On May 19, 2024

In Pie

A Mathematical Wonder?

I remember struggling with theorems in ninth grade math.

Was I resisting the mathematical concepts, or was I just a distracted 13 year old in the 1966 social chaos?  I had little understanding of myself, my preferences or my competencies at that age. Life was filled with big resistance.

Some form of inspiration arose in the second semester. I assembled my wits, buckled down and turned in dozens of pages of back homework. Mr. Miller’s educated eyes softened atop a sly smile. “I knew you could do it.”

Have you noticed how understanding shepherds revelation, even accomplishment? The following fall, theorems of corresponding angles, triangle congruence, circles and parallelograms fell into place. Visual evidence accompanied abstract theory. Pythagoras was my friend.

A key insight was that I process information visually and, in fact, it cements images almost photographically. I loved geometry.

In mathematics, the first of Euclid’s five general axioms is: “Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other.”

Translated to food: considering the pairings of chocolate and strawberries and chocolate and bananas, it would then follow that strawberries and bananas have flavor affinities with one another. Hmm.

Mathematics notwithstanding, that distinctive and elevated flavor relationship is also true for strawberries and Oregon’s beloved Marionberry – and other blackberry varieties.

Saying that Oregon grows the preeminent strawberry way understates the significance of the Oregon berry’s history and its cultivars.

There are three types of wild strawberries indigenous to Oregon and Washington. Each variety is noticeably smaller in size than the ubiquitous garden strawberry, grows in very limited areas in Oregon and Washington – the western Cascades, higher elevations – and is distinctly richer in strawberry flavor.

The Oregon wild strawberry had a re-invention at the time of the colonization of the Americas. Breeders began designing strawberry lines that would become more disease resistant… a 10-15-year process from cross-breeding to market. Breeders cleverly placed the flavors of Oregon’s wild strawberries back into the fruit we love today.

“Let me take you down,

’cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields.

Nothing is real,

And nothing to get hung about.

Strawberry Fields forever.” Lennon & McCartney

John Lennon had very specific memories as a child attached to playing in the garden of Strawberry Field, a children’s home in Liverpool, England.

 

What’s the first association you have with a fresh strawberry?

Is it tasting the tender burst of sweetness and slight tang?

Was it picking them – perhaps, wild – with friends?

Is your first memory of strawberries in your grandmother’s pie?

How about sandwiched inside layers of shortcake with whipped cream?

What did that experience evoke?

Carefree childhood summers?

A family garden?

Perhaps, the pure pleasure of the intoxicating scent?

 

Humans are wired to taste things deeply, and the memory of a taste or scent often lingers long.

Viewing images and shapes with an eye for scale, balance and triangular proportion serves me well as a pastry chef.

I have the angst of a 13 year old – and Mr. Miller – to thank for it.

 

Essential Strawberry Pie™

Yield: 1, 9″ pie | 8 servings

This is where the strawberry-balsamic reduction we did recently pays off. You may have noticed that I removed the word ‘Marionberry’ from the recipe title. Better that you’re encouraged to make a fabulous spring strawberry pie than to discourage you for lack of fresh Marionberries (which arrive in July) or blackberries. In this recipe, Marionberries/blackberries are optional.

Here, also, is where I make my case for enriched pastry dough. Essential Confection sells our luxurious foundational desserts to restaurants. After sampling a hotel executive chef with our pie, he asked if we could make the crust thicker. Huh? I’d always prioritized a thin, flaky, flavorful crust to ensure our fab fillings were the star.

With some hesitation, I complied and was, admittedly, rewarded. The thicker enriched crust is super-tender, has a lovely mouthfeel and is immensely flavorful. Some might say, it’s the best part of the pie. Debatable, but a lovely and worthy complement to any fruit pie. My fruit pie standard.

Ingredients

~75-100 grams | 2.6-3.5 oz (roughly 1/2 of the recipe yield) Essential Strawberry Balsamic Reduction

725 grams | 25 oz local strawberries, rinsed, hulled, sliced

300 grams | 10.6 oz Marionberries or blackberries (optional – see NOTE)

130 grams | 4.6 oz sugar

31 grams | ~1 oz cornstarch

2.6 grams | 1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 lemon, zested

4.2 grams | 1 tsp VE (vanilla extract)

14 grams | 1 T unsalted butter, cut in 6 pieces

2 recipes enriched pastry dough (295-300 grams each, below, or you can use 212-215 grams for a thin crust)

1 egg

15 grams | 1 T heavy cream

NOTE: If Marionberries/blackberries ARE desired in the pie, reduce the quantity of strawberries by 300 grams.

Procedure

Roll one pastry disc to 11″. Fit into a 9″ pie plate sprayed with pan spray. (Prefer Crisco Pan Release) Sprinkle fitted dough with 1-2 T all-purpose flour. Roll the second disc to a 10″ circle. Place atop the bottom dough. Chill.

Combine cornstarch, cinnamon, lemon zest and sugar in a separate bowl. Add fresh strawberries and strawberry reduction (and optional Marionberries); toss lightly. Sprinkle with VE.

Dot filling with pats of butter. In a small bowl, stir together the egg and heavy cream. Brush egg wash around pastry rim. Place second crust on top. Press to seal thoroughly. Cut 4 vents in center of pie; cut 4 other smaller vents, staggered, around outer edge. Egg wash the entire top taking care not to allow wash to slide between the crust and pan. Ensure vents are open.

Bake at 360 F, conventional, for 55-60 minutes or until filling bubbles from the center vents and crust is evenly brown, rotating halfway through.

Cool at room temperature. Gently score top to facilitate slicing. Chill thoroughly and slice.

 

Enriched Pastry Dough

Yield: 7 thin crusts (212-215 g) or 5 thick crusts (295-300 g) each

Ingredients

750 grams | 26.5 oz all-purpose flour

125 grams | 4.4 oz sugar

375 grams | 13.2 oz unsalted butter, in 1/2″ pieces

60 grams (3) egg yolks

188 grams | 6.6 oz cold water

7.5 grams | 1-1/4 tsp kosher salt

Stir flour and sugar in the bowl of a standard mixer. Add the butter; beat until it’s well blended and no large lumps remain. Use your fingers to gently sift through. Butter pieces should be the size of tiny peas when fully blended.

Using a fork, stir the eggs yolks with the water and kosher salt in a large measuring cup until well mixed. With the mixer at low speed, add the liquid to the flour mixture all at once. Beat until it’s completely absorbed and no dry ingredients remain on the bottom of the bowl. Do not over-beat.

Scale dough into either 212-215 gram or 295-300 gram discs. Wrap individually. Use a marker to write an “E” on the wrap and, either, use immediately or freeze. Refrigeration for more than 1-2 days will cause oxidation.

Happy pie making. Buon viaggio!

A Small Step Guide to Helping Flavor Be More of Itself

By

On May 7, 2024

In Pie

I like flavors that hide in plain sight.

Never having been able to (and not expending much energy toward) overcoming my purist attraction for single flavors, I’m all about creating an inobvious mystery to the sweet and savory desserts and appetizers we produce at Essential Confection.

My other preoccupation is texture.

Texture that seeps into my marrow. And stays there. Closed eyes texture. My favorite way to get there is low-slow baking. I’m pretty sure it improves everything.

It’s early, early spring, and if sheer will to bring fruit to market were sufficient, it would have been here two weeks ago. This week my partner, Paul, and I had clandestine knowledge that the first Day-Neutral strawberries may make a covert appearance at our local farmer’s market. The Mother of All Farmers Markets. On the campus of Portland State University.

We dropped everything.

 

The Torture (Pleasure) of Portland Seasons

Today, we are still being punished… ahem… rewarded, with yet another stage of spring. It may be the Spring of Deception, though The Pollening in Mud Season is an undeniable suitor. Cold, wet misery, one might say.

The Pie Day Quandry

Here’s where I get to digress for a teensy bit from the topic at hand, which you cleverly guessed, is a strawberry-balsamic reduction. My as yet unexpressed purpose – there is often an ulterior motive – is strawberry pie. And this is where I circle back to flavors hiding in plain sight.

My premise is that a savory-silky-saporous reduction would bring the kind of mystery I like to slide into pie. Because pie is everything, and I’ve ordained that it is pie season – seasonal naming rights notwithstanding.

… last season’s Essential Bing Cherry-Berry Pie™.

Last summer, Paul and I in flashes of panic and wisdom, scurried to Sauvie Island to purchase a couple of flats of our beloved Oregon Marionberry. Much more on this indigo jewel as we again approach the two weeks of the year the berry is available.

Strawberries and Marionberries… all blackberries, actually… have affinity relationships with one another. So the goal today is to build the bones – a flavor and textural profile – for Essential Strawberry Pie™.

Predictably, the elusive berries had skillfully slid from the farms into the hands of a local fine food vendor who used the opportunity to charge a generous market rate.

We were undeterred.

Can a pie be aware of its own shortcomings? That’s what testing and tasting, and testing and tasting, is all about. Applause, applause.

 

Essential Strawberry-Balsamic Reduction

Yield: 155 grams | enough for 1, 9″ pie

Incorporating a berry reduction into a pie is a low-effort big-payoff step in baking. It’s infinitely adaptable to your own palate and to the type of seasonal fruit in your market. You’re taking a small step to guide the overall flavor into being more of, well, itself.

I’m a huge advocate of keeping a great pantry, both on my shelves and in my freezer. Building those pantry resources over time pays off in every project, every meal.

Only one thing needs to be said about balsamic vinegar. If there is anything other than cooked grape must and wine vinegar on the label, take a pass. In the three categories of balsamic vinegar – Traditional, Condiment Grade, Commercial Grade – Condiment Grade is a great choice for a reduction. Produced in Modena and typically aged for less than 12 years. (Keep a bottle of Traditional, 12-18 years aged, on your shelf to drizzle over fresh berries, au naturel.)

Ingredients

300 grams (~1 quart) Day-Neutral strawberries, like Albion

rinsed, hulled, quartered

36 grams sugar (3T)

32 ml balsamic vinegar (2T)

10 ml orange flower water (2 tsp) (inexpensive at Halal markets)

5 ml vanilla extract (1 tsp)

Procedure

Macerate strawberries and sugar, lightly tossed, in a bowl for 20 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients. Slow-roast on a sheet pan in a 250 F oven for 90 minutes, lightly stirring every 30 minutes.

Cook’s note: roasting delicately-flavored creatures like strawberries at low heat preserves their flavor, and allows other ingredients to further promote it. There’s pleasure in showing care and respect for the pristine ingredient you’re working with.

We’ve taken the first step in producing pies of extravagance and luxury. In upcoming posts, I’ll talk more about my pie preferences… expanding on simple flavor/texture tricks of the trade.

Join us, please! Until then, buon viaggio!

The Pi Day – Pie Day Quandary

By

On February 29, 2024

In Pie

The third month; the fourteenth day. Pi Day! Pie Day! March 14 is the annual, worldwide celebration of the mathematical constant, pi.

NASA scientists and engineers use pi to solve problems and explore the universe. The constant is used to send spacecraft to other planets; to drive rovers on Mars; to find out what other planets are made of; or to determine how deep alien oceans are. NASA issues yearly math challenges to students and amateur explorers to critically inquire the way they do in solving questions about, say, density and volume of rock samples on Mars that the Perseverance Rover will one day bring back to Earth.

Though pi’s decimals are limitless and non-repeating, JPL, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, uses 15 decimal places to calculate interplanetary navigation.

 

Simple creatures like pastry chefs use 3.14 to scale related baking formulae up and down. Satisfying a common need to calculate the volume of one pan vs the volume of another requires little effort with the use of pi.

And… there’s comfort in the constancy of feeling you can exercise a bit of control over a domain that morphs endlessly. (Liquid : dry ingredient ratios vary with the freshness of the ingredient; humidity in the baking environment quickly transforms a tried-and-true recipe into a seized mess, etc.)

Costing recipes – using the metric system, of course – to four decimal places allows us to be reasonably precise about our profit margins. High school math, in action every work day.

 

We also love supporting other creative, adventurous confectionery souls who have beauty and love to spread. (Check out Salvatore Hall’s launch of #oneeightyconfections with four kicking pieces of artisan chocolate. He partnered with super-cake maven Johannah Zuniga, owner of Dream Cakes on Valentine’s Day, and we we lucky enough to snag their offering.)

 

As a poet, I love the rhythm of 3.14159. Last year in the “Voraciously” column of the Washington Post, Aaron Hutcherson wrote the following little ditty, explaining it as “the cheer used at the math and science high school” he attended during sports games:

Secant, tangent, cosine, sine

3.14159!

We all have ways of amusing ourselves…

 

Pi Day – Pie Day

Here’s a snippet of a poem I wrote to new bakers that will be the intro to my e-book, published later this year:

“Science, now the clever, stealthy patron

lays in wait, tugging at the baker’s imagination; no mercy.

3.14159.

Raise the hem of mystery

to reveal the cook’s

new nourishment.

Curtsy to

The Light:

Pi.”

 

All of this is to say that we’re celebrating Pi Day – Pie Day, too. We’re making four, 6” (only) pies available to our Portland Metro customers for pickup or delivery on or before March 14. Essential Apple. Essential Oregon Cherry-Berry. Essential Shaker Lemon. Essential Cranberry-Citrus. All restaurant-quality. As we approach the end of the glorious Q124 citrus season, any excuse to use exquisite tangerine-essence Meyer lemons and luscious, sweet Mandarins is excuse enough.

 

This whole exercise falls into the category of “a little bit of something special” but mostly, it’s just fun.

We look for things that offer comfort and humor. I hope you’re looking, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hidden Reality Behind Ingredient Tongue Twisters

By

On January 11, 2024

In Cookies

The hidden ingredients – a hidden reality – behind baked products that appear to have flash, panache and demand are increasingly subject to consumer scrutiny. And rightfully so.

 

Courtesy Chef Salvatore Hall, #oneeightyconfections

Part of the confidence Essential Confection cultivates in planning and executing new product lines is, occasionally, modeling a detail or two of those whose work we admire. Chefs. Food photographers. Cooking teachers. Artisan pastry shops. The best businesses (and writers) do it. We hope, as well, that we can model best practices that others benefit from. We learn from, and teach, each other.

 

Discovering the hidden reality behind packaged cookies took us in an unexpected direction. We purchased and evaluated a competitor’s holiday cookie offerings expecting to be pleased and bit dazzled. Our educated eyes and taste buds were seeking that which you already know we value: intense single flavors, luxurious texture and a confection that marks time and place.

 

Our first, and it turns out unscalable, hurdle was each cookie’s list of ingredients. Six different cookies; minimal ingredient differentiation. Three or four artificial food colors (presumably used within FDA regulations); 50% saturated palm oil and 80% saturated palm kernel oil (listed five times in one set of ingredients and sub-ingredients); carnauba wax (prevents melting, increases shine); several combined sweeteners (corn syrup, glucose, dextrose, tapioca syrup, cane sugar), and a variety of gums and emulsifiers.

 

There are reasons for using several of these ingredients, particularly in the production of gluten-free baked items (which these were not). Several will improve a gluten-free cookie’s texture, and certain liquid sugars help to avoid sugar crystallization that improve shelf life. Those are choices people who select GF foods must make. Certain liquid sugars are also necessary for products that require a syrup.

 

After having been flash frozen prior to shipping, the cookies arrived in an insulated box with instructions to refrigerate, then microwave each cookie for ten seconds before eating. This, presumably, was to soften the fat to improve mouthfeel.

 

We persevered. We tasted fairly (minimally biased) and critically looking for features to appreciate. Quite sadly, all we really could taste was intensely sweet cookies that crumbled in our hands, the level of sugar significantly overshadowing every unique flavor (and, no doubt, good intention) the creator desired.

 

So, in January 2024 our only new standard remains the one we’re already very familiar with: our own – starting with a clean label. How to spot a clean label? Several quick criteria:

  • a short ingredient list;
  • ingredients that you recognize as food items and can pronounce;
  • no ingredients ending in “ose”;
  • no artificial colors, extenders or waxes; and
  • no dyes and numbered food colors.

 

Our promise is to use the highest quality, Pacific Northwest sourced ingredients, skillfully entangled as muses to one another and tempered with love and appreciation for the extraordinary bounty that is everywhere around us. We hope to return the magic you bring in supporting us with the tastes and flavors of the year ahead.

The Sweet Spot Between Elegance and Confection

By

On July 19, 2023

In Product Development

Elegance and confection. Pleasingly ingenious. My own interpretation of the word elegance would include simplicity; however, simplicity isn’t always present in an elegant solution. In electronics, in technology, in manufacturing those solutions tend to be quite complex. We recognize elegance when we see it: in clothing design, in the manufacture of small appliances, in an iPhone. So, what does elegance have to do with confection?

 

One thing that makes elegance so attractive is precision. We admire products and services that are seamless and precise. Handcrafted furniture, a high-quality pen or watch, a beautifully engineered hygrometer that’s available to us for just a few dollars.

 

We’re mapping out our production through the end of the year, including the launch of an annual flagship confection product that will have its roots in elegance: the Essential Confection Box. Remembering that our two product qualifiers are superb single-flavor and textural development, we’re building a stable of our best recipes confected with the glorious fruit of the current Pacific Northwest season.

 

Cookies of impactful design like swirls of Italian amaretti; fat, cracked thumbprint cookies of house made hazelnut butter; three flavors of Essential Cantucci Mini™ we sell only to restaurants; our beloved HazL+Nutly™ (currently in use as bookends of summer gelato sandwiches); a glorious candied fig butter cookie (yes, we’re candying fresh figs next month); our never-before-released to consumers pistachio shortbread (have you ever had pistachio butter?) to name a few. Dark, sweet Oregon cherries and our own Marionberry jam (an Oregon-grown-only berry) will make appearances. And sparkle will definitely have its day.

 

 

Marionberry, blackberry, lingonberry, elderberry, black raspberry

There was a time when we didn’t know each other by name, only reputation

The reputation of my grandmother’s exquisite black raspberry jelly

So precious it only made appearance in the tiniest of jars as if incognito

And it changed my understanding of what gifting was about

Funny how a little fruit can do that

Elegance makes an entrance in the svelte silver cookie tin. We believe in functionable reusability, and this box will find a permanent home among your keepsakes.

 

At this writing, we can only hope to keep up with the infusion of flats of Marionberries, apricots and dark Bing cherries. Next month’s bounty includes peaches, figs and tiny artisan grapes.

 

For our personal use, we’ve been producing savory blueberry jam for turkey and lean meat sandwiches, and a fabulous savory umami Marionberry sauce for grilled chicken and fish.

 

Simple Excellence is Essential Confection’s tag line, and it’s hard to express how much value we place on simplicity and excellence as components of the gifts we create. It circles back to my interpretation of elegance: pleasingly ingenious – with simplicity.

 

We love hearing from you and are most appreciative of your friendship and support.

 

 

 

 

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