Baking

This recipe came from Maya Eyler, a cook who worked for me at Daniel. I don’t remember the story behind it, but I think it was a family recipe—which makes sense. It’s an old-style cake, using mayonnaise to ensure moistness. I make it as a sheet cake and use it as a component in several desserts. Baked in a cake pan for a little longer and layered with ganache or frosting, it could become a birthday cake, though.

This cake forms the base for the Chocolate-Pear Cake on page 98. You could also use it as the start of a birthday cake. Or cut it into cubes and skewer it with fruit and berries for a dessert kebab.

François Payard, with whom I worked at Daniel and at his own pastry shop, believes in signature desserts. His banana tartlet is one of those signatures, with crunchy cashews and creamy white chocolate mousse paired with rum-sautéed bananas. In this tribute to his dessert, I borrowed the structure and changed the flavors to creamy milk chocolate paired with a salty hazelnut caramel.

These little desserts are all about contrast. Picture a spongy soufflé with a creamy center, sitting in a crisp pastry shell. Then there’s the sensation of the two different kinds of chocolate playing off the bright, acidic taste of the passion fruit. Experiment with the flavors of the soufflé if you want, but keep it acidic. Try it with a puree of red currant, black currant, or raspberry.

Ever since I ate my first Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, I’ve been a fan of chocolate and peanut butter, and I have a lot of fun taking that flavor combination to new levels. This dessert has many textures and flavor dimensions and is a winner in more ways than one. I entered this recipe in a Peanut Advisory Board competition, and it came away with first prize. This is one of my most complicated desserts. Make sure to read through the entire recipe before beginning. Freeze any leftovers: they will be fine for about one month, and you can eat them like frozen Snickers bars.

Just about every restaurant around has a version of molten chocolate cake on the menu, and many claim to be the original, but the cake that Jean-Georges developed at Lafayette Restaurant in New York is the most delicious, the one with the greatest contrast in textures. It’s the only dessert that stays on the menu year-round at Jean Georges. (The photograph is pages 144–145.)

For all the years I’ve been working with Jean-Georges, I’ve had his legendary molten chocolate cake on the dessert menu. Finally, I decided I had to do something to make the cake my own, so I took it apart and put it back together with white chocolate and a good hit of vanilla. This cake isn’t molten; it’s much more a lush, custardy soufflé. I love combining citrus with chocolate, hot with cold. The frozen mandarin orange refreshes and cleanses the palate.

Pineapple has a balance of sugar and acid that I really like. I wanted to capture that sweet-tart flavor in an upside-down cake, but in a refined one. So I’ve made a batter with cornmeal that gives the cake a great foundation and a terrific crumb.

Chocolate and lemon make an age-old combination; the tartness of lemon enhances the acidity of the cacao bean and cuts the fatty mouth feel. Meyer lemons have a short window of availability, and they’re coveted for their lemony-orangey flavor—which is particularly good when paired with chocolate. They’re versatile, with as many uses in the savory kitchen as in the pastry kitchen.

As I’m a great fan of a true margarita, I thought it would be fun to take the components apart and rearrange them into a dessert. This makes a lot, but leftovers will keep for a month in the freezer. I learned a version of this sponge cake, which is called biscuit mirliton, at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo. I love it for its airy/ cakey texture, which is like no other sponge. Perfumed with citrus zest, it is a great complement to the tangy semifreddo. The key to the sponge is baking just before serving. You’ll need eight to nine 1-ounce aluminum timbale molds for the cake and twenty 2 x 2-inch ring molds for the semifreddo (see Note, page 120).

Pumpkins and pine nuts are in the same boat in that both are easily influenced by other ingredients. I felt they needed each other in this dessert, which I created particularly for this book. In addition to flavor, the pine nuts provide structure in the cake and texture in the streusel.

The technique here is traditional and French. The fresh and dried cranberries and the star anise are modern and provide bright hits of flavor in every bite. You’ll need two 6-cavity Flexipan savarin molds (the 2 3/4-inch size) if you want to match the shape of the dessert in the photograph. But you could also freeze the nougat in a baking sheet and cut pieces to serve.

The origin of this dessert is Tarte Vaudoise, a traditional European pastry. I’ve replaced the original heavy cream with crème fraîche and added different nut textures. It may look simple on the plate, but it’s complex in flavor.

Here is another example of presenting one flavor two ways, each reinforcing the other. The icy, refreshing sorbet captures all the bright freshness of Granny Smith apples; the chips present that fresh flavor in a completely different, shatteringly crisp form.

Beets and raspberries complement each other perfectly, covering sweet and acidic, earthy and bright flavors. The chocolate in this dessert is the secondary flavor, reinforcing the earthiness of the beets and bringing two additional textures to the plate.

Here, I’ve created my version of sweet potato pie, but it’s not as heavy and not as sweet. The cranberry foam gives a nice added pop of acidity.

I often find myself reflecting back on principal recipes and techniques when I’m changing the menu at Jean Georges, then reworking them with modern flavor combinations. The fresh jam in this recipe makes a traditional tart more seasonal. Thai basil has a distinct flavor, so in addition to striking a modern note, it holds up well against the more homey notes struck by the cherries.

Inspiration here comes from my many Mexican friends who add chocolate to savory dishes. I thought I’ d return the favor and add chiles to dessert. This frozen chocolate cake has a gentle heat, tamed by the chocolate and its hidden apricot center.

The shortbread in this dessert provides the texture as well as the base for the tender apricots and delicate almond cream.

Cacao nibs give the flavor of chocolate without added sweetness, and they’re a great side texture to this airy soufflé.