Huguenot Torte

It's pronounced \ˈhyü-gə-ˌnät\, but if you don't know how to interpret that... try,"hugh' - gen - aught", that's a hard G in the middle syllable, as in "gun".  Of course, the name is of french origin, but we Americans (or maybe even the Brits) bastardized it, so it ends in "not" instead of "no".

I heard about this recipe while listening to NPR a couple of months back and just had to try it... and it is amazing and so easy to make.  Here is the transcript from the NPR story which is an interview with the two brothers (Matt and Ted Lee) who wrote a new cookbook of South Carolinian recipes.  http://m.npr.org/news/Books/177367797

I live in Fort Collins (elevation ~5000'), but I didn't do anything special to the recipe and it turned out just as their description said it would.  During the baking it rises up very tall (be sure to use a tall sided dish) and then falls at the end of the baking time or when you take it out.  The top is puffy and crispy and the inside is all gooey and caramelly (I'm sure that's a word).  It tastes a bit like pecan pie, but much easier to make since  you don't have to make a crust.

The recipe served 5 of us.  They were small servings, but it is very sweet so smaller servings would be fine (think about it... 1 and 1/3 cups of sugar to serve 5 or 6 people, yikes).  I think it would have served 6 or 8 just fine, in light of the fact that we lost some when it overflowed the dish (thus, my admonition to use a big enough dish).

I decided to put a cookie sheet below the dish to catch any overflow, and I'm glad I did; it would have been a mess to clean the oven.  I think if I use a deeper dish that won't be a problem (but I'll still use something to catch any overflow, just in case).

I agree with their assessment to add some buttermilk or sour cream to the whipping cream to help cut the sweetness.  I would normally add sugar to the cream, but didn't this time, and I'm glad I didn't.

Here is the recipe just as you find it in their cookbook:

• unsalted butter for greasing the dish
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 Granny Smith or other tart apple, cored, peeled, and diced (1 cup)
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Topping:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons whole buttermilk or sour cream

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 2-quart baking dish.

2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until they're creamy and frothy. Add the sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, apple, pecans, and vanilla, whisking to combine after each addition.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and bake for 45 minutes, or until the top of the torte is crusty. Remove the torte from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes.

4. Whip the cream with a small amount of buttermilk or sour cream until stiff peaks form. Cut into individual portions — they will be lumpen and misshapen, with shards of crust and spoonfuls of ooze, but no matter — and serve with dollops of the whipped cream.

Serve about 10 minutes after taking it out of the oven... give it just enough time for it to cool so you don't burn your tongue.

Easy Egg Custard

A few years ago I had this revelation that it had been decades since I'd had any egg custard other than maybe some Flan or Creme Brulee at a nice restaurant. But I fondly remember having egg custard made by my mom in our kitchen from a box of Jello brand egg custard.  So I started poking around for it in stores, but it seemed to have disappeared from store shelves.  Then a couple of years ago I remembered again and searched on-line for it and found that you could still get it, but could only buy it a carton at a time.

Hmm, I decided it wasn't worth taking up a cubic foot of space in our pantry for it.  Surely, I said to myself, it can't be that hard to make from scratch.  And indeed it isn't.  To make it from scratch it is only slightly more labor intensive than from the box and so much better tasting to boot.

I found many recipes on-line, and found that I could even leave out a couple of steps from those recipies and get something just as yummy and beautiful.

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 C whole milk
• 3 eggs (other recipes say 2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks... I found that wasn't necessary)
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1-2 t vanilla flavoring
• cinnamon & nutmeg garnish (optional)
• 6 small ramekins or pyrex baking cups

1. Turn the oven on to 400°
2. Place the ramekins in a 9x13 baking dish.
3. Scald the milk... I love this step.  Put the milk in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir constantly until it comes to a boil.  Breath in the warm buttery aroma of the cooking milk.  Continue stirring for a minute or so... doesn't really seem to matter... just enjoy the moment.  [NOTE: the boxed stuff had to be cooked the same way as this... so making it from scratch doesn't save anything in this department]
4. While it's cooking you can have your sou-chef prepare the other ingredients (or you can turn down the  heat on the milk and take a few seconds away from the pot).  Thoroughly beat the eggs, and then gently combine the eggs, sugar and vanilla.  You want them thoroughly combined, but want to avoid the foam as much as possible.  It's actually not possible to have no foam, so don't sweat it.
5. After the milk is scalded, pour the hot milk into the egg mixture while stirring.
6. NOTE: Other recipes say that you should now strain this mixture through a fine strainer or cheese cloth... why bother?
7. Pour the custard into the ramekins.  If there's some foam left... drink it; you could even add a spot of rum and have some "nog".  That's just one of the perks of being the cook.
8. Fill the 9x13 with hot (not boiling) water so the water comes up to the same level as the egg mixture in the cups.
9. Place the baking dish in the center of the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until the custard is just set (it can still be a bit loose).  This is the extra step required when  making it from scratch over the boxed stuff.
10. Remove from the water bath and let cool.
11. Garnish with cinnamon and/or nutmeg as desired.

You can serve it any way you like it... still warm, room temperature, or chilled.