How to Make Simple Syrup, Hazelnut Paste & A Decadent Hazelnut-Ganache Cake

In order to make Hazelnut Paste you'll first need Simple Syrup. Typically, Simple Syrup is just "sugar water". It's usually made by boiling two parts sugar to one part water and then letting it cool and using it as a flavoring in alcoholic or coffee drinks, soaking baked goods in it and it's even the basis for making rock candy. What I love about Simple Syrup is that it's not only insanely easy to make on its own but also because from this basic idea you can make your own flavored syrups for coffee or alcoholic drinks (Vanilla Extract = Vanilla Syrup, Mint Extract = Mint Syrup, Almond Extract = Almond Syrup, etc.) you just have to add a capful or two to the simple syrup and you're done. However, for the purpose of making Hazelnut Paste (and in many other baked items) the Simple Syrup I'll be making today has the addition of Corn Syrup in it to create increased thickness to the batch (it's a paste, remember?) Another example of adding thickness to Simple Syrup would be using it as a frosting-like coating on pastries (we cover danish with it at the bakery.) So, to start out with:

• 2 Cups Water
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Light Corn Syrup

 Basically, all you need to do is add all of your ingredients into a pot and bring it to a boil for a few seconds and then let it cool. It's that simple (no pun intended.)



Now, while that's cooling I'm going to prep the hazelnuts to be used in the paste. Unless you have pre-naked hazelnuts you'll need to skin them. To do this: preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and then toast an even layer of hazelnuts in the oven for about ten minutes. The recipe for Hazelnut Paste calls for 8 oz. hazelnuts but I recommend toasting a little more than that in case some come out burnt or you have trouble getting the skins off of some of them.

After you've taken them out of the oven let them cool and then you can either rub them between your hands or in between a towel to get the skins off. This method will not allow you to fully get the skins off, which is okay as long as you're okay with some skin in your paste. I wanted them as clean as possible so after skinning them as much as I could with my hands I took a paring knife and cleaned them up even more, but again, this is NOT something that has to be done.

Now we are ready to make Hazelnut Paste. You'll need:

• 8 Oz. Hazelnuts (this is best weighed out instead of using a measuring cup)
• 1/3 Cup Simple Syrup

Throw the hazelnuts and the simple syrup into a food processor and blend it together until it becomes a thick paste, periodically taking time to stop it and scrape the sides and the blades down so that the paste is as uniform as possible. No matter how long I blended, the paste kept a "nutty" consistency (akin to natural peanut butter) so I just went with it.

Now you have Hazelnut Paste! I wanted to try and make a cake with it so I decided to apply the same basic recipe for this as I used with the Frangipane in an earlier post, only this time I used more paste than I did previously.
To reiterate, you will need:

• 5 Oz. Hazelnut Paste
• 2 TBSP Sugar
• 2 TBSP & 3/4 TSP Flour
• 2 Oz. Room Temperature Salted Butter
• 2 Room Temperature Eggs
• 1 TBSP Vanilla Extract
• 1 TSP Maple Extract

*As a note, when I say "room temperature" I mean about 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

 As with the Frangipane recipe, cream together your paste, sugar and flour. After this has come together nicely add your butter (while the mixer is still on) and cream together. In a separate bowl put your eggs and extracts together and add the eggs individually while the mixer is still running (waiting to add the second one until the batter has already begun to absorb the first.) As the batter begins to thicken crank up the whipping speed of the machine until it's has a nice light and fluffy texture.

Next, I decided to go ahead and bake off the batter into a 6" round cake pan. I initially had the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for ten minutes but since ovens vary so wildly the edges were baking too fast so I turned it down to 335 degrees and baked until the center stopped "wiggling" like jell-o and had a springy consistency.

I let it cool in the pan for about 5 minutes and then popped it out onto a plate to cool before cutting away the top and sides.

I had some Ganache left over from a previous batch so I used it to top the cake and then placed the whole plate into the fridge to cool and set for about half an hour to forty-five minutes.

 Once the Ganache was cool enough to set but still soft enough to mold I used a Pastry Comb to create a design (just make it up) and then sifted a mixture of cinnamon and cocoa powder over the entire thing. Now it's time to eat it.

Up & Coming

I'm going to try and make Hazelnut Paste.... When I'm not pulling double shifts. Someday. Soonish.  It's taken me forever to find straight up hazelnuts which I find weird and sad.

Amande du Jardin Cake

Today I'm combining a lot of the things that have been shown in previous entries to concoct a cake. I'm planning on making a two-layer 6" round Frangipan cake with a layer of Lemon Curd in the center and topped with a Lavender-Rose Buttercream, Toasted Almonds and Lemon Zest.

It's been nine days since I began the lavender-rose extract. It's now time to pour the mixture through a sieve to separate the extract from the rose/lavender. I did this process about three times. Discard the leaves and bottle the extract to use any time you want it. I'm planning on adding some of this extract to some butter cream I'm about to make.


 Buttercream (or Butter Cream) is basically just a type of icing used inside cakes, as a coating, as a decoration or all of the above. It's extremely versatile; some people use it on it's own or choose to flavor it using pretty much anything you can think of: jam, extract, coffee, etc. Buttercream can be made a number of different ways, the recipe I'm using today requires:

•  1 1/2 Cups Unsalted Butter
• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 1 Cup Egg Whites

 There are always different methods for doing things but for mine I use softened butter and combine all the ingredients in a pot and heat it up on the stove until it's all melted together. I was taught to use my hand to stir the ingredients together (the hand replaces a candy thermometer for temp.) Basically, you keep it moving and when your hand begins to feel the temp getting hot enough that you're worried you'll burn yourself it's time to take it off. If this makes you uncomfortable please find and use another method.

Pour your liquid into your mixing bowl and start whipping it on a low setting (so it doesn't splash hot liquid all over you.) It will take awhile to come together so I will show you a series of photographs of it gradually becoming thicker until it fully forms.

As the liquid begins to thicken you can begin to crank up your whipping speed, eventually cranking it up on its highest setting to fully incorporate the ingredients and whip in air.

Another way of beginning to tell if it's coming together (other than visually of course) is by touch. Periodically touching the outside bottom of the mixing bowl you will feel the temperature not only dropping but actually getting cool. This is a good sign so just keep feeling the cooler it's getting.

Finally, you'll end up with something that looks pretty much like this. Use it as is or (as with everything else) put it in a covered bowl and refrigerate. Now, it's going to pretty much just taste like butter (hence the buttercream name) some people really like this, I'm not a HUGE fan and if I were I'd probably just eat a stick of butter. This is where you can add another flavoring (Raspberry Preserves? Vanilla Extract? Almond Extract?) I've taken this opportunity to put in 1 1/2 TBS of the Lavender-Rose Extract I just finished. I'm experimenting here so I'm going to see how the buttercream tastes on a cake.

Yesterday I made a second batch of Frangipane and baked off each batch in its own 6" round cake pan. I let them cool for quite awhile before preparing and stacking them.

I've decided to put a layer of Lemon Curd in between the two layers of Frangipan. After they are stacked and evened out I place it back in the fridge to cool and set before icing the entire cake.

Ice the entirety of the cake in the buttecream using a flat spatula to even out the layers as much as possible.

Next, I chose to toast some almond slices beforehand and toss them on at the bottom. Not only for a nice visual aspect but also for added texture and flavor.

I wasn't totally pleased with how the buttercream turned out, I think perhaps there are too many egg whites. There were issues with separation when I tried piping with it, which can sometimes be helped by re-heating the batch and then re-whipping it together but for a lighter touch I decided to make some whipped cream, adding a TSP of the lavender-rose extract.Then I piped 6 little rosettes with the whipped cream on top of the cake indicating each piece as well as one larger rosette in the center. I placed almonds in each rosette and then topped it all of with a slight sprinkling of lemon zest. Now, it's ready to eat!!

PS: It's delicious

Whippin' Up Some Frangipan

A great example of Frangipan -- Opera Bar: a frangipan base with a layer of coffee butter creme and topped with chocolate ganache (see earlier post for how to make ganache.)

Frangipane (pronounced Frahn-ja-pahn) is pretty much like marzipan's more delicious sister. It's made with sweet almonds as opposed to the bitter almonds that marzipan is made out of. Although there are a number of different definitions and recipes for frangipan, the one I'm using today is akin to an extremely light and fluffy batter that you can bake off as a filling for tarts or as a cake base on its own. It's extremely versatile in the kitchen, and, pretty much my favorite thing to eat ever. (But I'm a little biased because I loooooooove almonds.)

 This recipe will yield about 1 1/2 cups frangipan. Some of these measurements are a little inexact because I had to cut down this recipe from one that uses a pound almond paste, 4 oz. sugar, 5 oz. flour, 8 oz. butter, 6 eggs, 1/2 Tbsp Almond extract & 2 Tbsp Curacao or Triple Sec. Additionally, I'm used to using a balance beam scale for measuring out dry ingredients so converting them to cup/spoon measurements isn't always going to be the most exact. If you can, I recommend almost always weighing dry ingredients out (there are of course some exceptions.)

You Will Need:

• 4 oz. Almond Paste
• 1 oz. Sugar (or 2 Tbsps)
• 1 1/4 oz. Flour (or about 2 Tbsps and 3/4 Tsps)
• 2 oz. Room Temperature Salted Butter
• 2 Room Temperature Large Eggs
• 1/4 Tsp Almond Extract
• 1/2 Tbsp Curacao or Triple Sec

 




In a mixer, cream together your almond paste, sugar & flour on a low to low/medium setting.

While the mixer is still running, piece out your butter and toss it in (being careful to not get your hand close to the paddle in any way.) Cream together.

While your ingredients are mixing break your eggs into a side bowl and add your almond extract and curacao to the eggs.

While your mixer is still going add your eggs one at a time. Wait until the first egg is fairly blended until you add your second. Once the ingredients are sufficiently blended crank your mixer up to as high a setting as you're comfortable with. I set mine all the way up. Not only do you want any chunks to be fully incorporated but you want to whip as much air into the batter as possible to make it super fluffy. Keep it at this setting for a while, taking time to turn it off and check the batter.

 This will be a trial and error kind of thing. You'll eventually figure out the consistency you want, especially since it can vary upon your own personal taste.

It's always best to use the frangipan in whatever it is you're baking off immediately. That's its prime, but it's perfectly fine to throw it in tupperware and keep it in the fridge until you're ready to use it (although, when you are going to use it, take it out of the fridge and let it sit first. The closer it is to room temp. the better it will be.)
At the moment, I'm keeping mine in the fridge because I plan on using it to create a tart or a cake once my lavender-rose extract is ready (hopefully.) But if you plan on using yours immediately: frangipane rises once it's baked so if you don't want something super domed you'll want to level that sucker off. Bake it off around 325 degrees Fahrenheit (this will depend on your oven!) for about ten minutes or until it begins to brown a little around the edges. As with most things, the longer it bakes the harder it's going to be once it cools and frangipan is best when it's light and fluffy. We'll see how my tart/tartlets turn out in a few days, for now good luck with yours! Send pictures or suggestions of what you made if you can. Trading and promoting new ideas is the whole point!