Crema
Joe Pastry's post on Crema Fresca got me curious. He says,
In fact crema fresca is closer to crème fraîche than sour cream. Its fat
content is usually a bit higher, about 25% compared to sour cream which
clocks in around 20%. Both are still lightweights compared to crème fraîche,
though, which weighs in at a chubby 35-48%.
Well if that's true, then why is sour cream thicker than crema fresca? Or are
we not talking about the same thing. Maybe it's related to what happens in
yogurt. The next time I ended up at the grocery store I was armed with pen and
paper.
| Product | Fat / Serving | Fat Content |
|---|---|---|
| Buttermilk (1%) | 3g / 240ml | 1% |
| Whole Milk | 8g / 240ml | 3% |
| Half and Half | 3g / 30ml | 10% |
| Crema Mexicana ("Mexican Table Cream") | 2.5g / 15ml | 17% |
| Sour Cream | 5g / 30g | 17% |
| Crema Mexicana Agria ("Mexican Sour Cream") | 8g / 30g | 27% |
| Whipping Cream | 6g / 15ml | 30% |
| Heavy Whipping Cream | 6g / 15ml | 40% |
I used the rule of thumb that 1ml = 1g. (A pint's a pound the world around
except in England and where people don't use pints or pounds, which is pretty
much everywhere but the USA) Though it's technically not true it's precise
enough for the level of accuracy we need (rounded to the nearest percent). (See
this fact sheet
for more about density of dairy.)
I should note that none of the Mexican cream products in my grocery were
labeled as crema fresca, though that's what I was referring to when I asked
Joe about crema fresca. I don't remember where I picked up the term, or whether
it's entirely accurate. Apparently Joe is thinking about the Agria kind, which
does indeed have more fat than sour cream. Or maybe this brand's table cream is
particularly lean. Anyway, the Crema Mexicana in my grocery is on par with sour
cream for fat content, but it's pourable and not nearly as thick as sour cream.
I imagine we have some kind of yogurt effect going on in the sour cream. I
don't know whether the agria stuff is less pourable, but I suspect it is just
as pourable since it comes in a tall narrow container.
To make crema fresca, based on these numbers, I'd go for 1
cup whole milk and 1/2 cup cream (heavy or light, depending on your level of
decadence), and a tablespoon of sour cream or buttermilk to inoculate.
I can only take his word for the fat content of crème fraîche, as I have never
seen or tasted it.
If you like sour cream on your rice and beans (or burritos or chimichangas or …) then you'll like crema fresca even better. Give it a try!
Pain Perdu
I grew up eating french toast once every week or two. Delicious stuff, and easy too. Some eggs, a little milk, dip the bread and cook like a pancake.
Then I got married, and my wife did the same thing but ruined it by adding cinnamon. Well, to each her own. We started dividing the egg stuff before she added the cinnamon to her mix.
One day I watched the Good Eats episode Toast Modern where AB goes through this complicated process to get some kind of "perfect" french toast. It sure didn't look worth the effort to me, so I promptly forgot all about it.
Then I visited New Orleans for a conference. The hotel I stayed at had complimentary breakfast (and not that lame cover-up people call "continental breakfast"). One day I ordered the french toast, unwittingly changing my life forever.
What they served was, as AB says, crispy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside. It tasted less eggy than what I was used to. It was lightly dusted with powdered sugar before I put some syrup on, but I knew it went deeper than condiments. This was fundamentally different french toast to what I had been accustomed to. And I loved it. Truly incredible. More than anything else about that trip to New Orleans, I will remember the french toast.
Fast forward again, and I came across the same Good Eats episode. This time I paid closer attention and due respect to AB. Then I tried the recipe faithfully, but with mediocre results. First, the homemade artisan bread I was using had curled up while staling, making it very difficult to get a good browning in the pan. It also was quite holey. Second, I just didn't get much of a crisp. So again I chalked the recipe up to too complicated and not really worth it.
Yesterday I again had the hankering for some french toast like what I had in New Orleans. So I decided to follow AB's recipe again, but also to take some insurance out. I did some surfing and found that New Orleans french toast is apparently famous. Most recipes that seemed credible had the same basic structure: custard, pan-fry in butter, maybe put in the oven for the final crisping (I get the feeling some just use more butter or butter/oil mixture and fry it to crisp instead). So I grabbed french bread from the store (for reproduceability) and the rest of AB's ingredients. I mixed the custard and set out sliced bread the night before. In the morning, I followed his instructions to the T, except that I used the toaster oven and I included baking in the toaster oven in the pipeline (since I couldn't fit all 8 slices in at once anyway). It worked well, and wasn't too complicated.
The toaster oven really cuts down on the wait for preheat and the wasted heat. I actually set it to 400°F instead of the 375°F he recommended, and it worked well (5 minutes in). I may even toy with using the toast setting instead of the bake setting.
The rack and cookie sheet are, I believe, an unnecessary complication. If properly staled, the toast loses very little custard while resting, so i wouldn't worry about pooling. Instead I plan to use foil, or maybe just a cookie sheet, to cut down on the cleanup.
The french bread didn't curl, and tasted alright. As good as Albertson's french bread could be expected to taste. Next time I'll use my own artisan bread again (one with a bit more even crumb), and make sure to not lay it out in a way that bends the bread. I expect the results will be fantastic.
I feel like I'm working with the same principles that the hotel chef was working with. It is close to what I had, and I think perfection is within my grasp. What's more, it's no harder than the old way though it does take just a hair more planning and a less-common ingredient (half and half).
Les Vidéos
In a quest for technique tips on baguette forming, I found a page at The Fresh
Loaf with some great tips on bread
slashing. Even more importantly, the page includes a nice
video.
I don't like the bread with such deep slashes, I prefer shallow and more
slashes. In any case, the technique tips are pretty good.
But the real gem here is the link to Le Petit
Boulanger which is le site de la boulangerie
artisanale. I don't speak french, but I know enough to follow the silent videos
(with one exception) posted in the
Vidéos page. They are excellent videos
of a real boulanger showing you how it's done. Notice how supple the dough is -
obviously fairly high hydration. Notice how firmly but gracefully he moves the
lame. Notice his neat coat.
So anyway, my conclusion is that the scalpel I got from the bookstore is
probably not sharp enough. I'm going to get me some coffee sticks and
double-edged razor blades and use a more acute angle. Hopefully I'll stop
tearing the loaf and get some nice slashes like the ones you see in those
videos.