Visiting Paris never gets old. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve been, I always find fresh inspiration in the City of Light.
I was there last month leading two culinary tours. With each group, I spent a week cooking, eating, drinking and generally reveling in the beauty of Paris. I’ve been often enough now that I can navigate from memory. Which changes your experience of a place. Without my nose buried in a map, I was able to spend more time contemplating the city.
Which led to my latest observations about Paris:
The city is full of secret little corners and vignettes: People napping or reading or playing pétanque in the small, verdant parks that dot the city; hidden courtyards overflowing with fragrant roses and jasmine .
Parisian women actually do wear bright red lipstick and look ridiculously sexy pretty much all the time.
If you become a regular at a cafe, the owner might one day pull out a dusty bottle of eau de vie from his personal stock in the cellar and pour you a shot to drink with him in the middle of the afternoon. Just because.
Parisian men wear cologne and several times a day, one of them will walk past leaving you in an intoxicating wake.
It’s hard to be in a hurry in Paris. Things happen when they happen. You might wait in line for 30 minutes at the grocery store. Your server is smoking and can’t be bothered to get you another glass of wine. The restaurant you wanted to go to is inexplicably closed.
But you make your way home with your groceries. And when she’s done with her cigarette, in language bordering on the rapturous, your server will take the time to recommend just the right wine. And you’ll discover a delightful new restaurant around the corner from the one you were originally going to. I love this looseness and the fact that you never quite know what might happen on any given day.
Oh, and this chocolate cake:
I learned to make this cake at Tours de Cuisine, a small cooking school and wine cellar in the 11th arrondissement. I always take my culinary tours there, partly because the proprietors, Vincent and André provide such a warm welcome and such delicious food and wine. And partly because it’s so pleasing to watch what at first appears to be total chaos–a jar of flour over here, a stick of butter somewhere over there, where are the eggs again?–transform over the course of a few hours into a wonderful meal.
When we arrive at Tours de Cuisine, I always hold my breath, wondering if my group of Americans will be put off by Vincent and André’s laissez-faire approach to cooking instruction. But inevitably, they love it. The organic way the classes unfurl, so different from most American cooking classes with their neatly-printed recipe packets, orderly trays of prepped ingredients and precise timelines.
This cake was the highlight of a recent pastry class at Tours de Cuisine. It’s a very Parisian affair. Just a few ingredient tossed together on the fly yield a dark and silky chocolate cake that’s infinitely variable. It can be dressed up or down. It’s fantastic crowned with a coffee glaze, studded with candied citrus zest or drizzled with warm salted caramel. But I like it best fancied up with a dollop of basil cream and a handful of summer berries.
It reminds me of Paris. And how a little chaos can give rise to beautiful surprises.
Mini Dark Chocolate Cakes with Basil Cream and Summer Berries
- 3 ½ oz. (100 grams) dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 3 ½ oz. (100 grams) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder or instant coffee
- Pinch salt
- 3 ½ oz. (100 grams) sugar
- 1 heaping tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs
- 1 recipe Basil Cream (see below)
- 2 cups mixed summer berries (I used raspberries, strawberries and salmon berries)
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
*Notes: The secret to these moist little cakes is steaming them. You will need a silicone mini cake mold like this one in order to turn the cakes out after you steam them. I know it’s a bit fussy, but this technique is well worth the effort. I am not a chocolate dessert person at all and these cakes make me swoon every time I eat them because they are so moist and dense and delicious.
If you don’t want to deal with the whole steaming business, you can cook your cakes in a 400°F (205°C) oven for about ten minutes. You don’t need a silicone mold for this, but be sure to generously butter your cake tins and dust them with cocoa powder before pouring in the batter.
I used 70% dark chocolate from Theo for this recipe and it made super chocolatey cakes that weren’t at all too sweet.
*For a gluten-free version: substitute nut flour or a gluten-free flour mix for the all-purpose flour.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, fill a small saucepan with 1 inch of water and bring to a simmer. Place the butter and chocolate in a medium heat-proof bowl and place over the saucepan of simmering water. Stir until melted. Add the espresso powder or instant coffee and salt and stir to dissolve. Set aside to cool slightly.
Place the eggs and sugar in a medium bowl and whisk until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is slightly fluffy, about 2 minutes. Gently stir the chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar. Sprinkle the flour over the top and stir to combine.
It seems that many French people own electric steamers like this one. If you happen to have a fancy electric steamer, you are in luck, as it is the easiest way to cook these cakes.
If you, like me, do not own one of these beauties, you’re going to have to get creative to steam your cakes. I ended up using a dutch oven with an inverted baking dish inside. It wasn’t the prettiest, but it got the job done. I suggest looking through your cupboards to see what sort of makeshift steamer you can come up with. An Asian steamer basket would be great, but a large pot with something heatproof inside should work just fine.
When you have your steamer set up, pour an inch or so of water in the bottom. Place your mold in the steamer and fill the molds almost to the top (the cakes will expand a bit as they cook). Cover the mold with foil to keep too much water from getting in. Heat the water until you have steam, then cover and cook the cakes for 20-25 minutes. The time will vary depending on the size of your cakes. Start checking at 20 minutes by inserting a paring knife into one of the cakes to make sure it is set all the way through. Remove the mold from the steamer and set aside for 15 minutes to cool slightly. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill completely before un-molding, at least an hour.
To serve cakes, make sure they aren’t ice cold. They don’t need to be room temperature, but I found the texture is best if you let them warm up for 20-30 minutes at room temperature. Serve with a dollop of basil cream and a small handful of mixed berries. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.
Basil Cream
- 1 cup (235 mL) heavy cream
- 15 large basil leaves
- 2 tablespoons super-fine sugar
Gently bruise the basil leaves by hitting them with the back of a wooden spoon or scrunching them in your hand. This will help release the essential oils. Do not chop the basil or it will blacken and result in grey cream.
Bring the cream to a gentle simmer in a small saucepan. Add the basil leaves. Remove the pot from the heat, cover and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain the infused cream through a fine mesh sieve. Cover the cream and refrigerate until very cold (or it won’t whip properly).
Transfer the chilled cream to a medium bowl. Add the sugar and whip until soft peaks form.
dark chocolate chip cookies with pistachio and black sesame
I’m sitting on a plane as I type this, headed for my annual pilgrimage to the heat and sun of the desert. Raindrops are gliding down the windows and, in a proper Seattle send-off, it’s cold and grey. When we land in Palm Springs it will be a balmy 85°. And when I arrive back in Seattle, we will have officially arrived at spring.
Perched on the thin edge between winter and spring, dark and light, feels like an opportune moment to celebrate the changing of the seasons.
There is a part of me that wants to close the book on our long Seattle winter and be done with it. Good riddance.
Yet as much as I look forward to longer days filled with dinners outdoors and working in the garden, I realize I am thankful for the stillness of the darker months as well. Opposites enhance; darkness gives form to the light, throwing the contours of our spring rituals into dramatic relief. The soil turned. The flowers picked. The sharing of an Easter meal.
Without the bare branches and drizzly afternoons spent in the company of good books, we would not rejoice as fully in the green tips of the first seedlings or summer days full of picnics and iced tea and languorous naps in the sun.
This week, I was in the mood to celebrate the last shadows of winter before heading into the desert sun. So I give you this small ode to darkness: Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pistachios and Black Sesame.
They are intensely chocolaty, with deep, earthy notes from the pistachios and a subtle bitterness from the black sesame seeds–a decadent celebration of the end of winter.
In these final days of cold and grey, I hope you’ll bake up a batch of these dark beauties and join me in celebrating winter’s last hurrah and the arrival of spring!
Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pistachios and Black Sesame
- 10oz (2 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 5 oz (3/4 cup) lightly packed brown sugar
- 5 oz (1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup black sesame seeds
- 6 oz dark chocolate chunks or chips
- 3 1/2 oz (3/4 cup) raw pistachios, roughly chopped
- Coarse sea salt for topping (optional)
*NOTE: I used two Theo 70% Pure Dark chocolate bars, roughly chopped
Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar at medium speed just until smooth, 30 to 60 seconds. Do not beat until pale and fluffy as this will cause your cookies to incorporate more air and spread in the oven.
Add the egg, yolk and vanilla and beat until the egg is incorporated, 30 to 60 seconds more. Add all of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until halfway incorporated. Add the sesame seeds, chocolate and pistachios and mix on low speed until the dough just comes together. Take care not to overwork the dough or your cookies will be tough.
Use a 1/4-cup scoop to form balls of dough. Place the formed dough on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Refrigerate overnight. I know this seems fussy and unfair considering how good this cookie dough is, but resting your dough before baking it off is the single most effective way to take your cookies to next-level, eye-rolling deliciousness. Trust me; it’s worth it.
You can also freeze the dough balls. Once they are frozen solid, remove them from the sheet pan and store them in a resealable plastic bag in the freezer for up to two months. I always freeze my dough and bake from frozen as it makes for prettier cookies that hold their shape better in the oven.
When you are ready to bake off the cookies, preheat the oven to 325°F. Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven and line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
Place 6 dough balls on each of the prepared sheet pans, leaving at least 2 inches of space around each cookie. (You can freeze the last 4 dough balls for emergency cookie cravings or bake them as a second batch.) Sprinkle the dough balls with coarse salt, if desired. Bake for about 18 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges and still soft in the middle (add 3 to 4 minutes if baking from frozen). If you’re unsure when to take them out, err on the side of under- rather than overbaking them. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheet for about 3 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. These cookies will keep for up to 4 days, stored in an airtight container.
Makes 16 large cookies
Adapted from Joy the Baker
