Desserts: Baking with booze? We’ll drink to that

Brooke Siem and Leslie Feinberg were just two 20-something victims of the recession when they started hitting the bottle to make a living.

Siem, a trained pastry chef working in kitchens across New York City, and Feinberg, a bartender and mixologist, decided to combine their passions for booze and baked goods in a decadent way. But unlike bakers who use liquors just for flavor – effectively diffusing the intoxicating effects of alcohol in a 350-degree oven – the pair wanted to make more potent treats.

That’s why their kid-unfriendly cupcake catering business, aptly named Prohibition Bakery, specializes in a loaded version of New York’s perennial favorite dessert: cupcakes featuring liquors – gin, scotch, Baileys – in their gooey centers.

Siem and Feinberg call the mini-sweets “shotcakes” or “cuptails.” Since the liquor (or beer, in the case of the popular brewski-pretzel concoction) is whipped into the icing or injected as filling, snarfing a half dozen of these cakelets could get you buzzed.

“We want the cupcakes to be for adults,” Siem says. “The flavors are very sophisticated – not just vanilla and chocolate. They’re modeled accurately after the ingredients in the cocktail.”

Combining booze and baked goods isn’t a new concept. (Think Grandma’s uber-tipsy rum bundt cake or a Kentucky-style chocolate-bourbon pecan pie.) It’s an idea that’s usually driven by flavor, not a desire to party.

“It’s about enhancing flavors, like bringing out the taste of

orange with Cointreau or chocolate with rum,” says retired pastry chef Valerie Lifhack, who works at the Alexandria, Va., baking supply store La Cuisine.

Any hooch that tastes good in a glass would also work well in a dessert – and sometimes, baking a high-proof liquid into a dish can temper its bite.

“I’m not a huge fan of bourbons and brandies to drink, but the rich flavors go really well in pie,” says Connecticut bakery owner Michele Stuart, author of “Perfect Pies: The Best Sweet and Savory Recipes From America’s Pie-Baking Champion” (Ballantine, 2011).

Stuart adds brandy and bourbon to fruit, nut or chocolate pies. And since her desserts are baked, which evaporates most of the alcohol, the added oomph won’t make anyone drunk.

The decision whether to let alcohol burn off in a 300-plus-degree oven or to douse the dessert with an alcoholic, unbaked glaze or filling determines whether a sweet goes on the kids’ table or on an adults-only menu.

Leah Daniels, owner of Hill’s Kitchen in Washington, D.C., likes her treats on the buzzy side. “I add alcohol – rum, Kahlua – to frosting,” she says. “I use it like you would vanilla or almond extract. I think you taste it more.”

Cakes, pies and cookies are all ripe for spiking.

“I love the flavor alcohol brings to macaroons,” says Winnette McIntosh Ambrose, co-owner of and baker at Capitol Hill’s the Sweet Lobby in Washington. She amps up the traditional cookies with infusions of brandy or champagne filling.

“I don’t want the alcohol to bake off – I want it to ooze out,” McIntosh Ambrose says.

Sweet Lobby also sells special-order cupcakes in such flavors as pina colada, limoncello-lemon zest and Boston creme dressed up with Irish whiskey.

If you want to come up with your own highball-inspired treats, look to the bar cart as much as the dessert menu. A cherry tart might get a rye-vermouth whipping cream to emulate a Manhattan; a chocolate cake merits a White Russian-ish Kahlua-infusion.

Still, “don’t use your most premium bottle,” McIntosh Ambrose says.

And while it’s tempting to think more is more when it comes to booze and baking, remember that turning flour, sugar and other ingredients into sweets is a scientific art. If you tweak your recipe too much, you’ll get a soggy mess, not an intoxicating success. This means adding just a tablespoon or two of alcohol.

“You want to make sure the cake can rise,” McIntosh Ambrose says.

Plus, you want your guests to feel like they can gobble a second piece of pie and still drive home safely.

 

BAKING WITH ALCOHOL: DO’S AND DON’TS

“Do think about the flavor of your dessert when deciding what sort of liquor to use,” says Valerie Lifhack, of the baking supply store La Cuisine in Alexandria, Va. “Accentuate flavors, like by putting Chambord cassis liqueur with a berry tart.”

Do use alcohol to moisten a dry cake, say, by adding Myers’s Rum to a coconut angel-food cake concoction.

Don’t forget that baking burns off alcohol, not taste. “If you add bourbon to a cake, the flavors are heightened, not diminished,” says Leah Daniels, of Hill’s Kitchen in Washington, D.C.

Don’t be heavy-handed. If you put too much liquor into whipping cream or a glaze, the effect could resemble one of those bad mix-your-own drinks on an airplane.

 

 CHOCOLATE-BOURBON PECAN PIE

Recipe adapted from “Perfect Pies: The Best Sweet and Savory Recipes From America’s Pie-Baking Champion.”

Makes 1 (9-inch) pie.

Crust:

1 recipe for piecrust for 9-inch pie or prepared piecrust

1/4 cup heavy cream (to glaze crimped pie edges)

Filling:

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1-1/4 cups dark corn syrup

1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon bourbon

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and warm

1-1/2 cups chopped pecans

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

To prepare oven: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To prepare pie shell: On clean, lightly floured work surface, roll out half a ball of dough with rolling pin until it forms 10-inch circle. (Note: Wrap remaining half of dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for future use for up to 5 days.) Fold circle in half. Place in 9-inch pie plate so edges of circle drop over rim. Unfold dough to completely cover pie plate. Using thumb and index finger, crimp edges of pie shell. Brush edges with heavy cream. Set aside.

To prepare filling: Using electric mixer on medium speed, mix together eggs, sugar, corn syrup, vanilla and bourbon, scraping sides and bottom of bowl at least 2 times while mixing. Add warm melted butter. Mix well. In another bowl, combine pecans and chocolate chips. Sprinkle mixture across bottom of pie shell. Pour filling over nuts and chips, covering completely.

To bake: Place pie plate on baking sheet. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until firm. (Note: Edges of filling will rise, but middle will remain a little loose. Don’t worry; pie will continue to bake after it is removed from oven.) Transfer pie plate to wire cooling rack. Cool for 2 to 3 hours before serving.

baking with Bill & Sheila

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