Boot camp takes author back to baking basics
WILLIAMSTOWN -- It's lunchtime and Darra Goldstein is whipping fresh local cream for an angel food summer pudding. Goldstein, the editor of the scholarly food journal Gastronomica and a professor of Russian at Williams College, lives at the end of a half-mile long private dirt road. From her sprawling house (hippie-suburban-contemporary-homestead in the middle of nowhere), you can look over 50 acres of meadows and woods all the way to the rolling Berkshires and New York. Goldstein says "People are always singling me out for my work on Gastronomica and my cookbooks. But I'm really most proud of having learned to plow the driveway."
Her latest effort is "Baking Boot Camp: Five Days of Basic Training at The Culinary Institute of America." A confident baker before she set off on her week-long adventure, Goldstein was humbled by her time at the professional cooking school. "I learned that precision with the ingredients and methods, and artistry with the aesthetics, are both necessary to make something really extraordinary."
One winter three years ago, Goldstein drove to Hyde Park, N.Y., stayed in an inn, and for five days rushed over to the CIA to bake all morning, attend lectures in the afternoons, and sit down each evening to dinner at a different campus restaurant. A couple of months later she went back and did the same thing for Pastry Boot Camp. The baking course started with a basic lesson on the creaming method for pound cakes and cookies; continued with rubbed doughs (these might become pie pastries or scones); then the rich eggy brioche and challah; and finally lean doughs like ciabatta and other crusty breads.
The pastry course was made up of custards such as creme Anglaise, the cream puff dough called pate a choux, foamed batters (think sponge cake), puff pastry, and chocolate souffle and other elegant desserts. Last spring and summer, in her lofty dome of an office at the back of her house, Goldstein wrote the book, with The Culinary Institute of America as her co-author on the project.
"It was difficult to write," says Goldstein. "There was so much technique , and a lot of it was just dry stuff. My task was to find an engaging voice and make it lively. Really it's a personal narrative in an institutional package."
Today, to go with the angel food pudding, Goldstein is making ham and cheddar scones, along with fish with cilantro sauce from her 1991 "The Georgian Feast: The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia ."
She works in a dream kitchen with granite countertops, polished birch floors, and a wood burning brick oven. She and husband Dean Crawford, who commutes to Vassar College to teach English, eat at home most nights. But Goldstein isn't a purist about home cooking. "In Williamstown there just aren't many good places to eat out," she says.
On day two of the baking boot camp, the "rubbed dough" day, Goldstein learned to make scones. Scones are a classic quick bread, made by stirring liquid -- cream, in this case -- into dry ingredients. Baking powder is the common leavening agent. In the oven the scones rise and turn golden brown outside, while the inside crumb stays rich and soft. Goldstein freezes the dough before cutting it into wedges so she can bake them when she wants some.
To make the dough, she uses bread flour, ham, and cheddar cheese, then presses the dough into a 10-inch cake pan lined with parchment. After smoothing the top, she covers and freezes it. When it's time to bake, she thaws the round for five minutes only, then uses a long knife to cut very even triangles for baking.
Goldstein and Crawford moved to Williamstown from Palo Alto, Calif., in 1983. Crawford and a crew built the house in 1990. "We had to adjust to New England winters," says Goldstein. "Even in the middle of January we were grilling outside like we had in California." To figure out the rhythm of the seasons, Goldstein wrote "The Winter Vegetarian" and had the brick oven built. "At that time there wasn't any decent bread or pizza in Williamstown, so we had baking days. When the oven was hot we baked thin crust pizzas, then bread, and as it cooled we roasted meat and vegetables. Before bed we put in a big pot of oatmeal so that when we came down in the morning it would be in there, still warm, slightly smoky, and ready to eat." By then daughter Leila, now 16, had been born.
In this idyllic-sounding life, Goldstein teaches, edits Gastronomica, which is published by University of California Press, and is now thinking seriously about a book on the cultural history of Russian food, which has been on her mind for a number of years. Her teaching subject was very popular during the Cold War, then declined in interested when the Soviet Union collapsed. She teaches Russian language courses and a course in the art of the Russian avant-garde; she also teaches about Russian culture and cuisine.
Goldstein is involved with the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe to determine ways in which food can be used to promote tolerance and diversity around the world. She'll head to Israel to research falafel, to Brussels for a food symposium, and to Russia in September to catch up on the dining scene in Moscow. This fall, she begins a sabbatical. Still, she says, "I probably won't have time to do too much baking."
Her bright, fruity summer pudding looks more like pop art than dessert. This summer pudding is a variation of the popular English desserts once made with stale bread and fresh fruits pressed into bowls until the fruit juices soaked the slices. Goldstein's version is just as colorful as the classic.
When she made the angel food cake, she explains, she followed the boot camp rules of allowing the cake to cling to the sides of an ungreased pan in order to rise to its characteristic fluffiness. This is one of the foamed batters, leavened with egg whites whipped until they hold medium peaks. She soaks slices of the cake in sugar syrup with framboise liqueur, layers them with mixed berries poached in sugar and lemon juice, and tops each with puffs of whipped cream.
"I love the deep garnet color," she says. "This is one recipe where garnish is so important. The syrup, the dollop of cream, and the gorgeous berries turn it from a lumpy lump into something much more."
Summer fruits, light cakes, and having time to bake are all a far cry from the rigors of academic life. Which makes this dessert even more delicious.
