aioli and baguette

[topaz]

20. Make aioli from scratch (no cheating with Hellman's).

It works, bitches:



It did not turn out to be painless.  I followed the recipe in the Silver Palate cookbook, which calls for two egg yolks and 1½ cups of oil.  I dutifully poured the oil into the running food processor in a hair-thin stream.  Right up until the very end it was unbelievably perfect.  After pouring the last of the oil and admiring my emulsified darling as it whipped around the bowl, I turned away for a moment to attend to the asparagus.  When I turned back, it had fallen apart and collapsed into a curdly, soupy slop.

Julia Child insists that a turned mayonnaise can be fixed by whipping an egg yolk and emulsifying the failed stuff back into it.  I did that, but about halfway through I could tell it wasn't going to finish, and in a few seconds there was nothing left.

Then I read that ¾ cup is the maximum amount of oil you can use per egg yolk.  If you have never made a mayonnaise before, Julia confides, it is best to start with ½ cup.  Oh.  Well, then.

So I threw it out and started from scratch with three egg yolks instead of two, and gosh if it didn't, like, work.  Damn.

The most amusing part is that it isn't even that good.  After the first failed batch I got thinking that maybe I put in too much lemon juice, or mustard, or something that just made it a little too hard to hold together.  So the second time I cut way back on all of those ingredients -- which of course are the things that actually make the aioli taste like something.

So what I ended up with is a sauce that tastes like .... 1½ cups of extra-virgin olive oil.  And a little raw garlic.  Yeah.  Even I can't get enthusiastic about that.

But really, I barely even care.  Because now I can make my own aioli.  My new emulsifying technique is UNSTOPPABLE!

As a bonus, I even made pain l'ancienne out of The Bread Baker's Apprentice:



And yes, it tasted as good as it looks. Oh yes. Victory is mine, and it is hot and crusty.

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*cheers you on, singing songs of your glory*

[coraline]

really, even as much as i love olive oil, i learned my lesson about using it making mayonaise -- really, you want a neutral-flavored oil, with maybe a splash of olive in it. and yeah, go easy on the raw garlic -- a little goes a long way.
but you can make a fantastic curry mayonaise for curry potato salad or chicken salad, or flavor it with a lot of dill and some mustard for a fantastic sauce on fish... home-made mayo is the shit.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Victory is mine, and it is hot and crusty.

Like your MEN!

[ctseawa.livejournal.com]

Yay for hot, crusty victory!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

You made pain a l'ancienne?! *sigh!*

[ceo]

Mmmm, I need to make pain á l'ancienne again. Almost everything I've made from that book has been completely awesome, the bagels in particular. Once or twice I've use one of the brioche recipes along with some ground-up-together dark chocolate and candied ginger to make an utterly glorious chocolate-ginger-swirl brioche.

[jostajam.livejournal.com]

The bread looks exquisite. My technique for mayo is 2 whole eggs in the cup to my stick blender. Add a packet of lemon juice powder and a pinch of salt. Put in the blender. Add 1 1/2 cup of oil. Start the stick blender and slowly draw the blender into the oil.

[jacflash.livejournal.com]

I make hollandaise (egg yolk, lemon juice, butter) in the blender using Julia's quick method from her first book. The trick is to pour in the oil (or melted butter, in my case) slooooooooowly.... more a stream of droplets than a pour. If I do that, it always works.

FWIW I never manage to load it up with more than 1/2 cup or so per yolk that way, but it's still a recklessly indulgent topping for asparagus on a random weekday night, and only takes a couple minutes to assemble. :-)

[lady-mishegas.livejournal.com]

Wow, that LOOKS really good! Why do green spreads look yummier than non-green spreads? The bread looks delicious too. I am impressed by your mayonaise adventure. Maybe I will have to do a project 40.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

OK, coworker Paige who also used to live in France wants your bread recipe. FYI.