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S'more cupcakes

Time1 hour 20 minutes
YieldsMakes 20 cupcakes
S'more cupcakes
(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
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One of the most appealing things about open kitchens -- and the trend of letting the rest of us see into the inner machinery, the smoke and clash and vaguely militaristic operation of a restaurant -- is the occasional flare and whoosh of fire. We are, most of us, secret pyromaniacs.

Watching a chef flambe something (a crepe, steak Diane, an apron) maintains the willing suspension of disbelief that professional cooking is, after all, a beautiful and possibly dangerous high-wire circus act and not just dinner.

But you don’t have to be a professional chef to set things on fire, deliberately. Home cooks can light a match to a saute pan or fire up a blowtorch to burn a layer of sugar across a creme brulee as well as anybody. With a few simple precautions (cookbooks really should read like Scout manuals) and the right tools, you can have just as much fun playing with fire as Antonin Careme did lighting it up with his French kitchen brigade.

Along with a gas stove and a box of wooden matches, the best and definitely the most satisfying kitchen gear any closet kitchen pyro needs is a blowtorch. A real blowtorch, like one you’d imagine Robert Downey Jr. would use in his kitchen.

Don’t bother with the adorable things you find at boutique cooking stores. Sure, they work, sort of, but they’re expensive, disappointingly small and downright prissy compared with what you find at a hardware store. They’re fine for tea parties with dainty toasted meringues, but the smaller butane lighters simply don’t have the raw power or the dramatic flourish of the propane welder’s torches.

Besides, if you want to get men -- and teenagers and most preteens, if you think about it -- interested in cooking, there are few better ways of doing this than a trip to Home Depot. Hardware stores aren’t gender or age specific, anyway. I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t love shopping for kitchen gear amid power tools.

Besides fixing the occasional leaky pipe, a blowtorch can be used for many things in the kitchen. There is creme brulee, of course, which you have to make simply on principle -- and because it’s one of those retro desserts that everyone secretly loves. There are also few better dinner theater moments than the one when you fire up the postprandial torch to caramelize a glowing pool of sugar across the top of a ramekin.

After the de rigueur tray of creme brulee, blowtorches are terrific for toasting both marshmallows and marshmallow frosting. Think of the s’more as a controlled experiment rather than tiny haphazard sugar explosions around a campfire. Use a blowtorch to put the right amount of color on the top and sides of a meringue pie or a baked Alaska. Or use it to fire a trail of caramelized sugar across a bowl of berries and cream, the melting sugar forming rivulets that later crack like discovered deposits of candy.

Not only is a torch inherently a lot more fun than a broiler, but you also get considerably more control since you can move it around and pull it back if the sugar starts burning. It’s also portable, so you can take your traveling circus on the road. Firing up a blowtorch for the dessert portion of an evening barbecue party is like a legal version of lighting firecrackers in your backyard.

Chefs, of course, have all kinds of party tricks they accomplish with torches.

A tool of many uses

Pastry chefs use them for brulees and meringues, but also to unmold terrines and heat the bottoms of metal bowls of buttercream frosting to keep them from breaking. At different stations in a kitchen, cooks might roast chiles or whole peppers, sear tomatoes or add some color to a component of a dish (a scallop, a gratin) already on a plate instead of putting the whole thing under a salamander or broiler.

Sushi chefs are fond of using torches to briefly sear a piece of fish or meat that they do not wish to actually cook. Thomas Keller famously uses his blowtorch to caramelize the surface of a rib roast before putting it in the oven. At Spago in Beverly Hills, cooks have been known to steal longtime pastry chef Sherry Yard’s blowtorch to light the pizza ovens.

One can only imagine all the many things “Modernist Cuisine” author Nathan Myhrvold does behind closed scientific doors with his blowtorch.

Although it may seem utilitarian, a blowtorch is actually a zippy modern improvement on the more atavistic tools French chefs once used to caramelize sugar. Decades past, chefs used a brulee iron, called a fer a bruler or fer a carameliser, to melt sugar across custards. A medieval-looking device that resembles a cattle-branding tool more than anything you’d normally find in the kitchen, the iron would be heated in the fire and then lowered just above the sugar-covered custard. Josiah Citrin, chef-owner of Melisse in Santa Monica, has fond Gallic memories of using the contraptions. Chef Mark Peel says he still has one lurking somewhere in the recesses of his Hollywood restaurant Campanile.

But the problem with both Gothic branding tools and the more pedestrian broilers we have in our ordinary kitchens is that they provide only horizontal uniform heat. Nice for flat surfaces but not so useful for the artful curves and precipitous whorls of a meringue pie, the vertical sides of a baked Alaska or the upward flourishes of a s’mores cupcake crowned with marshmallow frosting.

A blowtorch requires a little dexterity at first, since you don’t want to incinerate your cupcakes or your kitchen, so practice outside, perhaps by lighting your barbecue or even some candles.

Proper method

You don’t want the fire too close to the food, not only because you want to control the amount of heat but also because you don’t want the propane taste in your meringue. Light the fire first away from anything edible, then regulate the flame and keep it far enough away from the surface area in question, maybe 6 or so inches, depending on your torch.

As for what kind of torch to get, that’s up to you and the contents of your hardware store. My favorite is the BernzOmatic, which is cheap, easy to find and has a name that’s just fun to say out loud. The most basic of these costs less than $20 but requires that you light it with a spark lighter, so maybe shell out about $10 more and get one with a trigger starter. The cans of propane will run you all of $3, and unless you’re planning on opening a pop-up creme brulee business, they’ll last for a year or two.

After you get the feel of the flame, creme brulee becomes a simple party trick, while an enormous prime rib is basic operating procedure. Just remember that you’re still in a kitchen, so leave the plumbing to the experts, and try not to think too much about those early scenes in “Iron Man.” Sometimes a cupcake is just a cupcake.

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Cupcakes

1

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-sized muffin trays -- two trays unless you have a very large one -- with paper muffin liners. Sift the graham and all-purpose flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and allspice into a large bowl and set aside

2

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the softened butter, sugar and honey on high speed until creamy and light, about 3 minutes. Turn the speed down and add the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl.

3

With the mixer turned to low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, mixing only until combined. Add the chocolate and mix just until combined.

4

Spoon the batter into the lined muffin pan cups, about one-third cup each. Bake until the tops are dark golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, 20 to 24 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on a rack while you make the frosting.

Marshmallow frosting and assembly

1

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, pour three-fourths cup of water and sprinkle the gelatin over the top to soften while you make the syrup.

2

In a small heavy-bottom saucepan with a candy thermometer placed over the side of the pan, bring the remaining one-quarter cup plus 2 tablespoons water, the corn syrup and the sugar to a boil. Boil until the sugar registers 235 on the thermometer. Remove from heat.

3

With the mixer at low speed, whisk the gelatin and water and pour the hot syrup slowly into the side of the mixing bowl (watch that the syrup does not touch the whisk, or it will splatter against the side of the bowl). As soon as the syrup has all been added, whisk at low speed until the mixture is frothy, then gradually increase the speed. As the marshmallow mixture gains volume, it will thicken and you’ll be able to increase the speed to its highest speed. Mix at high speed until the marshmallow topping is very fluffy and has increased in volume by two-thirds, about 10 minutes.

4

While the frosting is mixing, fit a piping bag with a large decorator’s tip. As soon as the frosting is ready, spoon it into the piping bag and pipe it out onto the cupcakes. Don’t wait too long to do this, as the marshmallow will harden up a bit.

5

After all the frosting has been piped out onto the cupcakes, toast the marshmallow frosting with a blow torch, moving around the sides of the frosting and being careful not to burn the sugar. The frosting should be golden brown, with white near the base. (Don’t get too close to the paper cupcake liners.) The cupcakes are best warm, as is the frosting, but these hold for up to a day, frosted and toasted.

Graham flour, the coarsely ground whole-wheat flour traditionally used in graham crackers, is available at well-stocked specialty stores. You can use semisweet chocolate chips or a coarsely chopped 70% chocolate of your choice.