NEW ORLEANS – Just off the Grand Lobby at The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel, you’ll find Teddy’s Cafe, an exclusive coffee lounge and sweets shop.
In addition to its café au lait, beignets, Roosevelt Blend coffee and fresh baked pastries including the signature Waldorf Astoria Classic Red Velvet Cake, Teddy’s is serving a nontraditional treat this Carnival season – honey-almond thyme King Cake cupcakes.
Head Pastry Chef Deborah Heyd even shared her recipe:
King Cake Dough
Ingredients:
- 590 ml milk
- 285 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3 packets dry yeast
- 150 ml warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
- 5 eggs, room temperature
- 5 egg yolks, room temperature
- 250 g white sugar
- 8 g salt
- 6 ml vanilla extract
- 1.6 kg all-purpose flour, or as needed
Steps:
• In a small saucepan, heat milk until just below boiling. Add butter and stir until melted. Remove from heat and let cool until lukewarm.
• Place yeast in a small bowl; pour lukewarm water over the yeast. Stir with a spoon to break up the yeast slightly. Set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, beat 4 eggs and egg yolks with an electric mixer with a paddle attachment. Add sugar and salt, and continue to beat until mixture is thick and pale. Stir in vanilla. Beat in 1/4 flour on low speed. When incorporated, add 1/2 remaining flour and mix until combined. Add cooled milk mixture alternately with remaining flour, beating on medium-low speed.
• If the dough is very sticky, add up to 200g of flour.
• Transfer dough to a well-floured work surface and knead for 8 – 10 minutes, adding reserved flour if needed. Shape dough into a ball. Transfer dough to a large greased bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with greased plastic wrap.
• Roll into a flat 1/2 thick rectangle. Brush with melted butter. Then add fillings (recipe to frangipane almond filling below). Fold in half to make a smaller rectangle. Using a pizza wheel make long slices. Twist one strip at a time and form into a knot. Or, it can be left a large rectangle and rolled up like cinnamon rolls.
• Cover with a damp towel or plastic bag and allow to double in size.
• Brush the tops with more butter and bake at 350® until golden brown. About 30 minutes.
Frangipane (Almond Filling)
Ingredients:
- 6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup ground blanched almonds
- 2 teaspoons flour
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 large egg plus 1 egg white
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
Steps:
• Add the butter and sugar in a food processor and combine until smooth.
• Add the ground almonds and blend together.
• Add the flour and cornstarch, and then the egg and egg white.
• Process the mixture until it is very smooth.
• Add in the vanilla and almond extracts just to blend.
• The frangipane can be used immediately or you can store it in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
• If it becomes too firm in the fridge, let it sit at room temperature for a while to soften before using.
In addition, The Roosevelt’s Sazerac Bar and Fountain Lounge are featuring two Mardi Gras cocktails in honor of all of the Kings and Queens of New Orleans parades – “Vive Le Roi,” with Grand Marnier, Chambord, sparkling wine and two dashes Regan’s orange bitters, and “Vive Le Reine,” with Fireball cinnamon whiskey, white crème de cacao, three dashes of vanilla extract and heavy cream.
“Long live the King” and “Long live the Queen” are cries heard for centuries in multiple euro-aristocratic nations, but for a small window of time during the Mardi Gras season, the same exclamations can be heard throughout New Orleans.
Roosevelt reps said when you drink the two cocktails, you, too, will feel like royalty.
The Roosevelt’s “Vive Le Reine” and “Vive Le Roi” Carnival cocktails