Humble Kerala Bakery Bread and Fancy Carrement Chocolate Cake

Carrement Chocolate Cake

Only a few weeks ago, we returned from a break in Kerala. Like all good things, it ended too soon. We came back to San Francisco with as many homemade goodies as our suitcases could carry. But there are some things that don't lend themselves well to international travel, Kerala bakery bread being one of them. If you haven't yet encountered Kerala bakery bread (KBB), you're probably scratching your head wondering what magic there might be to something that sounds so palpably unglamorous. But if you're among the lucky few who have, you might as well skip the rest of this post, because it is all about the joys of KBB.

For a state as small as Kerala, we have a surprisingly large number of bakeries. Throw a stone, and it will hit a jewelry store, a sari shop or a bakery. Nearly every town I've ever been to has a "Town Bakery". Kochi has Bread World, Kottayam and Changanacherry have a growing number of Ann's Bakeries, and there are other local bakeries that I don't even know of.

In Kerala, it is perfectly acceptable to walk into a bakery, look past the fancy stuff slathered in icing, and ask the mustachioed chettan at the counter (yes - the chettans are always mustachioed) for bread. You will not be received with a quizzical expression. Instead you will be handed a loaf of pillowy softness. Chances are it won't look like much. There's usually no brand attached, no distinct lettering on the cover, no fancy packaging. The thing is, KBB needs no marketing. It melts in your mouth and is sweet enough to be mistaken for a teatime treat. But that's not how it is usually eaten. It is traditionally served at breakfast alongside something savory, like a spicy curry. On Easter morning, it is not unusual for spicy mutton stew to be paired with KBB, serving as a substitute for appam - that holy grail of Kerala cuisine.

The tragedy of it all is that KBB just hasn't received the international (or for that matter, national) acclaim that it justly deserves. I've heard plenty of talk of the French morning ritual of visiting the neighborhood boulangerie to pick up freshly baked bread, but not enough about Malayalis' love affair with KBB from their neighborhood Town Bakery. In too many movies I've watched, a wispy French woman (usually with a hat perched jauntily atop her beautiful French head) cycles through a cobblestoned street with a baguette sitting snugly in her bicycle basket. But never have I seen any media attention lavished on the humble KBB. I can now say with some pride that I've made an attempt here, howsoever feeble, to correct the record in favor of the richly deserving KBB.

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The recipe I wanted to write about has nothing to do with KBB of course. This won't come as a surprise if you've scrolled through any of the other posts on this blog.

This post is about cake that I baked months ago. But even now, when I scroll through photos on my phone, I pause for a second when I get to the picture of this cake, and little hearts appear where my pupils should be, just like in the emoji.

There are cakes, and then there are cakes. This one falls in the latter, elevated category. I got the recipe from a book by Dorie Greenspan, a celebrated pixie-like American food writer. And she, in turn, credits the recipe to a French pastry chef, Pierre Hermes. Oh, the irony of it all.

Texture is so important when it comes to food. And it is texture that makes this cake so special. It has a cake layer of course, on which sits a layer of mousse, followed by ganache and chocolate shards. 

This seemed a somewhat daunting recipe, but with a few short cuts, I got great results.

You can find the original recipe here. I made lots of changes - some to simplify the process, some to make the cake a little less rich. In real terms, I used the original recipe only as a concept. If my considerably simpler version is any indication, I am sure the original version is delicious beyond words.

So here's what I did:

• I used my failsafe chocolate cake recipe for the chocolate cake layer.
• I made the mousse layer using the original recipe and found that this step needs some care and attention. The mousse thickens very quickly, so constant stirring is necessary, and you need to take the mousse off the heat as soon as it is done. Otherwise it will be too thick to spread.
• I left out the sugar syrup - it just felt like too much.
• I made chocolate ganache as per the original recipe, but substituted the chocolate shards with white chocolate curls.

It was a memorable dessert, to say the least.