Winter desserts add spice to the holiday season

Pastry Chef Casey Stone, a native of the tropical paradise of Hawaii, has a soft spot for winter-season desserts, warm with the aromas of nutmeg and ginger, gooey toffee and melt-in-your-mouth chocolate.

“The holidays are my favorite time because I love those cold-weather desserts,” Stone said. “I love making warm desserts that you can eat with ice cream or whipped cream.”

For the past 16 years, Stone has been perfecting his sweet finales as the pastry chef at John Ash & Co. restaurant. The 40-year-old also has made some of these desserts as the crowning glories of Christmas dinners at his Santa Rosa home, where he enjoys celebrating with grand meals worthy of British royalty.

“A few years ago, I started a British tradition in my house, with rib roast and Yorkshire pudding and sticky toffee pudding,” he said. “I love the British culture and the baking show.”

Stone attended the Western Culinary Institute in Portland, then returmed to Hawaii to work at Merriman’s, where the chef was a pioneer of regional Hawaiian cuisine.

At age 21, Stone headed to the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena to earn his certificate in baking and pastry under such distinguished teachers as Stephen Durfee, a professor of chocolate and pastry arts who has competed in many world competitions.

Then Stone fell in love with Sonoma County and landed a job as the pastry assistant at John Ash & Co., one of Sonoma County’s first farm-to-table restaurants, founded by Santa Rosa Chef John Ash in 1980 in Montgomery Village.

The restaurant has since moved to the Vintners Resort property off Mark West Springs Road and is now owned by Rhonda Carano, who with her late husband Don founded the Ferrari-Carano Vineyards and Winery.

In response to new restrictions on travel, dining and entertainment in California, the restaurant is closed until mid-February.

Unfortunately this year, guests will not get to taste Stone’s delicious Bûche de Noël, a special treat he serves only on Christmas Eve. But he has generously shared his recipe so we can all give it a whirl.

The classic French dessert concocted for Christmas consists of a rustic roulade made with chocolate spongecake and a chocolate mousse “log” topped with chocolate ganache “bark.”

“I like making sure I make something for everybody,” Stone said. “It’s gluten-free and grain-free. The cake is made with just cocoa powder.”

But Stone doesn’t use just any cocoa powder. The quality of the chocolate is the key to this dessert, so Stone uses Valrhona cocoa powder for the cake and Callebaut chocolate for the mousse and ganache.

“You bake the cake, put it on parchment paper and roll it up with the chocolate mousse so you get a yule log,” he said. “Then slice it into individual servings.”

Stone also shared his delicious recipe for a Christmas Sticky Toffee Pudding with Toffee Sauce, which gets its unusually deep flavor and soft texture from dates, butter, eggs and sugar. Stone puts it on the restaurant menu for special occasions and always makes it at home for Christmas.

“I love it,” he said. “I make it in a 9-by-13-inch pan for Christmas, then slice it into squares.”

Sauced with rich toffee, the cake is as comforting as a hug from grandma. But the recipe actually came from John Ash & Co. Executive Chef Tom Schmidt.

“I made it work for me, so it was a team effort,” Stone said. “We did a version of it one year for the Harvest Fair, with figs and dates, and it won Best of Show for the restaurant competition.”

While growing up in Hawaii, Stone used to watch his mother make a simple bread pudding with white bread and canned peaches or pears, mushing it all together with her hands.

As a more refined version of that homey dessert, Stone makes a Holiday Pear Spice Bread Pudding with Salted Caramel that is just like mom used to make, only better.

For home cooks, Stone suggests using day-old croissants rather than brioche, along with your own ratio of warm spices including allspice, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.

The comfort dessert takes some time to make, as it requires two layers consisting of croissants, custard and pears. He gently presses down on each layer and at the end, lets the concoction sit for a half hour so the bread can soak up the custard.

“For my pudding, I like to see the little cubes (of bread),” he said. “I like it really eggy and custardy.”

The following three recipes are from Casey Stone, pastry chef at John Ash & Co.

The Bûche de Noël (Yule log cake) is a complex dessert consisting of a rolled, filled sponge cake, frosted to look like tree bark and decorated with meringue mushrooms and other edible décor. Its roots go back to prehistoric times, when the Celtic Brits and Gaelic Europeans would celebrate the winter solstice by burning logs decorated with holly and pine cones.

With the advent of Christianity, the Yule log tradition continued, with families burning logs in smaller hearths that were also ideal for baking cakes. The first Yule log cake may have been baked as early as the 1600s. Spongecake is one of the oldest cake recipes still made today; it dates back to at least 1615. Later in the 19th century, bakers in Paris popularized the elaborate cake.

Bûche de Noël

Makes 8 to 10 servings

For cake:

6 egg yolks

¾ cup sugar

5 egg whites

Pinch of cream of tartar

½ cup cocoa powder, sifted

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For mousse:

5 ½ ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 ½ ounces unsalted butter

2 egg yolks

2 egg whites

½ cup heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks

For ganache:

8 ounces of semisweet chocolate, chopped

¾ cup heavy cream

1 ounce (2 tablespoons) unsalted butter

For cake: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 9-by-13-inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Grease paper.

In a bowl, beat yolks with half of sugar on high for 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla and cocoa powder. Pour mixture into another bowl and wash bowl and whisk attachment. In the clean bowl, beat whites with cream of tartar and salt until soft peaks form. Slowly add rest of sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks form. Fold a third of egg whites into yolk mixture until mostly mixed in. Gently fold in the rest of the whites.

Pour cake batter into prepared pan and bake until cake springs back, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool for 3 minutes. Flip cake onto a clean kitchen towel that has been dusted with cocoa powder. Gently roll the cake while it is still hot. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until cold.

For mousse: Over a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a pan of boiling water (but not touching the water), melt chocolate and butter until completely melted. Turn off heat and leave top of double boiler or bowl in place to keep chocolate warm while you prepare the whites.

In a separate bowl, beat whites until stiff but not dry. Add yolks to the warm chocolate mixture. Fold whipped whites into chocolate. Fold in softly whipped cream. Remove cake from refrigerator and unwrap and unroll cake. Spread all of chocolate mousse mixture evenly on top of cake. Roll up cake and filling slowly. Wrap finished cake and place in freezer until mousse is set.

For ganache: When mousse is firm, prepare ganache. Place chopped chocolate in a small bowl. Bring cream and butter to a rolling boil in a small saucepan. Immediately pour hot cream over chocolate and let sit for 1 minute. Gently whisk chocolate until smooth.

Remove cake from freezer and unwrap. Carefully spread warm ganache onto cake. Allow the ganache to set for 2 to 3 minutes. While it’s still soft to the touch, use an offset spatula or fork to create “bark” on the “log” by making long strokes on the ganache.

Refrigerate cake until ganache is hardened and set. Keep in fridge and serve cold, within an hour of taking out of the fridge.

Christmas Sticky Toffee Pudding with Toffee Sauce

Makes 8 servings

For pudding:

8 ounces dates, pitted and chopped

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups boiling water

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 ½ cups sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

3 ½ cups self-rising flour

For sauce:

½ cup unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar

⅔ cup heavy cream

½ teaspoon vanilla

To make the pudding: Put chopped dates into a small bowl and add baking soda over them. Cover with boiling water and let sit for 1 hour before starting pudding.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add in flour, alternating with date mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes. Cool pan for 1 hour.

To make the sauce: Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add in sugar and heat over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add in cream and remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Set aside at room temperature.

When ready to serve, heat the sauce (either on the stove or in the microwave) and slice and serve with the sauce poured over the top. Extra sauce can be stored in the fridge.

Holiday Pear Spice Bread Pudding with Salted Caramel

Makes 8 servings

For bread pudding:

12 large croissants, cut into large pieces

3 cups heavy cream

6 egg yolks

¾ cup sugar

4 tablespoons honey

Pinch ground allspice (or to taste)

Pinch ground nutmeg (or to taste)

Pinch ground cloves (or to taste)

Pinch ground ginger (or to taste)

Pinch of salt

1 ½ cups d’Anjou pears, peeled and diced

For salted caramel:

¼ cup water

1 cup sugar

⅔ cup heavy cream

1 ½ ounces unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

¾ teaspoon salt

For pudding: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Place half of croissant pieces on bottom of dish. Mix yolks, sugar, honey, spices and salt in a medium mixing bowl (you can put in more or less depending on what spices you like). Pour half of custard over croissants and press gently down, making sure the croissants are soaking up the custard. Spread half of pears over top. Repeat with remaining croissants, custard and pears. Let stand for a half hour to let the croissants absorb the custard.

Place pan in a larger roasting pan and fill to halfway point of the 9-by-13-inch pan with hot water. Bake in oven for 30-45 minutes in the water bath or until top is golden.

For caramel: Bring water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. Once boiling, stop stirring. Cook until an amber color is achieved, swirling the pan once color appears on the edge. Remove from heat and pour in cream. Whisk and add in butter, salt and vanilla. Mix until smooth, pour into a container and hold at room temperature.

When ready to serve pudding, heat sauce in a pan on the stove or in the microwave, drizzle some salted caramel over pudding and serve the rest of the sauce on the side. Any leftover sauce can be stored in the fridge.

Staff Writer Diane Peterson can be reached at 707-521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @dianepete56