The Rural We: Aleksandra Crapanzano
The James Beard Award-winning writer talks about her new book and the delicious simplicity of French cakes.
Aleksandra Crapanzano is a Wall Street Journal food columnist, screenwriter, and part-time Litchfield County resident. She has also written a food column for The New York Times Magazine and a series of essays for Gourmet, for which she received the M.F.K. Fisher Award for Distinguished Writing from the James Beard Foundation. She is the author of "The London Cookbook" and "Eat. Cook. L.A." Crapanzano will be featured in a virtual conversation about her newest book, "Gateau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes," tonight (Nov. 10), hosted by the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon at 7 p.m. for which you can still pre-register. We had some of our own questions for her, which she responded to via email from, fittingly, Paris.
In your recent article in The Atlantic, you say the French bake far more than we imagine and far more simply. How do the French master that sense of ease you talk about? (And are those skills transferable?)
The French tend to have backpocket recipes (included in the book) that they can riff on depending on what’s in season or in their pantry. The ease comes from not trying to re-invent the wheel but rather to play and have some fun knowing the core recipe is foolproof.
What makes a “simple gateau” different from what we might think of a simple cake in America?
A simple gâteau in France is truly simple — meaning it is usually 1 layer, and perhaps dusted with cocoa or confectioners’ sugar but rarely frosted and it is usually whipped up in under 15 minutes. Whereas simple cakes in America tend to be sweeter and often frosted and layered.
In the book you talk about how homemade French cakes have less sugar than many of their global counterparts. Why is that and how do these homemade creations taste so good with less sugar?
The French have always put less sugar into their desserts. I’ve seen French friends literally scrape 90% of icing off a cake in the States. But the reason for this isn’t health consciousness, it’s about flavor. Something super sweet will almost always taste predominately of sugar. And that sugar will always be the first sensation. But the French use sugar the way that we use salt. It is meant to intensify the essential flavor of whatever you’re making — that might be chocolate, it might be pistachios, it could be orange zest or raspberries. In the end, I think French cooking is about drawing the essence of ingredients to the fore, rather than masking them.
If someone is looking to bake a French cake, but doesn’t know where to start — which recipe would you tell them to use to start on this journey?
A quatre-quarts! This is similar to a pound cake, but technique is different. The butter is melted, then added to the flour before the eggs. The melted butter coasts the grains in fat, which prevents the formation of gluten. It is, as the French say, inratable — foolproof!
