Christmas is Stollen

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

For anyone who does not like fruit cake because if its sheer density, this is going to be a revelation. This is what fruit cake should be. The best thing I can compare it to is a fruity cinnamon roll, it is absolutely delicious! I took a short cut and used the premade dried fruit you can buy at the store since the recipe already required more than a day to complete as it is, and you can’t even tell. The orange and lemon zest and extract make this smell divine when you cut into it. The bread itself is not very sweet, it really is just bread after all, so you definitely need the powdered sugar (or maybe a glaze) to make it more of a cake in that sense. It’s fruity and fluffy, not at all dense like its fruit cake counterpart. I will definitely be saving this in my holiday repertoire for next year, thank you Penny for this delicious recipe!

Crostata

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.


This month was crazy busy for our house and I’m so glad I was able to complete the challenge amidst all the holiday chaos! I kept it simple and did a blind-baked Pasta Frolla crust with pastry cream (the recipe I used was from here) and strawberries poured in. The pasta frolla itself was surprisingly sweet for a crust, it really was just like a shortbread cookie. In fact, the trimmings from my crust I just baked in the oven for 10 minutes and dipped them in pumpkin butter, delicious! I could definitely see this becoming the base to some lemon bars too, mmmm the perfect compliment. It’s a great crust recipe to have in your arsenal, I can’t wait to play around with it some more! :)

Doughnuts

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Of course, having just conquered the beast that is yeast this summer, I was all about diving head first into the yeast doughnut recipe from Alton Brown. Really, the recipe itself is amazingly simple; the only difficult thing it requires is time. Since I didn’t really relish the thought of waking up at 5am to make breakfast doughnuts, I just waited until nap time and, voila, breakfast doughnuts are transformed into snack time! And we had a fun decorating party with the sprinkles to boot!

These doughnuts were a great recipe, the cinnamon added that perfect little je ne sais quoi flavor and for the glaze I just quickly whipped together a cup of powdered sugar with 2 Tbsp milk and watered it down until it was the perfect dipping consistency. For the doughnut holes I experimented a little on the glaze, and I must say that a little splash of orange extract is divine on these beauties!

Sugar Cookie Magic

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.
What a great family challenge this was! My kids were sooo excited when I told them we were decorating cookies! September was a sweltering 98 degree average, so fall was not on our minds at all. We were still seeing roses and butterflies, so we stuck with the summer theme for our cookies too. The cookie recipe we used was from Peggy Porschen and it was a great basic cookie. I added some almond extract because I love the unique taste it lends to cookies, but otherwise followed the recipe to a T.

We were allowed to use whichever icing we preferred and I decided to try out one I found on Sweetopia’s website. I have been searching for a great royal icing recipe that didn’t taste like hard candy and I can gladly say my search is over! I made one faux pas, I whipped the icing on high for 10 minutes instead of on low, but I actually think it worked in my favor. I had to add a lot of water (8 Tbsp) to get it to thin down after it was whipped but the end result was an icing that had a texture reminiscent of marshmallows. It flooded and outlined beautifully without me having to thicken or thin it and still dried overnight, but the texture when bitten into wasn’t crunchy, but rather soft. So if you’re looking for a softer royal icing, I definitely have the recipe for you!

Thanks Mandy for such a fun challenge!

Daring Bakers August 2010

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”. You can find the full recipe printout here.

I went full throttle with this challenge and made both! And I didn’t even have to make 2 pound cakes. I made my brown butter cake in an 8x10 pan and the cook time remained the same. Then I just cut an 8x8 square for the ice cream petit fours and then used the leftover section to cut up for 2 mini baked Alaskas. Between the 2, the petite fours were my favorite. I mean, come on, they were covered in chocolate ganache! The brown butter pound cake was delicious as well, the scraps were delicious straight up with some powdered sugar. My only complaint being that once it was frozen with the ice cream it was too subtle a flavor to detect. That may also be because I used the leftover ice cream from last months challenge, lemon and raspberry gelato, both of which are pretty strong flavors. The ice cream sandwich part was not nearly as long or labor intensive as the recipe makes it sound, the trick is to just got a little at a time so the ice cream doesn’t start to melt. The Baked Alaska was divine with the lemon gelato, it was just like a lemon cream pie! It was great fun to bust out the torch too, I always enjoy that. :)

So thank you Elissa for a fantastic way to use up my ice cream stash!

It's the BOMB!

Boy, you don't realize how much you need electricity until you don't have it! So it seems I am now a few days late posting this, but better late than never!

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.-

Since on first challenge I followed the directions exactly, this time I decided to play a little bit. I was in the mood for something summery since the heat index has been over 100 now for several weeks. Lemon gelatto is one of my favorites and I knew it would pair nicely with the fresh strawberries I had saved in the freezer. So lemon and strawberry ice cream it is! I am one of the unfortunate few who does not have an ice cream maker (yet!) so I had to do this the old fashioned way, with a hand mixer and lots of freezer time. Bot ice creams came out good and creamy, but then again, how could I fail with David Lebovitz as my source?

 Since both of those were very strong flavors, I left the sponge cake plain with a whip cream filling. Just  remember for the sponge cake, never spray your pan, otherwise the sponge cake won't rise and it will be very thin. A small sheet of parchment on the bottom will do the trick. Instead of fudge I just used more whip cream in between the ice creams.  A few cherries on top and it was like a giant ice cream sunday. :) The sponge cake works wonders with the ice cream, since it really soaks it up when it starts to melt. This was a deliciously refreshing treat for the summer. Thank you Sunita for the fun challenge!

Pavlova's Experiment

When I saw my first Daring Bakers Challenge was for a Pavlova, the first thought that came to my mind was Pavlov's Dog. You know the theory right? Pavlov was a scientist who demonstrated conditional reflex by feeding his dog. He would always ring a bell before giving his dog food and so, as a result, every time the dog heard a bell it would start drooling like crazy. (See mom, all those years in college paid off!) Well, in actuality this recipe has nothing to do with Pavlov, but rather was coined from the description of the dessert being "as light as Pavlova" (a prominent Russian Ballerina at the time). I'll drool over it just the same!

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard. The full recipe printout can be found here.

The real bonus for me was that I have had homemade mascarpone cheese on my bucket list for a while, so this was the perfect opportunity to knock it out. Not only was it delicious, but it was also soooo much cheaper than buying it from the store! I followed this recipe, it's literally only 2 ingredients and super easy!

I have another deep dark secret to confess as well.....I've never really liked meringue. Granted, I had only had it on the top of pies and it was really the texture that bothered me, I just assumed all meringue would be same. I know, shame on me, I should know better!
I'll admit to being a bit nervous when I saw there was actually 4 recipes involved, so I decided to prepare it over 2 evenings, first making the meringue and creme anglaise and then the next day making the mousse and mascarpone cream. Truly though, the longest part was just waiting for the meringue to cook, but if you make single serving meringues like I did, then it takes half the time. I got 6 meringues total, each about 4 inches wide and an inch thick. I halved the recipes for the mousse and cream, and still had a lot leftover, no complaints though as that cream is super delicious! It tastes like creamy melted ice cream! : ) Note the mousse recipe doesn't have any sugar added but that is balanced out by the sugar in the Pav and cream. This would be very delicious with fresh raspberries or some candied oranges.

 So thank you Dawn for this eye opening challenge, I can't wait to see what's next!

Bienvenue

Bienvenue à mon petit coin de monde! Je suis une femme et une mère de deux enfants qui travaille pour un courtier hypothécaire au Texas. Ayant les enfants consécutivement à rendre mon poids inconsistent depuis quatre ans. Je suis finie avec des bébés pour maintenant et, par heureuse, j'ai découvert en faissant de la pâtisserie que j'avais perdu le poids! Oui, tu m'entends bien, j'ai perdu le poids avec les pâtisseries! C'est peut-être parce que ça me jette sur les pieds et pas sur le fauteuil et après cet exercise je manque d'appétit. Qui sait? Mais ça marche! Je donne mes créations à mes amis et mes collègues et ils les prennent sans plainte (et j'admet que mon ego adore les compliments aussi). J'ai ma liste de recettes que j'adore mais je veux se diversifier mes choix. C'est pour ça que j'ai créé ce blog pour commencer dans les "Daring Bakers Kitchen". Et j'ai l'opportunité de pratiquer mon Français aussi, alors quelquefois je vais me challenger de traduire mon écriture à Français. J'apprécie les corrections, mais soit gentille aussi s'il vous plâit!