Meringue Coffee Cake

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

Similar to the wreath we did at Christmas, I chose to do the cinnamon chocolate version and it was delicious! It reminded me of the chocolate snacks we would get in french class. The chocolate added a sweet note and the pecans gave a good crunch for texture, and the meringue turns into a chewy treat where exposed to the air. Yeast is nothing to be feared, it just takes FOREVER to rise. Honestly, this only involved  30 minutes of actual work. A delicious treat and great for when company comes over, it is certainly best when warm and gooey! :)

Panna Cotta Delight

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

I must say, this must be what Santa is really asking for, it's cookies and milk in it's most elegant and decadent form. This is no light dessert for sure, but man is it good! I was unsure about Panna Cotta because I couldn't get the image of cream jello out of my mind. It is not even close to that, it is more like a thick pudding in texture and so creamy. The slight hint of honey lingers and pairs so well with any fruit you add to it.

Then there's the cookie. I had never heard of Florentine Cookies before, and was pleasantly surprised by the caramel flavor and chewy texture. It really does compliment the Panna Cotta well. They spread out pretty during baking and become like thin wafers of deliciousness. They are so easy to make too, it took all of 10 minutes! I plan on using these to add some decorative flourish to other desserts because they lend themselves so well as a garnish. Overall this is a delicious and easy pair of desserts to make and are the perfect distraction for snow days! :)

Jaconde Imprime

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

I'll admit, this is a really cool idea and I can't believe I didn't think of it before! Drawing your design straight into your cake is genius! I chose a simple swirl design and printed it out to place under the parchment paper and just traced/piped the design right there. I'm not secure enough to freehand pipe anything, so the fact that I could trace this was a major plus in my book! I chose to just fill my entremet with some chocolate mousse since the sponge cake recipe was a bit on the dry side. It ended up tasting like a chocolate cream pie cake! :) I definitely want to experiment with some of my own sponge cake recipes and see if I can use this technique in other recipes, because this was awesome!

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!