Daring Bakers: Vol au Vents

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

I was pretty excited to make my own puff pastry this month. I remember doing it once as a kid with my mom so I thought I'd see how tough it could be on my own. I must admit I found this pretty straight forward. I spent one Saturday doing errands and then coming in and doing a turn of the dough before starting something else and returning.

The result was a nice crispy, golden, flakey form ready for me to fill! I had some leftover black bean hot pot that was fantastic in these!

Be sure and see the rest of the Daring Bakers posts this month!

Daring Bakers: Dobos Torta

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonfulof Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular DobosTorte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: ExquisiteDesserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.


This was pretty easy to make but perhaps not so interesting to taste.. I must admit I had some trouble with the carmel always tasting like lemon and never really hitting a dark amber color.. So I called it after what seemed a very long time! and the result was crisp- uncut/edible topping that on the second day became moist again.

On the whole I thought this tasted like pancakes with nutella... not worth the effort... but pretty when cut!

Daring Bakers: Mallow cookies

Yum! This months challenge was to create 'mallow' cookies or Milano's- both I think are homemade versions of Pepperidge farms cookies( which my mother never bought for us as she said they were too expensive!) I had planed to go right in to the milano's as I'm vegetarian and marshmallows have gelatin in them.. but I decided to be daring and make veggie marshmallows and I am so glad I did!

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

The cookies were very easy to make, if a bit of a crumbly dough.. next time I will follow the instructions better and make them thinner and smaller- part of the problem was that I didn't have small enough cutters to hand...

So I hunted around on the Internet for a good veggie marshmallow recipe and came across this little collection mentioned in the alternative daring baker forum! and low and behold it works! I was too scared to try and actually pipe the suckers onto the cookies. Here are the leftovers in their various shapes..

Ingredients:
• 60 mL water• pinch of cream of tartar• 255 g sugar, granulated• 255 g light corn syrup• ½ vanilla bean• 85 g egg whites (about 3 egg whites)• 5 g xanthan (0.76%)


Ground xanthan with a tablespoon of sugar. Set aside. Heat water, cream of tartar, remaining sugar, corn syrup and vanilla to 120ºC. Discard vanilla bean. Whisk egg whites for about 2 min until still soft. Continue whipping egg whites at slow speed while adding syrup slowly. Sprinkle xanthan mix while still whipping. Turn speed up and continue mixing for 2-3 min or until meringue pulls away from sides. Sprinkle a pan or baking sheet generously with cornstarch and spread out the meringue. Sprinkle top with cornstarch, cover with plastic and leave to set for 4 hours in a refrigerator. Cut marshmallows into desired shapes and dip cut surfaces in cornstarch.

After a few hours in the fridge or maybe more like one hour cause i was so curious to see how it would work i attempted to cut smaller circles of marshmallow out of the total blob.. as you can see these won't win any 'cute' awards but they are coming together.

Finally I dipped them in chocolate and I must say I thought these would just be ok.. but no.. they are fantastic! what are you waiting for go make some!

Mallows(Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies)Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network websitePrep Time: 10 minInactive Prep Time: 5 minCook Time: 10 minServes: about 2 dozen cookies
• 3 cups (375grams/13.23oz) all purpose flour• 1/2 cup (112.5grams/3.97oz) white sugar• 1/2 teaspoon salt• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder• 3/8 teaspoon baking soda• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter• 3 eggs, whisked together• Homemade marshmallows, recipe follows• Chocolate glaze, recipe follows
1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.2. On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.3. Add the eggs and mix until combine.4. Form the dough into a disk, wrap with clingfilm or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.5. When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.7. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.8. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.9. Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.10. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.11. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze.12. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.13. Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.
Note: if you don’t want to make your own marshmallows, you can cut a large marshmallow in half and place on the cookie base. Heat in a preheated 350-degree oven to slump the marshmallow slightly, it will expand and brown a little. Let cool, then proceed with the chocolate dipping.
Homemade marshmallows:• 1/4 cup water• 1/4 cup light corn syrup• 3/4 cup (168.76 grams/5.95oz) sugar• 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin• 2 tablespoons cold water• 2 egg whites , room temperature• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1. In a saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until “soft-ball” stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve.3. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix.4. Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites.5. Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff.6. Transfer to a pastry bag.
Chocolate glaze:• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate• 2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil
1. Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

Daring Bakers: Bakewell tart

Wow, I almost forgot this month's daring bakers challenge. The bakewell tart- having lived in the UK for 3+ years now I can say before making this I'd never had any interest in those icing sugar covered mc donald looking cherry pies from Kiplings.

This recipe thankfully produced nothing like that. First off I must give it lots of points for being very quick to put together! (I was reading though some of my fav. blogs and noticed lots of postings!)

The recipe was pretty foolproof and tasted great. The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Daring Bakers tarts!

Daring Bakers: Cheescake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I'm not a huge fan of cheesecake- while I do enjoy it, its never something I order when out and the last time I made it was by request. I found this one to be a bit too cooked for my taste (perhaps my own cooking time error?) but see other pictures showing not a silken filling but curdling looking center. I adapted the recipe by only making one third. The crust is made with a crushed ginger cookie and I added ginger marmalade, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg to the filling.


The end result was nice, but not better than the last one I made from Nigella's cookbook!

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar1 tsp. vanilla extract
cheesecake:3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature1 cup / 210 g sugar3 large eggs1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream1 tbsp. lemon juice1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake
DIRECTIONS:1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.
Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Daring Bakers: Lasagna!

Lasagna

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

We got to make our own spinach pasta (a first for me!) choose a tomato sauce (as i am veggie and the posted recipe seemed to have about 6 kinds of meat in it (slight exageration)

So first the pasta- I ended up using quite a few eggs as the measurements were tricky - in total about 4 bantam eggs, then i ended up adding more flour as well as things weren't coming together correctly. I made all my dough in the kenwood chef, as yes, I'm a bit lazy and that's what the machine is for!

Rolling out it seemed very hard to get to translucent, and I'm pleased with the final product, (not sure if it was too thick or not)

In any case I was very inventive in my pasta drying rack as you can see in the pics below!

Trying to show the translucence here. Ok yeah making your own pasta and sauce and bechmel isin't alot of work if you are only making one that day, but all three and it truly is daring!

I had to make some extra bechemel sauce as mine didn't last to make a nice topping but other than that the recipes were pretty easy to follow.

For my ragu, I made a modified version of this (for what I had on hand)

puy lentil and mushroom ragu (serves 8-10)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 onions, finely chopped
300g chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
250g puy lentils - I just dropped in the last~100g of green lentils I had
150ml red wine
1 tablespoon tomato puree
800g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 litre vegetable stock (i make mine with marigold bouillon powder)
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried oregano
salt & pepper
2 tablespoons chopped basil
heat the olive oil in a large pan and gently fry the carrot and onion until they begin to soften. add the mushrooms and garlic, cooking until the mushrooms are cooked through and starting to release their liquid.
add the puy lentils, red wine and tomato puree. stir well and let it simmer for a few minutes. add the tinned tomatoes, stock and herbs and simmer for 25-35 minutes, until the lentils are cooked and your ragu is nice and thick (you may need to add extra stock/ boil away any excess depending how long it takes the lentils to soften). season to taste and add the fresh basil.

This was delicious and really made for a special dinner (and lunch and dinner and lunch) for the two of us! I relaly reccommend trying it out yourself!

Daring bakers: Flourless Chocolate Cake

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge. February’s challenge is a Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino, inspired by Malaysia’s “most flamboyant food ambassador”, Chef Wan. Recipe comes from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan

I started out this recipe and things were looking good. I was using Tesco Finest dark choclate and I will never use it again. It didn't taste so great plain, I just hoped it would bake up better with other things in the mix..

Here it is ready to go in the oven.. it had a slightly strange foamy texture.

It came out of the oven with alot of oil or something percolating around it but after resting a few minutes it turned out of its pan fine. But it was terrible this cake was crumbly with a terrible taste. I threw the rest away.. obviously I did something wrong or it was poisioned by tesco chocolate....

Daring Baker's Tuiles!

Chocolate Tuiles

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day! and Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

Here's my mom measuring out the almonds... she was promoted to daring sous chef.. but soon demoted when we discovered that the first toasting of almonds was rather black! haha just kidding!

Here's another action shot of my mom spreading the tuiles out. We just used a silicon baking sheet and that went fine.

After a busy week of wedding dress shopping, I've just managed to squeeze in making these Tuiles. Keeping that in mind, I choose the chocolate ones, as the 15 min cooking time really appealed. They were nice but basically still a chocolate bar with toasted almond.

Daring Bakers: Yule Log!

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand
Now let me tell you i have always wanted to make a yule log.. however i had no idea there was more than one (aka the rolled up cake one). So yes seeing this recipe which has no fewer that 6 subparts seemed like a lot of faffing about.. and a hell of alot of chocolate.. and i love chcoclate, so i choose to make my final icing white and my fuiellet.. aka rice crispies with white chocolate too! All in all it was a great success, minus the pate a bomb sugar syurp burn on my hand! here is the photo progression...

First the Daquaise.. i made the regular almond meal variety

Then the Creme Brulee.. wow what a difference a vanilla pod makes.. first time using one they are amazing!

Here's my pate a bomb.. i m always worried about these, i'm not too comfortable with sugar syrup yet and think there was still some stuck to the side of the bowl, but it managed to get pretty fluffy.. (we have our own hens, so the yolks are so vibrant they are really hard to make white!

Ouch! my burn from a drop of sugar syrup on my hand...

Here's the log ready for its icing! in hindsight I'd probably even off the sides to make the icing have an easier time.
Finally the finished Yule Log! It was delicious, though next time I'd make more layers not chocolate as it could be over powering that mousse! I'd also probably run the rice krispies through a food processor as my layer was pretty much un cuttable!

Also 30 min. in the fridge was not nearly long enough to thaw this out.. the creme brulee layer still tasted icy. (even after an hour at room temp) i left the leftovers in the fridge overnight and had after lunch and then all the layers were perfect!

Daring Bakers Carmel Cake

This is my first challenge as a daring baker and luckily coincided with a birthday party, so while that caramel cake was really lovely.. I didn't have to eat it for days!

This month's recipe comes from Shauna Fish Lyndon and can be found here. Read all about her cake here. Her co-hosts this month( Alex (http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/) and Jenny (http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/) have also contributed some caramels, which I chose not to make as I'm not really a huge fan, but do check that out as well!

The cake baked up pretty straightforward.. perhaps if anything taking a little bit longer than expected.

The Carmel sauce was not so easy.. the first time I made it I followed the directions for 'dark amber/smoking'... i was ready for splatters but I think all of the sauce ended up on the tile surround and i was left with a thin water that tasted like burnt sugar.. i didn't want that taint in the cake and frosting so I tried again.. This time remembering the pointers for Dori's carmel pnut brownie cake I took the carmel off earlier and then whisked in the water.. the result as you can see if a very thin maple syrup for pancakes liquid.. but it definately gave things a carmel flavor. The butter cream came out easily and I did add salt to taste.. just enough to highten the flavor.

It was somewhat of a not so pretty cake- no doubt due to my own poor skills as icing (which is something we are not taught in cake decorating class.. apparently in the UK.. all buttercream/torting is considered confectionary!!!) So I ran a toothed icing comb over it and drizzled some of the remaining caramel syrup.

since the cake was going to a b-day party I don't have any pictures of it cut, but it was delicious and got many compliments!.. I stopped it off with a stensil in cocoa powder