Well, this month's Daring Bakers challenge was a Caramel Cake with Caramel Icing. The end product was a dense and moist cake with a slightly salty icing. I added some extra salt to the icing to enhance the caramel flavors. These were a big hit with the parents, and the toddlers who decided to try them.
Second, we have chocolate orange cupcakes with a cinnamon peanut-butter icing. These were 'normal' cupcakes in size and texture. The Caramel cupcakes were tiny little things. I cooked them in the 'fancy wrappers' and they released from the sides like the were supposed to. I decided to remove them from the wrappers for service. They were delicate and petite, but the density of the cake made up for the size. They were deceptively decadent and filling.
Third up were the vegan cupcakes with chocolate icing. The icing was the most interesting -- there seem to be two types of vegan icing. One is margarine based, so it is similar to buttercream, the other is like an overworked glaze. It is the exact recipe for a cocoa based corn starch pudding, cooked an whipped until it thickens well past the pudding stage, then cut with some oil. This lightens the recipe and makes for a very pleasant texture for icing.
All the cupcakes were a hit at the party.
This months challenge had us making browned butter, dark caramel, and a few other things that can be challenging to a baker. I had to make the caramel twice. The first attempt was a careless venture on my part. It all crystalized, so I opted to start over, instead of trying to cool and save it. The second attempt was perfect, and is still toping hot chocolate, and being used to flavor marshmallows and whipped cream!
The browned butter was simple. I opted to strain it through the chinois, then drip it through some coffee filters. This got all of the browned bits out, and left me with a rich, nutty, and smooth browned butter. Both if these added a complex flavor to the recipe, hinting savory bits along with the cloyingly sweet sugar. The addition of salt to the icing made a huge difference, and the flecks of Maldon salt gave a surprising burst of flavor when bitten into.
This months challenge was presented by Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity and Alex of Blondie and Brownie and Jenny of Foray of Food. Shuna Fish Lydon's Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting was the recipe we followed. I really enjoyed the challenge, an will make this cake again.
The little chef was very interested in what was going on. He loves the stand mixer and pretty much any thing else you can plug in. He helped me make a few of the items, and then we made some snack mix for him. He had a blast with the recipes.
don't worry, /I'm fine- and I will have a daring bakers post up later t tonight
We've upgraded the site's blog software tot he newest version, and it doesn't look like any bad things happened!
I think I'll give myself a cookie!
Truffles!
These were so stupidly simple to make. A bit messy, but gloves and equipment make it a little better.
I made three batches of truffles - about 36 per pound of chocolate. These were really easy to make. Melt the chocolate, mix in the cream, chill, scoop out, roll, chill, dip, coat. Done. And that's the complicated recipe!
I purchased two pounds of nice bittersweet chocolate, each recipe calls for about 9 ounces, so I had a lot to work with. I wanted to make some festive truffles with fall flavors. I think - cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, orange, ginger, etc. So I steeped some spices in the cream, strained it, then added it to the chocolate. This added a nice spicy flavor to the chocolate, and I infused some cocoa with cloves.
The second attempt was in response to the general question "Where's the crunchy shell"
--Same recipe, but I rolled the ganache centers in a spiced cinnamon/cayenne chocolate, then I rolled them in cocoa powder.
The Third set of truffles was the best. I took some liberties with all the recipes I could find online. First, I made some creamy peanut butter with a little added cinnamon. , I mixed that in with the hot cream, then poured it over the chopped chocolate. Once mixed in, I placed the batch in the refrigerator until the mixture solidified and the oil from the peanuts separated and floated tot eh top and hardened. I removed all the oil and started to roll out another set of truffles. Once cooled, the centers were rolled in semisweet chocolate and rolled in Oreo crumbs (just the cookies, no centers)
The trick with making truffles, freeze the centers if you plan to roll them in chocolate. The shells freeze very quickly, so there is little mess. Wear powder free plastic/latex gloves - you want the tight fitting kind, and switch out between stages. You do not need to temper the chocolate for coating, and you can coat multiple times if you want a thicker shell.
To coat: take a spoonful of melted chocolate and smear it on the palm of your non-dominant hand (left for me). Roll until coated and roll in any dry coating you want to use (except for cocoa - this goes on well when the chocolate is dry). Then with tongs, life the truffle onto a cooled cookie sheet.
Everything will get covered in chocolate. Your hands are in gloves for a reason. The spoon will have chocolate on it, the bowl will be edged in chocolate, the tongs will be coated in chocolate. You just have to accept this and keep going. Have a resting place for any utensils you will use, this will keep the mess off the counter.
All said and done, I wish I got better pictures of the finished product.
Recipe
Basic Chocolate Truffle
1 pound chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
chop the chocolate fine, bring the cream to a boil, pour over the chocolate and stir until combined. Place the chocolate in the refrigerator until solid. Scoop out and roll between hands.
If you want to coat them in chocolate, melt the chocolate and roll the chilled truffle centers between your chocolate coated hands. dust with cocoa or crumbs
Tonight we have truffles, truffles, truffles, and marshmallows!
My wife is off at the local neighborhood drunken wives club, and I'm home with the little one. It's not that bad of a deal. He's asleep, and I can play WoW without any interruptions :D. I sent her off with a basket of festive halloween marshmallows and two containers of truffles.
We both think the marshmallows were the best I've ever made, but I'm afraid that the 24 hours of sitting might have changed the outside texture a little. The outsides were not as soft as they were the evening before. I made orange clove marshmallows. I used the el bulli recipe ad mixed it with the Alton Brown recipe. I think this is my favorite combination of techniques and ingredients. I steeped the orange zest, juice, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves, them mixed that with the gelatin - 2 packets powdered gelatin and three sheets of hydrated gelatin.
At first I was wondering if the mixture would come together, but after 13 minutes, everything was looking the way it should. I added the vanilla and orange extract (for extra flavor) and the smell was amazing. THese were the softest marshmallows i've made to date, The sagged under their own weight. I cut some in 1x2 inch rectangles, that was enough length for them to sag a little. To the tongue, this means they are very tender and fluffy. It's really hard o describe. It's like eating meringue straight from the mixer, granted, it was a swiss meringue for the most part. The whipped egg whites add such a lightness compared to gelatin only recipes. It is so worth adding the egg whites to the recipe. The shelf life is lessened, but the experience is much nicer. Recipe after the break
Next was an assortment of truffles.
This was my first real attempt at making truffles. I made a sample batch the week before to see if I could figure out the technique. It's stupid simple. It's a little technique and a lot of patience. That, and the proper equipment.
The first batch was spiced bittersweet chocolate rolled in clove infused dutch process cocoa. The second batch was spiced bittersweet chocolate, rolled in spiced chocolate (cayenne and cinnamon), and rolled in dutch process cocoa. The third batch was bittersweet chocolate, with cinnamon infused home made peanut butter, dipped in chocoalte, and rolled in Oreo crumbs. These were the best.
I've discovered that $20 in couverture chocolate and a few staples can make an insane amount of truffles. About 120 truffles for $25 dollars. These are Godiva quality if you do them right. Granted, you are stuck with a limited number of flavors, but for gifts or entertaining you can't beat the price. The recipe I ended up using was very rich and satisfying. The centers melt in your mouth,and the thin chocolate exterior keeps the ganache center from 'escaping'
OVerall, I think these were very successful. My wife didn't like the second batch of spiced chocolate truffles, I think it might have been the spiciness in the aftertaste, but I'm not 100% sure.
Continue reading Festive truffles and marshmallows!.
TKO's - better known as the Thomas Keller Oreo
I've meant to make these for quite a long time. I just forgot about them. These are grown up cookies. They are very rich, they have a deep chocolate flavor, and they are a little salty.
They have a nice, deep chocolate flavor, they are a little sandy, buttery, and oh so good. The adults and kids in the neighborhood loved the cookies, I made two flavors for the filling. The white ones were straight white chocolate, and the red centers were white chocolate with dried raspberries.
These were not that hard to make -- the ingredient list was short, and it makes a bunch of cookies. I made two batches of these - one for a party, and a second batch for us and the neighborhood families. I used raspberry powder for the filling, I Added it with the cream and it worked really well. The color was nice, and the flavor was very strong.
TKO's
from The Essence of Chocolate
makes about 3 dozen sandwich cookies
Cookie:
- 1 1/2 cups plus 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (dutch process if you have it)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 15 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 3/4" cubes, at room temperature
Filling:
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 8 oz. white chocolate, chopped
1. For the Filling: In a small pan, bring the cream to a boil. Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute, then whisk to melt the chocolate until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl, and let stand for 6 hours to thicken up.
2. For the Cookies: In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low speed. With the mixer running, add the butter, a piece at a time. The mixture will be dry and sandy at first, but over 2 minutes, will form pebble-sie pieces that start to cling together. Stop the mixer and transfer the dough to your board.
3. Preheat oven to 350F. Seperate dough into 2 pieces. Roll each piece of dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper to 1/8" inch thick. Using a fluted cutter, cut into rounds. Scraps can be pieced together and rolled out again. Place 1/2" apart on baking sheets lined with Silpat liners or parchment paper.4. Bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. Remove and cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Cool completely.
5. To Assemble: Lightly whip the white chocolate cream to aerate and fluff up. Transfer filling to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4" plain tip. Pipe about 1 1/2 tsp in the center of half the cookies. Top with another cookie to sandwich. Gently press down until the cream comes to the edges.
6. Cookies can be stored in a container for up to 3 days. Loosely cover
Here's few shots of some of the things I never got around to posting!
And somewhere there is a passionfruit-mirror top chocolate opera cake I need to load up
I'm late on my post -- I'll pull the work card. I started a new job last month, I get to work from home, but they are working me to death :D As I post this - on a holiday weekend, I am doing work on my work computer at 11:48 PM on a holiday! We're supposed to calm down in about a week, but so far, the first months has been a bundle of work!
I did manage to get this months Daring Bakers challenge completed, but I missed the post date -- so here's my post. And thanks to this months hosts Tony and Meeta.
I enjoyed this challenge, my only complaint - after the challenge was complete, I had a large volume of unused material. Mostly made with expensive chocolate. Sure, having a few cups of chocolate sauce is not a bad thing, but at the price, I'd rather have the money and some cheap Hershey's syrup. After making the recipe, the glaze and sauce could have been halved. I also had a lot of the chocolate pastry cream left over, but most of that got eaten.
The pastry came out brilliantly. I had large gaping air-pockets and everything was evenly cooked. These were light and fluffy, filled with chocolate and covered with chocolate. The short lifespan on these made my neighbors very happy.
Running blindly with a pouch of Activa RM (provided by Veronica), I took a stab into the world of Transglutaminase (meat glue)! It has no flavor, but allows you to do things that would be close to impossible to do otherwise. After the enzymes have bonded the two proteins together, you have a sturdy single piece of protein to work with. One practical use is to bind two tenderloins together - this way, you don't have to deal with small tail portions. Everything can e uniform. Then you could use the 'glue' to bind a slice of bacon around each cut tenderloin. The bacon will not fall apart or unravel when cooking. But who said anything about practical - I want to experiment!
First up - Sketchy's attempt at chicken balls (gotta find a better name):
These were great -- they were crispy on the outside, and very juicy on the inside. I served them with asparagus tips, potatoes, and a reduction of potato and fresh roasted vegetable and chicken stock. We both really liked this, it will probably been seen again in our household.
Next up is the mythical dragonscale fish. OK -- it should be mythical - it was so good.
I took some cod, layered two on top of each-other, and bound them with the Activa. Next, I took thinly sliced spicy chorizo and wrapped the fish in the sausage (each slice brushed with Activa to promote the creation of a skin of chorizo). This was tightly wrapped and allowed to set up for overnight in the refrigerator. the next day, I pan seared the top and bottom, then tossed it in the convection oven until the fish was cooked.
The fish was unbelievably moist. The Activa bonded the sausage to the fish and created a kind of skin. This held in the moisture when it cooked in the dry heat. The fish had a great texture, and the addition of the chorizo flavor added so much flavor to the normally bland cod. I call it dragonscale because the layered effect of the chorizo makes it look like scales. They exposed parts of the chorizo were crunchy, while the covered parts were perfect.
I served this with an olive and tomato tapenade, honey glazed spicy carrots and red peppers, and a celery and cumin salad. The spanish flavors exploded from this dish, and the fish was simply amazing. This will definitely be making another appearance. Perhaps at a certain bbq taking place this month. Adding some smoked flavor to this would be amazing. I think I will have the guys at Belmont Butchery slice the chorizo for me, that will give me uniform thin slices and save me a TON of time cutting it with a knife.
What's next? Perhaps hammering some chicken pasta-thin and making ravioli with an unbroken egg yolks.
My latest experiment in molecular gastronomy had to do with carbonation. In the past, I've played with mixology and carbonating vodka, gin, absinthe, and other liquors, as well as the traditional seltzer water. I've read about carbonating sferes and other items. Based on an article on kymos.org, I decided to throw my two cents into the realm of carbonating fruit.
That's right -- fruit.
The result -- simply amazing. It is innocuous, it looks like normal fruit, it feels like normal fruit when you put it on your tongue, but when you bite the fruit, there is a sensation. It is hard to describe, but fun comes to mind. It tingles on your tongue. At first it is just a localized tingling sensation (almost burning - it is very concentrated), then the taste starts to some across. Some have speculated that the aeration of the taste enhances the fruit flavor, I'm not sure, but it sure takes a mundane experience and makes you smile.
The fruit is memorable. We've tried a few different combinations and I have suggestions to those who want to give it a shot. One -- the more dense the fruit the more carbonation is retained. Apples are a porous fruit, where peaches have a denser and moister flesh. Apples hold the carbonation for 10 minutes, but the amount of carbonation diminishes as it is exposed to normal atmospheric conditions. Peaches hold the high carbonation levels for twenty to thirty minutes. This is very nice, you can discharge the canister before company arrives without blowing the surprise.
Fruit with rinds reacted differently to the pressure changes. I peeled the apples and peaches, but I left the skins on the cherries and pummelos. This was an interesting experiment. The cherries cell walls burst when the pressure was released and the juice extracted from the flesh foamed in the isi gourmet whip. The cherries were delicious and fizzy, but we also had a light cherry foam to use a sauce with the mango sorbet.
OK -- to carbonate fruit --
1. get an isi Gourmet Whip
2. cut fruit and put it in.
3. charge whip with 2 C02 cartridges
4. let sit for at least 4 hours.
5. discharge whip SLOWLY.
6. serve.
It is so easy, the wife loved them, the little chef devoured as many as he could get his hands on, and I kept eating them and smiling. When is the last time you smiled after eating a small piece of peach or apple? At 60 cents a charge, this is an amazing way to add some zip to an everyday item that people don't get excited about.
Now on to the real challange -- what would happen if you carbonated fish? Horrible horrible idea, or would marinated tuna tar tar (ginger, soy, lime, tabasco) with carbonation be reminiscent of a ginger-ale? How about ceviche? Is this something I should avoid, or would it be an interesting experiment?
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