Recently in baking Category
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.
I thought about this for a while and asked some friends what type of cheesecake they would like. I offered up two options. Chocolate passion fruit or honey lemon lavender.
I checked Whole Foods and they actually had passion fruit. It was the first time in two years I have found actual passion fruit in Richmond. Usually you can only find a juice blend. The actual fruit is much tarter then the juice - which is cut with apple juice. This worked very nicely with the bittersweet chocolate. To alter the texture of the cheesecake, I used half cream cheese and half marscarpone cheese. The cheesecake was quite dense and solid. It cut very well, and held its shape. The crust stayed dry and had a really good texture. Three quarters of the cheesecake was distributed to neighbors. I Think I gave too much away.
Since the cheesecake came together so easily, I decided to make a second one. This time I made a honey lavender lemon cheesecake. I decided to experiment with this one. I made a lemon shortbread crust. This was one of the easiest crusts I have ever made. I made a little on the thick side, and I think that was a good idea. Once cooked, the crust had a wonderful lemon taste, with the dry crumb of a shortbread cookie. I used some lemon curd I had sitting in the ice box, mixed it with a small amount of the cheesecake mixture to prevent a bad memory from reoccurring. I once made a cheesecake with a lemon curd swirl - when I unmolded it, all the swirls separated and it fell apart. Cooked cheesecake and liquid lemon curd. Adding some of the batter lets the lemon curd fully incorporate/cook with the rest of the cheesecake, while still keeping the swirl look.
This cheesecake held its shape quite well, but was 100% creamier then the chocolate one. It even won over the neighbor who said that lavender would taste like cleaner. She loved it. I think it is the best cheesecake I have ever made. My wife even liked it, and she usually doesn't like cheesecake.
Unfortunately, I forgot take any pictures of the finished product
I thought about this for a while and asked some friends what type of cheesecake they would like. I offered up two options. Chocolate passion fruit or honey lemon lavender.
I checked Whole Foods and they actually had passion fruit. It was the first time in two years I have found actual passion fruit in Richmond. Usually you can only find a juice blend. The actual fruit is much tarter then the juice - which is cut with apple juice. This worked very nicely with the bittersweet chocolate. To alter the texture of the cheesecake, I used half cream cheese and half marscarpone cheese. The cheesecake was quite dense and solid. It cut very well, and held its shape. The crust stayed dry and had a really good texture. Three quarters of the cheesecake was distributed to neighbors. I Think I gave too much away.
Since the cheesecake came together so easily, I decided to make a second one. This time I made a honey lavender lemon cheesecake. I decided to experiment with this one. I made a lemon shortbread crust. This was one of the easiest crusts I have ever made. I made a little on the thick side, and I think that was a good idea. Once cooked, the crust had a wonderful lemon taste, with the dry crumb of a shortbread cookie. I used some lemon curd I had sitting in the ice box, mixed it with a small amount of the cheesecake mixture to prevent a bad memory from reoccurring. I once made a cheesecake with a lemon curd swirl - when I unmolded it, all the swirls separated and it fell apart. Cooked cheesecake and liquid lemon curd. Adding some of the batter lets the lemon curd fully incorporate/cook with the rest of the cheesecake, while still keeping the swirl look.
This cheesecake held its shape quite well, but was 100% creamier then the chocolate one. It even won over the neighbor who said that lavender would taste like cleaner. She loved it. I think it is the best cheesecake I have ever made. My wife even liked it, and she usually doesn't like cheesecake.Unfortunately, I forgot take any pictures of the finished product
By request of on of Jen's friends, I'm going to make a post about my English muffins. In an attempt to save some money, I started making English muffins for breakfast. I wasn't sure how they would turn out at first, but they are quite easy to make, and can be completed in one day, which is always nice.I'm using a recipe from A Bread Bakers Apprentice. It has a handful of ingredients, and is very easy to complete. I've made three batches of muffins, and they get easier each time. No special equipment is needed, well.. you will need a cast iron griddle or skillet to cook them, besides that, it's all straight forward.
Ingredients are flour, butter, milk, yeast, salt, sugar, and corn meal.
The recipe makes six large English muffins, the tops and bottoms are crispy, while the center is soft and full of nooks and crannies (if you open them correctly). The corn meal is used for dusting, otherwise, they would never release from the parchment paper when you go to cook them.To cook them - warm up a griddle and oven to 350 degrees. Once it is up to temperature, drop three of the muffins on the griddle and cook for seven to eight minutes. Flip them over and cook fro the same amount of time. When you put them on the griddle, you may hear they crackle and pop, this is normal and nothing to be concerned about. The goal is to get a nice dark crust on the bottom before flipping. They will come to a medium brown in two to three minutes, but may take up to eight minutes to get the nice rich brown you are looking for. They are very resilient to burning, so if you keep an eye out for the color after 5 minutes, you should not have any problems.
Once cooked on both sides, place the muffins in the oven for 8 minutes to insure the centers are cooked through. Then cool on a rack until room temperature. We keep ours chilled, and fork separate them before toasting in the morning. To get the expected texture when toasting, you really need to use fork to separate them, otherwise, you get a uniform smooth cut with no where for the butter/lemon curd/cheese/etc to go.These can easily be completed in an afternoon. When the little chef gets a little bigger, I think he would have fun helping me make these. Since everything is done on the griddle, they are easy to shape, drop, and flip.
Recipe after the break ---
Continue reading English Muffins.
This months Daring Bakers challenge was Tulies. These are very thin and crispy cookies that can be bent and curved fresh out of the oven. Once set, they can support a little weight and will retain their shape. The recipe was simple, and it produced a thin crispy cookie that could be formed about 60% of the time.
This month's challenge is
brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte
aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by
Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.
The cookies are very fragile, and if they are too thin, they break when forming. If they are too thick, they are hard to chew, but very easy to mold. Getting the balance between the two were a little hard, but I got about 55% that allowed me to form them.
After breaking and shattering countless thin crisps, I got a little disenfranchised with these cookies. But, I needed to finish the challenge. We were supposed to make some topping, dip, soup, or other accompaniment.
My first attempt had a dollop of lemon curd, then topped with fresh meringue, a little caramel syrup and lime zest. The second attempt was ice cream based. Ice cream was way too cold. My wife liked the meringue, I think it would have been better with a whipped cream, but we did not have any at the time.
The rest of the cookies will be served with a port wine-chocolate dipping sauce.
This month's challenge is
brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte
aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by
Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.The cookies are very fragile, and if they are too thin, they break when forming. If they are too thick, they are hard to chew, but very easy to mold. Getting the balance between the two were a little hard, but I got about 55% that allowed me to form them.
After breaking and shattering countless thin crisps, I got a little disenfranchised with these cookies. But, I needed to finish the challenge. We were supposed to make some topping, dip, soup, or other accompaniment.
My first attempt had a dollop of lemon curd, then topped with fresh meringue, a little caramel syrup and lime zest. The second attempt was ice cream based. Ice cream was way too cold. My wife liked the meringue, I think it would have been better with a whipped cream, but we did not have any at the time.
The rest of the cookies will be served with a port wine-chocolate dipping sauce.
Better late then never - right?
This holiday season, we decided to bake most of our gifts. I made lemon sable cookies, biscotti, stolen, cinnamon raisin bread, marshmallows, brioche, and some Portuguese sweet bread. Everything turned out well.
The Lemon Sable cookies were first. They were slightly lemony, with hints saltiness and sugar. They had the perfect balance of sandiness and chewy.
Next was the biscotti. There were multiple batches of these Italian twice baked cookies. The Little chef helped me make a few batches of what he calls "Mixer cookies"
We made honey lavender-lemon, mixed fruit (cranberries, cherries, and raisins) and spice, chocolate chocolate, and chocolate chip. The little guy loves these cookies. These were based on the Dorie Greenspan recipe - I really like the addition of corn meal in the recipe. It adds a nice touch of texture that is so often missing from these cookies.
For the stolen, I soaked some zante currants, golden raisins, tart cherries, and craisins in Myers rum and ginger alcohol. With the addition of cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, and some Navan liquor made the stolen very moist and flavorful. They rose nicely, and when dusted with powdered sugar, looked very festive.
Everything else was straight forward. The brioche was the best thing I made this season. It's hard to screw up bread with a pound of butter and 5 eggs. We had that at New Years brunch at Piet's place, and for the worlds best French toast the next day. I'll be making the brioche again in the next few weeks, it smells so good when baking, and when slightly toasted or grilled, so much flavor comes out.
This holiday season, we decided to bake most of our gifts. I made lemon sable cookies, biscotti, stolen, cinnamon raisin bread, marshmallows, brioche, and some Portuguese sweet bread. Everything turned out well.The Lemon Sable cookies were first. They were slightly lemony, with hints saltiness and sugar. They had the perfect balance of sandiness and chewy.
Next was the biscotti. There were multiple batches of these Italian twice baked cookies. The Little chef helped me make a few batches of what he calls "Mixer cookies"
We made honey lavender-lemon, mixed fruit (cranberries, cherries, and raisins) and spice, chocolate chocolate, and chocolate chip. The little guy loves these cookies. These were based on the Dorie Greenspan recipe - I really like the addition of corn meal in the recipe. It adds a nice touch of texture that is so often missing from these cookies.
For the stolen, I soaked some zante currants, golden raisins, tart cherries, and craisins in Myers rum and ginger alcohol. With the addition of cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, and some Navan liquor made the stolen very moist and flavorful. They rose nicely, and when dusted with powdered sugar, looked very festive.
Everything else was straight forward. The brioche was the best thing I made this season. It's hard to screw up bread with a pound of butter and 5 eggs. We had that at New Years brunch at Piet's place, and for the worlds best French toast the next day. I'll be making the brioche again in the next few weeks, it smells so good when baking, and when slightly toasted or grilled, so much flavor comes out.
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.
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
My blog has always been a hobby. I guess getting notice that you will be unemployed in two months will trigger odd things in you. I've decided to start the task of getting Sketchy's Kitchen official. I don't know if I'll ever make enough money to do it as my job, but a business license would allow me to sell things by demand on the web and to local business and families. It's for two reasons. One, I love to cook, and I end up giving away half of everything I make. Two - I need something to fixate on so I don't stress about looking for another job.
For those interested, I am an Oracle DBA, Remedy ARS programmer, Cold Fusion and PHP coder, and I have a lot of experience with project management, SPC/Metric Reporting, and change management.
OK -- back to baking, cooking, and trying to start a business! On Friday afternoon we went down to the county govt. facility and started the process to turn me into a home based internet/retail bakery. There are TONS of forms. I'm still finding ones I need to fill out. After getting the run around, we had the Federal Tax ID, and we went upstairs to the zoning office. they asked me i we had an food safety inspection yet. I told them no, and they sent me downstairs and across the street. When I showed up across the street, they told me there was no such office here.
Well, we gave up at that point. I had things to do for the dinner we were having at Piet's place the next night. I had cakes to bake, pastries to cook, bread to bake. Yep, I buried myself in flour and sugar. I kept myself very busy, and slightly intoxicated. I think I managed to not get a shot of the bread. It was a sourdough boule with crushed cocoa nibs, and a touch of cayenne pepper. The Chocolate flavor is very minimal, the nibs have an almost nutty taste to them.
I made the cake on Saturday. The cake looked great at our house. I loaded it into a cake transport thingie, and we drove across town for dinner. As we were driving I told Jen that she was not a good cake driver. Fast accelerations, sharp breaking, fast turns. As we were driving, the cake began to lose it's height. It reminded me of a cake my mother made when I was a kid. It looked great at first, but as the day went on it started to look a little sad. Well, Jen said she thought the cake looked better, she liked the stripes. I explained that the cake was not supposed to be zebra striped. Between the stops and the starts, you could watch the top of the cake slide around the cake holder. I was so depressed about this.
By the time we arrived at the house I no longer had a cake. It was The Thing. a glob of icing and three discs of cake. I tried to make it look presentable, but there was no hope for that anymore. We took half the cake home, the next day I went to cut a slice for dinner - total disaster. It was like a train wreck. Three layers, all exposed. I took them, added some heavy cream and turned them into a ... paste.. in the food processor. Cake and icing, ground into a mush and spooned into ramekins. They taste pretty good with the caramel whipped cream. Bus as far as cakes go: spectacular defeat with the assistance of Jen's driving.
OK -- back to starting a business. I spoke with Veronica - she's already done this! She found the phonenumber to the State Agriculture department. I called them and stated that I am trying to start a home bakery. They put some documentation in the mail. Once I fill that out, I call them back and they will see if I need an inspection (I have to pay for the inspection if they show up or not). At first, Jen and I were worried that I couldn't get a license because of our cats, but we are pretty sure we can. We are not catering, so the rules are a little more lax in that regard.
Once I figure out all the forms that are needed to get setup in VA, I will post about them. The process is a little taxing,especially if you are in a bad mood. But keep at it.
To continue with my Molecular Gastronomy posts, this one will address the texture of a commonly used item: cheese. Parmigiano-Reggiano to be precise. I found a great, and simple, recipe from the 1998 - 2002 El Bulli Cookbook. It involves cheese, a grater, egg whites, silpat mats, and a rolling pin. Most people are familiar with the traditional parmesan crisp. Baked cheese, sometimes it has a lacy appearance. This recipe is just as easy to make, but you get a more refined, delicate, crisp.When buying cheese for this - look for the imported Parmesan. In the US, we have very lax rules for cheese naming. In europe, Parmigiano-Reggiano is regulated under the name Parmesan. American copies of the cheese have to be sold as pamesello italiano, or some other name. Pamesello italiano is what Kraft sells as Parmesan. American Parmesan has a larger sodium content, is mechanically pressed, and lacks the complex flavors that are achieved by the long time in the brine solution.
Parmigiano CrispsParmigiano-Reggiano cheese
egg whites
preheat oven to 340 degrees (convection)
tools needed - 2 silpat mats, microplane grater, rolling pin, and parchment paper.
Shave the cheese with a microplane, add the egg whites and mix with a spatula until the mixture resembles pasty dough. Transfer this to a silpat and spread evenly across the middle. Place the second silpat over the paste and evenly spread around with a rolling pin. You want a very thin, even layer of cheese across the entire silpat.
Place this into a preheated oven and bake for five minutes
Remove from oven and carefully remove the top silpat. I used an offset spatula to loosen and unstick any cheese that didn't want to release. Place a sheet of parchment over the cheese and flip over. Remove the remaining silpat and reduce the oven to 320 degrees (convection). Place back in the oven and cook for another 4 minutes. If you do not have convection, you may have to cook this for longer. You want the entire crisp to brown. If there are white spots, they will sag after you cut them.
When it is evenly browned, remove the crisp from the oven and cut immediately. You want them to be long and skinny. If you wait for the cheese to cool down, it will shatter when you try to cut it. Once cut, allow the crisps to cool to room temperature on a flat surface. I ended up using a chef's knife for slicing; the pizza wheel didn't do the trick. Serve in a dish or cup that will show off their height. They stay crisp for a long time. We ran out before they got soggy.
The little guy helped me make them; he ate so many of the crisps. I had to move them so he didn't finish them off.
Next time I make these, I might add some smoked Spanish paprika into the mix. Depending on when you add it, and how thoroughly you incorporate it, you could end up with streaks of dark red in the crisps.
The lavender is flowering, so I need an excuse to use some. I decided on marshmallows, honey-lavander-lemon marshmallows. Most people are amazed that I make marshmallows, but they are not that hard. I often find myself rattling off the recipe at request, so I've decided to post it up for you. The recipe makes basic marshmallows, but it is easy to add ingredients to drastically alter the flavor. I will give credit to the great Alton Brown for coming up with the base recipe.DISCLAIMER: You NEED a stand mixer!
Basic Marshmallow Recipe:
12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) sugar
1 cup corn syrup
3/4 oz gelatin *
1 cup ice water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
Take 1/2 cup of the water and add to the gelatin in the bowl of the stand mixer.
Add the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and the remaining 1/2 water to a pot, heat on medium, covered, for 4 minutes. Remove lid and attack your candy thermometer. You want the sugar to reach 240 degrees. Do not mix the sugar with a spoon, it can create crystals. When it reaches 240 degrees, remove from heat and remove the thermometer.
Attach the whisk attachment to your stand mixer, on low speed, slowly pour in the hot sugar mixture. When all the mixture is in the bowl, turn the mixer on high and whip for 13 minutes. NOTE: hot gelatin is the most foul thing you will ever smell in your kitchen. I've done it with sheet gelatin and powdered, both smell foul.
While the sugar is whipped, prepare your pan. Take a 13 x 9 pan. I've used glass and metal. If you can find a straight edged metal pan (I got mine from sur la table) you will get better edges. I've not had problems turning marshmallows out of either pan. Back to the pan preparation. Mix the powdered sugar and corn starch. Spray the pan with non stick spray, then dust the pan with the corn starch mixture. Make sure to get the coating on the sides of the pan. Collect the extra powder and save for later use.
As the gelatin and sugar mix in the bowl, the temperature goes down, and the gelatin begins to set. At minute 13, stop the mixer and add the vanilla extract. Turn the mixer to low speed until the vanilla is incorporated, and raise the speed back to high. Whip for 2 more minutes. Now your marshmallows are ready to be formed. I'm only going to cover the rustic look here, if you want to read about the piped marshmallows, I will refer you back to the Good Eats listing.
From here on out, non stick spray is your friend. Marshmallows are the stickiest things I have ever worked with, but they are afraid of the non stick spray, so it's your friend :D Spray a spatula with non stick and turn the sticky mess into your prepared pan. Spread the mixture evenly around the pan. If your spatula begins to stick, clean it and re-spray it. An even layer will make for attractive cut marshmallows. Once in the pan, dust the top of the marshmallows with the cornstarch mixture and let them sit uncovered for a minimum of 5 hours, I let mine sit overnight.
When you are ready to cut them, flip the brick out of the pan onto half of the remaining cornstarch mixture. Pizza cutters are your friend at this point. Dust both sides of the pizza cutter with corn starch and begin to cut a grid into the marshmallows. Once you have them cut, pull strips apart and dredge in the cornstarch. Every side needs to be covered, so I do strips at a time, then I separate the individual marshmallows and dredge the remaining sides. These will keep for 3 weeks in a ziplock.
12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) sugar
1 cup corn syrup
3/4 oz gelatin *
1 cup ice water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
Take 1/2 cup of the water and add to the gelatin in the bowl of the stand mixer.
Add the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and the remaining 1/2 water to a pot, heat on medium, covered, for 4 minutes. Remove lid and attack your candy thermometer. You want the sugar to reach 240 degrees. Do not mix the sugar with a spoon, it can create crystals. When it reaches 240 degrees, remove from heat and remove the thermometer.
Attach the whisk attachment to your stand mixer, on low speed, slowly pour in the hot sugar mixture. When all the mixture is in the bowl, turn the mixer on high and whip for 13 minutes. NOTE: hot gelatin is the most foul thing you will ever smell in your kitchen. I've done it with sheet gelatin and powdered, both smell foul. While the sugar is whipped, prepare your pan. Take a 13 x 9 pan. I've used glass and metal. If you can find a straight edged metal pan (I got mine from sur la table) you will get better edges. I've not had problems turning marshmallows out of either pan. Back to the pan preparation. Mix the powdered sugar and corn starch. Spray the pan with non stick spray, then dust the pan with the corn starch mixture. Make sure to get the coating on the sides of the pan. Collect the extra powder and save for later use.
As the gelatin and sugar mix in the bowl, the temperature goes down, and the gelatin begins to set. At minute 13, stop the mixer and add the vanilla extract. Turn the mixer to low speed until the vanilla is incorporated, and raise the speed back to high. Whip for 2 more minutes. Now your marshmallows are ready to be formed. I'm only going to cover the rustic look here, if you want to read about the piped marshmallows, I will refer you back to the Good Eats listing. From here on out, non stick spray is your friend. Marshmallows are the stickiest things I have ever worked with, but they are afraid of the non stick spray, so it's your friend :D Spray a spatula with non stick and turn the sticky mess into your prepared pan. Spread the mixture evenly around the pan. If your spatula begins to stick, clean it and re-spray it. An even layer will make for attractive cut marshmallows. Once in the pan, dust the top of the marshmallows with the cornstarch mixture and let them sit uncovered for a minimum of 5 hours, I let mine sit overnight.
When you are ready to cut them, flip the brick out of the pan onto half of the remaining cornstarch mixture. Pizza cutters are your friend at this point. Dust both sides of the pizza cutter with corn starch and begin to cut a grid into the marshmallows. Once you have them cut, pull strips apart and dredge in the cornstarch. Every side needs to be covered, so I do strips at a time, then I separate the individual marshmallows and dredge the remaining sides. These will keep for 3 weeks in a ziplock.
Now that we have that out of the way, how can I make flavored marshmallows, like the honey lavender lemon ones, or peach? There are two ways to add flavor to marshmallows. First is to use extracts. At the thirteenth minute, when you add the vanilla, you can add other flavors. To make the lavender ones I added 1/2 tsp of lavender extract, 1/2 tsp of lemon extract, about 20 fresh ground lavender blossoms, and 1/2 tsp of finely minced lemon rind. You could also add other flavors here. Orange extract works exceptionally well, as does spearmint, cinnamon, etc.
The second way to flavor marshmallows is to substitute ingredients. For the honey lavender, I subbed out 1/2 cup of sugar for 1/2 cup of fresh honey from lavender fields (near our house). When I made the peach marshmallows I subbed out all the water for fresh peach juice. I took 5 peaches and attacked them with an immersion blender ( I cut them up first). I strained the larger parts out and ended up with 1 cup of liquid. Half of that went in the gelatin, the other half went in the pot with the sugar. The peach was quite interesting. Half of the juice was cooked in the sugar, while the other half was flash cooked when it came in contact with the sugar syrup. The peach flavor was surprisingly strong, and did not have a cooked peach flavor.
*Gelatin use. I used powdered gelatin for the peach recipe (and all previous batches). I used sheet gelatin for the lavender marshmallows. The powdered gelatin was much more fluffy and light then the sheet gelatin. The texture of the sheet gelatin is not bad, just more dense and chewy. Both batches were light and fluffy, but the powdered was fluffier. Based on the cost, I'd stick to powdered. 3 packs of powdered gelatin is 3/4 oz, 15 sheets is also 3/4 oz. 
Well, close enough. This
months Daring Bakers challenge was to make light opera cake. For those unfamiliar with these cakes, they
are made with a joconde-dense almond cake. The cake is very eye friendly. There are alternating layers of the almond cake,
flavorful syrup is spread on each cake layer, and between each layer is either
a buttercream, or a mousse. Finally,
there is a chocolate glaze poured over the cake. Typically, the cake is very heavy. Chocolate, coffee, and almond flavors are the
normal flavor combination. Our challenge was to make it more spring like. No chocolate, no coffee, no chocolate, did I
mention no chocolate?Since the recipe is SO LONG, I will link to it, instead of displaying the entire recipe.
For us daring bakers, the biggest challenge was picking flavor combinations. Since we were thinking spring time, light, fruity flavors were at the top of most people's minds. Others were immediately sucked into the green tea realm. I immediately wanted to use orange. Then Galliano came to mind.
Galliano has a very light citrus taste, along with some vanilla, anise, and some herbs. Its dominating flavor is anise, like Sambuca or Pernod. I built the flavors around this. Orange-vanilla buttercream with hints of Galianno and Drambuie, the syrup was Galliano flavored, and the liquid used in the syrup was infused with star anise. The mousse was white chocolate, vanilla, and honey. And the final glaze was white chocolate, Galianno, and a hint of limoncello for some additional citrus.
This is a complex recipe. Not overly difficult, just time consuming. If you can balance your time, and the recipe, over a few days, this can be accomplished by anyone.
I made the cake and syrup one evening. The next evening I made the buttercream and mousse. I assembled the cake and cooled it overnight. The next day after work I made the glaze and poured it over the cake. Once cooled, I squared the cake. This is a presentation cake. There is no icing on the sides, so the layers can show. You see them in bakeries all the time.
I loved this recipe and this concept. So did my neighbors. They were willing tasters, and this makes a
lot more then two people can attempt to finish before the cake starts to head
south. Once square, you can get 12 or more rectangle slices from the cake.
As many of the other Daring Bakers recipes, I did this one twice. Not because I screwed up on the first one, but because I had so much fun making this. We have new neighbors, so I figured this would make a great 'welcome to the neighborhood' gift. They told me they were chocolate lovers, so I approached the recipe a different way. I avoided the coffee flavors, but I gave them as much chocolate as they could stomach!
For my second opera cake, I made chocolate joconde (almond cake), I made a Grand Mariner and limoncello syrup, orange-grapefruit buttercream with a hint of vodka, a raspberry lime bittersweet chocolate mousse, and a chocolate glaze infused with vanilla and Grand Mariner. I also ventured into new territory and made a stencil of my logo.
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