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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
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.
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
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.
This month Deborah of Taste and Tell and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms tasked the Daring Bakers with the mission of making cheesecake pops. It looked exciting, I thought cheesecake, I'm good with cheesecakes. Well, this cheesecake did not want to cooperate. I followed the recipe, and the cake was NO WHERE near being cooked. I checked a few cookbooks -- some said the center could be a little unfirm, but the temp should be 150 degrees. So, I pulled it, let it cool, then stuck it in the refrigerator overnight.The next morning, I pulled it and tried to scoop out a ball. This did not work out at all. The ball had the consistency of soup, chunky soup. The outer 2 inches were cooked, the rest wasn't. I decided to 're-bake' the cheesecake. This would have worked brilliantly, should have worked brilliantly. You can just tell there is a but coming.
I forgot about it. Forgot about it while it was in the oven at 200 degrees. To say overcooked would be an understatement. I popped it out of the pan, then I had to cut the top of the cheesecake off. It was hard and pointy, it cracked like shards of glass. The inside part tasted fine, so I formed it up, stuck it in the freezer, and dipped them in tempered chocolate.
Well, if you have read this blog, I don't like it when things don't work out. SO >>> I made it again. This time I cooked the cheesecake for TWICE the alloted time in the recipe. Everything scooped out, or cut out cleanly, I used some different toppings, and these are downstairs now.
The first batch was enjoyed by my neighbors, people love them - even if you don't. I decided to eat one of the Oreo topped ones after the photo shoot. When I bit into it, the pop flew in half and deposited the uneaten part on the floor. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. How did it tast - great, but I will recommend people to eat them on a plate. Think of them as chocolate dipped cheesecake bits.
The cheesecake is the right consistency for eating, but I don't think it is the right consistency for pops. I think it might need to be a little overbaked to withstand the forces of gravity.
I topped mine with Oreo cookies, sweet cacao nibs, candy bits, chocolate sprinkles, roasted hazelnuts, and a dark cherry coulis thickened to a jelly. All the flavors went well with the chocolate
This months Daring Bakers challenge was a party cake. I meant to put this up yesterday, but Monday morning will have to do, This is my third challenge, and it went very well. Cake is always welcome in my house, so I ended up making two :D The cake is amazing. Light, fluffy, bright white. We were allowed to take some liberties with the recipe - altering the flavors, but sticking with the general recipe. on my first cake I decided to add blood orange zest to the cake recipe, and I used blood orange juice and zest, and vanilla paste in the Italian buttercream. This made the icing slightly pink, but I decided to not add food coloring to the icing.I realized I have absolutely NO skill with icing cakes. I tired to follow the instructions for icing the cake. I filled each layer with a mix of blackberry preserves and fresh blackberry juice, the layered the icing. when I finished, I was almost out of icing. Parts of the outside did not get a full covering, This dried out part of the cake, Granted - it tasted great, but looked very incomplete.
Once this cake was demolished, I decided to make another. I used everything I learned with the first cake and applied it to the second. First off, I changed the recipe. I made a honey lavender cake with lemon curd filling. This was an interesting experience. I love the smell of lavender, I make honey lemon biscotti, and I use it in some spice blends. for the cake, I ground some lavender with the sugar and added it with the sugar. I didn't use a lot, just enough to barely smell it. The next step was the icing.The Italian buttercream recipe has you whipping the egg whites and sugar before you add the butter. I replaced half of the sugar with my wife's breakfast honey (local farm down the street). I pulverized two tablespoons of lavender blossoms with a teaspoon of sugar and added that during the creaming stage. Once the icing was ready, I dug through the icing colors and pulled out the violet paste. I added the color until I had a nice violet tint. I like the icing color paste - it does not have a flavor that you can taste.
This cake came together much better. Lemon curd and icing in each layer, full coverage on the outside. But I still cannot decorate a cake. I remembered to put down a crumb coat, the I top loaded the cake and worked the icing down the sides. we had full, even coverage on the cake, and the icing was much more balanced then the previous cake. The flavors worked great, we all enjoyed this cake more then the first.This is my favorite cake recipe, we will be making this again :D
This month's Daring Baker's challenge was French Bread. Mary and Sarah picked a classic Julia Child's recipe. I've made the Peter Reinhart version a few times, and the recipe is drastically different. I decided to make both and compare the two outcomes.Like all my breads, I take a very hands on approach. I don't use mixers, I like the feel of the dough, and I can tell when it is ready by how it feels in my hands. The Julia Child's recipe was the first batch I made, so I will start with that. The recipe was pretty straight forward, the bread proofed up well the first day, but because of my work schedule, I had to take one liberty with the set of instructions. I retarded the second rise in the refrigerator. To make this all in one day is a VERY time consuming venture. Some of the other Daring bakers were quoting 9 hours or more to get the bread into the oven. With work and the little one, there is no way I was going to find that time in one day.
The dough was very supple and easy to work with. It formed up well, and the last rise was effortless. I used a kitchen towel rubbed down with flour - one tip - If you do this, make sure the towel is not treated with fabric softener. The smell can pass over into the dough, I've had trouble with getting dough to release from my slip, so I bake all my dough on parchment now. About halfway through cooking, I pull the parchment out. This prevents the bunches of seminola from forming on the bottom of the bread. I formed three shapes. 2 baguettes and one 'mini loaf'. I use a lame to make my slashes, and cook on a bakers stone.
The Julia recipe looks beautiful, came out with a great crust and a good crumb, but it was a little too salty for my taste, and the bread did not have a lot of heartiness to it. Two of my loaves came out perfect, the other one split lengthwise. It still looks good from one angle, and tastes just like the others. It had the smallest crumb, that is because the steam decided a quick side exit was the easiest way to get out. I thought I had the surface tension correct on that one, but apparently, I misses a pinch somewhere. Overall, the bread was quite nice and easy to make, but lacked something in the flavor category.
I attempted the Peter Reinhart version a week later. This recipe uses both bread and AP flour, this changes the crumb, flavor, and gluten creation. It also uses a pan fermentate - this adds a lot of flavor to the final recipe. The preferment is a mixture of instant yeast, water, and flour. You mix it up, let it rise for a few hours, then cool it overnight. This allows a little fermentation to take place, and adds a lot of that 'bready' flavor. This recipe uses less salt, which removed the saltiness that was present in the Julia's recipe. The final product was not as light as Julia's recipe, but it had more depth.
Which one do I like better? I'm not sure. Both recipes can be broken into two day events without affecting the final product. One was salty, but that is easily corrected by using less salt. I do think there is a disservice to the Julia recipe by not utilizing a preferment, but the lightness of the inside was great. I think I will try a hybrid batch in the future. Take the bread flour preferment and salt content from Peter's recipe, and the yeast and AP ratio from Julia's.All in all, I had fun, and the house was full of bread for a few weeks. Check in tomorrow to see how my new sourdough starter turns out! I've got a loaf forming up in a brotform now :D
As the smell of whole wheat bread, fresh from the oven, fills the house, I've decided to write about this month's Daring Bakers challenge (my first). We were tasked with baking a lemon meringue pie. I've made many fruit pies, and a few pies with meringue on them-my favorite is a key lime pie with fresh meringue spooned on top and lightly browned with a torch. Well, I had to make this pie twice. I was a little off when I gave it my first attempt. The first problem is that I started after 9:00 PM. This was just a bad idea.OK - the first attempt should be called 'meringue pie with lemon sauce': The crust came out wonderfully, but the curd didn't set. I've done meringue many times, so I had no problems there. The pie tasted fine, but the texture was WAY off. I went back and read over the recipe. I made a couple mistakes. First, it calls for a 10 inch pie pan, I used a 12 inch. The second problem was a simple misread of the recipe. I botched the steps of the curd, and it never set. On the bright side, when I poured the pie in to the sink, the crust came out in one giant piece.
A few weeks later, I gave it a second try. This time I used a 9 inch pie pan, and everything went very well (I don't own a 10 inch). I started on Saturday morning, and had a wonderful pie by the afternoon. Personally, it's a lot of work for a pie that's only really good for one day. Apple pies, silk pies, key limes, these will all hold for a couple days without going down in quality. The lemon meringue should really be eaten the same day it is made.
Problems with the recipe/pie: the curd can be temperamental. It either doesn't set up, or it weeps when cut. There is this magical zone where the curd holds it shape without bulging or breaking. This challenge required us to strictly follow the recipe, so, flirting with disaster was included. It took me two pies to get it right.
Lemon Meringue Pie
Makes one 10-inch (25 cm) pie
For the Crust:
- ¾ cup (180 mL) cold butter; cut into ½-inch (1.2 cm) pieces
- 2 cups (475 mL) all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (60 mL) granulated sugar
- ¼ tsp (1.2 mL) salt
- ⅓ cup (80 mL) ice water
For the Filling:
- 2 cups (475 mL) water
- 1 cup (240 mL) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (120 mL) cornstarch
- 5 egg yolks, beaten
- ¼ cup (60 mL) butter
- ¾ cup (180 mL) fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon zest
- 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract
For the Meringue:
- 5 egg whites, room temperature
- ½ tsp (2.5 mL) cream of tartar
- ¼ tsp (1.2 mL) salt
- ½ tsp (2.5 mL) vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (180 mL) granulated sugar
For the Crust: Make sure all ingredients are as cold as possible. Using a food processor or pastry cutter and a large bowl, combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt. Process or cut in until the mixture resembles coarse meal and begins to clump together. Sprinkle with water, let rest 30 seconds and then either process very briefly or cut in with about 15 strokes of the pastry cutter, just until the dough begins to stick together and come away from the sides of the bowl. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and press together to form a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 20 minutes.
Allow the dough to warm slightly to room temperature if it is too hard to roll. On a lightly floured board (or countertop) roll the disk to a thickness of ⅛ inch (.3 cm). Cut a circle about 2 inches (5 cm) larger than the pie plate and transfer the pastry into the plate by folding it in half or by rolling it onto the rolling pin. Turn the pastry under, leaving an edge that hangs over the plate about ½ inch (1.2 cm). Flute decoratively. Chill for 30 minutes.Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the crust with foil and fill with metal pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Cool completely before filling.
For the Filling: Bring the water to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan. Remove from the heat and let rest 5 minutes. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together. Add the mixture gradually to the hot water, whisking until completely incorporated.Return to the heat and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. The mixture will be very thick. Add about 1 cup (240 mL) of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks, whisking until smooth. Whisking vigorously, add the warmed yolks to the pot and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in butter until incorporated. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla, stirring until combined. Pour into the prepared crust. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on the surface, and cool to room temperature.
For the Meringue: Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, salt and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually, beating until it forms stiff, glossy peaks. Pile onto the cooled pie, bringing the meringue all the way over to the edge of the crust to seal it completely. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack. Serve within 6 hours to avoid a soggy crust.
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