May 2016 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Twist Bread

This month, we Daring Bakers were challenged by Tandy ( of Lavender and Lime) to make twist bread. Oh darn! That sounds horrible ... NOT!!!

Tandy gave us the freedom to select the filling, so I went with a riff on cinnamon bread because I'm lazy and I had the ingredients on hand. (Let's be honest, eh?) I would really like to try this again with a savory filling (maybe sundried tomatoes, mozarella, and basil??) but didn't get around to that in time for posting here today. If you're so inclined, here is the link to Tandy's challenge recipe.

I found this recipe quite easy to follow (woo hoo!). The only struggle I had was after I sliced the loaf down the middle and then had to twist it. The outer layers sort of peeled away from me as I attempted to twist the loaf. Once I managed to get a "that's good enough" twist (an extra set of hand would have definitely helped ease the process!), I shaped the loaf into a ring (re-twisted a bit along the way), brushed it with an egg wash, and popped it into the oven. About 15-20 minutes into the baking process, the house started to smell amazing! You really can't beat the cozy smell of cinnamon wafting from a hot oven.

The final verdict? Eric thought it was ok but not spectacular. The kids loved it; Annika gladly put on her newly self-appointed food critic hat to let me know it was "flavorful and had good texture." I thought it was good, but could have used more of the cinnamon sugar filling. My co-workers (who got the remainder of the loaf the next day) inhaled it. So, there you are!

Thanks, Tandy, for this fun and yummy challenge. Can't wait to try it again!!

January 2016 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Cake Design

I'm pretty sure that this month's Daring Bakers' challenge was created with me in mind. We were challenged to decorate a cake or cupcakes with fondant or gum paste. When I read the challenge brief, I'm pretty sure I smiled from ear to ear and did a little happy dance. Talk about something being right up your alley!! I was so excited about the challenge that I had a hard time falling asleep that night because cake ideas and visions were zooming around in my brain. 

Eventually, after considering many designs (including a beach scene, a person soaking in a bubble-filled bathtub, a Lego-theme, and a baking theme), I opted to try a book cake: A William Shakespeare anthology, to be exact. (Yes, I really am THAT big of a literature geek!)

Once again, my artistic director (aka Eric) was a huge help and gets a lot of credit for how this cake turned out. His engineer skills were incredibly beneficial when it came to figuring out how to approach the cake (linear thinking at its best!!) and when it was time to rough out the templates for cutting the cake and bookmark.

My two favorite Shakespearean plays are "Taming of the Shrew" and "Much Ado About Nothing", so we showcased both plays by having the finale of "Shrew" on the left-hand page and he beginning of "Much Ado" on the right page.

This cake makes me smile so very much. It represents my love of literature and how some of my loved ones had a hand in creating it. Can't beat that!!!

Eric putting his knife and sculpting skills to work

Conor helping me smooth the fondant

A book you can REALLY sink your teeth into

Much Ado About Nothing page

December 2015 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Gateaux Pithiviers

This time of year, I go into high gear when it comes to baking. I have quite the to-do list because I really like making cookies for Christmas: sugar cookies, gingerbread men/women, pizzelles, krumkake, etc. Needless to say, this can make getting my December Daring Bakers' challenge a bit to get around to, no matter how excited I am to complete the challenge. This year was no exception! Here I am on the 27th and just now finished the monthly challenge.

This month's challenge definitely required some planning and some upper body strength! We had to make our own puff pastry, which is time consuming because it requires quite a bit of resting/cooling time, and rolling out cold dough gives my various arm/torso muscle groups a lovely workout. Can't complain when baking causes muscle soreness!!

The gateaux pithivier is basically a frangipane (sweet almond-based paste) sandwich that has puff pastry instead of bread. :)

Because my creation is currently cooling, I can't tell you how it tastes yet, but it sure is pretty!! I'm thrilled with how my puff pastry's layers turned out. Their lamination makes me quite happy, I must say!! I even made cinnamon sugar twists with the leftover puff pastry. Whee!!

Thanks to the Daring Bakers' community for another fun challenge that added a new recipe to my "been there, done that" baking checklist.

For the month of December, Kat challenged us to make Gateaux Pithiviers.

Daring Bakers Challenge November 2015: Cheesecake Crumble Pie

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was completely new to me, but seemed like a "how could this possibly turn out anything but yummy" kind of challenge. We were asked to do our own take on a cheesecake crumble pie. When I first read the challenge brief, I thought "they want us to make a what??" Lo and behold, this "cheesecake crumble pie" is really a thing and quite a popular thing. Who knew??

We were given quite a bit of leeway when it came to the flavor profile, so I opted to fill my go-to pie crust recipe with a pumpkin cheesecake recipe that I've been meaning to make for YEARS. Plus, it's fall ... no better time for something flavored with pumpkin! Based on the cheesecake recipe given in the challenge brief, I decided to half the cheesecake recipe I decided to use and I'm glad I did ... it was the perfect amount for my pie. I followed the crumble recipe that was provided in the brief (YUM) but easily could have halved that amount, too. I wound up with a bit too much on the pie and still had plenty left in my mixing bowl. That said, always better to have too much than too little when it comes to a crumble topping! :)

 I served the pumpkin cheesecake crumble pie as the dessert for our recent family dinner and everyone gave it a big thumbs up! I wasn't sure if our kids would think much of it, but from the pictures below, you'll see that I shouldn't have wondered. :)

Taste test

Future food critic's official verdict

Crumble face

Here are the recipes I used:

Butter Pie Crust (from a pie-making class I took a few years ago- amounts below make 2 crusts)
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 c cold butter
1/2 c ice water

Pumpkin Cheesecake (I halved all of the amounts listed below when I made the pie)
Four 8-oz packages regular cream cheese (room temp)
1 1/2 c sugar
5 eggs (I used 3 when I halved the recipe)
1/4 c flour
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
14 oz can pumpkin puree
Pinch of salt

Directions: Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Slowly ad sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Gradually add everything else.

Crumble Topping (from challenge brief)
1 cup scooped and levelled / 140g all-purpose (plain) flour
½ cup / 75g rolled oats
1 cup / 200g white sugar
⅔ cup / 135g brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ cup / 1 stick / 113g cold unsalted butter

Directions: Mix all dry incredients together in small mixing bowl. Add butter and crumble together until it resembles a coarse meal (pea-sized).

For this challenge, I made and pre-baked the pie crust. When the crust was cool, I filled it with the pumpkin cheesecake filling, baked it at 500 for 15 minutes (10 would have been enough!), dropped the temp to 200, topped the pie with the crumble topping, and baked for 1 hour more. I should have followed my gut instinct and covered the crust with a collar before the 2nd bake because it got too dark, but oh well! No big deal... just a slightly darker crust than I otherwise would have preferred.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Crumble Pie

Yum!

 For the month of November Krista & Nicole of "Two Cups of Sugar" challenged us to make our own version of cheesecake crumble pie.

October 2015 Daring Bakers' Challenge: French Macarons

This month's Daring Bakers' challenge gave me the opportunity to tick another item off of my baking bucket list and I couldn't be more excited about how the whole thing went! This month, we were challenged to make French macarons ... no, not the coconut macaroons ... macarons ... the egg white-based sandwiched cookies that basically taste a little like Heaven.

We had to decide whether to use the French or Italian method of making these airy little delights. I opted for the Italian method, simply because I knew by bringing the sugar to a boil, I wasn't at risk of having gritty cookies. Gritty cookies = no bueno. 

We had free range for our flavors, so I made orange-zest cookies with a chocolate ganache filling. Oh... my... goodness. They were so yummy!

Because I'd never made them before, I was a bit nervous about how they'd turn out. Fortunately, watching various baking shows (a special thank you to Great British Bake Off) I knew some of the methods and tricks that would help lead me toward success. And success I did have!! Each cookie had its foot (aka bumpy part around the sides) that showed the air properly escaped as it poofed up the cookie. 

The cookies were properly crispy and chewy all at the same time. I really couldn't have been happier with how they turned out and will definitely make them again in the future.

Macaron feet

Orange and chocolate macarons

For the month of October we got to take on one of many bakers' deepest, darkest kitchen nightmares : macarons. Our talented bakers Korena from Korena in the Kitchen and Rachael from pizzarossa made the intimidating task of mastering these French beauties a breeze.

September 2015 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Soda Bread

This month's Daring Bakers' challenge was a bit of a double-edged sword for me. It was very exciting because it was the first time I was the challenge host. It was a little bit of a let down because there wasn't the anticipation of "what will this month's challenge be??" on the first day of the month.

As the host, I was able to choose any baking task that my little heart desired and my heart chose to challenge our bakers to make soda bread. I thought it was a fun nod to my Irish ancestry and my desire to travel to Ireland.

I made the whole wheat soda bread recipe my parents brought back from their first trip to Ireland in 1985 as the example for the challenge when I wrote it up a few months ago. To keep things fresh, I opted to make my other go-to soda bread recipe when I baked for the actual challenge this month. It is definitely a comfort food for me and it didn't fail to hit the mark.

Interestingly, I made the soda bread and banana bread (ewww!) the same day. The kids had slices of each as a scientific experiment. Both kiddos gave a thumbs up to the banana bread (probably because of the chocolate chips I included in the batter) and a "so so" rating to the soda bread. (I'm ok with that ... more soda bread for me!) What really tickled me was when Annika referred to the soda bread as "caffeine bread" because she thought the "soda" of soda bread was in reference to soda pop, not baking soda. :)

Annika: Bread Judge #1

Conor: Bread Judge #2

My Irish soda bread - ta da!

For the month of September Meredith from the Poco Loco Olsons challenged us to experiment with soda bread. (HEY! That's ME!) 

August 2015 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Seed and Nut Loaf

This month, we Daring Bakers were challenged to make a gluten-free nut and seed bread. To be brutally honest, this challenge didn't grab me for one reason: I'm not a "nuts in my baked goods" kind of person. Give me a handful of nuts to snack on any day, but please don't put them in my cookies, breads, or brownies. For me, it is purely a texture thing. Nothing more, nothing less.

That said, I decided to keep an open mind and give this challenge a go. I hit Central Market's bulk food section and loaded up on seeds and nuts galore ... I even grabbed some dried cherries (they didn't help). Once again, not the best baking project for a "leave the nuts out" kind of person like me. I included pumpkin seeds, flax seeds (which mostly wound up on my car floor due to a child "helper" holding onto the bags for the drive home), mixed nuts (cashews, walnuts, etc.), as well as almonds. I researched some methods online, but it still just didn't make my tastebuds dance. Some other bakers said they liked their creations more toasted ... didn't help in my opinion. In fact, I think I preferred it untoasted more than toasted. Nuts have their place, just not in my bread. Oh well... still a fun challenge and a great opportunity to break out of my standard baking mold!

For the August challenge Susan from The Kiwi Cook dared us to make Seed & Nut Loaf – a super-healthy and gluten-free alternative to standard wheat-based bread.

July 2015 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Yafawi Sfeeha

Wow! This month, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make yafawi sfeeha, which is a dish from Palestine. What a great challenge this go around; it is such a treat to make things from different cultures and regions of the world. I had NO CLUE what to expect going into this challenge and, for me, that is a great deal of the fun.

Putting the actual dough together was a snap. The stretching part of the recipe proved to be the biggest hurdle to conquer. It definitely took me a few tries before I got the hang of how to efficiently and effectively stretch the dough so it was incredibly thin and the size I was aiming for. I found out that stretching, rather than using a rolling pin, was the way to go. Even after that, figuring out exactly HOW to stretch the dough took some doing. Because the dough was coated in melted butter, the whole experience felt like a little spa treatment for my hands. :)

I started off with a savory Mediterranean-inspired filling: spinach and feta, with some salt, pepper, sauteed onion, and a hint of nutmeg. My best guess while putting it together was it would resemble spanakopita, and I was right. The texure wasn't overly flaky like spanakopita usually is, but the flavors were definitely there.

I ran out of the spinach/feta filling before I ran out of dough balls (I think I made the dough balls a bit too small, but oh well!), so I filled the rest of my dough segments with cinnamon sugar and after they were baked, topped them with a little powdered sugar/milk/lemon juice icing. Again, the flavor of a cinnamon roll, but a different texture.

Spinach and feta

Cinnamon sugar, glazed

All-in-all,this was a fun experiment and it made our kitchen smell divine!


The July Daring Bakers’ Challenge was brought to us by Manal from Manal’s Bites. She introduced us to an authentic Palestinian dish from Jaffa that is served as a main meal along with a bowl of soup or a salad. The “Yafawi Sfeeha” or also known as “Milwayeh” which means twisted, is crispy yet tender and full of flavor.

June 2015 Daring Baker's Challenge: Charlotte Russe

The day I was supposed to blog about last month's challenge landed smack-dab in the middle of our camping trip. Needless to say, our tent in the middle of Bay View State Park didn't have wi-fi. :)

This month, we were challenged to make either a Charlotte Royale or a Charlotte Russe. I opted for the Russe, which is basically ladyfingers that are surrounding a whole bunch of creamy/chocolaty goodness ... and tied with a bow for extra specialness.

I'd never made ladyfingers before and was rather excited to try it out. Let's just say that they didn't turn out (visually) as expected .... I'm thinking because I didn't have a tip that was ideal for the job ... but that didn't stop them from tasting really good. I also added raspberry liquor from a local distillery to add a bit of extra flavor to my chocolate "filling". All I can say to that is OMG sooooo good!

I gave the kids Charlotte Russe "sandwiches" and both gave the experiment their (sticky) thumbs up. Can't complain about that!

For the June daring bakers challenge Rebecca from BakeNQuilt.comchallenged us to make Charlotte Royale and Charlotte Russe from scratch. Savory or sweet Charlottes were definitely tasty showstopper

May 2015 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Lamingtons

I'd just like to start out this blog post with an apology to all Australians everywhere ... of all time. When I set forth on this baking challenge, I promise that it was not my goal to completely destroy what is a fan favorite for you Down Under. It was just one of those days... :)

This month, we were challenged to make Lamingtons, which are basically single-servings of sponge cake that are dipped in chocolate and then rolled in dried coconut. One problem... I don't like dried coconut. To me, eating it provides the same experience as chewing on styrofoam offers. It just give me a bad chill down my spine. Fortunately, the challenge's host said we could be creative and weren't required to use the traditional coconut. Woo hoo!!

Without any issues, I whipped up my beautiful sponge batter. It was airy. It was frothy. It was the perfect color. I carefully poured it into my prepared baking pan and ushered it into the hot oven. So far, so good!

The recipe said to immediately invert the cake (once completely baked, of course) onto a wire rack, remove the pan, and then re-invert the cake so it is right-side-up on a cooling rack. "NO PROBLEM," said I. "HAHAHA! That's what YOU think," said the baking gods. As I inverted the cake (using pot holders because the pan just came out of a 350 degree oven), all hell broke lose. Actually, hell didn't break lose, but the pan sure did. The entire thing went flying out of my hand and landed on the stove ... the cast iron pan ... and the Dutch oven. Lovely. Ruined. I risked my fingers and plunged in to upright the cake and find out how much damage had been done. How much? This much:

Knowing the cake was going to be cut into bite-size pieces, I decided to carry on and make the best of a less-than-ideal situation. After the cake cooled, I whipped up the chocolate dipping sauce (yum) and then opted to roll my ugly cake pieces in brightly colored sprinkles for two reasons: (1) they aren't coconut and (2) the bright colors will (hopefully) keep people from noticing the fact that the cake went on a bit of a joy ride and got mangled in the process.

All in all, it could have been worse, but could have been MUCH better. Fortunately, the cake's taste wasn't impacted by its flight and is quite yummy!


For the May challenge Marcellina from Marcellina in Cucina dared us to make Lamingtons. An Australian delicacy that is as tasty as it is elegant

April 2015 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Focaccia

This month's Daring Bakers' challenge was right up my alley: BREAD!! More specifically, we were challenged to make focaccia from scratch.

The timing for this challenge couldn't have been more perfect, considering my new addition to the book "Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast", which is ALL about bread making. Every recipe provided in this book yields two loaves of bread, and many recipes are adaptable, meaning you don't have to make the same kind of final product with both halves of the bread. So, I made bread by following the "Overnight White Bread" recipe, and made half of dough into a lovely artisan loaf and the other half into focaccia.

Conor helped me make the focaccia's dimples, and he was in charge of brushing the olive oil on the top of the bread... hence, we had uneven dimples and areas of oil slick on the bread, but it all worked out!

I topped the focaccia with parmesan cheese and salt... all four of us gave the bread our thumbs up. Definitely going to make it again!

For the month of April Rachael of pizzarossa and Sawsan of Chef in Disguise took us on a trip to Italy. They challenged us to try our hands at making focaccia from scratch

February 2015 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Siopao

This month, we were challenged to bake siopao, which are yeast-based Asian buns that can be filled with savory or sweet fillings.

Considering how crazy this month has been with our Disney cruise and post-vacation return to real life, I opted to go as easy as possible with this challenge and went the sweet route. Making the dough was a snap, which I greatly appreciated! I filled some of the bung with strawberry jam, some with chocolate, and some with peanut butter and chocolate. All went swimmingly until the final rise... that's when I should have stuck with my gut instinct. The instructions said to cover the buns with plastic wrap and let them rise for an hour. I knew I should have sprinkled a little flour on the top of each bun before putting the plastic wrap on them. Naturally, after an hour, when I removed the plastic wrap, it stuck a bit to the buns and caused them to rip in places. I tried to patch the holes as best as I could, but to no avail. The fillings oozed out during the baking process and left us with barely filled buns. On an up note, the flavors all worked nicely... there was just that the bun to filling ratio was off due to the escaped fillings. Oh well!! It was still a great opportunity to try something new. :)

Fillings overboard!

Finished siopao .... definitely needed more fillings!

The February Daring Bakers’ challenge is hosted by Julie of One-Wall Kitchen. She challenged us to an easy, simple filled bun using no-knead dough

December 2014 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Dutch Sweet Bread

This month, we Daring Bakers were challenged to make Dutch sweet bread. We could choose from three recipes that were provided by the challenge's host. I opted to make kruidkoek,which is a quick bread that is seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg.

I was grateful that this month's challenge wasn't going to be overly time consuming, considering how crazy December gets. I was also grateful, after my first attempt at the challenge, for golf's creation of the Mulligan. I made the kruidkoek early in the month and really should have measured my bread pan prior to putting the batter in it. My pan was about 2 inches shorter than the recipe called for, but I decided to go for it anyway ... big mistake. The bread was still raw in the middle and the outside looked like someone put dynamite just under the surface. We chose to call it "interesting" and "unique" instead of the more fitting "ugly as all get out." On an up note, the taste was quite lovely ... very Christmas-y.

Today (nothing like working right up to a deadline, eh?), I tried the recipe again, but put the batter into two bread pans in hopes that would accommodate the quantity of batter better and allow the middle to bake all the way though. Well, I found success in terms of the batter not over-taking the pan, but still ran into the problem of the middle not being done and the outside being over done. Again, the flavor was nice, but it was tough to get past the raw middle texture and crouton exterior.

For the month of December, Andrea from 4pure took us on a trip to the Netherlands. She challenged us to take our taste buds on a joyride through the land of sugar and spice by baking three different types of Dutch sweet bread

November 2014 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Paris-Brest

I'm writing this post as the rest of the family are off doing various Thanksgiving activities: playing cards, watching TV (currently, a dog show), rough housing, and chatting. Thus, I'll make this brief because I don't want to miss out on the fun. :)

This month, we were challenged to make a Paris-Brest, which was pretty darned exciting to me because I actually knew what it was thanks to a past season of The Great British Bakeoff (Thank you Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood!). I even knew it was a reference to a bicycle race in France. (How worldly am I??)

I chose to do a Paris-Brest recipe by Jacques Pepin (click for recipe); the final product was filled with a chocolate mousse/cream instead of the traditional crème patisserie. The whipped cream was extra yummy because the recipe called for adding dark rum to the mixture. Hello! YUM!

The Paris-Brest was a bit over baked, which was a bit of a disappointment, but the rum whipped cream made up for that little issue. :)

 

The November Daring Baker’s challenge took us for a ride! Luisa from Rise of the Sourdough Preacher challenged us to make Paris-Brest, a beautiful pastry celebrating the Paris-Brest bicycle race.

Daring Bakers' Challenge October 2014: Sachertorte

This month's Daring Bakers' challenge was a definite "11th hour" things for me! I'm pretty sure that someone hit the turbo speed button on the month, because it seemed to FLY by. Well, the day before the baking deadline, there I was melting chocolate, beating egg whites, measuring flour, folding, and baking to make my first ever sachertorte!

What, you ask, is a sachertorte? Simply put, it is a dense Austrian chocolate cake that uses beaten egg whites as a leavening agent, incorporates apricot jam as a flavor layer, and is encased in a poured layer of chocolate ganache. The key is to incorporate the egg whites without deflating them ... no easy task... and no tidy task, either.

I was actually really excited about this month's challenge because Eric and I have recently gotten hooked on a show out of the UK called "The Great British Bake Off" and one of the technical challenges given during one of the episodes was a sachertorte. The show is hosted by two well-known bakers from the UK: Mary Berry (isn't that the best name ever??) and Paul Hollywood.

As I worked on my creation last night, I had many thoughts running through my head, but the most prominent one was "What would Mary Berry say?" Would she think I whipped the egg whites enough? Would she approve of my folding technique? It tickled me how a TV host was so absently involved in my process yesterday. At one point, Conor asked if he could help me prepare the cake... of course, that was just as I was folding in the egg whites, which requires a more delicate touch than he tends to display. Instead, I had him help me sift the flour... much less mission critical, but still make him feel special! :)

I'd read about a number of people having difficulty with the poured chocolate finish provided by the recipe provided for the challenge, so I opted to hedge my bets and use Mary Berry's ingredients and quantities for that aspect of the cake, and I'm glad I did. The poured chocolate went on beautifully and turned out so smooth!

The final touch of a sachertorte is writing "Sacher" on its top. The recipe called for milk chocolate, which is something I'm not a fan of and ... it turns out ... don't even keep in our house. We have dark and semi-sweet chocolate galore, but no milk chocolate. I was concerned that the chocolates I had wouldn't provide enough of a contrast with the poured chocolate, so I opted to use white chocolate for the final touches.

Because of the late hour the sachertorte was finished last night, we decided to hold off on taking it for a taste test run until tonight. So, at this point in time, I have no clue how it tastes, but it sure looks pretty and it rose during its time in the oven, so I'm taking that as a win! :)

(please ignore the flash's reflection in the cake!)

The October Daring Bakers' challenge was brought to us by Korena of Korena in the Kitchen. She took us to Austria and introduced us to the wonders of the Sachertorte.

Update (10/28/14): We dove into the sachertorte last night and gave it a big thumbs up. The kids devoured it! To save us from eating the whole thing, I took the leftovers to work, and my co-workers happily finished off the remaining sachertorte goodness.

August 2014 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Tubular and Coiled Treats

This month's Daring Bakers' challenge took me to new heights... of sorts.

We were challenged to make upright or spiraled yeast-based yummies. I chose to try the chimney cake option, just because I've never attempted anything like it before, and who doesn't like something coated in sugar?? I mean, come on! :)

The dough/recipe were quite simple, which was good. The execution of the chimney was a week bit trickier, shall we say. A definitely learning curve was associated with this part of the task.

The first chimney would have been condemned by the building inspector right away. When I attempted to release the cake from the foil-encased rolling pin, the cake began to uncoil. I quickly figured out that I needed to roll my cake a bit more before baking it... the rolling is what keeps the coils together post baking.

The second chimney was definitely a greater success! I rolled it more firmly after coiling the dough around the rolling pin and that was the key. Unmolding that cake was far easier and resulted in the cake remaining upright instead of in a coiled pile of rubble. After taking the coil off of the rolling pin, I brushed it with more melted butter and then rolled it in cinnamon sugar. The final result reminded me a lot of the elephant ears you can buy at most fairs. Tasty :)

First attempt (aka what not to do)

Second attempt (voilà!)
 

The August Daring Bakers' Challenge took us for a spin! Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen taught us to make rolled pastries inspired by Kurtoskalacs, a traditional Hungarian wedding pastry. These tasty yeasted delights gave us lots to celebrate!

Daring Bakers' Challenge Revealed: Homemade Nougat

This month's baking challenge was really exciting for me ... and then incredibly nerve-wracking. This month's challenge was to make homemade nougat. Cool!!!

As I read through the challenge's overview and instructions, my sense of panic began to set in and then grow at an immeasurable rate. Was it because of the complexity of the challenge? Nope ... not even close. Was it the time required to complete the nougat? Nah! It was this statement in the overview that sent my pulse racing: "Nougat is best made on a cool, dry day." Cool, we have that in spades. Dry? That's a completely other matter. Spring in Seattle is typically anything but dry. I decided to see how March's weather played out ... naturally, this month was one of our wettest Marches on record. I decided to bite the proverbial bullet yesterday and just take my chances with the weather and made my nougat.

I didn't want to just "make nougat." I wanted to made a complete candy, so I researched homemade Snickers recipes. I mean, come on! Who doesn't like Snickers? (Peanut allergy sufferers aside, of course.)

I followed the nougat recipe and directions from this Snickers knock-off recipe, but didn't use that recipe's caramel or chocolate aspects. I already had homemade caramel in the fridge (doesn't everyone???), so decided to use that for the bars. I also went really easy and nuked some chocolates chips in the microwave instead of tempering chocolate, as was recommended in the recipe. Again, I was up against a deadline and was looking to just get the project done on time. The "Snickers" recipe called for crunchy peanut butter, but we aren't a crunchy peanut butter family, so I just used creamy peanut butter and sprinkled some roasted peanuts on top of the caramel layer. Done and done!

The nougat didn't come together in the time frame the recipe predicted, which made me nervous that the whole thing would fail, but I stayed the course and kept moving forward. I downsized from the recommended 9x13 pan to a 9x9 pan, once I saw the smaller-than-expected nougat volume. I looked in the bowl and realized there was no way that amount would cover the bottom of the pan, so adjusted accordingly and am glad I did. As the nougat did it's thing, I stuck the mason jar of caramel sauce in a pan of water and slowly warmed it on the stove.

Once the nougat was done, I squished it into my parchment paper-lined 9x9 pan and then poured the caramel on top... followed by the peanuts. I popped the pan into the fridge for a bit so the caramel could set up a bit. While it cooled, I microwaved a few handfuls of chocolate chips with a blob of Crisco. Once the chocolate was smooth, I poured it on top of the other layers and popped it back in the fridge to cool completely.

I had NO idea if the recipe was going to work, but realized it was a successful when my guinnea pig (aka Eric) proclaimed that it was a winner and then proceeded to cut himself another helping. After witnessing Eric's response to the treat, I tried a piece, too. He was right. It did turn out well!! Not bad for a rainy weather experiment, if you ask me!

The March 2014 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Rebecca of BakeNQuilt. She challenged us to learn to make a classic nougat and to make it our own with our choice of flavors and add-ins.

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Beautiful Bread

Once I read about this month's baking challenge, I have to admit that I got quite giddy. The photos showing what we'd (in theory) make were gorgeous!!

This month, we were challenged to make filled bread with either a cinnamon sugar filling or a Nutella filling. Not being a Nutella fan (or that much of a hazelnut fan, to be honest) made picking between the two recipes quite simple for me! Not only were we challenged to make filled bread, but pretty filled bread (akin to the gorgeous works by Valentina Zurkan, a VERY talented bread sculptor, for lack of better term).

The recipe was easy to follow and the process wasn't at all difficult. I did forget to pinch the outer corners together, which would have made the bread even prettier. The one thing I wish I'd done differently was stick with my gut on the baking time/temp. In the pit of my core, I knew that the temp/time would be an issue, and it was. The bread was WAY overdone (see photo below). That said, when I peeled off the top layer (then quite glad I'd forgotten to pinch the outer corners together), the bread was very tasty! It was basically a non-rolled cinnamon roll... and who can complain about that??? (This also inspired me to make a batch of Peter Reinhart's Sticky Buns a day or two later.. again, who could complain??)

I'll definitely try this recipe and technique again. Great learning opportunity and I got to experiment with a new bread-making method. :)

Cinnamon Sweet Bread

Ingredients

·         1/4 cup (60 ml) warm water

·         3/4 cup (180 ml) warm milk

·         1 large egg

·         1/4 cup (60 ml) (60 gm) (2 oz) butter, softened

·         1/4 cup (60 ml) (50 gm) (1-3/4 oz) white sugar

·         1/2 teaspoon (3 gm) salt

·         3-1/4 cups (780 ml) (450 gm) (16 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour, approximately

·         2 teaspoons (10 ml) (8 gm) dry yeast

·         1/4 teaspoon (1 gm) cardamom, optional

For topping

·         1/4 cup (60 ml) of milk

·         1 tablespoon (15 gm) (1/2 oz) sugar

Between the layers

·         1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) (1/4 cup) (60 ml) (60 gm) (2 oz) butter

·         4 tablespoons (60 ml) (25 gm) (1 oz) cinnamon

·         1/2 cup (120 ml) (100 gm) (3-1/2 oz) sugar

For drizzling

·         1 can (400 gm) (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

Directions:

1. In a bowl whisk the egg with milk, water, sugar, butter and yeast. Set aside

2. In another bowl sift the flour with the salt and the optional cardamom.

3. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and knead until you get a smooth dough. 4. Place it in a bowl you have brushed with some oil and cover it with a wet cloth and leave it in a warm place to double .

5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface

6. Divide the dough into 4 parts

7. Roll each part into a circle at least 20 cm (8 inch) in diameter 

8. Brush the first layer with butter then sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon

9. Place the second layer on the first layer repeat the brushing and sprinkling and then do the same

with the third layer.

10. Top with the fourth layer, this time only brush it with butter.

11. Using a knife make cuts that divide the dough circles into 8 triangles

12. Make cuts that go 2/3 of the way in the middle of each triangle. The cuts should not reach the base

of the triangle nor the tip as you can see in the picture 

13. Take the tip of each triangle and insert it into the cut you made and pull it from the underside

14. Arrange the triangles on your baking sheet

15. Pinch the two angles at the base of the triangle together 

16. Brush the dough with milk

17. Allow to rest for 15 minutes during which you would heat your oven to very hot

500°F/240°C/gas mark 9 (rack in the middle). (Go for the hottest your oven will do).

18. Bake for 5 minutes on very hot 500°F/240°C/gas mark 9, then lower the temperature to

moderately hot 400°F/200°C/gas mark 6 and bake for 15-20 more minutes (ovens do differ greatly, so

the time may differ; what you want is to bake it until the under side is golden brown). If you have a

broiler (grill) in your oven. Turn on the broiler (grill) for a couple of minutes until the bread is golden

brown on top.

19. Take it out of the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rick and drizzle with

sweetened condensed milk while it is still warm.

Beauty surrounded the Daring Bakers this month as our host, Sawsan, of chef in disguise, challenged us to make beautiful, filled 
breads. Who knew breads could look as great as they taste?

Daring Bakers August Challenge

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was tres leche cake. YUMMMY!! I am a sucker for tres leches cake....unfortunately, I didn't follow the directions and the one I made for this challenge was dryer than a bone. When our friend Dulce showed me how to make tres leche cake a year or two ago, she did it differently than the recipe we were given for the challenge suggested. I thought I'd combine the best of both worlds by following the recipe (sort of) and Dulce's instructions (sort of). Bad combo. Did I mention how DRY this cake was?

Dryness aside, I think this cake has real potential and am going to try it again.

On an up note, I used some of the ingredients... real Mexican ingredients, that Dulce sent up from Mexico for me. BONUS!!!

 Inma of la Galletika was our Sept. 2013 Daring Bakers’ hostess and WOW did she bring us something decadent and delicious! Pastel de Tres Leches or Three Milk Cake, creamy yet airy, super moist but not soggy.. just plain delish!