Daring Bakers: DobosTorte

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

Oooh. Daring Bakers got back to their name this month. I actually partitioned a segment of my calander to make this one. You know, considering how little my social life is, it shocks me how busy I am sometimes.

Cast of Characters:



Actually, I ended up not using the almonds, so pretend they aren't hiding the chocolate chips.

Then I turned on my iPod, ignored my children (it was Saturday so they were free to whine to the Businesman), and proceded to systematically make a mess in every bowl, every utensil and every horizontal surface in a 10 foot radius.

It's what Daring Bakers is all about.



I had some leftover toffee glaze so I pulled it and twisted it to form a lovely little spun sugar crown.



And when cut:



Not the most even of layers, but it didn't seem to affect the flavor.

Daring Bakers: Milan Cookies

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

This month, I opted for the Milan Cookies. I have made marshmallows before. It was fun then, but I have since stopped eating gelatin (did you know that several yogurt brands have gelatin? Sometimes it sucks to read those labels). Of course, I probably should have made the Marshmallow Cookies simply to ensure I wouldn't eat them.

Cast of characters:



Final product:



I opted to use the half-can of frosting that had been sitting in my fridge for the filling, rather than the chocolate ganache. I could act virtuous and say I did it to save time, money, and my waistline (since I'm not a fan of canned frosting, but I am a fan of ganache), but I'll be honest and say it's because I was lazy.


Stay tuned to tomorrow's post. I've started my next knitting project.

Daring Cooks Challenge-Potstickers

This month's Daring Cook's challenge was Potstickers. We are hosted by Jen from Use Real Butter.

I'll freely admit right now I very much riffed. In fact I hardly used a recipe at all. I think potstickers (and fried rice) are freely used in China as ways to get rid of leftovers. It all comes back to the housewives.

For my Dough:

1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup bread dough (for the extra gluten)
pinch salt
3/4-1 cup boiling water.

For my Filling:

A wedge of cabbage
A couple handfuls of spinach, wilted
Half a brick of tofu
Green onions
Garlic
Sesame oil
soy sauce
salt, pepper
A pinch of cornstarch to bind it up a bit.

You can go to Jen's post to learn the techniques needed.

Here are my fat chubbies, frying away. I added my water after this and covered the pan to steam 'em up.



Meanwhile I made dipping sauce.



Equal amounts soy sauce and rice vinegar. Some chili sauce (or chili oil) to taste.

Don't buy premade sauce. There is no point.

And Voila!



Why are they funny looking? I don't have a round cutter (does this shock you as much as it does me?) so I used a flower-shaped cutter.

They still taste good.

Daring Cooks May-Gnocchi

I have a secret... I love the gnocchi you can buy in the pasta aisle. Those larvae-looking blobs that are sealed in plastic. They boil up into slightly larger larvae with a dense, chewy texture. It's what happens when a German American wishes she were Italian. I can't be held responsible.

I have tried making potato gnocchi before. It was disasterous. All three times. So when the Daring Cooks' challenge was posted and I saw our inaugural recipe was ricotta gnocchi I was worried.

And I was right to be worried.


Exhibit A: Test gnocchi after 10 seconds
Exhibit B: Gnocchi? Gnocchi? Where did you go?

I drained my ricotta. I added a little bit more egg. I added a whole egg. I searched my memory and remembered a trick for German bread dumplings and added 1/2 cup flour. That worked and my dough finally held together in the boiling water.



But they had a Spaetzle (pronounced SHPAY-tsul) feel to them. Then I remembered I'm a Kraut and love Spaetzle. So it all worked out in the end.

I sauteed sage leaves I stole from my neighbor's garden until crispy and drizzled the sage-y butter over the gnocchi.



I still can't make gnocchi, but I have always made awesome Spaetzle.

Daring Bakers-April

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

I think all basic cheesecake tastes the same. It never stops me from devouring a whole recipe mind you, but I've never really had one that stood out in my mind as truly exceptional.

Knowing I would consume the entire cake, I immediately decided this concoction would go straight to my knitting group. Not that 3 bricks of cream cheese and a cup of heavy cream don't sound light but...



The recipe went together easily. The only variation was using gingersnaps rather than graham crackers for the crust. I love gingersnaps.



I wasn't able to chill it in the fridge before serving. This caused the cake to have a fluffy mousse-like texture.

As I did the car swap that heralds Boy's Night Out/Mom's Knitting Night the Businessman eyed the cheescake wistfully and hoped some would come home. But even he had to admit the odds of this dessert surviving an evening among women were slim. The ladies enjoyed it and it was a small group so I managed to bring home a quarter of the pan...of which the Businessman may have gotten a sliver--after it chilled in the fridge.

He declared it the best cheesecake he ever had. I thought it tasted like cheesecake. But the recipe is straightforward so I'll keep it in my bag of tricks.

Daring Bakers-February

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.


I had fun this month, even though my posting might contradict this.

I knew immediately I was going to make my Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream. So I thought I might want to try to do this cake with white chocolate. I had a potluck at my SnB and decided that would be the day to showcase my work. Alas, my "white chocolate" burned when I tried to melt it. Errg! So, a week later, I tried again. I got the White chocolate to melt, but the cake ended up looking and tasting like a really sweet omelette--Yuck!

At this point I realized the "white chocolate" I was using was actually not really white chocolate--it had no cocoa butter in it (the definition of true white chocolate). So I gave up and went extra dark bittersweet.



And it worked beautifully. Here it is getting ready to go to the SnB.

It had actually started snowing so I felt the snowflake was appropriate.

Here's my ice-cream:


I used almost 1 1/2 Tablespoons of chili powder--I even pulled out the big guns I got in Santa Fe. It was snowing and I thought it would be easier to eat icecream if it had more heat in it.

So I'm all proud of myself, bringing treats to the SnB, and giving a fond farewell to a fellow knitter who gets to live on Mount Rainier for a year, when this woman comes in--carrying a cake.

Needless to say, it's good there were lots of women there. There was a lot of chocolate. The other cake tasted much better than mine, but my ice cream was pretty stellar.

What I learned:

• read your labels
• I had never made a flourless cake before--not my favorite
• I make kick a$$ ice cream

Daring Bakers-October

Once again, I managed to do my challenge early in October, but I forgot to blog about it.

Our recipe this month was hand-tossed pizzas. I make pizza all the time. But I've never tossed it.

Turns out, the tossing isn't as scary as I thought it would be. Than again:

Oops. But seriously, I have finally found a use for all those skills I learned in Marching Band Colorguard (Hi Kerrie BTW).

Anyway, the other aspect of the challenge was to have a couple toppings. I am all about creative pizza. But I had a few mouths to feed this day:

Applesauce and cinnamon-The kids love this. If I wasn't saving my apples for caramel apples, I would have used them. I probably would have put caramel on the pizza too.

Olive oil, fresh tomato, fresh mozzarella, Fleur de Sel (fancy sea salt). This would have been my favorite, but I'm trying to consume less dairy.

Hummus, Spinach, roasted garlic. My mom and I were the only ones who tried this. It was pretty good.

You can find the Pizza crust recipe for DB here along with the bittersweet story of why we covered ourselves with falling dough. Generally, pizza dough is easy to riff, but the story deserves to be read.

Had it not been raining this day, I would have wowed everyone by slapping the crust right on the grill and grilling the pizza. We do this all Summer. It's fairly easy as long as you can control your grill's temp. You simply slap the dough right on the grill (lowest heat) let it set up (about 10-20 seconds), flip it, add toppings, and remove before after the cheese is melted but before it burns.

There is a rumor that obsene amounts of sugar will be in November's challenge.

Shhhhh.

Daring Bakers-September

Has this ever happened to you? You know you have something due and you choose this one time not to procrastinate and actually finish with lots and lots of time to spare, only to turn it in late.

I woke p this morning to discover my DB challenge is due today (granted it's a loose guideline but...).

This month's challenge was Lavash. An Armenian style cracker. A secondary challenge involved an accompaniment that was vegan/gluten free. As I spent six weeks last Spring teaching myself how to bake bread, but never made crackers, I went into this one with confidence.

The ingredients: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5



I cheat and use my Kitchenaid Mixer to knead the dough. I just turn it on and leave it until the dough is ready--usually about 10-12 minutes.



I rolled the crakers out to fit into my cookie sheet and knew they would be too thick. I'm okay with that.



I dusted them with Fleur de Sel and rosemary. They made a wonderful, thin, flatbread. A little longer in the oven might have crisped them, but my family had no problem polishing off the batch.



I served these with a Cuban inspired black-bean stew (ad lib from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian) and rice. The stew recipe escapes me but I know it was vegan. Cooked blackbeans, onion, green chiles, carrot, seasonings. The kids ate the crakers and rice.

What I learned:

• I had never made crackers before. And I must admit I still haven't.
• There was a gluten free version of this recipe. I had no desire to try it.
• Given my past experiences with bread, these were relatively easy. I might consider making crackers more often (but, then, who am I kidding?)

RECIPE - Recipe Reference: The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread, by Peter Reinhart. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA. Copyright 2001. ISBN-10: 1-58008-268-8, ISBN-13: 978-158008-268-6.

• 1 1/2 cups (6.75 oz) unbleached bread flour or gluten free flour blend (If you use a blend without xanthan gum, add 1 tsp xanthan or guar gum to the recipe)
• 1/2 tsp (.13 oz) salt
• 1/2 tsp (.055 oz) instant yeast
• 1 Tb (.75 oz) agave syrup or sugar
• 1 Tb (.5 oz) vegetable oil* 1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 Tb (3 to 4 oz) water, at room temperature
• Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, or kosher salt for toppings

1. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt yeast, agave, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water, but be prepared to use it all if needed.
2. For Non Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should pass the windowpane test (see http://www.wikihow.com/Determine-if-Bre … ong-Enough for a discription of this) and register 77 degrees to 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), satiny to the touch, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
3. Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing).
4. For Non Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices on the dough (such as alternating rows of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, kosher or pretzel salt, etc.) Be careful with spices and salt - a little goes a long way. If you want to precut the cracker, use a pizza cutter (rolling blade) and cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.
6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).
7. When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. You can then snap them apart or snap off shards and serve.

Daring Bakers-July

The July Challenge for Daring Bakers is a Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream. I don't know how DBs choose thier recipes, or how they choose the person who chooses the recipes, but you can follow the link above to get the recipe. I cut, paste, deleted all the info I didn't need and ended up with a three page recipe. That is a challenge! I'm still amazed I haven't found this group before.



Whenever I make a convoluted recipe I assemble all my ingredients to get a quick visual. Not only do I find out quickly if I have enough of everything, but it also gives me a picture to post here. This batch of ingredients is deceptive, most of them get used two or three times, as there are six different parts to this cake.

Another picture to entertain while I blather:



I immediately decided not to veganize. First of all, there were a million eggs and a fair share of cream and butter. Second, with all those eggs, I was in for a mess wih my altitude adjustments anyway.

Altitude adj for approx 5000 feet:

• Increased oven temp 15 degrees
• There were seven yolks and five whites--I used all seven whites.

The cake rose beautifully and (sigh of relief) stayed risen. It was perfectly risen--no dome or sinkage at all! And for some reason, no picture at all! The assembly was straightforward, though there were lots of steps.

New to me:

• I've never successfully toasted nuts before this. Usually there are more cinders than nuts. I had to keep my wits about me (ergo I made the cake last night when everyone was in bed)
• I've never made this kind of buttercream. It came out light and fluffy and perfect. I still don't like buttercream.
• Never made praline, or praline paste. It was surprisingly simple.

I prepared everything last night except the ganache, which I made this morning (and put in my coffee, and debated puring on my eggs, and considered bathing in, but I digress). I had a dark chocolate ganache on my wedding cake (which my mom made) so there is a special place in my arteries heart for ganche.

Voila!

Like my cakestand? The idea has potential--you could stuff a couple pretty flowers or berries in the wineglasses. I especially love the way my 5yo sauntered into the picture wearing only his underwear. All sorts of classy around here, let me tell you.

Do I Qualify?

I made the Danish Braid that seems to be last month's daring baker challenge. I tried to get cute and make a bow at the end but it didn't turn out the way I envisioned. Luckily it tasted great.

Recipe

Above is my assemblage of ingredients. After I took this picture I thought "Where are my apples?"

So I substituted four hard nectarines for the two errant apples. They dissolved into the filling, but gave it a thick, apple-butter feel.



See the windowpane? That part that looks like a hole is a thin film of well-developed gluten. When you have this, you know your dough is well-kneaded. I substitued a cup of whole wheat flour and my orange zest and cardamom are still pretty coarse, so the windowpane will tear easier than if it were a simple white dough. The warm, spicy scent of this dough is wonderful. The combination of Cardamon and Citrus reminds me of a Chai recipe I have.

Once the dough has been turned, i.e. stuffed with seemingly half its weight in butter and rolled into 54 layers of flaky goodness, it becomes a vessel for many things other than the strudel-like pastry in the recipe. Think crescent rolls, twisted churro-like sticks, and any manner of puff-pastryish concoctions.

This recipe earned a thumbs up from my family. I love that the pastry can stand on it's own without filling or frosting. That said, I think I will try a spicy pumpkin filling in the fall. I might also try a filling of caramalized onions, mushrooms and chard.

Daring Bakers

I was surfing around some vegan blogs and stumbled on one that talked about "Daring Bakers" and had a picture of a beautiful Danish braid. I thought it was from some cookbook and surfed merrily along. A few blogs later, I saw it again, then again. What is this Daring Baker thing?

Turns out, it's a group of people who love baking experiments challenges. They are given a new recipe each month and they make it and then blog about it.

http://daringbakersblogroll.blogspot.com/

Why haven't I heard about this sooner? I'm making the Danish Braid as I type (there's LOTS of waiting) and I will post when finished. I hope they let me in.