June 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge: Baklava

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.


For those of you unfamiliar with Baklava, its a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of phyllo pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey. I was first introduced to it while studying in Canada and I'm definitely a fan but I haven't had any since I left, so when I saw that it was this month's challenge, I was very excited. It would normally be pretty simple to make using store bought phyllo but this challenge required that we make homemade phyllo, which was, well, difficult. The recipe can be found on the Daring Bakers Website. 

I began with the phyllo dough which was made by combining flour, salt, water, vegetable oil and cider vinegar then kneading it until smooth and letting it rest for 2 hours wrapped tightly in plastic wrap. During the resting time I prepared the syrup by boiling a cinnamon stick, lime rind, cloves, honey, sugar and water together for 10 minutes. 

While the syrup cooled, I created the nut mixture by grinding the walnuts, almonds, pistachios, allspice and cinnamon in the food processor. 

The phyllo dough was ready for rolling and I followed the instructions as best I could, trying to get it as thin as possible by rolling and stretching. I then layered about 5 sheets of phyllo, making sure to butter in between sheets, then 1/3 nut mixture, then another 5 sheets, more nut mixture, until the phyllo and nut mixture were all used up. I cut the baklava into pieces and generously buttered the top.

I baked it for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F, then cut it again and baked it for another 30 minutes. It smelled amazing when it was baking which made me a little upset that it had to sit overnight and I wouldn't be able to eat it until the next day. I removed it from the oven and it was lovely and golden. 

It looked just like the picture in the recipe and I felt a sense of achievement. I poured the syrup over it and left it to absorb overnight. There was so much syrup that my baklava actually began to float but I wasn't concerned since the recipe said we should expect it to be a lot of syrup but it would be absorbed overnight. The next day though I awoke to disappointment. The baklava was drowning in tons of syrup. I had to pour off the excess.

The flavour of the baklava was sweet, with wonderful spice. The flavour was terrific. But everything else was turned out to be well, not so great. The baklava was very wet and sticky, the  "phyllo" I made wasn't thin or flaky enough and the cinnamon sticks hadn't been ground up small enough so every now and then I bit into a very tough bite of stick. Had I known that would happen I would've just used cinnamon powder. I was very disappointed since I was so looking forward to recreating this dessert. I will definitely try it again one day, but with store bought phyllo and a different recipe and see if I have better luck. 

Chocolate Covered Chocolate Dipped in Chocolate

A good friend of mine was leaving for Spain for six weeks and she made one request "Something Chocolate". I begun to quiz her on what she liked with chocolate. Did she like nuts, caramel,coconut, what accompaniments could I put in this dessert. To which she replied that all those things were just distractions, she wanted chocolate, forget the other stuff. So when I saw this recipe for Life by Chocolate on Pioneer Woman's Blog, I thought of her. These are chocolate cupcakes with a Hersheys Kiss inside dipped in chocolate ganache. Unfortunately the weekend before she left I bit off more than I could chew and fell ill, so I couldn't make them for her departure, however I made them this weekend to commemorate her long awaited return.

Dry mixture

These cupcakes were simple to make. I combined the salt, sugar and flour in a bowl. I used whole wheat flour instead of white because with all this chocolate I figured noone could tell the difference and we could all use some extra fiber here and there. Then I whisked the eggs, vanilla, baking soda and natural yogurt (used instead of buttermilk) together in a measuring cup. I melted the butter over medium heat and added the cocoa.  I used Hersheys Special Dark Cocoa Powder. I added the boiling water and removed the pot from the heat. Then I combined all three mixtures, the dry, the wet and the cocoa.

Wet mixture

Cocoa mixture

  

Dry, wet and cocoa mixtures combined

I filled each muffin cup with 1/4cup batter and placed a kiss lightly in the centre of each muffin cup. The muffins baked for 20 minutes.

As they cooled I made the chocolate ganache by adding warm cream, corn syrup and vanilla to chopped chocolate and whisking until smooth. When both the cupcakes and the ganache were cool, I dipped the cupcakes in them.

These were very chocolaty, not too sweet, with a sweet surprise milk chocolate kiss in the middle. This was chocolaty, chocolaty, chocolaty and quite dark. They were good and although I got rave reviews from my tasters, I didn't think it was great.A moister, fluffier cupcake recipe would take this from good to great!

Come Rain or Shine

For about two weeks the rain fell, and fell, and fell. It felt like it would never end. The weather inspired me to make something warm and cozy for the weekend and I selected a bread pudding with spiced rum sauce. I even decided that only a wimpy baker would go buy the bread to make the bread pudding, I on the other hand was a daring baker who did not believe in short cuts! So I decided I'd make cinnamon raisin bread days before and then turn it into bread pudding on the weekend. But, just as my plan came together the sun appeared, blazing with a vengeance and I just couldn't bring myself to execute my plan.

I went back to the drawing board and while in the grocery store I was inspired by a huge bag of limes. I'll make Key Lime Pie, I thought. But these weren't key limes, just regular limes. While talking about it with a friend she made a mistake and called it Lime Cay Pie. I liked the way it sounded and decided to rename my dessert after one of my favorite beaches. After all, this weekend would've been perfect for a trip to Lime Cay plus I'd eliminate the risk of being accosted by purists who are against using anything but Key Limes to make this dessert. I searched for a recipe and found one for Key Lime Tart in Martha's Baking Handbook. I love tarts and thought it would be more elegant and easier to slice so I went for it! Lime Cay Tart!

I ditched the crust in the book and decided to make one from ginger biscuits. The same crust I made for the Nectarine and Mascarpone Tart. I thought the ginger and lime would go well together. Perhaps it could've done with more baking because it crumbled quite a bit at the edges, affecting the look of my tart. After making the crust with processing ginger biscuits and combining the crumbs with melted butter, I baked it for 8 minutes and left it to cool. 

The filling was soooo easy to make, I beat egg yolks and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then added lime zest, condensed milk and lime juice. I then filled the cooled crust and baked it for 10 minutes. Then I attempted to cover it loosely with plastic wrap but once the plastic wrap touched the top some of it stuck to it. It ruined the smooth finish of the tart :( . Oh, the simple lessons I learn while baking. I placed it in the fridge and left it to cool. I declined to make the garnish. It would take 30-40 minutes of cooking to make and I did not have the luxury of time for such a frivolous undertaking. 

I tasted the tart and it was wonderful. It was tart but sweet, silky smooth and refreshing, just the thing you'd want on a nice hot day. The book suggested that it be served with sweetened whipped cream, which I also didn't bother to make but I can see why they would suggest it. Something to cut the tartness a bit. For me though, it was great without it. Had a lovely zing to it!

On Saturday my fiancé mentioned he felt for ice cream so of course I volunteered to make some for him. I chose Unbelieveably Good Chocolate Blueberry Ice Cream from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours. I couldn't resist trying this recipe. The name was taunting me and I just had to know whether it did its name justice. This was my second time making ice cream but the first time I made one which contained egg yolks and had a custard that needed to be heated. Well I learned some lessons there as well, I cooked the custard into something resembling scrambled eggs twice before getting it right. But finally, on the third try I made the custard and heated it properly. Then I poured it over the chopped chocolate, stirred it until smooth and then put it in my ice cream maker. When it was almost done I added the blueberry preserves. I let the mixture freeze overnight before tasting.

The ice cream was tasty, very chocolaty and had a beautiful dark colour but unbelievably good? No. Just good. So, like the brownies and chocolate chip cookies, I'm still on the search for the perfect recipe.

Too Short Shortcake

Two friends of mine requested strawberry shortcake so I selected it as this week's project. While doing recipe research I discovered that what we have been accustomed to calling "Strawberry Shortcake" was not really Strawberry Shortcake. Real strawberry shortcake is made with biscuits. Yeah, biscuits, weird huh? Anyway, I set out to make the cake version and came upon this fabulous recipe for Strawberry Cream Cake from Cooks Illustrated. 

After last week's daring bakers challenge I thought this one would be 

easy as pie. then something happened that brought me down from my cloud of invincibility. I began by making the cake and followed the directions to the letter. But while it was baking I noticed it hadn't risen as much as I had expected. It also took 10 minutes more than the recipe said it would to bake. I let the cake cool, wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight. It bothered me all night. I thought about it and the next morning I awoke feeling renewed and decided to make another cake. I decided to use a recipe for moist yellow cake layers from Nick Malgieri's Bake!. I figured the problem with the first one was the delicate folding in of the egg whites. Maybe I had mixed them too much. This recipe didn't have that, I thought it would be harder to screw up. 

While the cake baked, I prepared the strawberries. One of the things that drew me to this recipe was that it not only had fresh strawberries but also contained another filling made with macerated strawberries and cherry brandy. I sliced 24 of the strawberries and quartered the rest of them. 

Then I removed the cake from the oven. This cake didn't rise enough either. The cake was supposed to be 5cm tall and it was only 3cm. So with two short cakes I decided to make the best of it, cut each cake in half and use three of those halves to make the strawberry shortcake. 

Cake #1

Cake #2

I liked the texture of the second cake the most so I decided to use two layers of it and one layer of the first one. While cake #2 cooled, I macerated  the quartered strawberries with 6 tablespoons of sugar. After an hour I strained the strawberries and put the liquid in a saucepan with 3 tablespoons of cherry brandy and simmered it for 5 minutes until it became quite syrupy. The quartered strawberries were then pulsed in the food processor 5 times and added to the syrup. I put the mixture to cool while I made the cream. The cream was simple and involved beating cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together and whipping that with heavy cream. 

I assembled the cake by placing the fresh strawberry halves around the circumference of a cake layer then filled the center with the macerated strawberry mixture. Then I added a generous layer of the cream mixture. I repeated this for the next layer. Then I placed the final layer on top, topped it with cream and surrounded the top layer with fresh strawberry halves. My middle layer suffered an injury while being transferred, it broke in several places. I just put it together and hoped that this wouldn't seriously affect the stability of the cake.

I put the cake in the fridge to cool for a couple hours before I cut it. This was one of those weeks when I had a lot of tasters and I was nervous about how it would come out. I had some strawberry shortcake lovers in the group and I didn't want to disappoint them by not doing their favorite dessert justice. Despite my issues with the cake not rising and the breaking of the middle layer, the cake was deeeeelicious and still quite beautiful. I even have a request to make another one next weekend! 

May 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge: Chocolate Marquise on Meringue

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

This is my first Daring Bakers Challenge and I was both exciting and nervous. This dessert had several different components which took quite a long time to prepare. It's also a dessert I've never heard about in my entire life. What's marquise? Well, I was determined to find out. I welcomed the challenge and headed to the kitchen early this morning feeling daring as ever. I prepared the quarter recipe variation since six portions of dessert seemed like a quantity I could easily get rid of rather than the original recipe's 18. The recipe is available on the Daring Kitchen website. 


I started with the chocolate base. Instead of using a double boiler to heat the cream, I took the easy route and used the microwave, then I poured it on the chocolate. I stirred it until smooth and then added cayenne, salt, corn syrup, vanilla. cocoa powder, black pepper, butter and rum. I used dark rum instead of tequila because I already had it on hand from when I made Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Besides, I like rum better!


After that I began preparing my meringue. I added the sugar to my egg whites and splash of apple cider vinegar. Then I heated it over a pot of simmering water until the sugar dissolved, stirring it with my favorite utensils, my bare (clean) hands. They said we should use the whisk attachment of the mixer to whisk it until soft peaks appear. My cheap but effective mixer doesn't have a whisk attachment, so I decided that I would do it the way master chefs did. I'd whisk it by hand. After all, Julie Child would've done it that way, it can't be that hard right? WRONG! I whisked and whisked until my arm was sour, and all I had were frothy whites. I decided to try whipping it with the attachments that came with my mixer. They worked just fine, I didn't need the whisk attachment. My right arm was very happy. I tucked my meringue in the fridge while I worked on the caramel.

I got a small saucepan out and added the sugar and water over medium heat. I let it bubble and boil until all the water was evaporated and a strange thing happened. IT got completely hard in the pot. I took the spoon and started digging it from the corners of the pot. I realized that the heat wasn't high enough to keep the sugar liquid and when I turned the heat up, the sugar gradually began to melt again and turn brown. When it was sufficiently dark I stirred the cream in and let it darken a little more before removing it from the fire and leaving it to cool. After it cooled I poured it into one of my handy dandy squeeze bottles. A trick I learned from someone on Food Network, I can't remember who, but I'm tempted to say it's Bobby Flay because he often uses squeeze bottles to drizzle his reductions and sauces unto his plates. 




Next step, the spiced almonds. I could't find blanched whole almonds. I don't think I've ever seen them before. So I bought raw whole almonds and hoped they'd work just as well. I whisked up my egg white til it was frothy and added the spices. I then coated the almonds in it and put them on a baking pie plate lined with foil. I baked them for half an hr and allowed them to cool while I put the marquise together.


I took my three egg yolks, which had been sitting on the counter getting to room temperature since I separated them from the whites for the meringue, and using the mixer on high speed, began whisking them. Realizing that it was going to take a long time to get the required pale thick mixture, I enlisted my friend Rachelle to hold the mixer while I went about making the sugar syrup. I boiled the sugar and water together. The recipe uses some devices to tell when the syrup is ready, devices which I did not have, so I decided to just guess when I thought the syrup was syrupy enough, then I added it to the egg mixture and took over the mixing from Rachelle. I then whipped my heavy cream until it had soft peaks and set it aside. I combined the chocolate base and the egg mixture carefully, making sure it was well incorporated without deflating. Then I folded in the cream. 


When I first read the quarter recipe, I thought to myself, what size container would I put the marquise in to produce the six 2"x2" blocks. I didn't have a container with the right dimensions but I had a brilliant idea. I'd use a muffin tin instead. I lined the tin with foil and filled all 6 muffin cups with marquise. I topped it with plastic wrap and placed it in the freezer for 5 hours. I took the opportunity to text my friends and let them know, dessert would be ready at 4.






When they arrived, I removed the marquise from the freezer and coated them with the cocoa powder. I don't have a blow torch so I decided to use the broiler to brown the meringue. Now, I know you have to watch things under the broiler VERY carefully because in no time they can go from browned to burnt but sometimes it still happens to me. This time it got a little bit darker than I'd like in a few small areas, but I caught it in time to avert disaster. I used used my handy squeeze bottle to add the caramel and sprinkled a few nuts around it. Then I placed the marquise on top, took a few pics and served it to my friends, fingers crossed.

The reviews were good overall. Some were not a fan of the cocoa, because it was bitter. I thought that perhaps if it was a thinner coating of cocoa it would've been better. One friend suggested using a sieve to lightly dust it instead, I think this is a great suggestion! Everything else was delicious. The marquise tasted like a deep dark chocolate ice cream and the meringue was just like marshmallow. The sweet and spicy almonds and the caramel sauce brought everything together neatly. It was one of those desserts though that makes you immediately serve glasses of water after a tasting. This was mostly due to the sweetness marshmallow-like meringue. The dessert made me wonder though, "instead of going through all that trouble making the marquise, couldn't I have just made a dark chocolate ice cream?" Mmmm dark chocolate ice cream, gotta add that to my to make and eat list.

So I finished my first challenge. I feel a sense of accomplishment. This was no simple cookie, this was a real test, and I met the challenge head on, executed it and it tasted good hehe. I guess I am a daring baker after all!

Update: Since serving my friends, I served the dessert to Anthony. When plating it I made sure to make the cocoa layer very thin by applying it very carefully with my fingers. I kept closer watch on the meringue and got it the perfect golden colour. With those two minor adjustments, the dessert was perfect both in taste and appearance. I would've taken a picture of it and posted it but by the time I thought of that, it was all gone!

Feeling Blue

No, I'm not sad, I actually had a wonderful weekend. This week's post is all about BLUEberries! Remember last week I mentioned that the summer berries had done a disappearing act in my usual grocery store? Well this week they're back and it took me a while to decide what to make. As I walked by the aisle with the ice cream maker I had an idea, Blueberry Ice cream! I hurried and got all my ingredients together. I used the "Blueberry-Sour Cream Ice Cream" recipe from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From my Home to Yours".

I needed a cup of blueberries, but didn't know whether a six ounce package would be enough to fill a cup so I bought two packages thinking a cup would be about 8 oz. It was a little annoying that this particular recipe was using cups to measure the fruit. I would've preferred they use weight since thats how they measure it on the package. Anyway, I ended up with one whole package of extra blueberries and decided to make blueberry muffins as well.

I felt pretty foolish when I read the little ice cream maker's instructions and discovered that this thing had to be left in the freezer for at least 8 hours! Silly me, now I wouldn't be able to churn it till 9pm. I set the bowls in the freezer as instructed and begun preparing the custard for the ice cream. I combined the blueberries, sugar, salt, lime juice and lime zest in a saucepan and cooked over medium heat until the blueberries popped to form a lovely little sauce. I pureed this in the blender for a minute and then thought of all the wonderful things I could do with just this part of the recipe alone. All the other desserts it would be lovely drizzled over. I added the cream and sour cream to the blender and pulsed a couple times to get everything incorporated. When I took a taste, I thought it needed more lime juice and sugar so I added one lime at a time, and one tablespoon of sugar at a time until my tastebuds approved. Then I poured it in a container and left it in the refrigerator to chill until the bowls for the ice cream maker were done their 8 hour freeze.

During the wait I made the muffins. I used the "Blueberry Muffin" recipe from Nick Malgieri's book "BAKE! Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking". What I like about this recipe is that he provides a basic muffin recipe and then suggests several variations. This one recipe can turn into blueberry , lemon poppy seed, apple raisin, jam or whatever else your imagination can think of muffins. IT encourages you to take the basic recipe and put your own spin on it.

I started by whisking the dry ingredients together, then I whisked the wet ingredients together with the lime zest and then combined both wet and dry mixtures. I folded in the blueberries and divided the mixture evenly among the holes in the muffin tins.

I sprinkled the tops with cinnamon sugar and baked them at 375F for 20 mins. Then I set them on the cooling rack. Look at these babies!

I've had blueberry muffins before, my mother used to make them for weekend breakfasts when I was a child. But never with fresh blueberries. The difference is apparent. There is a fresh, fruitier taste to them and I just love how the blueberries popped and infused themselves into the muffin dough. Yummy!!

Several hours later when my ice cream bowls were ready I filled each with half of the liquid I had chilled. Each one churned in my little ice cream maker for a little over 5 minutes.

I covered each bowl in plastic wrap and put them back in the freezer overnight. Then this morning at dawn I ran to the kitchen and pulled out my first frozen creation.

Isn't the colour amazing? It had a light, refreshing, creamy, tangy, taste. Ice cream is not my usual morning breakfast, but any chef (or wannabe baker) knows you gotta taste your product before you serve it!

Finding Comfort in Simplicity

I kind of struggled to find inspiration for last weekend's project. At first I had wanted to do something with summer berries. However, the sporadic supply of them at my grocery store and my reluctance to drive all over town looking for them, led me to chose something else. I saw some beautiful large D'Anjou pears and decided to make a Pear-Oat Crisp from Martha's Baking Handbook.

This dessert requires very little prep time which suit me well this weekend cause I was able to prepare it, stick it in the oven, take a shower and get ready for a movie date with the bf. The first step in preparing the dessert is combining the ingredients in the topping: butter, flour, oats, cinnamon, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Then I peeled cored and sliced my pears and mixed them with cornstarch, lime juice and mixed spice. The recipe calls for ground all spice but I couldn't find any so I used the mixed spice instead. What I loved about the pears is that they were significantly easier to core than apples. I didn't use a corer, I just used a spoon and scooped it out! 

I got my baking dish out and buttered it thoroughly, then I put the pear mixture in and generously scattered the topping over it. I popped it in the oven and cooked it for a full 55 mins. I turned off the oven but left it in there to keep warm while we were at the movies. When we got home, I served a bit of it with some vanilla ice cream. I couldn't find the ice cream scoop so its a little misshapen hehe :)

    

This was just as I expected it to be, warm, comforting, just the right amount of spice. Did I mentioned I doubled the mixed spice? I'm glad I did, it was great. And the pears, they added a fresh taste and were succulent but not mushy. This wasn't the most challenging, high reaching, stunning dessert but some of the simplest things, taste the best!