Daring Bakers' Challenge: Quick bread

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

I decided to go for a lemon bread. I think we've established that I love citrus flavors, even during (what is supposed to be) winter. It's chock-full of lemon zest and lemon juice, but I decided to increase the flavor even more by adding on a lemon glaze. As usual, the office enjoyed it. And like the name said, the bread was quick and easy to put together. Best of both worlds!

Daring Bakers' challenge: Filipino dessert Sans Rival

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

Now, I wasn't quite daring enough to try the second recipe, Bibingka, which included things like salted eggs and glutinous rice flour. Not quite up my alley. But sans rival? Which apparently means "without rival?" Oh yeah. That's definitely true.

It's no secret that I love me some meringue. This is like a giant meringue cake that Aunt Betty and I made. We piped giant meringue discs, then layered them with French buttercream and layers of cashews. Seriously, it's as good as it sounds. The meringue melts into the buttercream and it's one of the tastiest desserts I've ever had. I am 100% making this again. Possibly very, very soon.

I don't often repost these recipes, but I'm definitely sharing this one, with the modifications we made (which are quite a few).

Sans Rival (12 servings)

Ingredients:

Meringues
10 large egg whites, room temperature
1 cup white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 cups chopped, toasted cashews

French buttercream
5 large egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1½ teaspoon almond extract

Directions:
1. For meringues: Preheat oven to moderate 325°F.
2. Trace bottom of cake pan on parchment paper to get four circles. Lay parchment on flat baking sheets (will likely take at least two sheets).
3. In a large clean, dry glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites on medium until foamy. Sprinkle with cream of tartar. Gradually add sugar, a couple of tablespoons at a time, continuing to beat now at high speed until stiff shiny peaks form.
4. Move meringue to piping bag with large open tip. Pipe meringue into the circles until completely used.
5. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, checking after 30 minutes. (At this point, we actually shut off the oven and left the door closed, letting the meringues dry out. Your meringues should be as dry as possible without breaking.) Peel off parchment paper before completely cooling.
6. For French buttercream: Put the egg yolks in a mixing bowl. Beat at high speed until the yolks have doubled in volume and are a lemon yellow.
7. Put the sugar and water in a heavy pan and cook over medium heat, stirring the sides down only until all the sugar is dissolved and the syrup reaches 235° F.
8. With the mixer on high, very slowly pour the syrup down the sides of the bowl, until all has been added. Be careful as the very hot syrup could burn you if it splashes from the beaters. Continue beating on high until the mixture is room temperature, about 15 mins.
9. Still on high, beat in the soft, room temperature butter a tablespoon at a time. Add flavoring after you beat in the butter. Refrigerate the buttercream for at least an hour, and whip it smooth just before you use it.
10. Assembly: Set bottom meringue on cake board with a dab of butter cream to hold it in place. Spread a thin layer of buttercream, then spread a layer of the crushed cashews. Then place another meringue on top. Repeat with a thin layer of buttercream, cashews, meringue, thin layer of buttercream, cashews, meringue, and finally buttercream the top and cover with a layer of cashews.

Daring Bakers' challenge: Povitica

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

Looks like a basic bread, right? I can honestly say I'd seen this stuff before but never knew its name. It's pronounced po-va-teet-sa, and the Internet tells me it's Croatian. Let's just go with the general Eastern European. Basically, it's bread dough rolled out with a walnut-cinnamon mixture spread out on top, rolled up and then wound around in a pan to get the snazzy pattern.

See snazzy pattern, Exhibit C. I have to admit, Aunt Betty did more of this than I did. I have yet to find a true love for bread, but she makes it all the time, and it's always perfect. I did help with the rolling though, so that counts, right? I was busy making some other treats I will show you later. But, with how good this filling was, I am definitely considering making it again, especially around the holidays. Christmas morning breakfast, perhaps?

Daring Bakers' challenge: Croissants

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

Man, just look at those layers. I am going to go ahead and say this is a once-in-thirty-years sort of recipe, similar to the puff pastry Aunt Betty and I made more than a year ago. It's for remarkably similar reasons, too: You have to roll out, then fold, then roll out, then fold, then chill dough over and over again. That's how you get those pretty layers. But everything's worth trying once, and they were pretty good with some nice melty butter and stew that Aunt Betty made. So I'm glad they were the challenge this month.

Another thing I'd do if I ever made these again (in 30 years) is make more than one batch. With the entire process of multiple rests of the dough and multiple risings, it's 12 hours. And it makes 12 croissants. One croissant per hour. Sheesh! But I'm definitely glad I've officially made these, especially because they're officially the second Julia Child recipe I've cooked, after her chocolate almond cake (which I've made twice!). I'm hoping to up that number this winter, probably starting with her classic boeuf bourguignon, or maybe an orange almond version of that cake. Yummmm.

Daring Bakers' challenge: Candy!

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!


I have to admit, this is my most favorite challenge in the last few months. There are so many options with candy, and yet I don't make it often because it's pretty challenging with temperatures and stuff. This is citrus paté de fruit...you know how I love my citrus! Basically it's homemade gummy candy. I don't like picking just one citrus, so this is lemon-lime-orange. Basically, this uses pectin to set, which I've never used before. It also has applesauce, which naturally has pectin. When we were cooking it (which took forever), I was worried the apple flavor wouldn't cook out, but it did! I want to try this again, for sure. Maybe in winter, when I'm dreaming of warm weather.

And these are chocolate hazelnut truffles. No fresh hazelnuts that we could find at this time of year, but we followed a recipe Daring Bakers provided and made hazelnut praline, kind of like peanut brittle with hazelnuts. You crunch that up in the food processor, mix it with the ganache for the center. After that chills, roll it up and coat it with crushed hazelnut, and we have truffles. They were a-maz-ing. My only problem with the challenge was I didn't have time to try making everything I wanted to! There was a recipe for honeycomb candy and filled bon-bons. I want to do filled chocolates for sure, but need to come up with a good filling that's not caramel. Ideas?

Daring Bakers' challenge: Fresh Frasiers

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

So technically, this was supposed to be a sponge cake with fresh berries in the pastry cream center (frasier is French for strawberries). But honestly, we all know I'm a citrus girl. And for some reason, I wasn't feeling the strawberries this challenge. So Aunt Betty and I, after visiting the City Market for the first time, made a lemon sponge cake in my new apartment's oven. Luckily, it worked perfectly, which I wasn't expecting, because the other cake we made that day failed miserably.

The pastry cream we flavored with lemon as well, and then on top is almond paste and more lemon-flavored pastry cream. Some lemon zest on top, and we had one tasty cake. The almond and lemon together was different, but super tasty. My biggest problem with cake challenges is no one to feed them to. They're hard to transport, and I have a harder time making them pretty than I do with cupcakes. So I'm hoping next month's challenge is something totally different than something I've made before. Like doughnuts. I really liked the doughnut challenge.

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.

I can honestly say I've never had the desire to make baklava homemade. I guess Greek is just not a type of cuisine I often run across. But when challenged to make my own phyllo dough, I was definitely interested (I skipped last month's Daring Baker because it was crazy intricate and I didn't have the time).

Aunt Betty looked up a way to roll out phyllo dough on a pasta maker, which made it turn out perfectly: nice and thin. The recipe called for multiple layers of phyllo dough sandwiched around a couple layers of nuts (pistachios, walnuts and almonds, in our case) cooked in a simple syrup, then with a honey mixture drizzled over the top of it all.

It was definitely super rich, and to me tasted just an awful lot like honey. Lots of layers and stacking and lots of time. Not too difficult, though. Just time-consuming. Next time I make it, it will need to be for a picnic or something, because it's too darn messy to take to work and now I have lots of baklava left over in my fridge!

Daring Bakers' challenge: Maple mousse in an edible container

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blogCheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

Anyone who knows me well, especially who's around me during the fall season, knows my love of all things maple. I blame my stepmom Cathie, who is Canadian and introduced me to the wonderfulness of maple candy. So, I was excited when I saw this challenge. I have to admit, it was a little bit strange, this mousse. It has gelatin in it, and I think Aunt Betty and I weren't paying enough attention to it, and it got weirdly chunky at times. We had to whisk frantically for a bit, then it was fine.

The edible container was made of walnuts, you know, for the maple-walnut flavor combo. Definitely interesting to take a bite of it. I think the mousse was definitely cute when it's piped inside. All in all, I want to try mousse again, and concentrate on it more.

Daring Bakers' challenge: Yeasted meringue coffee cake

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.


I must admit, I'm not much of a coffee cake person. Actually, I'm not much of a sweets-in-the-morning person. Surprising, I know, given my affinity for sweets at all other times of the day, but morning is just too damn early for something sweet. That's why Aunt Betty and I made this in the afternoon.


After making this, you know, I might just eat it in the morning some day. What made it so awesome? The meringue inside. This is made by rolling out the dough into a rectangle and then spreading a meringue filling, topping it with chocolate and pecans (or walnuts) and rolling it up like a jelly roll. Then into a ring, some slits and another rise. Look it that gooey filling in there. Yum.


My one problem was rolling it up into the ring and having filling squeeze out, but ultimately it ended up good. And really, how nice does it need to look when it tasted so good?!

Daring Bakers' challenge: Biscuit Joconde Imprime around an Entremet

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.


When I first heard of this challenge, I was pretty intimidated. I had never heard of such a thing. Turns out it's a pretty fun dessert that's incredibly customizable. The biscuit jaconde imprime was a flat almond cake that you poured the batter of over some designs made of pastry cream. That cake became the outer rim to hold a filling, or the entremets.


Aunt Betty and I had a few problems, mainly in that the pastry cream we made hardly turned out. We had to thicken it a LOT, which meant the cake baked a little funny and the pattern became less crisp. I decided to ignore the fact that there was lots of snow outside and make this a nice summery key lime entremets filling. So we had the almond cake around the edge, then made a nice graham crust for the bottom. Then a layer of key lime filling, a layer of more graham cracker crumbs, then more key lime. Our last problem was I was too impatient to wait for it to set completely. But it was so darn tasty I just wanted to try it!

I want to make this again when I'm more patient and work out the pastry cream recipe better. It's definitely provides limitless options for customization, and I think would make a pretty snazzy birthday sweet for a friend!

2010 baking goals recap

So back in August, I gave myself some goals. I'm one of those kinds of people who really struggles without a constant in my life. For the last 17 years, I'd had school there to pace my life, with homework to come home to and breaks to plan vacations for. I knew that when I left school, I would get really bored really quickly without some goals. I wrote this post to give myself eight baking goals to complete before the end of the year. Granted, I'm a little late writing about it, but here, in pictures, are my seven of eight goals. I failed on one...whatever.


1. Macarons. I actually made these a couple times, once with Aunt Betty and once at Mom's in Michigan. I got reallllly tired of egg whites by the end of this goal. Maybe this year I will experiment more with flavors, but for now, I'm happy not beating egg whites.

2. Jayhawk cake pops. This is the goal I failed on. I only recently perfected just plain old cake pops, so shapes are coming soon.


3. Fondant-covered cake. Okay, so it's only a fondant bow, but it was still covered on top with the fondant bow. This cake was for Grandma's 90th birthday party, and she loved it. I will try more fondant work later, but this bow dyed my fingers pink for about a week, so I will go for a different color next time.


4. Maple leaf candies. While these aren't leaf-shaped, this maple fudge ended up tasting exactly like those leaf candies I love...like pure maple-y sugar.


5. Marshmallows. I've made these a couple times now. This first time was just for fun, and the second to give as gifts with Grandma's famous hot chocolate mix. Perhaps I should try some flavored ones soon.


6. Buche de noel. This tasty French tradition is something Aunt Betty and I tackled, and it was so worth it. It's my first jelly roll-style cake, and I know I will be making plenty more. Giant Swiss roll, anyone?


7. Doughnuts. I've actually made three styles now: apple cider, chocolate glazed and maple glazed. What I've learned? Oil is very temperamental.


8. Frosted sugar cookies. I gave this to myself as only a partial goal, but then it became a Daring Bakers' challenge, so that was perfect. Aunt Betty and I made the cookies and did the icing all in one day, and that took a LONG time. Not doing it again any time soon.

So seven of eight isn't too shabby. Coming in the next couple days: my new baking goals for this year.

Daring Bakers' challenge: Stollen

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.


What is stollen, you ask? Or at least that's what I asked. Apparently it's some sort of fruity bread, which honestly didn't sound so hot to me. I'm in that generation that thinks fruitcake is better used as a doorstop. Forget that I don't recall ever actually trying the stuff. When I showed the challenge to Aunt Betty, she got excited, because stollen is also apparently a German bread. We have lots of German in us, as evidenced by her (and my mom's) maiden name: Hofmeister. And our stubbornness. And our work ethic. And that when Aunt Betty really gets talking, her D's mysteriously turn into T's — think "good" said as "gooT."


Anyway, the bread wasn't that hard, besides the fact that it had to rest overnight before we could bake it. Luckily, I was planning on going to her house two days in a row anyway. So in the dough were all kinds of citrus, some almonds, dried cherries (we left out the raisins, which happens to be a food I HATE). It rose overnight, and then we formed it into the wreath shape and we cut the slits. It turned very golden brown, which was a little bit strange. After taking it out, you're supposed to put layers and layers of powdered sugar on top, along with almonds and those weird candied cherries.

All in all, not too shabby. It was a really tasty bread, and definitely would make a good breakfast food. I think if I ever make it again, I'll really edit the recipe. Maybe more like a monkey bread, or something chocolate-y. Hmmm.

Daring Bakers' challenge: Crostata

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

Okay, I won't lie, I don't really get crostata. Not that it's hard, but what makes it different from a normal pie or tart. Apparently it's Italian, especially the pasta frolla, which is the crust. It's pretty simple, so that was nice. Just throw some ingredients in the food processor, knead it a bit and you're done. You're supposed to make it in a tart pan, but I don't have one, so I used a pie pan.


Aunt Betty and I made this earlier this month, the same time as the pecan pie cupcakes and buckeyes. We didn't have a solid plan for a filling, but she had some cherry preserves she'd made earlier in September from their cherry trees out back. It turned out to be the perfect filling! Some of the other bakers did some crazier fillings, like a roasted beetroot and chilli chocolate crostata with a charred carrot lattice, or some savory options. I don't think I'm that adventurous with desserts.

But now it's time to start thinking of Christmas-themed desserts. I'm hoping the December challenge will fit that role. I definitely have to make pizzelles, something I make every year. My Aunt Mary K's mom Mildred makes them every year, and I miss them so much I've started making them. I might even transform them into a Christmas cannoli. On top of that, I'm starting Christmas decorating and movie-watching. Count for "White Christmas" (my Christmas movie of choice): 3. And it's not even December!

Daring Bakers' Challenge: doughnuts!

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.


You might remember, but when I came up with my baking goals, doughnuts were on the list. Since then, I've made them. Twice. This challenge was my third. They're not hard, per se, but getting the frying right has proven to be pretty testy. All three times I've been at Aunt Betty's, and thank goodness, or I would have failed miserably. First was regular doughnuts with a chocolate glaze and sprinkles. Good, but the oil was too hot. Second was apple cider doughnuts, heavy enough to weigh you down but oh-so-good.


Anyway, I thought it was funny when this Daring Baker challenge came out, because I'd just made some doughnuts. But it can never hurt to try to perfect them! So for these doughnuts, we went with a basic yeast dough for light, yummy doughnuts. I used my doughnut cutter I bought while visiting Mary in NYC last fall. It makes slightly bigger doughnuts than most places call for, but it's super easy to use!


Like I said earlier, the frying part is a lot harder than it looks. The temperature of the oil jumps all over the place, and too hot and they get a lot heavier. These, though, were our best attempt yet. They were light and fluffy and wonderful. We put a maple glaze on top — maple is easily my favorite fall flavor! A few Halloween sprinkles, and we had a great fall treat. At like 4 p.m. Which seems like a weird time for doughnuts, but whatever.


So I'm curious now to see what our next challenge is, and if it will be something else I've recently made or something totally outside of my comfort zone. I might have to actually make these some time for a morning treat!

Daring Bakers' challenge: decorated sugar cookies (4 of 8 goals met)

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

First, let me explain what this is. I have joined an online group called the Daring Bakers, which is a community of bloggers who make the same dessert every month. I joined last month in time to do this challenge, which, interestingly enough, ended up being one of my dessert goals for this year! How weird. Had it not been a challenge, I think I might not have made these by the end of the year. I'm glad I've gotten my first cookies decorated with royal icing out of the way. I can't imagine how frustrating this would have been without step-by-step instructions.


Anyway, the theme was to make cookies that remind me of September. That generally means the beginning of fall in Kansas, although the weather has only just now started to feel like fall. So I made fall leaves during a trip to Aunt Betty's. She had a couple old leaf cookie cutters and I had the day off, so it was perfect.


What I learned from this: do it over a couple days. The cookies are easy enough to make and held their shape really well. The hard part was the royal icing. You have to change consistencies for outlining and for flooding, and it wasn't until the last color that I really figured it out. Plus, piping made my hand hurt after a while! There's a lot of fun ways to decorate though, like that closeup of the brown leaf, which actually has luster dust on it. I'm thinking I will make cookies again around Christmas time, now that I've experimented a little. All-in-all, though, it was a fun time!

Now I have half of my goals conquered and three months left. Those cake pops and the fondant-covered cake, though, scare me a little bit. Before tackling those, I have to decide what kind of birthday cake I'm making myself this week :)