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?

2011 baking goals

Last week I wrote about the baking goals I set for myself in August. I didn't do too shabby; I completed seven of eight. Now it's time for my new baking goals for this year. I'm thinking I give myself until the end of May or so to do these. It's a very loose timeline.

1. Beignets — I won't lie, seeing these little New Orleans pastries in last year's Disney movie "The Princess and the Frog" really made me want to make them. Good thing I haven't gotten it into my head yet that I should make the whole dessert spread from the "Be Our Guest" scene from "Beauty and the Beast" (that's what I'm watching right now...seemed like a good comparison). Another inspiration for these? My friend Jonathan made them with one of his friends. I'd like to try my hand at them.

2. Souffle — Another thing I saw in a favorite movie, although this one goes much farther back than a 2009 release date. One of my favorite movies of all time is "Sabrina" with Audrey Hepburn. In that movie, there is a scene where her souffle goes terribly, but it's because she forgot to turn on the oven. Often, the biggest problem I hear with this dessert is that it doesn't rise appropriately. I'm hoping that's not a problem for me. Completed in February...click here.

3. Crepes — I had this tasty French dessert on a couple trips in the last year or so, most recent in Las Vegas and before that New York City. Both of those times I had sweet crepes, and now I'd like to try making them myself. I think the toughest part will be making the paper-thin crepe and getting it off the pan without breaking it!

4. Homemade pudding — I've made a number of custards and pudding-like things, but never plain ol' pudding. I appreciate the simplicity of instant pudding, but I want to try it the old way.

5. Cannolis — I really dislike frying things. Oil spitting freaks me out and I hate getting burnt by it, despite the fact that I got burned multiple times while working in food service. So cannoli shells are going to be an interesting feat for me. I'd like to try some traditional ones with a pastry cream and chocolate chips, but also some more interesting fillings. Suggestions are welcome! Completed in March...click here.

6. Truffles — I've made a few versions of truffles before, of the cookie dough and Oreo variety. But here I'm talking the more difficult stuff, tempering chocolate and the like. It involves a lot of temperature changes and very specific directions. But they just look too good not to try. Completed in August...click here.

7. Petit fours — These are yet another French dessert, little mini sweets for the end of a meal. I first saw them in a Martha Stewart cookbook my mom got me for graduation. There are a number of varieties, but they're often decorated and iced. It seems tedious work, but I will just have to hold my own interest I guess.

8. Jayhawk cake pops redux — This is the goal I did not achieve last time. So here's hoping I do it this time. I'm thinking March Madness... Completed in March...click here.

The last of holiday baking: Cookie dough truffles, chocolate spice cupcakes, a gingerbread house and a maple nutmeg tart

It's funny how fast the holidays fly by. There's a month of build-up, of Christmas trees, decorations, holiday music and then suddenly Christmas is here and gone. Then everyone asks how the holidays went, and this year I'm not really sure how to answer. Last Monday I got a call from my mom that I'd been expecting for a while, but was still shocking: my Grandma Hofmeister died after battling Alzheimer's for years. That same night, my Grandma Hawley (the one I baked 90th birthday treats for) went to the hospital. It was a bad day for grandmas. Strangely enough, these two less-than-happy events led to me seeing more family during the holidays than I have in years. On my mom's side, cousins, aunts, uncles and other extended family. On dad's side, I spent a bunch of time at the house, more than I would have been able to previously. Funny how those things work out. And it also meant I've spent more time at home with my parents and grandmother in the last month or so than probably the last whole year. So, I guess the holidays teach us there is good and bad, but you just have to try to see the good.


I had a couple baking dates in the weeks before the holidays, the first with a couple of my friends from work, Sarah and Christy. We decorated sugar cookies, I made cookie dough truffles and Sarah made healthy(ish) buckeyes. It was nice to spend time with them, and watch Sarah's son create masterpieces on his easel. Plus, I made these truffles, which while crazy good, were suuuper rich. Somehow my friend Nick managed to eat four at work that night. I'm not quite sure how.


Another treat I brought into work were these chocolate spice cupcakes a la Martha Stewart. The icing was my own creation, a swiss meringue buttercream that I added a few spices to (nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger). It had a really subtle flavor but made the cupcakes really tasty. On top were Christmas light cupcake toppers from Bake it Pretty, which were also rings. I ordered them a while ago and was so excited to use them! These disappeared pretty fast at work, and a small crowd gathered when I brought them in :)


The day after Grandma died, I was supposed to bake with Aunt Betty. I wasn't sure we would still bake, but it turned out we both needed a stress reliever, so we kept our date. It was actually incredibly therapeutic, although I'm sure baking is anything but that for some people. But Aunt Betty is one of the easiest people to talk to in my family, and it was nice to be around someone else who was sad Grandma was gone, but also knew it was for the best and that Grandma was better off where she was now. Funny enough, we'd both done stress baking the night before to calm down. Mine was homemade marshmallows, to go with my Grandma Hawley's classic hot chocolate for some Christmas gifts.


Hers was the gingerbread dough we used to make this gingerbread house. No kits for us, although that led to a fairly lopsided house. We called it the tornado house, because parts of it looked like it had gone through a fairly substantial storm (notice the roof that looks caved in). Non-kit gingerbread doesn't always bake through right and create perfect corners, so we had to do some patching with royal icing. It was fun though, even though by the time we got to decorating, we were fairly tired.


Last on the list for that day was this maple nutmeg tart, which I'd had bookmarked on Smitten Kitchen for a while. The crust turned out perfectly, and I honestly wish the filling had been far more maple-y, considering that's my favorite fall flavor. Now I just want to make a bunch more tarts, but need some fillings! Suggestions, anyone?