make life sweeter!

Another month, another Daring Baker challenge, Julia Child's French bread to be precise. A recipe that was chosen by Breadchick Mary of The Sour Dough and Sara of I Like To Cook.



About a week and a half before the challenge I thought it might be wise to print out the recipe so I could get familiar with it. To my surprise there were 11 pages of it! It sort of made me laugh on the one hand but on the other hand it sort of scared me too. I had to actually plan reading it because there was so much of it. All these pages for a bread that only consists of water, flour, salt and yeast ;)
I was glad that there were so many pages because everything is explained so well. This is especially important to someone who doesn't do bread (that much). Everything that you are supposed to feel or see is explained and also the thinks that you could possibly see. A very good recipe indeed, though time-consuming to read.
Onto the making of the French bread. One of my aversion of making bread (without a bread machine that is) is that it's difficult to plan, especially with two small children that need attention during the day and part of the evening. When yeast is involved you never really know for sure when you can expect the dough to have risen to double or in this case to tripled-and-a-halve! The indicative time was 3 - 5 hours for the first rise, than 1 ½ – 2 hours for the second and finally 1 ½ – 2 hours for the third. I wasn't sure if I was able to do everything in one day so I opted for a first rise in the fridge. I made the dough around 22:30 and went to sleep. The next day I had to leave home at 8:00 to go to class so I figured if the dough had risen to the required volume of 10 ½ cups I would do the next step (to deflate and to let is rise again). If not, than the dough would just have to wait till I got home at about 13:00. I called home at about 12:00 to ask my dad (my parents baby-sit the kids 2 days a week) how the dough was doing. Turned out it still didn't reach the 10 ½ cups so I asked him to take it out of the fridge to rise quicker. When I got home at 13:00 it was still not high enough and I had to wait until 15:30 before I could form the 1 big boule I was going to make (no time to form a lot of breads). I thought that I could bake it afterwards but even after reading the recipe twice before I started I didn't remember there was even a third rise! And one that was to take 1 ½ to 2 hours...so at that moment I decided to let it rise in the fridge again and to bake it the next day.
The next day the dough had doubled but it had to triple. I took it out of the fridge around 8:00 and at 10:00 I was ready for the final steps before baking. The flipping of the dough onto a baking sheet (which I used instead of card board or ply wood) went very well. It was a bit difficult to get the towel off because it stuck to the dough at a few small places. But in the end I managed to do so nearly without damage to the surface. The only problem I encountered during the whole process was that I wasn't able to transfer the dough to its designated baking sheet. So I baked it on the intermediate baking sheet that was sprinkled with corn flour. This baking sheet was a bit small, if the boule was to expand more than 1 cm (½ in) to each side it would go over the edge of the bakins sheet. So I placed the baking sheet onto a bigger one and baked the bread. I did the brushing with water thing and jumped under the shower. When I returned to the kitchen the boule had baked for 24 minutes and looked much darker than I expected. Had to be patient for 3 hours before I could finally taste it. So in the end from making the dough till actually tasting the bread it took 39 hours! But the amount of time you actually had to do something was not a lot. Because of the ultra long time it took me to finish it, the taste had time to develop ;)



It didn't turn out looking like it should have but for me it felt like sort of close enough. Need some work on my slashing action but at least the crust was nice and shiny. I was not as crusty as I expected, I think that was because the bottom of the boule barely browned at all and therefor didn't seal the bread with a good crust. A baking stone would be an asset I think here.
It tasted very good! The inside was soft yet chewy (in a good way) and nice and moist. It reminded me more of Turkish pide than of French bread though.
The only more or less downside of the recipe is that in my opinion the bread was a bit too salty, and this is coming from a person who likes her savouries to be pretty salty! Next time I'd add less salt. Not that I think that there will be a next time with of all the planning involved ;)
And finally a note, I think that my dough was a little bit too moist because the boule couldn't hold its shape. So instead of rounded edges I ended up with very sharp edges.

Check out how Sara and Mary themselves did. You'll also find the recipe there.
And to see how all of the 'millions' of Daring Bakers did, check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll.

Thought I'd try out another recipe with my new favorite combination of ginger and orange. Last time I combined blood orange with ginger syrup. This time I used fresh ginger as well as ginger syrup and orange zest as well as orange juice. I let some grated ginger and orange zest steep in a mixture of milk and cream for about 15 minutes. The idea was to let it steep, in practice it was boiling for 15 minutes because I had to attend to my youngest son who woke up crying. When I returned the mixture was nearly boiling over the pot and it had separated :( No way was I going to make it again so it was either using it or not making the pudding. So with the coffee buttercream from the Daring Bakers December Challenge in mind I thought that I would fix the problem. While thinking this I had to laugh because how do you save a milk and cream mixture that has separated? The best idea that came to mind was to vigourously whisk it. And to my surprise it actually worked! Ok, I must admit it didn't return to its original state but it looked good enough. Had to strain the mixture anyway because of the orange zest and ginger so the remaining coagulated milk solids were strained as well. I filled it up till the amount I started with and continued making the pudding. I think that the combination of acidity of (I think) mainly the ginger and the heat during a long time made the proteins coagulate. But I'm not a chemist so I don't know for sure. Well the important thing was that I saved it and didn't have to make it again ;)
The dish is actually a twist on a Dutch classic that I made for Sugar High Friday. In Dutch it's called Griesmeelpudding met bessensapsaus...try saying that without twisting your tongue he he! What it is is semolina pudding with red currant sauce.
Ok, about the taste...I already blogged about the combination of ginger and orange and how the two tastes are so good together. Now that I made this dish I've come to the conclusion that besides being very good together somehow the two tastes seem to merge. It is very difficult to tell where one taste starts and the other ends.
I made my blood orange sauce a little tangier by adding some lemon juice. And to sweeten it a little I added stem ginger syrup. In retrospect I'm not sure if I would make it the same way again. Maybe it would have been slightly better if I wouldn't have used both ginger and orange in both pudding and sauce. If I would make it another time I'd try making a ginger semolina pudding (with fresh ginger and ginger syrup) and a blood orange sauce (with some added orange zest for extra taste). Maybe that way the two tastes don't merge as much.
The servings are quiet small but that's just my personal preference. Because I don't own small pudding moulds I used a non-stick muffin pan to make the puddings. This worked very well except for one small detail...getting them out. It took me forever to figure out a way to get them out without destroying them. I knew that the trick is to get some air to the bottom of the cup in order for the pudding to go out. So in the beginning I tried pulling the pudding away from the sides but this wasn't enough to get air to the bottom. After trying this for a while I thought I'd stick a knife up till the bottom and wiggle it a little bit to get air to the bottom. This method worked, unfortunately it worked only once.
In the end I massaged the puddings out. What you do is you turn the muffin pan upside down and massage each pudding in a circular motion until you feel it coming out. Just let it slide onto your hand and place it on a soup plate (the pudding is stiff enough to do this without damaging it). Make sure the plate is a tiny bit wet, that way you can slide the pudding to the middle of the plate without it sticking.



As you can see on the little black logo my blog received an award! The very sweet and talented Ovenhaven from Epicurean Escapism gave me the E for Excellent award. Thanks so much for that, you made me very happy :)
These are the blogs I think need an E for Excellent award:

Jen of use real butter
Helen of Tartelette
Susan of Food Blogga (not the first she receives it but still I want her to have it again)



Ginger and orange semolina pudding

serves 6

400 ml (1 ⅔ cup) milk
100 ml (3 ⅓ fl oz) whipping cream
1 tbs grated fresh ginger
1 tbs (blood) orange zest
50 g (1 ¾ oz) semolina
40 g (1 ⅓ oz) sugar + extra
6 cut out blood orange segments

Heat the milk, cream, ginger and orange zest until nearly boiling. Turn off the heat and let it steep for 15 minutes. Strain the milk and cream mixture and fill it up with milk until you have 500 ml in total.
Mix the semolina and sugar. Add the mixture to the hot milk whilst stirring. Bring to a boil and allow to cook. Cook and stir for 3-5 minutes. Rinse a non-stick muffin pan with cold water and pour the mixture in 6 of the cups. Sprinkle with sugar to prevent the forming of a crust. Allow to cool to room temperature. Chill in the fridge for a few hours.
Unmold each pudding by turning the pan upside down and massaging it in a circular motion. Let the pudding slide onto your hand and place it on a slighty wet soup plate. Correct the position if necessary. Place an orange segment on top. Pour blood orange sauce around it.

Blood orange sauce

225 ml (1 cup) blood orange juice
25 ml (1 tbs + 2 ts) lemon juice
1 tbs ginger syrup
5-10 g (¼ oz) potato starch

Bring the blood orange juice, lemon juice and ginger syrup to a boil. Mix the potato starch with a little bit of water until lump free.
Add the potato starch water mix to the juice whilst stirring. Allow to cook for 1 minute. Allow the sauce to cool down completely, stirring occasionally.

Today is my little brother's birthday, so Happy Birthday Z! I call him little brother but he's far from little (nearly 2 m / 6'6”) but he's younger so he's my little brother ;) Now that we're on the subject of my brother, he has a blog too. Not a food blog but (nowadays) a blog with mainly pictures. If you like out of the ordinary pictures of (usually) very ordinary things take a look at his blog Zz.
About the picture, I didn't actually make these treats for my brother but I had to post something ;) Plan on making something tonight because we'll be seeing him tomorrow at my parents place.
The first time I made lemon grass ganache I used it to fill bite-size tartlets. I piped the ganache (at room temperature) into the tarlet shells. That time I also made dark chocolate ginger ganache (with fresh ginger) but I let it set a bit too long and was therefor unable to pipe it. Popped it in the microwave for a tiny bit but that made it sort of runny so I just poured the ganache into the tartlets instead of piping it. Looked ok too. Only it didn't taste ok :( Not to me at least. Fresh ginger and bittersweet chocolate don't create synergy. And no synergy no photograph, ha!



The lemon grass and white chocolate ganache however was really delicious! I'm a big fan of white chocolate - I know that this doesn't make me a sophisticated chocolate eater :p - so probably I'd like most flavour combinations with white chocolate. But I think even for people who aren't into white chocolate that much, the fragrant and fresh lemony taste of the lemon grass makes the white chocolate a lot less white chocolate-y.
A week later I made the lemon grass ganache again to use as a filling for hazelnut cookies. The ganache never actually made it between the cookies until a week later though. Instead I used the chilled ganache to make truffles. They were a present to a friend of mine. I wasn't sure if she was into white chocolate so to take the edge off the sweetness I dipped them in bittersweet chocolate and rolled them in cocoa powder.

To make the photograph I bit off part of a truffle while it was still cold from the fridge (I was in a hurry so there was no time to waste). Should have let it come to room temperature because the filling would have been less firm and that would have looked better in the picture. It's just a detail but stil ;)



White chocolate & lemon grass ganache

75 ml (2 ½ fl oz) whipping cream
1 stalk of lemon grass, chopped into ½ cm (1/5 in) pieces
200 g (7 oz) white chocolate, finely chopped

Heat the cream with the lemon grass until just simmering. Let it steep for 30 minutes. Strain through a fine meshed sieve into a measuring cup. Press onto the lemon grass with the back of a spoon to get more flavour out of it.
Fill up the measuring cup until you have 75 ml (2 ½ fl oz) again. Reheat the cream again. Pour the cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for a few minutes. Stir until smooth. If not all the chocolate melts, pop it into the micro wave for 10-20 second intervals at 40% power until the chocolate is nearly melted. Or alternatively heat it au bain marie. Stir until everything is melted.
Allow to come to room temperature for a several hours.
Use at room temperature if you want to pipe the ganache.
Chill if you want to make truffles.

Making truffles

cocoa powder, sifted
white chocolate and lemon grass ganache
400 g (14 oz) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Put a piece of baking paper on your working surface to put the truffles on.
Put the cocoa powder in a bowl.
Scoop out balls with a melon baller. Roll between your hands to make a smoother ball. Place on the baking paper.
Melt the chocolate au bain marie (or in the microwave). Allow it to cool down (if necessary) to 40°C (104°F). Place a ganache ball on a fork, submerge the ball in the chocolate. Use a spoon to cover the top with chocolate. Tap the fork a few times on the bowl and slide the bottom of the fork over the lip of the bowl to remove excess chocolate. Tip the truffle in the cocoa powder and use your hand to move it around covering it completely with cocoa powder. Place the truffle onto the baking paper. Repeat with all the truffles.

Sweet shortcrust (from Modern Classics Book 2 by Donna Hay)

135g (1 cups) flower
1 ½ tbs caster sugar
75 g (2 ½ oz) cold butter, chopped
1-1 ½ tbs iced water

Process the flour, sugar and butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. While the motor is running, add enough iced water to form a smooth dough and process until just combined. Knead the dough lightly, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Divide the dough in 12 and press into a 12-cup mini muffin pan. Blind bake for 10 minutes. Remove the baking weights and bake for another 10 minutes or until the crust is golden. Allow to cool completely.

Naomi from Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried is hosting a food blogging event that is all about baking gluten-free. This month's theme is Teatime Treats. I happened to have a gluten-free cookie in stock for a while now so this event was the perfect moment to post about it. And if I didn't have any in stock I would have made something :)



I love to play around with ingredients to fit a recipe into a certain diet. I had a little experience with that a few years ago when our friend Y visited us when we were living in Tel Aviv. Y was sensitive to quite a lot of products you'd normally use in baking. Things like sugar, wheat, oat, yeast, almonds, cashew nuts, peanuts, poppy seeds, dairy from cows (with the exception of butter), chocolate. So you can imagine that it was quite challenging to come up with stuff that fitted her diet AND tasted good! It was rather difficult finding recipes that met all the requirements. There are recipes without sugar but they usually contain wheat. And recipes without wheat usually contain sugar. After some failures I succeeded in making enough treats for her to eat for the duration of her stay. We ended up with very tasty maple goat cheese cake with maple pecan nut crust (also gluten-free), pistachio-maple syrup cookies (also gluten-free), maple syrup cakes, dried fruit muffins, walnut honey cookies (also gluten-free) and honey pecan cookies.

The cookies you see in the picture are made without flour and contain just pistachio nuts, eggs, sugar and some lemon zest. It was supposed to be more or less the same as the Weesper moppen I made a while back but turned out a bit different. I used the recipe from Jonah Freud's book 'Koekje'. This recipe uses more egg and sugar than the other one. Making them more crunchy than chewy when compared to Weesper moppen.
I tried to follow the instuctions in the recipe but the dough was much softer and was therefor harder to make into a log. Also it spread out, something that Weesper moppen aren't supposed to do (much). Even though they turned out different than they were supposed to, they were really delicious. Next time I'd definitely try the other cookies again because I like the look of the other cookies more than these ones.

Pistache moppen (Pistachio cookies) (from Koekje by Jonah Freud)

makes about 40

250 g (8 ¾ oz) pistachios
300 (10 ½ oz) granulated sugar
2 eggs
grated peel of ½ lemon
granulated sugar

Process all the pistachios and sugar in a food processor. Make sure not to over-process but the nuts should be finely ground. Add the eggs and process briefly to mix. Make a log of 4 cm diameter and wrap it in plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rest overnight in the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Sprinkle a layer of granulated sugar on your working surface and roll the dough into 2 logs of 3.5 cm (1 ¼ in) in diameter. Cut the logs in 1 cm (0.4 in) slices.
Bake the cookies on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment for 10 minutes until they are lightly coloured and still soft on the inside.

What do you know, I'm one of three contenders in the Art You Eat competition! Check out all the participants and the two other contenders on the Art You Eat site. And if you like my creation you can vote for me by leaving a comment on the Art You Can Eat site :) You can vote until Februari 6th.
I entered this chocolate ganache covered orange sponge cake with planetary chocolate decorations...