make life sweeter!

Daring Bakers - Swiss swirl ice cream cake

linda@kovacevic.nl (Linda) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:24:00 +0200

A quick post from our vacation in the Netherlands to bring you this month's Daring Bakers challenge. A pretty cake to make indeed this month! Even though I've made a similar cake 2 years ago (without ice cream but with mousse) I was looking forward to making a similar cake again. I used my own recipe for the Swiss roll as I wanted to do it like I did 2 years ago: cut the cake into two layers and thus creating a thinner and more flexible cake to roll. The filling was a apricot cream which turned out not to be orange enough. I served this cake on the day the Netherlands played the football (soccer) final, unfortunately the orange semi-ball shape didn't help much ;) We had friends with children staying with us so I made the ice cream filling child friendly: vanilla, banana and strawberry. Everybody loved the cake. I loved the look of the cake but as I'm not much of an ice cream fan (except for coffee ice cream), I wasn't too excited about the inside.
I loved the look of the cake that I made for my birthday 2 years ago more than this one because of the pretty colours and decoration. But the fresh fruit (with red currants from our garden :) made the cake look pretty too.

Here's a picture of the cake I made 2 years ago for my birthday:

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

Daring bakers - Chocolate pavlova

linda@kovacevic.nl (Linda) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:09:00 +0200

The dessert that nearly wasn't, late but made!
This month's DB challenge was chocolate pavlova, the recipe used a mascarpone chocolate mousse-y cream and a creamy crème anglaise based sauce.
In my opinion the amount of sauce is way, way, way too much. I used half the recipe (also made half the mousse) and only used about 1/4. But maybe that's because I don't like drowning desserts in sauce. The sauce was not very exciting but it tasted nice creamy and vanilla-y. I think I will churn the remainder into ice cream.
I didn't use the exact meringue recipe as I didn't want to dry out the meringues completely. And with a household of little children I don't want to expose my children to raw or semi-raw eggs. So I opted for a cooked meringue recipe instead and undercooked the meringue in the oven. Unfortunately the meringue was a bit too soft to hold shape so I couldn't make real pavlova shapes and ended up with disks. They worked just as well though.
The mousse was pretty bitter but the meringue and sauce sweetened that up so everything balanced out in your mouth. I misread the recipe and accidentally used all the cream to make the ganache. That meant I was missing a lot of cream that needed to go in whipped. I added about half the amount I needed to whip with the mascarpone, so my mousse had more cream inside. Also I chilled the ganache and whipped that too before adding it to the mascarpone whipped cream. Turned out nice and firm luckily and I was able to use it :)

I wasn't too thrilled with the recipe when I read it but it turned out tasting well and balanced :)

You can find the recipe at here Doable and Delicious.

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard

Daring Bakers - Piece montée

linda@kovacevic.nl (Linda) — Thu, 27 May 2010 00:01:00 +0200

Finally a Daring Bakers challenge that I made before the reveal date :) This month's challenge was to make a Piece Montée (also called croquembouche).
I made the cake for my middle son's birthday party so I wanted to go with a more child-friendly decoration than caramel. Instead of caramel to build the tower, I used molten white chocolate (with a little coconut fat added). I submerged the puffs completely to get a uniform white chocolate look. Besides the white chocolate I also used toothpicks to keep the puffs together. Being naughty I didn't use the required crème patisserie to fill the puffs but used raspberry whipped cream that I stabilized with gelatin. I needed to have the cake ready on a schoolday at 9:30 a.m. so I didn't have the time to finish filling and building the cake in the morning. Besides that I was afraid that the crème patisserie wouldn't give as good a result the next morning as the whipped cream would, in other words I was hoping for a less soggy result. After building the puffs into a tower I wasn't too sure that the cake would look decent. Fortunately after the chocolate hardened in the fridge it already looked much better. The decoration was made out of marzipan that I just moulded into various shapes (the little guy loves snails and worms so I made those). As there were lots of girls coming to the party I added some little flowers too. I let the marzipan dry a bit overnight and painted the shapes with slightly diluted gel coloring (first time doing that and liked the end result a lot). I must say that I was very happy with the outcome, they looked pretty (though maybe yucky to some too ;) The birthday boy was really smitten with the cake :)

No real challenge's for me personally this challenge but I loved doing it anyway. If I ever make one again I'll do the traditional one and do a little spun caramel around the tower too :)

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Recipes:
For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk 2 Tbsp. cornstarch 6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar 1 large egg
2 large egg yolks 2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter 1 Tsp. Vanilla
Directions:
1. Dissolve cornstarch in 1⁄4 cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.
2. Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
3. Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking. 4. Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream
thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.
5. Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.
For Chocolate Pastry Cream (Half Batch Recipe):
Bring 1⁄4 cup (about 50 cl.) milk to a boil in a small pan; remove from heat and add in 3 ounces (about 80 g.) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, and mix until smooth. Whisk into pastry cream when you add the butter and vanilla.
For Coffee Pastry Cream (Half Batch recipe)
Dissolve 1 1⁄2 teaspoons instant espresso powder in 1 1⁄2 teaspoons boiling water. Whisk into pastry cream with butter and vanilla.
Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
3⁄4 cup (175 ml.) water 6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter 1⁄4 Tsp. salt 1 Tbsp. sugar 1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour 4 large eggs For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Preparing batter:
1. Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.
2. Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
3. Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.
4. Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny. 5. As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.
6. It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.
Piping batter:
1. Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.
2. Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.
3. Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).
Baking:
1. Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.
2. Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool. Can be stored in an airtight box overnight.
Filling:
1. When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.
Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.
Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)
Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.
Hard Caramel Glaze:
1 cup (225 g.) sugar 1⁄2 teaspoon lemon juice
Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.
Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.
Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up. (You may want to use toothpicks to hold them in place)

Daring Bakers - Cardamom and honey pudding

linda@kovacevic.nl (Linda) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:30:00 +0200

Ok, so this didn't turn out the way it was supposed to as you can see. This month's Daring Bakers challenge was to make a British steamed suet pudding. Using suet was optional, I ended up not using it because I had to drive to the other side of the city to check if one of the few organic butchers (we only buy organic meat) had it (ok, I admit, I was also reluctant to use suet in baking). Instead of suet I used coconut fat. We were pretty free to choose our recipe as long as the pudding was steamed. I used the recipe our host Esther gave for a sponge suet pudding. To flavor the pudding I used freshly ground cardamom (about 10 pods which makes about 1/2 teaspoon), the flavor was pretty intensely cardamom-y but I don't know if you would get that with 1/2 tea spoon pre-ground as well. I poured about 2 tbs of honey in the pudding pan before I put in the dough (as in treacle pudding). I let the pudding steam for 3 hours. After inverting the pudding it didn't come out completely unfortunately and I was left with what you see in the picture. Good thing I used a pretty plate so that the picture has some esthetic appeal ;) My pudding turned out looking so golden brown because I used a special beet sugar (delicious btw and fits the bill in locally produced instead of cane sugar from Mauritania).
Don't know what the reason or reasons were why my pudding refused to come out in one piece. Maybe because I used an stainless steel salad bowl instead of a regular pudding pan. Or maybe I should have buttered the pan more, or maybe my baking powder was too potent, or maybe I made the dough too wet. Who knows… What I do know is that the combination of honey and cardamom is delicious and that I like the texture of steamed pudding a lot. Not too sure if I would be making it again as it has to be on the stove for such a long time but who knows...

Type 2 puddings – Steamed Suet Pudding, sponge type.

(100 grams/4 ounces) All-purpose flour
(1/4 teaspoon) salt
(1.5 teaspoons) Baking powder
(100 grams/4 ounces) breadcrumbs
(75 grams/3 ounces) Caster sugar
(75 grams/ 3 ounces) Shredded suet or suet substitute (i.e., Vegetable Suet, Crisco, Lard)
(1) large egg
(6 to 8 tablespoons) Cold milk

1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into bowl.
2. Add breadcrumbs, sugar and suet.
3. Mix to a soft batter with beaten egg and milk
4. Turn into a buttered 1 litre/ 2pint pudding basin and cover securely with buttered greaseproof paper or aluminum foil.
5. Steam steadily for 2.5 to 3 hours
6. Turn out onto warm plate, Serve with sweet sauce to taste such as custard, caramel or a sweetened fruit sauce.

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Daring Bakers - Blood orange tian

linda@kovacevic.nl (Linda) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:23:00 +0200

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was an orange tian. I had never heard of tian before so as far as that was concerned the challenge was new. The components for this dessert - pâte sablée, stabilized whipped cream, orange marmalade and caramel sauce - were in essence not new. Not many new things doesn't mean every thing goes well ;) I didn't cook my marmalade long enough as it wasn't as thick as it should have been. Luckily its deliciousness made up for that :) I'm not sure why it wasn't ok, I did the jam test and it seemed ok. I'm sure I will be making this jam again. It's wonderful to use in desserts.
Instead of using gelatine I wanted to use an agar based stabilizer. This particular brand combined the agar with maltodextrin so I couldn't use a conversion table from the internet as it wasn't pure agar. Instead I just used what they advised on the package for the amount of fluid I had. So this turned out to NOT be enough. Because I made a larger version than in the recipe, I put it in the freezer for 45 min instead of 10 min. And even after that time the tian could hold it's shape for more than 2 minutes. Unfortunately not long enough for me to take a picture (the fact that my camera malfunctioned didn't help either). And while this was happening my 2 eldest boys came inside and wanted to look (and touch) the dessert I had promised them. Not very relaxing circumstances...
So before the whole tian collapsed I whiped the collapsed cream and orange segments away and sort of managed to wiggle the tian back into the springform ring. Back in the freezer it went! And this time I let it freeze completely so I could at least take a more or less decent picture of it. In the meanwhile I managed to got my camera to cooperate with me again.
I served the tian partly frozen but this made a lot of the taste disappear unfortunately. I tasted the orange marmalade whipped cream unfrozen and that was much better than frozen. But my boys loved it frozen, even the little one.
I forgot to serve the orange caramel sauce with it unfortunately. Very tasty sauce btw! In the end I used it up in a super delicious bread pudding that also contained the orange marmalade. For bread I used stale sirnica (Croatian easter bread). Very yummy indeed!

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

For the Pate Sablee:

Ingredients U.S. Imperial Metric Instructions for Ingredients
2 medium-sized egg yolks at room temperature
granulated sugar 6 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon; 2.8 oz; 80 grams
vanilla extract ½ teaspoon
Unsalted butter ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons; 3.5 oz; 100 grams ice cold, cubed
Salt 1/3 teaspoon; 2 grams
All-purpose flour 1.5 cup + 2 tablespoons; 7 oz; 200 grams
baking powder 1 teaspoon ; 4 grams

Directions:
Put the flour, baking powder, ice cold cubed butter and salt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade.

In a separate bowl, add the eggs yolks, vanilla extract and sugar and beat with a whisk until the mixture is pale. Pour the egg mixture in the food processor.

Process until the dough just comes together. If you find that the dough is still a little too crumbly to come together, add a couple drops of water and process again to form a homogenous ball of dough. Form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.

Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a ¼ inch thick circle.

Using your cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and place on a parchment (or silicone) lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until the circles of dough are just golden.

For the Marmalade:

Ingredients U.S. Imperial Metric Instructions for Ingredients
Freshly pressed orange juice ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons; 3.5 oz; 100 grams
1 large orange used to make orange slices
cold water to cook the orange slices
pectin 5 grams
granulated sugar: use the same weight as the weight of orange slices once they are cooked

Finely slice the orange. Place the orange slices in a medium-sized pot filled with cold water. Simmer for about 10 minutes, discard the water, re-fill with cold water and blanch the oranges for another 10 minutes.

Blanch the orange slices 3 times. This process removes the bitterness from the orange peel, so it is essential to use a new batch of cold water every time when you blanch the slices.

Once blanched 3 times, drain the slices and let them cool.

Once they are cool enough to handle, finely mince them (using a knife or a food processor).

Weigh the slices and use the same amount of granulated sugar . If you don’t have a scale, you can place the slices in a cup measurer and use the same amount of sugar.

In a pot over medium heat, add the minced orange slices, the sugar you just weighed, the orange juice and the pectin. Cook until the mixture reaches a jam consistency (10-15 minutes).

Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.

For the Orange Segments:

For this step you will need 8 oranges.

Cut the oranges into segments over a shallow bowl and make sure to keep the juice. Add the segments to the bowl with the juice.

[See YouTube video in the References section below for additional information on segmenting oranges.]

For the Caramel:

Ingredients U.S. Metric Imperial Instructions for Ingredients
granulated sugar 1 cup; 7 oz; 200 grams
orange juice 1.5 cups + 2 tablespoons; 14 oz; 400 grams

Place the sugar in a pan on medium heat and begin heating it.

Once the sugar starts to bubble and foam, slowly add the orange juice. As soon as the mixture starts boiling, remove from the heat and pour half of the mixture over the orange segments.

Reserve the other half of the caramel mixture in a small bowl — you will use this later to spoon over the finished dessert. When the dessert is assembled and setting in the freezer, heat the kept caramel sauce in a small saucepan over low heat until it thickens and just coats the back of a spoon (about 10 minutes). You can then spoon it over the orange tians.

[Tip: Be very careful when making the caramel — if you have never made caramel before, I would suggest making this step while you don’t have to worry about anything else. Bubbling sugar is extremely, extremely hot, so make sure you have a bowl of ice cold water in the kitchen in case anyone gets burnt!]

For the Whipped Cream:

Ingredients U.S. Metric Imperial Instructions for Ingredients
heavy whipping cream 1 cup; 7 oz; 200 grams
3 tablespoons of hot water
1 tsp Gelatine
1 tablespoon of confectioner's sugar
orange marmalade (see recipe above) 1 tablespoon

In a small bowl, add the gelatine and hot water, stirring well until the gelatine dissolves. Let the gelatine cool to room temperature while you make the whipped cream. Combine the cream in a chilled mixing bowl. Whip the cream using a hand mixer on low speed until the cream starts to thicken for about one minute. Add the confectioner sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high. Whip the cream until the beaters leave visible (but not lasting) trails in the cream, then add the cooled gelatine slowly while beating continuously. Continue whipping until the cream is light and fluffy and forms soft peaks. Transfer the whipped cream to a bowl and fold in the orange marmalade.
[Tip: Use an ice cold bowl to make the whipped cream in. You can do this by putting your mixing bowl, cream and beater in the fridge for 20 minutes prior to whipping the cream.]

Assembling the Dessert:

Make sure you have some room in your freezer. Ideally, you should be able to fit a small baking sheet or tray of desserts to set in the freezer.

Line a small tray or baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone sheet. Lay out 6 cookie cutters onto the parchment paper/silicone.

Drain the orange segments on a kitchen towel.

Have the marmalade, whipped cream and baked circles of dough ready to use.

Arrange the orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter. Make sure the segments all touch either and that there are no gaps. Make sure they fit snuggly and look pretty as they will end up being the top of the dessert. Arrange them as you would sliced apples when making an apple tart.

Once you have neatly arranged one layer of orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter, add a couple spoonfuls of whipped cream and gently spread it so that it fills the cookie cutter in an even layer. Leave about 1/4 inch at the top so there is room for dough circle.

Using a butter knife or small spoon, spread a small even layer of orange marmalade on each circle of dough.

Carefully place a circle of dough over each ring (the side of dough covered in marmalade should be the side touching the whipping cream). Gently press on the circle of dough to make sure the dessert is compact.

Place the desserts to set in the freezer to set for 10 minutes.

Using a small knife, gently go around the edges of the cookie cutter to make sure the dessert will be easy to unmold. Gently place your serving plate on top of a dessert (on top of the circle of dough) and turn the plate over. Gently remove the cookie cutter, add a spoonful of caramel sauce and serve immediately.

Daring Bakers - Tiramisù

linda@kovacevic.nl (Linda) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0100

When this month's Daring Bakers challenge was announced I have to admit I wasn't thrilled. I'm probably the only person in the world that doesn't like tiramisù. But after reading the recipe I started getting more and more interested in making it and was hoping that maybe this was the tiramisù recipe, the one that I would actually appreciate. Making all the different components for this dessert was rather time consuming but was fun doing: making your own mascarpone, making zabaglione, making pastry cream and making lady fingers.
I think I cooked the cream and lemon mixture for the mascarpone a little too long as it turned out pretty firm. Even after whisking it wasn't very smooth. I was waiting for the mixture to curdle/thicken but this didn't happen that much. So I kept it above simmering water a long time but it never really happened. The mixture barely released whey after draining but it still was very firm. Next time I would just buy mascarpone ;)
Making the zabaglione and pastry cream was straight forward and didn't cause any problems. I did check that the zabaglione reached the right temperature for the egg yolks to be cooked enough to be safe (better safe than sorry).
I didn't realise that the amount of mascarpone used in this recipe was very little when I decided to not use the whipped cream but to replace it by whipping up the left over whites (don't like left over eggs that much). I thought this would make it less heavy (something I don't like in 'regular' tiramisù) but with the small amount of mascarpone, this wasn't necessary at all. Again I cooked the egg whites over simmering water just enough to make them safe before whipping them.
My lady fingers were only dipped up till the flat part because I don't really like the booziness that much but after tasting I should have dipped them completely.
Because I used whipped egg whites instead of the cream the mixture didn't set as much as it should. The tiramisù in the picture was frozen, that way I could cut it neatly. I really, really loved the taste of this tiramisù but that's probably because it doesn't resemble the one's I ate before ;) What I loved so much was the addition of lemon zest and the fact that it wasn't so incredibily fat and boozy. I do want to try making this again but will be using the required whipped cream. And to make it less time-consuming I'd use ready-made lady fingers (which are very good in Austria) and ready-made mascarpone.
All in all a wonderful challenge, maybe from now on I'll actually love tiramisù...but only if I make it myself ;)

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

Daring Bakers - Nanaimo bars

linda@kovacevic.nl (Linda) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:35:38 +0100

I know it's a bit boring only reading the Daring Bakers challenges every month and nothing in between but I sort of can't manage to do much else. I do make other stuff but usually not stuff that is particularly blogworthy or when it is, I'm to late to blog about it (who wants to read about Christmas cookies in January?) Anyway, I'm sure I'll be posting more but when is the question ;)
Ok, on to the DB challenge this month: Nanaimo bars. Something I've heard of before but didn't really know what it was exactly. Always nice to try your hand a typical recipe for a certain country, Canada in this case. The base contains graham crackers, also something I've heard of before but never tried or tried making it. So making the graham crackers was the first thing I had to make. We had the option of making a gluten-free of gluten-full version, I made the gluten-full version because a) it was easier ingredient-wise and b) wanted to experience what a 'regular' graham cracker would be like (but I did make it a bit differently by replacing 1 ½ cup of wheat flour with 1 cup of rye flour and ½ cup of whole wheat flour). The dough turned out dry-ish but I left it like that not knowing how exactly it should be. The dough wasn't completely blended/smooth, it reminded me of last month's ginger bread house dough. I could roll it out without using too much flour so that was good. It was an easy enough dough to work with. Baking time was about 25 minutes but after 18 minutes the crackers started to like dark brown. I was afraid I overbaked them but turned out they were just perfect (even though I don't even know how 'real' graham crackers taste/look like ;) I loved the crunch and taste, delicious! Will be making them again I'm sure. Maybe try with even more whole wheat flour (as I always thought graham crackers were made of).
So this was step 1. Step 2 was making the Nanaimo bars. The middle layer (buttercream) uses vanilla custard powder, something that could be substituted by vanilla pudding powder. So I was reading the label in the supermarkt and saw that the pudding powder (no custard in Austrian supermarkets) consisted of modified starch, colouring, flavouring and that was about it. So instead of buying a coloured and non-natural vanilla flavoured pudding mix I just used corn starch (corn flour) and vanilla bean (and no colouring). Worked just as well.
The base has slightly cooked egg inside, something I don't like giving to my children. I cooked the butter, cocoa and egg mixture till 70°C to make it save. This didn't cause any problems for the base.
Making the bars was easy. The layers looked pretty. Only the taste is not my cup of tea, even though I love sweet stuff (baklava, turkish delight, meringue etc) this was too sweet without much depth in taste. But I guess that's just me as the whole of Canada loves this bar ;) I did like the way the base was made with the egg. Nice base to use to make a dessert or small cake.

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

You can find the recipe here.

Daring Bakers - Gingerbread house

linda@kovacevic.nl (Linda) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:03:00 +0100

On the last day of the year I bring you this month's Daring Bakers challenge :) A challenge much to my liking I must say: making of a gingerbread house. A tradition that is not Dutch (or Croatian) at all. I very much enjoyed making the model, and decorating and constructing the house (even though my dough didn't roll out very well as it kept cracking and I burnt my finger during construction with caramel).
After reading on the DB forum that one of the given recipes turned out very dry I checked the cup and metric measurements. There was a big difference between the amount of flour in cups and grams. I went with the cup measurements which was 200 g less flour than the metric measurement. Even though the dough was not really dry it didn't became a whole. Could be because part of the flour I used was not very finely ground. An hour after making the dough I realized that I forgot to add the baking soda... oops! Didn't think it would be a problem and maybe even an advantage as it wouldn't puff up. Rolling out the dough (after another knead to make it come together a little more) couldn't be done without the dough cracking. After baking the texture/look of the gingerbread was a bit odd and besides that it shrunk but the cookie was sturdy and kept its shape beautifully.
For decoration I went with natural items like almonds, pink peppercorns and pumpkin seeds. The icing is an egg white free icing that I've used before and like working with. It doesn't dry up rock hard but hard enough imo.

Instead of decorating the roof after baking I used a small circular cutter to imprint the tiles for the roof. The imprints stayed exactly like they were after baking.
I assembled the house with hot caramel...always tricky to work with without burning oneself ;)
I loved doing this challenge and will be making a gingerbread house next year as well :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

Daring Bakers -Cannoli

linda@kovacevic.nl (Linda) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:01:00 +0100

I'm pretty happy with myself, finished this month's Daring Bakers challenge on time AND finished writing about it in time to post it on the 27th!
So this month we made cannoli. Not something that was very high on my to do list but I've always been curious about their taste. They are not something you would find in the Netherlands (or Austria I think). I'm not very big on frying so that's something I very rarely do. But it's good to practice now and then. I think I've only used ricotta once in my life and I didn't like the cake I produced so I wasn't sure I was going to like the filling. But since I like traditional baked goods, decided to stick with the original recipe anyway.
Cannoli forms is not something I own but I did have something similar that I purchased a few months ago: schaumrolle forms. Pretty much the same thing only smaller (6 cm / 2.4 in) and coated with teflon. I was in doubt if the teflon would appreciate being fried but I thought baking the cannoli in the oven wouldn't be authentic enough. I tried frying it and the teflon seemed ok.
I made the dough as stated. When rolling it I used my new rolling pin with adjustable thickness rings (heaven to use!) and rolled it out to 2 mm (a little more than 1/16 in) thickness. The dough was easy enough to roll. I had egg left over so used that to seal the cannoli's and this worked well too. Unfortunately after baking the dough the cannoli never turned out blistered even though the oil was hot enough as it took less than a minute to brown them. With the second batch I used the 1 mm (less than 1/16 in) ring for my rolling pin hoping that the thinner dough would give the blistering but even those didn't blister :(
For the filling I pretty much followed the recipe except I used grated chocolate instead of chopped, used almonds instead of pistachio nuts and added a few drops of orange essential oil in addition to the candied orange peel. Never thought that ricotta with some sugar and flavours would be this good :) Nice substitute for buttercream on cakes, and less rich too, but probably everybody except me already knew this ;)
The filling combined with the bite size cannoli's was good and I'm glad I finally got to taste real cannoli's. I don't think I will ever make them again though with all the work and frying involved. But that's probably because I'm not a 'fryer' person.

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

CANNOLI SHELLS
2 cups (250 grams/8.82 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons(28 grams/1 ounce) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.06 ounces) unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon (1.15 grams/0.04 ounces) ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (approx. 3 grams/0.11 ounces) salt
3 tablespoons (42 grams/1.5 ounces) vegetable or olive oil
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.18 ounces) white wine vinegar
Approximately 1/2 cup (approx. 59 grams/approx. 4 fluid ounces/approx. 125 ml) sweet Marsala or any white or red wine you have on hand
1 large egg, separated (you will need the egg white but not the yolk)
Vegetable or any neutral oil for frying – about 2 quarts (8 cups/approx. 2 litres)
1/2 cup (approx. 62 grams/2 ounces) toasted, chopped pistachio nuts, mini chocolate chips/grated chocolate and/or candied or plain zests, fruits etc.. for garnish
Confectioners' sugar

CANNOLI FILLING
2 lbs (approx. 3.5 cups/approx. 1 kg/32 ounces) ricotta cheese, drained
1 2/3 cups cup (160 grams/6 ounces) confectioner’s sugar, (more or less, depending on how sweet you want it), sifted
1/2 teaspoon (1.15 grams/0.04 ounces) ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon (4 grams/0.15 ounces) pure vanilla extract or the beans from one vanilla bean
3 tablespoons (approx. 28 grams/approx. 1 ounce) finely chopped good quality chocolate of your choice
2 tablespoons (12 grams/0.42 ounces) of finely chopped, candied orange peel, or the grated zest of one small to medium orange
3 tablespoons (23 grams/0.81 ounce) toasted, finely chopped pistachios
Note - If you want chocolate ricotta filling, add a few tablespoons of dark, unsweetened cocoa powder to the above recipe, and thin it out with a few drops of warm water if too thick to pipe.

DIRECTIONS FOR SHELLS:
1. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.
2 Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until super thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick (An area of about 13 inches by 18 inches should give you that). Cut out 3 to 5-inch circles (3-inch – small/medium; 4-inch – medium/large; 5-inch;- large. Your choice). Roll the cut out circle into an oval, rolling it larger and thinner if it’s shrunk a little.
3 Oil the outside of the cannoli tubes (You only have to do this once, as the oil from the deep fry will keep them well, uhh, oiled..lol). Roll a dough oval from the long side (If square, position like a diamond, and place tube/form on the corner closest to you, then roll) around each tube/form and dab a little egg white on the dough where the edges overlap. (Avoid getting egg white on the tube, or the pastry will stick to it.) Press well to seal. Set aside to let the egg white seal dry a little.
4. In a deep heavy saucepan, pour enough oil to reach a depth of 3 inches, or if using an electric deep-fryer, follow the manufacturer's directions. Heat the oil to 375°F (190 °C) on a deep fry thermometer, or until a small piece of the dough or bread cube placed in the oil sizzles and browns in 1 minute. Have ready a tray or sheet pan lined with paper towels or paper bags.
5. Carefully lower a few of the cannoli tubes into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so that they brown evenly.
6. Lift a cannoli tube with a wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, out of the oil. Using tongs, grasp the cannoli tube at one end. Very carefully remove the cannoli tube with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan. Place the tube on paper towels or bags to drain. Repeat with the remaining tubes. While they are still hot, grasp the tubes with a potholder and pull the cannoli shells off the tubes with a pair of tongs, or with your hand protected by an oven mitt or towel. Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels. Place shells on cooling rack until ready to fill.
7. Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough. If you are reusing the cannoli tubes, let them cool before wrapping them in the dough.

DIRECTIONS FOR FILLING:
1. Line a strainer with cheesecloth. Place the ricotta in the strainer over a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap and a towel. Weight it down with a heavy can, and let the ricotta drain in the refrigerator for several hours to overnight.
2. In a bowl with electric mixer, beat ricotta until smooth and creamy. Beat in confectioner’s sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and blend until smooth. Transfer to another bowl and stir in chocolate, zest and nuts. Chill until firm.(The filling can be made up to 24 hours prior to filling the shells. Just cover and keep refrigerated).

ASSEMBLE THE CANNOLI:
1. When ready to serve..fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain or star tip, or a ziplock bag, with the ricotta cream. If using a ziplock bag, cut about 1/2 inch off one corner. Insert the tip in the cannoli shell and squeeze gently until the shell is half filled. Turn the shell and fill the other side. You can also use a teaspoon to do this, although it’s messier and will take longer.
2. Press or dip cannoli in chopped pistachios, grated chocolate/mini chocolate chips, candied fruit or zest into the cream at each end. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and/or drizzles of melted chocolate if desired.

Daring Bakers - Lebkuchen macarons with dark chocolate ganache

linda@kovacevic.nl (Linda) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:01:00 +0100

Finally I made macarons :) and all because they were last month's Daring Bakers Challenge. Like the last few months I'm late in posting but this time I did actually finish the macarons on the 27th but still had to make the filling, fill them, photograph them and blog about them. And that took till now ;)
Though I love the look of vibrant colours in macarons, I didn't think it fitted the lebkuchen flavour I had in mind. I was inspired by the shops here in Austria that carry about a zillion different types of lebkuchen towards Christmas...yum! The filling was a simple dark chocolate ganache which was a delicious match for the spicy taste of the macaron shells.
I baked the first batch as the recipe stated but drying the shells in the oven didn't work out well for me. The shells sunk in while they were waiting for the oven to reach 190 degrees Celsius. Unfortunately they didn't magically rise during baking. Besides that problem, the shells browned too much because of the high baking temperature. They did develop feet but they didn't look like they were supposed to. The next two batches I went with one of Tartelette's recipes: air drying the shells for 30-60 minutes and baking them at a lower temperature. The first of these batches I should have baked a little longer but the second came out more or less perfect...I was happy :) The lebkuchen spices were delicious and the ground spices made the macarons browner than I antipated.
All in all making macaron's wasn't difficult and I even got the feet the first time round. Not sure if this was beginners luck or not but we'll see how future batches will turn out. Next time I'll try a more vibrant colour :)

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.